Knicks · The Spurs are playing the way the Knicks should (page 1)

If you look at how they use the drive and kick with 3pt spacing and except for Duncan they play small. Even when Duncan is in there he plays a LOT of high post PnR rather than a lot of lost post ups. They push the ball and get into their Ball and player movement, PnR game. It's basically a version of SSOL, which is not far from what the knicks do, but they do a MUCH better job of executing and not letting the ball stick.

Because they move so much this has allowed a guy like Bonner who is no more mobile than Novak to be able to get off. They create a situation where they are always attacking with all of their guards and then they kick it to the corners or back up top after the defense has chased them and left the perimeter open. The difference with how we play it is that it's not constant motion with our players. We don't attack as quickly or aggressively as the Spurs do. It's not that we can't, we just don't apply as much motion. I think we do see it when Melo isn't on the court, which has led many to say the Knicks are better with Melo off the floor, which isn't true, but it does point out that his insistance on holding the ball has been an issue that effect the rest of the roster. Then we wonder why no one else is able to score. it's cuz we allow Melo to dictate how the offense flows. The ball shouldn't stop so much just to accommodate Melo at the expense of the flow of the offense.

No matter who we add to the team there has to be a change in how Melo approaches the game. I actually liked how Melo played in game 6. He was much more active in driving and getting closer shots and not holding the ball as much, but he's got to fully commit to this. All of his coaches have tried to get him to realize this but now that i've seen him for an extended time it's clear that this is something that has to change. Just watch the spurs series and see how much they move off the ball and with the ball. Sure there are ISO's but not nearly as much as we do and not in the same way that we do. THEY KEEP MOVING.

the spurs can play anyway they want because their 3 best players are 3 of the most unselfish players in the league.

nyk4ever wrote:the spurs can play anyway they want because their 3 best players are 3 of the most unselfish players in the league.

They have played together for about ten years. I don't think anyone is comparing Manu and Parker to Felton and JR.

When you have a center like Duncan and a pg like Parker you can do that.

the spurs play a 2ndary fast break that gets starts on the wing and then they swing the ball over quickly to get ball movement...this allows them good post ups and 3pt shots...but most of all it allows parker to free lance. i forget the name of their assistant coach (with the long name - who SHOULD be in running for a head coach position cuz hes excellent)

Of course the Spurs have Duncan, Parker & Manu, but that's not the whole story. As Duncan has gotten older and the team smaller, they've switched how they play. The last few years Pop has moved to a variation on MDA's offense. They play VERY well even with their bench players, so it's not just cuz of their top players. The beauty of that style of play is that it's a TEAM style and lesser talents can excel in it, which is what always happened with MDA in the past. We have a LOT of lesser talented players who have excelled when we played a TEAM style of BB and that's the main point.

Everyone is saying that Melo doesn't have enough, but in reality Melo forces a style that doesn't allow those guys to excel and Woody hasn't been forceful enough in trying to convince Melo of the value of the TEAM style with ball and player movement. Too often the offense gets stagnant. The same goes for JR as well. He'll hold the ball way too much. So as a team we have our key players who handle the ball the most not really playing a team game. Woody didn't really have a big problem with it based on how he allowed it to continue. Other coaches like Karl and MDA didn't like it and wanted the ball to move. It's not like Melo NEVER did this cuz he surely did play that way in the Olympics so he understood what it was and how he could work in that kind of offense. Any success we have in the future will be tied to how successful we are at getting our best players to play TEAM Ball for most of the game.