bad against the zone & felton poor decisions

[dk7th]

two things the knicks have to get better at:

1) playing against the zone. does stoudemire know what he is doing out there? it doesn't look like it. this is basketball 101. pass the ball and beat the rotation. that was the turning point of the game and now opponents are going to throw a zone at the knicks at the end of games habitually.

2) the other is the imbalance of shooting and passing that felton is exhibiting. he is shooting too much while he does poorly at the pick and roll and with distributing the ball. where is the court vision? he is missing wide open players. where are the bounce passes in traffic? everything seems airborne. so many turnovers.

this loss is primarily on felton. the dude cannot orchestrate. chandler 1-5 from downtown is another no-no. he can't make those mistakes.

d'antoni has to have other players run the pick and roll, like gallo showed friday and fields showed today. d'antoni has to get a lineup out there that is more effective against the zone as well. walker, fields, gallo, douglas, turiaf. NOT felton or stoudemire!

[Little Digger]

Knicks are an OK (at best) team waiting on Carmelo..No legit reason to throw all these average players like Felton under the bus after a loss

[GnarlesOakley]

When the zone started killing us Fields should have replaced Chandler and Gallo should have played sooner. Douglas and Chandler are great in the open court but they are liabilities at times like this.

Our energy level is nice but we overdid it.

[Knickz4life88]

It was an off game for felton yet he still put up 10 assists ..cut him some **** slack..as much as this loss hurt they still show heart and i expect an angry knick team vs the bucks..we'll be fine

[thisiskoz]

i completely agree with the bad play against the zone... had just mentioned that in the keys thread... but dont agree with the felton bashing at all... ill agree that his shot was off... whether his back was bothering him or not... he shouldve stopped pulling... but without his play in transition... we would not have made most of our runs.. and from what im seeing... the pick and roll is working for felton whenever he doesnt go back to amare... hes kicked out to the shooters... or gone hard to the rim fairly well when teams are rolling with amare... and most of the time... thats what theyre doing and the pass simply isnt there... bounce pass or in the air... i saw him try to thread both... and its just not there... so i dont think you can both criticize him not running it effectively and not getting it enough to amare... because at the moment... the smart play is not go to amare... felton is not steve nash... so i dont think its fair to expect him to make the kind of passes nash did to feed amare...

but i do agree with other people needing to run the pick and roll with amare... because of what i just said... i didnt see the defense key in on amare when gallo and fields ran the pick and roll... because most defenses wont expect that play to come from someone other then our pg at this time...

[ibraheim718]

A jump shooting team is by far the easiest type of team to defend. And when you are not hitting your three's playing a zone against this team is like stealing candy from a baby.

It's a two step process. First you run the shooters off the three point line and contest every perimeter shot to force them out of their comfort zone. To throw off their (shooters) timing and rhythm. Then when they start clanking shots you wait until the game is on the line and jump into a zone. Pretty smart game plan by Collins.

[TKF]

two things the knicks have to get better at:

1) playing against the zone. does stoudemire know what he is doing out there? it doesn't look like it. this is basketball 101. pass the ball and beat the rotation. that was the turning point of the game and now opponents are going to throw a zone at the knicks at the end of games habitually.

2) the other is the imbalance of shooting and passing that felton is exhibiting. he is shooting too much while he does poorly at the pick and roll and with distributing the ball. where is the court vision? he is missing wide open players. where are the bounce passes in traffic? everything seems airborne. so many turnovers.

this loss is primarily on felton. the dude cannot orchestrate. chandler 1-5 from downtown is another no-no. he can't make those mistakes.

d'antoni has to have other players run the pick and roll, like gallo showed friday and fields showed today. d'antoni has to get a lineup out there that is more effective against the zone as well. walker, fields, gallo, douglas, turiaf. NOT felton or stoudemire!

what has to happen against the zone is to spread the floor, but you need slashers. if you don't they will just sag just enough and cheat on the wings.. you need slashers to keep the defense commited to one or the other.. then you can survey the floor, hit gallo, hit chandler, hit the other shooters.. thatis not happenning.. a lot of things seemed too jumbled at times...

