What's wrong with this team is two fold.

A) When JJ2 was removed from the starting line up his ability to cover for multiple positions was never replaced. JL, Melo, Feilds and Amare is a sub-par defensive unit to have together against another teams starting five. Defense play was a big part of the win streak that I see us getting further and further away from. So instead having the ability to generate offense from defense when things bog down, now all the starters do is stop running Lin into the same pick and roll trap play to iso Lin, Melo, Stat. We have no (B) plan anymore. Instead of worrying about optimization the offensive we should go back to keeping scoring runs from the other team down.

This will never happen...............

B) With the "free flowing offense" having so many options, it is killing the constancy of the starting players. The reason the second unit is "out playing" the starters is our second unit plays with an unconscious game plan, getting Novack opening shots. They have a pecking order that is very simple, try to get to the basket or kick to Novack.

During the win streak, Jeremy Lin was the offense and there was no confusion because either he shot or he passed. The team actually played with less options in offense and worked towards that end.

Throwing Lin, Novack, Stat, Melo, Shumps on the court doesn't end with some magical offense explosion, ie the Celtics game. What you end up with is Lin and Melo taking most of the shots because they are the top options with the other offensive players going mostly unused and not putting your best foot forward to stop the other team defensively.

Playing with any kind of form offensively with this coach will also never happen, this is why I maintain that MDA will get fired. Instead of getting his best players going, he is more concerned with his principles of ssol.

Anji wrote:Jeremy, Melo, Stat....... arguing about these people is a waste of time.

What's wrong with this team is two fold.

A) When JJ2 was removed from the starting line up his ability to cover for multiple positions was never replaced. JL, Melo, Feilds and Amare is a sub-par defensive unit to have together against another teams starting five. Defense play was a big part of the win streak that I see us getting further and further away from. So instead having the ability to generate offense from defense when things bog down, now all the starters do is stop running Lin into the same pick and roll trap play to iso Lin, Melo, Stat. We have no (B) plan anymore. Instead of worrying about optimization the offensive we should go back to keeping scoring down.

This will never happen...............

B) With the "free flowing offense" having so many options, it is killing the constancy of the starting players. The reason the second unit is "out playing" the starters is our second unit plays with an unconscious game plan, getting Novack opening shots. They have a pecking order that is very simple, try to get to the basket or kick to Novack.

During the win streak, Jeremy Lin was the offense and there was no confusion because either he shot or he passed. The team actually played with less options in offense and worked towards that end.

Throwing Lin, Novack, Stat, Melo, Shumps on the court doesn't end with some magical offense explosion, ie the Celtics game. What you end up with is Lin and Melo taking most of the shots because they are the top options with the other offensive players going mostly up used and not putting your best foot forward to stop the other team defensively.

Playing any kind of form offensively with this coach will also never happen, this is why I maintain that MDA will get fired.

so your point is Knicks should start JJ over one of Melo/Amare?

I am not sure I am following you.

Weird how everyone was for firing MDA last playoffs for PLAYING JJ LOL

SSOL is not going to work with this team. They need a game plan and to feature it's best players, and flow from them to the others. Be it Melo or Lin or Novack, leaving it up to the players on the court is just confusing them team. We need a game plannnnnnnn!!!!!

Anji wrote:The coach doesn't get that being force to play offensively limited players with Lin is the reason why this team looked so good. It brought a game plan to the offense that was undeniably clear and made the team a top third defensive team.

It was a controlled offense with a defensive that could make 90 points enough to win.
Basically the opposite of the suns.

so mostly you are arguing for less Amare/Melo? Right? You still haven't said it: do you not start one of them?

mrKnickShot wrote:

martin wrote:

Anji wrote:The coach doesn't get that being force to play offensively limited players with Lin is the reason why this team looked so good. It brought a game plan to the offense that was undeniably clear and made the team a top third defensive team.

It was a controlled offense with a defensive that could make 90 points enough to win.
Basically the opposite of the suns.

so mostly you are arguing for less Amare/Melo? Right? You still haven't said it: do you not start one of them?

Martin, like you said with Shumpert. Fields can start but if he is sucking, bring on Shump.

I think the same needs to go for all the players. No free rides. Not anymore. We can't afford it.

If you look at the boxscores you'll see that MDA is indeed limiting the minutes of guys that aren't producing.

