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CrushAlot
Posts: 59764 Alba Posts: 0 Joined: 7/25/2003 Member: #452 USA |
5/29/2011 7:45 PM
The best team Mike D'Antoni ever coached was led by a player who, on the defensive end, often looked like someone's jacket tails flapping in a tailwind. An opposing player would penetrate from up top, or find his way into the lane some other way, and Steve Nash would end up behind the ball, waving his arms and performing the hurried dance of a beaten defender. Nash, of course, plays a fluid game, his hips and limbs swaying as he works, but not even his personal brand of basketball could adequately explain away his defensive deficiencies. He is not a consistent disruptor, a physical imposition or a lanky freak. He stayed on the floor, and thrived, because of his passing, dribbling, shooting and tempo. On offense, he was unsurpassed as the catalyst for D'Antoni's frenetic and disarming style, so much so that D'Antoni believed Nash to be an offensive asset more than a defensive liability. We can say the same of that team's second-best player, Amar'e Stoudemire--wonderful offensive skills, inadequate defensive ability, card-carrying member of the D'Antoni Society.
D'Antoni has reconvened this order in New York using the same mathematics. He has sought out players who can execute his pick-and-roll or make jump shots created by its manifold iterations. D'Antoni even got Stoudemire to leave Phoenix for New York so that he could reprise his star-turn role as the lithe sometimes center whose impossible offensive eruptions are so dazzling that they obscure views of his ugly, passive defense. Therein lies New York's problem. D'Antoni's ideal does not contemplate defense. It may allow for the concept, but not for the execution. His focus is offense; that is the priority. Years have changed, rosters have been overhauled, but Mike D'Antoni teams continue to fail at the defensive fundamentals. The same leadership that willingly tolerated Nash's woeful perimeter displays now presides over a team that regularly watches open jump shooters. Quarter after quarter, Knick opponents find open shots, if not easy access to the basket with little fear of reprisal or a lurking menace. When Donnie Walsh and Mike D'Antoni arrived, the Knicks were in need of everything. As the roster has been rebuilt, the talent has improved. But the Knicks are not constructed to play defense. It is no coincidence that Kevin Love put up a 30-30 against the Knicks, or that anecdotally, seemingly any player capable of a big scoring night will have one against New York. Al Horford may not have meant this, specifically, when he said that no one fears Amar'e Stoudemire, but he struck at the Knicks' defensive ineptitude. There is little concern that the Knicks will make life hard for opponents. The relentless pace and elevated scoring may apply pressure to keep up, but that's the better kind of pressure. Who doesn't want to shoot more often? What the Knicks don't do is deny post entry; shove players who come through the lane; knock down guards with the temerity to come inside. These defensive elements are not constitutional components across the roster, and they certainly aren't practiced as a learned instinct. Blame for poor Knick defense starts with D'Antoni.
I'm tired,I'm tired, I'm so tired right now......Kristaps Porzingis 1/3/18
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Nalod
Posts: 71155 Alba Posts: 155 Joined: 12/24/2003 Member: #508 USA |
5/29/2011 9:54 PM
 Ok, lets get a new coach. Wait, our opinion does not matter. |