This is a great break down of the BS woodson was running, it was bad enough we have low IQ players, especially on the defensive end, this confusing sht is embarrassing..just nobody on the same page, makes no damns sense.

The New York Knicks' sad switching defense
By Mike Prada  @MikePradaSBN on Dec 30 2013, 2:35p 7

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Why do the Knicks look like a high school team on defense? Because they keep thinking they can get away with switching assignments when they obviously can't.

With apologies to countless other breakdowns that had fans pulling their hair out, I think I've found the one possession that is the Knicks' season in microcosm. It's not any prettier than it sounds.

It happened last Friday, with the Knicks about to let a double-digit lead slip away at home to the Toronto Raptors. Two minutes left, seven-point game. Needing a stop, the Knicks instead let this happen:

That's Jonas Valanciunas standing all alone under the hoop for a slam dunk, plus a foul. The Knicks' chances of rallying were finished.

Analyzing what happened here provides the perfect glimpse into the Knicks' biggest problem. The set started with DeMar DeRozan trying to get to the basket. Despite the shot-clock situation, despite the obvious desire of DeRozan to drive instead of shoot a jumper, Tim Hardaway Jr. lets him do just what he wants. This forces Andrea Bargnani to leave his man to contain DeRozan's drive.

The Knicks eventually cut DeRozan off, but that just leads to more problems. Because Hardaway did such a poor job fighting over the initial screen, he must switch onto the bigger Amir Johnson. Meanwhile, Bargnani, who has no body control, has seen his momentum take him all the way to the baseline, where he's essentially guarding nobody. This will soon be a problem.

At this point, Kyle Lowry has the ball and he's going to drive to the hoop. When that happens, DeRozan naturally clears out to the perimeter. That's when all the fun starts.

THREE Knicks -- Bargnani, Tyson Chandler and J.R. Smith -- make a move for DeRozan. THREE. As Lowry drives to the basket, all three, side-by-side-by-side, run at the same DeRozan who is, at that moment, taking himself out of the play. You'll notice that leaves just one man, Hardaway, to protect the basket. Naturally, he's not going to stop Valanciunas from finishing at this point.

Slam dunk, plus the foul.

Terrible breakdowns like this (if not quite exactly like this) are common anytime you watch a Knicks defensive possession. They happen because there is no communication and no consistent plan for how to defend any sort of play. That, more than injuries and more than not playing the right lineups, more than the struggles of J.R. Smith or the downfall of Amar'e Stoudemire, is what has caused the Knicks' plight.

How to make the Knicks watchable
It's bad enough where you have to wonder about the leadership. Consider this: Mike Woodson loudly claims the Knicks shouldn't be switching assignments, yet a rewatch of Saturday's loss in Toronto to the Raptors showed 72 attempted switches, not including the nine possessions in which the Knicks were in a matchup zone or the final three possessions, when the Knicks were in scramble mode. There were a total of 94 possessions in that game, per Basketball Reference; once you wipe away the aforementioned 12, the Knicks ended up with nearly a switch per possession. If Woodson really isn't endorsing that strategy, perhaps he should let his players know, because they sure don't seem to be following orders.

Switching as a change of pace move or in specific matchups is fine, but using it too often or as a strategy is damaging because it induces more confusion, not less. Unless you have specific rules on when to switch and how to recover, players will need an extra split second to recognize what to do. That extra split second is often enough to lead to wide-open shots from appetizing spots on the court.

Notice what happens when Hardaway and Beno Udrih try to switch on a basic down screen on Friday.

Hardaway tries to pick up Lowry, but Udrih doesn't know what Hardaway is doing and also runs at Lowry. As both players go to the ball-handler, Terrence Ross slips to the corner for a wide-open three. The Knicks commit worse defensive errors than this, of course, but I highlighted this play to show what a small communication error on a switch can lead to when there is no leadership or plan.

In Woodson's defense, this team isn't exactly rich with defensive talent. Carmelo Anthony is bad. Smith is worse. Raymond Felton is okay and Pablo Prigioni is sneaky, but both are injured. Chandler is a former defensive player of the year, but age and injury have slowed him down. Shumpert has the reputation of a great defender, but he loses concentration too easily and routinely gets smushed by ball screens, weaknesses that have been exacerbated by the current coaching staff. Udrih has always been a sieve. Kenyon Martin is good, but isn't healthy enough to give the Knicks consistent minutes. Stoudemire, of course, is in a league of his own. Hardaway is eager, but constantly leaves his man to provide help that isn't needed.

