There’s no other way to put it. The New York Knicks are overmatched against the best teams in the league. This is a particularly concerning statement since they are a third seed themselves, armed with two All-Star starters. Yet, they don’t look like a functioning basketball team when they play against the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics. Against those teams and also the OKC Thunder, they are a brutal 0-7. Plus in each of these games – if this were a boxing match, their corner would throw in the white towel during the first round. It’s striking how good they are against mediocre opposition, and incompetent against better ones.
Boston raced to a 27-point lead early in Sunday’s matinee at the TD Garden while the Knicks were playing like they were stuck at Logan Airport. Incredibly, the Knicks lost by 37 points to the Cavaliers just 48 hours earlier. They are a confounding team; in essence, a 37-20 record is still very solid they have great players, particularly Jalen Brunson. Yet they are entirely non-competitive against teams with a similar record. There are numerous reasons for this, which we’ll get into below.
Knicks Are Overmatched Against the NBA’s Best
They Tried and Failed to Match the Celtics This Offseason
The Knicks’ front office decided to try to match Boston’s spacing and perimeter-centric style of play this offseason. By going all-in on Karl-Anthony Towns and the increasingly woeful Mikal Bridges; they felt better able to match the Celtics core. However, they overlooked one major aspect, defense. The Celtics’ two best players Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are excellent defenders. Comparatively, the Knicks two stars, Towns and Brunson are both deficient defensively. At least Brunson works hard, amongst the league leaders in drawn charges, but he’s still a poor defender. Towns on the other hand is an abject liability at center. This is an issue when coach Thibodeau asks his men to play drop coverage. It’s a risk schematically when most Knick starters can’t defend.
Furthermore, Derrick White, Luke Kornet, Payton Pritchard, and Jrue Holiday all make a positive impact on defense. Kristaps Porzingis also offers plenty of defensive value with his size, rim protection, and shot-blocking. Also, at least half of those players mentioned, have no issue bringing the ball up the court and handling the rock and much of their lineup can score in all three levels. The Knicks don’t.
As for the Knicks role players, their principal on-ball defender Mikal Bridges, has been dreadful this year with a defensive rating of 113.1 which ranks him 357th among NBA players. Plus the Metric PIE measuring impact has him 306th in the NBA. The Celtics routinely scheme KAT out of games; putting Holiday on him and freeing up Porzingis to defend their other shooters. Kornet even handles him comfortably. Furthermore, the Knicks are utterly lost trying to match up against Tatum.
The Knicks are afraid of attacking Boston’s paint. Bridges is afraid of contact down low, as is OG Anunoby. So is Towns, despite his size, he is more comfortable on the perimeter. Only Brunson and Josh Hart attack the paint consistently but they are undersized. No such issues for the Celtics. This comes down to real structural issues from the Knicks’ front office.
Coach Thibodeau Under Spotlight
I put much of being 0-7 and overmatched against the best teams, on personnel. Plus a lack of identity on the roster this year. I’ve always believed Thibodeau is a top-five Coach in this league, who’s done an incredible job in New York. However, despite the Knicks being overmatched against the best, they are not far enough away roster-wise to be blown out every time against these sides either. This speaks to some schematic issues.
For instance, Thibodeau insisted on going with drop coverage against Boston and Cleveland this weekend. The Knicks do not have any rim defenders on the roster until Mitchell Robinson is healthy. Thibodeau has to stop forcing his preferred scheme with players who don’t fit that scheme. Going to drop coverage, allowed Towns defensive issues at the rim to be exposed. Every time down the court it was either uncontested dunks at the rim or drives and kickouts to the perimeter for open threes. This speaks to a lack of attention to detail.
The Knicks’ lack of bench is well documented, as is Thibodeau’s notorious overuse of his starters. This is not a great combination. However, Miles McBride is a gritty, active defender. He’s a better matchup against Boston, so he should have replaced Bridges as the on-ball defender earlier. It was also a bad look when Towns limped out of the Celtics game late and couldn’t put pressure on his knee, for Thibodeau to send him back out there less than a minute later. It’s these instances, that exacerbate potential injuries – a needless risk during a blowout.
Defensively Overwhelmed
It was a huge oversight by the Knick front office not to replace Isaiah Hartenstein and expect Mitchell Robinson to be back early. It’s also a potential oversight to not be scouring the buyout market after sitting out at the deadline. They needed some rim protection and size at the wing and Center spots. They failed to do so. This does a disservice to their coach who requires rim protectors.
The Knicks are 29th in blocks, 20th in defensive rating, and 21st in opponent threes made. Against the Cavaliers, Donovan Mitchell exposed the Knicks’ schematic issues, by dicing them up for fun on 10-15 shooting before sitting out the rest of the blowout. The Cavs shot 51% from three during that game, and 60% overall. It was laughable how easily the Cavs did whatever they wanted. The Knicks simply do not have enough defenders to match Evan Mobley and Darius Garland, let alone superstar Donovan Mitchell.
Unquestionably, things should improve when Robinson comes back in the coming week. He answers much of the Knicks’ size and schematic issues. But it’s an unfair responsibility on someone who hasn’t played much in two years to fix their floundering defense himself. There needs to be better buy-in and hustle. The team is doing little to dispel the soft accusations this year.
Any Changes on the Horizon?
One possible change would be to swallow their pride and bench Mikal Bridges; he’s a liability defensively statistically, and McBride is a grittier defender. Since much of their issues stem from the point of attack and at the rim, inserting McBride and Robinson could fix that in the starting lineup. Bridges off the bench would provide some much-needed scoring from a moribund second unit.
The Timberwolves figured out very quickly that Towns cannot defend at center. The Knicks need to come to that realization pronto. He’s an unbelievable offensive force, but he’s too great a liability to start at the five and leave isolated. Pairing him with Robinson should finally add some size and rim protection.
The worst thing they can do is just ride the rest of the season out to get dog-walked in the playoffs. They need to use the last 20 games or so trying out different schemes and lineups to figure out a plan to compete against the Cavs and Celtics- the true benchmark. The offseason is a better opportunity to fix their blatant needs. However, the Knicks need to play much harder in games and have a far better schematic plan against the elite teams until then. It’s a bad defensive roster, but it shouldn’t be bad enough to be consistently blown out against the league’s top teams. Major reflection is needed in New York.
Photo credit: © Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images
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