The New York Knicks have been held down by their defense in recent seasons, making it a reason for concern throughout this training camp. Last season, New York ranked sixth-worst in the league in defensive rating — a true concern for the coaching staff , which they have since tried to fix.
Head coach Jeff Hornacek revealed one of his strategies that may have gone haywire in his effort to get it all figured out. The longtime-player-turned-coach noted he gave his veteran players the chance to call their own plays on defense, as they often are able to see what goes on within the game.
“We're not doing that this year,” Hornacek told ESPN's Ian Begley on Monday. “When we go to shoot around that (defensive) plan will be in place. We'll know the adjustments, instead of trying to give the guys the idea, ‘Hey, you guys play, you guys know these guys. What's the best way to do it?'” Hornacek added that he may have made a mistake in giving players that leeway last season. “I played on teams that had great veteran players. We had a basic thing, but most of the time it was, ‘Okay, I'm going to be doing this, you're going to be doing this and we worked it out.' That's maybe what I thought we'd be able to do last year with the guys. But that's, we found out that didn't work the best for us. This year we worked all summer to try to figure these things out.”
Hornacek also played alongside some of the game's greats like John Stockton and Karl Malone in a star-studded Utah Jazz team back in the 90s — two proven All-Stars that had proven themselves defensively.
The Knicks looked lost and at times out of sync on defense during spurts of the game, making it a priority worth addressing this early into training camp.
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