And of course, there's Bargnani, who might be the worst help defender in the legue. It'd take an enormous amount of bandwidth to cover all his defensive breakdowns this season, so we'll just choose these two screenshots:

But by either endorsing or failing to punish all the switching, Woodson is absolving Knicks players of personal responsibility. The only reason this is allowed to continue is that players believe someone else will always pick them up. They're lazy.

And while a switch might work for one sequence in a given possession, it's only a matter of time before that laziness comes back to bite you. Too often, players are botching the second switch, surrendering a bad mismatch or rotating back correctly and still yielding a wide-open shot. Or, they surrender an offensive rebound because a guard is tasked with trying to box out a big man while the center flies at a shooter. For example:

A commitment to a sounder defensive strategy by Woodson and the players won't solve all issues, but it will certainly solve one. If they want to turn their season around, that's where they should start. Remove the gimmicks and defend the right way.

No worries.
We have Fish and Phil now.
They will not going to switch with each other... I hope...

Im not defending Woodson but honestly we had/have very few good defensive players. I mean Melo amare bargs hardaway felton were all terrible defensively. Shumpert is probably our best and tyson regressed as we know. So im not defending Woodson for teh switching but we would have been screwed eitehr way

Woodson was horrible, despite leading us after Dantoni left
I have questioned his philosophy and BB IQ since the start

He was able to get the Knicks and CA to all play on the same page after Dantoni and the 54 win season, but he is still a horrible HEAD COACH
Despite his accomplishments from after the resignation to our 54 win season in a WEAK/INJURED plagued season in the East, it doesn't change any of this

We needed talent but instead choice leaders that were past their primes in Kidd, Rasheed Wallace/Kurt Thomas, Camby (who actually was in great shape in the start of the season but Woodson favored Chandler)
CA was unwilling to accept playing OFF Lin's abilities, and wanted to the OFFENSE to be run through him and his abilities

Lin's ability to penetrate and finish, facilitate/push the tempo, and find both cuttors (Chandler) and wide open 3pt shots (Novak) allowed use to play better as a team
However, instead of trying to find a medium between CA and Lin, Woodson played favoritisim

Maybe he can be a decent assistant coach, but never a good head coach
He just never get the keys to any orginization and he is stubborn on top of being horrible
Maybe under Doc Rivers, he may even play a decent role, reuniting Crawford back with Woodson

I think Woody was overwhelmed last year. His staff IMO was useless. He had so much to do trying to coach up bad defensive players and I think his staff was ill equipped to really help him. The team D was much better the years before but I think he had more help from Kidd and Sheed early on. Last year Woody really needed his own defensive assistant to work specifically with players that needed special attention. We had more players who needed help.

TeamBall wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:He was probably thinking "Why the F did I take a job working for Dolan?"

Surely he knew what he was getting into after the whole thing that happened with his buddy Larry Brown

Yeah, maybe he was thinking "Why the F did I take a job working for Dolan? Oh yeah, the money. Same as everyone else!"

Wasn't he the "defensive" assistant to help ??
Then we win 54 games and all is good.
Then one bad season and its "good riddence".

Nalod chaulk it up to roster. Maybe the Team don't adapt to defense?
Its water under the bridge. Moving forward......

Let it go....everyone just get out and walk away

Woodson got scooped up by Doc pretty quickly.
Doc is pretty well thought of by his owner, fans, and the press.

I will never understand WTF woodson was thinking

Maybe someone can ask Doc?

I mean really, the guy wins as assistant with Larry in Detroit, gets the head gig in ATL, team gets better every year, gets
hired by NY to be defensive assistant, then top dog, Makes the playoffs here, has a 54 game winning season, then it all falls to pieces and we ask ourselves how awful is this guy?

knicks1248 wrote:

Nalod wrote:Woodson got scooped up by Doc pretty quickly.
Doc is pretty well thought of by his owner, fans, and the press.

I will never understand WTF woodson was thinking

Maybe someone can ask Doc?

I mean really, the guy wins as assistant with Larry in Detroit, gets the head gig in ATL, team gets better every year, gets
hired by NY to be defensive assistant, then top dog, Makes the playoffs here, has a 54 game winning season, then it all falls to pieces and we ask ourselves how awful is this guy?

He's a great assistant, and cool dude overall, but don't you dear let him come up with the game plan, your screwed.

He makes no adjustments at all, and the few times he did, they completely backed fire boomerang style.

If they go small, i'll go big, if they go big, i'll go small.

The Idea of swtiching is to confused your opponent, not your own players

Yet he ranks very high in Knicks' coaches winning percentage!

He was a far worse offensive coach then defensive

His defenders really really sucked