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Finestrg
Posts: 27296
Alba Posts: 1
Joined: 1/1/2006
Member: #1069
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Out of everything we can single out that's wrong, to me, one of the most glaring and baffling things is the totally inept perimeter defense. It's almost like they SHOULDN'T help one another, if you can believe that, instead maybe everyone should just concentrate on sticking with their own man only. Let's try hard-nosed man-to-man only, no helping, since it's completely clear they were never taught how to play help defense. Weird, I know, other team's defensive woes usually revolve around a lack of help defense, but with the Knicks, it's almost like they overplay it on defense to a fault. Help defense is so much more than just double-teaming the nearest guy with the ball. Their feeble attempts to "help" one another only get them in trouble as they continually get picked apart with ease by opponents - good teams, bads teams, it doesn't even matter. It only takes about 2-3 passes to get a wide open shot, not even sometimes. That's got to be the first thing opposing coaches write about on the locker room blackboard when playing the Knicks: "BE PATIENT," "SHARE THE BALL," "MAKE THE EXTRA PASS," "SWING THE BALL, YOU WILL GET A WIDE OPEN SHOT ON EVERY POSESSION AGAINST THIS TEAM!!!"
In the half-court set guys try to help one another, only to completely lose sight of their own man in the process. 1 pass, 2 passes, wide open J, count it. I've never seen anything like it. Larry Brown contantly talks about a lack of effort (He's said stuff like, "I never thought I would have to coach effort" recently) and sometimes he's right - like any team, sometimes you just come out and don't have it, effort-wise. But overall, I really don't think a lack of effort is the problem. The Knicks are a decent rebounding team and they get to the foul line better than any team in the league, so for me, the effort's there. It's the way they play that's the problem especially on defense. Jeez, you'd think that after all this time their overrated, hall-of-fame coach would've reviewed enough tape to pin-point the defensive problems, then implement the appropriate changes accordingly. But after a whopping 50 GAMES, it's the same old story, at least on defense: 1 pass, 2 passes, wide open J, count it. I'm sorry, but the defensive woes rest with coach Brown. And he's supposed to be a defensive minded coach?!? God forbid he actually taught these guys how to help one another, how to rotate, etc... Look, I tune in ever game and I'm dying to see even the smallest improvement, even if it's one single play in a game, one single sign that they're trying something different, taught something different, something new... But nothing. Same old thing...
As I write this, I actually just saw Larry Brown on TV, rubbing his eyes in horror after this lastest disaster against Dallas. I know I'm hard on the guy and I do feel bad for him and Isiah too for that matter - they both work extremely hard and deserve a better fate than this. Larry's just got to implement changes, especially on defense, and I don't care how drastic or radical those changes are - play zone, try a Rick Pitino-style trap, hire a defensive-minded guy to come in here and totally re-vamp the defense like a Tex Winter, a Dick Harter, etc., make it gimmickly like how the old Duke teams used to play defense where everyone would bang their hands on the floor to motivate each other as the opponent would bring the ball up, I don't care, whatever, just show me a commitment to play better defense because this current defensive gameplan just doesn't cut it - if there even is a gameplan. It's the biggest problem I can see and one that can be corrected.
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2/13/2006 11:32 PM
