Posted by King1:

I agree Lee has a lot to work on the defensive end but the main reason with this team is the perimeter defense. Wade, Chalmers, and Cook did what ever they wanted last night. When they get in the lane and they dump it off to a big that is the perimeter fault. Our guards get zero rebounds and cant keep a guy in front of him. Miami scored 31 points on the inside last night and I thought that was the most active are bigs have been defensively in a long time.

Posted by oohah:

Posted by Finestrg:

Posted by TMS:

Posted by Finestrg:

- I've done nothing but sing D'Antoni's praises so far (and rightly so) but you gotta call him out on two things tonight:

(1) He really jerked Steph around badly tonight and embarrased the guy and it shouldn't have come to that. Look, Marbury's a loon and it's clear he's not part of this team's future but the way he was treated tonight was unnecessary. Although he doesn't start in the pre-season (outside of one game at home against the Celtics), it was clear he was part of the rotation, playing 20-25 mins. and playing pretty well to boot. Then he doesn't even get in tonight. Very weird. Again, I don't care because I've come to the realization that Steph's gone after this season, but come on Mike, if this is what you knew you wanted to do you tell the guy what your intentions are (I hope he did but somehow I doubt it) and you let him know where he stands. Now you pull this and you're really running the risk of Steph becoming a real malcontent and cancer, things I associate with last year's team, hopefully not this year's. When asked about Marbury's DNP during the post-game press conference, D'Antoni had this to say (in substance): "There's two directions the team's going, the now and the future...I don't blame Steph if he was upset, I don't really have an answer for you." Come on bro, that's weak. You know what, no problem Mike, a lot of us are on board with that, but you gotta tell Steph that. Say what you want but unlike a complete stiff like Eddy Curry, Marbury's in optimum shape and can still play at a pretty high level. If Steph just found out tonight like we all did, that's wrong. I expect a little more from D'Antoni. I mean at least Isiah told Steph on the plane last year that he planned on starting Mardy. Mike's gotta sit down with him and clear the air & lay the law down. Any player, no matter how difficult or immature, deserves that much from their coach.

i think it's pretty obvious MDA doesn't want Marbury on this squad... it's w/in a coach's right to play the guys he believes in... obviously he doesn't believe in Steph & with good reason based on his past history... whether this sends the message to Walsh & Dolan, time will tell, but i was happy as hell to see a head coach w/the balls to follow his own convictions rather than play guys based on the salary they're making.

Understandable. I'm not a Steph fan, was when we first got him but not anymore. He's proved to be too immature and too much of a sideshow. But you gotta admit it's strange to play the guy 20-25 minutes every game in the pre-season, even starting him one game, then not even get him in the opener tonight. To me, "conviction" involves sticking to one plan start to finish and that's not what D'Antoni did here. If this is how Mike felt, why even play him at all in the pre-season and make him think he's part of your plans? That's all I'm saying. And his post game explanation left at lot to be desired. Again, not a huge deal because it's clear he's gone at the end of the year and we'll finally move on, but like I mentioned, the last thing I wanna see this year is any drama and if you jerk this guy around that's exactly what you're gonna get. That could be a problem, it was last year. Bad karma on a team, especially a young team, is no good. Just heard on Sportscenter that Steph said, "well if this is how it's gonna be, there's alway next year." Not as bad a reaction as I would've thought but if this continues, DNPs coach's decision, Steph will find a way to cause a problem and that's the last thing we need.

Benching and humiliating Marbury like that was stupid and classless. It hurt the team from a basketball standpoint as well.

oohah

No it wasn't classless, nor stupid. We won the game and didn't need anymore offense. If anything, we needed Collins to play MORE.