How the Knicks can survive their latest injury bug

There's not much left to say about the Knicks right now that hasn't already been said. They hold the NBA's fourth-worst record at 7-17. They're 4-9 at home. They have the league's 25th-ranked defense at 104.3 points allowed per 100 possessions and rank 26th with an opponents' field goal percentage of 46.7 (Their second-slowest pace in the league means they're 8th in the archaic Mike Woodson-preferred stat of points allowed per game at 97.9, however).

They're coming off of their most devastating loss yet, which included an inexcusable late game error from their coach, who is on the hottest of hot seats. Their franchise player can become a free agent this summer and walk away for nothing. Oh, and while Tyson Chandler could return as early as Wednesday, New York is now without Amar'e Stoudemire and Pablo Prigioni in addition to Raymond Felton and Kenyon Martin.

The most important component of that last part, though, is that Chandler is pretty much set to return. Yes, being down four players still hurts for an obviously flawed roster, but getting Chandler back is arguably a net-positive in comparison to being without Felton, Prigioni, Stoudemire and Martin.

First and foremost in the never ending quest to find a silver lining for the Knicks right now, the dearth of healthy big men likely means that the team will have to go back to what has actually been most successful for them over the last season or two, and that's playing Carmelo Anthony at the four-spot beside Chandler in a smaller lineup. Of the eight five-man units that have logged at least 30 minutes together for the Knicks this season, none has been more successful than the combination of Anthony, Chandler, Felton, Prigioni and Iman Shumpert, which has outscored opponents by an average of 20.4 points per 48 minutes, according to NBA.com. Last season the team's most dependable lineup featured Felton, J.R. Smith and Jason Kidd with 'Melo and Chandler.

Yes, Felton and Prigioini are two of the wounded right now, but the point here is that the Knicks have found and can find some success playing small with Chandler and Anthony. In addition, of the 14 players who have played for New York this season, Iman Shumpert is one of only three players (along with Chandler and Martin) that sees the team post a positive net rating (offensive rating minus defensive rating) and a non-negative point-differential when he is on the floor, so Shump clearly belongs in whatever small ball lineup Woodson will be forced to go to.

After that, Beno Udrih - the only healthy NBA caliber point guard on the roster - will have to fill Felton's shoes in such a lineup, and that may work out just fine. Udrih's porous defense aside, Felton wasn't exactly a stopper at the point of attack either, and Udrih can space the floor better around Anthony and Chandler, as he's shooting 44.4 percent from three-point range (albeit in a smaller 8/18 sample size) on the season compared to Felton's 27.9 percent success rate and has been slightly better from deep over his career.

So there's some evidence to suggest that an Udrih/Shumpert/Anthony/Chandler combination could work, and at that point all Woodson needs to do is decide which one of Tim Hardaway Jr. or Metta World Peace would start with those four and which one would come off of the bench with J.R. Smith and Andrea Bargnani. And yes, if you're still curious, the bench is exactly where Bargnani belongs, as he and Stoudemire are the only two Knicks who actually watch the team post a positive point-differential and net rating while riding the pine.

A string of injuries that thin out an already weak roster is never a good thing for a team floundering in the bottom-five of the league standings, especially when that team doesn't own its first round pick in the upcoming Draft, but the remaining healthy pieces at The Garden right now all but force Woodson to deploy a small-ball strategy that has been successful for the Knicks recently. And between that, the fact that Chandler - who many believe is actually the team's most important player - is set to return, and that the Knicks have a bit of a cream puff schedule heading into the New Year (Five of their next six games are against losing teams and four of those come against Eastern Conference teams ahead of them in the ridiculously easy to climb standings), perhaps there is a faint reason for hope of a turnaround.

And remember, while the schedule gets tough again come January, something as simple as a 4-2 stretch, or dare fans envision a 5-1 stretch, over the next couple of weeks could buy the Knicks some more time in the laughable East 'race.' In just Anthony and Chandler themselves, it's hard to find more than four or five teams in the Conference who can best that combination of talent, especially the way Carmelo is playing this season (26.3 PPG on .548 TS%, 9.1 RPG, 24.4 PER).

For Woodson and the Knicks right now, it's all about survival. Nothing they've done over the last month-and-a-half suggests they're capable of it, but being forced into playing small by this latest string of injuries, and Chandler's return to help Anthony, gives them a better chance to survive in the weak East than anything short of a significant trade, and that includes a coaching change.