New York Knicks Need to Up the Tempo?
Problem is, check in with scouts around the league, and it sounds unlikely that piling more mediocre players on the heap of mediocrity already around (Carmelo) Anthony—and that includes power forward Amare Stoudemire, who is having his worst non-injury season since his rookie year—is going to do much to change the team’s outlook.
“There are three things you want to see from Mike D’Antoni’s teams,” one East scout told Sporting News. “First, of course, you want to see transition play. Right now, they’re not giving you that, they’re one of the worst transition teams in the league. Second, you want to see 3-point shooting. It doesn’t have to be great 3-point shooting, but it’s got to be at least average because they’re going to shoot a lot. Look at the numbers, they’re terrible from the 3-point line. Then you need to see pick-and-roll play. And they’re terrible at that.”
The Knicks are 21st in the NBA in fastbreak points per game, at 11.2. They are 23rd in the NBA in 3-point shooting, at 30.9 percent.
