Pelica Debrief
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Know Your New Orleans Pelicans Opponent: New York Knicks Q&A

By Matt Cianfrone

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As we head towards the start of the 2015-16 season, New Orleans Pelicans fans are mostly concerned with the way the Pelicans are adjusting to a new system. While that is the most important question for the Pelicans right now, there are also 29 other teams in the NBA with questions and the answers to some will directly impact the Pelicans. With that in mind we decided to go around the league and do Q&A sessions with a blogger for each team in the league. Today we conclude our look around the Atlantic Division by talking again David Vertsberger, who outside of being the editor of Brooklyn’s Finest and a writer at Hardwood Paroxysm, happens to be a Knicks fan. Verts talks defensive improvement, superstar injuries and more in his second stop here at PD.

1. The Knicks were on of the few teams worse than the Pelicans defensively last season. How much do you expect that to improve this year? 

Verts: The Knicks will definitely improve a good amount. Their defensive schemes are solid, but last year they lacked, well, NBA players. They’ve picked up Robin Lopez, Arron Afflalo and Kyle O’Quinn over the summer, all plus defenders. NY’s defense likely won’t be “good” but certainly improved.

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2. The Knicks were tied with the Pelicans as the third slowest team in basketball last year. New Orleans will be playing faster this season, will New York? 

Verts: The Knicks should play faster. They’ve got some young talent that would thrive in an uptempo system in Jerian Grant, Langston Galloway, Cleanthony Early and of course Kristaps Porzingis, who runs the floor well and can nail threes as a trailer a la Dirk. Playing fast helps you find easy scores in transition. But will they? Hard to tell. Fisher’s been more open to moving a bit away from the triangle into more of a modern NBA offense, but that needs to reflect in the regular season. It’s anyone’s guess at this point.

3. The Knicks beat the Pelicans (without Anthony Davis) to snap a 16 game losing streak last season. Was that one of their best wins last season? 

Verts: I’ve actually repressed every memory I have of last year’s Knicks in order to maintain sanity. Can’t help you here.

4. The Pelicans unfortunately know how much missing a superstar can hurt as AD has yet to play 70 games in a season. How many wins better does simply having Carmelo Anthony on the floor make the Knicks? 

Verts: Somewhere between a lot and a ton. He doesn’t help the Knicks defensively but Melo’s still one of the few guys in the league that can carry an offense all on his own.

5. What are the expectations for the Knicks this season? What would you consider a successful season for the Knicks? 

Verts: The expectations for the Knicks from the general NBA consensus ranges anywhere from around 25 wins to an eighth seed finish. Which in the East is about… 26 wins. Kidding. Sort of. New York won’t be better than the eighth seed and can’t possibly be worse than the 17-win team they put out there last year, so somewhere in the middle is a solid guess.

I’d consider it a successful season if Fisher extends Anthony’s career by not playing him to death, plays a lot of the young guys and lets them develop through playing big minutes and moves further away from the triangle. Without a draft pick or the talent to come close to competing, win counts don’t concern me.

Next: We Talked Celtics Yesterday With Jack Maloney

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