First Impressions from last night

If anybody had any delusions of watching Amar’e and Melo blow the doors off of the Garden with 30 each last night, last night was a reality check. This is an almost completely new team that were it not for a hell of a performance from Toney Douglas, would have lost the 10^th best team in the Eastern Conference last night. Now I know there’s a lot that you can attribute to nerves, so I’m not going to go too deep into analysis for last night, but I feel that there are a few things that you can definitively point out about the Knicks new rotation.

The fears of Melo being a ball stopper may be founded:

Again, maybe this changes with time, and maybe you don’t really want it to change because that’s just the type of player Melo is. But it could present a problem. Clyde was especially critical of Melo on this front. The Knicks would get some good ball movement going on the offensive end, swing it around to Melo and. Post up, a few jab steps, jumper. When these are going in, it’s great, and it opens up the floor for everyone else. But there are nights like last night where Melo needs to realize that a) he’s having a tough night from the field and b) Amar’e was shooting it pretty well. Use your stature as a top scorer in the NBA to get Amar’e some good looks, and shift the attention away from you. Clyde was talking about how when played with Earl Monroe, the person who got the last shot was whoever was having the better night. That’s how this system would work in a perfect world. Whoever is having the on night should take the lion’s share of the shots, and as the defense begins to shift to them, even out the distribution.

Shawne Williams is more than a spot up shooter:

I really hadn’t taken notice of it until the last Heat game where Williams did about as good of a job on LeBron as you can do, but Williams is a terrific defender. He did everything from guarding Bogut last night, to matching up with Keyon Dooling at one point and being quick enough to draw an offensive foul. He brings the same defensive intensity that Toney Douglas does, with a swiss army knife versatility. Those two off the bench with Stoudemire-Anthony-Billups was unquestionably the best defensive lineup last night. This lineup obviously doesn’t match up well with every team (Williams obviously can’t guard Howard or Perkins). But Chicago stands out as a fit for this lineup with Williams neutralizing Noah’s quickness and Douglas on Derrick Rose.

Billups can make this system work

He’s clearly much more of a “methodical” worker than Felton, but a line of 21/6/8 doesn’t lie. You could tell he was definitely a little too hyped up for this game because all of his jumpers were long, but he hit Stoudemire with two very nice passes inside, and was flawless from the charity stripe. The offense really isn’t going to fly down the court anymore, but Billups provided the steady hand at the point everybody expected last night. He’s also the best person to get the most out of Toney Douglas as a point guard going forward, which leads into…

Toney is going to get more minutes, and that’s a good thing

Obviously not every night is going to be like last night, but I believe going forward his shooting percentages are only going to rise. He’s now playing with two players who demand double teams, and a third player who’s the best shooter we’ve had all year. Even if he’s just out on the court with 2 of those guys, Douglas is going to get more open looks. For a guy shooting 55% from the field and 46% from three this month, that can only be good. He frustrated Jennings and Dooling all night, even occasionally picking up full court. On nights where Melo or Stoudemire have it going, he could be a key factor in keeping up the defensive intensity and knocking down the open shots that used to go to Gallo (who was underperforming from three) and Chandler (who shouldn’t have been taking those shots anyways).