New York Knicks: Why Isn’t Mike Woodson Playing Chris Copeland?
Why isn’t Mike Woodson playing Chris Copeland? Does the New York Knicks coach not see that his team, now down three games-to-one against the Indiana Pacers, is desperate for offense? Maybe the coach just doesn’t see the dreadlocked scoring machine that’s been sitting right in front of him all along.
I’m sorry, but I don’t have the answers; I don’t think anyone does, actually. The Knicks are absolutely desperate for offense with J.R. Smith struggling (shooting 33.6 percent from the field) and Carmelo Anthony getting bullied by Paul George.
And yet, Copeland just sits there in his warm-ups—well, until Woodson already concedes the game and empties his bench. When that happens, the 28-year-old rookie proves to everyone that his coach is making a huge mistake every minute that he sits him.
Before I get into the stats, I would like to acknowledge the fact that Copeland is horrendous defensively. He’s awful on that end of the floor—I understand that—but that’s not what this discussion is about. This is strictly about what he could bring to the team in the area that needs the most improvement: offense.
Alright, now let’s begin: with Copeland on the floor, the Knicks are simply a better team.
In the postseason, the team’s offensive rating (ORtg -an estimate of points produced or scored per 100 possessions), is +15.5 points while Copeland is on the court. New York’s assist percentage (AST- an estimate of the percentage of teammate field goals a player assisted while he was on the floor) is +8.5 percent (via Basketball Reference).
But that’s not all. While the team has shot 32 percent from the three-point line throughout the playoffs, Copeland has been one of the team’s most consistent long-range shooters. He has connected on 5-of-13 shots from downtown and has the third-highest three-point percentage (38.5) of anyone who is averaging more than one attempt per game.
Copeland actually lit up Indiana for 10.8 points per game during the regular season while shooting nearly 53 percent from the field. In the month of April, while the Knicks were ravaged by injuries at basically every position, Copeland poured in 15 points per game.
Is it becoming more obvious that Woodson is making a mistake?
If not, listen to this. As a starter, while averaging 27.2 minutes per game in 13 games this season, Copeland gave the Knicks 16.1 points per night. Coming off the bench, while averaging 11.8 minutes per game this season, the rookie contributed 6.4 points—that’s a difference of nearly 10 whole points.
Personally, I like Woodson and the job he’s done with the Knicks since taking over last season—he had his team defending and playing hard while making Anthony look like an MVP candidate. However, all along, he didn’t give Copeland the chance that he deserved.
It’s time to unleash the 28-year-old rookie whom the Knicks signed from Belgium in the offseason. If given serious minutes, Copeland could save his team—and the coach who has mistreated him all season—from a humiliating defeat at the hands of Indiana.
Or, Copeland could find himself sitting there for another whole game, check in during garbage time and knock down a few threes.
It’s up to Woodson—no one else can free the 6’8” scorer. But let this be clear: If Copeland doesn’t get significant playing time in the coming games, the Knicks will lose this series to the Pacers.
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Mike Woodson Dropped the Ball in the Knicks’ Game 4 Loss
Players win and lose basketball games, and the New York Knicks were dismal in their 93-82 Game 4 loss to the Indiana Pacers.
They shot 35.6 percent from the field and 28.6 percent from behind the arc while being outrebounded 54-36. However, it is incumbent upon a coach to put his players in a position to succeed, and in the biggest Knicks game in 13 years, Mike Woodson failed miserably.
The Knicks coach panicked after New York lost Game 3, 82-71, and inserted Kenyon Martin into the starting lineup in place of Pablo Prigioni. In doing so, Woodson abandoned the small-ball strategy that won 54 games for the Knicks this season and ignored every piece of evidence regarding what has worked for his team.
New York had the third-most efficient offense in the league and set an NBA record for the most three-pointers in a season. Their recipe for success was to play Carmelo Anthony at the 4 and surround him with shooters to spread the floor. The spacing those shooters provided gave Anthony room to operate and opened up the lane for Raymond Felton and Tyson Chandler to execute the high pick-and-roll.
