D'antoni fires shots at David Lee

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/knicks/antoni_takes_digs_at_lee_nuIB0TQaL9TIBrRCsZNzSP

D'Antoni takes digs at formers Knicks star Lee

With David Lee coming to town Wednesday for his Garden homecoming, Mike D'Antoni appeared to take a dig at the Knicks former big man.

With the Knicks having improved in blocked shots and interior defense over last season, D'Antoni said,

"I don't think it's not a matter of playing hard, just athletically. We got 7-footers who are very athletic. We used to have 6-8 guys who weren't athletic. (Ronny) Turiaf came to us as a shotblocker. (Timofey) Mozgov is 7-1. Amar'e (Stoudemire) blocks shots. (Wilson) Chandler always did. We just have better athletes and taller people. It allows us to play faster. It's not a knock on the other group. They played hard. They weren't athletic enough.''
Lee's downfall with the franchise was an inability to block shots and defend inside.

Eddy Curry, out since the second day of training camp, is supposed to finally return to practice in full today, participating in scrimmages.

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Even though i dont really look at this as Dantoni taking any cheapshots, i was just paraphrasing the title. And i know some people might make something out of this, I kinda think D'antoni was just keep it one hunnid....

except one thing that I disagree with, David Lee is athletic. He's just a terrible defender. He can get off the ground real good for a white guy. I dont think athleticism has anything to do with why we sucked last year. I think its more along the lines of height and skill.

in athletisicim just look at d.lee standing next to Amar'e next game. you'll see that d.lee, while an adept and smart ball player doesn't have the body frame, muscle or strength to match up with Amar'e. Athleticisim has a lot to do with your ability to defend, especially in the low post. Shot blocking is an athletic, explosive move, D.lee just lacks that explosiveness.

Most players 6'9 and up aint as athletic as Amare is....

And i wasnt trying to say Lee is a great athlete. Hes a good enough athlete where he should and could be a better defender.

I agree, he could and should be a better defender, but with his frame and athleticisim in mind it's stupid to ask him to defend against guys like dwight howard or amar'e. he just can't match up with them.

He can defend guys like gallo or hedo in the post, but athletic guys with polished post moves are always going to destroy him.

yup...we saw it time and time again. So far this year, hes already been sh*tted on by

Luis Scola
The entire Lakers team
Charlie Villanueva

But his teams doing good and the Warriors so far have probably been one of the top 3 most entertaining teams in the league. Steph Curry >> Rondo

for all our "athleticism" our front line has been out played every game so far. as any new yorker would say to d'anit... zaaawhooopaadeefukndooooooooooooooo. lee played hard out of position every game and never once complained. as a season ticket holder he is one dude that gave me my moneys worth. if we have 11 lee's wouldn't be very "athletic" for sure but i bet we would win more. and stat don't look all that fukn "athletic" or very fukn defensive getting pounded on the boards when he as to play center.

This is Berman trying to stir up drama because he dislikes D'Antoni because of the way he handled Marbury (love interest of Berman).

In fact, as reported by other more unbiased reporters that were there, Berman was trying to get D'Antoni to say bad things about Lee and D'Antoni got visibly angry with Berman and never said anything bad about Lee and only praised him.

Berman is a scumbag.

Honestly it sounds like D'ant was only saying good things about his team last year. Saying they played really hard, but now we are more athletic. Then berman just writes a slanderous headline and flies the quote as d'ant said it, just giving it a different context.

pretty underhanded if you ask me.


As far as d.lee goes. he gave 150% every game.no one can deny that.He deserved the 80 million he got and the all-star apperance last year. He simply just did not fit the teams needs and cap space. Amar'e is still getting more blocks then D.Lee would have and even if he is getting pounded on the boards as you say, he pulled down 15 last game. He also draws more double and triple teams then d.lee, opening up his team mates in a way d.lee could not.

Still i would of loved to have d. lee on the team. he was a great Knick and gave everything he could on the court for us. but we simply could not afford him.

It wasn't personaly aimed at david lee

I mean the only thing you could say about lee is that he was shorter then most other guys at center. To imply he's unathletic is straight up foolish and not what D'antoni was doing. He said the team was less athletic, which is true. We are taller and more athletic. Not specifically david lee wasn't athletic because he's crazy athletic. The team in general, is taller and everyone is athletic.

KingStarbury3 said:

Even though i dont really look at this as Dantoni taking any cheapshots, i was just paraphrasing the title. And i know some people might make something out of this, I kinda think D'antoni was just keep it one hunnid....

except one thing that I disagree with, David Lee is athletic. He's just a terrible defender. He can get off the ground real good for a white guy. I dont think athleticism has anything to do with why we sucked last year. I think its more along the lines of height and skill.

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:lol: :lol: :lol:

I never liked David Lee. He's a liability on defense, and he's definitely not worth all the money the Warriors gave him.

I wanted the Knicks to keep Lee, but I don't blame them for trading him. He wanted way too much money.

David Lee overall performance in a frontcourt rotation with Mogov, Amare, Gallo, and Chandler, would have the Knicks with a 5-2 record.
David Lee is the number one reason GSW have a 5-2 record.
Right now I would rather put F/C-David Lee on this team rather than SF-Melo.

Lee is a great DEFENSIVE-Rebounder with a great IQ for passing, and screen/picking for an easy pick n roll. His ambidextrous hustle on defense is way better than the average shot blocker b/c of his bigbody in the paint at grabing the miss shot. So u would put a shotblocker or intimidator in the lineup with David Lee.

How many points will Donnie Walsh lose

If Lee haves a great game tonight and the Knicks lose again...expect the coach to start wearing that silly look on his face. The fans will be calling for his head soon.

I was reading an article about what it would be like f we kept Lee.. http://www.msg.com/blogs/charlie-zegers/what-if-the-knicks-had-kept-david-lee-1.53994 I think were better off without him

i don't so much as care as to lee over stat... apples and oranges and the fact is neither dude by himself is going to bring the bling to the garden. but to be dissn a guy that did nothing but work his ass off shows you the true color of the the guys running this team. d'aint will be fired and he will leave town like all the other arrogant jackasses we have had employed under dolan... shooting his fukn mouth off.

I rather have a real center in Turiaf who can rebound and block shots then Lee paired alongside Amare. Having Turiaf as a result of letting Lee go lets Amre play PF which will ultimatley help his game. Further we have a young project in AR who has the POTENTIAL to be an all-star and Azebuke who is a true SG putting up all-star numbers before his injury. It was a great trade for the Knicks considering we retained cap flexibility while becoming way deeper in 3 positions.

That said the article is sensationalized hogwash and nothing more.

we were not athletic enough but again Mike D blames the players and not himself which pisses me off....he has such an ego and is so ignorant.

This was not a cheap shot