[Punk]

How did felton have poor decisions? He was solid all day long. He made a few minor turnovers and his jumper was not falling due to that back stiffness

[dk7th]

i completely agree with the bad play against the zone... had just mentioned that in the keys thread... but dont agree with the felton bashing at all... ill agree that his shot was off... whether his back was bothering him or not... he shouldve stopped pulling... but without his play in transition... we would not have made most of our runs.. and from what im seeing... the pick and roll is working for felton whenever he doesnt go back to amare... hes kicked out to the shooters... or gone hard to the rim fairly well when teams are rolling with amare... and most of the time... thats what theyre doing and the pass simply isnt there... bounce pass or in the air... i saw him try to thread both... and its just not there... so i dont think you can both criticize him not running it effectively and not getting it enough to amare... because at the moment... the smart play is not go to amare... felton is not steve nash... so i dont think its fair to expect him to make the kind of passes nash did to feed amare...

but i do agree with other people needing to run the pick and roll with amare... because of what i just said... i didnt see the defense key in on amare when gallo and fields ran the pick and roll... because most defenses wont expect that play to come from someone other then our pg at this time...

felton's game is all about getting points in transition and getting shots for himself in the halfcourt. i also half an abiding respect for any player who defends the position. no bashing intended.

HOWEVER

you need more from your point guard than this. you need a guy who has mastered basketball 101, the oldest play in the book-- the pick and roll. he's just no good at it at all, and i am sure d'antoni is trying to get gallo and fields to start running pick and rolls with stoudemire for this very reason. this is exactly what we have seen the last two games. why they don't keep going to this play is a mystery to me, as is not having mozgov and fields finishing games, fields moreso than mozgov.

and felton just can't find the open man off of dribble penetration. it's frustrating to watch although i am resigned that this is what we can expect with felton.

but as i have maintained since the day we acquired amare and ray: the knicks will go only as far as the passing games of these two players will let them. the good news is that amare is waking up to the passing game-- only one assist but there are glimmers. ray needs to get to the lane with a plan and the game need to slow down for him. he is forcing the action too much but he doesn't have the creativity to do otherwise.

and we can't have amare and chandler out there when they throw zones at us at the end of games.

[Hoops4Life06]

Some of you guys are tripping! Felton has been great for this team so far, he pushes it non-stop, his on the ball defense has been outstanding and he has LIVED in the paint on the offensive end. And today I finally saw Mike use the one guy who can get it done Landry Fields, feed Amare on the pick and roll. Felton has been great, the team has played hard and has played well. Above expectations in so many ways. You guys are tripping!

[Luv those Knicks]

I'm not in love with Douglas (5.5 3's a game) and Chandler (4.8).

I'm fine with Gallo (5.0) and I'm even fine with Felton (4.3). But Douglas and Chandler are not guys I want to shoot that much from outside. (maybe Douglas is OK - the jury's still out on him, but he seems much more efficient from closer to the basket).


and I think, we have guys who can break the zone. Gallo, Fields, Walker are all nice outside shooters. Douglas and Gallo can penetrate.


But mostly, this team is still learning to play with each other. Most of these guys weren't here last year.

If you count AR and call it a 10 man rotation.

only 4 of the 10 players were on the Knicks last year, and even they need to adjust to the new team.


Amare - New
Felton - New
Mozgov - New
Fields - New
Turiaf - New
Randolph - New


Games like this happen to teams who haven't had lots of time to practice together. With luck, the Knicks will learn from this game and adjust.

[Subway Token]

The only negative so far from Felton is his below-average PNR play. Other than that, he's been excellent...

When Amar'e rolls to the basket, the D swallows him and Felton doesn't have anyone to dish it to on the roll. It makes some of his plays seem awkward, but that's not his fault.

[Purdman]

Fields and Gallo and Turiaf have to be in the game vs. the zone. Whenever the other team goes zone we should go Felton, Fields, Gallo, Amare, Turiaf.

Fields knows when to cut and moves the ball quickly. Turiaf is a great passer from the high post. Gallo can bang the three ball, and felton can penetrate when appropriate. Guys like Wil and Toney just don't seem effective against the zone. Maybe Mozgov instead of Amar'e, since he probably has tons of zone experience from his time in Europe.

[Purdman]

Also, Amar'e's hands are much worse than David Lee's off the pick and roll. Some dishes Lee would have easily grabbed and stuffed, Amar'e has fumbled. The guy has butter fingers so far. Nash must have really been putting his passes right on the money because Amar'e doesn't appear to be too good at catching on the move.