The increased speed, handles and aggressiveness is going to have a huge impact IMO. When you look at Drives per game the shift is monumental. Remember this isn't all penetration. It's not including fast breaks either. Just Drives starting from at least 20 feet away from the basket.

Drives Per Game:

Player	          Team  GP W  L  MIN  DRIVES FGM  FGA  FG%  FTM FTA FT%  PTS
Derrick Rose      CHI   66 32 34 31.8 8.9    2.8  5.5  51.0 1.3 1.7 76.1 6.9
Brandon Jennings  ORL	48 20 28 18.1 2.4    0.4  1.0  40.4 0.5 0.6 76.7 1.3
Courtney Lee      CHA	79 49 30 29.6 2.1    0.6  1.3  44.4 0.3	0.4 81.3 1.4
                                                                         9.6 ppg
Jose Calderon     NYK	72 29 43 28.1 2.2    0.2  0.5  48.6 0.2 0.2 85.7 0.6
Arron Afflalo     NYK	71 27 44 33.4 2.2    0.5  1.2  42.0 0.3 0.4 69.2 1.3
Langston Galloway NYK	82 32 50 24.8 1.3    0.5  0.9  48.1 0.2 0.3 63.0 1.1
                                                                         3.0 ppg

I'd like to see more drives, more assists and more FT's produced but it's still a very nice improvement.

We see a much more aggressive group with a higher rate of drives per minute:

Drives Frequency:

Rose       Drive every  3.57 Minutes
Jennings   Drive every  7.54 Minutes
Lee        Drive every 14.09 Minutes
Calderon   Drive every 12.77 Minutes
Afflalo    Drive every 15.18 Minutes
Galloway   Drive every 19.07 Minutes

Pick and Roll will be another avenue for more production. Part of the problem here is that the Knicks didn't really run a lot of PnR in their schemes. This isn't so much about the players as it will be about the Coach and Scheme this year. Still I think that the production should be better overall with this group.

Pick and Roll:

Player	          Team GP  Poss	Freq   PPP   PTS  FGM  FGA  FG%   eFG%  FT     TO     SF    And 1  Score  Percentile
Derrick Rose      CHI  66  563  43.5%  0.84  474  207  466  44.4  44.8  7.6%   12.3%  7.3%  2.7%   41.4%  68.3
Courtney Lee      CHA  28  43   17.0%  0.93   40   17   36  47.2  47.2	9.3%    9.3%  9.3%  2.3%   46.5%  86.6
Brandon Jennings  ORL  25  80   37.7%  0.61   49   17   58  29.3  32.8  10.0%  18.8%  7.5%  2.5%   27.5%  17.2
Jose Calderon     NYK  72  212  38.1%  0.83  176   77  179  43.0  45.3  4.2%   12.3%  2.8%  0.9%   39.6%  64.8
Jerian Grant      NYK  75  185  35.0%  0.72  134   45  120  37.5  37.9  15.1%  22.2%  14.6% 2.7%   36.2%  37.9
Langston Galloway NYK  82  121  17.4%  0.74   90   36   99  36.4  39.4  7.4%   11.6%  4.1%  0.8%   35.5%  41.4

With Hornacek adding a much more PnR, Screen heavy and Spread floor attack the amount of opportunities to drive and kick should increase with these particular guards who have the kind of talent to take advantage of that. With Melo and KP on the floor these guards must get used to kicking to them out of PnR, Dribble Hand Offs and Drag Screens. These guards should be able to suck the defender in with their speed. There should be dump off opportunities for Noah and also offensive rebounds for KP to grab if he crashes the boards as he did last year.

Lee, Holliday and Sasha are most likely going to be more fast break and spot up 3 guards but they also have some ability to get to the basket and that will only add to the overall impact as a team. The overall balance is very nice. The real hope is for some improvement from these guards as 3pt shooters. If that happens then we're really talking. No doubt JH will focus on that aspect of things.

but yes i agree with your overall sentiment that the back court is better. (youn could put Me out there and it wouldve been better. lol). its not just better its SIGNIFICANTLY better.

to me, the big x-factor is what exactly will jeff hornecek be running with this offense. while i dont think it will be 100% triangle, i also dont think it will be 100% PNR. most likely it will be an offense catered around their best player (carmelo - for better or for worse).

