The New York Knicks are bad defensively. There is no sugarcoating it. If their ugly 128-110 loss to the Phoenix Suns wasn’t proof enough, they currently rank 29th in the league in defensive rating per NBA.com.
The general ineptitude on defense is forcing head coach David Fizdale to stay creative. He’s been forced to tinker with matchups, use different types of coverages on the pick-and-roll, but most recently, he’s started employing more zone defense.
Zone defense isn’t commonplace in the NBA. It’s more prevalent in youth basketball, college games, and probably your local slow-break league.