VCoug wrote:playa2 wrote:The Knicks when fully healthy (Sheed- Camby) will play defense and that's what creates offense with fast breaks and creating turnovers. I think Woodson is playing Possum until his front line vets become available.He knows he's limited in the front court, Sheed and Camby won't play scared in a game like today.
We lack veteran leadership that stand for something and those two guys will help will this team to play defense.
Woodson has to cut down his rotation starting with guys like Novack who's afraid to play against good competition with the garden crowd.
Until our bigs get back we will struggle against good teams. Early on today our team played timid, everybody can't handle playing in front of the stars who come out in NY. We play better on the road now, less pressure from fans.
I will judge how we play when our Bigs comebacK and Melo goes back to SF AND Kidd goes to the bench where he belongs.
I don't see how we could be lacking veteran leadership when everyone except Shumpert, Copeland, and James White has at least 6 years experience. I don't understand how Tyson, NBA champion, DPOY, 11 years experience; Kidd, NBA champion, multiple Finals appearances, 18 years experience; Amare, multiple WCF appearances, 10 years experience; and Melo, playoffs every years in the league and 9 years experience, isn't enough. One of the arguments against bringing back Lin and bringing in Felton was that Lin wasn't ready and Felton's experience would be valuable to us.
No, the problems we have now are the same problems we've had the last couple of years. We play poor defense, both post and perimeter, our offense is overly reliant on 3-pointers, and our rotations don't make sense from game to game.
It starts with guys trusting each other on defense and then that translates as offense or at least makes defensive stops.
These two guys gives the rest of the team that true grit we are lacking.
They came to the knicks to win so we have to pace ourselves and make sure they are ready to perform when it really counts. Injuries are a part of the game.