flossy: Well, actually one of the wins against Miami was with Melo not playing at all, and I don’t think anyone would suggest that should be our playoff approach…

I’m with you, Amar’e should start against Miami.Let them think long and hard about which one of Melo, Amar’e or Tyson should be guarded by Shane Battier lol.

I’d prefer to keep STAT coming off the bench since I think he really helps open the floor up for the second unit. That should actually become an even bigger strength as teams are forced to start respecting Amare’s post game and start sending double teams his way.

We will dominate the interior against Miami. I really don’t see what their solution is going to be when they have to combat Melo, STAT and Chandler together in the fourth quarter. I really like our chances against Miami in a playoff series in particular because we give them plenty of matchup nightmares.

It’s virtually impossible to be better than Miami at doing what they do (small ball, Lebron at the 4, etc.). In Wade and Lebron they have an advantage over almost all teams that try and match up with them by going small, in particular on the defensive end.

That’s what I loved about the Knicks off-season they acquired pieces that Miami cannot match up against with what they have available to them on their roster. When you have Melo, STAT and Tyson together on the floor does Lebron cover STAT or Melo and regardless we have a mismatch with whoever he does not defend.

We also can go small with them if we choose which is a very nice luxury. If Shumpert can find form and is peaking come playoff time a small lineup of Felton-Shump-J.R.-Melo-Chandler could be explosive. Shump can give Wade, who’s definitely lost a step, nightmares like he did at the Garden last year.

Maybe I’m not giving Lebron enough credit for being a cyborg, but I love our chances…

Frank: btw, lineups with Melo+Amare+TC are still with a net +16 per 100poss. Sample size is growing all the time but still small (218 possessions). It might — just might- be time to think about whether those 3 should be starting together. I know we’ve won 2 games going away against Miami with Melo at the 4, but I still think the way to beat them in a 7 game series will be to beat them up on the boards and in the paint, like Indiana has done twice already this year.

Well, actually one of the wins against Miami was with Melo not playing at all, and I don’t think anyone would suggest that should be our playoff approach…

I’m with you, Amar’e should start against Miami. Let them think long and hard about which one of Melo, Amar’e or Tyson should be guarded by Shane Battier lol.

Frank: Opposing teams are still hiding their worst defender on him. Korver against Atlanta, Ilyasova last night. Shump has to make them pay for that kind of treatment.Glad to see he was more aggressive in the 4th last night.

btw these Amare numbers are starting to get out of control. So far at least, gotta hand it to Ruru who predicted a USG in the mid 20s and a TS >60 — followed by pretty much universal taking of the “under” on that, including me.

Excluding the first 2-3 games when he was obviously getting his wind back, in the last 4 weeks he is 52/82 from the field (63.4%), a FTR of 74.7, TS 70.9.Even his TRB% is 13.3 which while obviously not great, is solidly in Marc/Pau Gasol and LaMarcus Aldridge territory.

The defense still needs work obviously, but wow.

btw, lineups with Melo+Amare+TC are still with a net +16 per 100poss.Sample size is growing all the time but still small (218 possessions). It might — just might- be time to think about whether those 3 should be starting together.I know we’ve won 2 games going away against Miami with Melo at the 4, but I still think the way to beat them in a 7 game series will be to beat them up on the boards and in the paint, like Indiana has done twice already this year.

I have a feeling an entrenched starting frontcourt of Melo/Amare/Tyson is going to straight-up murder teams. They’ll clobber lesser squads into oblivion by the 1st quarter.

ruruland: I also thought Shumpert had some very important sequences offensively. Some great pnr passes, drives against rotation. those are the weakside plays he should be really efficient with as his offensive game starts to eventually catch up with his talent.

Opposing teams are still hiding their worst defender on him. Korver against Atlanta, Ilyasova last night. Shump has to make them pay for that kind of treatment. Glad to see he was more aggressive in the 4th last night.

btw these Amare numbers are starting to get out of control. So far at least, gotta hand it to Ruru who predicted a USG in the mid 20s and a TS >60 — followed by pretty much universal taking of the “under” on that, including me.

