Unreason – that was pretty funny actually…

jon abbey:
Melo is the highest usage player in the entire league, higher than LeBron, Durant, anyone. this is a bit on him and his style, but much more it’s on the deficiencies of his teammates on the offensive end (including the allegedly underpaid Chandler) and their inability to take any of the load off him.

in an ideal world, he should have been playing fewer minutes all season, been at least mildly lower usage, and then he would have more energy to consistently devote to the defensive end.

i agree with you that this is an indictment on his teammates as well. but it is a lame excuse for a true “superstar” (I have my doubts) to say, “its so hard for me on offense, i just cant commit any effort to my defense”. our team needs a leader more than anything, and the most ideal person to lead is the best player. we dont have that

ruruland:
The Knicks need to make their move for Delonte West right now instead of waiting it out like they did with Kenyon. Someone else will snatch him after a couple D-League games.

West, as a combo guard, is just the right mix of length, gritty on-ball defense, spot-up shooting and ball-handling for Melo-centric lineups.

Looking forward to seeing what y’all come up with when he signs. Wallace, West, Martin, Junior, holy shit.

But you cannot get a better defensive lineup than West, Shump, Martin, Chandler, Camby for a last possession stop.

im just going to assume this is sarcasm at this point. no one could possibly think delonte west is saving this season

in an ideal world, he should have been playing fewer minutes all season, been at least mildly lower usage, and then he would have more energy to consistently devote to the defensive end.

Owen:
Yeah, and they have Bosh. And a halfway serviceable platoon of Haslem, Anthony, and Anderson.And they have Wade, who is a pretty excellent defender.

The Jordan Bulls did it too obviously. That’s the classic case.

I guess I should have added the caveat that if you have two of the best defenders in the league at the sg and sf positions, you can get away without having a great defensive big man.

But otherwise it’s pretty tough.

I am extremely happy with Chandler. His signing made a big difference to this team. It’s understandable that he has taken the blame for our defensive inadequacies this year. But the truth is, they have had no one else in the rotation who is good on defense at all this year. Shump hasn’t done what he did last year. Felton and Kidd are probably the worst defensive backcourt of any playoff team. Last year we had a lot of young bodies out there and guys with some defensive talent. This year, other than brief cameos by Sheed, Camby and now Martin, there has basically been no defensive player on the roster other than Chandler.

Sort of makes you yearn for Jared Jeffries, something I never thought I would say…..

this hints at a bigger point. remember when , in the beginning of the year, everyone said that the key is Melo becoming a complete player, with passing and defense. the idea that your stars new defensive committment would rub off on the team. and then we saw it for about a month? what happened to that guy. i know we have many players that are bad on defense, but most defensive teams have one thing in common. their best player is committed to that end of the floor. that remains part of the problem

ptmilo:
Setting aside the most recent Carmelo/Chandler injuries, here is how I think about the story of the Knicks’ season so far:

(1) The entered the year in a bad position long-term.They had team good enough to be a first round favorite and 2nd competitive but probably needing a miracle to beat any of the top few teams in the league in a 7-game series.More important, they had very few chances to improve in the medium term and a lot of chances to get worse.That, and not the expected case, was the crime of the Lin decision.Optionality forfeited by a team with few options.

(2) They started off shooting unsustainably well from deep.Especially Kidd and Carmelo.

(3) Stoudemire’s first injury was a big disappointment, but his offensive play upon return was pretty much a best-case improvement, particularly relative to last year.I happen to think his much-maligned defense is even worse than commonly believed, but his offensive production this year was really something.This is exactly the kind of thing they needed to move from need-a-miracle to need-some-luck to contend in a team designed to win today.Or yesterday, really.But…

(4)Felton, JR Smith, and Shumpert have been marginal disappointments.All have played slightly worse than expected.Camby, on the other hand, has been a huge disappointment.I thought this was a great sign for them at the time but it has been a zero so far.Kidd on balance I think is exactly what you should have expected.Chandler has been fantastic offensively.He has been worse defensively, but I also think his 2011-12 and his expectation was nowhere near DPOY quality in the first place.

(5) Unfortunately, the sad Amare situation and Shumpert’s anemic return means that, if anything, the franchise is in worse shape than it began the year.What odds would you give the Knicks right now to be a contender in 2014-2015?Seems very low…

But you cannot get a better defensive lineup than West, Shump, Martin, Chandler, Camby for a last possession stop.

What difference will your last possession stop make when the team is down by 15 at the end of the game because they couldn’t score? Sheesh.

jon abbey:
yeah, they should have picked up both him and Martin months ago. they have no room to worry about personalities, they are (or should be) desperate.

Celtics made a Finals run with a similar strategy (their bench consisted of guys like Nate Robinson, Tony Allen before he was consistent, and Big Baby Davis) and the season they made that run they actually had an extremely similar season to ours (a super hot start followed by utter mediocrity as an old team dealt with injuries and concerned itself with health over wins). Nobody really gave them any kind of a chance in the playoffs, and Lebron’s 60+ win Caveliers team looked unbeatable. Next thing you know they’re in game 7 of the Finals.

Now I don’t think that’ll happen with this team, but I do think they should go ahead and try to follow a similar strategy. Get the crazy personalities and hope they compete well in the playoffs, rest everyone up as much as possible no matter how bad the record gets, and start basing every decision based on how it will shape the playoff race. I still think this team when healthy is at least an even matchup for any team in the East other than Miami, and no one is beating Miami in the East anyways. The most important things are making sure Kidd, Chandler, and Melo have their legs under them for the playoffs, Melo has barely been able to jump in recent weeks, and instead of worrying about the fact that he’s playing below the rim people are jumping on him for regression. If Kidd isn’t going to defend anyone or hit any kinds of shots in the playoffs, this team was always fucked anyways