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nyk4ever
Posts: 41010
Alba Posts: 12
Joined: 1/12/2005
Member: #848
USA
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Ok. We all know what has happened so far this season, the Knicks are 0-4, they just hired arguably the best Coach in the NBA. They just acquired one of the best up and coming Centers in the NBA and they also Drafted 3 very exciting young players. We know all that. We also know that since preseason, some things have not looked right with the subs and who was playing with who. We know that our Head Coach has been an extremely meticulous man in the past, doing things his way or you get the highway. Have they worked? Yes, they have just look at his track-record. So the past is the past and now we're in the present and where does that leave us?
With everything that we expected and everything we didn't expect the team to do early in the season, theres one thing thats glaringly wrong and that is; The Knicks can't do absolutely anything on offense. They are second to last in the league in scoring Per Game, plain and simple, it's a real mess. I didn't watch Allen Iverson or Chauncey Billups when they first started with Larry since I don't have NBA League Pass or anything like that so I don't know what the state of those teams were other then the fact that the Pistons were a damn good team to begin. The Sixers were KIND OF in a similar situation as we are, they finished 31-51 in their first season under Larry but it pretty much took them a year to get used to what and how Larry does things because the next 5 years they were a top team in the East every single year. Ok, back to the offense. The teams best player is a PG who loves to score, say what you want about him, he's a stat padder, whatever, he knows how to score the ball. Would he best utilized at the 2? Yes he would, but do we have that luxury? No we don't, we don't have any other player on this team competant enough to play the PG position then Steph does, right now anyway. Our best player in the post is still trying to get into basketball shape. Say what you want, but he wasn't able to do the correct workout schedule this summer becuase of his heart and its going to take him a little time to get into basketball shape and once he does he won't be tired and committing those stupid fouls and he'll be on the court for us alot longer. Q? Who knows what his problem is, he's been horrible. Crawford? He's been off and on but a bright spot in yesterdays game is that Crawford started too look like himself a little more. These are the 4 guys that the Knicks so desperately need to get going and I think it's going to take some time, we all knew that coming in so everyone's stance shouldnt change now. Larry's systems is like no one elses in the NBA, it required pure fundamentals and most of the guys on our team havent had to play fundamentals maybe EVER, so its tough to break them down and build them back up, but it WILL work, it just takes time, Larrys shown it in the past.
With the offense getting a big F through the first 4 games the defense has been MUCH BETTER which is why I think this is really going to work. Knicks opponents are averaging 94.5 ppg against the Knicks, good enough to put the Knicks 15th in the NBA in total team defense. The Knicks are holding opposing teams to a .428 FG%, good enough for 11th in the NBA. Only 5 other teams have a better Rebounding % then the Knicks do. While we may all be able to single players out for their defensive efforts the defense as a whole has been pretty damn good.
Also take a look at the Knicks defensive effort against their opposition so far this year:
Boston - Scored 114 against the Knicks, averaging 99.8 on the year. This was the Knicks lone bad defensive game in WHOLE.
Washington - Scored 86 against the Knicks, averaging 92.3 on the year.
Golden State - Scored 83 against the Knicks, avearging 96.8 on the year.
Portland - Scored 95 against the Knicks, averaging 85.8 on the year. The Knicks played an EXCELLENT defensive game in the first half. I have no idea what happened in the second half.
With that said, I think the Knicks have played Good team defense for about 2.5 out of 4 games, which is not bad considering their terrible offensive play. Considering how poorly their playing on offense right now, I would think that their defense would also suffer but the point is that they are playing defense. No one player has rebounded GREAT for the Knicks but everyone is getting boards and playing defense which leads me to think that once things get straightened out on offense that the defense is going to get THAT much better. It's going to time with the offense, my guess is 20-25 games. We may not like it until then but the Knicks weren't winning a championship this year anyway, yeah we all thought they'd make the playoffs and they still might but the most important thing this year for the Knicks was for them to establish a identity by the end of the year and to learn how to play with each other as a team on offense AND on defense. I think the defense has already come, Larry has shown us that the players WILL listen to him becuase their playing defense and that some of these guys have never it in the past. I am supremely confident that by the time Mid-January rolls around that these Knicks will be playing extremely well on offense Larry will have a strict 8 or 9 man rotation down and a team that is starting to win alot of games.
[Edited by - nyk4ever on 11-10-2005 12:31 PM]
"OMG - did we just go on a two-trade-wining-streak?" -SupremeCommander
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