Bottomline is Woodson got away from what got the Knicks to the point they are at now.... When they went on a winning streak early in the season he rotated players in and out and the same thing when Melo was out towards the end he kept players fresh. Thats when the team was having fun. I don't understand how he has players that he keeps on the bench that are fresh in the playoffs never seen that much action. Copeland, Camby, Novak etc all he does is rotate like 7-8 players and wonders why players are tired on offense and defense and can't cover anybody. Play small ball and drive to the hoop and get Hibert in foul trouble and the game becomes a blow out like game 2. Stop relying on Melo to be the savior.
But you can have a longer rotation when other teams are too. It's one thing to try and hide Novak on the 9th or 10th player on the Raptors. It's another to try and put a guy like him out there against better players on better teams. The Knicks 1-11 might be better than the Pacers, and the Knicks best player is better than the Pacers best player, but in the playoffs unless the gap between the best players is incredibly significant, it comes down to guys 2 through 8 and right now Hibbert, West, Stephenson & Hill are drastically outplaying Chandler, JR, Shumpert & Felton.
Like I have said countless times in the past, the Knicks will not be able to win anything as long as Woodson is here. He is a great game planner, but not a good in game decision maker. Things happen during a game which you cannot plan for, and he just doesn't know how to make adjustments.
You can 100% hide cope or Novak on Tyler hansborough. The plus side is that then Tyler has to chase them around the perimeter defensively and it keeps him off the boards. You could hide them on Stephenson too. If the pacers wants to ISO Tyler and Stephenson as their offense that is fine. You nailed the 2-8 part. Chandler has been a huge disappointment. This was Woodson first terrible game. He showed some good flashes in the Boston series but those flashes were getting back to what we did all season. The most confusing part is putting cope or Novak in during garbage time because them hitting 3s make him look silly
He has been awful all series. Unless you have the Miami big 3, talent can only take you so far. At some point in time, coaching will come into play. The Celtics are a beaten up team the Knicks were SUPPOSE to beat. I mean the guy has absolutely no control. He lets JR act like a wild dog he cannot control. Number of times he should've sat him down (all the times he stopped attacking the rim and became a jump shooter). I can't even go into it anymore, the guy just doesn't make adjustments. He couldn't get Atlanta over the hump either.
I fully expect the Knicks to win tonight, but the Pacers will close this out in Indiana. Now, if Woodson stops being a stubborn prick and actually learns to make adjustments in game, Knicks might have a shot. If they get hot tonight, and I mean light it up, then that could carry over. But don't bet on it.
Hansborough would destroy Novak down low and there is no chance Novak would be able to keep his shorts on let alone stay in front of Stephenson, especially with the way he's playing now. Novak's a good niche player and against a team like Miami he could guard Battier/Miller, against Brooklyn he could hang with Televic/Stackhouse, etc. There are matchups that he's a plus. Just not the case against team with a defense and athletes like Indiana.
With that said, I obviously agree the Knicks do need to make adjustments, I just don't think Novak is the answer. Most of it is the players just need to play better for their system to work. Playing small ball is the ideal end game with Felton-Shumpert-JR-'Melo-Chandler as the go-to but doesn't matter if JR isn't making shots.
Novak is 100% not the answer. The key is how he is running the offense and the players he is using. Isolation only benefits Indiana. Have to set screens, high pick and roll with Felton and Chandler. I mean the answer is to just get Hibbert out of the game. But the Knicks aren't making him work. All he is doing is sitting in the paint and waiting for the Knicks to either chuck it up or drive to him. In game 1, pick and roll was working great, then they stopped running it. Hibbert is a foul machine, but hes not going to commit if they don't make him move side to side. You have to force Hibbert to make decisions rather than let him set up a tent in the paint and wait. Indiana is big but they aren't exactly a fast team. The other problem with Woodson is how he has used STAT in his limited minutes. What is the point in playing him if he is not going to be involved on offense when he his on the floor? I just do not understand why you let JR dribble in circles and then launch from 3. STAT should touch the ball every time on offense at least once when he is on the floor. He can't play defense, so its useless even playing him. I would let STAT get the ball on the block and make their big men have to guard him. Also why the hell is Kidd even playing. He has had a great career, but that is all in the past. He is not helping the team at all. He is a huge liability on defense much of the time because hes way too slow now. Frustrating. I want to see more of Copeland. Let Copeland play with the 2nd unit, let him play with the first unit. He can stretch the floor as well as drive to the basket. Paul George is a very good defender, but he has been caught a lot when Chandler sets the screen. Run high pick and roll with melo and chandler to give him space and room to shoot.
^^ All of that. I think Cope or Novak could be the answer. 1) Spacing 2) Cross matches 3) When one gets going, it seems the team follows Our identity all year was the 3 ball and while BOS and IND forced us out of it sometimes, other times we are hesitating to pull the trigger (looking at Kidd and Shump and Prigs) when there is space to take the open shot that they have been shooting all year
In Woodson's defense, who knows how much of what he's saying to run is actually being run with JR goes rogue. For all we know there could be a set play called. The key is just making shots and Chandler playing like a DPOY. Whether it's Melo's elbow jumper or Smith/Shumpert from 3. Shumpert started out 0-5 with some very good looks. If he his two of those in Game 4 the start of the game goes very different. I've said it a few times in this thread over the course of the year, I've been very underwhelmed with Chandler this season.
