Toney Douglas Gets the 7SoM Treatment

by Seth on Aug 10, 2009 2:36 PM EDT in Videos

Our good friend Gian at 7 Seconds or Mess is not only a Knicks expert, but also one of the blogosphere's preeminent video editors. His most recent work is this profile of Toney Douglas's performance in Vegas. Gian's impressed with Toney's point guard game, but isn't quite as blindly, stupidly enamored as I am. He points out some flaws- gambling on defense and only playing at one speed, for instance- that certainly need work. Check it out:

Excellent work. If you haven't already, check out Gian's appraisal of Jordan Hill here.

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obviously great work by gian

but i gotta disagree about his assessment of toney’s unrelenting pursuit of steals. he makes a very valid point that for most teams, his lust for stealing the ball would probably end up hurting the d.
but i feel like d’antoni’s defensive gameplan sort of revolves around gambling a bit in these situations and forcing the other team to have to move around a lot, and hopefully defeating them with speed, because, the lineups he runs out would have trouble against most offenses when matched up against them without making weird gambles.let’s face it, when you talk about “the knicks interior”, – meaning some combination of players including david lee and jordan hill – already kind of screwed when it comes to defending somebody one-on-one. the knicks best hope sometimes is to get the team off-balance a little bit, force them to move the ball, and hopefully you can get a hand on it. taking a risk on that small percentage you get a turnover is worth it when you can barely stop someone regularly.
am i remembering correctly that earlier in the year, when d’antoni said something like “i told nate i want him to average three steals a game” or something to that effect? remember when larry hughes oddly became a ballhawk when he came to the knicks last year?
then again, gian knows all sorts of things about mike d’antoni and his strategies that i couldn’t begin to fathom, so, maybe i’m wrong.

by Barnesgasm on Aug 11, 2009 1:11 AM EDT reply actions

sorry about the essay

i thought that was way shorter when i was writing it

by Barnesgasm on Aug 11, 2009 1:12 AM EDT up reply actions

yeah

d’antoni did say that bit about nate getting three steals a game. I don’t mind the defensive gambling. It kick-starts the fast break if it works, and if it fails, it’s just another wide open shot for an opposing player. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Posting and Toasting: "Say yo Oak, what's the dish tonight? A couple steaks on the grill and we season it right."

by Seth on Aug 11, 2009 1:30 AM EDT up reply actions

Excellent Analysis

However, I agree with Barnesgasm.

Also, Douglas’ defense is superior and it was during the Summer League. Tyreke Evans could not get by Douglas who has excellent lateral movement, footwork and hand speed.. Ability to guard Chris Paul and Derrick Rose cannot be held out as definitive of whether a player is a decent defender — almost no one in the league can guard those guys without giving up a lot of points on any given night. Douglas will hold his own. I am concerned about the scoring however, although the word out of the ACC is that we shouldn’t be concerned. He was using the summer league to demonstrate his ability to run point.

Resident Incidental General Manager at Knicks Fanatics

by IGMKNICKS on Aug 11, 2009 6:11 AM EDT reply actions

Defense

I agree on that. It’s not about whether he can stop those guys but whether he can slow them down and knock them off what they want to do – that’s what defense is about and I think Douglas gets it. Most of the players in the NBA are drafted for offense and I think it’s almost shocking to them when a guy d’s up on them. This is what makes me hopeful that Toney can outplay a lot of point guards out there….

by fuhry on Aug 11, 2009 10:42 AM EDT up reply actions