Rick Pitino defends Knicks’ defense: ‘Nobody’s really playing defense anymore’

Rick Pitino says the Knicks don’t have a defensive deficiency, and instead their defensive struggles are more a reflection of changing times in the NBA.
Under defensive-minded head coach Tom Thibodeau, whose team is 12-8 on the season, the Knicks offense has a been a pleasant surprise while their defense has been called into question. New York has the No. 1-rated offense in the NBA, per Statmuse, and the 20th ranked defense.
“Nobody’s really playing defense anymore,” Pitino, the former Knicks and current St. John’s coach, said Monday on WFAN with Brandon Tierney and Sal Licata.
Pitino said the NBA as a whole has become more of a 3-point shooting league driven by analytics.
“It’s become a three-point, I wouldn’t say joke,” he continued. “I think the analytics is such with the NBA that they’re saying that, look, the shot within five feet or the 3-point shot is better than the Kevin Durant ball-fake 2-point shot. So I think the analytics come into it.”
He said his own passion for the NBA game has dimmed because of the new offensive style that comes at the expense of the type of defense the old-school Knicks used to play.
“I’m not as big a fan as I was two or three years ago, because it’s just up and down 3-point shooting, up and down 3-point shooting,” Pitino said. “And it’s not the Knicks’ poor defense because Thibs is a great defensive coach. It’s just the philosophy of the game. You know? It’s you down the pick and roll. You know you force them to his weak hand, and if you if you’re too far back, you’re going to shoot a three.
“The transition game is no longer Magic Johnson coming down a look away pass for a layup or a dunk, it’s to pull up for a three. So it’s not as much fun.”
This, of course, comes from a man who pioneered the growth of the 3-point shot as an offensive weapon during his time at Providence, which he led to a Final Four.
“I was in a meeting with David Stern called a meeting with Hubie Brown, Pat Riley, Chuck Daly, myself, and a couple of GMs, and he wanted to change the game,” Pitino said of his time in the NBA. “It was too physical, and at that time, only one team was breaking 100 points, and we went through everything possible to try and get more scoring in the game. And really what we came up with at the end is you gotta call more fouls. The players will get used to it. They won’t play as aggressive on the ball or off the ball and chucking people more freedom of movement, and you’ll get more scoring in the game.
“So from that point at that meeting with David Stern to where it is today, now you got every team scoring, 130, 120. It’s no longer the defense being played.”
His solution?
“You now have to get more physical play back in the game, less fouls called, and get more defense into the game where teams are averaging 112, 114 not 125, not 130, so the correction that David Stern made that night with that meeting evolved into something that you see today,” he said. “And now you have to revert back to the old days when Michael Jordan played and it was very physical.”
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Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter who covers Seton Hall and NJ college basketball for NJ Advance Media. You may follow him on Twitter @AdamZagoria and check out his Website at ZAGSBLOG.com.