to me, im happy because the guards are improved and JH is more of a PNR coach. but to me my biggest excitement is what this will do for the development of KP (which is all i really care about - rose, jennings are nice upgrades but hopefully not here for the long term). KP is this teams next franchise player. all i ask is that he continues to develop and they find a REAL franchise PG to play next to him. the main reasons i like phil's offseason moves is because they upgrded without compromising KPs future

knicks1248 wrote:

callmened wrote:hmm? but isnt this comparing apples and oranges? rose, jennings and lee didnt play in the triangle last yr and jose, affalo and gallo did. whether its the triangle circle or square, my overall point is that its hard to compare stats on (drives to the basket) if they play in different systems

but yes i agree with your overall sentiment that the back court is better. (youn could put Me out there and it wouldve been better. lol). its not just better its SIGNIFICANTLY better.

to me, the big x-factor is what exactly will jeff hornecek be running with this offense. while i dont think it will be 100% triangle, i also dont think it will be 100% PNR. most likely it will be an offense catered around their best player (carmelo - for better or for worse).

I agree, the system and pace will dictate the way a player plays. That slow half court pace was completely ridiculous.

I actually think the bench will be able to play even faster than the starters, depending on Hornacek's rotation. There's a good amount of speed and athletic ability on the bench.

NAME	                POS	AGE	HT	WT
Derrick Rose	        PG	27	6-3	190
Courtney Lee	        SG	30	6-5	200
Carmelo Anthony	        SF/PF	32	6-8	240
Kristaps Porzingis	PF/C	20	7-3	240
Joakim Noah	        C	31	6-11	232
Brandon Jennings	PG	26	6-1	169
Justin Holiday	        SG	27	6-6	185
Sasha Vujacic	        SG	32	6-7	195
Lance Thomas	        SF	28	6-8	235
Mindaugas Kuzminskas	F	26	6-8	216
Maurice Daly Ndour	SF	24	6-9	200
Kyle O'Quinn	        C/PF	26	6-10	250
Guillermo Hernangomez	C	22	6-10	240
Marshall Plumlee	C	24	7-0	250

It's going to be important that our other players can keep up with our guards if they push the pace. EVERYONE has to run and play uptempo for this to work. I'm fairly confident the guards will do their part, so the forwards and C's have to push.

Finestrg wrote:The guards have been upgraded, true, but there are still major concerns -- Rose/Jennings injury situation, no true ball-handler behind them, can Holiday take the next step?, I don't care for Sasha at all, etc.. I still say we're one guard short. I don't think this should be taken lightly. Don't really understand the laissez faire attitude here at all. Not sure Baker and Randle are worth waiting for, not when there are still some good option out there...Wish we were a little more aggressive trying to fill this last spot.

Finestrg wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

Finestrg wrote:The guards have been upgraded, true, but there are still major concerns -- Rose/Jennings injury situation, no true ball-handler behind them, can Holiday take the next step?, I don't care for Sasha at all, etc.. I still say we're one guard short. I don't think this should be taken lightly. Don't really understand the laissez faire attitude here at all. Not sure Baker and Randle are worth waiting for, not when there are still some good option out there...Wish we were a little more aggressive trying to fill this last spot.

Maybe they bring a guy into Westchester that could make the jump to the nba if needed.

Could be. I just feel like we're a little exposed being down one guard and I'm not sure Baker or Randle are the answers (Baker does intrigue me though -- I would've much preferred Baker over Sasha Vujacic, I can tell you that. To me, that's where Ron Baker fits and fits well--as a 3rd string SG, not as a 3rd PG who very well will see game action at some point next season). I bet right now this player, whoever it may be, gets trust into action as some point during the season. It'll get taken care of but the longer we wait, the less options we'll have (the Sixers just signed Cat Barber a few days ago for example. I would've LOVED to get that kid, on his explosive Monta Ellis-type potential alone). I'd like to see Phil be aggressive filling this spot, not merely sifting though leftovers at a later time. Could go the other way too, I understand--decent guards could shake loose from other teams during/after training camp, but that's just leaving a lot up to chance, no?

