Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau only can hope the 2021-22 Knicks will be as nasty a defensive team as last season’s history-making unit.
The reigning NBA Coach of the Year/defensive mastermind knows it will be a challenge to duplicate 2020-21 when the Knicks turned the World’s Most Famous Arena into the Garden of Defense.
According to an NBA source, Thibodeau lobbied hard to bring back the team’s defensive heart-and-soul in starting shooting guard Reggie Bullock but team brass went another direction. The coach was disappointed.
The Knicks could have had the free agent for roughly the same three-year, $30.5 million package ($25 million guaranteed) the Mavericks offered him, according to a source. But on Day 1 of practice Tuesday, Bullock was in the Big D, not leading the Knicks D.
Knicks president Leon Rose didn’t even need cap space to re-sign Bullock because the Knicks held his Early Bird Rights.
As much as point guard Elfrid Payton disappeared offensively late in the season, his physicality and size aided the Knicks’ vaunted defense, too.
With Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier swapped in for Payton-Bullock, it’s hard to imagine the Knicks’ defense being as stingy.
Maybe it won’t affect last season’s .569 winning percentage because of an offseason improvement plan of pumping up the offense with more 3-point shooting, but they may have a slightly different identity.
“There’s the challenge of being strong on both sides of the ball,’’ Thibodeau said. “So we feel that we have to make that same commitment. Defensively, it was one of the best in history in terms of points allowed, field-goal percentage and 3-point percentage. Maybe the commitment goes away and we can’t be that. I think one of the things that really helped us last year was our commitment to play for each other.’’
The players have talked about becoming a faster-paced team (they were dead last in pace last season) and aim to launch more 3-pointers. Last season, the Knicks ranked 24th in 3-point frequency (percentage of total shots that are 3-pointers).
“Obviously losing Elfrid and losing Reggie, those are two huge pieces for us last year,’’ All-Star Julius Randle said. “They did a lot for our team. Those guys had the toughest assignments on defense every night. They were tremendous for us. They were great teammates. They were like brothers to me, so it was tough losing them.’’
Will the Knicks lead the NBA in the three major defensive stat categories like they did last season?
They were tops in points per game allowed (104.7), opposing field-goal percentage (.440) and opposing 3-point field-goal percentage (.337). Thibdoeau’s club was just the second team in NBA history to lead the league in those three major defensive categories. The other was Pat Riley’s Knicks of 1992-93. Great company.
“I feel like we gotta keep growing as a team,’’ Derrick Rose said. “Defensively, we were great last year. I think our staple was defense. Now that I feel like we got better on the offensive side of the ball, it’s about adding little things. Last year, we only shot 30 3s [per game]. This year, now we have 3-point shooters. We gotta get up to 37-40 attempts.”
Actually, they’ve got to find a perimeter defensive stopper who succeeded as well as Bullock did last season. Fournier is hard-nosed, can shoot the 3 and create off the dribble. Thibodeau noted he’s more than a 3-and-D guy because he can create for himself. Except Fournier is more of a “3-and-d’’ — as in lower case.
Who gets the opponent’s most dangerous perimeter sniper is what training camp will determine. If not Fournier, it’s third-year man RJ Barrett, who didn’t get drafted third for his defense.
“Being a two-way player is always something I strive for,’’ Barrett said Monday. “That’s how I want to be known. If coach puts me in the position to be that guy guarding that guy every night, I’m all for it. I’m up for the challenge.”
In the analytic spectrum, the Knicks went from 23rd in defensive rating in 2019-20 to fourth last season with much the same group, save for their first-year coach in Thibodeau.
If that rating falls in 2021-22, it’s hard to imagine the Knicks being as successful as last season’s gemstone of a 41-31 campaign. A healthy Mitchell Robinson at center, along with Nerlens Noel, will help as Thibodeau raved about the Knicks’ potential “rim protection” Tuesday.
But Robinson is still being treated like a pane of glass.
“I think the biggest thing last year was we came in, we did the right things every day.’’ Randle said. “Because we created those good habits, we had a plan for what we were doing every night. It doesn’t change. We just want to stand by that.”
But will they stand for, “Dee-fense, Dee-fense, Dee-fense”
Thibodeau is never happy but he was happy about the 2020-21 “Dee-Fense.”
“I think that was one of the things our team was great at last year,’’ Thibodeau said.
The Link LonkSeptember 29, 2021 at 06:45AM
https://nypost.com/2021/09/28/knicks-will-have-hard-time-duplicating-their-stingy-defense/
Knicks will have hard time duplicating their stingy defense - New York Post
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