When reporters were let in to watch the final hour or so of Tuesday's first practice at Skidmore College, Mike D'Antoni was running a defensive drill.

Prompted by a reporter, he joked that it was his way of showing people that he can coach defense. Yet, in reality, actually guarding people this season will be a greater point of emphasis, he insists, for a variety of reasons.

The biggest is that last year at training camp, he and his staff were focused on installing the new offense because it's so different than anything anyone had played before.

Now that most of the roster ran [D'Antoni's offense] at least half of last season, there's no need to go rudimentary with it, so MD'A can turn his attention to the side of the court where he says the Knicks ranked 28th last season in what he calls "effective field goal defense."

That basically involves points allowed per possession plus field goal percentage on twos and threes, as opposed to straight points or field goal percentage, because when you play faster, you'll have to defend more possessions and, thus, surrender more points.

MD'A also cites all the roster changes last season and the short-handed groups with which the Knicks played a number of games as reasons defense got away from them last season. So much emphasis was put on the offense, too, he believes his players decided they could simply outscore opponents

Bottom line this season, though, assuming stability, he believes his team has to finish in the top 15 in effective field goal defense to be of playoff caliber.

Posted by fishmike:

Posted by TheGame:

It is nice that he is focusing on defense but focusing on it and doing it are two different things. If the plan is to start Lee as center, then his whole defense is flawed from the start. Darko must start if we are going to make any significant improvement in defense. Start Darko and move Lee back to PF. Start Chandler to give you a defensive stopper and extra shot-blocker in the lineup. Duhon, Chandler, Harrington, Lee, and Darko is our most balanced offensive/defensive unit.

not at all. Much rather have Lee defend C than PF. How many centers are big scoring threats? 5? 8? How many PFs? like all of them? The positions we need to better defend are opposing PFs and keeping the wings from penetrating at will.

Lee's worst defensive attributes are his lack of shot-blocking ability and lack of help defense. I would rather Lee play on the ball defense against a good PF, with Darko or Chandler available to provide help defense, than rely on Lee coming over to help someone else. Having a shot-blocking center will help all our players, because now you have someone who can help us recover from lapses on the perimeter.

Posted by TheGame:

Posted by fishmike:

Posted by TheGame:

It is nice that he is focusing on defense but focusing on it and doing it are two different things. If the plan is to start Lee as center, then his whole defense is flawed from the start. Darko must start if we are going to make any significant improvement in defense. Start Darko and move Lee back to PF. Start Chandler to give you a defensive stopper and extra shot-blocker in the lineup. Duhon, Chandler, Harrington, Lee, and Darko is our most balanced offensive/defensive unit.

not at all. Much rather have Lee defend C than PF. How many centers are big scoring threats? 5? 8? How many PFs? like all of them? The positions we need to better defend are opposing PFs and keeping the wings from penetrating at will.

Lee's worst defensive attributes are his lack of shot-blocking ability and lack of help defense. I would rather Lee play on the ball defense against a good PF, with Darko or Chandler available to provide help defense, than rely on Lee coming over to help someone else. Having a shot-blocking center will help all our players, because now you have someone who can help us recover from lapses on the perimeter.

Both of you guys are right. D'antoni will more than likely adjust these concepts in game.

Posted by Moonangie:

Posted by TheGame:

It is nice that he is focusing on defense but focusing on it and doing it are two different things. If the plan is to start Lee as center, then his whole defense is flawed from the start. Darko must start if we are going to make any significant improvement in defense. Start Darko and move Lee back to PF. Start Chandler to give you a defensive stopper and extra shot-blocker in the lineup. Duhon, Chandler, Harrington, Lee, and Darko is our most balanced offensive/defensive unit.

Word, but my starting five has The Rooster in place of Big Al, both for getting him lots of minutes and building his rep, and also to have a power guy like Al coming off the bench to supercharge things. I think Big Al has his ego in check, and will sacrifice for the team in the hopes of getting retained post-Lebron pickup.

Posted by Bippity10:

Posted by nixluva:

I still think MDA is one of the most misunderstood coaches in the league. The guy knows basketball. If you examine how his teams played in PHX, you can see that he has a clear idea of just how his team should play on both ends of the floor so that the team will succeed. He needs 2 things, better talent, which we're working on and time to teach the players how to win. I think this team will be better even playing primarily with the same guys we ended the year with last year.

We'll be better on D, even with DLee starting at Center and Darko etc. off the bench. We should be more efficient offensively which will also help the D. When you play sloppy and miss bad shots that weakens your defense. So the two are actually linked. Look, we're gonna score! The only thing missing is to improve on D, so any emphasis he places on it should yield some results.

Maybe if he talked about it more he wouldn't be so misunderstood