D’Antoni: Top 15 in Defense

IMO the Knicks will improve this year on the defense.
How could we not right?
I think Darko will be a nice help in the middle.
Teams were driving to the lane last year whenever they pleased because the only person we had clogging the middle was Lee. We all know he’s not going to contest shots….
Curry should also contribute..even if it’s just a little.
The point is we won’t be worse than last year.

Off topic a little…..

Johnson Won’t Sign Extension With Hawks
(He turned down 15 mill a year…I think that answers the question on whether or not he thinks he’s a max player)…read below

Hawks forward Joe Johnson will not sign a contract extension with the team.

Johnson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he will play out the final year of his deal and become an unrestricted free agent next summer.

Atlanta offered Johnson a four-year, $60 million extension this summer. He decided not to sign the new deal after considering it.

“My sole focus right now is on this team and what we’re trying to accomplish this season,” Johnson said. “I have some goals set for this season for my team and I have some individual goals set for myself as well. I really feel like this team is ready to take that step to the next level. I also feel like I can be one of the elite players in this league, I feel like I’m right there, so it’s going to be an exciting year.”

LOL @ Lee clogging the middle.

Chris Duhon is an OK defender
say what you want about Larry Hughes, hes our 2nd best perimeter defender
Toney Douglas…..need i say more?
Nate Robinson size is a disadvantage, but he gives an effort
Wilson Chandler our best defender
Darko Milicic and Jordan Hill are good defenders that can block shots

So our teams defense isnt horrible, Lee and Curry are our worst defenders

I think its up to D’Antoni to stress the importance of defense, and depending on how consistanly he does that, then its definetly possible…..

giving up 102 ppg for dallas is much worse then the knicks giving up 102 ppg because we play more posessions per games.

if we give up 102 ppg this year we will be a much better team than dallas was defensively.

yeah,our team defense isnt horrible cuz you say so?great! i have no worries now.nate sucks and you have no idea if toney douglas can guard nba players ,and if he can ,he aint gettin no burn anyhow.your rankings are bogus

It is close to mathematically impossible for the Knicks to be a good defensive team as measured by PPG. They play at such a fast pace under SSOL it creates many more possession per game for both sides.

More possessions = more points.

Offense and defense must be adjusted for pace to have any meaning.

What you want to look at is Points PER Possession. That measures efficiency on both ends of the court.

The Knicks have some chance of reaching the top 15 on a pace adjusted basis, but they will almost certainly give up more points than most other teams.

By the way, if you adjust the Suns defense under D’Antoni for pace, they were never as bad as they looked. So D’Antoni is correct in some of his comments about his former team.

LOL, you beat me to it.

U sound crazy…

“i have no worries now.nate sucks and you have no idea if toney douglas can guard nba players ”

Neither do you. So to sit here and say your opinion means more than Magiks is what’s really bogus.

“and if he can ,he aint gettin no burn anyhow.your rankings are bogus”

Why wouldn’t he? Who is going to give Duhon the needed rests he needs since we all know he might breakdown again? Last time I checked Douglas was next in line. Unless your talking about Nate giving Duhon rest…like he did last year right?

Get it together baby!!!

Uh oh…is it starting already?
Hahn says this on his twitter…

“Eddy Curry limps off court during 5-on-5 drills in night session here. Calf muscle.”

He just needs to stretch that out and he’ll be fine lol..

That’s a good point about the number of possessions that the Knicks play. Mike D’Antoni addressed that idea last year saying that his teams in Phoenix were not as bad defensively as people thought. He noted that point differential is the more important statistic than PPG allowed.

Good point Jeff (and Italian Stallion for that matter….)

the knicks can be a playoff team if they built chemistry…

NOW I WANT A 7SOL OR LESS DEFENSE U GOTTA TRY TO STEAL THE BALL OR A FORCED TURN OVER IN 7SOL..LMAO..

JUST WAIT AN SEE I’M NOT SAYING ANYTHING UNTIL LIKE 2 3 PRESEASON GAMES..

Larry Hughes is still better than Wilson Chandler defensively.

Chandler is the sexy pick, we prefer Will because he’s younger and he’s a spectacular shot-blocker (and he IS a good defender) but realistically, Hughes is a better one-on-one defender in my opinion.

Defense is all about effort and basketball IQ – the Knicks just have to play harder period. At least we have a big shot-blocker now, Darko won’t play much but his minutes will be useful.

D’Antoni (referring to his Phoenix teams):

“the first thing out of everybody’s mouth is, ‘They don’t play defense. First of all we won (55) games last year, (61 the year before). Sixty-(one) times we played better defense than the other team did”

We’ll go 5-2 in the preseason.
Both loses coming against the Celtics.
We’ll beat the Nets 3 times, the Sixers and Maccabbi (spell check).

Does anyone have any idea wether the preseason game against New Jersey is going to be televised.

I saw that too, I like Johnson as a fallback option next summer to the big three.

Haha great quote.

NY can get to the playoffs but they have to play every game they can’t take games off thats the key because teams don’t expect the Knicks to do much they can sneak up on teams and win games they shouldn’t.

Defense will come with playing every game.

Larry Hughes could never make a stop on Kobe the way Wilson did.

(in a game where Kobe scored 61 points on the knicks)

Your point is what exactly Larry Hughes could have shut down Kobe.

Last year was a bunch of burn-outs who knew they were gone, selfish players, rookies, injured players, etc… there was no team concept….

