This oversimplification of everything down to "MDA is a bum" and "SSOL is garbage" is so ridiculously lame. I have made my points clear as day and it has nothing to do with SSOL or MDA. The way for the Knicks to win is with TEAM BB! Ball and Player movement is the key. This team loses in the playoffs if the ball is stagnant. How that devolves into an argument against MDA is beyond me. Woody had a full training camp, full season and the type of players he wanted. The only issue is that he failed to make sure the team executed at a high level consistently with ball and player movement. Too often the team slowed down to a crawl as the Melo and JR ISO show got going. It's fine if both are red hot, but when they aren't there should be a solid base of good TEAM BB that this team can execute.
There's no problem with Some ISO plays, but you don't want the ratio to get too high because it's easy to defend ISO BB in the playoffs when the teams you'll face are the best defensive teams in the league.
New York Knicks
Isolation This Season
Regular Season Postseason
Pct of total plays 15.5 27.3
Pts per play 0.87 0.73<<
FG pct 40.2% 33.9%
Knicks Isolation issues
The Knicks are shooting an NBA-low 41.2 percent from the field and averaging just 96.9 points per 100 possessions this postseason.This was an area they excelled in during the regular season, averaging 108.6 points per 100 possessions, which ranked third in the NBA.
However, in four regular season meetings, the Pacers held the Knicks to just 91.8 points per 100 possessions, the lowest output by New York against any single opponent this season.
One of the main reasons for the Knicks’ offensive issues was that they relied heavily on their isolation game this postseason.
During the regular season, an NBA-high 16 percent of the Knicks plays came in isolation. This postseason, the Knicks have ratcheted that up even higher -- to 27 percent of their offensive plays.
With more usage came less success (particularly when they nearly blew their big lead in Game 6). The Knicks averaged a league-postseason-worst 0.73 points per play in isolation against the Boston Celtics.
Someone said we couldn't push the ball because of Felton or Prigs, which pure garbage. There are enough fast guards on this team to get the ball over half court with good tempo and not have to walk it up every time down and face the set defense. Shump, Felton and JR should be able to get the ball up court with speed and there's always advancing the ball with the pass too. The idea isn't to always take a quick shot, but to get into early offense and if nothing is there you have plenty of time to move the ball and get a good shot. I've still not seen any explanation for why this team couldn't get back to moving the ball with crisp passes and setting great screens, Curls, PnR etc. as they did early in the season. It's a choice players make. Execution takes work and dedication to the plan. That's where the coach comes in.
