Lee's defense...

metrocard

metrocard

Legend
Has become an epidemic.
I understand we're not a defensive team.
But defense shouldnt be played this poorly.

David Lee...a former McDonalds All American Dunk contest winner, 2007 NBA T-Mobile Rookie Challenge MVP....NBA All Star who's 6"9 and 240 lbs and a rebounding machine. The talent is definitely there.

Why can't he take his rebounding intensity onto the defensive end?

What stops him from playing defense?

Lack of interest?
Physical inability?
Tanking on purpose?



If Lee played average defense, he would be a top 5 center in the NBA.
 
MSGKnickz33

MSGKnickz33

The Gold Mac
c/s this thread to the fullest...thats his one really big weakness

I have no idea why he doesnt play more defense, hes definitely capable of more on the defensive end. I can only think of one other player that was more frustrating to watch on defense, Mcflurry. Lee is average compared to him, but it kills me sometimes watchin him. I never thought he'd improve in other areas of his game the way he has, and his jumpshot can still improve so as good as hes become, he could be even better. But im not complaining, im happy with where hes at at least with offense and rebounding.
 
johnstarky

johnstarky

Rotation player
Lee is afraid that if he plays defense, he'll get injured and that it would prevent him from earning an expensive contract during the off season.
 
N

NYK 33 TaVe

Benchwarmer
I have never seen a guy be able to leap so much on offense for dunks and not be able to block a shot if his life depended on it.
 
knicksin60

knicksin60

Starter
The problem with Lee is that he would rather go for a rebound on the defensive end than actually attempt to block a shot because RBG, according to Lee, is a much sexier stat than BBG.
 
A

abcd

KnicksonLIN.com
I think it's just laziness. Lee can jump for rebounds and dunks. There's no reason for him to not be able to jump and block a shot. The same can be said about Eddy Curry. You can't be 6'11 and not be able to block shots unless you're choosing not to on purpose.

Lee would be more of an asset, if he averaged 14 points, 10 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks than his current 20 points, 11 rebounds, and .3 blocks.
 
mafra

mafra

Legend
I'm not here to defend LEE... pun intended. I was a better help defender, & I'm only 6"0' ...

Still, Lee should not be trying to man up NBA centers. They have 3 inches on him. He doesn't possess tremendous upper body strength, so he's vulnerable in the box (on the back-down).

Sure, Lee should be a much better help defender. He should at least alter shots, when guards drive to the hoop- or send a guy to the floor with hard fouls every now and then.

That's not his game though. He's improved his offensive game TEN-FOLD, so sure you wonder why he doesn't improve his defense?

Is it heart? Footwork? We know he aint Mason... so what is it?

The coach perhaps? DOes he stress defense? NOPE!

The contract? How many defensive stoppers get 8 mil a year? Unless I-Thomas is luring Jeffries or James to NY, it doesn't happen. Can you blame him for focusing on his jumper instead of his post defense?

The bottom line is he shouldn't be guarding centers.

What defied logic.... to me... was E-Curry and his lack of rebounding. By accident you would think he would scoop 8 rebounds a night. Rebounding to CUrry is like assists to N8, like Lee to defense!
 
CoolRunnings

CoolRunnings

Benchwarmer
you would think the guy would play defense after sir tim duncan gave him so much praise. But he is playing out of position night in night out. A centers responsibility is to protect the basket and lee can do both defend his man and roll out to make blocks.

Like Metro stated he has an amazing resume but its sad that hes been labeled such a bad defender.
 
J

JujuXG

Benchwarmer
mafra said:
I'm not here to defend LEE... pun intended. I was a better help defender, & I'm only 6"0' ...

Still, Lee should not be trying to man up NBA centers. They have 3 inches on him. He doesn't possess tremendous upper body strength, so he's vulnerable in the box (on the back-down).

Sure, Lee should be a much better help defender. He should at least alter shots, when guards drive to the hoop- or send a guy to the floor with hard fouls every now and then.

That's not his game though. He's improved his offensive game TEN-FOLD, so sure you wonder why he doesn't improve his defense?

Is it heart? Footwork? We know he aint Mason... so what is it?

The coach perhaps? DOes he stress defense? NOPE!

The contract? How many defensive stoppers get 8 mil a year? Unless I-Thomas is luring Jeffries or James to NY, it doesn't happen. Can you blame him for focusing on his jumper instead of his post defense?

The bottom line is he shouldn't be guarding centers.

What defied logic.... to me... was E-Curry and his lack of rebounding. By accident you would think he would scoop 8 rebounds a night. Rebounding to CUrry is like assists to N8, like Lee to defense!
Click to expand...
Totally agree,
To Op, plus the size,When your not even the tallest guy on your team playing center, it's hard enough as its to go up against 7ft on both end of the floor. I'm happy with the way lee is playing. Also i think lee D will improve when we can move him back in to his normal pf spot.
 
S

SSj4Wingzero

All Star
It seems to me on defense he cares way more about getting rebounds than actually playing defense and blocking shots.

He'd be less reluctant to do so if he weren't going up against guys that were four inches taller than he was
 
B

Blumatic

Rotation player
His wing span is too short to block shots. Kurt Thomas was considered a good big man defender (even though he still get abused by the superstar big men) but he never block shots.

But my problem with Lee is that he leaves his man open alot. He helps when he shouldnt be helping and he leaves a man wide open. Remeber the Garnett game winner in the garden....All Lee.

I love the guy but the difference between Kurt and Lee is that Kurt stays with his man.

If we had a real center along with David Lee, Lee wouldnt get exposed as much.
 