Another key component to the Knicks’ offensive success was Woodson’s use of two point guards together, which helped facilitate the ball movement that led to so many open threes. Early in the season, it was Jason Kidd who started alongside Felton. Down the stretch and in the playoffs, Pablo Prigioni took over Kidd’s role.
After Indiana’s big, bruising front line led by Roy Hibbert and David West broke the Knicks’ back in Game 3 with 18 offensive boards, Woodson felt he needed to combat their size with a bigger starting lineup. The strategy was doomed to fail. As Dan Devine of Yahoo! sports tweeted, “Going away from what YOU do best to do what THEY do best rarely works well.”
The Knicks were struggling to score with their usual lineup against Indiana’s No. 1-ranked defense—they shot just 35 percent in Game 3. Adding the offensively challenged Kenyon Martin to the lineup could only make matters worse. Neither Martin nor Chandler is a threat to score beyond five feet, so they clogged the paint, which was devastating to the Knicks’ spacing.
It was also the first time that Chandler and Martin started a game together. Game 4 of the conference semifinals is not the best time to experiment with new lineups.
Ball movement is essential to creating good shots against Indiana’s stingy defense, and Woodson and the Knicks players bemoaned the team’s selfish play in the three days after Game 3. The coach’s response was to remove New York’s most unselfish player, Prigioni, from the starting lineup. Prior to Game 4, the Knicks’ postseason assist rate with Prigioni on the court was 61 percent; without him, 46.9 percent (via NBA.com).
Shockingly, not only did Woodson bench Prigioni, the Knicks’ most consistent playoff performer played just three minutes. Jason Kidd, who has zero points on 0-of-16 shooting from the field and 0-of-10 from downtown in 177 minutes over his last eight games, played 16 minutes. The Knicks had a plus/minus of minus-25 with Kidd in the game over that span. With Prigioni in the lineup, they were plus-6.4 (via NBA.com).
The Knicks’ big lineup did not even solve their rebounding woes.
New York surrendered 16 offensive rebounds and allowed 17 second-chance points in the first half of Game 4, the most they gave up in any half this season (regular season and playoffs). As TNT analyst Reggie Miller pointed out several times, the Pacers’ best scoring opportunities came off of offensive rebounds.
It should not have been a surprise to Woodson that adding Martin to the lineup would fail to address the problem. The Knicks’ defensive rebounding rate this season with Martin on the floor was 72.4 percent; without him it was 74.6 (via NBA.com).
The Pacers grabbed so many offensive rebounds in Game 3 and Game 4 for two reasons: Chandler did not get a box-out Hibbert, and the Knicks’ perimeter players were out of position after doubling Indiana’s post players.
Hibbert grabbed eight offensive boards in Game 3 and six in Game 4. Martin had to block out his own man, another solid rebounder in West and could not help out on Hibbert. Only Chandler could keep the Pacers center off the glass.
Since Indiana is a poor three-point shooting team, the Knicks sent hard double-teams every time the Pacers threw the ball into the post, daring Indiana to kick it out and shoot outside shots.
While the Pacers did not shoot particularly well from behind the arc (10-of-33 in Game 3 and 8-of-25 in Game 4), their missed threes often resulted in long rebounds, which the Knicks guards were not in position to grab because they were scrambling to the open man after doubling the post.
Woodson should have abandoned the hard double-teams after Game 3 instead of playing a bigger lineup. Hibbert demonstrated a nice array of post moves in Game 3, though his 24 points represented a season-high. He is not Hakeem Olajuwon. The Knicks did not need to double him and West every time they touched the ball.
It is understandable that Woodson would make changes after the Knicks were pounded down low in Game 3. Typically, when bigger teams have exploited Anthony on the block like the Pacers did with West, Anthony has used his quickness to create a mismatch on the other end, but the Pacers negated that advantage by putting the lanky Paul George on Anthony instead of West.
Woodson needed to be creative and find other ways to utilize his team’s superior quickness. He could have run Iman Shumpert, who was guarded by the slower West, off of screens or created more favorable matchups for Anthony by forcing the Pacers to switch on him in pick-and-rolls. Instead, the coach discarded the offensive system that brought the Knicks their first division title in 19 years.
