Posted by franco12:
Posted by PresIke:
Posted by crzymdups:
D'Antoni doesn't give a flying poo about defense. He will take the most offensively dynamic player.
you know this is just not true, right?
Yea. It should read: D'Antoni doesn't give a flying poo poo about defense.
okay, you can certainly continue to believe this and selectively hear what you want, but this is clearly not what he said and expressed concern over all season long in various situations, during practice, games and after them in press conferences.
i'd be curious who you think is actually considered a good defender on the knicks, outside of jeffries, who destroys us on offense, and doesn't block shots for a buy his size, and maybe duhon and chandler?
gallo has some potential as a help defender, but he's not quick, and barely played.
hughes was better, and the team got better when he seemed to model defense. you need players that can model this, and it especially helps when the leader/best players play D. Look at the Cavs and Celtics they are a perfect example of this. The coach, Doc Rivers, was the same on the team before when they were pitiful defensively, with a good number of the same players last year, but then adding 2 of the big 3, and Posey, considered a very good defender at his position. since lebron has really committed to defense, the Cavs are now a top defensive team.
the coach can only do so much. how does larry brown work more on charlotte than here? look at some of the top players from either team and tell me if we had the same level of commitment/ability from them (Steph, Craw, Curry) as they do (Oakafor, Wallace...both already considered good defenders)
more reason to show how this point about mike d is fallacy is that in the beginning of the season he used a clever motivational approach to get nate to use his strength, athleticism, to get steals rather than block shots. early on it worked, but nate, being who he has show us to be at this point, was just not consistent with it, and was generally a very bad defender coming over screens, looking lost, or doing foolish things.
when you have a pile of doo doo, as you say, how does one expect to turn them all into flowers?
i don't know if lee will ever be a good defender too, but we have ZERO shot blocking ability, and at least two key rotation players who cause major problems on d, while not having one real shut down defender, so how the heck is a team like that to defend?
yes, d'antoni is a more offensive focused coach, but to say he doesn't care about defense is total myth.
[Edited by - PresIke on 04-24-2009 2:30 PM][Edited by - PresIke on 04-24-2009 2:32 PM][Edited by - PresIke on 04-24-2009 2:33 PM][Edited by - PresIke on 04-24-2009 2:36 PM]Forum Po Po and #33 for a reason...
4/24/2009 12:26 PM