Amare Stoudemire "Suns Havent Practiced Defense In 3 Years"

[asubennett]

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-33-239/Amare-Stoudemire--The-Suns-are-Ready.html

Very interesting article with link to web interview. Bullet Points:

"Suns are Ready"
"I love Terry Porter"
"Im taking piano lessons for the ladies"
"We havent practiced defense for three years"

Ha ha/ Good offseason read / watch

[daveang]

Following on from that, here's a link to another great post from Phoenix Stan over at brightsideofthesun.com:

http://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2008/ ... -half-beas

[Phoenix1977]

Having been to about 2 dozen practices in the past 3 years, I'd say Amare is right. Never did I see them do a damn thing related to defense besides talking about rotations against the particular team they were going against. Technique be damned.

[-SDU-]

then we are about to start improving on the most untapped part of our game

if guys like diaw, barbs, amare etc can find 25%extra on D, then wow!

[ray ray]

I was very surpise when I saw those comments made by STAT on suns.com. My initial response was, Amare is taking a swing at D'Antoni, but the more I think about it, Amare isn't lying? I truly beleive that playing defense is a combination of three things.

1) Ability: We know that Steve Nash and Shaq ain't going to be defensive stoppers any time soon. But we shouldn't expect them to be either, they need to be in better position in order to use their bodies to play defense. This is something that D'Antoni was not an expert on and of course did not practice nor teach the younger players. One thing that we all have said in the past is that Barbosa and Amare have the ability to become much better defensive players. The problem with the them is that it always seems like they are always out of position to play defense. If Porter can help them understand and realize their mistake, I have no doubt in my mind that they are going to improve immensly defensively. We have good core of defense players in Raja Bell, Matt Barnes, Grant Hill, Robin Lopez ,Goran Dragic and Boris Diaw and with the improvements of Amare and Barbosa we should be better defensively.

2) Mentality: The past regime thought and PRACTICE offensive only and that they needed to out score the opposition in order to win. In the regular season it worked great and we as fans loved it that brand of basketball. But what we realize is that if we really wanted to win a championship, we needed to be better defensively. If Terry Porter can ingrave into their brains that defense wins champoinship, we will become more effective and more succeful in the playoffs.But it starts in training camp and it starts with the coach. We can not all of sudden change in the middle of the season expect them to be a better defense unit. It starts in training camp and it starts with the coach!

3) Attitude: I don't claim to be in the caliber of the NBA players, but I do know one thing. When you play defense, you need to scrap, you need to get physical and you need to have the attitude that they are not going to score on you. When each indiviaul takes it personal,takes ownership and are held accountable for their actions , thats when you are going to see the Suns become a much better defense team. I don't like Ron Artest but I wouldn't mind having him in my team. Artest dosen't care if you like him, if you think he's a thug or that you think that he is a bad person. When Artest in playing ball he is going to let you know that you are not going to score on him. You can say that he has a little of a attitude problem.

I hate the Spurs in every facet, but one thing that I do admire about them is that they got the mentality to grind it out defensively. Beside Tim Dunca and Bruce Bowen who has lost a step or two, they don't have the physical tools to be a great one on one defense stopper. One thing they do have is the mentality and toughness to do so. Why? It starts with the coach and it needs to start in training camp!

I undestand that we are not going to be the best defensive team in the league . But if we become an above average defense TEAM, people around the association are going to start to take us seriously. I like the make up of this team, and seeing and hearing Amare , leads me to believe that we are going to have a long ride this upcoming season.

GO SUNS!!
So yes, Amare is right with his commets!

[rsavaj]

The fact that we were one of the better defensive teams in the league when we had KT healthy in 05/06(when Amare wasn't playing, ironically) makes me think Amare's just talking smack in order to make an excuse.

[XmasSantaClaus]

^- wow your ignorant. kurt thomas played for defensive coaches before he arrived on phoenix. amare played for a d'antoni almost his entire career.

[b-ball forever]

If he backs it up and winds up responding by playing good D on a consistant enuf basis this season, then I'm totally a'ite with his comments.

If not, then he's pretty much just speaking for himself and Barbosa.
The Suns were a good defensive team durin the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 seasons when you factor in the pace, always being on the upper part of the defensive efficiency table during the stretch.
That ish is no way in hell possible to happen to any team that doesn't practice defense.

[nanoclarkology]

I would lean towards what dbdynsty says before almost anyone else. I would agree with Amare's comments.

[tsherkin]

Calling rsavaj ignorant on this is only an exhibition of your own lack of knowledge; Kurt Thomas has been playing better defense than Amare since he was in junior high. He's never been a dominant scorer, so he's played defense to make a place for himself in the league (along with his rebounding).

More pertinently, I don't know that I'd call Don Nelson, PJ Carleisimo, Don Chaney, Herb Williams or Lenny Wilkens especially "defensive-minded" coaches. Chaney, maybe in principle because he was a good defender as a player but he wasn't an especially good coach.

Ignorance is something you should extract from yourself before projecting onto others.

[Suns247]

then we are about to start improving on the most untapped part of our game

if guys like diaw, barbs, amare etc can find 25%extra on D, then wow!

