bobneptune: JR has the talent to play D , but what are the chances of him keeping his head in the game for 36 minutes a night. Amar’e is an awful defender and melo can defend, but generally feels it is beneath his exulted stature to waste his precious energy in such mundane pursuits.

knicknyk: Actually the Knicks have one of the toughest schedules in the NBA this season. Chicago has one of the easiest schedules and Boston Miami and Indy have easier schedules than we do.

Your chart is based on average days rest between games. I doubt that this is anything that makes much difference in an 82-game season; strentgh of opponents is probably much more of an issue, and the EC is definitely weaker than the WC, meaning that the Knicks will play weaker teams more often than any team in the WC. They also never play themselves, so their schedule will be weaker than the weaker teams in the EC. My guess is that they have somewhere in the top-10 easiest schedules.

Do we seriously think that the strength of schedule thing made a huge difference? They really struggled during the easisst part of their schedule, and played pretty well during some of the toughest stretches. There is no questioning whether they played well defensively under Woodson, and that the defensive effort was far more consistent than it was under D’Antoni, especially toward the end of his tenure.

I agree that we will have issues scoring the basketball, and could use another perimeter threat. There is little doubt that we will be a top-10 defensive team, and maybe top-3 if all goes well (Kidd and amby are not washed up, Brewer is not a total zero on O, Novak uses the off-season to improve, Felton comes back in shape, Amare and Melo are consistently held (or better yet, hold themselves) accountable on D, Shump returns at 90% or better.) It all starts in the middle, though, and having current and former DPOYs as a 1-2 punch is very promising.

This is the visualization.

JK47:
The Knicks should be a good defensive team again.But keep in mind that the Knicks’ strength of schedule last year was the weakest in the NBA.When you factor in strength of schedule the Knicks were probably not truly a top 5 defense last year.The Knicks had a lot of games against the worst offensive teams in the NBA last year.They played Charlotte 4 times, Toronto 4 times, Detroit 3 times, Washington 3 times, Boston 4 times, Cleveland 4 times and New Jersey 3 times.

The worst offensive teams in the NBA were:
23. New Jersey
24. Cleveland
25. Boston
26. Washington
27. Detroit
28. New Orleans
29. Toronto
30. Charlotte

The Knicks played 23 of their 66 games against this group– over a third of their schedule.Now granted, the Knicks’ schedule will probably be pretty easy again this year, because the Eastern Conference is by far the weaker conference, but the Knicks defensive numbers last year were certainly helped by the schedule maker.

Actually the Knicks have one of the toughest schedules in the NBA this season. Chicago has one of the easiest schedules and Boston Miami and Indy have easier schedules than we do.

The worst offensive teams in the NBA were:
23. New Jersey
24. Cleveland
25. Boston
26. Washington
27. Detroit
28. New Orleans
29. Toronto
30. Charlotte

The Knicks played 23 of their 66 games against this group– over a third of their schedule. Now granted, the Knicks’ schedule will probably be pretty easy again this year, because the Eastern Conference is by far the weaker conference, but the Knicks defensive numbers last year were certainly helped by the schedule maker.

bobneptune: Baloney. There is one plus defender in the starting 5, namely chandler. JR has the talent to play D , but what are the chances of him keeping his head in the game for 36 minutes a night. Amar’e is an awful defender and melo can defend, but generally feels it is beneath his exulted stature to waste his precious energy in such mundane pursuits. Felton…. well good luck.

Overall the D might be fine in the regular season, but when the game slows down and the scouting gets stronger in the playoffs our on the ball defense is not strong enough and guys like melo and Amar’e don’t have defense in their DNA to give the requisite effort to play good enough D to go deep.

Our bench players are strictly one dimensional. Novak can score, but is awful defensively. Kidd can still shoot a decent 3, but can’t stay in front of any point in the league.

Camby, Brewer and Shumpert are plus defenders but the offensive will come to a complete halt if 2 of them are on the floor at the same time, especially with Chandler.

The half-court defense was pretty good against Miami– and they were at full health with Chandler ailing.

While it would be tempting to throw out a Camby, Chandler, Shumpert, Brewer, Felton/Kidd lineup just to see if the opponent could score, I think that basketball is a game that allows truly deep teams the ability to mix and match their lineups based on the opponent. And therefore I think you can maximize the strengths of the roster depending on how opposing teams are constructed.

Dallas championship team was a lesser talented version of this years Knicks team — the blueprint exists.

And, once again, Kidd and Felton both have strengths as passers or in Felton’s case, playmakers, and they’re both at least competent in spot-up situation.

if you’re asking them to be the second best offensive player in the game on a consistent basis, they will struggle. But that shouldn’t often be the case.

Brewer can be an effective low-usage offensive weapon. Carmelo Anthony is a very good passer to baseline cutters, and Brewer is a great baseline and middle cutter from his days in the flex.

Brewer is also a solid offensive rebounder for a 3, and a really good one for a 2.

While Camby is an awful finisher for a big man, he makes jumps shots at a 40-44% clip, and is a very skilled passer. He should complement any power forward on the Knicks roster.

And who knows what we’ll see from Shumpert. He has the tools to be an all-star caliber offensive player. The guy we saw under Woodson was pretty good for a rookie.

So, I don’t think the one-dimensional situation is as dire as some claim, as each of the so-called one-dimensional defensive players have an offensive skill that complements the…

bobneptune:

Overall the D might be fine in the regular season, but when the game slows down and the scouting gets stronger in the playoffs our on the ball defense is not strong enough and guys like melo and Amar’e don’t have defense in their DNA to give the requisite effort to play good enough D to go deep.

I think the argument you, abbey and others make about one way players makes sense on the surface.

Let’s get this out of the way though:
Somehow the Knicks were the 5th best defensive team in the NBA with MDA coaching 66% of the games!!

Is Brewer an upgrade over Landry Fields (and even Shumpert)? Was JR not a plus defender on the Nuggets WCF team, and did he not provide defensive energy off the bench last season? Shouldn’t a full season of JR, incomaprison to say, Bill Walker/ Douglas, be an upgrade?

Should Felton and Kidd be better defensively than Bibby and Davis?

Simply by roster additions and subtractions, have the Knicks not improved defensively, and improved at each position on the floor (imagine if they sign Martin?)

The answer to all those questions is, of course, yes.

Now, what is the difference between Woodson and MDA?
The Knicks were the best defensive team in the NBA under Woodson, and Amar’e Stoudemire, for really the first time in his NBA career, looked like he had a clue.

Second, Melo’s already proven that he can be a commited defender on a deep playoff run and for a full season.

Third, this non-sense about Felton. Perhaps his defense slipped under MDA, and when he was fat last year, but he was very good in Charlotte in 2009 and had a defensive reputation early in his career.

Kidd is widely considered a great team defender who, will not able to guard point guards, can handle most 2s. Kidd and Chandler anchored an NBA championship-caliber defense.

Shumpert can guard basically any pg in the game…