The outstanding play of Nate Robinson has been the talk of Knick fans the last month, especially with the recent trade deadline and the inclusion of both Robinson and David Lee in various trade scenarios. Nate's recent string of high scoring and late game heroics has been must-see viewing, and all year I've enjoyed watching David Lee evolve as a scorer and rebounder, especially given the minutes he's had to play, and having to play out of position as center on a small team of mismatched parts.

There's been increased talk of keeping both Lee and Robinson, given their development this season, and pairing them with a star free agent from the 2010 class, rather than trading one or both of them and trying to sign two star level players.

One of the biggest knocks on Lee, though, has been his defense -- it is a subject of constant discussion on Knick blogs and forums. The fault for the Knicks' non-existent interior defense can't all be laid on David, but it definitely makes me cringe as a fan to watch Lee isolated against quicker players on the perimeter, to see him provide virtually no challenge on any reasonably athletic wing penetration into the lane, or to fail to see the ball as screens are being switched. He is just not a shot blocker or even a very effective disruptor in the lane.

One of the most eloquent defenses of Lee, defensive limitations aside, comes from Owen, a moderator and frequent contributor to Knickerblogger, taken from the comments section of a pre-trade deadline post on Trade Deadline Math:

I haven’t felt the need to post too much lately about the greatness of David Lee, since it’s become a little more evident this year. But of late, criticisms of his defense have really escalated to a point that seems strange.

Watching the last two games has really brought this into focus for me. The Clippers and Warriors just used the Knicks up on the perimeter in the last two games. They went by them at will, and when they weren’t doing that they bombed away from long range with impunity.

Little noticed, but Steve Novak went 8-10 and 6-8 from three last night. He was the guy who beat us. He scored 23 points on 10.44 shots. That’s absurd. That’s a ts% of 110%. Although you can’t search for it on B-R, that very likely is the most efficient 20+ scoring game in the NBA this year. The other game that comes to mind is Nene’s 12-12, 4-7 ft a few weeks back. Novak was much more efficient than that.

I am not putting that on David Lee. Nor am I putting the fact that Golden State shot 12-22 from deep.

At the end of the day, David Lee is sixth in the NBA in rebound rate, 9th in ts%, 11th in efg, and top 20 in Offensive Rating and Total Win Shares (and of course Top Ten in Wins Produced). Obsessing over his defensive limitations (which are there) is totally missing the point. Lee is one of the 25 best offensive players in the NBA right now. In 45 games as a starter, he is averaging 17-12.6 with a ts% of 61% with 2.15 turnovers per game. I don’t care how bad you are on defense, nobody who is that effective on offense in the NBA should be taking crap from anyone. This is the NBA after all.

I agree with Owen, and it's been a joy watching Lee for most of the season, and watching him continue to develop -- his outside jumper has gotten better, and he's become more versatile at using either hand to score in the lane. To amplify on Owen's discussion above, since the trades of Zach Randolph and Jamal Crawford in the 11th game of the season, Lee  put together an average True Shooting Percentage of 60 percent over the next 40 games, an elite level of shooting. In those games, he has had only three games of under 50% TS, and in one of those games (a 102-98 win over the Bulls), he hurt his foot.

Starting with the Knick game against the Clippers, though (missed by Duhon because of ankle problems), his TS% has dipped below 50 in four of five games. It was obvious in the Clipper game, with Nate playing point, that Lee wasn't going to get the touches he typically gets when Duhon is starting -- Nate simply doesn't have the same command of the pick and roll that Duhon does, and Nate typically generates assists off of his own offense (most commonly to shooters on the perimeter and in transition). And Lee isn't nearly as effective generating offense on his own as a back to the basket player.

One of the five recent games where Lee struggled slightly was against the Spurs, and you expect any team with Tim Duncan to create problems for opponents inside. However, the other games were against the Raptors and Pacers, hardly interior powerhouses.

Here's Lee for the season:



And here's Lee for the last five games:




It's pretty clear that Lee is not converting inside with anywhere near the effiiciency he has for most of the season. There are several explanations for this:

1) Other teams have become more effective at clogging the lane and taking away the pick and roll, leaving Lee to convert inside primarily off of more highly contested offensive rebounds

2) Duhon has lost some of his edge with the ankle injury and exhaustion (as evidenced by the last two 6 turnover games) and hasn't been as effective in threading the needle to Lee on the pick and roll  (the way he did for much of the early part of the season)

3) Nate's scoring splurge has meant that Duhon-Lee has become a secondary option to isolations for Nate, especially in the fourth quarter

4) Lee is just missing chippies he normally makes, and it's a long season and players go through slumps. He'll be back to form soon enough.

Since we're talking about a grand total of five games where Lee's shooting has had some hiccups, I favor explanations 3 and 4 (with a little bit of 1).  It's striking to compare how the Knicks spread the floor and set up their offense in recent games, though, relative to games just a month ago. It used to be that the offense started with Duhon who would invariably go toward one side of the floor, looking to set up a pick and roll, dish to a 3 point shooter, or penetrate for a layup;  when the ball went to Nate, it was considered a higher risk proposition with Nate's questionable decision-making (the end of the game against Denver was a prime example).

Now isolation plays for Nate are becoming the primary option at the end of close games, and it's an odd sight to see Duhon camped on one side of the floor outside of the 3 point line, acting almost as a decoy. My only issue with this trend is I'd like to see Nate become more proficient at feeding the inside -- when his drives are cut off, he tends to make a high risk pass out to a shooter, and doesn't always make the best choice (against the Pacers, it was frequently Chandler). The offense risks turning into a Nate or nothing proposition, and D'Antoni offenses thrive on ball movement and the involvement of all five players.

It's hard to complain right now because, well, Nate isn't being cut off very often by opponents -- he's riding a heck of a hot streak. But I suspect D'Antoni is working on more wrinkles to vary the offense a bit as defenses inevitably adjust. What it means for David Lee and the rest of the team should be very interesting.