I agree Nash is not a defensive upgrade, but he's not Terrible either he puts in the effort to keep his man in front of him, he's not always successful but he does put in the effort. The run and gun suns were never a defensive mentality team and Nobody on the Knicks were Defensive minded to begin with minus Shump, Chandler and jeffries and they were the reason this Knicks team improved on defense gradually.
Defense does win games, but what happens when you do play defense then rely on one man (Carmelo) to make every shot for you because your offense is stagnant? I've witnessed Mario Chalmers put his foot up Lin's a$$ and completely take him out his game, Lin will be good for us for long time purposes, but right now we want to win Melo is in his prime,Chandler is in his prime, Stat is still somewhat in his prime on the road to declining.
I dont think keeping Lin and signing Nash is a step back it's a huge improvement. Nash can mentor Lin, and Nash is probably our best shot to beat the heat in reality. Last i checked Nash almost took his Suns team to the playoffs this year in the WEST with a limited roster, and if im not mistaken he led the league in assits. Pairing him back up with Amare, gives us the best of Amare, takes a load of pressure off Melo and also makes chandler effective on both ends of the floor. If you have a chance to bring nash to the knicks you do it. a Nash/Lin tandem at the point is probably the best PG rotation in this league.
What do you prefer? A floor general Steve Nash OR Lin coming pass half court to set up Melo or Stat for a 1 vs 1 iso?
sign a Knock down shooter who also plays defense and insert him into the starting lineup and you got yourself a legit playoff run.
Plus you'll have shump coming back in January, i think the defense would be just fine in the long run. Mike woodson is a defensive minded coach and when ever your coach demands defense your players will make the effort to play defense, we saw it with Melo and Jr last season. We also saw Woodson get on Amare when he would not put in the effort on defense, i think next season overall we will see a much higher defensive effort from this team.