I agree 100%. If this team really has been completely ignoring their defensive capabilities, and Porter manages to tap into those skills, this team will be ridiculously good this year. Maybe it is all finally starting to come together. We can only hope, it has taken long enough haha

[-SDU-]

The fact that we were one of the better defensive teams in the league when we had KT healthy in 05/06(when Amare wasn't playing, ironically) makes me think Amare's just talking smack in order to make an excuse.

i dont think the suns practiced it ever before like they are now, but there is absolutely zero doubt in my mind that they have indeed practiced it before and had plays / philosophies in place. Without that we would have been like the washington generals

that said, im thinking amare means what he is saying because of the way they are practicing it now and how much. Im sure porter has never practiced so much defense before as he is now, and thats because he knows its the place where the most growth can come from, im sure itll even out soon enough

our defense with kurt, was awesome! we had kurt, bell and marion and were really an underrated defensive team. people didnt give us credit because all they looked at was opponents ppg, but as we know with our style, that stat is completely misleading

[lilfishi22]

Obviously living in Australia, I don't get to go to the practices like some of you get to, but from what I've seen in videos, offense had always been the number 1 priority with defense a few ranks down. It's exciting to see the Suns practicing and understand that playing better good defense would win us a ring.

I definitely felt a little annoyed about STAT practicing his 3's last off season, but there was also a good side to that. His 3pt percentage was definitely not something you would like from SG, but being a 6'11 PF whose only really developed a shooting touch a season or two ago, it shows he has really good work ethics. If he really puts his mind to it, I think he can be a really good defender. What I would've liked is the Suns hire a good defense guy to work specifically with Amare. Kind of like how the Rockets hired hakeem Olajuwon to work with Yao Ming on offense.

What I would also like to see is Barbosa being in the gym practicing with the guys. if he works as hard as Amare did with his jump shot, Barbosa would be an excellent defender.

It's great to see Porter stressing defense. I'm feeling good about our chances this season

[Mr. Sun]

Was actually weird watching Nash, Grant, Stat, Lopez practicing defense the other day at US Airways.

[lebron4mvp]

ok for any of ya wanting to argue that KT is better on D then Stat here ya go.


KT carrier AVG RPG 7.5 APG 1.2 SPG 0.7 BPG 0.8 PPG 9.8 NOT TO BAD

STAT CARRIER AVG RPG 9.1 APG 1.3 SPG 0.9 BPG 1.5 PPG 21.0 so even with out stat being on a team that works on defence he is by far the better defensive player

[rsavaj]

'carrier'? 'not to bad'?

Not the best way to start off your post, which demonstrates that you only look at the surface statistics without actually considering what your own eyes tell you when you watch the games. Kurt Thomas is a better defender than Amare Stoudemire, and that is a fact.

[Nash2Stoudemire]

ok for any of ya wanting to argue that KT is better on D then Stat here ya go.


KT carrier AVG RPG 7.5 APG 1.2 SPG 0.7 BPG 0.8 PPG 9.8 NOT TO BAD

STAT CARRIER AVG RPG 9.1 APG 1.3 SPG 0.9 BPG 1.5 PPG 21.0 so even with out stat being on a team that works on defence he is by far the better defensive player

You can't determine a player's defensive ability on stats... You should be looking at what their direct opponents do.

*P.S If you are going to compare 'carrier' stats, it's a bit misleading to not include minutes when Amare plays double the court time of KT.

[amitg]

Calling rsavaj ignorant on this is only an exhibition of your own lack of knowledge; Kurt Thomas has been playing better defense than Amare since he was in junior high. He's never been a dominant scorer, so he's played defense to make a place for himself in the league (along with his rebounding).

well, if you're not counting kurt's 28.9 points a game in his senior college year a dominant scorer...

Season TEAM G MIN FG FGA FG% FG3 FG3A FG3% FT FTA FT% PTS AVG
1994-95 Texas Christian 27 872 288 526 54.8 3 12 25.0 202 283 71.4 781 28.9

but yeah, in the nba i guess he switched to a more defensive role...

[walkingart]

'carrier'? 'not to bad'?

Not the best way to start off your post, which demonstrates that you only look at the surface statistics without actually considering what your own eyes tell you when you watch the games. Kurt Thomas is a better defender than Amare Stoudemire, and that is a fact.

I think his point was that KT was a good defender before he came to PHX, and that the improved defensive numbers while Amare was out, was because of better defensive players, and not because of a defensive scheme from the coaching staff. (not that he was able to communicate that thought effectively, to say the least)

I do think that Mike D did talk about defense and spend 'some' time on it in practice. But, that being said, there is a theory that states at a certain point a number is so small and has such a low value that it is fair to call it zero. At what point in practice time does the lack of emphasis on defense amount to the value of zero? That is the question to be asked.

Young players, especially those who come straight out of HS need defensive coaching. It is obvious that Amare has not gotten it, or has ignored it. One of those things need to change, and hopefully, Porter is the guy to do it.

[lebron4mvp]

no what i am trying to say is stat is better on d then kt when given the chance which we will see more of this year thats why i posted the stats.
u look at kt's over 13 year's with peeps saying hes played for d minded coaches then look at stats playing for dantoni and u tell me who can play d better.
think of STAT with a more d minded coach you ll say all i look at is the number's a lot of it yes but i also look at games stat played.once porter lets STAT play some d on the court you all will see tht he is a way better defender then kt