The lack of offensive adjustments by Woodson have been baffling. I just don't understand why guys like Pablo, Copeland, and Novak are glued to the bench. I am in no way saying that they'd be saviors of the team, but you'd have to think that a line-up shuffle would do some good. There is no reason why JR Smith's minutes shouldn't be cut. He's really hurting the team. Down 3-1 and your backs are against the wall, SOMETHING needs to be done. What's the saying? "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." That's what I'm seeing with Woodson and the Knicks. I put most of the blame on him for looking completely unprepared to coach. For as good as the Pacers are defensively, the Knicks have too much talent on their roster to be bottled up like this.
Another thing, do you think JR Smith comes back next year for the Knicks? My opinion is that he can't handle the responsibility of playing in a city like New York.
Woodson's always been like this. He's stubborn and makes decisions very slowly and a lot of times needs something very good or very bad to happen to force him to do something. And when it's done, he'll go back to the way he was. He's just not an *******, who sounds stupid and enraging every postgame like Mike D'antoni. If a series lasted 13 games, he'd be fine. He'd be able to get over his mental blocks. It was the same way during the regular season. He'd just wait until something special happened, like Melo catching fire, or K-Mart joining the team, or Shump getting healthy or Prigioni, showing out. But once that dies down, he immediately goes back to the same ol.
I mean, Copeland was great at times, and really helped keep the team up after Dwight ****** Melo's knee up, but once Melo was back and right, straight back to the doghouse for him. No real reason. His defense and rebounding aren't so good, but that just means he'd fit right in with the Knick in this series.
And Prigioni wasn't getting too much burn a lot of the time, but kinda showing out whenever he would. He got into the starting lineup when Kidd was so terrible, that we had no choice and that's exactly when the 13-0 streak happened. But now it's playoffs, so Woody probably decided in December, that he'd ride with his champion, Kidd, to the death. Cuz hey, he won a ring.
I think he's scared and confused. He's too scared of making mistakes, that he just trusts his logic, regardless of what's happening on the court. And he doesn't get why his team is getting beat. He sees missed shots, turnovers and missed rotations, but doesn't understand that he can put his players in better positions to win. He's playing checkers. He doesn't know his own team, and he doesn't trust them the right way.
The hallmark of this season has been him taming JR and getting him to drive to the basket. When sadly it seems like that was a positive result out a very misguided attitude. If the Knicks didn't sign K-Mart, it'd be much clearer what this team is and how it's coached. But him playing out of his mind, because he was so happy to be back in the league and had a short amount of time to earn a new contract + Shump getting back in form + JR driving + Pablo taking Kidd's role + us hitting tough shots like it's easy, was fool's gold.
It's like this, our team is old and depends on veterans. We were only great once this season. And that was before Christmas, when Sheed was great, Kidd was great, Melo was awesome, the bench was getting used right and the vets were passing on knowledge. When Kidd hit the wall and his career basically ended in January, it was over. He's had moments, but our team has never been the same. And Sheed was so incredibly important to what we do. He was our 2nd best post player, 2nd best two-way player, organized our defense and gave us great spacing whether he was making shots or not. All of that is just him. He walked into a team set up by Mike D'antoni, told them to run the offense they knew and try on defense, and the vets sorted it all out and made it work.
And that's been, in a way, the story of the season. All these veterans have been running the team for Woodson. He's just been their teammate. And when they all got hurt or ran out of gas, we lucked into the K-Mart and Prigioni March. And Melo and JR played out of their minds. I don't want JR back, but we can't keep losing talent for nothing, when our team has no assets. I think he can play good for us again, but now we know almost everything he isn't. I don't want Woodson back, but I bet you the team all speaks up for him, cuz he didn't do the D'antoni thing of throwing all his players under the bus, even though he and they deserve it.
Just like the Bulls honestly think it. Just like the Celtics might think it. I honestly believe that with everyone healthy, the Knicks could've won the chip this year. And everyone includes Sheed and Kurt Thomas and I really want to add Jason Kidd to this list too.
And is stupid a health issue? Then Woody too. But that's without everyone else in the condition they're in. Everyone's gonna get healthier and better next year, and the Knicks are probably gonna get worse, even with a full year of Shump, Felton and maybe Amar'e.
