Official NBA 2012-2013 Season Thread

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I think Lee has a better chance of making it than Steph to the All Star Game, but you never know.
 
Since Mitchellicious asked about the Knicks' contending last night, here's Tom Haberstroh on them (basically what I said in three sentences). :lol:

Are the Knicks legit contenders?

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With the way the New York Knicks have laid down defensively over the past month, defensive sieve Amar'e Stoudemire should have no problems fitting in right away.

After an almost magical start to the season, the Knicks stumble into Thursday night's matchup against the San Antonio Spurs having lost five of their past eight games. But contrary to popular belief, their recent skid has little to do with their 3-point dependent offense coming up empty.

No, it has much more to do with the fact that they've taken the holidays off on the defensive end of the floor.

Rewind to Dec. 7, the morning after the Knicks spanked the defending champion Miami Heat on national television 112-92, even without Carmelo Anthony. Things were good in Knicks Nation. New York ranked comfortably atop the East with a 14-4 record, boasting the league's most efficient offense and an 11th-ranked defense anchored by a supposedly rejuvenated Anthony and reigning Defensive Player of the Year Tyson Chandler.

That seems like more than a month ago, doesn't it? They've gone just 7-6 since that Melo-less romp in Miami while absorbing various injuries to Anthony, Chandler, Raymond Felton and Rasheed Wallace. They've looked every bit like the injury-rattled, slightly above .500 team that many expected of the ancient, if talented, roster -- not the title contender that many Knicks fans hoped after a hot start.

But save me the "live by the 3, die by the 3" knee-jerk diagnosis. The Knicks haven't been lights-out from downtown lately, but did you really expect them to shoot 42 percent from downtown all season? The inevitable regression to the mean should be a shock to exactly no one and the reports of the Knicks' death by 3-point shot have been greatly exaggerated.

In fact, the Knicks have shot 35.9 percent from beyond the arc during their slide since Dec. 6, a conversion rate that still ranks above the league average. The horror! Sure, it's convenient to point out that Mike D'Antoni's Phoenix Suns never won a title by shooting nothing but 3-pointers, but it glosses over the fact that there's actually a track record of success for teams reliant on the long ball.

Let's take a quick stroll through history. Most recently, the 2010-11 Dallas Mavericks title team, anchored by Chandler by the way, ranked fifth in 3-point attempts. The 2008-09 Magic reached the NBA Finals while having the most 3-point dependent offense in the league. The 2006-07 Spurs shot more 3s than D'Antoni's Suns in their Western Conference semifinal matchup (gasp!) and then eventually won the championship. And then there's the Houston Rockets who won back-to-back titles in 1994 and 1995 after shooting 100 more 3-pointers than any other team in each banner-raising campaign.

The problem for the Knicks isn't that their 3-point shot has gotten cold(er), but rather that their defense hasn't been able to absorb a slight thawing. Since the Melo-less win in Miami, the Knicks have allowed a bloated 106.3 points per 100 possessions according to NBA.com's advanced stats tool, a rate that would rank 27th in the league over the entire season. After being a borderline top-10 defense for the opening month of the season, the Knicks' D has essentially been a doormat for opposing teams.

So what's the issue? The Knicks haven't bothered to play defense until the fourth quarter -- and that's often a little too late. This isn't just an knee-jerk overreaction to the past two losses to Sacramento and Portland when the Knicks couldn't overcome double-digit halftime deficits. This trend has lasted all season long. The Knicks currently rank 28th in first-half defense and the only time they've looked like an above-average defensive team is after three quarters.

Problems had surfaced long before injuries forced the Knicks to start a 40-year-old Kurt Thomas and James White. Coach Mike Woodson has tried to balance their offensively skewed squad by inserting the defense-focused Ronnie Brewer into the starting lineup, but the results have been disastrous.

Numbers from NBA.com's advanced stats tool tell us that the lineup of Felton, Jason Kidd, Brewer, Anthony and Chandler has played 71 minutes together since Dec. 1, giving up a pathetic 116.7 points per 100 possessions. That's the worst defensive rating for any of the 30 units across the NBA that have logged at least 70 minutes over that time. Adding insult to injury, that lineup's offense has scored a measly 85.4 points per 100 possessions over the same period.

Going small hasn't paid dividends for the Knicks lately and it raises an important question: Does sliding Anthony to the 4 make sense if even a Defensive Player of the Year can't compensate for their woes on that end of the floor? The issues go beyond Anthony, who will never be confused with LeBron James as a defender. Kidd and Pablo Prigioni are older than time by NBA standards and their lack of athleticism has been exposed when asked to move more than a foot in either direction.

