Knicks Defense
Starting lineup
C - Tyson Chandler - elite defender
PF - Amare Stoudemire - average defender (as a starting four)
SF - Carmelo Anthony - solid defender, capable of very good defense
SG - Landry Fields - very good defender
PG - Toney Douglas - good to very good defender (yeah, he sucked in the playoffs last year but he has played good defense outside of that series)
Bench
PG - Mike Bibby - abysmal defender
SG - Iman Shumpert - rookie with good defensive tools and athleticism, likely average to above average defender
SF - Renaldo Balkman - good to very good defender
PF - Jared Jeffries - average defender (alongside Amare, one shifts to center where either one is really poor defensively)
C - Josh Harrellson - rookie with limited athleticism, likely very poor defender
* Baron Davis - solid defender. Replaces M.Bibby.
Overall
I see two major liabilities. Mike Bibby and the lack of a defensive anchor when Tyson is resting. Across the rest of the team, I see average or better defensive players.
Looks to me that the Knicks have the personnel to build a pretty darn good defensive team.
Although, Mike D'Antoni is a pretty big unknown variable here. Very much looking forward to seeing how D'Antoni handles this roster. A Jeff Van Gundy type would be a brilliant replacement should D'Antoni fail.
I agree with a lot of that except I actually think Jeffries is a very solid defender.
Also, the term "average" for a defender is used awfully loosely on this blog. If Amare is an average starting PF defender, that means that there are 15 or so starting PFs who should be worse than him. I feel like I can name more PFs in this league I believe to be certainly better defenders than Amare than I can say are certainly worse defenders.
I was going through the list of starting PFs late last season and I was surprised by how many teams where starting weak defenders at the position. Also, by how many many highly talented defenders like Taj Gibson, Chuck Hayes, Udonis Haslem and Ty Thomas were on the bench.
I didn't expect Amare to be anywhere near average. I was expecting him to be in the 21st-25th type range. But after I went through the list (last season), I felt (to my great surprise) that Amare was middle of the pack.
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Here is my list of (projected) starting PFs for the season:
Everyone can look through the list and figure out where they would place Amare themselves.
J.Smith, K.Garnett, B.Diaw, C.Boozer, A.Jamison, D.Nowtizki, Nene, J.Jerebko, D.Lee, L.Scola, D.West, B.Griffin, P.Gasol, Z.Randolph, C.Bosh, D.Gooden, K.Love, K.Humphries, C.Landry, A.Stoudemire, S.Ibaka, G.Davis, E.Brand, C.Frye, L.Aldridge, C.Hayes, D.Blair, A.Bargnani, P.Millsap, A.Blatche
As for me, I think I had Amare about 17th there.
The guys in brown are ones I'd rank firmly ahead of Amare. The ones in navy, firmly behind. I have most of the ones in black ahead of Amare too but the margins between them are fairly small. With a little development, Amare could move up this list quite easily (as could other players move ahead or grow further ahead of Amare).
Looking at the list of players behind Amare, you can see I don't like slow-footed defenders and dislike undersized PFs who aren't strong team defenders (like P.Millsap).