If yesterday was any indication of what the Miami Heat will be bringing to the table come playoff time, I would, if i were his highness Lebron, attempt to remove every copy of that Miami Heat tribute/congratulatory parade/obscene guesture that was their announcement of signing the 2.5 headed beast during the summer of 2010. The Heat were pushed by their big three and nothing else. Yes, I realize that those three players consist of two of the five best players in the world but I would argue that teams as deep as the Celtics and the Bulls will eat those guys up come playoffs.
Unless. Oh and here’s where it gets juicy. UNLESS, Lebron plays like he’s supposed to and D Wade plays like he’s supposed to and Chris Bosh plays like he’s paid. Last night’s showing wasn’t impressive. They didn’t beat the Knicks as much as escape. The Knicks one glaring flaw, you may say would be their lack of a second scorer as evidenced by the fact that ONLY Carmelo scored in double figures but you’d be kidding yourself. The Knicks lost because the Miami Heat intelligently took advantage of their over-help on defense. Their rotations are like a two year with a crayon, just lines everywhere with no real sight of who or what they are doing. Fact is, the Heat had ONLY three viable offensive options on the court at anytime. Lebron refused to go in the paint anytime Tyson Chandler was there and Dwayne Wade was content on taking contested jumpers or attacking Knicks on what is the league wide trend of attacking them on: screen and rolls and curl plays.
For all the talk of Iman Shumpert’s defensive prowess, he’s still learning playing off the ball defense on his man. He loses track of his guy on those plays and they legitimately wear him out which is troubling because now that it is a trend they will try to get his man to come off those constantly and until he learns to play that way guys like Wade, etc will eat him up on those. The Knicks over pursuit many times allowed Wade to get inside within three feet of the cup and have silly, easy lay ups. And once again the Knicks are having a tough time corralling rebounds which was what fueled their winning streak. It seemed like they made it a focus and they were winning games thanks to wining the rebounding edge but again opponents were out hustling them for rebounds and allowing players to go over the top of them to grab them and make them look silly.
People ask what will it be like for the Knicks if Amar’e returns and the cliche’d response is: there will be an adjustment period. Yes there will be, but the threat of Amar’e going off and being that second scorer will alleviate a lot of the defensive attention Carmelo has been getting. Defenses will allow JR Smith to get hot because they know he will continuously take shots until he gets hot. The teams the Knicks are facing have one guy who are great one on one defenders who will try and keep a lid on Melo while leaving him no outlet. Melo’s improved passing is going to be key. Like Dwight Howard who sees constant double teams when he’s in the painted area, Melo will see paparazzi like attention when he’s driving into the paint or trying to post up. He threw a nice pass into Tyson Chandler who just set up in the paint.
Now this will be a problem when Amar’e gets back because teams won’t be quick to double up on Melo. You may say this is an advantage but those easy buckets for Tyson Chandler will ALWAYS be there. If you see Melo driving, a Knick should in fact be driving on the opposite side to give him an outlet OR force the defense to make decision: either allow Melo to drive into the paint one on one and take our chances OR meet him try and take the charge and leave a guy under the basket by himself. Teams like the Heat will converge to the middle area to take away easy drive buckets which allows guys to be open behind the three point line which is another option. This is only if the spacing is right. The Heat and the Bulls do a great job of getting back and so the problem becomes: what do we do when the team has enough speed to get back, well if the spacing is right, guys will be scrambling back and certain players will get double attention. Steve Novak will have two guys trying to run in his direction, JR Smith will have guys running in his direction leaving one guy with no man or late help arriving. THAT GUY has to hit the three. Now that guy will most likely be either Shump or Baron.
Davis can make those shots but the problem is Mike Woodson has said repeatedly that due to Lin’s absence he wants to keep Davis’ minutes low which means Shump has to take the reins. Over the next week the Knicks play the Celtics, Nets and the Cavs. They have dominated the Cavs but not the Nets or Celtics. Last time the Knicks played them it was the revenge of Deron game where he went off for 56 points solely on spite against Linsanity. The Celtics are an even better team that dominated them last they played because Rondo will once again torch them if all things go as usual. Wednesday’s game will be interesting because they will have Shumpert this time to contest Deron Williams and so I expect him not to go off but who do the Knicks put Shump against in Boston? Go after Rondo? Their wingspans are similar and so his ability to manipulate defender’s eyes with his long arms will be negated BUT what about Paul Pierce? OR KG? KG is having a renaissance and as douchebag of a guy he is, when he’s on, there’s very little you can do to stop him.
