Diagnosing the Knicks Defensive Woes
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Many gifs play with sound. Please mute the tab if you wish not to be disturbed. They will not autoplay; that would be rude. H/t for gifs: 3ball.io.
The Knicks were blown out on their home floor on January 2 by the Orlando Magic after allowing 15 threes on 31 attempts. This long-range barrage has become commonplace against New York. In their five game losing streak, they have surrendered 69 threes on 178 attempts (39%). Entering the game against Orlando, they ranked in the bottom third of the league in Defensive Rating, opponents points off turnovers, opponents 2nd chance points, opponents fast-break points, and opponents points in the paint. Throughout their losing streak, they have given up the most threes in the league, and teams are attempting threes on 40% of their possessions against the Knicks.
Individually, the players the Knicks rely on for defensive success have not fared well. While they boast three ‘positive defenders’ in Courtney Lee, Kristaps Porzingis and Joakim Noah in their starting lineup, that lineup has a 107.9 defensive rating, matching the team’s overall mark. When Lance Thomas is on the court, the team has its worst defensive rating (112.3), and Joakim Noah has the worst mark for a big man (109.5). O’Quinn does not fare much better (108.7), and the team’s only players with passable marks for their time on the floor are Holiday and Porzingis (107.2 and 106.0 respectively). Carmelo Anthony has struggled defensively most of the season, and when he is off the court, the Knicks boast an impressive defensive rating of 103.1 (in fairness, their ORtg is 99.2). When Porzingis is off the court, the Knicks have a horrid 112 defensive rating and give up offensive rebounds 30% of the time.
Regardless of some poor individual marks, the team’s defensive issues are the result of a combination of actors, and factors. While casually tuning into a Knicks game may point out those woes to the eye, the numbers paint an oddly complicated picture. For example, according to NBA.com, the Knicks rank in the top half of the league defending isolations, the ball-handler and roll-man in pick and roll, as well shooters off handoffs, screens, and cuts.
So what’s the problem? One factor is the team’s defensive game-plan on a nightly basis as it relates to their opponent. A second is players’ effort in isolation and transition situations along with the unrequited expectation of help defense. A third is the team’s scheme that seems to funnel their wings into the paint and results in a high volume of 3pt attempts, and the fourth is poor communication in the pick and roll, which often leaves players out of position in vulnerable circumstances.
Transition Defense
New York is in the league’s bottom third in transition defense, giving up 1.13 points per possession. Teams go to the foul line 15.8% of the time, which is 7th worst in the league, and the Knicks rarely force turnovers in transition.
Watch below as the Knicks allow a transition opportunity to Al Horford. Courtney Lee swipes at him in the open floor and is late to his assignment in the corner, the Knicks sacrifice an open three. Joakim Noah was complaining to the official, and both Porzingis and Anthony sagged into the paint when they saw Lee challenge the ball, so all coverages were blown from the point of the rebound.
Many of the Knicks’ mistakes in transition are due to poor communication. On this play, Anthony closes hard on the corner three after the Pelicans advance the ball down the court quickly. He gets beat off the dribble, but makes an effort to block the ball after he falls out of position. Anthony would reasonably expect help in the paint, but the Knicks fail to communicate, Hernangomez is late, and the Pelicans get an easy layup.
Once again, after Derrick Rose is beat off the dribble, the help is late in transition.
The Knicks’ communication issues continue here. On the play below, Lance Thomas falls down on a missed shot, and nobody picks up his man (Ariza) in transition. Anthony could have forced another pass if Rose communicated the imbalance properly, but they sacrificed an open three.
Unfortunately, the Knicks preponderance for giving up open threes is not alone in transition. There are plenty to be had in the half court as well.
Defending the Perimeter
The Knicks give up the fourth most wide-open threes per game in the NBA. Spot up shooters are scoring 1.03 points per possession against New York, which places them in bottom ten in the league.
Sometimes, the Knicks sag slowly into the paint and allow open jumpers out of what seems like a lack of focus.
