Phil did try to address this with Nitty, Baker and Dotson. They have the tools to be good defenders and need to be coached up on NBA schemes etc. The D will be better with kids like them and KP behind them.

knicks1248 wrote:I disagree, the ball movement is too frequent to not have a defensive scheme, you can barely touch someone in todays game, too many screens, and picks. Even having really good defensive players won't help all that much. It's all about quick offense, 3's, running and dunking.

They have change the rules to build more offense, there's very few one on one plays, it's a few dribbles pass, drive and kick.
So to me, coach and having a scheme is more of a priority than having good defensive individuals.

Having kp guard the paint when his man (robin lopez for example) is posted up behind the arch wide open, yeah... that calls for schemes.

We got burned like that all season

The Warriors use a lot of Dribble Hand Offs, Drag Screens, Pin Down Screens and cuts. They're constantly moving and screening. In addition to having ELITE players with Breakdown ability. You can't SCHEME your way out of dealing with that.

It still comes down to how you defend on the perimeter so that you DON'T leave a shooter wide open and still have Rim Protection to deal with cuts. So IMO you MOST DEFINITELY need naturally talented defensive players along with mental toughness from guys that simply HATE to be beat. Nitty and Baker are like that. Dotson has some potential defensively. It's going to take more players like that to really build an ELITE Defensive team.

knicks1248 wrote:Why do you always bring up GS to give an example. you can coach GS and they will win the wcf. Those guys know each know their schemes, and have 4 all stars, plus their core has been together a while.

WTH do we have?

Just using them since they run the most difficult offense to defend. Other Spread PnR based offenses are going to put more pressure on your PG and PF/C. Spread PnR defense in the NBA is mostly use of ICE techniques. STILL it makes a difference if you're PG can get over Screens and recover quickly. You're Bigs need length and good feet to deal with a penetrating PG or Rolling Big.

nyknickzingis wrote:I believe our defense will be better next year when the on ball defense from the point guard is better and there is more team speed.
We addressed some of our defensive issues with having Ntilikina and Baker for next year. While neither is a star point guard, I think both will show the difference in defense vs Rose. Rose was awful defensively last year. Just really, really, bad.

Don't think the team will go from bottom 5 in defense to top 5 in just changing from Rose. However I think if the coaches focus on defense in camp more, Hornachek is allowed more freedom without the Triangle (We will not only defend against the Triangle in practice like we did last year), and I think Rambis likely moves on, we will see better defensive coaching.

Knicks don't have to go from giving up 110 a night to 100. Or bottom 5 in D rating to top 5. Just need to trim a few points off, play a bit more competitive, physical and on ball D. That's difference of 3-4 points a game and maybe top 10 spots in the D rating rankings. Also KP and Willy will be a year older and I hope a bit better defensively. Most young players as they get more experienced, play better defense.

+1 - Losing Rose is an auto upgrade defensively. Many possessions were spent with guys running around chasing bc Rose got beat. Wide open 3s and layups for everybody. Simply minimizing that would result in a collective improvement.