Pierce is doing his usual game while they have Ray Allen coming off the bench which is such an amazing thing to have. The Knicks will be without Amar’e again, as they expect ONLY to activate him for Wednesday’s game. The Knicks will NEED to get their depth of Amar’e in the front court back for them to really compete. I don’t expect the Knicks to win tonight but I do expect it to be competitive in the world’s most famous arena.
This next week will be important if only for the fact that they HAVE to get rotations right and set for the playoffs. I expect it to be a nine man rotation that Woody goes to. I expect it to be Melo, Chandler, Shump, Amar’e, Baron Davis, Landry Fields, Jared Jeffries, Steve Novak, and Mike Bibby if ONLY for the fact that he is point guard depth but I expect it to be eight with Bibby getting time here and there. Its a shame that Harrelson has missed a lot of time because I really like what he brings to the table defensively on big men. He’s not lost and he plays competent but he hasn’t’ been able to fight off injuries.
Be very unhappy if you see Bill Walker in a game. It means something went horribly wrong.
I know that a lot of people have had problems with Landry Fields. The internet is abuzz with as many curse words as they can muster up when it comes to Fields play. Here’s my opinion on Fields: his jump shot is the worst thing in the universe. I am as sure about his shot NOT going in as I am sure about Novak’s shot going in. He has no arc. He looks terrible at the free throw line. IF he does not improve his jump shot he will be out of the NBA in three years. I guarantee you. He’s not that athletic. He’s a smart player but you only get away with that if you can hit an open jump shot. Unless he gets easy buckets in the painted area, he is not confident around the hoop. Guys who do that little floater do so because they are afraid of getting their shot blocked and so add unnecessary arc to it. Only two guys who have perfected the art of the arcing shot are Derrick Rose and Dwayne Wade. They use that move with regularity and are proficient at it. Fields can be torched easily by a really good defender. NOBODY is afraid to take him one on one. He’s also lost his touch in being a great offensive rebounder.
My cure for Landry? I think he needs to stick to rebounding and being that second guy to cut when Melo gets the ball. He has great hands and just needs to dunk on someone to gain confidence. Fields has to be the cutter and the second guy with Tyson Chandler battling for offensive rebounds. I get that the Knicks are NOT trying to give up easy transition buckets BUT they can afford to keep one other guy back there to try and get an offensive rebound. My advice is for Landry to work on his passing and rebounding in games and not worry about taking jump shots. He does a nice job in driving the basketball to the hoop. If he can learn to pass the ball effectively he can prolong his career. His jumpshot is an offseason fix-em-upper that will need extra time and attention. That can’t happen right now. What he needs to do right now is back to basics. Help get offensive rebounds and whenever he gets the ball on offense drive the ball and try to pass OR try for a lay up. Landry NEEDS to get confidence doing these things or else he will falter. Because of Lin’s injury the Knicks can’t afford to keep Fields ON but its clear that the Knicks do not trust Fields in crunch time creating an almost whispered truth: his slot in the starting line up is tenuous. His only major asset to this team is his friendship with Jeremy Lin and if Lin isn’t there, either he has to step up OR he has to step down.
– As if this game didn’t reinforce the truth here it is: the crunch time five will almost surely be: Tyson Chandler, Melo, Amar’e (once he comes back), Shump and Davis. Baron Davis is still a little “hands-y” when it comes to defense and gets whistled for it but he’s competent enough to guard players but again, not for long stretches at a time. When Lin comes back he obviously takes over at point but its clear you give up defensively a lot when Lin enters and get just a fraction more offensively. Lin’s turnovers, a serial killer of his game, are as troubling as Baron Davis’ showman like act when it comes to passing. I get that Baron wants to make Sportscenter but cut the shit Baron, just make the best pass. In transition Davis’ passing is still leaving the Knicks unsure and thus the communication between he and his teammates need to improve if they want to make him look good. People wonder how Magic made it look so easy: that’s simple, he worked at it. He worked tirelessly in the gym with his teammates and was always in the gym trying to work on his craft. If you look at Baron its clear that he still needs Mapquest directions to the gym as he’s always played with that doughy fat. But his minutes will be cut as they see fit. The Knicks need Lin back, and sooner rather than later.
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