Credit: Rob Grabowski-US PRESSWIRE

The results are in, and they are unfavorable.

Tyson Chandler won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. He was deserving of consideration with his performance for a previously inept defensive team in New York, which has two “superstars” who for most of the year refused to defend. The Knicks were a top 5 defensive team this year, so this makes sense. He also had the dreaded “narrative” going in his favor.

(By the way, as a complete aside I’m going to rant here. It will be completely hypocritical for people to vote for Chandler in the “Knicks don’t play defense!” argument and vote for Carmelo Anthony for any all-NBA team. Considering he is (a) not a good defender and part of the reason Chandler won this award, (b) someone who played effectively for just half the year and even then isn’t a top 10 guy, (c) actively quit on his coach, resulting in his “resignation”, and (d) led a team to a 7 seed in a tame Eastern Conference, how can anyone justify Melo being an all-NBA player. Please, someone give me a convincing argument that his play, which almost doomed the Knicks’ season before Linsanity happened, is deserving of any awards).

On the surface, too, does the Serge Ibaka voting, because people like numbers that they recognize and see his absurd number of blocks. But the fact that he’s not actually a great defender seemed to elude these people. Ibaka has the highlight blocks and is a good help defender, but he can be abused in the post by most opponents. His synergy numbers suggests he’s not really much of a defender at all. And while I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, the fact that he played 27 minutes per game suggests his defensive impact was also limited by the number of minutes he played.

Meanwhile, guys like LeBron James, Tony Allen, and Andre Iguodala are regularly tasked to defend the opponent’s best player, limiting their opponents as much as possible. Each is impressive in his own way. LeBron’s versatility stands out – he can more than effectively defend any guard or forward, and he holds up reasonably well against centers. Iguodala regularly turns opposing small forwards and guards into third stringers. And Allen is the head of the league’s best pressure defense and is also tasked to guard the best perimeter player on a regular basis, though he is also limited by his minutes played.

I mentioned on Twitter that I believe LeBron should have won. However, I believed Iguodala was more than deserving of a runner-up position. The fact that he finished behind a guy who quit on his team regularly infuriates me even more. I have both ahead of Allen, as they each played more minutes.

Unfortunately, the voters tend to not look past the outdated and mostly irrelevant block and steal statistics. Sure, they are helpful, but only if the player can consistently actually stop the opponent from scoring or being effective in any way. And if you’re looking at who can actually prevent the opponent from doing anything, Iguodala is very close to being the best. Only the best player in the entire league separates him from that distinction.

In the actual voting, he finished behind (in order): Chandler, Ibaka, Howard, LeBron, Kevin Garnett, and Allen.

Credit: Debby Wong-US PRESSWIRE

1. Not the same Knicks team

Since the last Sixers-Knicks matchup, New York has swapped head coaches, with Mike Woodson taking over for Mike D’Antoni. As a result, expect a bit less of D’Antoni’s pick-and-roll centered offense and more of a conventional setup, with Carmelo Anthony as the key cog. Whether this results in a more competitive game remains to be seen. Andre Iguodala has more trouble guarding Melo than most opponents of his due to Melo’s unique size and strength for a perimeter player, so the Sixers will need to help Andre when Melo attacks him in the low post.

The Sixers are an excellent defensive team overall, with their one “weakness” generally being the pick-and-roll with their point guards. Unfortunately, Jeremy Lin is quite good at the pick-and-roll game. How often they use it is the question. If the Sixers can play as well against Lin as last time, it shouldn’t be a problem. But if Lin and the Knicks’ staff make the right adjustments, we could get burned by Linsanity.

2. Stretching out the Knicks defense  

Tyson Chandler is the Knicks defense, essentially. His presence both in the paint and on the back end of pick-and-rolls has lifted the Knicks to being an above average defensive team on the year. Yes, with Carmelo and Amar’e Stoudemire on the roster, the Knicks are better than league average. Let that soak in for a minute.

But there are several ways to take advantage of them. For one, Chandler is the only line of defense, so getting him into foul trouble is one way to neutralize his effectiveness. I doubt this happens, though, since the Sixers don’t draw enough contact to get the opposition into foul trouble. Another is to get out in transition often. While Chandler is adept at running the floor on his own, if the Sixers force turnovers (Knicks are 29th in turnovers per game, at 16.5, so it should happen quite often) we’ll get some easy baskets. And a third is to spread the floor and the basketball around – Chandler can’t cover everyone, and Anthony and Stoudemire tend to give up on trying after too long. With Spencer Hawes back in the lineup, for 25 minutes or so, Chandler will also have to cover Hawes on the perimeter, although Mike Woodson might keep Chandler matched with Elton Brand for that very reason.

3. Getting Turner on track

Evan Turner has struggled since Hawes’ return to the lineup, as the offense has shifted back to one not centered on him. I don’t understand the reasoning for it, but it’s happened. I, for one, would like a return to the Turner-centric offense from a couple of weeks ago. It worked against the Knicks, and a coaching change for the Knicks will not change that. Look to see whether Turner initiates the offense or not. If not, we may as well put Jodie Meeks back into the starting five.