We have decent to good defenders on this team...What's the excuse for MDA won't committing to defense...

Hughes...Very good defender prior to being on the Knicks...
Duhon...Decent above average defender at his position before the Knicks...
Harrington..Decent above average defender before the Knicks...
Chandler...Has shown he can play defense and is willing to do so...
Jeffries...It's about the only thing this kid can do on a basketball court..
Lee...poor defender..it ain't for everybody..what do you want...
Nate...Should have 2-3 steals per game...we all know that..
Q-BBitch...can defend when asked to do so..
Wilcox...He is 6' 10", athletic and physical...Can someone ask this man to play some D?
The Rooster...Decent hands and instincts..slow footed but needs work...

Don't look now but we seem to have a team that can play some D...So why is the coach holding them back???

Silly Wabbit

Who is guarding Dalembert?

The Knicks need to forget about individual defense and concentrate on team defense. That is their main weakness. The players are so lost in their man to man defense they don't have a clue what is going around them which leads to easy baskets for opponents. Only way to fix that is talking on defense. There is no Larry Johnson type to bring it all together.

Another way would be have the same tem playing consistently. We have had mutiple trades ths season plus MDA is not done tweaking the rotaion.

It's coaching, It's all coaching. Thats so evident From JVG to Don chaney, same roster but chaney gave 9 more points. The celtics defend well cause they pratice it, and have a good assistant to show them that.

Guy's like Lee, Curry,Zach need to be taught how to play team defense from someone who specialize in defensive schemes. I look at guys who came here that were horrible defenders ( glen rice allan houston even larry johnson did come here squarely because of his defense) but from a team concept we were still among the leaders in most defensive catagories. There are only 2 to 4 solid defensive
teams in the league and look who's coaching them. Mike D is not a defensive coach, Isiah s not a coach at all, lenny wilkens is ok, his so so defense at least got us in the playoffs, Larry never had the chance like MDA is getting, and chaney was clueless which is why he never had another offer.

Even with a shot blocker like camby and a denfesive player like al thorton the clips are a horrible defensive team. Look at the coach and his track record. Put tony parker and ginobli on this team, with camby we still would be suspect at best.

Posted by BigC:

You can not just expect to win games on just defense. You must also make your opponent work on the defensive end when you try to score. If not your opponent will have a cake walk trying to guard you because you are not making them work hard. We need players that get it done on both ends of the court. Also defense is a team effort. If the team is not playing defense collectively nothing will get accomplished on the defensive end.

Also Duhon's defense is not that good as people think it is. I have yet to see a player that he gives a hard time on the defensive end. Duhon's lack of defense is the main reason Jeffries has to guard the point guards.

When we beat good teams the only thing i here from opposing players is how well we excuted on the offensive and how well we space the floor.

When i here opposing players lose to the celtics it all about how well they trap and cover for each other and how they took them out of there rythem.

Posted by holfresh:

We have decent to good defenders on this team...What's the excuse for MDA won't committing to defense...

Hughes...Very good defender prior to being on the Knicks...
Duhon...Decent above average defender at his position before the Knicks...
Harrington..Decent above average defender before the Knicks...
Chandler...Has shown he can play defense and is willing to do so...
Jeffries...It's about the only thing this kid can do on a basketball court..
Lee...poor defender..it ain't for everybody..what do you want...
Nate...Should have 2-3 steals per game...we all know that..
Q-BBitch...can defend when asked to do so..
Wilcox...He is 6' 10", athletic and physical...Can someone ask this man to play some D?
The Rooster...Decent hands and instincts..slow footed but needs work...

Don't look now but we seem to have a team that can play some D...So why is the coach holding them back???

If I am relaying the quote correctly I believe Dantoni said something like Gallinari should be shooting 8 3's a game. That is your answer. Defense is a secondary thought to OUTSCORING you. He wants to create differential by gunning you down 130-118.

Holfresh, you made a similar post a couple of months ago bashing D'Antoni and his (according to you) lack of defensive detail. Why not just bump your old post becaue its the same rhetoric from you.

