How Melo does it
One Motion: Before this season I never had the chance to watch Anthony during pregame warmups. Now, three months into the season, I still marvel at how fluid his shot is. If you could build a jump shot from scratch for a kid, ideally it would look a lot like Carmelo’s. No matter how far away from the hoop he is, he has the same release point on his jump shot, which is why he’s such a darn good shooter. Take Paul Pierce, for example. He’s a very, very good shooter… But his shot is bent up in a few different motions and simply not as smooth as Anthony’s. Not many players have as smooth a shot as Anthony… I guess that’s part of the allure of ‘Melo.’
High / Quick Release: Because Melo shoots the ball with such fluidity, he’s able to get his shot off extremely quickly. Add in a high release point? Fuhgetaboutit. That’s why once he gets going, even when you crowd him, he can pump-fake you, take a dribble at you, pull back and still get the shot off with ease (as he did to Josh Smith from the right elbow in the fourth quarter last night).
Ready to shoot: Along with knowing that he’s going to shoot before he catches the ball, Melo has quick, choppy and rhythmic 1-2 steps into his shot. When he makes his mind up that he’s going to shoot the ball before he catches it, as a defender all you can do is be in the best possible position to guard the shot (which is what coach Drew was saying) because when he decides it’s going up, it’s going up. When you do crowd Melo, though, you’re susceptible to the drive or a pull-up. The defense better be ready to help.
Confidence: When you see his face as he runs down the court from some of those makes last night, you can see it in his eyes: “Nobody can stop me but me.” When a player of Melo’s caliber is brimming with that confidence, good luck stopping him.
Knicks have work to do defensively, especially in pick-and-roll situations
Jrue Holiday torched the Knicks for 35 points on Saturday and Jeff Teague scored 27 points (18 in the first half) on Sunday.
We already mentioned that the Knicks defense, or lack thereof, allowed the Hawks to shoot 39-65 (60%) from the floor yesterday. Here’s a nice tidbit to sum things up:
So as Raymond Felton, Iman Shumpert, Amar’e Stoudemire and everyone else try try to return to form and find their rhythm offensively, they also have to regain their effort and communication at the defensive end on a possession by possession basis.
“I’m not sure. Something we need to correct with ball screens,” explained Shumpert. “I’m sure at our next practice Woody will be all over it. It’s obviously been bothering us but it’s been bothering him probably more than us. I thought we tried to forget about last night but we’re definitely going to have address what’s going on up top. It’s a collective thing; we’ve got to all be knowing what’s going on. We have to step up. We have to help. On switches we have to switch a lot better, so we have to correct it.”
Communication and better hedging would certainly help the Knicks cause as they move forward. Time will tell if they can become the defensive team they looked to be burgeoning into at the beginning of the year.
Jeremy Bauman is an aspiring scout and shooting coach who writes columns and blogs for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter.