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KTAR Interview
Talk to the Coach
Posted: Feb. 6, 2004
Mike D’Antoni joined KTAR’s Kevin Ray on the 620 Sportsline for his weekly “Talk to the Coach” program Thursday night. K-Ray and the coach talked about the return of Amaré Stoudemire and the subsequent adjustments of the team out on the floor.
Kevin Ray: STAT is back. Amaré Stoudemire who missed the last nine games made his return the other night and made it in an amazing fashion: 21 points and six rebounds.
Head Coach Mike D’Antoni: I thought playing 20 minutes, he’d be winded a lot quicker. I go in at halftime and we were awful, and I looked down and he had 15 points. I just threw the gameplan out and let him play as much as he could.
Ray: Outside of the first two or three minutes, it seemed like he settled right in and found himself a home in the low post.
D’Antoni Yeah, he did a good job. As a team, we were a little bit out of sorts with him defensively in terms of rotations. We’ll overcome that pretty quickly and hopefully things will get back to normal by the next game. Then we start building toward the future with him in our starting lineup.
Ray: The team has been more than competing lately, they've played hard in every game. But like you’d expect with a young club, there’s an inability to close games out in the last two or three minutes.
D’Antoni We have some dead spots. That comes from experience and sticking to what we do best. Knowing where the ball should be and where we should get the ball to. We still run into roadblocks. We’re working on that. Guys are gaining a lot of experience. Leandro has been playing super. Last night, his body was a little dead. It’s a learning experience to not hit the rookie wall, not be tired and fighting through this stuff. Overall, it’s pretty positive. The guys are responding. Now we get Amaré back and we have 31 more games to find out exactly where we are at the end of the season. Hopefully we’ll get on a roll and win some games. The biggest thing is knowing exactly what we’ll need. And we’ll have the summer to address those needs. In the meantime, we hope its exciting for the fans and they can get behind us. We’re still excited about things and we think we can be pretty good.
Ray: It took two and a half or three weeks after the deal was done for Howard Eisley and the other new faces to work their way in. While it’s nice to have Amare back out on the floor, it’s still a feeling out process for him right now.
D’Antoni It shouldn’t last long. We have Shawn back on the perimeter at small forward. His rotations are different than when he’s at the four. Amaré has to know the rotations and things are different. For the first couple of times, you’re thinking instead of reacting.
Caller: Addressing needs in the offseason, would it be wise to go after a superstar shooting guard when we already have Joe Johnson developing into an All-Star, or would we go after a point guard or a center?
D’Antoni Those are questions for the head honchos. That’s why they get the big bucks, but I’ll put my two cents in. They’ll evaluate everything, and we have 31 more games to evaluate all that. We have a lottery day coming up, so a lot will depend the lottery, the free agents out there, how much is available. We have those options and we’ll weigh them carefully. I wouldn’t touch Joe Johnson. He’s playing great.
Caller: Now that JJ has responded offensively, has that impacted his defense? And Amaré appears to not do much to deny the pass inside. Your thoughts on that?
D’Antoni Joe has become one of our first options. It’ll be him, Amaré or Shawn. I don’t think it’s impacted his defense. He’ll be our best defender night in and night out. With Amaré, he needs to learn to anticipate what’s going to happen, and he doesn’t do that all the time. Guys will cut in front or he’ll be a little late and then he’ll use his athleticism to make up for it. As he goes along, he’ll learn the importance of thinking ahead and playing better team defense.
Ray: One of the things that stands out, running, getting up and down the floor, doesn’t seem to be something the guys are looking toward the bench to do. It looks more reactionary and instinctive. That has been a big plus.
D’Antoni They are running a lot better, but we can turn it up a few notches. Leandro does a great job of throwing them off the floor. Sometimes his passes are a little wild. I rather have that than someone who’s playing too conservative. That’s how we want to play. Just play basketball, get good quick shots and have an up-tempo game. We’ll get a lot better before the end of the season.
