Knicks Need More From Supporting Cast

Coming off arguably one of the best performance of the year, we need to take a closer look at these New York Knicks. I want to take a closer look at the Knicks’ role players, primarily Landry Fields, Toney Douglas, Bill Walker and Shawne Williams.

Let’s first start with the Knicks’ last win against the Hornets. Toney Douglas had one of his best games of the year, filling in for the injured Chauncey Billups, posting up a huge line including 24 points (10-13 shooting), shot 4-6 behind the arc, and dished out five assists. Landry Fields chipped in with 10 points, Shawne Williams racked up 16 points (4-6 from the three point line) and Bill Walker was held scoreless but did play some solid defense. That’s a whopping 50 points from the Knicks’ four key role players.

Now let’s look at the loss against Orlando the previous night . The final score of the game was 116-110. Carmelo Anthony finished with 25 and Stoudemire and Billups both finished with 30 points respectively. That’s 85 points from the Knicks’ “big three.” When a team gets that kind of offensive productivity from any three players you would think it’s a sure win.

Not the case, however. Fields finished with 6 points, Williams with 8 points, Douglas with only 2 points and Walker finished with 5 points. The four key role players shot a combined 9-27 from the field and shot only one free throw between them throughout the entire game. The four combined for 21 points. That’s a 29 point swing compared to the game against the Hornets, which the Knicks won by 19 points.

Now let’s look at the win against the Miami Heat. A low scoring affair, the Knicks won 91-86. Williams finished with 6, Fields with 5, Douglas with 5 and Walker with 10. Those aren’t necessarily numbers that will blow you away, but if you can get that out of these role players every night I think the Knicks can play toe to toe with any team in the league.

The Knicks know what they’re going to get out of Stoudemire, Anthony and Billups, usually around 65-75 points every night. I think the key is their role players. I think the key number for those four role players is 25. If they can score 25 points combined a night it will take a lot of the pressure off of their three stars and put the Knicks in a good position to win. Whatever you get from players like Ronny Turiaf, Jared Jeffries and Anthony Carter is just a bonus

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