I've been at constant war with many fans all over the internet in regards to MDA as our coach.
The one big gripe fans talk about is that they think he's not focused enough on D. Fair enough,
it's not his thing to go hard on D and practically ignore offense like some coaches have done. JVG, LB,
Mike Brown etc. Thing is tho there was this rush to bash MDA when Gentry was given credit for coaching
more defense than MDA and his Suns team being better on D than MDA's. I find this to be only part true.
There was a focus on D from Gentry, I only dispute the idea that they were MUCH better as some have protested.
Here are some articles that refute these general assumptions about MDA.
http://espn.go.com/blog/new-yorkknicks/post/_/id/75/defending-dantonis-d
Another D’Antoni Myth…
May 7th, 2010 by Dan L.
There’s another myth that fans like to point to when complaining about Coach D’Antoni. To prove that D’Antoni
is a bad coach, they often fall back on the argument that: “The Suns play better defense under Gentry than they
did under D’Antoni.”
False.
Let’s just look at the numbers, because they represent empirical fact. Whereas opinions conflict, even those of
players (some have stated that there is more of a defensive focus in Phoenix now, like Amar’e and Grant Hill.
Others have said that D’Antoni does coach defense, like Jarred Jeffries).
All of these numbers come from basketball-reference.com.
Mike D’Antoni’s Suns:
Opponents FG%:
04-05: .445
05-06: .454
06-07: .457
07-08: .456
Points Allowed Per 100 Possessions:
04-05: 107.1
05-06: 105.8
06-07: 106.4
07-08: 108.1
Alvin Gentry’s Suns:
Opponents FG%:
09-10: .452
Points Allowed Per 100 Possessions:
09-10: 115.3
***
These numbers speak for themselves. The D’Antoni Suns were as good or better than the Gentry Suns on defense.
The D’Antoni Knicks? Admittedly putrid on defense, but lacking in talent compared to what he had on the Suns.
Then there is this article:
Defending D'Antoni's D
June, 1, 2010By Tom Haberstroh
During Donnie Walsh's appearance on 1050's McDonald and Tierney show last Friday, he was asked whether coach
Mike D’Antoni needs help on the bench. This brings up a provocative topic.
Brandon Tierney: "Are you thinking about, or moving in the direction of, hiring a defensive coach to supplement
what Mike D’Antoni does very well [offensively]?"
Walsh: "If you’re judging it on the Knicks teams, we did not have a team that had the personnel to play good
defense, so nine-tenths of the problem was right there. And it depends on how you judge defense. If you’re gonna
talk about how many points the team gives up playing when it’s playing a fast-paced game, that’s not the proper
way to judge a defense for a fast-paced team. And that is the way most of the NBA teams are ranked -- how many
points you give up in a game. If you look at Mike’s differential, how many points he scored versus how many
points he give up, it’s a completely different picture. And we have further stats for that ... We’re just not
accepting that Mike’s not a good defensive coach because everybody’s writing it now."
Walsh isn’t spewing propaganda to stick up for his coach; he’s absolutely right. The Suns teams under D’Antoni
had the right personnel for his system. They sure played fast, but they weren’t horrid defensive teams as they
were generally labeled by the media. In fact, all four of his full-season Suns teams were better defensively
than the one Alvin Gentry had in the Western Conference finals this year.
It all comes down to tempo. Critics were quick to point out that D’Antoni’s offenses weren’t that good because
his fast-paced play skewed the outrageous per-game numbers, but those same critics conveniently ignored the flipside
of that equation: his defense wasn’t that bad, either.
Faster pace leads to more scoring opportunities but to properly grade a defense, one should look at the rate at
which the other teams scored. To do that, we call upon a statistic called Defensive Rating (DRtg) which adjusts
for "pace" (a team's possessions per game) and measures how many points a team allows per 100 possessions.
PACING THEMSELVES
When the numbers are adjusted using Defensive Rating, D'Antoni's Phoenix teams don't look all that bad defensively.
Season Pace Rank D-Rtg Rank PPG Allowed Rank
2007-08 96.7 4th 108.1 16th 105.0 25th
2006-07 95.6 3rd 106.4 13th 102.9 23rd
2005-06 95.8 1st 105.8 16th 102.8 28th
2004-05 95.9 1st 107.1 17th 103.3 Last
If anything, D’Antoni’s defenses were no better or worse than average once you consider their affinity for stepping
on the gas. And armed with a juggernaut offense, that’s all a team really needs.
To be fair to D’Antoni, his time in New York has been marred by roster turnover and his personnel were never defensively
motivated. It’s a hard task for any NBA coach to get his team to play defense, but it’s virtually impossible if that team
employs defensive matadors like David Lee, Tracy McGrady, Larry Hughes, Nate Robinson and Eddie House. If Walsh can find
the right ingredients this summer, D’Antoni could have a winning recipe for years to come.
All of this I post to say that I think when we give this coach a real team, he should have more success in getting players
to buy in and execute what he wants on D. Perhaps even more so than what he had in PHX. Talent makes a huge diff in what any
coach accomplishes and even more so on D.
6/1/2010 6:49 PM LAST EDITED: 6/1/2010 6:55 PM
coached instead of JVG (and I'm a big fan of JVG)