Here’s the sagging problem again. There is no purpose in Rose helping towards the paint as both Anthony and Noah are helping off the ball. Yet, he leaves position just long enough to allow a three in the opening minutes of the game.
On this play, at a crucial point in the Christmas game against the Celtics, Kyle O’Quinn sagged completely off Olynyk onto Jerebko as Porzingis showed on the Thomas drive, and allowed an open three.
Sagging, or peeling towards the ball-handler in pick and roll seems to be part of the team’s defensive scheme, and it leaves the defense vulnerable to easy threes off the first pass out of the action. Below, Anthony shuffles towards Tyreke Evans despite a well-covered pick and roll with Rose and Porzingis. The few steps he takes towards the ball handler allow a relatively open three from the wing on the kick-out.
Other times, Knicks defenders will make no effort to fight over screens against guards that happily launch when given space from deep.
Issues like the above, compounded by crucial errors like the ones below make one consider the struggles for New York in the game-planning department. After a well-defended pick and roll, Lee is switched onto Al Horford, who gets away with a questionable hook in the post. Noah comes from across the paint as the primary help, and Rose is caught between deciding between covering two Celtics on the wing. This amounts to a blown rotation, and it leaves Smart open on a major possession in the game, who drains a three after the Knicks had made a tremendous comeback.
The Knicks are 2nd last in the league in second chance points given up with 14.9 per game. The reason they rank so poorly is evident below. Off a miss and offensive rebound, the Knicks are often discombobulated, and fail to relocate their assignments defensively. The Rockets wisely space the floor as they relapse into their system, and find an open man in the corner.
The Knicks’ issues covering the perimeter often blend into their confusion in pick and roll situations. While they rank well defending both the ball-handler and roll-man, they are often susceptible to situations like the one below. Here, Noah is caught completely out of position by the Davis screen, and it forces Thomas to overextend his help in the paint. The team is once again a rotation late and they allow an open corner three.
Those communication issues in pick and roll are apparent again below, as Porzingis asks for a switch onto Davis, but Holiday and Rose miscommunicate on the bearer of the responsibility, and Holiday flashes to the perimeter. This forces Anthony to stay home on the Davis cut to the rim, and leads to an open three in the corner.
Pick and Roll Communication
The Knicks’ issues in pick and roll are well documented. Teams often attack it, and Derrick Rose faces seven possessions per game against the ball handler in PnR, the highest frequency in the league. He is defending those possessions relatively well (.78 ppp), however, numbers can be deceiving.
As well, Porzingis has not fared well defending the roll man this season. He places in the 39th percentile and in the top 5 of quantity of possessions in the league where he guards the roll man. This poor mark is slightly deceiving, as he is often left covering for Rose’s poor effort and a lack of communication from the guard side.
Rose once again gives up on the play below, but beyond the lack of effort to recover on the drive, there is also no reason to cover Thomas out to half court. He is caught in the screen at 30 feet out, and Thomas is able to use his speed to get downhill towards the rim for a layup.
Sometimes the mistakes are mental. After cutting the Houston lead to three in the fourth quarter, Joakim Noah sags deep into the paint as the Rockets set up a stagger action on the perimeter. The second screen is a decoy, Noah is late to recover and he is out of position when Harrell beats him by rolling to the rim for another layup.
On poor defensive teams, one mistake leads to another and the defense lacks the awareness to recover. Knicks players often hedge too hard on a screen, and that mistake causes a chain reaction forcing each rotation to come a split second late and often a layup or three for the opposition. Below, N’dour is ineffective covering the Anderson screen, and Holiday has no help to his right. Noah is forced to make a late rotation to play the ball, then Kuzminskas makes another late rotation and a half-hearted attempt to impact the shot, which leads to a three point play for Houston.
The Knicks sit at 16–18 with a home and home upcoming against the Bucks, a difficult matchup for any team. New York’s defense is currently fundamentally flawed in approach, personnel and communication in critical points of the game. They must attempt to re-examine their scheme to run teams off the three point line and revert their focus towards getting stops early and often in pick and roll situations. The season is not lost, but it may spiral out of control quickly unless changes are made quickly on the defensive side of the ball.
