nicos: Also, at times they allow themselves get switched into mismatches on the perimeter way to easily- I think D’Antoni needs to tinker with the “let’s switch everything on the perimeter” model a bit- you don’t want a steady diet of Gallo on Ellis or Amar’e on Eric Gordon.

I actually feel like they’re not switching that much on the perimeter lately. Against GS in particular TD and Felton were fighting over every screen, only to let Ellis and Curry get open momentarily for jumpers. You switch and maybe you take away that shot, but maybe they beat a slower player and get to the basket…

He’s 16th overall in Win Shares. Cuh-ray-zee.

1. Amar’e should pass out of doubles – check.

2. Amar’e and Felton should look for Gallo in the fourth quarter – check.

3. The Knicks should look to Gallo more period – check.

4. Chandler should not take threes – check.

5. Toney Douglas and Gallo and walker should shoot closer to their career percentages on open threes – check.

Only AR has not addressed his easily correctable flaws (don’t shoot outside jumpers), and he has not had the opportunity yet.

It is a ton of fun seeing stuff you are complaining about actually get addressed (or at least seemingly being addressed – this could obviously all still be a fluke and Tuesday they could go right back to Amar’e running into doubles, Chandler hoisting up threes and everyone ignoring Gallo).

JK47: We’ve pretty much been playing stereotypical Mike D’Antoni basketball– these games are all shootouts without much defense.Our offensive rating has zoomed to #8 in the NBA, but our defensive rating has plummeted to a discouraging #25.We’re middle of the pack in all the offensive four factors but are 3rd in FT/FGA.In the defensive four factors we’re pretty much average in everything but are 26th in eFG% allowed.We lead the league in blocked shots and we’re 4th in steals, but we’re still a bad defensive team.And rebounding is not the culprit– our rebounding, which was a major worry of mine before the season, has been average.What is everybody’s take on all of these numbers?How can we improve our defensive rating?Obviously we need to close out on outside shooters better, but does anybody feel like there’s too much emphasis on trying to get blocks and steals, and not enough on playing good, solid position defense?We’re allowing too many easy buckets, that’s for sure.  

If you look at points differential, we are 16th in the league – exactly the 8th seed – not too different than what people have expected. You have to take pace into account. In terms of the eFG given up, it’s hard to say. It’s a small enough sample size that you can say that that # will go down considering Turiaf was hurt and possibly Douglas, two important defenders. Plus as people are saying, working AR into the rotation could help this as well. Frankly, I’m not too concerned. I don’t think we’re “bad” defensively, just middle of the pack.

cgreene: This is absolutely conjecture on Amare’s psychology. 

Yeah, that’s my only point. I mean Gallo never played in the West and he also feasted in those games. And going against mostly single coverage vs. VladRad/Adrien/Wright, DeAndre Jordan, Sacto’s bigs… Amare is probably going to feast whatever team it is and where ever the game is played.

danvt: I don’t really think the team your playing matters as much as how you are playing matters.

There’s a thin line and of course all you can do is beat the teams on your schedule. But a better defensive team is probably not going to foul Gallo quite so much. Or even the Warriors could have been better against Amare had their top 3 or 4 PFs or something not been injured… The Knicks will beat some good teams, but I don’t think they take 3 of 4 from playoff teams too often.

Robert Silverman: The thing that could really vault this team forward is (gulp) Anthony Randolph.

Good point. If he gets it together absolutely could. If the Knicks are hitting their 3s and have a pretty tight rotation I think AR will be a lot more effective than he was in the line-ups he played in.

If he could put up even the #’s he did in his first two seasons in GS (11 pts, 6 rebounds, 1.5 blocks/steals in 20 mpg), it’d be a huge weapong off the bench, especially as a defender when Turiaf sits, b/c Ronny’s not going to last the year playing 35 mpg considering how physically he plays.

The 8-man rotation has been working, but I’d love to see AR start to get mins especially considering the next 10 games: Charlotte, Charlotte, Atlanta, Detroit, New Jersey, New Orleans, Toronto, Minnesota, Toronto, Washington.

If they’re serious about the playoffs, 6-7 wins is an absolute MUST.