After watching this preseason, there are a few things clear.

- Curry needs to be fed the ball; he played pretty well when he got his shots.
- Jeffries is going to be a huge factor on this team.
- Francis/Marbury back court COULD work. I still Steph getting pissy.
- Crawford might just continue to play the way he did last year, which will be big

But now the 2 points that I wanted to focus on.
- Lee should be starting at PF
- The Knicks team defense is absolutely atrocious.

I think these two points go hand in hand with what I'm trying to focus on. Sure, there a bunch of positive that we've seen throughout the preseason, but I think the Knicks defense is seriously going to decide whether or not this team is in the running for that 8th seed or just a serious pretender. Obviously losing Jeffries is a factor but I don't think even when he comes back that he's going to change things. We're just that bad collectively as a team defensively. I think the first step towards fixing this problem is starting David Lee. Lee fills a better role with the starting unit because he rebounds he hustles and he's a better defender than Frye and these are qualities that the starting unit can use even when Jeffries comes back, we need as many guys out there as possible to make up for the lack of defense from the backcourt and from Curry. It's quite obvious that with the Marbury/Francis backcourt taking probably 35 shots a game and Curry needing his 15 that there aren't enough touches to go around on the starting unit to make Frye effective. Let Frye come off the bench, let him play with Jamal, Nate, Q and Cato, Frye was at his best last year while playing with Nate and Jamal and this is where his scoring ability will be best served, just wearing down backup 4s. I think he can average 15ppg this year in this role.

I know everyone sees the Knicks scoring a ton of points so far in the preseason and are happy with this but you can NOT score this many points at the expense of the defense like the Knicks have done. This is a huge problem the Knicks have and it needs to be addressed ASAP. I don’t want to hear about how Isiah is only coaching this group for the first time, because defense shouldn’t be affected as badly by things like this. If the problems with defense were only a few guys on than I’d be much less worried, but as of right now the Knicks starting frontcourt can’t guard opposing frontcourts and the Knicks backcourt can’t guard opposing backcourts, this translates to what we’ve seen so far this preseason and that’s teams scoring an average of 110 points a night against us. Sure theres a few guys here and there – Jeffries, Lee, Crawford, Q but they cant make up for the guys like Curry, Marbury, Francis, and Frye who are all playing serious minutes for the Knicks and starting the games.

There HAS TO be a happy medium here with the Knicks. There has to be a point where the team decides to tone down the running and gunning and focusing a bit more on defense. I think a lot of this has to do with Curry. The reason is, if Curry is fed the ball in the post, it will slow the game down and if he gets on a roll offensively, he might be more inclined to bust his butt on defense. Other than this, I don’t really see to many ways the Knicks can play this current style and win more than 35 games. Even in this preseason, the Knicks won 4 games in which they averaged 110.5ppg scored and 101.8against. At first sight, that would be great when you look at the breakdown, but missing from these games were guys like Iverson, Webber, Carter, Kidd, Pierce and you know when these guys are playing that they are going to have a major affect on the game which also means they Knicks are going to give up more points when they come back. I think a more realistic look of this team’s defense is when you look at the two losses this preseason.
Boston – 113PointsAgainst – Pierce 18 points
New Jersey – 138 – Carter 21points, Jefferson 32points, Marcus Williams 21 points

While I don’t think the Knicks are going to give up 138 points a game, although I can see it happening a few times this year, this just shows you much defense is a problem for this team. Marbury and Francis seriously have to start playing some real defense and not relying on help defense for when their guys get by them or else this is going to really turn into a loooooong season.

I know everyone is really excited about this coming season and I am too, I want the Knicks to matter again and I want to be watching games in the playoffs with the Knicks in them but if the Knicks don’t make a more concerted effort to play A LOT more defense, this season is going to be nowhere and quick.

138 is nothing. I'm predicting a 200 point game this year

[Edited by - gunsnewing on 10-28-2006 1:27 PM]

nyk4ever, very good post and I agree, particularly about Lee, but I think the first thing on our priority list is to find a shotblocker. Use Eddie as trade bait if you have to. Secondly, find better perimeter defenders and find ways to trade Stephon and/or Francis. If they continue to start, having a shotblocker will be irrelevant b/c he'll be flooded with guys driving to the lane, hence 3 blocks a game, but also 6 fouls.

The last great shotblocker we had was this guy:


He had 10 rejections one game for us. I miss Deke. Even though he was 76 years old at the time.

Deke was great as a Knick. We actually played defense back then, but everyone complained that he was too slow. Now we're Young & Athletic