you can't talk of defense in general terms... you have to get into details and the details start and end with Allan Houston. He can't play a lick of D and the Knicks are going to struggle defensively every time he's on the floor. Keep in mind, the league is very well aware of this as well... how pathetic was it to see little Dickau go by Allan like he wasn't there?

pike is exactly right as long as we have h20 playing heavy minutes like he has been the knicks will never even come close to being a good Defensive team. The onlything that will help is having a patroling shot blocker but we wont get that till next off season.

2 Problems:

1) Effort - I think we get a varying degree of effort from our key guys every night. Marbury is the key here - not JYD. JYD gets people pumped, but Marbury is the leader and he's the one they follow. Some time this year Marbury will get it in his head that he has to play hard D whether he's guarding Jason Kidd or Dan Dickau. When he realizes that, we'll see a better effort from him and that'll trickled down to the rest of his teammates.

2) Chemistry - Team defense is a chemistry thing just as much as offense is (if not more so). At some point these guys will begin to understand who needs help and where and when, how to cover for teammates that are out helping and how to get back when your the one helping out.

The great defensive teams in this league are not made up of 12 superior defensive guys. They are made up of 12 guys that give max effort at all times. They are made up of players that know the ins and outs of each others game's to the point where moving and helping on D is a natural reaction and does not involve thought.

I said it in another thread - I think we're gonna be this year's version of last year's Miami. When everything comes together for us we'll put on a run that will make everyone forget about our record today.

Evil, you touched on another great point.

Effort and intensity... I don't care what anyone says... the FACT is, the Knicks did not show up ready to play last night. You can't start a game with as little energy and intensity as we witnessed last night... and we all know this is not the first time this has happened.

How is it possible for (at the time) .500 Knicks to come out not ready to play? Sorry but, you gotta look at the coach for this... all I can tell you is... if I were the Knicks coach out there... I would be pullin' guys off the floor and there would have been a whole lot of yellin' going on.

It was a total embarrassment.... so they made a little more of an effort in 4th quarter... just like the announcers said, it begs to bring up obvious question... why not before?

NO EXCUSE for lack of effort and intensity!!

[Edited by - Pike on 01/12/2005 12:39:39]

The problem with Marbury as I see it (and as I've said before) is, he is either in passing mode or offensive mode... from time to time it's an either or situation. Inexplicably, he wasn't involved in the offense until we were behind. I think Stephon should shoulder the blame for last night. He should have led by example instead of having that victim look... and with his own 110% effort, should have gotten in the face with those who didn't. Last night certainly did not reflect well on Knicks best.

That being said, he's been excellent for an overwhelming portion of the season.

Effort and intensity. The thing is you can't teach effort and intensity. Either the guy has it or he doesn't. And if KT doesn't play with effort who can we take him out for with Sweetney hurt. If Houston is getting killed who can we take him out for with Crawford hurt. If Muhammad doesn't bring it, Baker isn't that type of player. All we can do is sit back and be patient with this roster knowing changes will be made in the offseason. Other than that try to enjoy Ariza's effort and intensity and hope Sweetney puts it all together. And Marbury's head doesn't explode.

I strated another thread on steph and his defensive woes, had i read this first i would have just added it on.


I don't know why you guys continue to get on allan's case as if you expect something different from him after 11 years in this league.

Even if allan houston was a 100% dan would still be a tough match up because his spidometer reads 1-140 while allans reads 1-85.

Allan has always abuse guys shorter then him, but look at him, he's running like he has a flat tire.
You are right about steph though, he's ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous when he comes to defending.

Nazy's brain dead when it comes to helping and the same can be said for vin baker, JC, moochie, and even kt who plays defense well against premier players ONLY.

I don't know what to say, I read the who we gonna bring in quote and I agree. Sweets backs up KT (hurt), JC backs up H20 (hurt), Penny backs up Marbs and TT (hurt), TT now backs up JYD (hurt).

Vin scares me when he is on the floor, I think he's going to hurt someone or poke an eye out.

Sundov, is he even on the team? How is he used in practice, because it always looks like a pick up game when he's in there.

Ariza, love what he brings, but because he has asthma, I'm not sure if at 19 he can go many minutes many nights this year.
http://www.nba.com/knicks/inthepaint/isiahdraft_040625.html
I like the 2005-2006 knicks a ton.

[Edited by - rvhoss on 01/13/2005 07:43:02]

Posted by Pike:

you can't talk of defense in general terms... you have to get into details and the details start and end with Allan Houston. He can't play a lick of D and the Knicks are going to struggle defensively every time he's on the floor. Keep in mind, the league is very well aware of this as well... how pathetic was it to see little Dickau go by Allan like he wasn't there?

I agree Allan does not play good D. But to blane this teams defense on Houston is wrong. This team played bad defense when Houston wasn't playing. Crawford and Marbury are both below average defensive players. The knicks don't have any guards that can or perhaps choose to play defense. (Not defending Allans defense as much as I'm implicating Craw and Steph but when healthy his defense is no worse then theirs). Penny is average at best but looks good by comparison.

At the three TT is terrible even worse then our guards. Junkyard plays hard which will always make at least average on D but he's a better match against 4s then 3s in my opinion.

NAZ is below average both against his man and as a shot blocker. Kurt I think is above average against his man and on a team that knows how to play team defense is a good help defender - this team doesn't - and you can't play team defense alone. Kurt is also a below average shot blocker. Sweeney is a bad defender and AZIZ is erratic good hustle and quickness combined with rookie mistakes.

So what's that leave us. A team of weak paremeter defenders that does not help well and has no shot blockers. Houston is part of the problem for sure but teams defensive problems go well beyond Houston.

On the bright side I think any team of professional athletes (even this team) can play good defense if the HUSTLE and play within a defensive system.