Now i feel like we have an actual core… a Unit… Galo, Chandler, lee, Duhon, even nate… they seem to be taking it more seriously and seem to be more excited about the team as a unit. Plus, we have 2 rookies to follow in their steps…

It’s such a different vibe from last year. I really think we could do good things this year (good being a relative term). That sense of leadership, of one unit, is the most important intangible… especially for defense…

Last year we still pretty much had Isiah’s team but with a new coach.

None of our best players last year (at least according to their financial values) were expected to be around much longer, and all of them had some awful flaw. Now we are much younger, bigger, and more devoted. Our core really wants to be here for the future.

THis is just the feeling I’m getting, with a twist of my optimism….

By the way, optimism and pessimism are both equally inaccurate, so swaring by one or the other is foolish, but if you are going to speculate pessimistically about every possible thing, then are you really a fan?

I don’t know, 61 pts is a lot….even for Kobe. You can’t really brag about Chandler’s defense in that game.

eddy curry

when did i say my opinion is better than anyones?its just that since we dont know if douglas can guard nba players,i dont have an opinion .its just dumb to say douglas is gonna be great,chandler is gonna be this hill is gonna be that is just wishful thinking.dantoni himself said its gonna be hard for the rookies to break in to the rotation.

yes it is.MSG AT 2:00PM ON SUNDAY

yes!its almost the same team as last year.duhon,chandler ,lee ,robinson,…the only diff is that gallo might be healthy….and its swearing…lol……i dont think there is a bigger fan than myself,and i think that they are gonna dissapoint again.also i dont think they are gonna get lbj.i dont think its pessimism ,i think its reality

Being a fan does not limit one to blind optimism.

A fan can look at a situation and come to a sober sense of reality. It doesnt make one any less of a fan. A fan is devoted to a team and is not required to drink the kool aid and follow lock step with whatever swill management is selling.

I think overall we will see a 3 – 5 game improvement in our record. Is that optimistic? It could be compared to another who thinks we havent made ANY significant changes and are really only relying on a recuperated Gallo to improve the team.

The coach has said the rooks arent in the rotation and the two enigmas havent made a great impression so far. EC on his physical limitations (hammy and now calf) and Darko on the attitude adjustment to his last chance in the NBA.

Granted Darko is fre to make any decisions he wants buti if it was me and I was joining a new team in a new city on the final year of a contract I would have moved to NYC with my girlfriend and any family members and had the child here while i worked out with my future team mates in Greenburgh and settled into my new surroundings. But I wont hold that against him. Just an interesting decision that bears watching.

Wilson Chandler averaged 0.91 blocked shots per game last year. Some were spectacular but should we get carried away saying he is a spectacular shot blocker and a great defensive player? Not yet, IMO. He is just a baby getting used to the pro game. Hope he progresses by a quantum leap this year. His biggest need is to learn to dribble with his back to his man, see the court and reverse his dribble and cross over. His ball handling in the 1/2 court offense was not good last year and he looked lost a lot. He should study films of B King and J Worthy.

DTR

Will is a very good defender, and getting better, but Mucha is right. Hughes is the best defender on this team. His offensive decisions drive us all nuts, so we often fail to give him proper credit for being one of the best defensive 2s in the league. Credit for his work is due. WC will have his day.

Toney will be a good defender, but Bob is right. He may not get much burn. He has to prove he has an NBA game first. I think he will, buts let’s wait. Nate will back Duhan until TD proves himself, if he does.

Hill is NOT a good defender. If you watched the Vegas games, Jordan moved forward almost every time he went after a block. He has to learn to go straight up because in the NBA, that is a foul, no matter how deep into the stand the ball travels. He looks like he has the skills to become a better than average to great defender, but not likely this year — Hope they both prove me wrong.

Curry can clog the lanes (at both ends) but won’t move his feet. David has hustle and moves his feet well, but often in the wrong direction (let’s hope his work with Oakley rubs off on DL). Nate will always be hit or miss but he isn’t our major D worry. Harrington might have defensive skills. Until now he hasn’t displayed them so they are hard to assess. However, Gallo is our worst defender until he proves differently. I love the kid, but he was nowhere on defense.
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HARRINGTON MAKES A GREAT POINT THOUGH ABOUT TOGETHERNESS. Only David, Nate, Will and Chris had the benefit of a full training camp to learn this system and develop together. It’s hard to build a cohesive defense with a revolving door full of changing teammates. There is every reason to believe that being on the same page from day 1 will lead to better team defense, communication and knowledge of each others tendencies. That, alone, will make us a significantly better defensive team. At least until the pieces start moving again.

Hope Al keeps taking this veteran leadership role.

Don’t tell me the Eddie Curry showcase has already closed. I haven’t even made it back to NY yet.

I so wanted to see the show! I guess the talent to keep the show going just wasn’t there.

Just another one night stand, huh?

he is from serbia right?

I have no clue, but it wouldnt surprise me to hear there are crazy visa/citizenship laws over there. Plus, its aLOT to ask a person to relocate his family to another continent. He is on the other side of the world… its not like we are talking about moving from jersey into the city here.

I don’t know, I feel like despite his injury and bad rep for D, that Gallinari actually looked ok on defense. He stayed in front of his guy and got a hand in his face.

Shit, I still can’t get NBA league pass out here in Cali. Time Warner!!!!!!!!!!

I seriously doubt they’re beating the Nets all 3 times.

.91 bpg is pretty good for a SF.