I keep seeing, hearing, and reading the word effort, but what about awareness?
From my viewpoint, I think that there's a little "PC" (political correctness) coming from Melo when he talks about the struggle of the team. I personally put a lot of the blame on Woodson's doorstep, and it spirals out of control from there.
Back to Melo, he's always been viewed (fairly and unfairly) as a "coach-killer" type of player. At the same time, the dude is extremely politically correct, to the point that sometimes it sounds like he's literally not saying anything at all, when he speaks (because it's too dressed up for public consumption).
Effort clearly isn't the Knicks fatal flaw, because even when they give some effort, they still look like they don't know what the actual **** they're doing, or supposed to be doing. But Woodson says "effort, effort, effort" and when there is effort he says "well....we gave effort tonight, but shots just weren't falling...I mean, last year those shots were falling, and we're 6-9 points behind where we were last year, because those shots were falling for us" and he'll sprinkle in "we're still trying to learn each other."
That's just... Huh?
The Knicks have zero direction. Not from a wins and loss standpoint, but when you're watching the game and not the box score (we know how that goes) you don't see **** that you can hang your hat on.
A team of streaky shooters (someone else on here pointed that out) that launches up 3s seemingly at will. Yea, that's smart and sustainable.. Personnel management is atrocious. The overall lack of direction might be worse than D'Antoni. At least he had a piss poor plan, and was sticking too it. This team has no plan.
I was watching the Mike Woodson Show on MSG a few days ago, and Alan Hahn asked Woody how come there aren't more Melo-Bargs PnR plays. Woodson said because it would be too easy for the defense to switch that play, and Bargs man would be on Melo and vice-versa...
So...so...you mean if Melo is at the 3, and Bargs is at the 4....Melo would be faced with a 4 switching onto him, and Bargs would have a 3 on him? Or if it's 4-5, then Melo faces a bigger, but surely slower player and Bargs faces someone at his natural position?
As it is right now (with Chandler out), Melo is at the 4...so him having a 4 switch onto him is what problem? The prospects of a Hibbert or Brook Lopez having to deal with Melo as his primary defender, is a delicious one. That's a foul or a bucket all day. We should know because we switch
EVERYTHING.
Which brings me to another point. Woodson on his show with Hahn, often criticizes players for "making a bad switch" then he'll follow it up with "we don't want a switch there, we want good switches...2s, 3s, and 4s. We don't want a small on a big, and vice-versa."
Which bring me to another question...how come it looks like the players don't know that? I've routinely seen Felton and Chandler, Prigs and Stoudemire, Prigs and Martin, switch every single PnR they're presented with. If these are all bad switches, we've got some guards out there with learning disabilities, cause I've seen the same bad switches for years now. But then how do we explain the bad switching Woody's teams did in ATL?
Maybe I'm projecting, but I don't believe this team believes in Woodson. It's very peculiar that when the vets with a strong voice, and stance, left after last season (two becoming coaches) this team lost all of it's direction and identity and is struggling to find it?
The hell is the coach doing then? Players play and coaches coach. But player who look like they're playing without a coach end up looking like a 3-9 disaster.