Avoid and ignore the superficial articles about Jeremy and Carmelo being incompatible with the ball. While Amar'e was mourning the loss of his brother something wonderful happened that few people talk about. It was
not Linsanity.
Every shot was contested. There were fewer defensive breakdowns than we are seeing over the last four games.
During Linsanity, the remaining Knicks played every defensive shift as if their careers depended on it. As a result, the offense was inspired by the sudden positive effect of a turnover or a timely rebound. We played in productive spurts that demoralized opponents.
With the courageous selection of Carmelo (for DEFENSE) over Amar'e, here is how it works:
(provided everyone is healthy)
First Defensive Five
C - Chandler, take the week off, just return at 100 per cent
F - Jared Jeffries, if he wilts, play Harrellson and camp him inside as a bodyguard for Tyson, forget the three's, hit somebody
F - Anthony, take pride in a stop or a rebound... the crowd will dig it
G - Fields, don't mess with chemistry, "keep cutting to the rack son"
G - Lin, eat your vegetables and pack some protein powder for road games
Second Shift
F - Stoudemire, if sixth man was good enough for John freakin' Havlicek... otherwise, hit somebody
F - Novak, shoot it, continue to box out
G - Shumpert, the defensive inspiration for this shift
G - Davis, has until the Atlanta game on the 29th to work back into form
Change Amar'e with Carmelo and you have a thread.
yellowboy - put Amar'e into The Wayback Machine and set it for 2007 and you have 163 blocked shots.
So far, this season he has 26.
I think Melo's D has been pretty good. Amare? Not so much. Lin? Not at all. Everyone else? Doing much better. Switching D? Not so good.
FOH (forks out of here):
It ain't even like that, EARL!
We'll spin complex yarnballs, but let's not lose sight of what it BE:
Melo sucks, I hate the guy.
MARCH WHATEVER, 2012: THE DAY MELO MURDERED BASKETBALL.
MarburyAnd1x - does the phrase "one trick pony" mean anything to you?
I think I'll scroll backwards to mrKnickShot.
At least mrKnick is paying attention. Melo has been making an effort on defense. He needs to take being scored on like a personal insult. The payback is not the playground habit to score on his opponent, but to shut him down next time down the floor.
It will difficult to compensate for the loss of Tyson Chandler. Josh Harrellson has an opportunity to gain some valuable experience.
I miss Jared Jeffries.
If you think Melo is responsible for our defensive problems, you aren't watching the games. I repeat, Bill Walker is not an upgrade over Melo on defense. Linsanity's defense had everything to do with Jeffries playing over Amare.
archibundo507 - muchas gracias for the most damning visual evidence in the lower clip. Amar'e could have stood there and played better defense. He moved out of the way. That clip may indicate he was protecting a
fragile right knee more than anything. Why else would Stoudemire step away?
The San Antonio announcers had a field day with the descriptions.
Carmelo is an upgrade over Bill Walker on defense. Simple.
I saw him hustle on one play tonight
Amare is just useless on D. C'mon, you are making $20+ million a year at least try to make it look like you are earning your money.
airchibundo507 wrote:
sdsucwsl wrote:Amare is just useless on D. C'mon, you are making $20+ million a year at least try to make it look like you are earning your money.
airchibundo507 wrote:
sad thing about this shot is it shows carmelo at the rim preparing to be just as useless as amar'e.
that's why they can't win like this.
carmelo and amar'e DO NOT WORK TOGETHER.
I would love to Trade Amare for a defensive minded PF who can score some. The guy can score inside, especially with Lin giving him those close looks (though he fumbled a few give me's). I just think, as many of you do, that to have Melo and Amare out there is too much of a defensive sieve. Maybe bring one off the bench, but I prefer to have Tyson the Starting Center and Jeffries off the bench. When Tyson Starts Amare doesn't get the spacing to get inside and becomes a jump shooter.
We are seeing what is wrong with this team when Tyson (and Jeffries) is out and it is a valuable but painful lesson. We are not going to the promised land with Amare and Melo out there. I think when Chandler is out there their defensive level goes up some, as he is a force inside, but they need to pick things up.
Imagine what they must be feeling, I mean, after the Lin streak and now he is still playing great and his defense is damn near great again, but the two 20 million dollar guys don't play defense enough, especially Stat.
earthmansurfer wrote:I would love to Trade Amare for a defensive minded PF who can score some. The guy can score inside, especially with Lin giving him those close looks (though he fumbled a few give me's). I just think, as many of you do, that to have Melo and Amare out there is too much of a defensive sieve. Maybe bring one off the bench, but I prefer to have Tyson the Starting Center and Jeffries off the bench. When Tyson Starts Amare doesn't get the spacing to get inside and becomes a jump shooter. We are seeing what is wrong with this team when Tyson (and Jeffries) is out and it is a valuable but painful lesson. We are not going to the promised land with Amare and Melo out there. I think when Chandler is out there their defensive level goes up some, as he is a force inside, but they need to pick things up.
Imagine what they must be feeling, I mean, after the Lin streak and now he is still playing great and his defense is damn near great again, but the two 20 million dollar guys don't play defense enough, especially Stat.
I wouldn't change a word of what you wrote. I am not kidding when I say this -- we all make mistakes in life, and in some cases, are allowed do-overs. Pretty please, may the Knicks have a do-over on Amare and can we have the "defensive minded PF who can score some"?
I didn't get to see the game, but we could've pulled away in the first quarter if we did decent defense. I know there's a "scrub goes off on us" every game, but how did Dunleavy exceed his scoring average in the first quarter alone? Who was on him
RoyBatty - The defense was bad but also giving up the offensive rebounds, that made the difference.
Nehemiah - Thx, and it is getting painfully obvious. It was actually nice having Chandler out because it showed you his affect on the team and SUDDENLY Stat is scoring (but inside). I don't think Melo was on because of Chandler being out though, so maybe Melo can get things to work with a defensive PF. Hey, I wonder if we can get Chris Singleton from Washington by absorbing a bad contract from them for Stat? Maybe take Lewis back?
