ephus: At this point, I think Woodson has earned our trust that he can make things work.

Best comment yet on the entire subject…

I have not done the work that you have to determine whether there is a way for Chandler/STAT/Melo to work on the floor together. It is pretty clear that it did not work well last season.

At this point, I think Woodson has earned our trust that he can make things work. He is making great adjustments to put the Knicks in a position to win. If Woodson wants to start all three, I think he has a plan to make them effective and he will get his players to buy into it. A huge part of coaching at this level is getting full effort from players who believe that they know as much about basketball as anyone on the staff.

For the past week, I have posting that it is a great time to be a Knick fan. But all of this is frivolous, and my heart aches for those up in Conn. My daughter is my life’s greatest joy; she got extra hugs last night.

Peace.

As a middle school principal and a father of 3 school-age children, the news of today’s tragedy hit me very hard. May all the families in this community somehow find the strength to get through this unspeakably horrific event. Life just doesn’t make any sense sometimes.

Very well put.

ruruland:
Amar’e, Chandler,and Melo will have to share the floor 15-20 minutes a game regardless of how you slice it.

I can’t imagine many better back-courts to surround them than Kidd/Felton.

Do they though? Didn’t the Lakers win back to back championships with 3 of their best players never actually playing together at once? There’s a chance they can make it work, but at the end of games the argument isn’t Amar’e and Brewer, it’s Amar’e and JR. At the very least, I don’t think Amar’e makes the Knicks’ best lineups better, he just makes some of the weaker ones vastly more effective. He can even start instead of Brewer, I agree that the spacing there isn’t a much bigger issue.

To the me bigger problem is what happens against Miami’s small lineup. Is anyone comfortable with having Amar’e guard Battier after what happened to Ibaka last year?

I can’t imagine many better back-courts to surround them than Kidd/Felton.

One thing I will go into in my Amar’e post is that we’ve only seen Amar’e, Chandler and Melo all play together with a penetrating pnr point guard for a handful of games — Lin.

Of course Chandler, Melo and Amar’e aren’t going to be any good when you don’t have dribble penetration or an effective screen and roll guard.

I’ve gotten close to calculating the scoring efficiency for Amar’e and Chandler, when they are on the floor at the same time, with each of the of the five point guards last year, only one of whom was a pick and roll guard.

The numbers make a pretty straightforward case for really strong interaction effects with the guards, which is pretty obvious when you think about it. It’s never really mattered to Amar’e who was playing center. Yes, his offensive numbers are best when plays the n five, but he’s thrived with guys like Jaron Collins, Robin Lopez, Grant Hill, Lou Admunson, Shaq, Mosgov, etc al ….He’s done well when the spacing wasn’t perfect.

Also, people tend to forget a few things. One, Amar’e has played extensively as the non-high screen and roll big-man with the Suns, and at times with the Knicks prior to his struggles last year.

He was very effective catching the ball on the weakside of the roll and either shooting a wide open jump shot, or attacking the single defender — that’s where he’s great.

Two, that currently, teams are helping off of Brewer all the time. He
is making that corner jumper, but he’s nowhere near as good as Amar’e when he catches the ball wide-open in the 12-15 foot range.

I’m sure the Knicks pnr defense will change some when Amar’e returns because he struggles against quick guards.

But, inserting Amar’e for Brewer with the starters will improve the offense and defensive rebounding. Currently, Brewer is doing a poor job of going for rebounds as Melo and Chandler work to block the bigs out. With the way Brewer is playing currently, it’s close to a wash.

Z-man:
As a middle school principal and a father of 3 school-age children, the news of today’s tragedy hit me very hard. May all the families in this community somehow find the strength to get through this unspeakably horrific event. Life just doesn’t make any sense sometimes.

Thanks for posting that. Hard to stop thinking about it.