from today's NY Times:Questions of Depth Haunt Knicks
By HOWARD BECK
As the Knicks crashed and burned last week, fans got a crash course in Carmelo Studies, each defeat a tutorial on one star player’s worst potential traits.
After one loss, Carmelo Anthony blamed a lack of defensive strategy. The next day, he blamed an overabundance of defensive schemes.
In Indiana, Anthony upbraided Jared Jeffries for failing to get him the ball on a last-second play. In Detroit, he badgered Toney Douglas for failing to get him the ball in the second half. After his worst game of the season, he walked straight to the team bus, leaving others to explain the loss.
Anthony is probably not as petulant, moody or selfish as he projected. But the hand-wringing over his demeanor obscured the Knicks’ broader deficiencies — most of which stem from the trade that brought him here.
Their defense is worse. Their ball movement has suffered. And their roster is in shambles.
Obtaining Anthony cost the Knicks nearly all of their depth, a fact that was lost amid the euphoria over the trade, and the chaos that followed.
The Knicks are top-heavy, with Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire and Chauncey Billups headlining an otherwise woeful roster. They lack a legitimate starting center. Their starting off-guard, Landry Fields, would be a reserve on most teams. Among the reserves, only Toney Douglas is a reliable producer. They have no 7-footers, no shot-blockers and no perimeter stoppers. The tallest Knick, Jeffries (6 feet 11 inches), is one of the N.B.A.’s least productive players. He has started 8 of the last 11 games.
“I just think they’re flawed,” said an Eastern Conference scout who has watched the Knicks several times since the trade.
The scout listed defense and ball movement as the Knicks’ greatest weaknesses. But the lack of talent was a close third.
“You have no depth,” he said. “You’ve got five good starters and a sixth man in Toney Douglas and who is the next guy? Jared Jeffries is your next-best player?”
Beyond the top six, the Knicks fall into two categories: specialists (who have one notable skill) and space-fillers (who have none). Shawne Williams, Roger Mason Jr. and Bill Walker are capable 3-point shooters who do little else. (And Williams is reliable only from the corners — meaning even his one dimension is one-dimensional.) Jeffries is a decent help defender who has a knack for drawing charges.
But consider their recent history: Jeffries was waived by the Houston Rockets, who barely used him. Williams spent the 2009-10 season out of the N.B.A. Until recently, Mason could not break the Knicks’ rotation. Walker has fallen out of the rotation entirely.
The rest of the Knicks are space-fillers — a category the scout bluntly called “Can’t Play.” That includes Shelden Williams, Renaldo Balkman, Anthony Carter, Andy Rautins and Derrick Brown.
The Knicks might have the worst bench of any playoff-bound team (assuming, of course, the Knicks make the playoffs. They host Orlando on Wednesday, when a loss would drop them below .500).
An analysis provided by the NBA.com StatsCube illustrates the point. The Knicks’ most-used bench unit (at least three nonstarters), post-trade, has played only 23 minutes together: Douglas, Fields, Walker, Shawne Williams and Ronny Turiaf.
The Dallas Mavericks’ second unit, by contrast, has played 341 minutes together. The Chicago Bulls and Oklahoma City Thunder each have three unique bench units that have played at least 100 minutes together.
According to the StatsCube analysis, the Knicks’ various second units share a fairly consistent trait: better defense, worse offense. The Knicks were not fantastically deep before the trade — for the season, they rank 29th in bench minutes a game — but the rotation became thinner because they gave up four everyday players (Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Timofey Mozgov) and gained only two (Anthony and Billups).
Gallinari and Chandler were dual threats, able to shoot the 3-pointer and drive to the basket. Defenders had to pay them much more respect than they do to, say, Mason or Shawne Williams, who have to be guarded only at the arc. Opponents ignore Jeffries entirely, leaving them free to double-team Stoudemire and Anthony.
Gallinari and Chandler were willing passers who complemented Stoudemire and kept the floor spread. Now, defenses are more prone to pack the paint. Anthony’s isolation plays make matters worse.
“Now the ball stops,” the scout said, because Anthony is primarily an isolation player who demands a lot of touches. “He’s not the perfect fit for the D’Antoni style in a lot of ways.”
Gallinari was an energetic defender and Chandler was the Knicks’ best post defender, a role that is now unfilled. The Knicks’ most efficient lineups this season featured Stoudemire at center and Chandler at power forward, according to 82games.com.
The Knicks could overcome it all if the chemistry between Stoudemire and Anthony were great (it’s not) or if Anthony were as willing a passer as Dwyane Wade or LeBron James (he isn’t).
The N.B.A.’s top teams are, of course, built on superstar foundations. But true contenders are armed with second-tier stars and capable role players. When the Knicks acquired Anthony, they filled one gap and created another — a fact that Donnie Walsh, the team president, acknowledged at the time.
Before the Knicks can rise above mediocrity, they will have to restock the lineup. Eventually, they will need to find the next Gallinari and Chandler.
Sheesh, I really miss Gallo, Chandler and Felton. I liked the team better before the trade. We should have waited for Melo as a FA and risked losing him. Ah well, water under the bridge. Guess it's back to waiting for new draftees. I hope we catch lightning in a bottle. Don't think we have any possibility for trades, other than moving Billups for CP3.
3/23/2011 11:11 AM
and Walsh are well aware of as well. I'm not surprised how things are going in NY at all for the time being. I am, however, surprised about how things are going in Denver ESPECIALLY with the players that they had no interest in as they lacked the skills and talent to help any organization, let alone Denver.