A deeper look into our biggest problem: Consitency

[mikeaman]

Woodson is a good coach. He perfects the art of coaching smart while looking stupid.

[N8theGR8]

In my opinion, the Woodson Knicks are the most consistent Knicks team I've seen in over a decade.

[N8theGR8]

Woodson is a good coach. He perfects the art of coaching smart while looking stupid.

Mr. Weber, we can't all look pretty even while getting fired as you do.

[cragganmor]

it all boils down to ball movement, not settling for perimeter jumpers. when we can't get in the lane, we dribble and pass on the perimeter and panic as the shot clock clicks down. have to have composure, willing to milk the clock get a quality shot. having a healthy, effective pg would help but our roster is set. the one thing i haven't seen from woody are some set plays with off-ball screens to free up novak and melo, our most consistent outside shooters. it might also help baron and bibby, too. anything to break those scoring droughts, get some rhythm back into our offense when everything runs cold.

[knicksfan4life]

I'm not sure consistency is a problem. Let's face it the offense will struggle sometimes with average PG play and reliance on J.R. Smith to be a major scorer. Without a PG the flow will come and go and we all know J.R. is the streakiest shooter of all time. I think these things are to be expected, we don't really have a post up big man (aside from Melo but he's consistent) so you can't just dump the ball in the post and get a bucket ...

Most importantly, the consistency has come defensively ... anyone think Tyson Chandler gets defensive player of the year ? I'm sure he's in contention with Howard and KG. Team has been bringing it on that end all day every day. That's really going to be what wins/loses games for this team.

[jhovarules]

Whether or not we lose big leads doesn't matter as long as we win the game in the end.

Your thread should be re-titled not about consistency but about losing big leads which really is not that much of a big deal as long as you eventually win the game.

Hopefully its something that they can get better at, but losing leads is not my concern...just winning. Its the NBA...teams always go on runs...thats just the way it is.

And in fact, they have been consistent since Woody has taken over....their defense has been great!.

[mikeaman]

A team always runs the risk of coming across as shallow and superficial. Less so now that I'm gone.

[bobhait]

we only lost 4 games in the last 17, and I keep reiterating this, but we've not lost even two in a row under Woodson, never mind long losing streaks... just for comparison, after we got Amar'e and until he resigned about a month ago, D'Antoni's Knicks had 5 separate losing streaks of 6 games or more. also, in the last 10 games we're 7-3. only the Pacers have been better (8-2) and Boston and Milwaukee as good during this last stretch. I'd say we're consistent enough at this point, especially considering 2/5th of our starting line-up is out with injuries, and our rotation big has been out until the start of this week.

[gradyandrew]

I'd also add that as of now our point differential is 6 in the league. I'd guess since the woodson take over it's probably top 3. Knicks are good. The only question we have to worry about is: can we win on the road?

[bobhait]

let's see... since Woodson took over we are 13-4, with 9 home wins, meaning we are 4-4 on the road. almost any team would be happy to have a .500 road record. plus, all things considered, the only road loss we weren't close enough in was to the Raptors.

the bigger picture is, if Woodson is at the helm and we have all our starters healthy from the start, plus make some roster upgrades, the Knicks will have no excuses to not juggernaut next season. and never mind the noise about Melo and STAT not being able to coexist. 1) Melo was finding his spots just fine when playing with Amar'e under Woodson, it's just that his shots weren't falling. defense, rebounding and assists were already there for him though, 2) Woodson will find a way to make it work long-term. what he managed to do with that Atlanta team, having everybody buy into his game plan on both sides of the ball, should be clear indication of him being able to do the same, and more, here.

[nazrmohamed]

Bobs on a roll and I agree. If you take the knicks record as a whole this season we're definatley inconsistent. We sucked prior to Woodson and now are playing elite basketball since. Our post Woodson record proves it, so under Woodson we ARE consistent.

