ephus: Rivers does not have a contract after this season, so if he elected to come to NY, Boston would not get any compensation.

Doc Rivers signed a 5 year extension last May. Unless that’s been voided, he’s off the table.

Woodson will be back. Dolan has assembled a roster whose ceiling is 54 wins and a 2nd round playoff exit, and Woodson is just the man to maximize that potential.

Owen:

Just a clerical note, I think the Knicks actually finished the season with the weakest SOS in the nba..

4th weakest, and most of the Eastern conference was pretty close, the top 10 went from .482 to .489 (NY was at .484) and only the Celtics and Heat had a SOS over .500.

The Honorable Cock Jowles: We can talk all day about the dominance of Jordan, Magic, Bird, Abdul-Jabbar, Duncan, et al., but Phil Jackson is unequivocally the greatest basketball coach in NBA history. I would dare say that every team minus the Spurs would dump their head coach in a heartbeat if Jax agreed in principle to a multi-year deal. If he wants a job, he can get one — and one with a much better team than the Knicks (Oklahoma City ain’t exactly LA, but he could easily win another three championships there). Hell, the Lakers are still much better than the Knicks, even after losing Odom (and receiving another gift in Sessions). Aside from money, I don’t see why he would want another job unless it was with the very best set of basketball players available to him. I’m with you, here.

The Lakers aren’t much better than the Knicks bud. You do understand that the Knicks SRS was better than the Lakers this year?

Why is it so hard for you to stay consistent….

Those are the only teams in the last 10 years to top 8.6 differential.

The Knicks record under Woodson was deceptive, Owen — it should have been MUCH better than 18-6.

There’s no way around it my friend, they were UTTERLY dominant under Woodson.

Owen:
“The 2011-12 Knicks improved their win percentage over 2010-11 (55%, up from 51%), against a tougher schedule (11th in SRS, up from 15th).”

Just a clerical note, I think the Knicks actually finished the season with the weakest SOS in the nba..

To me, the difference in the knicks record with Woodson was very deceptive. They wildly underperformed their differential with dantoni and then outperformed a bit with Woodson.

What?

You understand that under Woodson they were a +8.6 in the 24 games (with all lineups and injuries), playing a far, far more difficult schedule than they did under MDA.

The win % prorates to 61 wins over an 82 game season, but the point differential is even better than that.

Just a clerical note, I think the Knicks actually finished the season with the weakest SOS in the nba..

To me, the difference in the knicks record with Woodson was very deceptive. They wildly underperformed their differential with dantoni and then outperformed a bit with Woodson.

I don’t think coaches matter much but I would put a vote in for Jackson, though I dont think he would come…..

TelegraphedPass: Agree with most of this. Woodson hasn’t shown himself to be a great offensive coach. He criminally underutilized Al Horford in that offense. I don’t think Woody nor Drew got the most out of the Johnson/Smoove/Horford core. Those are great players. Then again, I’m not sure that core was ever meant to beat Boston/Cleveland/Orlando. There were some stacked teams in the East to compete against.

They’ve significantly regressed on offense sinceh left.

TelegraphedPass:
Also, there is no real evidence that isolation plays are inherently unsuited to the playoffs. The implication seems to be that iso ball fails in the playoffs because defenses “key in to it.”

So they don’t/can’t key in to it during the regular season?

How is it more predictable than an offense that runs solely pick and rolls? Wouldn’t that be just as predictable?

Ideally, you want to run the plays your opponent struggles to guard. So a pick and roll offense would struggle against a defense featuring noted PnR saboteur Kevin Garnett, for example. Against Boston, you probably would do better running an iso offense through your small forward because you’d force Pierce to go one on one with your player. I’d rather do that than pick and roll against KG.

There is no offense inherently suited or unsuited to the playoffs, so this hatred of iso ball is flawed. This team currently runs it far too often with a player who has been inconsistent from the field all year, but Melo had a down shooting year. If Woody returns, I would hope he’d come up with new ideas to vary the offense.

*looks at news story stating Woodson’s desire to get stronger post play out of STAT*

guys, guys , guys

Atlanta was not just the second most efficient offense in the NBA in 2009-2010, they were tied for 7th in assist percentage!!!!

Mike Bibby was their starting point guard (averaging 5.1 apg)!!!!

Since Woodson left, the Hawks have dropped to 19th and 20th in offensive efficiency since.

Of course the Hawks ran their offense through Joe Johnson — he was their most talented offensive player. And of course they ran an isolation based offense —- they lacked a pick and roll point guard.

None of that stopped them from being a good passing team, a running team, and a slashing offense — they had a balanced attack.

Doug: STAT slipping all his picks was devastatingly effective with Nash, because Nash could always get him the ball at the perfect moment when he had an extra step on his man. I agree that he needs to start setting some real picks just to keep defenses honest, he’s playing with decidedly non-Nash point guards now.

On first blush it sounds as if he needs a Nash to make it work, but then I recall that after a few weeks it worked very well with Felton, who no matter how much we loved him is nowhere near that level. So maybe all that is needed is time. But all of that happened with Amare playing center and the forwards well away from the paint.