Mike wrote a book about his offensive philosophy. And if I recall correctly doesn't he spell out what his defensive philosophy is?
I know I have read that he values defense, but as a way to key his offense. The 94 Knicks, Spurs, Lakers, Celtics play a traditional where you guard the basket. Mike's philosophy is to use the defense to force the offense to put up bad shots-NOT to hold them from taking shots-because you get in transition faster off of rebounds and misses.
Mike kind of likes that chaos in transition every team has off of a miss and that is how he coaches.
Mike Fratello used to guard the basket, prevent teams from taking shots when he was with the Cave because he knew his team couldn't outscore the opposition.
Rick Pitino-when on Boston- ran a full court press 90% of the time to speed up the game to get teams to play helter skelter speeds. The score didn't show how much Pitino concentrated on D because the faster the game moved the more points were scored regardless of defense.
Fratello was lauded as a defensive mastermind but at the time he had the likes of Terrell Brandon, Bobby Phills, and Ty Hill. All upper end defensive players, and there was a tangible result seeing low scores.
I just think Mike's approach to D is different then the traditional way. I am not saying he is a guru defensively but defense fits a certain role in his system and he uses it as such.