According to Ian Thomsen of Sports Illustrated, when Indiana coach Frank Vogel was asked about Woodson’s lineup change before the game, he said of his Pacers, ”The beauty of this team is that we don’t adjust to other teams. We do what we do.” Mike Woodson should take note.
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Mike Woodson: Knicks Coach Deserved to Be NBA’s Coach of the Year
George Karl, the head coach of the Denver Nuggets, was crowned as the NBA’s Coach of the Year on Wednesday. Although Karl is a tremendous coach and made history this season by leading Denver to a franchise-best 57 wins, there was a more deserving candidate for the award: Mike Woodson of the New York Knicks.
Woodson finished third in the COTY race, behind Karl and Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat, with six first place votes.
Last season the Knicks finished with a record of 36-30. Woodson took over for Mike D’Antoni with 24 games left on the schedule, and the team went 18-6 during that span (they were 18-24 when he took over). This season New York finished at 54-26, the team’s best record since 1996-97, and won the Atlantic Division for the first time since the 1993-94 season (via New York Daily News).
The Nuggets have the third youngest team in the NBA, but lack a traditional superstar. Ty Lawson was 31st in the league with 16.7 points per game, and led the team in scoring. The fact that Denver had a great season despite their lack of star-power is the main reason that Karl won the award.
Again, Karl is an outstanding coach, but Woodson was simply more deserving of the award.
The Knicks came into this season with the oldest roster in NBA history, and no one expected much from the team. Carmelo Anthony was coming off of shooting a career-low percentage from the field (44.3 percent) in 2011-12 as the struggle for dominance with Amar’e Stoudemire continued. Woodson solved that problem—when Stoudemire missed a huge chunk of the season after requiring a knee debridement surgery prior to the regular season, he played him off the bench and eliminated all controversy surrounding the duo.
Woodson also changed the culture of New York basketball by preaching something that had not been a factor in the D’Antoni-era: defense. Woodson even got Anthony and J.R. Smith to commit on the defensive end, which has spread throughout the rest of the locker room.
Smith has been one of Woodson’s projects since day-one, and the confidence that the coach instilled in the often out-of-control guard paid tremendous dividends.
Smith won the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award, and in his speech credited his coach.
“Coach Woodson told me from the get-go it would be a better situation for my teammates and me coming off the bench,” said Smith, who came into training camp hoping to become a starter. “Once I put in perspective, it really was and has been all year. He told me the first day of training camp, and I’ve embraced it since then” (via USA Today).
“I’ve got to credit my success to my teammates and coaches,” Smith added. “If we didn‘t win, I wouldn’t be in this situation. Coach Woodson has been unbelievable.”
Is it fair to discount Woodson for serious contention for the award because he has a superstar in Anthony? Karl has several good players (Lawson, Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler), but the fact that the Nuggets didn’t even have an all-star on the team and still finished third in the Western Conference puts Woodson at a disadvantage.
In his first full season under Woodson, Anthony improved in all of the following: scoring (he won the NBA scoring title with 28.7 points per game), shooting percentage, rebounding (offensive and defensive), three-point percentage, free throw percentage, blocks and minutes per game (via Basketball Reference).
It isn’t fair to not give Woodson a fair shot at the award just because he has the superstar that happens to be a former Nugget, because under the head coach Anthony has raised his game to near-MVP level.
Karl is a great coach, class act and is without a doubt one of the best basketball minds in the game today. However, in 2012-13, Woodson deserved to win the NBA’s Coach of the Year Award for job he did with the Knicks.
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Friendly Advice to Mike Woodson about How to Fix His NY Knicks
In terms of the New York Knicks over the past 10 games, a round of applause should be given to Mike Woodson for his great coaching decisions. After dropping two tough road games to the Portland Trailblazers and Los Angeles Clippers to start the stretch, the Knicks are now winners of their last eight games and have really picked up steam as the season nears to a close.
