How do we fix our defense?

[Knicksfan1992]

I see people still don't understand that rim protection and 3's can be correlated to one another. If a team knows they have a poor rim protector then they are going to be more inclined to help because layups and dunks still have a much higher expected value than 3's do. If you simply just stay home while leaving just KAT as your primary rim deterrent you're going to get torn to shreds at the rim. Plus they bring a much greater chance of getting fouled than 3's do as well. FT's are obviously a very efficient way to score.

Conversely, if the other team knows you have poor rim protection and are going to over rotate they can exploit that too to generate open 3's.

There's not a lot of things the Knicks could do to fix their issues (in the regular season) until Precious or Mitch come back because KAT is going to almost exclusively play the 5 and guard other 5's until they're back... In the playoffs I suspect they are going to try to "hide" Kat by putting him on someone who doesn't get into the action very often and OG will be the main rim deterrent but they want to lighten OG's load in the regular season and not have him consistently banging around with bigs in the regular season.

Mikal needs to be more resistant at the POA. Knowing KAT has poor technique in pretty much every coverage, Mikal needs to fight harder through screens. It's gotten better over the past few weeks but he's been nowhere near good enough for the role he's in.

You're not benching Mikal after trading what you did for him so he's gotta figure it out. And benching Hart for Deuce seems insane given how Josh has played. You also may become too light on rebounding in the starting lineup without Hart and 2nd unit offense may suffer without Deuce's floor spacing.

Switching may work but teams are smart enough to still take advantage of switching in ways that are just as damaging as when you screw up your base defense....And asking KAT to constantly guard out on the perimeter against PG's could be just as disastrous and way more draining.

Again like I said earlier, the best medicine would be getting someone who can play alongside KAT who can force him to not have to be put in action every time down the court. Or, at the very least make teams have to put one of their secondary screen options in it.

Precious is a little undersized but he's much more fundamentally sound than KAT. You won't have as many glaring errors that completely collapse your defense with Precious as you will with KAT. And he's not a complete zero on offense either! He also allows you to switch way more comfortably. I think Precious will make a big impact once he's healthy.

I'm not as excited with Mitch coming back because you almost all have to play drop with Mitch. He's really good at it but, there are teams that can eviscerate drop coverage even if you have an elite C playing it. Also he's pretty much a zero on offense and his offensive rebounding is much less additive with a team that is as good as ours at scoring. but again he will help on some level defensively and in the right matchups is a massive addition. I just don't rate him much for round 2 and beyond in the playoffs. I think certain teams can play him off the floor.

[Galou]

Start Ariel Hukporti until Mitchell Robinson and Precious Achiuwa come back.

Simple

[Tomato Sauce]

Mitch/rim defender next to KAT. Kat should play most of his minutes at the 4. The twolves had it right.

Move Bridges to the bench where if you stack things correctly, he can have a higher usage.

Mitch/KAT/OG/Hart/Brunson
KAT/OG/Bridges/Hart/Brunson

Are just a couple of the lineups you can consider to close our games.

I doubt we will move Towns to the 4 and Bridges to the bench, but I think it makes sense.

If Bridges was playing as a plus defender and/or able to hit the three, perhaps I would see it differently, but right now...

Love this idea. Or Hart to the bench. Either or. Keep their minutes and usage high, just need to stagger our talent to get more use out of them.

Sitting Bridges in the corner isn’t really the best usage of his talent/ability.

[Tomato Sauce]

Having a better coach would help things also.

[Moose]

Mitch/rim defender next to KAT. Kat should play most of his minutes at the 4. The twolves had it right.

Move Bridges to the bench where if you stack things correctly, he can have a higher usage.

Mitch/KAT/OG/Hart/Brunson
KAT/OG/Bridges/Hart/Brunson

Are just a couple of the lineups you can consider to close our games.

I doubt we will move Towns to the 4 and Bridges to the bench, but I think it makes sense.

If Bridges was playing as a plus defender and/or able to hit the three, perhaps I would see it differently, but right now...

Love this idea. Or Hart to the bench. Either or. Keep their minutes and usage high, just need to stagger our talent to get more use out of them.

Sitting Bridges in the corner isn’t really the best usage of his talent/ability.

I just don't see it happening. It's almost too bold of a move to move Bridges to the bench and KAT to the 4. At least for this season.

But I think it gives us the best chance to win.

[Besart19]

Anyone have any ideas?

I'll start. Bring Mitch back and put him next to Towns in the Meantime play Precious next to towns. If Mikal doesnt get his defensive act together I purpose...

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WARNING - Thibs would never do this...
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....benching him for McCullar. McCullar is 6'6"/67" and does all the things thibs likes. He's not known for shooting but his defense and hustle have been compared to Josh Hart. This due will actually guard people. Promote OG to 3rd option - he's certainly capable of that. Then all of a sudden our bench is sick with Mikal , Hart Duece, Precious, and Payne.

