when none of the bigs play any defense it's a huge concern... offense isn't the only aspect of basketball my friend.

Posted by TMS:

when none of the bigs play any defense it's a huge concern... offense isn't the only aspect of basketball my friend.

Why does everyone assume that I don't care about defense? We weren't talking about defense in this thread so my comments reflect that. I'm as knowledeable about BB as anyone else here, trust me I know what wins games. Still it's half of the game and in truth most champions don't just play great D, but have superior offense as well. 30+ years of playing and watching the game it's impossible not to know the importance of defense. One of my favorite players growing up was Bobby Jones of the Sixers. Just because someone talks about offense, doesn't mean that he doesn't value defense.

The truth is that since Isiah has been here this team is an offensive team and as such they MUST execute well offenssively. If this was the Bulls or Pistons then the D would be a huge part of what we do, but we aren't made up that way. As i've said for years now, this team needs to defend well enough to win games with it's offense. We aren't going to shut teams down like a great defensive team, so naturally the offense is an important part of any discussion about this team. Do we have stoppers or shotblockers... NO! We have a lot of scorers, so i'm speaking the truth of our situation.

OH and I almost forgot. My specialty as a player has always been my defense. I've always had great lateral quickness and hands. I know how to keep good spacing and I force my opponent to their weak hand.

[Edited by - nixluva on 12-06-2007 9:19 PM]

Posted by TMS:

wow, i didn't really ask or do i really care to hear about your BB knowledge or your skills as a baller dude... i'm glad you felt the need to educate us all on your renowned lateral quickness & your skills at forcing guys to their weak hand... maybe you oughta try out for the Knicks... God knows we could use a defensive minded player on this team.

i just don't get how u think our frontcourt isn't the problem when you just acknowledged the fact that we don't have any shotblockers or low post defenders on the roster & that defense IS half the game... team balance dude... we don't got it... until we do i have no idea how you oculd possibly be so optimistic about this team.

I had to address the assumption that I somehow don't know that Defense is important. You said it like you were teaching me something, which you certainly weren't. You made an insinuation and I responded.

The frontcourt isn't the problem, at least not our biggest problem. The production we've gotten from our frontcourt has been very good and if you've been paying attention then you know that it's been our Guards and SF position that has been the weakest and least consistent part of the team. The Knicks aren't a shotblocking intimidating team, however we can play decent defense for good stretches of games and with a very good offense that can be enough to win games. Lot's of losing teams have great shotblocking, that doesn't mean jack. It's a great plus, but it's not the whole deal. Perhaps one day we'll add a player that will give us that dimension. Right now I speak about the team as it is. With what we have we can win games when we get solid guard play. That is defensively and offensively. Is that better?

I didn't read anything into your post that you didn't write. I'm not trying to argue with you. Understand that you wrote "offense isn't the only aspect of basketball my friend" and that is clearly an insinuation that I don't recognize the importance of D.

I actually feel that Zach and Curry are avg man defenders, but poor help defenders. Our frontcourt as a group rebounds above avg. and that is a part of defense. So we aren't really totally bad defensively in the frontcourt. So long as the guards play stiffer D on the perimeter and we do what we should be doing offensively this team should win more games than it loses. We stopped doing the right things and that's why the record is what it is. The solution is to get the guards to step up and play well. When they do this team is capable of winning games even with the poor help D from the frontcourt.