The NBA season is right around the corner and the New York Knicks 2013 NBA Championship Odds are currently at 40-1 ($100 bet pays $4000). They are 20-1 to win the Eastern Conference and their over/under season win total projection is 45.5. Below is the overall season preview by Pregame Pro André Gomes. 

Was it exclusively Mike D’Antoni’s fault?

2011-12 Regular Season Numbers:

At the time of Mike D’Antoni’s team exit, the Knicks had an 18-24 record and his relationship with some of the players wasn’t the best according to several reports. However, D’Antoni can’t be blamed for everything because the team didn’t have a balanced roster and the team’s superstars just couldn’t produce enough.

Having in consideration that we are talking about a team that was coached by D’Antoni, the Knicks started the season with Toney Douglas playing 35 minutes against the Celtics in the PG position (!) and since that, we could understand that the team’s future wasn’t going to be bright. Baron Davis was injured and Mike Bibby has lost all his mobility, so the Knicks played most of the season without a true PG and the attempt of turning Carmelo Anthony in a Point Forward, just like LeBron James is in Miami was a waste of time because Anthony will never get even close to James’ level in this kind of role.

To make things worse, Carmelo Anthony couldn’t even shoot above 40% FG during January and February to save his life, while Amare Stoudemire as the team’s starting PF couldn’t even shoot 45% FG.

Surprisingly, the Knicks defense was always solid since the start of the season, but with such an inconsistent and inefficient offense, they had a lot of problems to win games until… Jeremy Lin showed up!

Lin led the Knicks in their best sequence of the season with seven wins a row, while Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire were out due to injuries. In their best win in this sequence against the Lakers, Lin was amazing with 38 points scored, while sharing the lineup with Landy Fields, Bill Walker, Jared Jeffries and Tyson Chandler!

As soon as Stoudemire and Anthony returned, we watched a clash of styles between the team’s basketball and naturally, the team decided to take Carmelo Anthony’s side. 

Mike Woodson’s Reign

Mike Woodson was announced as the interim coach and his past in Atlanta was well known in terms of his approach to the game: the Hawks played on a “half court basketball” with him, with a lot of defensive switches, while offensively the Hawks presented “Iso Joe” to the world.

Comparing the 42 games from D’Antoni’s era and the 24 games from the Woodson era, there are definitely some differences: the Knicks started playing on a much slower pace, their defense became even more solid, but it was specially the offense that clearly improved: 110.8 offensive rates versus 103.1 from D’Antoni’s era doesn’t say everything about the style change. Even though they were pretty much using the same players, the system was very different: D’Antoni is a big fan of the Pick and Roll and his “7 seconds or less” plays, while with Woodson, the Knicks limited their number of pick and roll - ball handler plays and spot up plays, while the isolation plays suffered a drastic raise – nothing surprising considering what we knew from Mike Woodson’s coaching style.

The team recovered well in the standings and finished the regular season with the #7 seed in the Eastern conference. In the final moments of the season, the Knicks had the “chance” of choosing between facing Chicago or Miami in the first round, but by winning their games, they ended up facing Miami in the first round of the playoffs.

They had a consolation win in the series against the Heat, but they were completely crushed in the remaining games by losing the four games by double digits points.

Offseason moves 2012-13:

The Knicks’ biggest concern for the new season had to be related to the PG position. The Lin “soap opera” took most attention from the Knicks until the organization decided to not match Houston’s last offer. With Lin leaving the team, the Knicks needed new solutions in the PG position and they got three new players for this position: Raymond Felton, Jason Kidd and Pablo Prigioni!

Meanwhile, the Raptors offered a contract to Landry Fields well above his market value and the Knicks also decided on this case not to match the offer. To replace Fields, they signed Ronnie Brewer for the same role, while they also renewed with J.R. Smith.

For the frontcourt, the Knicks went looking for veteran players and they managed to sign Marcus Camby and Kurt Thomas plus Rasheed Wallace more recently.

Will the Knicks maintain their defensive level from last season?

There are no doubts about Tyson Chandler’s level and his defensive impact in the Mavs title run. But it was last season that he confirmed himself as an excellent defensive player.

He was once again able to keep himself healthy throughout the whole season by leading the Knicks in total minutes and at the end of the regular season, he won the defensive player of the year award.

According to mysnergy’s numbers, the Knicks were #1 in defending post up plays and #1 in pick and roll – roll man plays and surely Tyson Chandler had a decisive role in this defensive success.

The Knicks were also an excellent team in creating turnovers, with just Memphis having better numbers than them and most of their possible success for this season will consist in the replication of these excellent numbers achieved last season.

Tyson Chandler will remain being the team’s main player in the nearest zone to the basket; Iman Shumpert had an excellent rookie season by already affirming himself as a good defensive player; Fields’ exit will be compensated by Brewer’s signing and it will be specially the defensive effort that Carmelo, Stoudemire and J.R. Smith will show that will dictate the defensive success of the team or not.

Who will replace Jeremy Lin in the PG position?

The Knicks decided to bring Raymond Felton back to New York, but he is coming from a terrible season in Portland. The Blazers’ fans that watched their games last season know pretty well how terribly Felton led the team. In January, Felton was shooting at a time 35% FG, but the Knicks hope that Felton is capable of regrouping and bounce back this season in New York. On his first stay with the Knicks, Felton had a career high 9.0 assists per game, but let’s not forget that the team’s coach back then was Mike D’Antoni and so, these numbers are overrated.

Speaking of terrible seasons, Jason Kidd is also coming from one. Maybe his age is finally taking a toll on him and Kidd is now playing his final games of a brilliant career, but also let’s not forget the brutal schedule the players had last season and with Kidd being one of the most veteran plays in the league, he just couldn’t handle such a tough schedule. Anyway, Kidd is one of the smartest players in the league and Mike Woodson’s system doesn’t ask a lot of production from their PG’s besides controlling the ball and managing the tempo, something where Kidd is excellent. Finally, the decision is signing 35 years old Pablo Prigioni is a bit weird given his veteran status and lack of experience in the NBA. The Argentinean is a guard who can control the offense without being a shooting threat, just like Kidd.

Final Thoughts:

Dethrone the Heat isn’t an easy task for any team in the East, but this will have to be the team’s main goal, given the team’s financial effort in the offseason. They believe in the basketball Woodson implemented in the second half of last season and it will be interesting to follow what Woodson can do on a “normal” season while being the team's coach since the start of the season.

As many changes as the team produces, their destiny is still on Carmelo’s and Amare’s hands. Carmelo has always been at an inferior level to Lebron since both players joined the league in the 2003 draft, with this difference being bigger and bigger year after year. According to the ESPN rank players, Anthony is now out of the league’s top 10 best players and it is urgent that he has an excellent season or the Knicks won’t be able to win a playoff series once again.

The same can be said about Amare Stoudemire. He can’t complain anymore about having to play in the center position, as the Knicks have Tyson Chandler to fulfill this position, therefore Stoudemire can’t average less than 20 points per game like he averaged last season – first time that happened to him since his rookie season! But he also had to deal with some back pain throughout the season and some bizarre incidents like hurting his hand on a fire extinguisher!

With Carmelo Anthony stepping it up and becoming a top 5 player in the league and with Amare Stoudemire having an All Star season, the Knicks will be in a good position to have home court edge in the first round of the playoffs this season and then have a good postseason. But if that doesn’t happen, then the Knicks will “just” be at an above average level, something that will definitely disappoint their fans.

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