What do teams have to worry about when it comes to the offense? Melo by himself? Ok. Just load the side of the court where he is. It takes away driving angles because the "stopper" is positioned carefully to prevent any penetration from the strong side. He's either taking a contested shot, driving baseline and giving the help a chance to come, or taking it right into the teeth of the D.
The best bet is to swing the ball, and get an open look on the other side of the D where they have 2 zoned up against 3....well the Knicks haven't been moving the ball, and when it does move, shots aren't falling.
I wanted to see them make a push for Milsap, and give us some more sustainable offense. When you post up deep, and pass the ball down low, it causes similar issues to a penetrating drive. The defense has to sag a bit, and if you have a big with good vision, he can make a quick decision and the correct decision if the D brings help.
We need a multifaceted offense. Something that you can go to when they're trying to take away the PnR, and an offense that you can still run successfully if they load a side.
Unless Melo is gonna grow about 5 inches so he can shoot over the top of his man and get a clean look, or somehow have another player morph into a top-5 NBA talent, and have the other guys suddenly become excellent team defenders with a few knock-down shooters sprinkled in, the hell is this team gonna do?
The success they had barely lasted a month and a half...teams catch up while you come back down to earth. This is not only an effort problem, but it's also a schematic problem.
This team isn't as good as any of the LBJ Cavs teams, and all of those teams got halted by solid defense, and sustainable offense 4 out of 5 years before LBJ bolted for MIA. In 05-06 they lost to the Pistons, then they got swept by the Spurs in the Finals the next year, then it was Boston, Magic (exception with all those 3s), and then Boston again.
This Knicks team is not better than those teams, but's it's an eerily similar dynamic.