Rim protection is proving to be a massive hole in the Knicks' defense

11/07/2024 02:04 PM

Breaking down one of the biggest reasons behind New York's slow start

Gonna start this article with a couple of numbers.

28-for-36

71.5%

3.7

28-for-36. That is what opponents are shooting at the rim against Karl-Anthony Towns this season.

71.5%. That is what Knicks' opponents are shooting at the rim this season. One of the worst in basketball.

3.7. That's the blocks per game by the Knicks, 28th in the NBA.

Compare some of these numbers to last season:

Opponents shot just 53.1% at the rim against Isaiah Hartenstein last season. Teams shot just 63.5% at the rim against the Knicks, and the team averaged only 4.1 blocks per game.

The first two were elite numbers. The latter is poor but pure blocks don't matter if you are doing great at preventing open shots underneath.

The Knicks have only improved in one category here: they're allowing less shots at the rim. But if your opponents are practically walking down there when they try to get to the rim? That's bad

Is this all on KAT?

Yeah. A good part of it is something we've always known. KAT is not a good rim protector. That said, this has been bizarrely bad. He's been around average for his career (despite his limitations elsewhere) but this year opponents are shooting 14% above league average with him in his way. But look at this, Mobley just barrels right through him.

You'll see a ton of plays like this when combing over film. Ballhandler blows by his defender and KAT is stuck between helping while abandoning his man or giving him a free lane. This is where my top theory comes in: they are used to a defensive big back there.

If Josh Hart does this last year, you have either Mitchell Robinson or Isaiah Hartenstein. They will either impact the shot (block or heavy contest) or, most importantly, deter the driving offensive player. Nobody is scared of KAT at the rim. It's going to take some time for the guys on the perimeter to learn that they don't have the safety valve they used to have.

OG Anunoby is a terrific one-on-one defender. That said, guys like Sengun are so structurally sound that they'll just back you down old school and make a put-shot over you. KAT goes to help but Sengun masterfully reads it and dumps it off to Jabari Smith. I often call Sengun a baby Jokic. Both play super slow and methodical but have tremendous instincts offensively.

They don't have a guy who can body him. They'll switch KAT on later but this help defense does nothing. How did Hartenstein and Achiuwa fare against Sengun last year?

Sengun makes this shot the other night. Hartenstein plays strong defense and stuffs him. This got overturned to a clean block upon review. Now, Sengun still did typical Sengun things in this game but ultimately, he shot 13-for-26 in two games against the Knicks last season. He shot 11-for-15 the other night.

You have to be physical with him. Achiuwa does just enough without fouling to force a miss.

This is THE play. Achiuwa plays lockdown defense, stonewalls a very strong player in Sengun, and forces a crucial miss in crunch time. This kind of stiff interior defense is what the Knicks are sorely missing. You saw this against Joel Embiid in the playoffs last year and when he returns, this will be an aspect he brings that can transform the team.

If the Knicks hadn't lost last night, I wouldn't have written this quite yet. They did much better against a Hawks team that clearly looked at the stats and saw a weakness in the interior. They went a palatable 22-for-39 at the rim last night.

That isn't the problem here. One more big thing the Knicks are missing is their ability to rebound. The stats don't show it but stuff like this is happening too often. Hawks get three chances and eventually convert.

This isn't solely on the bigs, too. Deuce gets stonewalled on this screen and Sims has to either give up the open lane or contest Young, who is an extremely gifted passer, risking an easy Capela dunk. The problems are team-wide right now.

Forcing KAT to help is leading to way too much of this. Atlanta got second chance after second chance because they were able to get a bigger body on a guy like Josh Hart after drawing KAT away from the rim.

Bridges and Brunson switch after the screen, but Brunson again relies on the big to bail him out. Hart is a terrific rebounder but he is seven inches shorter than Capela. Come on.

It's also instincts. Achiuwa, Mitch, or Hartenstein all grab this rebound. KAT is watching the ball and gets it snatched by Capela. Smart rebounding wins games, and although the Knicks broke down on both sides of the court in the last five minutes, this shouldn't be glossed over.

Is This Fixable?

It's going to take some time. Tom Thibodeau's defensive system is run from rim protectors. It works when you have a rim deterrent like Mitchell Robinson or a strong interior defender like Precious Achiuwa. The Knicks have to make it work right now with what they have.

The good news? They have reinforcements coming. Both Achiuwa and Robinson will be in the rotation when they get healthy. The question will become if KAT needs a rim protector to truly unlock him, like Gobert in Minnesota.

The way this season has started, in my opinion, has made it more likely that Mitchell Robinson will see much more playing time than originally thought upon his return.