Every defense has a weakness

DEN coach George Karl, after the Nuggets beat the Knicks recently, on what Mike D'Antoni brings to NY:

"I know that defense is extremely important. But deep down inside, every defense has a weakness. Every defense gives you something. Now can the team on the court, the players on the court, find what it gives you?

That's what Mike teaches. He makes it fairly simple, fairly easy to read. Even though we won, watching them on film, I knew that we would have moments of frustration. Because of their intensity to play the way they like to play, you never totally control them.

My recollection of New York is the city game, the street game, the playground game. And he plays as fast and free as any coach I've ever played against. I know the Knick (teams) have been based on defense. But I was kidding with one of my assistants that I would like to see Mike D'Antoni get a Carolina or Kentucky or Kansas job, because people don't think (his style) can win. People don't think it can win championships. And I think that's crazy.

I think if you get the best players, [Coach D's] style will be incredibly difficult to play against –- impossible, maybe, to play against. But we have so many experts who think that you have to play defense, you have to rebound, you have to be a possession coach, you have to execute. I just laugh. Explosive offense is not as intimidating as dominant defense. But it is scary when you don't know how to stop someone.

My feeling is, when you give up a lot of points, nobody's going to think you're defending. Last year in our halfcourt defense, we were a pretty good defensive team. But no one would ever write that, because we were awful in transition and we were awful in giving up a lot of numbers. So I don't know that anybody is ever going to give the due."