New York Knicks to run new defensive strategy?
By Bryan Rose
The New York Knicks weren’t a very good team on either side of the ball last season, though seemed to struggle more defensively than offensively.
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Now under a new coach in Derek Fisher there is hope things will improve on both ends of the court, especially on defense. That starts with ripping out the old defensive system used by Mike Woodson and a new system which will push the opposing offense near the sidelines.
That’s the word from everybody’s favorite shooting guard J.R. Smith who says the New York Knicks will no longer focus on pushing the ball into the middle of the paint.
J.R. Smith says #Knicks will try to "push everything to the sideline" on defense now. "Last year, it was more forcing people to the middle."
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) September 30, 2014
That normally doesn’t sound like the most sound strategy considering you’re pushing the opposing offense closer to the rim and allowing the ball to be passed to open shooters, though the line of reasoning likely had more to do with Tyson Chandler protecting the paint.
Now with Chandler a member of the Dallas Mavericks it seems as if Fisher and company are aiming to change how the New York Knicks play defense considering Samuel Dalmebert is their lone rim protection.
How effectively it will work is unknown, though it can’t be much worse than last season.
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