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Schmeelk: Knicks' Ship May Be Sinking, But It Can Still Be Saved

By John Schmeelk
» More Columns

With football season in these parts now over, the Knicks have a golden opportunity to seize the city's attention before baseball comes.

But as eyes go toward Madison Square Garden they aren't finding an exciting team that's capable of making a playoff run. Instead, they're witnessing a sinking ship.

The hull isn't irreparable, however. Not yet, anyway. Mathematically, the Knicks are just three games out of the No. 5 seed in the loss column in the Eastern Conference. At four games below .500, the team is also just four games ahead of the 76ers, who sit in 13th place. It's not necessarily that the Knicks are losing too many games. It's how they are losing games.

The Knicks have lost eight of their last nine, and in those games they have allowed an average of 113.1 points. It's the second worst number in the league over that span, and would be the second worst number in the league over the course of the entire season. Only the Nets would be worse. New York's defensive rating (points per 100 possessions) of 111.3 would be the worst in the league if allowed over the course of the entire season. It isn't as if the Knicks have been playing great on offense, either.

In other words, over the last nine games, the Knicks have been worse defensively on a per-possession basis than any team has been during the regular season. It looks like the players have simply ceased to give maximum effort. It's an embarrassment to the organization, head coach and players. There's plenty of blame to go around.

MORESchmeelk: 15 Years Of Bad Defense Has Haunted The Knicks

When this roster was constructed during the offseason, seeing defensive flaws was not hard. Even when healthy the last couple of seasons, Joakim Noah's defense was deteriorating. Derrick Rose was one of the worst point guards in basketball last season in terms of Defensive RPM. (worse than Jose Calderon, according to that metric). Carmelo Anthony has never been a good team defender, and either his age or effort has forced him to get even worse this season. Brandon Jennings is not a defender, either.

Courtney Lee, Justin Holiday and Lance Thomas are the only truly defense-first players on the roster and none are elite on that end of the floor. Phil Jackson traded away one of the team's best defenders last year in Robin Lopez, let another in Langston Galloway walk, and failed to replace them with equivalent options at their respective positions. He has handed Jeff Hornacek a flawed group on defense.

But the coach deserves some blame, too. For the players to still be confused about the scheme in December and January is worrisome. It is also partly the coach's responsibility to hold the team accountable for poor play, and motivate it to give maximum effort. We haven't seen him able to do that so far.

Finally, and most importantly, it's on the players. More than anything else, defense requires effort and pride. The players have not shown either on a consistent basis. No one expects this team to be elite defensively, but there's no reason it should be below average. Being in the bottom five defensively all season, especially with so many veterans that should understand schemes, is shameful by any standard. If you have to point one finger, this is the direction it should go.

The only way this ship stays afloat is if something drastic happens. Maybe this mysterious Rose episode from Monday night will spur something. But more likely, the coach is going to have to do something to drive home his points. Jeff Van Gundy used to take all his starters out at once if they weren't showing the right effort. Maybe benching all of them will become necessary. Maybe they need to be shamed into playing hard. Nothing else has worked.

This is your classic "break glass in case of emergency" situation. Keep going down this road and the results aren't going to change. The team stinks right now. The Knicks are unwatchable. If something doesn't change in a big way soon, the Garden will be dark in the playoffs once again.

Schmeelk's Snippets

  • The Rose situation is quite a mystery. According to Chris Mannix, who spoke to Joakim Noah, who had been in contact with Rose, he is fine physically. All Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski could add was that Rose had been unhappy with being benched for a couple of fourth quarters. Until we know more, opining would be a mistake. It'll be interesting to see what the truth is.

For everything Knicks, Giants, and the world of sports, please follow John on Twitter at @Schmeelk

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