INCREASE 'D' EFFORT
Hornacek believes Knicks can fix defensive struggles
OK, so the Knicks are giving effort on defense. It is just not enough and not the proper kind needed to win.
But it is enough to ensure that for the present there won’t be any Jets-like assistant shake-up, so Kurt Rambis remains the defensive coordinator.
“No, not at all,” Hornacek said when asked following practice Tuesday if there might be a rearranging of coaching duties. “There’s a lot of things that happen out there on the court. You can cover most of it. Other times it’s, ‘Hey, you’ve just got to play. You’ve got to help each other out. You’ve got to talk.’
“We’ve just got to keep going over it and continue to reiterate what we want,” Hornacek said at the Tarrytown facility where Phil Jackson observed practice. “Even if you do it wrong, if you have effort — not what you think is an effort — what the coaches think is an effort, you can fix a lot of things.”
And a lot needs fixing with the 16-18 Knicks, who have lost five straight games — including a 115-103 clunker at home against Orlando on Monday, a display so lacking in defensive effort and intensity that Hornacek wondered if his players were “not capable of ” defending.
Well, turns out they are. But they must supply better effort, starting Wednesday against the Bucks at the Garden where they hope to have Kristaps Porzingis (sore left Achilles) back after a two-game absence. Hornacek said Porzingis, who sat out practice, could be “doubtful” but the 7-foot-3 Latvian said he feels he could play.
With or without Porzingis, the Knicks must fortify defensively. Hornacek had suggested lineup changes, even gimmicky defenses. Easier said than done.
“We’re always taking a look at things,” Hornacek said regarding any lineup changes. “But we’ve got some dynamic offensive players out there and we’ve got some guys that are strictly defense. … We just all have to get better. That first group is able to do that.”
Of gimmicks, Hornacek said “there might be some that we have to do. But some of it is just challenging our guys like … can you sustain that for a longer period of time?”
Hornacek indicated a lot falls on the coaches. They must be better in what they ask of certain players. Older guys shouldn’t be chasing freak of nature athletes, for example. Match ability to request.
“I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily that they [can’t] play defense. We have to find the right way to have them play defense,” Hornacek said. “If we’re asking a certain guy to pick up at half court, we have to know, is he capable of doing that? We might have three guys on the team or four guys that can do that and the rest of them might not be able to. So we’ve got to put them in those positions that they’re capable of doing. We’ve got to figure out how as a team, what we’re going to do that lends to everybody’s capabilities.”
One thing that can be asked of everyone is effort.
“It’s different levels of effort,” Hornacek said. “These guys really are trying but defense is tough. It’s an all-out running into guys, hustling not stopping, it’s a lot harder than offense. So the effort they are giving I think is good but we got to get it to be great.”
And all concerned hoped it began at practice, what Hornacek called a “spirited” session for a team ranked 25th in scoring defense.
“Today we had the type of fight that we need to have. In practice we had it,” said Porzingis, who observed from the sidelines. “I’m sure [Wednesday] we’ll come out with a different mentality and a different effort.”
Of course, anything has to look better than the defensive slop the Knicks have rolled out recently. Rambis, who was chatting up Joakim Noah when the media entered practice, became defensive coordinator after a 2-4 start when the Knicks surrendered at least 100 points every time.
In those first six games, opponents averaged 109.8 points, shot 46.6 percent, including 37.9 percent on 3-pointers. With Rambis heading the defense, opponents have averaged 108.2 points, shot 44.5 percent, including 34.8 percent on 3s.