Talk to the Coach
Posted: Feb. 6, 2004
Mike D’Antoni joined KTAR’s Kevin Ray on the 620 Sportsline for his weekly “Talk to the Coach” program Thursday night. K-Ray and the coach talked about the return of Amaré Stoudemire and the subsequent adjustments of the team out on the floor.
Kevin Ray: STAT is back. Amaré Stoudemire who missed the last nine games made his return the other night and made it in an amazing fashion: 21 points and six rebounds.
Head Coach Mike D’Antoni: I thought playing 20 minutes, he’d be winded a lot quicker. I go in at halftime and we were awful, and I looked down and he had 15 points. I just threw the gameplan out and let him play as much as he could.
Ray: Outside of the first two or three minutes, it seemed like he settled right in and found himself a home in the low post.
D’Antoni Yeah, he did a good job. As a team, we were a little bit out of sorts with him defensively in terms of rotations. We’ll overcome that pretty quickly and hopefully things will get back to normal by the next game. Then we start building toward the future with him in our starting lineup.
Ray: The team has been more than competing lately, they've played hard in every game. But like you’d expect with a young club, there’s an inability to close games out in the last two or three minutes.
D’Antoni We have some dead spots. That comes from experience and sticking to what we do best. Knowing where the ball should be and where we should get the ball to. We still run into roadblocks. We’re working on that. Guys are gaining a lot of experience. Leandro has been playing super. Last night, his body was a little dead. It’s a learning experience to not hit the rookie wall, not be tired and fighting through this stuff. Overall, it’s pretty positive. The guys are responding. Now we get Amaré back and we have 31 more games to find out exactly where we are at the end of the season. Hopefully we’ll get on a roll and win some games. The biggest thing is knowing exactly what we’ll need. And we’ll have the summer to address those needs. In the meantime, we hope its exciting for the fans and they can get behind us. We’re still excited about things and we think we can be pretty good.
Ray: It took two and a half or three weeks after the deal was done for Howard Eisley and the other new faces to work their way in. While it’s nice to have Amare back out on the floor, it’s still a feeling out process for him right now.
D’Antoni It shouldn’t last long. We have Shawn back on the perimeter at small forward. His rotations are different than when he’s at the four. Amaré has to know the rotations and things are different. For the first couple of times, you’re thinking instead of reacting.
Caller: Addressing needs in the offseason, would it be wise to go after a superstar shooting guard when we already have Joe Johnson developing into an All-Star, or would we go after a point guard or a center?
D’Antoni Those are questions for the head honchos. That’s why they get the big bucks, but I’ll put my two cents in. They’ll evaluate everything, and we have 31 more games to evaluate all that. We have a lottery day coming up, so a lot will depend the lottery, the free agents out there, how much is available. We have those options and we’ll weigh them carefully. I wouldn’t touch Joe Johnson. He’s playing great.
Caller: Now that JJ has responded offensively, has that impacted his defense? And Amaré appears to not do much to deny the pass inside. Your thoughts on that?
D’Antoni Joe has become one of our first options. It’ll be him, Amaré or Shawn. I don’t think it’s impacted his defense. He’ll be our best defender night in and night out. With Amaré, he needs to learn to anticipate what’s going to happen, and he doesn’t do that all the time. Guys will cut in front or he’ll be a little late and then he’ll use his athleticism to make up for it. As he goes along, he’ll learn the importance of thinking ahead and playing better team defense.
Ray: One of the things that stands out, running, getting up and down the floor, doesn’t seem to be something the guys are looking toward the bench to do. It looks more reactionary and instinctive. That has been a big plus.
D’Antoni They are running a lot better, but we can turn it up a few notches. Leandro does a great job of throwing them off the floor. Sometimes his passes are a little wild. I rather have that than someone who’s playing too conservative. That’s how we want to play. Just play basketball, get good quick shots and have an up-tempo game. We’ll get a lot better before the end of the season.
