Here's some good stuff from today to get us started:

During the portion of practice open to the media, we got to see new assistant coach Mike Woodson’s influence. He worked on defense, but D‘Antoni said do not get too caught up on definitive roles.

“Mike will be great on the defensive end, as all the other coaches are,” D‘Antoni said. “We are getting into a habit of having ‘defensive’ and ‘offensive coaches‘, but no, you coach the whole game. He’ll help me on the offense a little bit and defense wherever we need him, game situations, everything. He’s a very good coach, as are the other guys. We all sit in the room together and figure it out.”

After hearing that the knock on the Knicks being a weak defensive team, Chandler said was impressed with what he saw Sunday.

“(D’Antoni is) an offensive guru. I know I am gonna have fun on that end and on the other end, the guys are willing to work,” Chandler said. “Guys were getting after it today. The effort is there, everything else can come after it. We’re going to learn and figure it out, but the effort is already there.”
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“Mike will be great on the defensive end, as all the other coaches are,” D‘Antoni said. “We are getting into a habit of having ‘defensive’ and ‘offensive coaches‘, but no, you coach the whole game. He’ll help me on the offense a little bit and defense wherever we need him, game situations, everything. He’s a very good coach, as are the other guys. We all sit in the room together and figure it out.”

CrushAlot wrote:

“Mike will be great on the defensive end, as all the other coaches are,” D‘Antoni said. “We are getting into a habit of having ‘defensive’ and ‘offensive coaches‘, but no, you coach the whole game. He’ll help me on the offense a little bit and defense wherever we need him, game situations, everything. He’s a very good coach, as are the other guys. We all sit in the room together and figure it out.”

Isn't Woodson's title assistant head coach? It sounds a little bit like D'Antoni is minimizing his role on the team. He isn't there to be just another guy on the bench. He is there to help fix a weakness. Lets hope he is embraced by the head coach.

You're reading WAY too much into his statement. For one thing Mike was the 1st one to come out and say that Woodson was here for more than just coaching D. So please stop with this nonsense. Sure we need to have a better focus on D, but Mike isn't limiting Woodson's input to just D. Perhaps in practice he's going to be assigned to focusing on D, but in games i'm sure he's gonna have input as well.

holfresh wrote:

nixluva wrote:

holfresh wrote:MDA still in denial..He still think he and his team of coaches coach defense

You know "coaching" defense is one thing, but having defensive players is another. Once you have a roster that's actually built to defend it makes everything the coaches try to do a bit more effective. So now having TD, Fields and Iman out there hounding ball handlers will have more effect when you have a Center behind them that is paying attention and has the defensive skills to actually deter penetraters. It's a support system that starts with an anchor to your defense.

Effective defense takes not only commitment by everyone, but the physical talent to make it work. You can't compare having Tyson, Jordan, Jared & Jorts to what we've had to endure before. We just have much more legit size. The other part of the equation that gets forgotten is that REBOUNDING is part of defense and we haven't had any for years. Now we have a chance to rebound at a respectable rate.

In an interview at the end of last year..MDA said his goal was to outscore the other team..This is after he was asked about his team playing defense..

Here in NY what great defensive players have we had? In fact we've had mostly one way players known to be poor defenders. No coach could get any real defense out of the teams we've had!!! Not until this year do we have a dependable anchor in the middle of the defense. We've had no size or rebounding, so how good could this team be on D?

If you watched any Knicks games you could see that there were defensive assignments given cuz anytime players didn't play their role, MDA would be yelling at them quite visibly. It's a flat out LIE that he doesn't coach or care about D. It's not his main focus, but that's not the same as saying he doesn't care about D. If he didn't care about D at all why did he want Jared so much? Jared is clearly not an offensive player at all.

The most important issues IMO is the lack of a defensive anchor and having your best players be poor defenders. Zach and Jamal, Duhon, Lee, even STAT and Melo. If you don't have a defensive Center and you only have a bunch of scorers with no intention to play D, then how can a coach succeed in that department? MDA isn't on the court not rebounding or staying in front of his man, or getting a hand up. He's tried Zones, switching D, putting a big on the opposing PG, at what point did we not see him trying to find a way to improve the D?

RonRon wrote:this is why I LOVE THE TYSON CHANDLER signing. He was a crucial player that just won the with Dallas, the vital part he has been blamed for, DEFENSE.
He is not a young player with upside, he showed what he can do. He has legit size and he is easily our best center.
He can no longer put Amare or 4 shooters to cause a mismatch, without a legit center.
In the past, he liked to use his centers, that were tweeners.
He felt it was an advantage, which worked out at times but proved unreliable for large extended minutes and in playoffs, especially without Nash.

You have to understand Mike did the SSOL out of necessity. He had a small team and that system works great with a small team or if you have a fast and mobile Center like Chandler. This is why The Spurs switched to playing a SSOL style of ball. Their best players were all smaller guys that can shoot and move. The only change that will take place is that now when they run the same defense there is a guy in the middle who can defend the rim and grab the rebound to finish the possession. For some reason fans here have overlooked how important that is. We often played good D up until the ball hit the backboard and then we couldn't grab the rebound and teams got 2nd and 3rd chances all the time. Rebounding is the hidden part of defense and where we lacked the most.

Mike said that they're running the same defense this year. Only the execution will be better and they'll grab more rebounds. BUT IT'S THE SAME DEFENSE!

AnubisADL wrote:Seeing is believing D'Antoni.

Dude his job is on the line, you think he isn't thinking Defense. Of course he is which, is good for us.

He has Phil waiting in the wings and Woodson sitting next to him so, yeah, we will be bring the DEFENSE.

We should all be thanking Dolan for not extending him.