KingofNy
Starter
What the hell is wrong w you son?? You either were there during the Ewing/ Riley years when we played all that defense, for all that time and managed not to win a chip, or you were too young to remember our team's past failures w exactly the type of team you described. We had great D and a great big man, along w guys like Oakley and Mason who could rebound and we still didn't win it all. Now you and others want to cry continuously about the lack of defense and rebounding. You'd think some of you would be more open-minded to a different style of play.
What's wrong with me? Ummm...Maybe I expect more out of my coach and our team night-in and night-out. I was actually excited for Knicks basketball this year after we acquired all of our new guys and dropped all of our baggage but so far I'm disappointed. I've been a Knicks fan for 30+ years. I've seen all the ups and the many downs with this team but I don't see how anyone can be happy with D'Anotni's style of coaching.
Correct me if I'm wrong but Phoenix never won any hardware with D'Antoni correct? What makes everything think he's so great? As soon as his team played anyone decent in the playoffs they failed because they had no defense. I do miss the old Knicks team more than anything...Starks, Oakley, Smith, Ewing, Mason. Now that was a good team.
I'm wondering the same thing about you. Are you a new fan? I don't see how anyone could be happy with the way our guys aren't boxing out and rebounding, not fighting through screens, and basically only hustling part-time. Our other struggles include sucking at free throws in the 4th quarter and turning the ball over way too much. That stuff drives me nuts. How are you o.k. with this?
The key is to have balance on offense/ defense and be great as a team at something- -to have a weapon no team can deal w. I think that something could be us becoming an all-time great scoring team (w Amare, Melo and Paul this is possible), while deploying an "at times stingy" defense. Meaning, we'd play defense for stretches and get stops when needed. This team is striving game to game to be competent defensively. I think they've made progress this year. The type of D I've explained IMO will come w time.
That is our problem....we are NOT even close to balanced. Our players only play defense if it means it will show up on their stat sheet. Most of the time they're not hustling for lose balls, not boxing out and following their shots (rebounding), and not calling out screens leading to mismatches. I had courtside seats for the Knicks vs. Spurs game in San Antonio and saw it all first hand. The players didn't call out screens leaving leaving mismatches like Felton on Duncan, They chucked up a ton of shots while they were blanketed, and they let anyone who wanted to come into the paint free access. Granted the refs sucked that game and I think we would've won if we got better calls, this team needs a ton of work.
This "at times" stingy defense you speak of is RARE. You know it and I know it. Most teams play stingy defense all game, why does ours have to be a "when they feel like it" point in the game?
While this team has made progress this year like you said, I don't think anyone of us can truely be happy with the teams consistent mistakes. What people don't understand is we have the talent to win now...but our coach only knows one thing about basketball...OFFENSE. If we want to win D'Antoni seriously needs to hire another defensive assistant coach to help this team and start stressing defense more...otherwise we'll continue on the same path that we've been on and be a .500 team that loses every game that we're not shooting well in.
I mean why would anyone as a coach that's getting killed in the paint every night not try something new? He's done nothing to bring up our rebounding numbers or cut our opponents points in the paint. He needs to start utilizing his bench and playing matchups rather than just running and gunning all night with our small unit. It's like he doesn't know any other way to win than what worked for him in Phoenix...and we don't have the same personnel or Steve Nash to run that style of offense. Maybe things will change if we get Carmelo and a big who can score...but right now it's not looking good and I blame that solely on D'Antoni.