"I think that Mike’s a realist," Jeffries said. "Defending, like anything else in the NBA, is a talent level. And you can’t have people that are not great defenders and expect them to be great defenders. Just like you can’t have people that aren’t great scorers and expect them to be great scorers. He put me out there to be a defender and he puts guys out there to be scorers. He does focus on defense, but if you don’t have defensive players, then you’re not going to be a great defensive team."

Read more: http://basketball.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/65502/20100322/jeffries_says_dantoni_is_an_incredible_coach/#ixzz0ivnb2CA0

TMS wrote:wouldn't it help if you played defensive players when you're looking to play defense tho?... Darko & Jordan Hill were our best low post defenders yet they never got any run... Larry Hughes & Toney Douglas were 2 of our top pereimeter defenders but they were pushed to the end of the bench in favor of guys like Duhon & Bender who were both weak defensively... isn't that a fair criticism of the head coach if the topic of discussion is on why he doesn't focus more on playing defense?

it's funny that you don't put in Jefferies name into this defense players remarks.

martin wrote:

TMS wrote:wouldn't it help if you played defensive players when you're looking to play defense tho?... Darko & Jordan Hill were our best low post defenders yet they never got any run... Larry Hughes & Toney Douglas were 2 of our top pereimeter defenders but they were pushed to the end of the bench in favor of guys like Duhon & Bender who were both weak defensively... isn't that a fair criticism of the head coach if the topic of discussion is on why he doesn't focus more on playing defense?

it's funny that you don't put in Jefferies name into this defense players remarks.

why would i put him into my remarks that he should have been playing when he was playing a ****load of minutes this season? care to offer a reasonable explanation on why guys like Duhon & Bender were playing over guys like Nate, Hughes, Hill, Darko & Douglas?

TMS wrote:why would i put him into my remarks that he should have been playing when he was playing a ****load of minutes this season? care to offer a reasonable explanation on why guys like Duhon & Bender were playing over guys like Nate, Hughes, Hill, Darko & Douglas?

Nate was explained by MDA as a combination of factors but most important was the fact that the team was playing better D and winning while he was out. On any team a player can fall out of the rotation for lots of reasons. Doesn't mean they can't get back in. We don't have to agree with it, but that's a coaching thing.

Hughes isn't worth talking about! I mean we're talking about Hughes here.

Darko? Well the guy really wasn't giving any energy from what I saw of him. He can't just be out there floating around in this system. On some other team that is run differently he can float and get stats, but he just messes up the flow here. Thing to remember is that the system is killed when players don't fit the way the system is set up. He just never looked like he wanted to shoot it and there are times when you completely mess up the flow if you don't. I just hate when he's brought up, cuz he never gave us much of anything and I think he had the ability to do more. Perhaps he just feels more comfortable in a conventional system.

Douglas could've played more, but there are a ton of coaches that don't like to play rooks a ton early on. I do know that he never really showed early on that he was much of a floor general. He could score, but then that isn't everything and he wasn't always on. He had some poor shooting games where he still got major minutes, cuz I think he was good on D, but overall I think MDA didn't feel he was ready. It also could be a case of trying to hide guys, which I think they may have been doing with Hill. It's entirely possible, that DW knowing he was going to be making trades, didn't want any of the kids to shine until after they made deals, cuz he may have wanted them to seem like they weren't that good. Any sign that they could play would make a team more interested. As it is, it didn't stop Morey who is pretty shrewd from asking for and getting Hill anyway. I really am starting to think that is why DW never really complained about his lack of PT.