Excluding the first 2-3 games when he was obviously getting his wind back, in the last 4 weeks he is 52/82 from the field (63.4%), a FTR of 74.7, TS 70.9. Even his TRB% is 13.3 which while obviously not great, is solidly in Marc/Pau Gasol and LaMarcus Aldridge territory.

The defense still needs work obviously, but wow.

btw, lineups with Melo+Amare+TC are still with a net +16 per 100poss. Sample size is growing all the time but still small (218 possessions). It might — just might- be time to think about whether those 3 should be starting together. I know we’ve won 2 games going away against Miami with Melo at the 4, but I still think the way to beat them in a 7 game series will be to beat them up on the boards and in the paint, like Indiana has done twice already this year.

It could take a couple of years, but mark my words, he has a chance to be a really good offensive player in screen and role and isolation. Two of his finishes were strong, left-handed, one where he had Illyasova on his hip.

He is much quicker with his first step and accelerating than Jr Smith, for example. And he even has Smith beat with his length and peak jump.

Junior developed his ballhandling and passing skills over 4-5 years. Shumpert is way, way ahead of him in those two areas.

massive:
Mike Woodson needs to stop playing Carmelo Anthony so many minutes. Amar’e and Felton are more than capable of keeping the offense afloat while Melo rests. I understand that he needs him out there due to the early deficits, but those also fall on him as a coach.

I don’t know if starting Camby will make much of a difference, though. It’s just a matter of “stop switching so much, stop doubling bad post players, and stay in front of your man.” Once Shump and Felton get their land legs back, I think Camby will be best suited in backing up Tyson Chandler.

It’s interesting, since Amar’e came back opponents paint points have steadily declined.

I think Camby fits in perfectly as a starter for each half and a guy you can bring in for a third six minute rotation or two three minute rotation at other points of the game.

Teams will curb their offensive rebound attempts if their efforts are proven futile early, moreover I think think teams that get a few early offensive rebounds stay aggressive longer in a game.

Juany8: Haha exactly what I was thinking. It’s going to be fun to see 10 point comebacks with 3 minutes remaining. I’ll also admit that so far, you have been more right about Amar’e than I could have hoped for. The post game looks legit, and the way he is capable of moving towards the rim with the ball off cuts or pick and rolls is beautiful. His defense is only average at best, but it’s not like melo and Novak were killing it at the 4. If Woodson is serious about keeping Amar’e on the bench for health/team balance issues, I’d like to see Camby starting if he ever comes back healthy. Should shore up some of our first half issues on defense, the Knicksa are totally fine on that end when they turn it up in the second half.

One thing that should be abundantly clear is that Tyson picks up his energy level when he’s playing alongside another true power forward or center.

His best defense/rebounding this year has come when he shares minutes with Amar’e, Camby.

Chandler averages a rebound more per 36 when Amar’e is one the floor and two rebounds more per 36 when Camby is on the floor.

conversely, Amar’e seems to play better defensively when Chandler is in the game.

My suspicion is that without another true big in the lineup, it has the reverse psychological effect of where he feels overburdened and it drains his energy thinking about everything he has to do inside.

Surely Jowles can explain this for us.

Moreover, while Melo can be very good at face-guarding power forwards and centers so that his teammates can snag boards, the Knicks simpy become a better rebounding team when he is loose to chip in on the boards along with the guards.

There are very few athletes in the history of the game who can consistently handle that kind of a burden, I’m not sure Melo is one of those.

As an aside, 10 of Melo’s 22 shots last night came with five seconds or less on the shot clock/game clock. He made two of them.

his efg% drops about 80 points from his normal efg %(excluding those shots) in those situations, of which Melo is taking about 16% of his shots.

It’s one of the highest % of last second shots in the league, higher than any of the of the high usage players outside of Lebron and Deron Williams.

It would be interesting to do a study on this. Folks like Owen and Jowles would remark that these sort of shots have a very minimal effect on efficiency. That is of course true on a team level or averaged out by position across the league, but there seems to be some very uneven distribution of these shots depending on shot creation ability.

It would be interesting to do a study on the amount of increase on these low-efficiency last second shots when non-skilled players are on the court.

I also think that 82games.com should change the categories for shot by shot clock remaining.