I’m not one to go about giving away an article, it’s not fair to the legitimate writer who took the time to craft it. However, Sabastian Pruiti’s latest column on Grantland about the Knicks offense with both Lin and Anthony is a must read for all serious Knicks fans. Pruiti does a fantastic job using statistics and video examples of what is working with the Knicks offense in it’s current state, and what is broken when Anthony is on the floor with Lin.
Without giving away the article, I will say most of the points Pruiti touches on are pretty clear for any fan who watches a lot of games. Some things are working and some things aren’t, it’s just surprised me in reading, how much more they have used Carmelo as the ball handler in the pick and roll.
The article suggests how successful that play has been for this team with Anthony as the main ball handler since Lin’s emergence. It’s not shocking to me that this is working, it’s something I and most Knicks fans were pleading for D’Antoni to do more prior to Linsanity. What confuses me is that it is happening more often now.
I always felt that getting Amar’e and Carmelo playing together would have been most easily executed by using the pick and roll with Anthony’s strong shooting ability and his underrated ball-handling skills coupled with Stoudemire’s ability to finish around the room and extend the defense with his 15-17 foot jumper. For some reason, it just never seemed the Knicks were committed to get that going.
I’m glad they’re doing it more often now. I’m just puzzled why it took them so long to feature it more, and why it’s happening as often as it is with Lin on the floor. Lin isn’t the worlds best catch and shooter, but he oddly might be a bit better than Melo and maybe D’Antoni feels more comfortable at times with Melo getting his touches by doing a bit of facilitating and allowing Lin to take a blow and do some catch and shooting off the wing.
Check out Pruiti’s full article on Grantland for a nice look at how the Knicks offense has and has not succeeded since Lin and Anthony have been paired together.
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