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Can anyone genuinely explain why the Knicks’ opponents are shooting their highest percentage of open 3s versus this team in particular?



Can anyone genuinely explain why the Knicks’ opponents are shooting their highest percentage of open 3s versus this team in particular?

by Merthan

26 Comments

  1. FYI this data is just from February, our worst month. I’m not worried just genuinely curious

  2. Maybe everyone’s known for years that you can get open 3s against the Knicks. Extra confidence boost.

  3. GoldenBoyRecords

    Someone can correct me if I am wrong but its our defensive scheme. Thibs will and has always put emphasis on protecting the paint vs the 3pt line. This is nothing new and we bank on teams just missing. Its a big reason why this team struggles against stretch 5s for example because our bigs drop to protect the paint. We rarely adjust to the personnel we play against. Look at KP he typically goes off whenever he plays against us because of how we defend him

  4. confuddly

    Thibs entire defensive scheme is hinged upon the speed at which defenders can go from the paint to contest a 3 pt shot on the perimeter. So there are two reasons we’re struggling with this:

    1. People are too tired to do this effectively because they’re all playing 40+ minutes due to injuries

    2. We’re playing slow players in Burks/Bojan who can’t do this effectively.

    Both of these things will change once OG comes back

  5. ploptankploop

    IIRC a few seasons ago Knicks opponents were shooting the lowest % on open 3s. Some of this is for sure on the defense but some of this is just how sports works

  6. heliumointment

    thibs favors interior D and tries to force teams to beat us with shooting (esp from the weak side)

    being +10% over avg shouldnt matter when opps are hitting a low amt of total 3s tho? (2nd column)

    also prob worth noting that in the span this is looking at (jan ’23–’24) we’re among the lowest opp ppg

  7. CaptainObvious1313

    Defense is crap because all players have been deceased

  8. JA_MD_311

    Have you watched the games? Everyone is a step slow to the ball right now. We give up an insane amount of open looks.

  9. Oral_Salmon_user1

    at the end of the day its the knicks 😅

  10. We give lethal three point shooters way too much room. Also our help defense on screens is not good

  11. Jusuf_Nurkic

    It’s just variance in a 1 month sample size. Wide open 3s are basically all “luck” since it’s literally no defense, so this isn’t an indictment on our defense (looks like we’re middle of the pack in wide open 3s allowed).

  12. Our defensive scheme, but that was fixed with OG. Now that he’s gone the same problem is happening again.

  13. BitchinBobSaget

    Most of these comments are about our defensive scheme and the fact that we give up so many open 3s. That is not the point of this data…the data is saying opponents are hitting the highest percentage of wide open 3s against the Knicks. In fact, the data shows we are about average in terms of the amount of wide open 3s we give up.

    Not sure why this is the case though. Has always felt like players just go off in the garden. No idea if data backs that up.

  14. Odysseus_Lannister

    It might have something to do with leaving a substantial amount of WIDE OPEN 3 pointers.

  15. QUINNFLORE

    The only two stats on here that measure a team’s defense are def rating and wide open opp 3 per game.

    The percentages only account for shots that are wide open. It is showing that when players are wide open (ie the defense has already collapsed) they shoot 12% better against us than they do against other teams.

    A lot of people seem to be reading this as a slight against our 3PT defense, when it actually shows that we don’t give up a ton of wide open 3s relative to the league average. The takeaway here is that we have been significantly affected by luck to the tune of ~6 points per game.

  16. Good. Waste all the good shooting now before the playoffs.

  17. NoProperty7528

    Because they cannot guard anyone one on one.

  18. Titaneuropa

    Maybe they are a little more focused (or in the zone however you wanna call it) playing against knicks on the big stage.

  19. ThrowSumDeesOnIt

    Part of it is second shot opportunities. We’ve really struggled to rebound the basketball on both ends without a fully healthy Hartenstein or Robinson. And our inability to contain dribble penetration without OG has made opponents’ 3P% worse due to kickouts.

  20. Tradeandworkout

    It can be 1. just us being unlucky, or 2. the open 3’s we give up happen to be the easiest (the corners). Just based on the eye test and Thibs style, we do tend to guard inside out, and that leaves the corner threes open the most. When our longer defenders return, like OG, closing out on the corner three is easier.

  21. OutsideAd1823

    Even at our best, teams get a lot of open 3s against us. Our inside defense is way better than our perimeter defense. And a lot of time DVV especially misses rotations. I’m not worried though Knicks in 6

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