I found this in today’s Post.

“I love David Lee,” D’Antoni said. “I read someplace, he doesn’t fit my style. Let’s see, he averaged 10 rebounds, 10 points. He fits anybody’s style. To be creative, he’s the best we have to be creative. [But] the franchise will do their job of exploring every option. At the end of the day, I’d be very happy to coach David Lee.

“But again it’s the business, it’s the future and we’re doing what you can within certain parameters. It’s overblown because everyone that calls asks about him because he’s the main guy. And it should be a compliment to him. It hasn’t happened. I don’t expect it to happen. If it did, it would have to be somebody good.”

I’m not suggesting that Lee needs to be a shot blocker as much that I am expressing a concern about his defensive play in general. I don’t think that any part of his defensive game is particularly strong for PF, especially post defense against tougher PFs.

My instincts tell me that +/- stats are reliable for players playing major minutes on lousy teams. This is not to argue that Jefferson is a good defender, he might not be at this point. That being said, I think Jefferson is both beter right now and has more upside than Lee, so we will just have to disagree on that one (I do think most GMs would be on my side on this one.)

That being said, like you, I would like to see Lee on the Knicks for another year to see whether his lack of development this year had anything to do with his injury in early ’07. My guess is that it did not, and that he will not develop much more, but as a diehard Knick fan, I would love to be wrong.

I believe that shot-blocking is overrated. I think there are only two kinds of shot blockers in the NBA. Ones that impact the game with their shot blocking; Camby, Mutumbo, Mourning and those don’t. While Jefferson is a much better shot blocker than Lee I do not believe the one extra blocked shot a game has a major impact. So I believe that Lee’s below average shot blocking is not a big deal since PF’s are rarely called upon to be a team’s primary shot blocker. Also there are many good shot blockers that are bad defenders and bad shot blockers that are good defdenders.

Also Jefferson is a terrible defender. I remember how much he struggled defensively in Boston and though I did not watch Minnisota play I looked at the plus minus stats for Jefferson and I was blown away.

I do not put a great deal of stock in plus minus, unless they are very lopsided, like +/- 6 or more. Jefferson makes Minnesota an unbelievable 12.1 pts per 100 possessions worse on defense. I have never seen a player have that major a negative impact. In fact in the 2917 minutes Jefferson was on the court Minnesota was out scored by 11.5 pts per 100 possessions, and during the 1027 minutes he was off the court minnesota actually outscored their opponent by 0.2 pts per 100 possessions.

After seeing these splits I actually would not trade Lee for Jefferson because those numbers put up huge red flags in my mind regarding Jefferson.

In Lee’s case, considering he never takes 3′s and is already pretty good around the basket (although I think he regressed slightly last year}, this is the area that has the most potential for improvement in his offensive game.

Ben R- To penalize Jefferson’s numbers for playing on a bad offensive team is unfair. Maybe Jefferson is hurt by being the only player the defense has to game plan for. Maybe Lee’s numbers are inflated by playing on a lousy team that misses so many shots, providing more rebound and garbage point opportunities, and that has played in so many blow-outs.

Lee also leaves much to be desired defensively. Where does he rank among top-minute PFs in shot-blocking? He’s 3 years into his career and has good enough ups, can’t he get at least 1 per game?

Perhaps, but I think my point went a bit past that obvious contrast. I’d say a small percent of RBI actually have an effect on the outcome of a game, yet it’s a stat that builds hall-of-fame careers and multi-million dollar contracts. I think the same is true for rebounds. Rebounding, like run producing in baseball, is a team stat that individuals get too much credit for, and has become a false-idol of sorts when assessing individual players.

This comparison has little to do with Lee or his value to a basketball team.