bibby fields balkman amare and Jerome Jordan ok you might lose melo but you can run the pic n roll or pop with bibby and amare you gain speed hustle and don’t lose rebounding or size while adding some deeper shots from the center position and you have fields and balkman who are both hustlers so they can compensate for the loss of scoring with some rebounding without losing some defense

td walker melo amare n Jordan now this is perfect when you need turnovers and speed on your floor all are tall except your point but are very quick on the feet they are slashers make sure they go to the basket and attack with this squad cause foul trouble leave amare ten to fifteen feet away to shoot or blow past the defender have Jordan hover in the 12 feet and under range opposite amare whoever slashes either shoots or passes if shot Jordan and amare crash the boards the other two go back on d this will work best with teams that have quick guards and good rebounders like the Celtics

if you want defense you get td fields walker/balkman amare and chandler you put walker on the slow sf and balkman on the tall sm like gallo you have your pickpockets in td and fields and walker you have your rebounding and inside grit in chandler amare and balkman this would be the perfect time when you need to sit melo in the third and rest your other players by playing zone you can play a 2 3 zone with balkman and a 3 2 zone with walker with walker as your middle defending guard these are great ideas if you ask me and all plausible in a long season

The 90?s Knicks were also an iso team, the ball would go to Ewing in the post most of the time.

Again, this isn’t about X’s and O’s, this is about a team with horrid, putrid, awful, stanky play from their starting backcourt and no options on the bench. Fields and Douglas are playing like clueless rookies and Bibby needs to retire like two years ago. Either TD and Landry start playing better or get used to this until Shump and Baron get healthy. Unless someone unexpected becomes available for the $2.5 mil, it is what it is.

I dunno, Ben had an interesting point the other day – you could have the best point guard in the world but he’d be useless if the plan is to just hand off to Amar’e 20 feet from the basket. So yes, I certainly do agree that the guard play is a problem (especially the point guard play), but I also think that the Xs and Os (or lack thereof) are a major concern.

And Shump, by the way, wasn’t exactly getting his teammates involved, either. I mean, of course I’d gladly take him actually breaking defenders down over Bibby and Douglas, well, not doing that, but I think Davis is the guy who will (hopefully) change the way the offense works more than Shump.

Again, this isn’t about X’s and O’s, this is about a team with horrid, putrid, awful, stanky play from their starting backcourt and no options on the bench. Fields and Douglas are playing like clueless rookies and Bibby needs to retire like two years ago. Either TD and Landry start playing better or get used to this until Shump and Baron get healthy. Unless someone unexpected becomes available for the $2.5 mil, it is what it is.

The Pistons trademark was their intimidating, bullying defense, and ferocious team play. They had a very balanced scoring attack, primarily by T. Prince, R. Hamilton, our good friend Chauncy B, and Big Ben.

Yes, it was a balanced scoring attack, but it was a balanced iso-based scoring attack. They would isolate Billups or Rip, similar to how Denver would isolate Billups and Melo.

Brian Cronin (@Brian_Cronin): The 2004 Pistons ran an iso offense.

hoolahoop: How many times can you make a good cut to the basket and not get the ball?

Fair enough. But I’m not getting the sense that the other guys are resenting Melo for holding the ball and taking his shots. They seem relieved not to have to do it themselves.

It’s a scary thought.

For all those wanting/needing to vent your spleens, I hears ya. But things will pick up.

But I agree with those who say that it is still early in the season and this team needs some time to gel, plus we are missing some key players to injury. The defense was OK at times, as we did force a couple of 24 second violations, but then we had way too many lapses in which we gave up easy backdoor dunks and layups and left guys wide open from 3. We should NOT be doubling World Peace under ANY circumstances…

Now I was not a fan of the Melo trade and still think we gave up way too much, but Melo was not the problem last night. He was the only Knick who could consistently hit a shot. We actually had some good wide open looks but just couldn’t knock them down, especially Amare. He has been off to start the season. Just not nailing those mid-range jumpers that he was so money on last year. But I think this should resolve as the season goes on. He does need to develop a back-to-the-basket post game though. He always faces up and tries to blow by the defender, which often results in an offensive foul or turnover. This worked last year when he could blow by opposing centers, but not so much against quicker PF’s this year.

Plus Chandler was wide open for some alley-oops and interior passes, which the Knicks failed to notice. Or he was being guarded by a much shorter player. He should’ve had at least 20 points that game. I think the other Knicks just don’t trust him enough yet to get him the ball in those situations.

Basically at this point, the defense is undisciplined and the offense inconsistent and not cohesive. But these should be fixable problems that should improve over time, especially once we get Shump and Davis back. Oh and they need to stop with those silly technical fouls. They’re focusing more on the calls right now than actually playing the game.

Hopefully they can fix these issues soon…