New York Knicks: Avoiding a sophmore slump for Tom Thibodeau

New York Knicks: Stop Trae Young

Yea I’m serious. I don’t care that it was one playoff series. Finding a lock-down wing defender, that can also hold his own offense (sorry Frank), is paramount this offseason.

Young’s stat line versus the Knicks was absurd. He averaged 29.8 points per game, and 9.8 assists and shot 44 percent from the floor. I don’t know about you, but I don’t wanna see this next year…

Fortunately, there might be an answer. Drafting Baylor guard Davion Mitchell and/or signing Lonzo Ball. Obviously, Thibs is the coach and not a front office executive, but we’ve all heard reports about him lobbying for veterans and he clearly has Leon Rose’s ear. The goal, in this case, is to lobby for the right player.

Mitchell is head and shoulders above the crowd in terms of defensive prowess. He moves his feet well laterally, uses his chest and not his hands, to keep players in front of him. This past season, Mitchell was the Big 12’s Defensive Player of The Year and was named to the conference’s All-Defensive team for two seasons.

The Hardwood Herald’s Corey Taluba puts together a masterful scouting report, highlighting Mitchell’s defense on this year’s consensus number one pick, Cade Cunningham.

With Ball, in a recent article Jackson Frank writes that he is a “damn good defender”, however, his shortcomings as a point-of-attack defender can be masked if he’s allowed to roam the court in search of disrupting passing lanes. Ball has ranked at or above the 74th percentile in steal rate every year he’s been in the league.

In the end, it’s a team approach towards improving the Knicks. That being said, you can bet Thibs has the right assistant coaches and front office staff around him to meet these challenges head-on. Knicks fans can’t wait for year two of the Tom Thibodeau experience.