They now have two of their biggest games of the season coming up on the road this Tuesday against the Miami Heat and this Sunday against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
It’s hard to critique someone who’s been coaching his team so well lately, but there are a few things that Coach Woodson should keep in mind during the final 10 games of the season.
No. 1 suggestion: Keep giving J.R. Smith a ton of minutes
J.R. Smith has caught fire for the Knicks in their recent win streak. He’s scored over 30 points in the last three games and has tallied over 20 in six of the past eight.
In the month of March, Smith averaged 22.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 34.5 minutes a game. He’s been the catalyst behind the team’s winning ways.
It’s been clear all season for the Knicks that Carmelo Anthony was going to need a second scorer to shoulder the load in order for the team to win. Both Raymond Felton and Amar’e Stoudemire couldn’t prove they could consistently be that guy, but since Stoudemire went down with a season-ending knee injury, Smith has filled that role and then some for the Knicks.
If Smith can continue this performance, the team will be very dangerous come playoff time.
No. 2 suggestion: Play Kenyon Martin for defense and Chris Copeland for offense
In what has become somewhat of a complementary duo for the Knicks, Kenyon Martin and Chris Copeland have been perfect substitute for New York during this eight-game win streak.
In extended minutes against the Celtics last night, Copeland scored 22 points in 20 minutes and even showed his range from the outside, going 3-of-3 from beyond the arc.
Martin, on the other hand, brings the Knicks defense and rebounding. His five-rebounds-a-game replace the production that was lost from the injury of Amare Stoudemire perfectly, and his one-block-a-game average is second on the team to Tyson Chandler.
If Woodson can find the right moments in games to effectively use this rotation, it should work brilliantly the rest of the season and into the playoffs. Copeland has a valuable offensive skill set on offense that will be crucial come playoff time.
No. 3 suggestion: Limit Raymond Felton’s shots
In games this season that Raymond Felton has taken 15 or more shots, the Knicks are just 14-10. It’s hard to argue against Felton continuing to shoot the ball at a high volume when the team is still winning, but when your team holds a 46-26 record on the year, suddenly that 14-10 record doesn’t look all that great.
During the Knicks’ current eight-game win streak, Felton has averaged just 8.5 shots per game, which has given more opportunities to the likes of Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith. Anthony and Smith have really thrived off of the extra attempts, where Felton has focused more on controlling the game at the point with defense.
This formula has worked great, and Jason Kidd has provided solid production in the place of Felton as well off the bench. If Woodson can keep a tally on Felton and limit his attempts, the Knicks will be in a much better position to win from here on out.
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Woodson thinks he mishandled ‘Melo
Carmelo Anthony limping off the court and into the locker room was not a sight that any New York Knicks fan wanted to see.
On Tuesday, coach Mike Woodson stated that he regrets how he played a hand in setting up that very image.
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Mike Woodson regrets treatment of Carmelo Anthony
Carmelo Anthony limping off the court and into the locker room was not a sight that any New York Knicks fan wanted to see.
On Tuesday, coach Mike Woodson stated that he regrets how he played a hand in setting up that very image.
Please click here to read this story.
The post Mike Woodson regrets treatment of Carmelo Anthony appeared first on Players View.
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Knicks Coach Mike Woodson Wears T-Shirt Destined to Make Every NBA Fan Jealous
In case you didn’t know that the bald guy with a goatee was the coach and that he was also Mike Woodson, the Knicks head coach settled any confusion with the best shirt in the NBA.
Don’t worry, because all will be clear in a moment.
The Wall Street Journal’s Chris Herring was at Knicks practice on Tuesday and captured what has to be the very reason we started putting pictures on shirts.
Yes, that is a shirt worn by Mike Woodson depicting the face of Mike Woodson with the simple word “coach” emblazoned under it all.
So meta.
Of course, it only rivals the shirt worn by Paul Rudd in 40-Year Old Virgin.
The great thing about this shirt is that it really suits any wearer, only necessitating the person grow a bushy goatee first.
Oh to own a shirt where you can actually look people in the eye and point to your chest and offer, “that’s right, this guy…is this guy.”