D'Antoni is far from a defensive guru, but to use this terribly flawed roster, and overrated some of them on the defensive end as a way to justify a point is ridiculous.

Jefferies has been horrible from the day Isiah signed him. Just because Jeffries offense is..well...offensive, doesn't automatically make him a defensive player. He gives effort, I'll give him that, but he's far from a defensive stopper.

You say Q will play D if you ask him? Well, I guess LB and Isiah never asked either. Save for a game here and there, I dont think so.

Duhon is/was vastly overrated on the D, just watch the games.

Hughes just got here.

Harrington had a rep as a defender during his rookie year in Indy, but once he started scoring the ball, defense took a back seat.

In essence, our perimeter D is and always has been bad, and pair that with our lack our interior defenders and you have a recipe for a poor defensive team. Knocks MDA for not being a defensive coach, but its hard to use this collective team as your evidence when this team has been bad on D for years.

Posted by islesfan:


D'Antoni is an egomaniac who thinks that he's reinvented the wheel. Guys like Doug Moe, Don Nelson and Paul Westhead couldn't win playing this style but D'Antoni is going to prove that they were all right.

Was Riley was an egomaniac too when his teams were giving up 110.5, 108.5, and 107 points per game en route to titles in 3 out of 4 years?

Posted by islesfan:


The NBA was different back then. The pace was much quicker but unlike teams like Doug Moe's Nuggets, the contending teams also played solid defense. Riley's teams were always well coached on defense as well as in half court offense and defense. They weren't just playing SSOL.

Don't compare Riley or his Lakers teams to D'Antoni and any of his teams. It's a really bad comparison.

You act like D'Antoni never even got to the playoffs playing this style. This style is not my style of choice either but it has worked, that team was in the Western Conference Finals back to back years and were a broken Nash nose (after a cheapshot noless from Horry) away from the Finals.

Just because you don't like it, doesn't really mean anything.

Posted by islesfan:

This team doesn't play defense because the head coach doesn't demand that they do and doesn't teach them how to. Get used to it because it's not going to change as long as he's the head coach.

D'Antoni is an egomaniac who thinks that he's reinvented the wheel. Guys like Doug Moe, Don Nelson and Paul Westhead couldn't win playing this style but D'Antoni is going to prove that they were all right.

A ridiculous comment- really.

If you have ever seen him after an individual or the Knicks as a team have f'd up defensively, you would know that he has certain rules on defense that players have to follow.

Have you ever attended a serious practice and observed whether or not he or an assistant "teaches" defense, by the way? I have not, and I expect that you have not either.

I would admit that he is not one of those coaches constantly working on defensive schemes, traps, presses, whatever, but you can see he demands certain things from players on the defensive end and will take them out if they don't perform. I would assume that MDA expects his guys to know when to switch off, how do deal with screens and pick & roles, and how to rotate, and they probably work on these things, but performance is another thing.

Playing good D, as an individual or as a team, requires pride, desire/effort, and awareness/understanding. Even guys with lesser athletic ability can play decent D if they have these things. You can play a pickup game with a bunch of guys who have never played together before and play adequate D if everyone is on the same page. There have been moments this year when this Knicks team has stepped up defensively, but they have been inconsistent as a team and as individuals. The fact that they have had these moments where they were playing good team D indicates to me that at some point they have been coached during the year on how to play D, unless you believe that it is something natural for players to do.

Ultimately, you have to have the player talent to win as a coach, and MDA's "system" is only going to be as good as the guys he has playing it. I have yet to see Phil Jackson win a title without having one of the top 3 players in the league on his team, by the way. In fact, in my life, the only team that won it all without a major star on the team (as far as I can remember) was Lenny Wiken's Seattle team.


The egomaniac comment is also a bit foolish. The guy has an offensive philosophy and system. No reason it can't work with the right players, and it did work in Phoenix, even if he did not win him a title with that team.