Vmart wrote:

nixluva wrote:

Vmart wrote:

y2zipper wrote:I think it's an interesting question because I'm not sure Pringle is the right guy for this team now unless he actually adjusts and gets them to play some defense or gets some defensive roleplayers. The teams weaknesses, other than size, which are basically no defense and a short bench have been the same on all D'Antoni teams, so it's quite possible that he's not the right guy to lead this talented group. We'll see, though.

Adjustment not in MDA vocabulary. He is no Pat Riley that can change with the talent given.

I disagree. He's got his desired way of playing that he tries to teach, but he's a creative mind and can adapt what he does to the players he has. We don't have scrubs now. These guys will be able to do a lot under Mike. Mike isn't at a loss for what to do with a great talent like Chauncey or Melo. He flourishes when you give him offensive talent. With time there's no way he doesn't get a ton out of this team. We were less talented before and scored a ton.

I don't doubt his offensive coaching prowess, its the other end of the floor that puts a doubt in me.

To me most of the problem on D is with the commitment from the players. If you put guys together that embrace defending you'll be good. When you have guys like Melo and STAT it's just not something they give 110% on. It's a mentality. They have the physical capability, but not every player goes all in on D. It's not about Mike not coaching it. They clearly have defensive rotations and concepts for help and pressure. It's the lack of total commitment to guarding for the full 24 that has hurt the team. They show they can play D like the last 2 games, but they haven't done that consistently.

Markji wrote:I don't think it is fair to say that MDA doesn't play or teach any defense. In watching the team this year, the team always played hard at both ends of the court. We were weak in rebounding, which hurt.

IMO, Melo can be motivated to play harder on defense if the entire team is and I think Amare will continue to be the leader and push all the players. They will be fighting for wins and the playoffs. The 3 bench players we received are all defensive specialists with very little offensive ability. Makes me think that upper mgmt wants to emphasize some defense.

SSOL means a lot of scoring by both teams. Will the new team adopt to that is the question? And do we have the players to play that type of game. IMO, I don't think so.

I must have been watching another team. The team I watched played occasional stretches of good hard D adn seemed disinterested and unfocused when it didn't have the ball the rest of the time. Their coach rarely reacted whether it was one or the other. If those 3 can't hit a three they can't play. We don't have the players to play SSOL, so either we will try and fail or Billups takes over the offensive strategy from D'Antoni.

One moment that I saw at a Spurs game was when Duncan missed a defensive rotation and got chewed out by the coach. just 1 isolated play...that is defensive coaching which doesn't mean you can't 'coach to your strengths'

Nalod wrote:Bring in a defensive minded coach to offensive minded players?

We don't know anytyihng about our team now. Its different.

Melo and Amare came to play for MDA. Change him is kind of stupid. Bring in JVG and he'll stagnate the team.

Coach to your strenths not the weekess.

Team played better defense when Mozzy was part of the rotation.

Gallo's production would suffer when he played a teams best player. We beat miami last time. He did good.

Maybe skiles can come in and teach Melo how to play good Defense and when he misses his assignment he can bench him. Like thats gonna happen.

He coached melo during the olympics during his year of growing up.

I barely remember the fight...actually, I'm lying, I remember clear as a bell and now blame Nate for it. :-)

loweyecue wrote:But you still coach to yoyur strengths not to your weaknesses. If your strength is offense you try to win with offense. This constant repeating of "you can only win with defense" doesn't make it some type of universal truth. If we got some defensive minded coach we wouldn't go anywhere with this team. What MDA needs is one or two defensive specialists Camby/AK47 types.

coaching to your strengths and not your weaknesses. GIven that offense and defense happen at different times and never together means it actuallly is possible to be a good offensive and defensive team. *gasp*. Focusing on offense doesn't mean your D has to suck. It's not one or another. MDA might need defensive specialists but he needs more, to at least give a passing respect to defense.

nykshaknbake wrote:The suns had proven good defensive players and turned out mediocre. You are pitting a few games in a sample of 50 as definitive proof?!! Wow. Well Allan Hiuston dropped 50 on the Lakers once and outscored Kobe so that proves he was a better player than Kobe. Didn't ya know we had MJ v 2.0 back then.

nixluva wrote:The Suns weren't great at D, but they didn't stink. They were middle of the League. When we won the last 2 games, the team was committed on D and that is what it takes. They even admitted that they didn't put forth max effort in the losing streak. The last 2 games they held the teams below 100. That's proof that he's coaching D, but these players don't always commit to it. We all know that we have a lot of offensive minded players. They can defend when they want to tho. They showed that in the win over Miami. Even Shawne Williams had a great defensive game.

when I looked back at the suns they had both good defenders and some very weak defenders, and so the team turned out mediocre, which seems reasonable.

And all of their below average defenders where at key positions and consumed lots of minutes: PG, PF, C.