IN the NYP, Legler kinda summed up why I felt the way I did about this KAT-at-C team going into the season, and how predictably things have transpired:

After watching the Knicks get torched Friday night in Cleveland by 37 points, Legler said he expected Tom Thibodeau’s team to show “they had enough” and that “they would come out and draw a line in the sand” against the Celtics.

“And then they were down by 20 in the first quarter,” added Legler, who served as an analyst for Sunday’s game for ABC. “I know they made it a game briefly in the second half, but what we are seeing is that these three teams are so hard to guard, and the Knicks are just not an elite defensive team.

“So when you throw an average defensive team at any of those three teams when they’re playing with sharp focus — which I don’t know if Boston was doing earlier in the year, but they definitely are now — you can get some of these margins where these buzzsaw games take place and you can’t slow it down.

“And then the question becomes, what do you do about it?” Legler continued. “Well, it’s difficult because I think a lot of it is personnel-based.”

Both analysts believe the Knicks will be helped by the pending return of center Mitchell Robinson from injury for the first time since undergoing ankle surgery last May, although Legler stressed that “it’s not realistic” to expect the injury-prone 7-footer “to have a major impact right away.”

Still, Legler also noted that Towns “is totally being picked on” by opposing teams in ball-screen actions away from the basket.

“These teams in particular will just destroy you in that action. That’s all Boston runs,” Legler said. “The difference is they have five guys who all can run it at a high level and all of their guys can really shoot.

“So they force the Knicks’ other defenders into rotation and just count on the fact that it’s going to be overwhelming for them. In these matchups, it has been.”

It wouldn’t surprise me if guys like Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart are frustrated with this very stark reality. KAT’s horrific play at C makes the entire defense fall apart and just causes guys to scramble to cover for him. If you watch the highlight reel of the C’s scoring plays, time after time KAT was in the center (npi) of the actions they run.

Maybe he’s not Enes Freedom bad, but Enes Freedom didn’t cost $50+M AAV either.

Uh, I picked Cleveland to finish second last year.

And I picked them to finish 2nd this year. Strat bet on them to win the title.

It seems common these days for people to think “the whole world” thinks something when really it’s just them and their echo chamber.

KAT’s horrific play at C makes the entire defense fall apart and just causes guys to scramble to cover for him.

What, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, and Josh Hart can’t rotate now? Every defense in the NBA is put into rotation routinely, but in NY the rotations are made impossible because of the 5?

Sorry, not adding up.

The claim appears to be that the wings (a) have to go off-man (*) to cover for the 5 and (b) they’re accomplished at that and deserve credit … but at the same time (c) when they go off-man in normal, stock NBA rotations they are not accomplished at that, but (d) that’s someone else’s fault.

Does not compute. No sale.

In terms of drop coverage with KAT, they (a) shouldn’t be playing it anywhere near as much, but (b) the job of perimeter defenders is to not let their man get the head of steam they routinely get before getting to KAT. They’re failing badly at this job.

KAT played in the top defense in the association last year.

(*) Query: Are these off-man movements they’re supposedly doing rogue and off-grid? Or are they in Thibs’s game plan? If they’re in Thibs’s game plan, he should take them out because they’re not working. (Of course, this question is somewhat rhetorical, inasmuch as these rogue, covering off-man movements either (1) don’t happen that much; or (2) are things they aren’t supposed to be doing or are in themselves poor defense.

E, are you coming to these conclusions after hours of film analysis or are you just doing the bit again?

Film analysis and logic.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but nothing about the Legler/Z-Man theory adds up.

The fact of the matter is that they’re playing very poor perimeter defense. That’s not the 5, it’s the guys on the perimeter. I see no need to go to some theory premised on illusory secondary and tertiary effects when the primary evidence is directly in front of our eyes.

With that said, a good part of this is likely scheme. The fact that Thibs likes his guys to pack in is oft-noted and essentially established fact at this point. It’s been mentioned dozens if not hundreds of times on KB since 2020. So what some people are interpreting as “scrambling” by the wings to help the 5 is in fact, instead, “Thibs’s defense.” He needs to change it, or he needs to go. The league has progressed beyond his schemes.

With that said, Mikal Bridges is a poor defender in his own right, so really they’re dealing with three poor/meh defenders, not just two. That puts a ceiling on how good the defense can be. At this point, if I’m Thibs, I’m seriously thinking about starting Deuce.

Last I checked, Minny’s #1 defense had a 4x DPoY at the 5. Was that KAT?

Who cares? All that means is that if you have good defenders, your defense will tend to be good. What does that tell you, in turn, about the Knick defense and defenders?

There’s nothing magical about the 5 on defense and nothing magical about “rim protection.” That’s Thibs talking.

“That’s just E talking”

Fify

The Knicks are fifth best in the association at shooting percentage allowed from 0-3 feet. But teams are getting to that spot the third most in the league against the Knicks. And we all know the macabre numbers on the perimeter against the Knicks.

Teams get to the rim too easily against the Knicks and teams fill it up from downtown too easily against the Knicks.

This is not a rim issue or a “rim protection” issue. This is a perimeter issue.

In terms of the getting to the rim issue, KAT contributes to that because he’s poor at stopping guys from getting to the rim on him when he picks them up in the 15-ish foot range on the drop coverage Thibs insists on playing. But the other guys on the team are also doing a poor job of letting guys get into the paint and to the rim.

It’s just way too easy for teams to get to their spots on the floor against the Knicks, wherever those spots may be on any particular possession. That doesn’t vary much by defender although pretty clearly OG is the best defender in the starting lineup.

Oddly, I tend to favor E’s opinion here. Obviously KAT is miscast as the last line of defense, but I think 1. Brunson getting picked on and 2. Thibs’ rigid system are also very much to blame. We should clearly be playing some zone with this undersized group. And yes our wings aren’t playing up to snuff, but Thibs is partly behind that IMO.

You must be logged in to post a comment.

This site uses User Verification plugin to reduce spam. See how your comment data is processed.

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

11 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.02.25)”

Leave a Reply