Starting lineup

Mitch
Towns
OG - back to his natural position
McCullar
Brunson

Towns / Robinson
Achiuwa / Hart
Anunoby / Bridges
McBride / McCullar
Brunson / Payne

[sol537]

We didn’t send 5 firsts for Bridges to bench him. He’s gonna be given a very long leash to get right.

Hart is the one that needs to embrace the 6th man role. Precious next to KAT may be a great fit.

[RHODEY]

We didn’t send 5 firsts for Bridges to bench him. He’s gonna be given a very long leash to get right.

Hart is the one that needs to embrace the 6th man role. Precious next to KAT may be a great fit.

If benching him makes us better ..we should do it..picks or no picks. But of course he should be given a chance to reclaim his defensive reputation.

[Tomato Sauce]

We didn’t send 5 firsts for Bridges to bench him. He’s gonna be given a very long leash to get right.

Hart is the one that needs to embrace the 6th man role. Precious next to KAT may be a great fit.

Stop acting like coming off the bench is “benching him”

If he’s playing 35+ mins who cares if he starts or not. I want to see Mikal get more touches. He’s automatic from midrange.

[Woodsanity]

Our defense has looked awful so far. We can’t beat any competent team in the playoffs with this defense. Precious/Mitch/Deuce should help, sure, but I’m afraid it may not be enough to reach contention with the current core.

T-Wolve were ranked 1st on defense last season with Towns. We need to see how our defense works with a good rim protector. If we still do badly defensively with Mitch then yes there is a problem.

My main is concern is that Mitch is not reliable due to constant injuries.

Conley was a more competent defender than Brunson was last season and Gobert is on a higher level than Mitch. So having a "5" like Mitch or Precious next to KAT should help (instead of trotting Hart out there)... I don't think it will be enough.

Well I don't expect a top 1-5 defense.

If we can be around 10th defensively with elite offense its enough imo.

[Tomato Sauce]

Wait for Mitch and precious to return. That’s it. We have to wait it out.

[sol537]

Wait for Mitch and precious to return. That’s it. We have to wait it out.

Yes, hoping for the best... in the meantime, guys like Mikal, Hart, Brunson, and KAT all have to put in max effort on the defensive end and have to watch a ton of tape to be as effective as they physically can be on the defensive end. That's our only hope...

[cgf]

Wait for Mitch and precious to return. That’s it. We have to wait it out.

Pretty much. But that means we’re banking on Mitch to stay healthy throughout the playoffs, which makes me a little queasy.

Would feel a lot better about our defense if we could use Dadiet + WSH FRP to swap Sims for Kessler before the deadline…hopefully he sabotages their tank too much for Danny to hold onto him lol

[KnixinSix]

#1 Team defense takes time to gel when you have 4 out of 5 new starters in the lineup. Both for the coaches and the players

#2 Mutliple directions they can go when Mitch/Precious return (if there is no trade for Kessler or Poetl )

22-24 minutes of game
5 Towns
4 OG
3 Bridges
2 Hart
1 Brunson

5-7 minutes of game
5 Towns
4 Precious (becomes your rim protector)
3 OG
2 Bridges/Hart
1 Brunson/Payne

3-5 minutes of game
5 Mitch
4 Towns
3 OG
2 Bridges/Hart
1 Brunson/Payne

Remaining 15 minutes KAT on bench....


5 Mitch/Precious
4 OG
3 Bridges
2 Hart/McBride
1 Brunson/Payne

That lineup gets you better rim protection options than we have now on the floor for like 24-26 minutes a game.

This team is on the verge of becoming a serious serious threat

[Context]

Wait for Mitch and precious to return. That’s it. We have to wait it out.

Exactly! and we continue to play together with the goal of getting better every single day with
which ever team mates are available...

[Garbagelo]

less Brunson + KAT playing together likely fixes the defense but the offense suffers

think it might be better to just have a potentially legendary offense + average defense when those 2 are on the court at same time

[Jose7]

Duece is back.

Looking forward to precious as well…

Team will look a lot different in February.

Literally 16 games ? Brand new team. Exciting stuff

[RHODEY]

Watch on YouTube

[thebuzzardman]

Bench Mikal

[sol537]

1. Start Precious over Hart
2. Play Bridges and Hart under 33 mins so they can go harder on defense
3. Replace Sims with Mitch when he returns
4. Incorporate more switches on picks... way more
5. Stagger KAT and Brunson's minutes more so they play together less.

We have the talent to get into the top 12 of defense... no reason we should be this pathetic. This is mainly on Thibs.