I find this very interesting. Mike maximized each players abilities within the offense. Young players weren't developed? Which young players is he referring to, the suns traded away all of their picks, year after year. If he is referring to fringe first round selections I just don't see it. They have imploaded since Mike left and are in shambles because Kerr destroyed the entire team.

How is Jalen Rose employed is the great question? This is a chemistry killer, that never worked on defense and he is complaining about practice? Laughable

He has this team playing very solid basketball, and they have lost a number of games, Lakers, Suns, Portland, Mavericks, Clippers do to inexperience all of which would have been wins. And let's not forget we don't have a center or a backup pg.

With all the whining the Suns are doing this year I think they liked the twenty minute practices, combined with 60 wins. Bitches need to shut up.

Posted by CrushAlot:

This is one of the big criticisms of Mike D when he left Phoenix. One of the players, Grant Hill?, was quoted as saying, "sometimes we even practice for forty minutes." There were alot of threads about this last spring/summer.

Players on teams who make the playoffs will typically play over 100 games a year.

They have training camp, shoot arounds before games, the best conditioning and training available in the world and typically practice 2-3 times a week.

How hard should they be pushed?

I mean - if any team played smooth basketball (players understood the system) it was the Sun's under D'Antoni. They also ran people out of the gym most nights.

What exactly do they need 2 hour practices for - the guys aren't going to play hard in practice anyway.

Get them in for 45 minutes and make sure they understand rotations, plays, sets, etc. and get them off their feet. It's amazing the NBA players bodies hold up as it is = D'Antoni (an ex player) understands the consequences over over use.

Posted by Allanfan20:

Yeah really. Maybe Jalen needs to shut up b/c he could hardly crack the rotation on a winning team. And what young players is he talking about? Who do the Suns have? Barbosa turned out nice. So did Amare and Marion. Diaw was kind of a pansy and never really maximized his talent, but he got lots of playing time, so he had plenty of time. Heck, even Joe Johnson begain to blossum when he was on the Suns.

These guys just whine whine whine whine whine. Freaking babies.

Please stop the madness. Amare won Rookie of Year before D'Antoni coached him. Marion was an all-star before anyone in Phoenix knew who D'Antoni was. Joe Johnson was already blossoming. A point could be made that D'Antoni almost hindered his progress. Smart of Johnson to move on to Atlanta.

Posted by Uptown:

Posted by Pharzeone:

Posted by Allanfan20:

Yeah really. Maybe Jalen needs to shut up b/c he could hardly crack the rotation on a winning team. And what young players is he talking about? Who do the Suns have? Barbosa turned out nice. So did Amare and Marion. Diaw was kind of a pansy and never really maximized his talent, but he got lots of playing time, so he had plenty of time. Heck, even Joe Johnson begain to blossum when he was on the Suns.

These guys just whine whine whine whine whine. Freaking babies.

Please stop the madness. Amare won Rookie of Year before D'Antoni coached him. Marion was an all-star before anyone in Phoenix knew who D'Antoni was. Joe Johnson was already blossoming. A point could be made that D'Antoni almost hindered his progress. Smart of Johnson to move on to Atlanta.

Johnson moving to atlanta has nothing to do with MDa but with Sarver not wanting to pay Joe. Forget Amare for a Sec, but how about Diaw, Nash, Bell and Q having career years under MDA. Do they not count?

With some people winning doesn't count. It so obvious the Suns miss D'Antoni.

Posted by Pharzeone:

Posted by Uptown:

Posted by Pharzeone:

Posted by Allanfan20:

Yeah really. Maybe Jalen needs to shut up b/c he could hardly crack the rotation on a winning team. And what young players is he talking about? Who do the Suns have? Barbosa turned out nice. So did Amare and Marion. Diaw was kind of a pansy and never really maximized his talent, but he got lots of playing time, so he had plenty of time. Heck, even Joe Johnson begain to blossum when he was on the Suns.

These guys just whine whine whine whine whine. Freaking babies.

Please stop the madness. Amare won Rookie of Year before D'Antoni coached him. Marion was an all-star before anyone in Phoenix knew who D'Antoni was. Joe Johnson was already blossoming. A point could be made that D'Antoni almost hindered his progress. Smart of Johnson to move on to Atlanta.

Johnson moving to atlanta has nothing to do with MDa but with Sarver not wanting to pay Joe. Forget Amare for a Sec, but how about Diaw, Nash, Bell and Q having career years under MDA. Do they not count?

Are they better players are producing more stats. Lee has up his stat production but is he a better player? Remember Q when he arrived in NY? Is Bell a better offensive player, you might as well make the argument that Brown made him a better player in Philly. That same argument is what kept Lee out of the all-star game.

more stats or better players? is this a serious question? If they were just stat-whores I doubt they would have help win all those pacific division titles, win over 60 twice and make two trips to the western conference finals. I know your not a fan of MDA but give him some credit.

The Phoenix team you see now was much better last year at this time, you have to admit.

Nash became a two time MVP. He went from a good player, to a freaking back to back MVP.

Thats progress.

I don't think Hill is complaining. He had his healthiest season with MDA.

Mike is good coach and he has great results in his coaching carrier already.
But he is young coach and he is developing himself too.
You cannot compare him with Sloan, Brown, Zen, Pop. They are old musters but they will not grow anymore.
It is all open for Mike. And I think the job in NY with this team will make him even better coach.
This is a challenge which makes good grate.
And I believe he can make it and bring greatness back to NY. This is what we all need most of all.


[Edited by - arkrud on 02-17-2009 1:36 PM]

Posted by NYKBocker:

What I don't get is the argument "They did not get better, it is his system.". If it is his system then doesn't that qualify as making players better? Mike put them in that situation and coached them on how to play using his system. That sounds like D'Antoni is actually making players better.

Yup. It's a poor arguement.