Sangfroid wrote:As much as I appreciate STAT, his defense is woefully inadequate. For all his gifts, his man constantly blows by him on the baseline. there's no closeout or anything

As I said, it's about effort. You have to be determined not to let your man get by you.

As for what Papabear said. I like Mike cuz I understand that a coach is really not the most important thing. TALENT is the most important thing. There are many coaches out there who could win with a great team. I think Mike is a different guy and so he's a target, but if you gave him a PG that could run his system as it's supposed to be run we'd see a huge improvement in this team, as it is now. You don't need a superstar at PG, but imagine if Felton was able to run the PnR better? For all the complaining we're much closer to being a very good team if we can fix a few roster issues.

Help at C. Help at backup PG or just better play from TD. Help at SG or just a successful return by AZ. In either event This idea that Mike isn't coaching D is stupid. Just watch the team and all you can say is that guys miss assignments or get beat, but the defense is good when they do the right thing. ie. make rotations, keep man in front, force towards help, get hands up, get back on D... The Knicks get plenty of stops. We've lost MOST of our games due to poor offense and not poor D alone!!!

Olbrannon wrote:Here's a timely little article that shows a snapshot of a play in yesterdays game.

http://nbaplaybook.com/2010/11/28/knicks-struggle-with-defensive-rotations-against-the-hawks/
to see the break down and the explanation go to his post I'm not going to copy paste his whole article
If you do you wil see in frame 3 that TD is clearly pointing to the open man to indicate to Chandler his
defensive assignment. TD DOES NOT have a low bball IQ people. Belie'e dat

Effort is not enough! You must also know your responsibility and execute

Papabear wrote:

nixluva wrote:

Sangfroid wrote:As much as I appreciate STAT, his defense is woefully inadequate. For all his gifts, his man constantly blows by him on the baseline. there's no closeout or anything

As I said, it's about effort. You have to be determined not to let your man get by you.

As for what Papabear said. I like Mike cuz I understand that a coach is really not the most important thing. TALENT is the most important thing. There are many coaches out there who could win with a great team. I think Mike is a different guy and so he's a target, but if you gave him a PG that could run his system as it's supposed to be run we'd see a huge improvement in this team, as it is now. You don't need a superstar at PG, but imagine if Felton was able to run the PnR better? For all the complaining we're much closer to being a very good team if we can fix a few roster issues.

Help at C. Help at backup PG or just better play from TD. Help at SG or just a successful return by AZ. In either event This idea that Mike isn't coaching D is stupid. Just watch the team and all you can say is that guys miss assignments or get beat, but the defense is good when they do the right thing. ie. make rotations, keep man in front, force towards help, get hands up, get back on D... The Knicks get plenty of stops. We've lost MOST of our games due to poor offense and not poor D alone!!!

Papabear Says

Nixluva: I respect your opinion but The Pick and Roll is just a part of the game and every team will be looking for us to use that. Felton is playing all around good B ball. Mike D is the head coach and the one thing he could do is bring in an assistant coach to teach defence. Defence takes a lot of effort and it may slow down the run and gun. Thats why I believe it's not a priority. Mike D gambles too much on shooting the 3 ball. He believes that as long as the other team shoots the 2 ball and we shoot the 3 ball we have a better chance of winning which is not true.

The purpose of the spread floor is to make it easier for his team to attack the basket. If you have competent 3pt shooting teams MUST respect it and that leads to high % offense inside. If you can understand what it does to have that component in an offense it simply makes sense. The next thing is that Mike wants an uptempo because when you play fast it leads to easy scores against a defense that isn't set. Even when it is set, if you make quick passes and moves it weakens the defenses ability to react to what you're doing. Also when you play slow your players have to be even more disciplined and understand the game on a high level. when you play fast you can let a more natural instinct take over. The decision making is simple, either shoot, pass or drive.

The idea of the offense isn't to simply jack up 3's. The 3 is a major component, but it's not the primary goal of the offense. Almost every play in his playbook is designed to lead to an easy score at the basket. The outlet to the 3 is usually the last option in any play. Even then you have the option of pump fake and drive or a pass. It all depends on the situation. The point is that in most cases the 3 is a last option in the progression of the play. IF it's an open shot it's a good shot. Players tho have to watchout that they aren't being lazy. This takes training and discipline to resist the urge to take the easy way out and just jack a 3. This team is getting really good at making the right call. We've seen this team get better and not settling and being aggressive.

Mike does coach D. His style is a bit different cuz he doesn't want unnecessary fouls. He prefers his players keep teams on the perimeter taking bad shots, so he has his guys stay back off their man enough to keep the man in front. He also has his perimeter players look to force towards help. He wants his team to play the passing lanes and look to deflect or get steals. When you look at this team you can clearly see the results of this style. When we do it right this D can be effective. We're still working on perfecting the D. It needs work, but I believe we'll get there. We're 23rd in defensive rating. I think this team can get higher. If we can get to around 15th in the league and improve our Offensive rating from 7th to 5th, this is gonna be a very good team.

Bippity10 wrote:Defensive fundamentals are taught in high school and college. There is no coincidence that many of teh guys taht come out early lack these fundamentals. Simply, not enough time at the NBA level to be teaching guys the basics. They are professionals and coaches expect them to know it. by now.

Amar'e should be ashamed to use that excuse. Even I can go and get a DVD that teaches basic defensive principles. You mean to tell me that he never thought to look into it, even after Mike continually got on him about his lack of D? Or even Terry Porter or Mike Gentry in his 1st half year? To be sure he and his coaches did bump heads over the issue year after year, so at some point you as a man have to take responsibility of your own failings.

Even with Mike not spending a lot of time on D, guys like Raja, Marion, Hill, Shaq and KT surely brought a defensive attitude and could at least point out to him some basics of D if he wanted to know. When he finally made up his mind to improve he did. That's something he could've done long ago, cuz it was a knock on him for years.