Unlike the Los Angeles Lakers, the Knicks are executing amazingly on the offensive end and they also have the ability to punish teams with their defensive intensity. Even with Stoudemire out of the lineup, the Knicks beat some very talented opponents, and there is a good chance New York becomes even better now that Stoudemire has returned.
Stoudemire has said he will do what it takes to help this Knicks team win and he is ready to improve his defensive game. Stoudemire spoke to New York Post and he raved about the defensive strategies of this coaching staff. However, at the same time Stoudemire took a jab at his former coach, Mike D’Antoni, and his sub-par defense.
“I think having a defensive coach for the first time in my career is going to help,” Stoudemire said after practice in Greenburgh. “I’ve never been taught defense in my whole career. So to now have a coach who actually teaches defense and teaches strategies and knows positioning and posture and how to guard different plays, it’s going to be helpful.”
The second D’Antoni was hired by the Lakers, there were concerns about hit sub-par defense. D’Antoni is not known as a defensive head coach and not many people believed he could help this Lakers team on that end.
The Lakers were struggling before D’Antoni took the helm in Los Angeles and for the most part, the team hasn’t improved a great deal even with D’Antoni. Los Angeles is currently 15-16 and the defense is nothing close to championship form. The Lakers allow on average 100.3 points per game and there needs to be major changes if they want to rise the Western Conference standings.