Spencer Dinwiddie and Bryce Cotton are two young guards I've liked for a long time. Now all of a sudden we have the need, the open spot and these two are available. To me, for the little money we're talking, you ink up either Dinwiddie or Cotton right now without hesitation (two guys that have performed well in limited NBA action mind you -- go look at tape of what Dinwiddie did in his first start in the NBA for Detroit against Derrick Rose and then look at highlights and the improvement of Bryce Cotton from his days at Providence, to his complete domination of the DL, excellent play in SL a few years in a row now and the fine stint he had in the NBA when called up by Utah--this dude's a player w/o question, a souped-up Patty Mills imo), then look to bring a Baker or Randle to training camp to compete (what does each guy deserve beyond this when you think about it?). If by some reason adjustments need to be made and guys need to be cut in favor of better options, neither guy would be making a lot of money--you cut 'em and move forward, just like we did with Tony Wroten. Amounts to nothing more than a miniscule monetary hit for Dolan, that's it. Chump change..It's worth the nominal amount of money right now to stay aggressive.

tj23 wrote:

nixluva wrote:

tj23 wrote:JH's offense is far more than just simple screen and roll. There are tons of wrinkles and multiple options. It's very rare that you see any team run continuous basic PNR. The whole triangle vs pnr thing is obnoxious too.

THANK YOU!!! It's so annoying. I've said since day one that the Triangle System is flexible. It's entirely up to the coach what he chooses to feature in the overall system. There's never been just one way to run the Triangle. Coaches have been running their own version of the Triangle for DECADES. Sam Barry invented it and his pupil Tex Winter took it to another level. Other coaches like Cotton Fitzsimmons ran it their way before Phil even learned it. Phil tweaked it from there, Thibs and Pop ran some of it and now Hornacek will run it his way.

Yeah Fisher even altered it during the season a bit. You have to use actions that fit your players strengths. Like on the Triangle heavy side there would be a low post entry and the guard and forward would cut through, but Robin being an unskilled passer Derek decided to switch to a split that would either free up Jose or Melo and make it an easier pass. I'd like to see more motion into PNR as well as some flare screens, which is an easy way to free up some shooters ocassionally, depending on how much freedom Jeff is given. I'm a huge fan of Horns, but I think that might be a bit of a reach to think that we'll break that far from Phil's precious shape lol

Rose and KP would Kill doing this. The 3pt shots would be there all day. This is what I think Hornacek will do in the Half Court in addition to maybe using some Horns as well to switch things up. It's not a major deal to slide into a Horns look early in the shot clock and if things don't materialize you could still flow into a Side Triangle. It's not a hard set rule that you have to immediately set up the Side Triangle.

nixluva wrote:

tj23 wrote:

nixluva wrote:

tj23 wrote:JH's offense is far more than just simple screen and roll. There are tons of wrinkles and multiple options. It's very rare that you see any team run continuous basic PNR. The whole triangle vs pnr thing is obnoxious too.

THANK YOU!!! It's so annoying. I've said since day one that the Triangle System is flexible. It's entirely up to the coach what he chooses to feature in the overall system. There's never been just one way to run the Triangle. Coaches have been running their own version of the Triangle for DECADES. Sam Barry invented it and his pupil Tex Winter took it to another level. Other coaches like Cotton Fitzsimmons ran it their way before Phil even learned it. Phil tweaked it from there, Thibs and Pop ran some of it and now Hornacek will run it his way.

Yeah Fisher even altered it during the season a bit. You have to use actions that fit your players strengths. Like on the Triangle heavy side there would be a low post entry and the guard and forward would cut through, but Robin being an unskilled passer Derek decided to switch to a split that would either free up Jose or Melo and make it an easier pass. I'd like to see more motion into PNR as well as some flare screens, which is an easy way to free up some shooters ocassionally, depending on how much freedom Jeff is given. I'm a huge fan of Horns, but I think that might be a bit of a reach to think that we'll break that far from Phil's precious shape lol

I wouldn't be so sure. In truth the Triangle isn't about Side Triangle Purity. It's actually about defeating a defense, so really a team should feature whatever actually works. Most other teams that run Triangle actually don't use the Side Triangle Post feed. They mainly use the Pinch Post side of the floor for it's great spacing. I suspect that JH will do the same thing. One of my favorite tweaks that Fisher used in the Half Court, but not often enough, was to set up in the Side Triangle but with 3pt spacing and then have KP come out and set a screen to create a 4 out look. This would be very good when they go small.

Rose and KP would Kill doing this. The 3pt shots would be there all day. This is what I think Hornacek will do in the Half Court in addition to maybe using some Horns as well to switch things up. It's not a major deal to slide into a Horns look early in the shot clock and if things don't materialize you could still flow into a Side Triangle. It's not a hard set rule that you have to immediately set up the Side Triangle.

2 major issues we had last year were breaking down defenses and beating pressure. We were simply too slow and didn't have the handles. Guards couldn't turn the corner on the PNR and when defenders clamped down and overplayed, we couldn't ever get anything backdoor. The increase in athleticism should force teams to play us more honest. I just worry a bit about our perimeter shooting.