A

Arod2k9

Benchwarmer
If the Knicks re-sign Lee instead of getting a Rudy Gay or Joe Johnson (if we don't get Lebron/Wade/Bosh) I will really be pissed off. I would like us to
sign-and-trade him to get some type of value because he just isn't a winning type player. His numbers at the end of the day have 0 value since it doesn't constitute to winning. I don't know what d'antoni is thinking in playing such a small rotation or lineup all season long. We need to get bigger, more physical, and protect the paint via the draft, trades, free agency because this team is joke of a franchise. This is the worst team we have had in our decade of losing. Lets just pray that we get two superstars to New York in order to move our role players to the bench such as Gallinari and Chandler to get much needed dept to our team.

BTW, the NBA should be ashamed of themselves for selecting Lee in the All Star game over Josh Smith and Bogut.
 
T

tiger0330

Legend
Teams know the Knicks are small and have no shot blockers so their game plans take advantage of that. It put's too much pressure on Lee when the opposing team constantly pound it down low. If he was a quick twitch athlete he might be able to play center at 6'10" but he's not, Lee needs help badly.
 
S

SSj4Wingzero

All Star
Every single time I think about how much we suck on defense my mind goes back to Darko and how much he could've helped us on the defensive end.

Lee is awful on defense. We need a presence in the paint badly. That's something I don't know if we'll be able to fix via free agency - Chris Bosh is a good player but he's not really a center, and Amare is just as bad on defense as Lee is. We've got to fix this somehow. If coach played Darko 20 minutes a night we could talk him into re-signing with us if we picked up some big name free agents but no coach pretty much ran him out of town and now we're stuck without a good paint presence.

David Lee might suffice if played at the 4. If played at the 5, we've got some problems. At least Jordan Hill tried to play defense.
 
J

JayJ44

Starter
I think there's 2 reasons for this:
1) He spends so much energy on offense that he is too tired to play defense.
2) He would rather position himself for the rebound and not contest shots.

It's really sad that Gallo is our leading shot blocker....
 
knicksin60

knicksin60

Starter
Is it possible for the Knicks to offer Marcus Camby their vet's minimum this off season? Because I would give Camby a 1-2 year contract to play the number 4 for the Knicks and give Chris Bosh a 5 year contract to be our number 5.Then I would tell Lee to take his no defensive act to a team that doesn't play defense, like the Golden State Warriors.No disrespect to Lee, but I get terminally ill watching guys like Zach Randolph, Andray Blatche, Andrew Bogut look like vintage Shaquille O'neal against the Knicks.It is very obvious that Al Harrington and David Lee are not our long term answers to other teams' front court.Every time the bigs of these teams play the Knicks they look like 18 year olds being guarded by a couple of 10 year olds.David Lee looks like a middle weight trying to slow down a heavy weight when he is guarding someone.If Mike D'antoni thinks that he could win a future championship without the Knicks being able to stop the bigs of opposing teams then Donnie Walsh should give him his walking papers.Any experienced coach, who's been in the NBA for a good amount of years, knows that you win games by stopping your opponents from scoring in the paint and not by outscoring your opponents with fast break points and 3 point field goals.
 
Last edited:
petescud

petescud

Starter
Your right, but you think we're dealing with a sane man here


knicksin60 said:
Is it possible for the Knicks to offer Marcus Camby their vet's minimum this off season? Because I would give Camby a 1-2 year contract to play the number 4 for the Knicks and give Chris Bosh a 5 year contract to be our number 5.Then I would tell Lee to take his no defensive act to a team that doesn't play defense, like the Golden State Warriors.No disrespect to Lee, but I get terminally ill watching guys like Zach Randolph, Andray Blatche, Andrew Bogut look like vintage Shaquille O'neal against the Knicks.It is very obvious that Al Harrington and David Lee are not our long term answers to other teams' front court.Every time the bigs of these teams play the Knicks they look like 18 year olds being guarded by a couple of 10 year olds.David Lee looks like a middle weight trying to slow down a heavy weight when he is guarding someone.If Mike D'antoni thinks that he could win a future championship without the Knicks being able to stop the bigs of opposing teams then Donnie Walsh should give him his walking papers.Any experienced coach, who's been in the NBA for a good amount of years, knows that you win games by stopping your opponents from scoring in the paint and not by outscoring your opponents with fast break points and 3 point field goals.
Click to expand...
 
P

Paul1355

All Star
metrocard said:
Has become an epidemic.
I understand we're not a defensive team.
But defense shouldnt be played this poorly.

David Lee...a former McDonalds All American Dunk contest winner, 2007 NBA T-Mobile Rookie Challenge MVP....NBA All Star who's 6"9 and 240 lbs and a rebounding machine. The talent is definitely there.

Why can't he take his rebounding intensity onto the defensive end?

What stops him from playing defense?

Lack of interest?
Physical inability?
Tanking on purpose?



If Lee played average defense, he would be a top 5 center in the NBA.
Click to expand...

This is why resigning Lee is pointless unless we get a defensive center to pay with him in the starting rotation.

Lee is not a Center, never was a Center, and never will be a Center.

He is a Powerforward and has played out of position for too long.

The Grizzlies are playing good because Zach Randolph has Marc Gasol with him to help him out on defense and on the boards. We all know If Zach was Center than teh Grizzlies would prob be a couple games under .500

Lee needs a Marc Gasol type player...I'm looking at Camby next year.
 
V

VeryGundy

Benchwarmer
There are very few two-way players in NBA because playing good defense does not always translate into big contracts. Consequently most NBA players focus on the sexy stats such as PPG or rebounding. Lee is no exception.

On top of it, we have a coach who is known for not caring about defense. Why would Lee even bother to tighten up his defense?

Yeah, we are stuck with a sucky defense until we get a coach who thinks differently.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top