Posted by Bippity10:
Posted by nixluva:
40+ wins. I feel even stronger based on the efforts of the entire team defensively. Like last year I think people underestimate how good of a coach MDA really is, but he got Zach and Jamal to be tradebait by having the team ready to play at the start of the season. This year he was able to focus on defense, since he had established his offense the year before. Some wanted him to do both, but then they underestimate how different his style of play really is from other coaches and how much he had to focus on offense to give the team a chance last year. It worked cuz we got rid of Zach and Jamal. Now we can see that he does have a defensive philosophy and he knows how to teach it.
This team like his others plays the passing lanes and moves as a unit to make teams take tougher shots. The defense supports the offense and allows us to get out and run. Shut off penetrations, double post ups, forcing bad passes, then look to deflect or steal, then run and score.
Deja Vu
YOU KNOW IT BABY!!! Hey i'm consistent! How many Knick teams can say that over the last 3 years, HA HAA? No really tho. I think my predictions have had some legitimacy. This team underachieved IMO and in the opinion of many Analysts who felt good about the team much like many of us did given the talent we had and other reasons. It's not like we've been predicting great success, but just to reach their potential. Don't you think this team has the potential to be .500? I certainly think it wasn't that far fetched to think that the roster we had at the start of last season was capable of .500, especially if it had remained the same. Not that I wanted that. MDA had something to do with the record in that he refused to keep Steph, who could've helped to take the pressure off Duhon, but that's spilled milk.
We're talking 8-9 wins better than last year and if we get some breaks maybe we can do better. The reason I think we can do this, is that the team is deeper, more settled, with better size, healthier (please stay that way) and more committed on D, which is perhaps the biggest reason for optimism. We just need to beat the teams around our level and lower and get a few wins against better teams and I think we'll be just fine. If you remember last year, we had some very competitive games against good teams, but lack of any kind of defensive effort killed us. Not to mention playing undermanned and undersized. We're just flat better this year.