that’s right, the red-hot Toronto Raptors.

thenamestsam:
Camby-man will start at the 4. Makes sense to switch up the starting lineup I think. They need to do something to get off to better starts. I’d rather see JR for Brewer, but at least we’re tinkering.

this is exciting. Woodson has figured out that Chandler and

thenamestsam:
Camby-man will start at the 4. Makes sense to switch up the starting lineup I think. They need to do something to get off to better starts. I’d rather see JR for Brewenr, but at least we’re tinkering.

Woodson’s figured out that Camby and Chandler complement each other extremely well on defense. Would love to see Camby start, getting 25ish minutes moving forward.

ephus:
Others have already made this point, but Novak’s failings on defense are in rotations and help.The numbers show this.As Abbot writes, 82games.com shows that the Knicks give up 2.2 points more per 100 possessions when Novak is on the floor (107.7 vs. 105.5).Since Novak’s teammates do not become less active on defense when he is on the floor, the most likely explanation is that Novak is much worse at defensive rotations than whomever he replaces.Since Novak ordinarily replaces ‘Melo (who has often had defensive lapses on rotations, although he has been much more focused this year), we can conclude that Novak is much worse at defensive rotations than ‘Melo.

As JVG is fond of saying on air, the key to great defense is to “help the helper.”Novak is horrible at this.

The numbers from 82 games last season show the Knicks as being slightly better on defense with Novak on the court.

1) James Harden
2) Kyrie Irving
3) Russell Westbrook
4) Stephen Curry
5) Monta Ellis
6) Tony Parker
7) Jrue Holiday
8) Damian Lillard
9) OJ Mayo
10) Kemba Walker

NY record vs above players’ teams: 7-4
Above teams’ win percentage (adjusted for # of games vs. above players’ teams): 0.425
Knicks margin of victory vs. above teams: +1.8 pts
Knicks margin without games vs. Houston: +6.8 pts

If you look instead at PGs/CGs with the best WS/48, and you expand things out to top 15, you get this list. I removed Kidd from the list since for obvious reasons:

1) Chris Paul
2) Tony Parker
3) James Harden
4) Russell Westbrook
5) Kyle Lowry
6) George Hill
7) Stephen Curry
8) Mike Conley
9) Jarrett Jack
10) Jose Calderon
11) Louis Williams
12) Eric Bledsoe
13) Jamal Crawford
14) Goran Dragic
15) Kyrie Irving

the first thing I notice is that somehow NY has only played the above 11 teams 8 times and will play 20 of their final 51 games vs them. The math also looks quite a bit worse:

NYK record: 5-3
combined win % of above teams (adjusted): 0.512
Knicks average margin vs. above teams: -3.1

So the record is a bit deceptive since all 3 losses were by double digits and 4 of the 5 wins were close games.

Irving and Conley were the only 2 to play with above average efficiency (harden scored well but with below average efficiency) while Parker, Dragic and Hill all sucked, so it could be the Knicks do a decent job containing the initial attack but struggle to rotate. My theory is that NY has 3 major weaknesses: Scoring guards (due to poor guard footspeed), fast defenses (they can closeout Knick 3 ball shooters, most of whom struggle off the dribble), and strong rebounding teams (due to their lack of size). In recent games, with perimeter shooters struggling, I would add a 4th category: disciplined defenses that know who to double off of, and stick with Chandler on PnRs.

As JVG is fond of saying on air, the key to great defense is to “help the helper.” Novak is horrible at this.

Juany8:
The synergy rankings ignore help defense, which is pretty damn important. The only point Abbott proved is that stupid players will play even stupider when they are playing against Novak. Smart teams will put his man in motion and laugh as they get easy layups. There’s a reason all of the major lineups involving Novak are getting blown out, the guy is by far the Knick’s worst player.

When he’s shooting 47% on 3s on 10 attempts per 36 like he did last year he’s a pretty decent player in my eyes. Tremendously flawed in many ways, but amazing at the one thing he does well. But when he’s shooting “only” 43% on 7 attempts per 36 he suddenly looks a lot less playable.

I think the Heat kind of unmasked him in the playoffs last year. A big part of his advantage last year was the surprise factor where teams just didn’t realize or weren’t taking seriously how automatic he was when open. But the Heat showed that if you pay real attention to him you can completely shut down his attempts, and that has clearly carried over to this year with the dramatic decrease in attempts per 36. It’s backed up by the eye test as well. Teams definitely seem to be wary of helping off of him, and teams are very alive to the threat when he comes off picks. At least a once a night it seems the Knicks run a play from a timeout that looks designed to free Novak and teams are usually hyper alive to it. I’m not sure I’ve seen him get an open 3 out of it yet.

The defense is definitely worse lately. The team just looks asleep sometimes. Like Tuesday it was like they were the ones who had been on the road in NYC on New Year’s Eve instead of Portland. Part of that may be that Melo has moved to the four and also that Sheed is hurt,but it could also be that the mix of teams we have played lately isn’t as favorable for us. But Stams stats also suggest that good defensive front lines will continue to give us trouble. I hope Amare helps. He showed some signs of working well with Prigione Tuesday and, unlike Chandler, his short range jump shot is a real threat, and this will make him harder to defend. If he can learn something new on defense, that will help us too.