Quote about Tony Allen that hopefully means a stable Knicks team will lead to improved defense, regardless of who is coaching:
Meanwhile, Allen's passion for defense has spread to a team that cared little for this end of the floor last season. Younger teams with stable rosters can often make steady improvement at the defensive end, so the fact that Memphis advanced this season is no surprise -- but the size of the gain is what's so shocking.
Could Shelden Williams or another cheap BIG (not jefferies who doesn't really finish or defend) fill the role of Collins...useless at everything but defending bigs that Amare can't or won't defend against?
Jason Collins, Atlanta: The Dwight Howard stopper for Atlanta continues to make a jaw-dropping impact despite accumulating virtually no stats at all. In five games as the starting center, we're still waiting on Collins to achieve a double-double. No, not for a game, for the series -- he has six points and nine rebounds in the five games.
Nonetheless, Collins ranks No. 1 in on-court defense according to basketballvalue.com, with the Hawks giving up just 82.1 points per 100 possessions when he plays. His unique ability to defend Howard one-on-one is the main reason the Hawks are a win away from springing the upset.
Our prayer:
A stable roster of Melo, Chauncey, and Amare means a year where we improve defensively and know what we're trying to do. TD improves. Landry improves. That's at least 5 guys who should spend the entire year together and should hoepfully care about not getting embarassed on D.
Let's try to elevate the level of discourse in this byeetch. Please