The knicks are a badly ran organization. You want NBA all stars to justify the ticket prices, but the knicks don't know how to put together a basketball team. The knicks needs a GM who knows basketball. Not someone who has to satisfy a room full of executives about their financial return. The knicks don't have a big man who can shoot or post up. You won't go far in the playoffs without one. The jump shooters have to do too much and so it's not surprise that their shooting pct. has dropped. The defense is that more intense. Knicks are going to suck for a while because of contracts. They do this all the time because they try to sell the public on winning now. They never bring in players to complement each other. The only time they did was when Pat Riley was coach. They pushed him out of town, because how dare he want say so in how the organization is run. So off he went to Miami to win two championships with more on the way. Meanwhile the knicks front office and NY media will continue to sell fans on winning now, when the only thing they usually win is having one of the highest salary caps.
Agree. But, if the player isn't doing what hes told - and acting like a wild dog, he should bench him immediately. So again, it still falls on Woodson lol.
Hahaha no way. If the defense can set, Novak can stay in front of Hansborough. Tyler has little offensive game outside of putting back a missed shot. Stephenson too is much better off the ball than all the ball. If they feed Stephenson the ball to ISO on Novak ,that's perfectly acceptable by the Knicks standards. You can hide Novak on those types of players for 5-10 minutes. Novak or Cope. I mean we found room to put Amare out there and Kidd out there, we can find places for Cope and/or Novak. I really don't think Tyler has an offensive game that would scare Cope or Novak. He's not patient enough offensively, can't dribble well, and has no post game. You can hide Novak/Cope on him. The thing like anything, is you need to box him out. That's why he beats Amare and Chandler like a drum on the boards Chandler is getting outworked completely by Hibbert. I don't think he's 100% healthy, but we will see.
The team was actually very well put together this year. Woodson just stopped embracing what the lineup excelled at. You have to wonder if Woodson never wanted to play small ball, but was forced by the early season injuries. I mean we beat the Pacers with no Chandler and Copeland/KMART playing the 5. A game both teams wanted to win. Granted small sample size, but going small isn't an automatic loss like Woodson expected.
The team was not put together well this year. You had a bunch of good players way past their prime, and it showed. I don't agree with everything that Woodson does, but I knew from the beginning of the season that the knicks weren't going far. The Knicks have no offensive big man threat and no beef down low. Going small means we would have to depend on jump shots, and you can see how far it has gotten the knicks in these playoffs. We need beef. Some good young beef that can give us 12-15 points a night down low. No down low presence means jump shooters have someone in their face all game.
They were put togeher well enough to finish #2. I question their mental toughness more than anything. They are still better than their opponent in this series but the coach and the team has let the Pacers dicate (of course becasue the Knicks have all gone cold). all the griping, whining, and talking is what distracts them and has been their achilles heel all season. If they shut up and play ball, and try to impose their style of play on the game (and of course hit some shots) I still give them a punchers chance to at least get to a 7th game....which they should win if they get it there.
Disagree. Melo is not past his prime. Chandler isn't either. JR isn't. Shump isn't. Their role players yes, but on every team role players are usually past their prime or really young. They weren't built great, but they were built fine. Going small doesn't mean you have to depend on jumpshots. Our game is predicated on Felton on the PnR attacking the paint. We get away from that, we become a jump shooting team. Basically when we stop attacking we need to hit jumpshots, AKA every team. IND is very good at deny penetration into the paint. However part of it is the Knicks getting away from all their plays that help them get paint points. Like others have mentioned, if the big man doesn't roll on a pick, it doesn't force Hibbert to choose. Not using Melo in the PnR doesn't force Hibbert to choose. Side pick and rolls to get Hibbert moving side to side so he can't stay planted. These are things they worked on all year with their small ball lineup, the movement and attack led to a lot of open 3s. Without that attack strategy their offense goes sour quick I don't think the Knicks were built badly, they just haven't maxed out their current lineup in these playoffs. That falls on Woodson who overall did great all year. They were built for the short term though. And yeah small ball is nothing outrageous. It forces a lot of good things if you have a sound defense behind it. THat's why Chandler is so vital especially in a series where the big man has a post game.
The problem with small ball is we're now at the point that Carmelo is pretty banged up and forced to either deal with David West or Hansbrough, very physical players. Plus you need your guys that can shoot to shoot well. Woodson played 4 guards, Felton, Shumpert, Smith, & Kidd. They were 3-18 from deep in Game 4.
Kidd is the brutal just because defensively he becomes a liability. We also saw what happens when Raymond has to guard a quick PG like in Hill who just blew past him whenever he wanted. Underrated aspect of Prigioni is that he is our best PG defender and can at least slow down a quick PG. Pacers aren't even shooting better than us, they are just taking more shots and in addition to more shots, they are hitting more 3s. We aren't even winning at our own game.
