The New York Knicks have cooled off in the first few days of November.
After a 5-1 start, two consecutive losses to the Toronto Raptors and Indiana Pacers have taken the wind out of the Knicks’ sails. It’s early in the season, but there seems to be a growing sense of urgency to make sure that the losing and lack of defense doesn’t start to become a trend.
New York Knicks: Where is the defense?
A full-blown panic mode overreaction isn’t necessary for this New York Knicks team, but fans have every right to question the team’s defense right now.
This is a team built on a defensive reputation that they established last season.
Tom Thibodeau, a longtime defensive guru in the NBA, brought the same intense defense he has been renowned for in his long coaching career to the New York Knicks in his first season as their head coach.
While New York’s offense started out on fire and the team sits at a solid 5-3, the defense has fallen off of a cliff… so far.
There’s no reason to believe the team won’t improve on defense, but we’re not talking about going from a top-3 defensive team to a top-5 — NY has fallen near the bottom of the league in certain categories.
So what is going wrong for NY’s defense? Can they adjust and get back to where they were?
New York Knicks: Poor transition defense
Transition basketball only makes up a small fraction of a game, and yet, those few transition points can decide the outcome of a game.
The New York Knicks transition defense is a mess. Currently, the Knicks give up the 6th most fastbreak points per game. Last season, they gave up the 2nd fewest fastbreak points per game. It’s a drastic drop-off.
This may be a conversation about defense but New York’s offense is actually part of this. There was a lot of conversation this offseason about how with New York’s new additions of Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier, there would be more room for creativity on offense.
With all of the added playmaking and shooting ability, we’ve New York’s offense be more creative. Extra passes and quick drives to the rim are more frequent. The New York Knicks averaged the longest time-per-possession last season and have gone up from 30th to 23rd so far this year.
It’s been a transition in the team’s approach to basketball. A lot more threes, and a lot more extra passes, and just a new brand of basketball to what they were playing last season.
I don’t think the team is used to defending fastbreaks. At least, not this frequently.
The Thibodeau defense requires a ton of switching and overloading. It requires all five players to be in a set position and ready to make high-risk rotations.
In the transition game, they’ve been getting burned.
It’s been erratic in transition and there are some more baskets that the Knicks have given up that maybe didn’t “qualify” as transition points but were scored as the team was scrambling to get set.
Miscommunications and poor individual judgment have been to blame.
Is this just what this team is now? Or can they get back to the level of defense they played at last season?
New York Knicks: The defense should catch up
One of the most recurring themes when discussing this 2021-22 New York Knicks heading into the season was familiarity. The camaraderie of the team — bringing back almost the exact same roster in the 2nd year under Thibodeau and how the chemistry would be among the league’s best.
That may be true, but this team is clearly trying to evolve into something more than last year’s squad that was bounced in the first round. It’s resulted in some growing pains.
The only significant changes from last season, aside from the new rookies, were newcomers Evan Fournier and Kemba Walker into the starting lineup.
We’ve seen the good and the bad from the team so far.
The offense is clearly more dynamic, and although they’ve had stretches of inconsistency, the long-term outlook of the offense is much better than it was a season ago. As we get more completed games under our belts, we’ll see the new additions pay dividends late in games when the team needs buckets. We’ve seen that happen a few times already this season.
As it pertains to the defense, I think this is just an adjustment that the team can make with more experience in this new, more dynamic roster.
This has nothing to do with individual defensive ability. The idea that there has been a drastic dropoff in defense because of Fournier and Walker replacing Bullock and Payton doesn’t have much credence to it.
Eflrid Payton and Reggie Bullock are not “full-court” players, as a matter of fact, dealing with fast players are probably both of their biggest weaknesses.
The Knicks need more individual focus, repetition, and effort when defending in transition. Players from last season such as Julius Randle, Alec Burks, and Derrick Rose have to get used to the idea that they could be running more and playing a more full-court game.
Whatever it may be, just give it time. I would trust a Tom Thibodeau-led team to adjust on defense.