jon abbey:
Ryan Anderson goes from playing with Dwight Howard to Anthony Davis, he’s good but I’d love to see how he’d do with a non-superstar as his main big man.

To be fair Anthony Davis is only going to be a superstar big man on defense, unless you think Tyson Chandler is an offensive superstar since I could see Davis putting up a high percentage on mostly layups lol

ruruland: No, the point was that Jones and Carter, two extremely inefficient offensive players ( Carter .490 TS and 23 mpg, Jones .533 TS and 18 mpg) were backcourt stables that year.

All of that, and Melo battling injuries all year like he did last year, and it was the 7th most efficient offense in the NBA.

The Knicks don’t have a Billups, but they have better shooters, a more efficient frontcourt, better back-up wings, and a superior overall defense.

The Nuggets were actually a much better team in 2009-10 (additions of Afflallo and Lawson) they were 47-22 prior to the Karl cancer and the frontcourt all going down at once (which made for an awful team playoff series, despite Melo carrying the team through five games)

Also, Chauncey really only had one good playoff series in his Denver career. When the game gets more physical he tends to struggle because he largely lives off the whistle.

Your post talk about playoff specifically the WCF. Billup played 39 minutes and JR Smith play 28 minutes a game. You spin it like Melo almost beat Lakers by himself with Carter/Jones starting in back court.

Then next year Denver as the higher seed they lost in first round to Utah. You now say Front court all went down same time? Nene, K-Mart and Melo was starting front court and basically Nene miss 1 game in 6 game series. Can you exaggerate anymore?

Again you said Melo carry them for 5 games. Game 2 at home he shot below average 0.506 TS. You have hold serve at home.
Same thing game 5 he shot 0.508 TS, but Nugget did win.
Then game 6 he shot crabby 0.379 TS and of course they lost.

Out 6 game half he shot below league average. That what you consider carrying the team?

thenamestsam: It’s not way smaller, but it plays significantly smaller in my opinion. With Lebron and Battier they have two guys who are excellent helping at the rim, something that Melo and Brewer aren’t as good at. Plus Wade plays as big as any guard in the league – he has an excellent post game and he’s the ebst shot blocking guard in history. I think they have a better time protecting the rim and getting defensive rebounds in that small lineup than we would – especially because Bosh can take Chandler away from the rim on O.

But anyway I mostly take your point that having multiple excellent perimeter defenders gives us a step up against them relative to other teams. For the record though I’d say Allen and Gay is at least one example of a pair of teammates better equipped to guard them.

They do have rim protection, but the reason they had so much success against New York is because they overplayed passing lanes so frequently.

Woodson and his staff spent days trying to figure out ways to beat it, because I think they all know in the back of their minds that if they can get them to play they way they’re capable, they’ll be back in that situation, hopefully the ECF with home court.

Shumpert and Smith would have to be much more aggressive drivers to loosen up their defense.

But not having Bibby/Davis on the floor should alleviate some of those issues. having an adroit high-low passer in Camby should help some, too.

thenamestsam: It’s not way smaller, but it plays significantly smaller in my opinion. With Lebron and Battier they have two guys who are excellent helping at the rim, something that Melo and Brewer aren’t as good at. Plus Wade plays as big as any guard in the league – he has an excellent post game and he’s the ebst shot blocking guard in history. I think they have a better time protecting the rim and getting defensive rebounds in that small lineup than we would – especially because Bosh can take Chandler away from the rim on O.

But anyway I mostly take your point that having multiple excellent perimeter defenders gives us a step up against them relative to other teams. For the record though I’d say Allen and Gay is at least one example of a pair of teammates better equipped to guard them.

Allen and Gay is a good one, but again, I don’t think we’ve seen how good Shump can be….. Gay has the length, is a good defender, but I wouldn’t say he’s had any amount of success against Lebron historically (maybe I’m wrong). AT least Brewer is known for really getting into the guy.

Also, Melo can get into Lebron as well. We saw some of that last year in short bursts. But the Heat cross-matching Melo, and the Knicks being unable to cross-match back, really wore Melo down imo.

But i you can set it up so that Melo guards Lebron when Lebron guards Melo — something like 10-15 minutes a game..

JK47:
Is anybody here really expecting a big season from Amar’e?Isn’t that just wishful thinking at this point?He’s going to miss a month now, and when he comes back it’s going to take him a lot of time to get his timing back and to get into the flow.

Well, as long as he’s not dealing with trying to lose a bunch of weight, he had such a great off-season, I don’t think it would take more than a couple of weeks.

I mean, like he is wont to tell the media, he really missed all of the off-season last year, and didn’t even have time to work back into it, so that took some time. took him three months to get the weight off.

Unless we’re dealing with a long-term chronic injury (which obviously changes everything) I think Amar’e still comes back for a big year.

You don’t put in the work he put in without wanting to prove something. He’s come back from much more devastating injuries.

I still think he’ll be one of the best second scorers in the game: 23-26 per 36, 590-610 TS

Again, the second test is a precaution. But as Isola points out, there is definitely reason for concern.

ruruland: A Shump,Brewer,Smith,Melo,Chandler lineup isn’t discernibly smaller.

The Knicks would have the superior inside prescence and rebounder. No, New York wouldn’t have as much shooting, but the idea would be there isn’t a team that can offer a defensive 1-2 punch on Wade and Lebron like the Knicks can.

Wade had a .498 TS in the Bulls series two years ago. Lebron’s numbers were down. It was Bosh who killed the Bulls.

If the Knicks can close out on those shooters and force them to put the ball on the floor –something Smith, Brewer, and Shumpert are more capable of than Battier and Allen— make it a brawl, then you just never know.

Of course guys are going to have to play great. Only the Lakers can beat Miami on paper (*maybe*)….

Melo would have to be incredible, other guys would have to make some shots. But that lineup would pose problems.

It’s not way smaller, but it plays significantly smaller in my opinion. With Lebron and Battier they have two guys who are excellent helping at the rim, something that Melo and Brewer aren’t as good at. Plus Wade plays as big as any guard in the league – he has an excellent post game and he’s the ebst shot blocking guard in history. I think they have a better time protecting the rim and getting defensive rebounds in that small lineup than we would – especially because Bosh can take Chandler away from the rim on O.

But anyway I mostly take your point that having multiple excellent perimeter defenders gives us a step up against them relative to other teams. For the record though I’d say Allen and Gay is at least one example of a pair of teammates better equipped to guard them.