New York Knicks: The Knicks Need to Extend Mike Woodson as Soon as Possible

If the New York Knicks want to win in the playoffs this year, they must immediately take the interim tag off Mike Woodson and make him their permanent head coach.

What Woodson has done with this Knicks team has been sensational. They are now 12-4 with him ever since Mike D'Antoni resigned and they've done most of this without Jeremy Lin and Amar'e Stoudemire, who are both out with injuries.

Under D'Antoni, the Knicks wouldn't play a lick of defense. That's just not how D'Antoni's style is. He's an extremely offensive-minded head coach that heavily relies on the pick-and-roll. This is why Jeremy Lin was able to thrive under his system and Carmelo Anthony struggled.

With Woodson, the team has been able to improve on both sides of the ball. The following table exemplifies that notion.

	Points For	Points Against
Under Mike D'Antoni	97	96.5
Under Mike Woodson	99	90.3

As you can see, the New York Knicks have made huge improvements defensively. They're allowing six fewer points per game with Woodson as head coach. Meanwhile, the offense hasn't missed a beat. In fact, they're averaging two more points per game.

In other words, the Knicks margin of victory with Mike Woodson has been plus-8.7, which is a stark contrast from the plus-0.5 they were averaging with D'Antoni.

Carmelo Anthony seems happier, too, with Woodson at the helm. When D'Antoni was head coach, it didn't look like he was content with his role on the team and the star forward had a bit of a rift with the head coach regarding the direction of the team. 

That's all changed now.

Anthony is loving the new system and the numbers show it. In the last nine games, Anthony has averaged 30 points per game. He's getting acclimated to Woodson's system and looking more like the player the Knicks thought they were getting when they acquired him last season.

Defensively, guys like Landry Fields, J.R. Smith and Tyson Chandler especially, have done a remarkable job. They've changed the identity of the Knicks from a team that you would expect to score over 100 points against, to one that's going to make you earn your points. 

This is all a testament to Woodson's coaching system and for this reason, the Knicks need to lock him up soon. By doing so, they'll rid off-court banter regarding his status as a head coach and it'll allow the team to focus on playing basketball throughout the rest of the season. 

Although the team isn't going to win the conference or anything like that, they still have plenty to play for.

The Knicks have now opened up a two-game lead over the Milwaukee Bucks for the coveted No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference and quite frankly, that's all they should care about.

Seeding shouldn't matter for them. The team just wants to get in. With each game, they're gaining momentum and confidence in their game play. They know that if they can make the playoffs, they'll have a solid shot to shock some teams.

After all, the New York Knicks were able to make the NBA Finals in the last lockout-shortened season way back in 1999, so there is precedent for such an event.

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