TripleThreat wrote:

Anji wrote:A) When JJ2 was removed from the starting line up his ability to cover for multiple positions was never replaced. JL, Melo, Feilds and Amare is a sub-par defensive unit to have together against another teams starting five. Defense play was a big part of the win streak that I see us getting further and further away from. So instead having the ability to generate offense from defense when things bog down, now all the starters do is stop running Lin into the same pick and roll trap play to iso Lin, Melo, Stat. We have no (B) plan anymore. Instead of worrying about optimization the offensive we should go back to keeping scoring runs from the other team down.

I agree. This team misses Jared Jeffries and all of the little things he does during the game along with his tough defense. Melo and STAT simply don't play defense to the degree needed to win ballgames.

To be fair to D'Antoni, I don't think he could bench STAT or Melo if he wanted to, these are high priced marquee name players that season ticket holders pay to see. I think this is an unfortunate reality in the NBA, where GMs are often guys just falling on their swords for the bad decisions of their owners or players who are holding the team hostage. ( In Cleveland, the Cavs got who LeBron James wanted them to get. In Orlando now, the Magic will get whomever Dwight Howard wants them to get in order to try some backwards style of appeasement)

I think it's unfair to say that D'Antoni refuses to fix the problem, he may simply not have the authority to fix the problem. Very few coaches have total freedom with their rosters. Sure a Sloan or Jackson or Adelman or Popovich, but the rest? This team needs Melo to attack the basket or go work the low post, either way draws contact and opens up the rest of the floor for his team.

One of the issues with Jeffries is he's essentially the back up center. This problem traces back to trading Mozgov, who Dolan threw in at the end of the Melo trade. I don't think benching Melo is the answer, I think telling him to attack the basket is the answer. One thing Melo does very well for his position is rebound. In the low post, those offensive rebounds open up more scoring opportunities.

I'd rather see

SF - Melo
PF - Jeffries
C- Chandler
PG - Lin
SG - Fields as SINO ( Starter In Name Only) with Shumpert taking a lot of the minutes. When Chandler needs a break, rotate in Novak to power forward to stretch the floor and give Lin a safety valve and shift Jeffries to center.

I think STAT on the second unit makes a ton of sense. Fewer minutes to protect his knees and back and limit his defensive weakness. Allow him to be the focal point of the offense with Smith and Davis helping to protect leads. Don't ask the reserves to play D, ask them to try to outrun the other team. This is what Davis and Smith are best suited for.

What's frustrating about Melo is he has, skill set wise, no offensive weakness. I think he's got low BB IQ, but he's a natural volume scorer. He's chucking long twos when he could be operating in the paint and slashing to try to draw contact.

I don't think D'Antoni wants to play SSOL here, I think Dolan is forcing him to start Melo and STAT despite their defensive lapses. I think at most, a team can hide one defensive sieve but I don't think any team can cover up for two of them.

Melo's problems this year are not defense. He has actually played really good d. Amare? Not so much.

He just can't hit a damn shot.

Anji wrote:

martin wrote:

Anji wrote:The coach doesn't get that being force to play offensively limited players with Lin is the reason why this team looked so good. It brought a game plan to the offense that was undeniably clear and made the team a top third defensive team.

It was a controlled offense with a defensive that could make 90 points enough to win.
Basically the opposite of the suns.

so mostly you are arguing for less Amare/Melo? Right? You still haven't said it: do you not start one of them?

I don't want Lin/Feilds/Amare/Melo, that is too much for TC to cover.

JJ2 can't start, then Shump should start. That's a small tweek. I also don't want to see Lin/Shump/Melo/Novack/Amare at the end of games. That is the coach thinking he can shoot his way into games when offense isn't what allows this team to go on big runs. It's defense that always seems to spark this team late in games. I would rather see Shump, JJ2 and TC on the floor with who ever is hot to close out a game......... that I know is something we'll never see though, because this coach doesn't get that part of the team.

I agree with Anji. When we were winning games it was team defense along with fast break offense that helped us erase leads. Now we are trying to do it with Melo or Amare in the mix and sometimes both. - against the celts he played Amare art C for a long stretch and we couldn't buy a defensive stop. Novak's incredible shooting brought us back but we couldn't keep the momentum going. Any two of Tyson, Shumpert and JJ should always be on the floor (40 mins or so with two of those).

Secondly on offense the kick out to Novak needs to come from Amare or Melo who has the ball. But that never happens. When they get double teamed they pass it back out to Lin because they want him to create more shots for them and the defense resets so Novak is no longer free. Novak is also getting a lot of attention. JR needs to start hitting 3s again. We are last in the league in 3 pt shooting percentage.