ruruland: The great thing about all of this is that these post moves make Amar’e perhaps the second most versatile interior scorer in the league behind Duncan, and he’ll surely be far more effective than Duncan.

The amazing thing about Amare is how good he looks after one off-season’s worth of work on his post game. I’m really happy he barely ever goes iso now (<5% of possessions if I remember correctly) but his assortment of baby hooks and spins will serve him very well there also — I remember being really frustrated watching him drive to the basket and have to flip up a contested runner after taking the ball into the defender's chest — when he was 24 that worked, but he seemed to get a lot of those blocked last year. This year rather than taking that crappy shot, if the guy cuts off his drive, he can transition into a post move.

The thing that is impressive about Amare's post game right now is how easy it looks for him to get very deep position. As JK47 noted above, nearly 80% of his shots are within 9 feet of the basket. Some of those are basket cuts etc. but many of those are him finding/getting great position and finishing off a bunny. I can't say enough about how happily surprised I am with STAT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpxA96Im52g

that reverse pivot power dribble spin is going to be pretty much unstoppable against guys that are in his size range.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9hqQTu3j2c

At :34 seconds we see the double screen and roll. Amar’e floats in a mini-hook, the kind of shot Chandler can’t make in that play….

Woodson ran a quadruple screen last night, really fun.

But that Tyson/Amar’e screen should be devastating moving forward because Chandler is clearing that big out. If two bigs come to either Chandler or Amar’e, it’s hand-off for a dunk.

You’ll notice that three of Amar’es inside finishes came with Chandler in the paint.

At any rate, the way the Knicks are utilizing Stat this year has been working out great. He’s scoring on an impressive variety of dunks, hook shots and layups, and he’s been great at getting to the line– 8.1 FT/36 on a team that does not play at a blinding pace. He’s still missing his midrange jumpers when he takes them (small sample size caveat) but it doesn’t matter much when 80% of your shots come in the paint.

The Melo/Stat/Chandler frontcourt isn’t just playing okay together– they’ve been very difficult to stop. When those three have been on the floor together the offense has averaged 1.20 PPP. Pretty amazing.

JK47:

The problem was never that Melo, Stat and Chandler couldn’t play well together, the problem was that Mike D’Antoni didn’t have enough sense to realize that Amar’e Stoudemire shooting 15 foot jumpers is a poor percentage play, even if the shot clock has been running for less than seven seconds.

Right, that’s part of it naturally. The Lakers have had their most success under MDA since they ditched his offense and allowed Kobe to freelance and Gasol/Howard to touch the ball in the post.

But Amar’e was actually quite effective as a weakside-flash-to-the-elbow 4 when the Suns ran middle pnr with a center or another player, they’d even run it with Grant Hill and a few other guys you wouldn’t imagine being effective as the dive guy.
If you go to Synergy and watch the cut plays Amar’e was involved you’d see how effective he was in that role.

The middle screen and role was broken much of last year prior to Lin and a lesser extent Davis, even though Melo was quite effective in that play he didn’t consistently attack the paint and more often looked to score than drive and dish.

Obviously, the post moves Amar’e has acquired change the Knicks ceiling, but his increased effectiveness is in part the result of penetration and quality passing out of high pnr from a variety of guys.

The great thing about all of this is that these post moves make Amar’e perhaps the second most versatile interior scorer in the league behind Duncan, and he’ll surely be far more effective than Duncan.

Teams will likely start adjusting by either playing bigger guys on Amar’e or double-teaming him every time he touches it.

If it’s the former, Amar’e still has far superior quickness and the shoulder width and strength to bounce off those big guys in isolation.

Let’s remember, Amar’e should still be a dynamic isolation player in…

JK47:
Yeah, D’Antoni never was good at utilizing Amar’e. Dunno how Amar’e had so many good seasons in Phoenix….

Well, yeah, in Phoenix he had the ideal personnel to run his system, and still, Stat’s game was not so heavily reliant on the mid-range jumper.In his last season with the Suns, 70% of Stat’s shot attempts came from 9 feet or shorter.Stat of course mostly played C under D’Antoni while somebody else like Channing Frye was playing the stretch 4 that SSOL calls for.Last year with the Knicks, Stat was often that stretch 4, and he bombed in that role.

This year, he’s hardly taking 10-15 footers at all.

Amar’e wasnt close to being healthy at the beginning of last season. Plus it didnt help that TD and Bibby were the PG’s. Once Lin started to play Amar’e was out for many of the games so he never was able to benefit from playing with him. You could see towards the end of the season he was getting healthy again and his shooting numbers proved it.

Just curious, where were his FGA’s coming from during his 1st season in NY?? He really struggled at the beginning and we used to complain alot about his shot selection but then he and Felton started getting some good chemistry together and of course Amar’e went on that 30+ pts game streak.

I really like our chances against any team in the Eastern Conference other than Chicago. Chicago is the only team in the conference with strengths that match up with our weaknesses. They can stop our P&R, Derrick Rose will score 45 a night on Felton, and Deng is good enough on both ends to really make Melo work. Hopefully they really are just a team playing with playoff intensity and when everyone else turns it on, they’ll be average. But I really don’t like the thought of Felton on Rose for a series. I would hope Shump gets that task.

That said, I’m really not afraid of Miami. Chris Bosh can’t stop a P&R and we don’t turn the ball over. As long as we can drop that eFG%, I think we can make them sweat.

Well, yeah, in Phoenix he had the ideal personnel to run his system, and still, Stat’s game was not so heavily reliant on the mid-range jumper. In his last season with the Suns, 70% of Stat’s shot attempts came from 9 feet or shorter. Stat of course mostly played C under D’Antoni while somebody else like Channing Frye was playing the stretch 4 that SSOL calls for. Last year with the Knicks, Stat was often that stretch 4, and he bombed in that role.

This year, he’s hardly taking 10-15 footers at all.

JK47:
It’s pretty interesting looking at where Amar’e’s FGA are coming from, and how his game is different so far this year.

Last year, regular season and playoffs combined, he took 690 FGA.418 of those 690 were from 9 feet or less, about 60% of his shots.That means that 40% of his shots came from 10 feet or more.

This year, 80 of his 103 FGA are from 9 feet or less, which is of course roughly 80 percent.

Last year, 55% of Stat’s FGA were jumpers.This year it’s 40%.Fully 60% of Stat’s shot attempts this year are dunks, lay-ups, tip-ins or hook shots.

When you look at his shot chart from last year and compare it to this year, it’s striking.He was taking LOTS of those low-efficiency mid-range jumpers last year.Of course, under D’Antoni he was no doubt encouraged to take those awful shots.Stat had a .524 TS% under D’Antoni last year.Under Woodson, it shot up to .606.This year, of course, he’s well over .600.

The problem was never that Melo, Stat and Chandler couldn’t play well together, the problem was that Mike D’Antoni didn’t have enough sense to realize that Amar’e Stoudemire shooting 15 foot jumpers is a poor percentage play, even if the shot clock has been running for less than seven seconds.

Yeah, D’Antoni never was good at utilizing Amar’e. Dunno how Amar’e had so many good seasons in Phoenix….