Posted by islesfan:
Getting back to what Phil Jackson said, I believe it boils down to this:
"There was a lot of talk about that this may be something that would be effective in the regular season when people don’t have the opportunity to match up and defend against it, but will it be successful in playoff basketball?"
I believe that the optimism that people have from watching this team is due to the fact that D'Antoni's system is effective in the regular season. With the perfect players, his system can win 55+ games a year. With average to above average players it can win around 45-55 games. And with a rag tag bunch it can win 35-45 games. It's also an entertaining system where players can show flashes offensively.
But like Phil Jackson said, the playoffs are a whole different story.
I think the Knicks have already proved they can play the uptempo and also slow it down a lil and still be effective in offense.
Saying you can't win in the playoffs based on the Suns past failures is shortsighted because you have to analyze how good were each player defensively and how good where they collectively. As a group you could say they were mediocre-to-average at best. But individually none of those players were known for their defense.
You have to factor the players when analyzing how good or bad is the team's defense. You are trying to argue that its all the coaching staff's fault if they aren't good defensively and that is wrong. With more players capable of playing good defense, the overall defense will improve too because you have the weapons to play it.
For example, the Knicks were working hard and having a nice effort on defense prior to the trade. That was with Zach and Craw included. But of course we weren't stoppers. Just the fact that we at least showed effort improved the team defense a little compared to last season.
After the trade, the Knicks have looked even better on defense. Al Harrington, a good defensive player as he has proved to us, is part of the reason why. Nate is having more minutes and has had also impact on the D. The rotation we are playing may not be composed of defensive stoppers, but they are all solid in their assignments and that has traduced into better team D.
I think saying that Coach
can't win in the playoffs because he has more focus on the offensive game is shortsighted because he does get this team ready to defend the other team. The Knicks have no big center, yet their interior defense has looked solid the last couple of games. They played Shaq and Bynum the best you can possibly play them with the current players we have.
It is important for the Knicks to get players that have "defense" on their resumé if they want to take their defense to the next level. The coach has already proved that he will have them playing hard on D and preparing them for the match-ups.
[Edited by - knicksfan on 12-17-2008 3:08 PM]
12/17/2008 3:47 PM