It’s been a rough season for the 2018 champions. Knicks Gaming has struggled its way to a miserable 1-7 record on the year, good for residence in the league’s basement, and lineup changes and archetypes switches have done little to salvage matters. Once again, the Knicks are reliant on the Ticket Tournament to bring them a playoff spot. Can they find the magic once again?
What’s taking place on the court to make Knicks Gaming, who returned four of its six players from last season, so bad? Let’s take a look at clips taken from last night’s game, a 81-75 loss to Celtics Crossover Gaming.
Rust is no longer an excuse for Adam or for the team as a whole. He’s averaging 5.1 assists per game alongside 4.1 turnovers. Last season he notched over 10 assists and 3.3 turnovers per game. Part of it has to do with his reduction in floor spacing: last year, he took six three-pointers per game and hit 46% of them, while this year he’s down to 4.6 per game on sub-43% shooting. His scoring has dropped six points.
But part of it has to do with simply making the wrong read, an issue to which few point guards are immune. He’s reliant—too reliant—on Goofy as a roll man that he misses open players like Hazzaa:
AdamMissedRead (Week7)
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I like this backscreen by Goofy, attempting to open up space for Malik.
KnicksPoorPlayExecution (Week7)
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But the defense plays it well. The pass is made late and without recognition that the defense has it pretty well covered. Here’s that play, in its second segment (Goofy slipping the backscreen for an oop), similarly covered:
GoofySlipScreen (Week7)
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Reads aside, Adam is actually a fairly good offball defender.
AdamHelpDefense (Week7)
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Most corner defenders in this league either stay home 99% of the time or help 99% of the time. Adam reacts to the situation more. He gets burned at times, as does every corner defender, but Adam helps smartly more often than not.
Offball defense is not Malik’s strong suit. Positioning. Awareness.
MalikPoorPositioning (Week7)
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In any way, shape, or form. Agility. Recovery.
MalikPoorDefense (Week7)
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The flip side is that Malik can really shoot. Like, really shoot. He’s not the best at creating his own shot—the league meta, and the archetypes he’s mostly played on, haven’t allowed him to really do what he did in Pro-Am. The Knicks need to do more to create open looks for him and get him moving more, leaving the defense behind. Malik has borne the brunt of the Knicks’ long-range shooting attack, taking nearly 7 three-pointers per game (12.7 FG attempted per game) and hitting at just under 42%. He’s scored 14.2 points per game.
He’s also turned the ball over an egregious 5.1 times per game. That’s impermissible. The Knicks as a team have committed 15.6 turnovers per game. That’s dead last in the league.
Their team offense is middling, ranking twelfth in the league with 59.2 points per game. But their offense comes unilaterally from Adam/Goofy pick-and-rolls or Malik shooting, with the usual cut thrown in here and there. It’s predictable. Watch Bully run to play pick and roll defense before Goofy goes to set the screen.
BulleyPnRDefense (Week7)
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Yikes.
Give me more of these double screens. Malik is enough of a shooter that you can have him moving, drawing the attention of the defense. Give Adam room to shoot.
KnicksDoubleScreenTrey (Week7)
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Goofy has taken on a huge burden. He’s mostly lived up to it, banging down low and grabbing enough rebounds to keep the Knicks afloat with second chance points. He’s not a great interior passer. He gets rebounds, and he likes to shoot. But he’s frustrated. It’s apparent every game. It’s unclear how that’s manifesting itself.
Defensively, the team is a sieve. Even competent defenders like Hazzaa have gotten burned.
ProfusionBackCut (Week7)
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Good teams don’t make this many mistakes. The backcourt is a net negative defensively. The lock has been the team’s most-changed role, going from Yey to Hazzaa to Idris to Yey. All those changes break down any chemistry between Goofy, at center, and whoever the primary pick-and-roll defender is.
Idris, at lock or slashing defender, is interesting. It’s better for the team if he’s on the slashing defender. He still leaks out too early, and his on-ball defense won’t give you the same stops that the best defenders supply. The slashing works for him, but he’s a high-volume offensive player on a team with too many of those. There’s no clear-cut lock, as the changes have shown, and the team defense—especially the defensive communication—isn’t good enough to compensate for that.
A lack of pick-and-roll defensive communication is a death sentence in this league. It allows for too many plays like this, especially against the best point guards. Their pick-and-roll defenders too often swarm to the ball and allow multiple seconds for the roll man to roam free.
KnicksPnRCommsOop (Week7)
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Good point guards torch that every time. The Knicks backcourt isn’t good enough defensively to help, shut down the roll, and get back. Adam can’t allow Mel to create this much space, especially with so little time left on the shot clock.
MelEastCornerBucket (Week7)
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The Knicks allow a league-worst 66.6 points per game. Their team defense hasn’t been good. Their on-ball defense hasn’t been good. They need to communicate more defensively. More awareness. Better positioning. Understand where the potential cut is coming and make sure you neutralize that before it can happen.
Offensively, the second-chance points are good. But that can’t be the main source. Run Malik around more, let him shoot off more screens. Those have to come with the right reads. Hazzaa is a good cutter, a workable shooter. Have him set the screen so that he can either roll or fade based on what the defense shows. Adam can hit some massive shots. He needs to do it more.
Here’s what one league player had to say about the Knicks:
“[They] simply aren’t a well built team… [Adam] is strictly shoot first. Malik is a better scorer but needs a lot of volume, which means their backcourt is two high volume shooters who lack defense. Couple this with Idris who is average at best at everything on the court you have a recipe for disaster. The two bright spots on the team are Hazzaa and Goofy, with Goofy playing selfishly to attempt to keep the boat afloat. With Goofy and Adam butting heads this team is just as talented as their record shows.”
It’s foolish to rely on the Ticket two years in a row. The Knicks would much rather not be reliant on it, but they’re 1-7, with little choice in their favor. They need to flip the switch just like last year. Fixing these mistakes will help.
