the knicks were the second-best defensive team in the NBA during linsanity because they were playing jeffries, shump, fields and chandler along with him. and d'antoni's phoenix teams were as good (or better) defensively as this year's knicks squad, so all cenario's chirping is bizarre.

coaches get way too much attention, mostly because it's easier to say "THAT MAN OVAR THERE IS VERRY BAD CCOACH AND STUPED AT DEFANCE!!!" than it is to actually figure out what's occurring on the court. in basketball, the most important and impactful role a coach has is assigning minutes. d'antoni is someone who will sacrifice defense in order to get a better offensive player on the floor -- just like thibs or doc will do the opposite.