nixluva wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

nixluva wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

islesfan wrote:"I think it is a terrible match," said one rival head coach. "I don't get it. Two of the biggest problems with the Knicks are that they don't practice and they don't play defense. I don't know if that changes now."

It didn't.

I repeat when did DLee ever defend? LB couldn't get these players to defend consistently. Now that DLee is pretty much the lone bigman he still won't go hard and his low fouls show how little he's trying to help. Tho he's had a few more blocks it's more about consistency over the entire game. Very few of these players have defended hard. It's not about the coach at a certain point. You think that after coming into camp mostly talking about D and then constantly reading and being questioned about the lack of D, that the coaches aren't stressing D? It's been a major topic this entire year.

There are no Ben Wallace, Bruce Bowen or Marcus Camby types on the team but I bet DW will make sure there are next yr.

D'Antoni has never emphasized defense that is the point. The focus has always been executing the offense. Coaches that emphasize defense don't have to have an individual lock down defender. Their players no what the expectations are and what needs to be done to win. Coaching defense, game planning for individual teams, and practicing defense is time consuming and work intensive. D'Antoni came in as a guy known for having short practices, not coaching defense,and not developing players. Nothing that I have seen has convinced me that this has changed. Even when he breaks down defensive plays on his show, it is always an individual play where a guy happened to be in the right place not something that the team practiced or game planned for.

Just cuz you focus on D doesn't mean your team is gonna win. Just cuz you focus on O doesn't mean your team is gonna lose. I'd like to know how taking an offensive team to the WCF is a bad thing. The Lakers won a Title while not being the best defensive team. I love great D but it's not everything. The Magic Johnson Lakers were only a good defensive team not great. To me it's more important to fix the roster and build a great team than to worry about the teams philosophy.

CrushAlot wrote:

nixluva wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

nixluva wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

islesfan wrote:"I think it is a terrible match," said one rival head coach. "I don't get it. Two of the biggest problems with the Knicks are that they don't practice and they don't play defense. I don't know if that changes now."

It didn't.

I repeat when did DLee ever defend? LB couldn't get these players to defend consistently. Now that DLee is pretty much the lone bigman he still won't go hard and his low fouls show how little he's trying to help. Tho he's had a few more blocks it's more about consistency over the entire game. Very few of these players have defended hard. It's not about the coach at a certain point. You think that after coming into camp mostly talking about D and then constantly reading and being questioned about the lack of D, that the coaches aren't stressing D? It's been a major topic this entire year.

There are no Ben Wallace, Bruce Bowen or Marcus Camby types on the team but I bet DW will make sure there are next yr.

D'Antoni has never emphasized defense that is the point. The focus has always been executing the offense. Coaches that emphasize defense don't have to have an individual lock down defender. Their players no what the expectations are and what needs to be done to win. Coaching defense, game planning for individual teams, and practicing defense is time consuming and work intensive. D'Antoni came in as a guy known for having short practices, not coaching defense,and not developing players. Nothing that I have seen has convinced me that this has changed. Even when he breaks down defensive plays on his show, it is always an individual play where a guy happened to be in the right place not something that the team practiced or game planned for.

Just cuz you focus on D doesn't mean your team is gonna win. Just cuz you focus on O doesn't mean your team is gonna lose. I'd like to know how taking an offensive team to the WCF is a bad thing. The Lakers won a Title while not being the best defensive team. I love great D but it's not everything. The Magic Johnson Lakers were only a good defensive team not great. To me it's more important to fix the roster and build a great team than to worry about the teams philosophy.

The point of the original quote was that the Knicks needed to practice/be coached more ane they needed to play better defense. Those things are areas of weakness for D'Antoni so at the time he was hired it did not make sense. Nothing he has done to this point indicates that the original quote is wrong or even off a little.

This notion that MDA isn't coaching these guys is ludicrous. During the better stretches of this season the team was defending well. Holding teams down and lookng sharp. The problem isn't a lack of instruction but rather a lack of consistent effort and heart on D. Guys not getting out to shooters on the perimeter isn't coaching. You think MDA is coaching to leave shooters open or just letting guys waltz down the lane? What MDA team in PHX ever defended that poorly?

His teams were usually no worse than avg defensively and top five in point diff. In order to 62 games you have to play some D! You can't win that many games with a bad defense. They didn't have great defenders and at the two key positions Nash n Amare are bad defenders. There's no reason not to believe with better, more committed players we can't defend better.

arkrud wrote:MDA was hired to sell some more ticks during the time of decommissioning Isiah’s monstrosity.
It worked as expected.
Some fans were hoping for miracles, like we will play good, playoffs, yada, yada...
No miracles - this team sucks and nobody can make it better now.
We are in a position to get real players in place of NBA cast-offs and invalids.
If MDA and Walsh will fail in this – by-by and nobody cares.
If they will succeed they will get props.
Time to judge is 1-2 years from now.

Someone gets it.

nixluva wrote:
This notion that MDA isn't coaching these guys is ludicrous. During the better stretches of this season the team was defending well. Holding teams down and lookng sharp. The problem isn't a lack of instruction but rather a lack of consistent effort and heart on D. Guys not getting out to shooters on the perimeter isn't coaching. You think MDA is coaching to leave shooters open or just letting guys waltz down the lane? What MDA team in PHX ever defended that poorly?

His teams were usually no worse than avg defensively and top five in point diff. In order to 62 games you have to play some D! You can't win that many games with a bad defense. They didn't have great defenders and at the two key positions Nash n Amare are bad defenders. There's no reason not to believe with better, more committed players we can't defend better.

nixluva wrote:

Swishfm3 wrote:1. this is a great find!

2. Nix is such a homer..I never understand why any of you bother to argue with him.

I thought being a fan by it's implication means that you support the team in a Fanatical manner. seriously tho. I don't like everything about the team, if i'm suggesting we bring in new players now, that would suggest that i'm unhappy with the effort the current players have given. I support the coach and GM in their plan to try and bring in better players. I happen to dislike Dolan's interference over the years. I've been a fan since just after the last championship, so i've been riding this long streak of no championships the entire time.

Now if you think we need to change the coach and that would solve all the problems then so be it. The thing is that teams win mostly due to having winning talent and not coaching. You can win with almost any style so long as the talent is there. I don't care if you run the Triangle and a trapping full court D, or Run N Gun with a Zone... so long as you have great talent you can succeed with just about anything.

I dislike a lot of things, but I'm more often posting about things I support. That's where the "homer" "koolaid" drinking comments come from. If I spoke out against the things I dislike all the time then people would probably have a different view of me. That's just not my style.

It's all good Nix. I just can't believe you still believe MDA is a quality coach after this year's performance. I know you had higher hopes for him than some. To me this was his time to shine and he fizzled badly. Getting the Lebrons and the Wades of the world will not cure that.