Maybe the most important item when finding a new Knicks coach, the Dubs posted elite defensive numbers across the board this season: Miller’s team finished
third overall in opponent FG% at 44.4 and second in points allowed per game at 101.5. Defense was a goal all year for Westchester, despite the team’s revolving door of talent throughout the season.
“
I think one of the things that happened is, when Trey Burke signed and was gone, we knew that was a big piece of offense that was gone,” Miller said. “We sat down with our group and said, if we don’t become one of the top defensive teams — we had set out to be one of the top five defensive teams, that was something we talked about, we wanted to be one of the best top five teams — and we weren’t there. So we kept moving that way, and got better and better in the second half of the season. I think we defended very well.”
One
slight area of concern is a problem that has plagued the big Knicks the last two years under Jeff Hornacek — the W-Knicks finished
23rd of 26 teams in 3-pointers attempted with 25.5 per game, and 21st in threes made with 9.9. One silver lining there, however, is that they shot 37.8 percent, which was good for third in the league.
That stat doesn’t overly concern me, however, considering midrange maestro Trey Burke was dropping 30 a game for over half the season in Westchester. Clearly, Miller was playing to the strengths of his players, and that’s an admirable trait.
Let’s segue right on into the third P, Player Development. Miller and the W-Knicks had a G League-high five call-ups this season,
tied with the Northern Arizona Suns.
Granted, three of those went to
Nigel Hayes with three separate teams, but the results were clearly there (the other two were Trey Burke, obviously, and
Xavier Rathan-Mayes). Couple that with the progress that
Damyean Dotson,
Luke Kornet and
Isaiah Hicks showed from their time at the small club, and the record for development this year is pretty iron-clad.
“I think we saw some of our players as they progressed and they were successful,” Miller said. “That’s what we’re after. If we had Nigel, Nigel practiced with us two days last week... it was Friday night after the first-round game when we figured out he was going to go to play for the Kings the rest of the season. And we were happy as anybody was, players, coaches, happy that he had that opportunity. And had one of the other guys gotten [a call-up] yesterday, we would have been happy for him.
“That’s what it is, that’s what it’s about. And the guys that are here now, it’s been next guy up. We keep it going, this is who we are. And I give the credit to the guys that we started the year with, to create the culture and really buy into it and go through the process with us.”
Kind of sounds like a perfect mentality from a coach that will likely inherit one of the youngest rosters in the NBA next year, right?
So, with that, my message to the Knicks is quite simple: don’t overthink it. Maybe that perfect recipe for success is right in front of your nose.
If they handed the keys to this guy and prepped to move some vets when 12/15 comes along...make a real, honest shift to one more year of development...position themselves to pick top 10 if not get lucky in the lottery...then I think finding a long term GM and Coach might actually work out whether Miller is the guy or someone else. We're closer than we look. One year you're Phoenix 2018/2019...the next year you're Phoenix 2019/2020. The skeleton is building, but we need to either develop someone into the heart that pumps and brings it all to life (all eyes on RJ) or find him in the draft (There ought to be a few guys with that type of upside in the draft from the early looks I've had).
.
.
). Pop would never allow a player to continually get minutes while playing 15+ minutes contributing 0/0/0. The amount of times Frank has done this is incredible 