Compounding the lack of mobility is that the Knicks just don't have reliable options outside of Chandler to plug the middle. Opponents have absolutely slammed the Knicks in the pick-and-roll this season -- they rank ninth-worst in the NBA according to SynergySports when the ball handler makes a scoring play -- but much of the damage is done when ball handlers keep Chandler on an island off the ball and exploit Steve Novak and Thomas' glacier-like footspeed in open space.

Small ball can work only if the perimeter defense is rock-solid and that hasn't been the case with the Knicks lately. So if the Knicks can't go small, then they'll have to go big, right?

Therein lies the problem. Stoudemire carries a reputation of a star fit for coming to the rescue, but he's likely to make the Knicks' defensive issues worse, not better. He looked absolutely lost in Tuesday's loss to the Blazers, which can be excused because of rustiness. But the larger sample of the past three years points to an outlook just as grim.

Despite their lofty contracts and reputations that have approached MVP candidate territory at times, the Knicks have been outscored with the Anthony-Stoudemire partnership on the floor by 2.3 points every 100 possessions since 2010-11. That's a sample size that is as big as you can get (1,659 minutes). The offense with them together would rank 10th in today's NBA, but the defense -- 27th.

Chandler makes it all better, right? Wrong. In fact, the star trio of Anthony-Stoudemire-Chandler also has been a losing combination, being outscored by 1.8 points per 100 possessions in their time together on the floor. Why? The offense absolutely tanks with Anthony and those two bigs in the paint, scoring 98.5 points per 100 possessions over 794 minutes. You know who has a better offensive efficiency than that? The 2012-13 Bobcats, currently sporting a 98.7 points per 100 possessions, which is good for fourth-to-last this season.

The news isn't all bad, Knicks fans. Look at the schedule. The Knicks have 12 games left in January and Thursday night's test against the Spurs represents the only one against a top-10 offense. And who knows, coach Gregg Popovich may or may not place a call to Southwest Airlines seeing as it's a back-to-back and their fourth game in five nights. All in all, nine of the Knicks' next 12 opponents are below-average offenses and the three that aren't will be played in Madison Square Garden.

Under normal circumstances, the soft schedule would mean the Knicks are poised for a defensive correction, but these aren't normal circumstances. Integrating a healthy Stoudemire on the defensive end would be tough as it is, but he's nowhere near 100 percent as was evident by his grounded game Tuesday.

The Knicks' title-contention status has always rested on their defense and considering Woodson's reputation as a defense-minded coach, that status is ironically on increasingly shaky ground. Are the Knicks legitimate contenders? With the defense reeling and Stoudemire's integration looming, the Knicks have more questions than answers.
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CoupeIt88 said:
Shaq and D-Wade in Miami, what y'all Heat fans forgot already?
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Lol we were pretty pathetic that year after the championship but I doubt bottom 5 bad. After all we still ended up winning the division that year still
 
On the topic of the Warriors, how good should they be if Andrew Bogut ever returns? I'm not even asking for 2010 Bogut, just a guy that can eat up the 15 minutes that Festus Ezeli gets per night would do the Warriors wonders.
 
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VC may not be first ballot, but he has a solid case for the hall. He's put together a very nice career, and I can find several players who's career isn't as good as Vince Carter's. Mullins being one of them. VC was a phenomenal HS ball player and did his thing at UNC too.

Won't even address the Steph HoF talk though that's entirely premature. Does he have potential to do so? Sure, but a lot of players have "Potential" to do that.
 
shoeking2101 said:
VC may not be first ballot, but he has a solid case for the hall. He's put together a very nice career, and I can find several players who's career isn't as good as Vince Carter's. Mullins being one of them. VC was a phenomenal HS ball player and did his thing at UNC too.

Won't even address the Steph HoF talk though that's entirely premature. Does he have potential to do so? Sure, but a lot of players have "Potential" to do that.
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Chris Mullins in college
McDonalds All American (High school I know)
2nd Team All American in 83
1st Team All American in 84
Consensus All American 2x
Wooden Award Winner
UPI Player of the Year > A List of the other winners
USBWA Player of the Year > A list of the other winners

19.5
3.6
4.1

Chris Mullin in the NBA

5x NBA All Star
4x All NBA teams

18.2
3.5
4.1


I think he should be in from college accomplishments alone
somebody make a case for VC
 
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So if David Lee continues to average 20/10, is the only player to do so, and the dubs continue to win, is he the new best PF in the game?
 
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