I never thought I'd live to see the day when a prominent
New York Knicks player was also massively underrated. Yet here we are.
What a refreshing turn of events. For nearly 20 years, the only interesting debate we've had about most Knicks players has been whether they're merely overrated or are phenomenally overrated. That's what happens in the league's biggest market, especially when the fans have been starved for more than a decade of both a superstar player and a consistent winner.
Given those circumstances, I would have thought it impossible for somebody to play well in the league's biggest market yet remain so far outside the hype zone. Yet somehow, one player has managed that feat.
Ask anyone who the Knicks' best player is, and chances are the person won't come up with the right answer until the fourth guess. New York's best player is not as famous as
Jeremy Lin nor as glamorous as
Carmelo Anthony, nor did he arrive with as much fanfare as
Amare Stoudemire.
But as far as winning basketball games?
Tyson Chandler is the guy, the one Knick who has proved to be absolutely indispensable in making the team relevant again. Somehow, the spotlight evades him, even as he was the second-best player on a world champion a year ago and is now the best player on the first enjoyable team in the league's biggest market in ages.
Sunday's nationally televised thriller against the Bulls was a perfect example. Afterward, all you heard was MeloMeloMelo. Don't get me wrong, Melo was fantastic, but he had his best game of the season and Chandler had his normal game yet Chandler had just as much impact.
[h4]My 2011-12 All-Defense team[/h4]
| | | | |
First team:
Avery Bradley, Boston | First team:
Andre Iguodala, Philadelphia | First team:
LeBron James, Miami | First team:
Kevin Garnett, Boston | First team:
Tyson Chandler, New York |
Second team:
Ricky Rubio, Minnesota | Second team:
Tony Allen, Memphis | Second team:
Luol Deng, Chicago | Second team:
Taj Gibson, Chicago | Second team:
Dwight Howard, Orlando |
Third team:
Mike Conley, Memphis | Third team:
Ronnie Brewer, Chicago | Third team:
Grant Hill, Phoenix | Third team:
Josh Smith, Atlanta | Third team:
Serge Ibaka, Oklahoma City |
[th=""]Point Guard[/th][th=""]Shooting Guard[/th][th=""]Small Forward[/th][th=""]Power Forward[/th][th=""]Center[/th]
Even the last sequence of superstar hero-ball was all about Chandler, even with Anthony and
Derrick Rose doing all the ballhandling and shooting. Chandler was the one who tapped out two offensive rebounds to allow Melo to make a go-ahead 3 (after he and
J.R. Smith had missed initially), then swallowed up Rose's drive to the basket to give the 'Bockers the victory. These details were immediately forgotten or were mentioned only in passing, making this ending the perfect metaphor for Chandler's past two seasons.
This, after Chicago's comeback from a 21-point deficit started
right at the point in the first quarter when Chandler exited the game. Do the math: He was a plus-15 in a game his team won by a point, and he sat out only nine minutes. Melo, for all his heroics, was a plus-5; this is one game, but it illustrates the larger point that Chandler is the key guy here.
Injuries provide one obvious insight to this trend. The Knicks have had plenty of success (6-4) when Anthony misses games or when Lin does (5-2 since his injury entering Tuesday night; overall, they're 9-12 when he doesn't play at all and 13-16 when he plays less than 10 minutes), and they have been positively gangbusters (10-3) when Stoudemire sits out.
Chandler? They lost both games he missed.
And as for the Knicks' vaunted Anthony-Stoudemire combo? Without Chandler, it stinks so bad on defense as to be unworkable. When the two play with Chandler, they've surrendered a respectable 99.5 points per 100 possessions, based on NBA.com's lineup data; do the backward math with that data and the minutes for each lineup and it means that, when he's out, they've been blistered for a ridiculous 113.5 (stats through Monday's games).
But let's zoom back out to the big picture and get to the main reason I'm writing about Chandler today: New York's amazing transformation at the defensive end. Chandler wasn't exactly joining the most receptive culture for a defensive game-changer. His new team had two superstars who don't care about defense and a coach who doesn't care about defense. The Knicks have given heavy minutes to others who don't much like defending (Smith) or lack the mobility to do it well (
Mike Bibby and
Steve Novak).
Yet there is New York, ranking fifth in defensive efficiency.
The Knicks, we'll remind you, were 21st in this category a year ago. And, although other changes have helped -- most notably drafting perimeter antagonist
Iman Shumpert -- it's really been Chandler who has changed everything.
And this time around, we really should have expected it, given that:
• He was the main defensive catalyst in Dallas the season before, when the Mavs improved on defense from 12th to seventh and ended up winning the title.
• A year earlier in Charlotte, although he missed 31 games with injuries, he was a key piece on a Bobcats squad that led the league in defensive efficiency (
did, too).
• Before that, in New Orleans, he and the Hornets were a top-10 defensive team in consecutive seasons with Chandler and a whole lot of not much else.
• And before that, in Chicago, a young Chandler led the Bulls to the No. 2 mark in defense in 2004-05.
That's a whole lot of dots that connect Chandler to good-to-great defensive teams. He has led five franchises to defensive results that were far better than anyone expected as well as far beyond what the incumbent group of players had achieved previously.
And it's easy to see why when you watch him. He's incredibly long and mobile; he dominates the glass; he doesn't take bad risks going for blocks he can't get; he's a vocal leader without the
Kevin Garnett fake-tough-guy stuff; and he has made steady improvements every year.
Which takes us to our endgame here. I think it's high time that Chandler's track record, as well as his one-man U-turn of the Knicks' defense, gained some recognition. Given the diminishing defensive output of Orlando's
Dwight Howard this season, I'm endorsing Chandler as the NBA Defensive Player of the Year this season because he's the only thing separating the Knicks from yet another colossally overrated disaster.
The defensive data are always a bit murkier than for offense, so one can make a solid case for several other recipients. Garnett, in particular, has a strong résumé this season, as do perimeter defenders
LeBron James,
Andre Iguodala and
Luol Deng.
But Chandler's numbers back up the idea that he is perhaps the best this season, as does the eye test. Whether anybody is willing to admit it or not, he's been the key to the Knicks' season. It's hard to imagine a high-profile free agent from a world champion coming to New York and getting this little notice, but it's another example of truth being stranger than fiction.
And if he doesn't win? I'll get a bit longer to enjoy a Knick being underrated.
Statistical support provided by NBA.com.
