Amar'e Says He Was Never Taught Defense
More Knicks News

Nov 27, 2010 4:04 PM EST

Knicks forward Amar'e Stoudemire says that he was never taught defense.

Stoudemire says defense is more a priority now for him than ever before in his career.

"When trying to win ball games, defense is what does it," Stoudemire said. "Getting stops, getting rebounds ... it's imperative for me to bring that defensive intensity."

Stoudemire doesn't argue that his reputation as a poor defensive player was well deserved in Phoenix and seemed to suggest that former Suns and current Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni was indirectly responsible.

"It was fair," Stoudemire said. "I was never taught defense. I just never was taught it in high school and also in the NBA.

Read more: http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/70285/20101127/amare_says_he_was_never_taught_defense/#ixzz16YDuqEAc

Nalod wrote:Amare was ROY? Allstar PF.

Maybe he didn't want to learn?

Now this is why I call B.S. on him and this lack of coaching thing. When Mike left, they brought in Terry Porter and the big diff was supposed to be that they were going to stress defense. So they went into camp with that as THE main focus. Why didn't he step up on D at that point? Eventually the team revolted not because of the lack of defensive emphasis, but because of the OFFENSE! They then let Gentry coach and still the team didn't defend. All of a sudden in Camp the next summer the lightbulb goes off in Amar'e head that he should work on his D. Mike had been getting on him for years about his defense, so you would think that they asked him to do certain things in the scheme no matter how little they supposedly worked on it. You know, things like "Amar'e don't just let your man blow by you and dunk" "move your feet and put your hands up" "we're gonna force penetrators in your direction, so always see the man and see the ball" I can't believe that this guy went thru all those years and never once did a coaching staff member mention anything about D.

Fans assume fixes are instant if they were to happen.

nixluva wrote:

Olbrannon wrote:Here's a timely little article that shows a snapshot of a play in yesterdays game.

http://nbaplaybook.com/2010/11/28/knicks-struggle-with-defensive-rotations-against-the-hawks/
to see the break down and the explanation go to his post I'm not going to copy paste his whole article
If you do you wil see in frame 3 that TD is clearly pointing to the open man to indicate to Chandler his
defensive assignment. TD DOES NOT have a low bball IQ people. Belie'e dat

Effort is not enough! You must also know your responsibility and execute

That one play is not enough to outweigh his many lapses on D and O. He holds the ball and dribbles too much on O. Takes bad shots and often doesn't pass the ball. On D he has routinely gone behind the pick and got caught, so his man was wide open for the shot or drive. He's a good young player, but he's got a lot of work to do. I'm sorry to see that he's hurt for today's game tho, cuz he does give us good minutes, despite the lapses.

Your opinion. I watch with a different perspective ...obviously if he was as bad as you say Rautins or Mason would be in there.
Now I do see some lapses on defense. I have to attribute that to injury. It's just not the game I've come to expect from him. But his handles are excellent and his passing skills are getting better.

One thing that seems to annoy him a lot is being blind-sided by a screen. can't blame him. On one such incident TD fussed at Amar'e cause his man was in the backcourt and Stat under the basket but not saying anything to TD while he is applying pressure. Of course from half a court away how is he going to warn TD?

The whole point of applying pressure in the backcourt is to slow the other team from getting onto their offense so they don't have as long to run it.

his offense shows progress.. he ran a real nice pick and roll with Stat last night. And only tried 3 3's Perhaps the leg injury was early and he was trying to tough it out.

nixluva wrote:Playing D is MOSTLY about effort. Yeah you need to learn some techniques and there's the overall scheme, but what I think matters most is just not wanting to get beat. Amar'e is athletic and quick, so there's no reason he couldn't have played harder on D no matter who the coach was.

Now this is why I call B.S. on him and this lack of coaching thing. When Mike left, they brought in Terry Porter and the big diff was supposed to be that they were going to stress defense. So they went into camp with that as THE main focus. Why didn't he step up on D at that point? Eventually the team revolted not because of the lack of defensive emphasis, but because of the OFFENSE! They then let Gentry coach and still the team didn't defend. All of a sudden in Camp the next summer the lightbulb goes off in Amar'e head that he should work on his D. Mike had been getting on him for years about his defense, so you would think that they asked him to do certain things in the scheme no matter how little they supposedly worked on it. You know, things like "Amar'e don't just let your man blow by you and dunk" "move your feet and put your hands up" "we're gonna force penetrators in your direction, so always see the man and see the ball" I can't believe that this guy went thru all those years and never once did a coaching staff member mention anything about D.

Papabear Says

Nixluva you sure are a Mike D fan and the D don't stand for defence because he does not teach any. Lets face facts! Until we get someone in here who is strong on defence we will not go deep in the play off and if thats ok with you then Mike D is your man.

CrushAlot wrote:

Olbrannon wrote:Here's a timely little article that shows a snapshot of a play in yesterdays game.

http://nbaplaybook.com/2010/11/28/knicks-struggle-with-defensive-rotations-against-the-hawks/
to see the break down and the explanation go to his post I'm not going to copy paste his whole article
If you do you wil see in frame 3 that TD is clearly pointing to the open man to indicate to Chandler his
defensive assignment. TD DOES NOT have a low bball IQ people. Belie'e dat

Effort is not enough! You must also know your responsibility and execute

You will never see a defensive sequence analyzed and broke down like that on the MDA Show.

you should watch the show, they do it from time to time.

Nalod wrote:team D is improved. Bring in a d-coach the offense suffers. A question of balance.

Fans assume fixes are instant if they were to happen.

Worse still they assume everything else remains constant.