CrushAlot wrote:

nixluva wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:From Isola's article yesterday:

When you talk to Suns officials they mostly have good things to say about D'Antoni. The biggest knocks I heard when I covered the Suns-Blazers series is that D'Antoni is stubborn and that he doesn't emphasize defense. We've all seen that firsthand.

Mike denies all charges even though when you ask some Knick players if they ever practice defense they'll laugh and say "are you kidding me."This should be a powerful lesson for the Knicks and their head coach. The Suns have proven they can win without D'Antoni but D'Antoni has yet to prove he can win without the Suns. He'll get players this summer. Maybe even LeBron James will come. But it's not just about upgrading the roster. It's about D'Antoni admitting that the one fatal flaw to his system is that his teams don't defend and doing something about it.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/knicks/2010/05/seeing-suns-in-western-finals.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nydnrss%2Fblogs%2Fknicks+%28Blogs%2FKnicks+Knation%29#ixzz0nUyE9QB5

Again this is so overblown. We didn't defend here not cuz MDA didn't instruct them properly but cuz we didn't have enough good defensive players to effectively get stops. Tell me what was Gallo & Chan doing out there if they weren't being told to defend? They gave effort. Lee wasn't doing everything he could until the media embarrassed him into playing harder and he did!!! We all saw him give better effort on the defensive end later in the season.

When MDA was in PHX his teams consistently were at the top of the league on Point Differential. You can't do that if your team isn't defending. Case in point every year there were teams like GS and Denver that also scored a ton of points, but they never won at the same clip as the Suns, cuz they played no D! Whereas the Suns had high Point Diffs, cuz they actually got stops. If you gave MDA the team Gentry has now, who knows what his record would be. He won 50 plus with lesser teams.

Maybe if Amare had decided to defend with his lazy ass, they might have won a title by now. He can't lay that on MDA. Where's his pride when his opponent is scoring at will on him all these years??? Amare is no different that Lee in that they both could've expended more effort on D all along and it didn't require any special coaching to be better on D. It's about EFFORT. It's not like the Suns are employing any special defensive secrets this year. More guys are just playing harder and they're doing it as a team. Just like for a good stretch this year the Knicks actually played harder on D. The problem is that we didn't sustain it and we traded a key to the defense when they traded Jared. This team was never gonna be great on D with our lack of enough great defensive players, but with more effort from Lee all year it may have made a difference.

If you win 62 and get to the WCF you had to be playing some D at some point to get that far. This was in the West, not the East with a bunch of soft teams to get easy wins against. We're gonna be in good hands with MDA once this team has the players.

Here is Grant Hill on the subject of D'Antoni and defense.

Still, Grant Hill can't help sucking up to either new coach Terry Porter or the strange dame called "conventional wisdom."
"You know what?" Hill said. "Guys wanted this. Guys, I think, got to a point where they wanted to play defense, we wanted to get better in that area. So the time was right for a coach to come in and try to make change."
Thank you Grant Hill, who played under D'Antoni and with these Suns teammates for exactly seven months. I suppose Shaq and Goran Dragic are the next two guys to declare D'Antoniball to be ineffective, yeah?

Check out the comments on the Suns forum from April 08 and see if they don't sound just like guys on here who recognized and were aware of D'Antoni's many faults.

http://www.pocketfives.com/poker-forums/13/mike-dantoni-2834485

So what you're saying is that some Magical defensive strategy was missing. It wasn't that the players needed to give more effort on D and the roster needed more effective size, which was a problem? The biggest difference now is not some amazing new strategy, but that the players took it upon themselves to play with more effort on D for a change.

They had Porter there who was a defensive guy and yet that didn't seem to have any positive effect on the effort level of the players nor the defensive strategy. They had Shaq, but he made them weaker against pick and roll and clogged up the middle on offense. That's on Kerr not MDA or Porter, who got blamed not for a lack of Defense but OFFENSE, by the players. They felt they were losing cuz of the offense. They wanted to go back to MDA ball. Gentry Went 18-13 when he took over for Porter. The team immediately scored more points, but also played very little D. Porter had gone 28-23 as the coach, but the players complained NOT ABOUT D, but the system of offense! That's why they gave Gentry the job. He clearly knew the offensive system but there was no immediate effect on the D.

I find it curious how all of a sudden under Gentry THIS YEAR, they finally found a commitment to D, but they refused to do so for a defensive guy in Porter last year. WHY? Cuz it's all BS. The players have to give effort and care on both ends. It's not so much defensive strategy as it is, just giving a damn. What Grant Hill didn't know they should play D. He's a vet and a leader and he on his own couldn't speak up and demand his teammates play harder? Yeah right! It's not just about a coach asking the players to defend. Heck LB tried that here and it didn't work, because of the PLAYERS! Watch how much better the D is when you bring in players that can play D and WANT TO! I have no fear about MDA coaching this team. Let me see this team win 62 games and get the ECF's. I'll take my chances with a well balanced Team and MDA coaching. I saw him demanding defense from this team. He stated over and over that he'd play the guys that defended and he sat guys when they didn't defend, within reason. He had to play Lee, cuz he was the best option. Give the man the players and let's see what he does.

This is crazy
Suns may have knew how to play Offense with MDA system and Al Gentry being there for some yrs

But please lets not give MDA alot of crazy credit for SUNs success and what happens in NBA 2010 playoffs.

Its absurd MDA would comment his system works in SUN-Land, What is he talking about ?
The Phoenix Sun team you see is completely different from the MDA teams they didnt even have 1/2 to 3/4 of them
players whom are there now.

Many of them now there dont even know MDA and team plays Defense and that is it!
Any coach such as MDA or Gentry going to give allstar stud S.Nash the ball and move away.

MDA deserves nothing here,
Gentry came in and implemented his style and players are peaking and surprising people even I'm shocked

MDA needs not to talk about Suns success and vindication,
MDA need to worry and fret about our NY Knickerbockers and why ? we cant win in 2-3 yrs since he'll be entering the
later part of his $$contract stretch run over next few yrs.

MDA isnt great on Defense and Sun's playing the style they are proves what we all knew.
Sure Suns cant or wont get by LA Lakers and perhaps will give them a run before bowing out.

But its an improved SUNs team deserved to be there and MDA has SQUAT to do with their success in 2009/2010
that is shortchanging Gentry. MDA better go get a PG and learn D, stop being in love with Chris Duhon, 1 gripe
and issue of MDA.

Knicks gotta lot of work to do!
Maybe should start with getting some new assistant bench coaches as Knicks try to acquire drafts, FA's and
building blocks to build a competitive team.