Knicks Rumors: Pros and cons of hiring Jerry Stackhouse

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MISSISSAUGA, CANADA – APRIL 10: Coach Jerry Stackhouse of the Raptors 905 huddles with his team during the game against the Austin Spurs during Round Two of the NBA G-League playoffs on April 10, 2018 at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Ron Turenne/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Pro: All About Defense

The New York Knicks don’t play home games. That’s no disrespect to the wonderful crowd at Madison Square Garden, but instead an acknowledgement that no one comes into The Mecca and takes a night off like they might at one of the 29 other venues.

Knowing that every star and team is going to give the Knicks their best effort at Madison Square Garden, there’s only one option in the pursuit of success: Lock in on defense.

Thankfully for the Knicks, Jerry Stackhouse is a coach who clearly values defense. He led Raptors 905 to the first championship in franchise history in 2016-17, and got the team back to the NBA G League Finals in 2017-18—and both runs were built on defense.

Raptors 905 ranked No. 1 in the G League in defensive rating in both 2016-17 and 2017-18, thus producing net ratings of +9.0 and +4.4.

For the Knicks, hiring a coach who’s all about defense would mean checking the most crucial of boxes. New York hasn’t ranked in the top 10 in defensive rating since 2011-12, and ranked No. 23 during the 2017-18 regular season.

If nothing else, Stackhouse can help establish the importance of defense to a team that simply won’t progress until it buys in on that end of the floor.

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