tomam wrote:Barring a major injury, D'antoni now has enough defensive skills players to prove his ability as a defensive coach. No more excuses. Of course he is an offensive-minded coach, but if he can pull together a solid (not great) defensive team they could really put together a nice run down the stretch. IF not, he shows he is not capable of effectively managing talent on the defense end.No more talent excuses.
Lack of talent and an ever changing roster isn't an excuse. It's reality. Mike has had a team in the WCF's before, so it's not like he's completely unfamiliar with defense. None of those teams have a Center like Tyson! STAT and Melo step up and this will be a very good defensive team, cuz TD, Iman, Fields & Tyson will defend.
This is a very interesting tidbit from Mike regarding the Knicks defense.
D'Antoni on working with Mike Woodson: "Defensively we're going to do exactly what we did last year. The idea is to just get them motivated and keep them up there in a different voice, which can help. Mike will be great on the defensive end, and as all the other coaches. Again, we're getting into a little habit of offense-defense coaches, but you coach the whole game. He'll help me on the offensive end and defensive end -- wherever we need him at. He's a very good coach, as the other guys, and we'll sit in the room together and figure out what we need to do, and do it."
The difference will be having better defensive talent and more size and hopefully a different voice in Woodson. Still the defense that Mike wants to run will be the same.
