New York Knicks: One Change Every Starter Must Make After All-Star Break

Courtney Lee: Defensive Consistency

Position: Shooting Guard
Age: 31 (10/3/1985)
Experience: 9th Season
2016-17 Slash Line: .465/.423/.846
2016-17 Season Averages: 31.4 MPG, 10.5 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 2.1 APG, 0.9 SPG, 1.5 3PM

New York Knicks shooting guard Courtney Lee has been both a bright spot and a player with room for improvement. He’s beginning to shoot more confidently in recent weeks, but he needs to improve the consistency with which he performs on both ends of the floor.

If the Knicks are going to turn the 2016-17 season around, then Lee will need to be one of the players who anchors the improvement on defense.

Lee is a solid defensive player who can capably defend all three perimeter positions. He’s also surrounded by two below-average defenders in Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose, which has thus thrust him into a role of lockdown defender.

Lee doesn’t necessarily need to lock down multiple positions, but he must provide a consistent level of effort on the defensive end of the floor.

New York’s defense has been atrocious overall, and Lee isn’t the player to point the finger at for the team’s struggles. If he manages to defend at a high level on a nightly basis, however, it will be much easier to point the finger at the players who don’t.

Lee is capable of defending at a high level, but he can’t let the inconsistency of those around him rub off on the way he plays the game.