Alas, we will stick to our non-hipster wardrobe and leave all the cool swag to the head coach of the 33-20 Knicks.
MSG Network’s Alan Hahn (h/t Yahoo! Sports) has a bit more for us in the form of this closeup that really only increases our need to pay whatever it costs to own this shirt.
He also reports the next installment of the behind-the-scenes series “The Mike Woodson Show” will be a must-see affair.
So if you are wondering who has the best wardrobe in the league, it’s not Russell Westbrook, James Harden or even sideline sartorial disaster Craig Sager.
It’s Mike Woodson.
If you are wondering what he looks like, just look around for the best shirt around, because his face will be on it.
Hit me up on Twitter for more pertinent NBA updates.
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Bulls vs. Knicks: How Mike Woodson Attacks Bulls’ D Without Raymond Felton
Without Raymond Felton, Mike Woodson and the New York Knicks are going to have even more trouble than usual solving the Chicago Bulls‘ defense.
The Knicks have already lost twice to the Bulls this season. Playing without Carmelo Anthony, they dropped their first meeting at Chicago, 93-85. When they later hosted the Bulls, the Knicks were healthy by their standards, but the Bulls still pulled out a 110-106 win.
Against the fourth-most efficient defense in the NBA, New York needs all the offense it can get. That’s why Felton’s absence is so crucial in this matchup.
According to Al Iannazzone of Newsday, Felton hopes to return from his broken pinkie by the end of January, which isn’t a moment too soon for the Knicks. Since Felton’s injury, the Knicks’ offense has lacked a dimension, sorely missing his ability to open up the offense with his quickness and penetration.
Jason Kidd and Pablo Prigioni have both been solid contributors for the Knicks this season, but neither has the skill set to replace Felton. In his old age, Kidd is too slow to consistently create off penetration, while Prigioni is not a strong enough finisher to suck in the defense when he drives.
However, there still is one guy who can slash into the teeth of the defense and score: J.R. Smith.
Smith has been very effective running the pick-and-roll this season. He has the explosiveness and the handle to get into the lane at will, and he can score at the rim as well as any guard in the league. Defenses hedge towards Smith when he drives, allowing him to surprise opponents by adeptly finding his open shooters on the perimeter.
Against the Bulls, establishing Smith as a pick-and-roll threat will make everything else easier for the Knicks.
With the Bulls set to key on Anthony, Woodson should work the ball through Smith early. Tom Thibodeau’s team is superb at covering the pick-and-roll, but Smith is quietly one of the best in the league at running the play.
If he can find some success early, he’ll be able to open up Melo and the Knicks’ other perimeter options, setting up an inside-out attack.
Driving at Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson is one of the hardest things you can do on the basketball court, but that’s exactly what Woodson must try to do. He knows the Chicago’s defense will try to dominate the game, so he mustn’t allow the Bulls to do what they want out there.
You don’t beat the Chicago Bulls by letting them do what they want on defense. Playing shorthanded, Woodson is going to have to attack their greatest strength, and to do that, he’s going to have to trust J.R. Smith’s ability to create.
Stats accurate as of Jan. 11, 2013.
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How Mike Woodson Can Transform Amar’e Stoudemire into a Defensive Presence
As if Amar’e Stoudemire hadn’t opened himself up to enough criticism over the last year or so, he’s done it again with his latest comments on his defensive flaws.
The New York Knicks forward recently told reporters after practice that he has “never been taught defense,” which doesn’t say much about his commitment to the game.
Sure, Mike D’Antoni (who coached Stoudemire for much of his career) is anything but a defensive mastermind, but that doesn’t mean the blame can be shifted off Stoudemire’s shoulders. He’s a professional and after a decade in the league, it’s his responsibility to improve himself—even if that means looking for outside help, like he did this past offseason with Hakeem Olajuwon.
More to the point, if Stoudemire was trying to highlight that he can now improve his defense with Mike Woodson at the helm, he’s forgetting one important thing: Woodson’s job for much of last season was to be D’Antoni‘s defensive assistant.
