Derek Fisher Sees The Knicks as “Too Passive”

Getting off to a slow start this year, the Knicks seem to be focusing on “the right play” as opposed to going out and letting natural instincts take over.

Before last night’s game. Derek Fisher spoke to the media about the team and how it has been a slow start to the season. Like I have talked about in almost every recap, the Knicks have been way too robotic and pass happy instead of attacking the basket. Coach Fisher finally spoke up about the topic as it has become a concern for him as well.

"“We have a lot of guys that aren’t being aggressive and playing with their instincts, and they’re being passive a little bit right now, trying to fit in to the team chemistry,” Fisher told reporters Monday."

He certainly hit this on the head. The Knicks went from a team in disarray with absolutely no offensive game plan with Mike Woodson, to attempting to be perfectionists on offense. When this happens, the Knicks have found themselves taking bad shots late in the possession, when they could have just shot a gap five seconds earlier. Of course the lane to the basket isn’t always there, but sometimes it’s almost like the Knicks forget that they can take a shot in the paint. Leading the league in mid-range jump shots per 48 minutes is never going to be a recipe for success with this roster.

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New York is filled with talented athletes that can play the game above the rim. Instead, guys are settling for shooting a 25 footer as opposed to trying to dunk on their defender. I would much rather see the J.R. Smith drive at his man and dunk over him (or at least try to) than take a fadeaway 18 footer. This trend is killing the Knicks at the free throw line. New York is averaging the fewest free throw attempts per game in the entire NBA. So not only are they settling for jump shots, but they are also allowing opposing centers to stay in the game longer instead of getting them in foul trouble.

Melo had a pretty significant comment on the team’s offensive struggles as well.

"“It’s easy to move away from them when you lose a basketball game and say, I’m going to try to do something on my own, try to do it another way,” Anthony said. “Through this time, we have to continue sticking with what we’ve been taught and what we’ve been working on from day one. We can’t alter away from that.”"

If you have been watching the most recent games, you know that this is one of the more conflicting statements to be made by Anthony. The Washington and Detroit games were perfect examples of Melo saying, “screw this, I’m going to try and score on my own.” And last year that worked! He was the only chance of the Knicks winning a basketball game. However, this year the Knicks are running the Equal Opportunity offense where Melo will not have the ball in his hands as much as he did last year. He is doing a much better job passing this year (team high 4.4 assists per game), but he begins to force shots when he hasn’t touched the ball in a while.

The bottom line is that this offense is going to take a while to get used to. The Knicks do not have the right personnel to succeed in this type of game plan and are certainly going to struggle without their starting point guard. When Jose Calderon gets back, I think it will be interesting to see how much better the Knicks look on offense. He is the type of guy that will control the game by putting guys in position to get easy baskets. Right now, nothing is coming easy for the Knicks. Until they realize that they are playing basketball instead of taking an exam, the Knicks could be in for a long year.