“Coach says I pass up a lot of shots. That’s the biggest part. The confidence to take shots.” (NY Post, 10/23/10)

…Just when you thought Wilson had finally turned a corner, Lieutenant D’An is trying to get him to go back to jacking up more low% jumpers!

david: But the volume is the key for spacing the court.

How so? It’s the threat of (making) a shot that spaces the court, not the actual shot. The defense cannot sag off a guy who will make the shot. They sag off, he makes a shot or two, they respect him again, the floor is spaced. WC doesn’t even have to take any 3s with a hand in his face, for spacing purposes it only matters that when the defense leaves him alone he makes them pay. If teams want to sag off or even ignore WC and his stroke is as improved as it looks, that’s a good thing for the Knicks. Then the “spacing” on the floor is in the Knicks favor because if they double Amare off WC he’s going to kick it out for a nice 3 points.

It’s also harder to ignore WC because if he gets a head of steam going to the basket he can make you pay… he’s not just standing around on the perimeter.

david: I’m worried about the lack of any credible 3 point threat other than Gallo resulting in less space for Amare on the post or the pick and roll.

It’s a small sample, but 9-14 seems pretty credible to me. I felt the same way going into preseason. However, outside shooting is one of the easier basketball skills for an individual player to acquire. Something that can be worked on and can improve in the middle of a player’s career. Jason Kidd is like 40 and he finally learned how to shoot. WC is 23 and hit 33% of his 3s two seasons ago, so he very well may have improved to the point where his 3 and outside J in general is solid or good.

Mike D’Antoni is also regarded as one of the best offensive minds in basketball… I’ll trust him to know whether more spacing is needed or not. He’s not usually shy about putting shooters into the rotation.

But the volume is the key for spacing the court. I’m not worried about Chandler jacking up a lot of bad 3s — I’m worried about the lack of any credible 3 point threat other than Gallo resulting in less space for Amare on the post or the pick and roll. And if he’s standing around at 18 feet when the PnR starts, that makes it easier for a swarming defense to collapse. I guess we’ll see, but I’m quite skeptical that he can make defenders honestly chase him outside. But given that felton isn’t a serious threat from 3 either, it’s a lot of guys who need to get to the paint in order to be efficient scorers….

Thank God for Landry Fields and TD. I’d be more broken up over trading TD than Chandler or AR at this point.

ess-dog: I think “recipe for disaster” is a little extreme. Chandler is shooting well this pre-season. As long as he can hit around .330 on limited 3pt attempts – he did it in ’08-09.

Agreed. Even though I’ve long been less enthusiastic about WC than some over the years, it’s very hard to ignore how well he’s shooting the 3 this preseason (9-14). The volume probably won’t be big, but I think he could have improved his shot enough to hit 35+% from 3. If that same kind of improvement carries over to jumpers in general, you’re not going to be able to sag off or leave him open on the perimeter. Therefore, he shouldn’t hurt the team’s spacing.

ess-dog: He has defensive skill, but is usually a bit slow to guard 2?s.

I haven’t really seen that. Everyone is going to get beat off the dribble at times in the NBA, but I think WC did a good job on 2s last season. If there’s a quick little combo-guard TD and Mason are options and if it’s a freak like LeBron/Wade or Durant or something… good luck to whoever is guarding him.

ess-dog: Chandler’s still the starter in my mind, but, like Felton, he’s probably in the bottom half of starters in the NBA, at least for now.

I really think it depends. I have never been very high on WC based on his production and up till this point I would definitely agree, but if he’s as efficient as I feel like he’s been this pre-season he could definitely be a solid starter. At 23 and based on preseason play and historical trend of their stats I feel like he’s a good deal more likely to improve than Felton.

And again, I don’t find it that valuable to line-up everyone in the league at a position. Say you have a certain scale of measurement. #20 could be 1 point behind #10 or 30 points on the same scale. He would still be #20 in both cases. If WC does about what he did last season with a TS% above .550, I can’t see him being too far from middle of the pack. Again, I can’t see Felton being close to middle of the pack (average).

Frank O.: He was out-muscled by a more mature defender. He is rather willowy. Camby has similar problems early on

Again, I just don’t see too much to the Camby comparisons. Camby was a center and Randolph is a wing. He’s been a perimeter player for his career, I don’t understand why people expect him to suddenly be an All-Defense type of C. Camby spent 3 years at UMass and was the premier center in the country. Randolph does need to spend more time inside and develop just about every aspect of the game… but I just didn’t have any realistic expectation that he’d become a true center like Camby this season.

Again, though, how can you criticize a guy who had 12 FTAs in 27 minutes or whatever for not getting to the line enough? No doubt he needs to get better. Sometimes, like with Nate, the bad really stands out subjectively. If he had just missed a couple shots instead of getting blocked the results would have been the same but you probably wouldn’t even remember.

Frank O.: If WC and Gallo were held out because a trade was imminent, that’s pretty exciting.

Or disappointing… Is Amare also being traded, though? It’s the 4th game in 5 nights. Maybe there’s a trade, but I wouldn’t jump there yet. Chances are it would be announced by now if they couldn’t play last night, no?

iserp: While true, a team only makes a limited number of transition opportunities.

The number is not fixed, though. My point is not just LeBron taking a dunk/layy-up on a 3-on-1 fast break where another guy could also take it… My point is that he creates his own transition opportunities with rebounds and causing TOs, and that every time he’s in the open court there’s a chance he blows by everyone for a transition basket. Don’t remember the exact wording to the article, but I’m not sure it was even transition but just uncontested lay-ups/dunks (no player within arm’s length). Even in the half-court LeBron could be blowing by 3 guys on one play for an uncontested lay-up/dunk.

iserp: he is clearly an upgrade over what we have now

I really think it depends… If the Knicks give up Gallo, WC, and AR for him, that’s a steep price. If WC really has turned around his efficiency you’re getting more efficient points from 2 of the 3, better D from probably 2 of the 3, and better rebounding from 1 of the 3.

While true, a team only makes a limited number of transition opportunities. LeBron is naturally the best player in the world to finish them. But that also means that LeBron’s efficiency doesn’t add up as easily as you would expect. Let’s say that if Wade’s and LeBron’s share the transition plays, then their TS% will decrease slightly (OTOH, they will take less forced shots, since they will share that responsibility, and their TS% should increase slightly from that).

Actually, the most intriguing aspect of the Miami Heat is defense. I would expect that Wade and LeBron defending the wing will shut down many teams, specially those without a scoring center. Defense definitely adds up, and that’s really the question on Melo. We already have a go to scorer in Amare, do we really need another? If Melo’s D isn’t going to be a factor, we might be just replicating a bit too much the same set of skills.

Melo definitely would help when the other team doesn’t need to double team Amare; and he is clearly an upgrade over what we have now (and probably over what we will became), but the price is steep, and would leave the roster stripped; i would have patient and try to get him next summer.