I think what Knicksrus is refering to is our streaky nature within games and I think I have the answer hes looking for. BECAUSE WE STILL TAKE TOO MANY GADDAMN JUMPSHOTS. Im happy people love Woodsons intelligence in adopting Dantonis style of moving the ball and taking good shots but theres one thing about good shots. They are jumpshots. The knicks are a team who has only one great shooter thats always shooting instead of driving and getting to the foulline. Shumpert, Jr, Melo, Amare when healthy. Everybody on this team falls in love with taking jumpers which no matter how good and open are still lower percentage than a dunk, layup or foul shot. And thats why I didnt like Dantonis system. Cuz while the Heat, are high flying and getting all the calls we never look aggresive enough to win calls and are playing soft basketball.....on the offensive end, defense has been great. We still do, but when you play defense that greatly helps.

[Mase in your face]

we only lost 4 games in the last 17, and I keep reiterating this, but we've not lost even two in a row under Woodson, never mind long losing streaks... just for comparison, after we got Amar'e and until he resigned about a month ago, D'Antoni's Knicks had 5 separate losing streaks of 6 games or more. also, in the last 10 games we're 7-3. only the Pacers have been better (8-2) and Boston and Milwaukee as good during this last stretch. I'd say we're consistent enough at this point, especially considering 2/5th of our starting line-up is out with injuries, and our rotation big has been out until the start of this week.

yep. /thread

sounds pretty damn consistent to me.

other than that, shuffling lineups due to an injury would explain any other inconsistencies

[Mase in your face]

considering the OP couldn't even spell the word consistency right in the thread title, i had a feeling i wasn't going to be overwhelmed with logic in the beginning of this thread

[KnicksRUs]

considering the OP couldn't even spell the word consistency right in the thread title, i had a feeling i wasn't going to be overwhelmed with logic in the beginning of this thread

Big difference from a misspell and a typo bud.

And I think I'll leave it there for your enjoyment.

[bobhait]

nazr, I think we are more of a jumpshooting team now out of necessity. who in our current rotation is capable of banging in the paint full-time? and all the non-calls that happen down there, if Carmelo went to work in the paint full-time we'd be talking about him the same way we are about STAT and Lin - far as hoping to see him come back before too late in the season. besides, our rotation bigs, Jorts and Jeffries, are coming back from injuries, and far as offense goes are definitely out of shape, but they'll give us enough effort on the boards and defense to help carry the team.

besides all that, gotta realize that even the hottest teams go through cold stretches within games. I mean, take the Bulls game from last Sunday for example, we couldn't be any hotter to start it, but Chicago slowly chipped away, and it was their advantage down the stretch. what's more important is, when needed our defense stepped it up big time. the Bulls didn't score a single point after making a 2-pointer at 3:45 remaining to the end of regulation, allowing the Knicks to run off 10 straight points to push it into overtime. we were down by 4 in OT at the 2:51 mark, and the Bulls didn't get anything else the rest of the way. usually you'll get one solid defensive stand against a quality opponent, we got two against the team with the best record in the league.

[nazrmohamed]

I just think there are two types of teams in this league, and yes Im gonna oversimplify for a sec. Teams like the Heat and teams like the Magic. We fall into the Magic mold where its always gonna be about whether or not we make our jumpshots. To me jumpshots are subject to cold streaks, hot streaks and its almost to the point where its beyond your control, again I mean strictly on offense. We got basically one great distance shooter in Novak and one great midrange shooter in Melo. If it were me everyone else would be making cuts to the basket ( Fields, Stat, Chandler)or getting to the basket off the dribble ( Shumpert, Jr Smith). And of course Melo would split his time shooting and driving as well.

Anyway, im not trying to say that my suggestion is all they should be looking to do or even amajority of the time but to me without any stats in front of me, my perception is that we take 9 jumpshots to every one drive to the basket. To me it should be 7-3. We let defenses off too easy, never putting them into foul trouble and giving them huge defensive rebounding advantages. We always seem to worry about a Derreck Rose or Wade or some teams slasher. I think we got our own two in Shump and Smith, Melo as well and we allow them to settle on jumpshots.

Shumpert could average another 3 pts if he just drove aggresivley and got a couple of free throw attempts.

[KnicksRUs]

*bows*

I'll take pictures. No autographs