As confusing and frustrating as STAT’s comments were, it’s important to understand that it’s now in the past. Stoudemire clearly wants to make amends, and Coach Woodson is the perfect man for the job.
Much like he did with Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith, Woodson is capable of transforming Stoudemire’s game on that end of the floor.
The first thing that needs to be done is for Stoudemire to build on what has been a strength for him at points in his career—shot blocking. As a help defender, when Stoudemire is committed, he has the capability to be a serious threat inside.
Back in his first season with New York, Stoudemire averaged 1.9 blocks. He also averaged 2.1 in 2007-08 with the Phoenix Suns. Granted, Stoudemire was playing center in those two seasons, but now that he is coming off the bench, he will see plenty of minutes backing up Tyson Chandler at the 5.
Stoudemire’s past success with shot-blocking shows that even if he isn’t a skilled defender or a knowledgeable defender yet, when he gives his full effort, he can still be helpful in that regard.
His primary job defensively will be to help Chandler and Marcus Camby hold down the paint, which is something the Knicks really need him to do. The Knicks are allowing 25.9 points per game from in close this season, as opposed to 22.3 last season. The opponent effective field-goal percentage inside has also increased from .562 to .605.
The main point of improvement, however, is Stoudemire’s effort. Since returning from injury, we’ve seen Stoudemire put in a lot of effort offensively, almost to a fault. He is forcing some shots and trying to prove a point now that he’s back. But we don’t see the same kind of involvement on defense.
When his shot isn’t falling, Stoudemire needs to understand that he can impact the game defensively as well.
Effort is going to be a big part of it. At the very least, you aren’t going to get embarrassed if you make sure you stick with your man and help out when someone else’s assignment drives to the basket.
To ensure the effort is there, Woodson needs to punish Amar’e for poor defense. Woodson has never been shy to reduce minutes or pull a player to the side mid-game if they aren’t giving their all. Mistakes are inevitable, but just standing there and watching as someone drives by you is not acceptable.
That said, putting in the extra effort won’t just suddenly fix everything. It won’t work that way with Amar’e, because unlike Melo and J.R., he isn’t even a particularly good defender when he tries and never has been. Often times, he just looks confused out there.
Woodson has a tough task on his hands because he essentially will have to teach Stoudemire defense from scratch. This isn’t a switch that can be flipped like when Anthony suddenly started playing D after D’Antoni resigned.
Stoudemire has already spoken about how he doesn’t know defensive stances or positioning, and Woodson says he also struggles when it comes to rotations out of double-teams. That’s a lot to catch up on.
It’s at least encouraging that Stoudemire sounds willing to learn, though. His eagerness to make amends will speed up the process, but don’t expect him to suddenly turn into the second coming of Charles Oakley.
It will take a while—probably the rest of the season and more—for Stoudemire to actually become a good defender and a difference-maker like Anthony and Smith have been this season. Instead, the hope will be that he simply won’t be a liability when the playoffs come around.
Steve Novak is a good example of what you can expect Stoudemire to be defensively this season. For his career, Novak has done very little besides shooting, and he was just terrible on D last year.
This year, however, Novak isn’t making any major mistakes and is playing a role in a good team defense. With Chandler and Camby in the middle and a good set of perimeter defenders, that’s enough.
Communication has been essential, and it will be the same with Stoudemire. He needs to trust his teammates, but luckily, that is exactly what Woodson has been preaching since training camp.
Ultimately, if Stoudemire is looking for someone to finally help him defensively, he couldn’t be in a better situation. With a coach like Woodson and two former Defensive Player of the Year winners, he has plenty of people to turn to.
They can help him, but only if he is willing to be coached. The onus is still on Stoudemire to iron out his weakness and make use of the resources around him.
It has taken a long while for STAT to realize his defense isn’t acceptable, but it’s great to see that he’s finally making the changes he needs to as he comes off the bench for the Knicks.
Better late than never, right?
All stats used in this article were accurate as of Jan. 6, 2013. Advanced stats are from 82games.
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Mike Woodson puts his stamp on New York Knicks, NBA A-Z
The surprising season by the Knicks leads our column of news and notes from around the NBA
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