The Portland Trailblazers shot 49% from the field today and scored 100 points. Boston scored 105 points last night. The Raptors scored a "low" 93 points on Wednesday. None of these games, to me, were impressive defensively besides the blocked shots. Blocked shots are good. I enjoy them. They show hustle, intensity and definitely play a role on the defensive end. You know what also plays a role? Keeping your main in front of you, clogging the passing lanes, protecting the paint and playing good man-to-man defense. The Knicks still struggle in all of these departments, although there is an obvious improvement because like Al Harrington and Jamal Crawford are no longer around. But just because these guys were awful on defense does not make this current team a very good defensive one. That is far from the truth.The offensive side is one I'd like to spend more time on since this is a bigger issue for me. I didn't think it would be, not with "Offensive Genius" Mike D'Antoni running the show. But alas, it is thus far.
The offense that we ran today was exactly the same as the previous 2 years of D'Antoni offense we have seen, minus (again) guys like Al Harrington playing selfishly and foolishly. The past 3 games has seen this team unable to throw a basic entry pass into the post, does not set enough screens so that players can come off a screen for the pick and pop, and does not run enough pick and roll plays and when they do they run it quite horribly (a fault of Felton right now). There is no ball movement. A lot of stagnant play with players sitting around waiting for one guy to create. A lot of camping out at the 3-point launching 3 pointers. That's a game plan? "If we hit our 3 pointers we will win"? This a joke?
This system is predicated on great ball movement and we have not seen signs of that right now. The guards rarely penetrate and Amar'e finds himself getting the ball 20 feet away from the basket a majority of the time. This, in turn, forces him to create off the dribble. He forces up a shot, which is never a good thing, and we hope for the best. That's not what we signed this guy for. We need to figure out an easier way to get him the ball or we will fail miserably. We also need to stop launching 3-pointers (28 tonight, 27 against Boston, 24 against Toronto) and learn how to move the ball around for the best shot instead of settling for 3's. That's a LAZY offense.
The offense may have the potential to be much better but thus far there are no signs of that potential. Not even flashes. I just see poor play and Raymond Felton is definitely a guy that has to shoulder some blame for it as well. Raymond Felton has had a tough time running this offense and I haven't seen him run one successful PnR so far with Amare. He's not orchestrating the rest of the offense at all. He is having a hard time running the pick and roll and even making simple entry passes. He probably should have been working out with Amare from July 9th because there is no chemistry there at all right now. With anyone else either.
Toney Douglas is even worse than Felton as far as I'm concerned. Here's a guy that's never met a shot he didn't like and probably has some of the worst court vision I've ever seen. Good defender, just below-average to poor at nearly everything else.
Amare hasn't played well. That's a direct result of this offense right now. Expecting Amare to create himself from the top of the key half the time will not work. Hence the numerous turnovers Amare is averaging. The guards are not getting him the ball in the right situation and are, as a result, limiting the offensive firepower he can provide. It's a problem right now, a big one. It's going to be hard to solve it quickly enough to get the team firing on all cylinders.
The offense, thus far, is below average. That's me being nice. What I see is a team that needs proper coaching on both ends of the ball, particular the offense. A team that needs to understand that it is okay to run a pick and roll or drive and kick and not just run down the shot clock to shoot a contested 3. Right now I don't see that.
IF Gallinari comes back and shoots well, IF the offense shoots better (because we have great shooters, right? We rely on the 3 ball and we have average shooting at best and somehow this makes sense), IF IF IF. Huh? Gallinari coming back and shooting 3's does what exactly? I just finished explaining how this teams' offense is bad and you're talking about Danilo Gallinari. I'm not discussing him because he is not a factor in my point. The point is the offense needs to improve and that has nothing to do with Gallinari. It is way more than just one guy.
People can talk about the players but the players were brought here to run the plays the coach tell them to. You cannot tell me that that the players are 100% at fault when this is a brand new roster yet I see the same exact offense as I did the past 2 seasons.
So yeah, I see the "difference" but the result is the same. That will not change until they get better cohesion and execution as a team. They have shown no signs of it throughout preseason and through these games. This team needs to improve drastically to even have a chance at the playoffs.
There is nothing in their play that shows signs of getting better.
This is a new team playing the same way as last season.
The problem is the coach.
We'll see what happens. I hope they prove me wrong.
What I said the first week or so into the season.
Yep.
11/13/2010 2:12 PM
