Chanel Bomber wrote:The Knicks had their best record after 55 games in almost 3 decades playing KAT at the 5.
Sure, the Knicks are a tier below the top 3 teams in the league currently. But to act like it has been a disaster is completely detached from reality.
There's always a tradeoff between offense and defense depending on where you play KAT. What matters is the point differential between the two. I guess we'll see how two-big lineups will perform on the whole, but the offense will obviously take a hit if you play KAT at the 4 vs the 5, even as the defense improves. The question is whether the tradeoff is beneficial - I have my doubts.
Having a rim protector is not some panacea that only solves our problems but doesn't hurt the team in other areas.
It is not really about rim protection though. I was watching the minutes that Mitch played when KAT was in foul trouble and he was consistently rotating out of drop coverage to the correct person when Memphis would swing the ball out of the pick and roll. In other games without Mitch or with KAT on the floor as center there would be wide open threes either on the corner or the elbow which was usually a blown rotation by KAT or someone making up for his slow feet. Mitch was obviously winded and a little out of game shape, but if he fixes our rotations by doing better drop coverage as a C than KAT, then we might have a chance against 3 point chuckers like Boston. The rim protection is a secondary bonus.
Just another note, Precious Achiuwa does great with the rotations on defense as well, but he's a below average rebounder and fails to end possessions. Mitch brings elite rebounding + rotation so that we don't have to rely on KAT to do it. After 50+ games I now understand why Minnesota brought in Gobert and I am happy to see Mitch moving around comfortably to play that same role.
