Amare Stoudemire: The Suns are Ready

August 28, 2008 4:05 PM

Suns TV (I'd bet my eye teeth that's the voice of former HOOP colleague, and current Suns media bigwig, Jeramie McPeek asking the questions) caught up with Amare Stoudemire for a video interview.

The video starts with some fun footage of Suns players -- Steve Nash, Robin Lopez, Amare Stoudemire, Alando Tucker, Grant Hill, Louis Amundson, and others -- during a closed off-season practice session. Stoudemire says that Shaquille O'Neal had been there, and Boris Diaw and Matt Barnes would be coming soon.

Once the interview starts, Stoudemire announces a story that promises to get some major run in the blogosphere as the season unfolds. He has been taking piano lessons. "Strictly for the ladies," he explains. " Just to kind of serenade the ladies a little bit with the piano. See how that goes."

Then he kind of winks at the camera.

We are going to need progress reports, and some home video of Stoudemire tickling the ivories, as the season unfolds.

Now, remember, Stoudemire is seen as, essentially, an MVP-type player who is sub-par on defense. I can remember screaming at my TV now and then during last year's playoffs, hoping that Stoudemire might, you know, lift his arms from his sides from time to time on D.

Stoudemire seems more than happy to pass off some or all of the blame for his team's mediocre defense, however, to the departed coaching staff of Mike D'Antoni.

He was asked about his new coach.

"I love Terry Porter," Stoudemire says to the camera. "His method. His way of coaching is going to be great for us. You know, he's extremely focused on the defensive end, something that we haven't practiced at all in the previous three years, and now we're definitely practicing and improving on the defensive end."

Haven't practiced defense at all in three years? Wow. That's a bold claim.

video of the interview: here

and from a suns insider that posts on realgm:

Having been to about 2 dozen practices in the past 3 years, I'd say Amare is right. Never did I see them do a damn thing related to defense besides talking about rotations against the particular team they were going against. Technique be damned.

[Edited by - djsunyc on 08-28-2008 7:48 PM]

i dunno... Amare complaining about the system of a coach that has netted him stardom over the past few years seems a bit silly to me... but i guess he'd easily trade in his 25 & 9 statline for more of an emphasis on defense while his offensive stats suffer.

Posted by nyk4ever:

Posted by TMS:

i dunno... Amare complaining about the system of a coach that has netted him stardom over the past few years seems a bit silly to me... but i guess he'd easily trade in his 25 & 9 statline for more of an emphasis on defense while his offensive stats suffer.

I've never once seen Amare give an ounce of effort on the defensive end. Not once.

obviously b/c d'antoni told him not to...

Nah man.....amare needs to shut the hell up. D'antoni made an offense where he could get his **** off and this is how he is repaid? Not cool.

Everyone knows what kind of player Amare has been on defense thus far.....AND in the clutch on offense too. It had nothing to do with D'antoni.

The old saying, Defense wins championships held true this year and has been true for as long as I can remember. If D'Antoni wore silly suits and cracked jokes he would be this generations version of Doug Moe.

Well there is a reason why Dantoni is not in Pheonix any more.

Posted by BRIGGS:

Well there is a reason why Dantoni is not in Pheonix any more.

Its cuz Steve Kerr is the big Man in charge with a chip on his shoulder the size of mt everest.

Traded Shaq for Marion. The dude wants to run an east coast style. He doesn't like D'antoni's style. Period.

it's always easy to blame the guy who just left. This way noone on the team now has to make any more changes or more effort.

something tells me he'll be saying he's not being used right if he's asked to play defense inside & block shots while other players take on some of his offensive role.

Posted by TMS:

something tells me he'll be saying he's not being used right if he's asked to play defense inside & block shots while other players take on some of his offensive role.

i don't think that's what he's getting at. a guy just doesn't become a stopper as a defender. i think he's talking about team defense, rotations, etc. i'm guessing d'antoni talks about them and they do practice it, but don't *really* practice it...like larry brown stopping everything and taking 25 mins to explain something.

now, maybe all this talk about defense, and possibly d'antoni's firing was a learning experience for d'antoni himself and realizes he should make more of an emphasis on the defensive end now...

[Edited by - djsunyc on 08-29-2008 01:19 AM]

I can't be the only one here who thinks that this is a big deal... can I? So the Suns didn't practice defense, yet still finished in the middle of the league each year in team defense--DESPITE PLAYING AMARE AND NASH EXTENSIVE MINUTES. Who in their right mind would try to make that team a defensive oriented team? What are you going to do, coach fire, conditioning, and defensive technique and burn your guys out when they're expected to run mach five the entire game? They were always tops in offense and middle-of-the-pack in defense, which was always good enough for 60 wins. There problem in the post season was they couldn't score in the post when the game slowed down to a half court style... and they'd lose to Phil Jackson or Greg Popovich that made their teams not cave into that "come on, let's run... it'll be fun!" thing the Suns pulled.

Now, the Knicks don't have either of those players offensively and D'Antoni knows this. He was always revered as being one of the best defensive players in Italy. I'm pretty sure he's going to have this less talented team place more of an emphasis on the defensive end.

I hope I don't eat crow here, but I don't think Mike D is going to treat this turd pile known as the New York Knicks as the Phoenix Suns.