Knicks · Amar'e...."I've Never Been Taught Defense My Whole Career" (page 1)

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basket...

"I think having a defensive coach for the first time in my career is going to help,'' Stoudemire said after practice in Greenburgh on Wednesday. "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.''

Question.... does his whole career include the 2yrs under Woodson? The reason I ask because he still doesn't know how to play it. So D'AnToni/Porter/Gentry/Woodson and now after a couple yrs Woodson is presenting to you groundbreaking defensive tools where it's starting to sink in?

"I'm taking it as a challenge,'' he said. "I'm going to accept the challenge. And I'm going to try to improve as a player."

So receiving 2 near $100mil contracts in your career hasn't created a desire to improve as a player? You want to start at age 30 and after enduring several injuries to focus on improving as a player on both sides of the ball?

GO FOR IT AMAR'E!!!!!!!!!

I really like amare, but he said nearly the exact words in 2010.

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2...

“It was fair,” he said. “I was never taught defense. I just never was taught it in high school and also in the NBA…”

“I’ve got to give it to Alvin Gentry,” Stoudemire added. “He really implemented some strategies that were helpful to me. I took what I learned last year and carried it over to this year.”

Amare: I blame everyone but myself for my poor effort on defense

3G4G wrote:http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basket...

"I think having a defensive coach for the first time in my career is going to help,'' Stoudemire said after practice in Greenburgh on Wednesday. "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.''

Question.... does his whole career include the 2yrs under Woodson? The reason I ask because he still doesn't know how to play it. So D'AnToni/Porter/Gentry/Woodson and now after a couple yrs Woodson is presenting to you groundbreaking defensive tools where it's starting to sink in?

"I'm taking it as a challenge,'' he said. "I'm going to accept the challenge. And I'm going to try to improve as a player."

So receiving 2 near $100mil contracts in your career hasn't created a desire to improve as a player? You want to start at age 30 and after enduring several injuries to focus on improving as a player on both sides of the ball?

GO FOR IT AMAR'E!!!!!!!!!

He has played 12 regular season games for Woodson as his head coach. Not sure how you stretch that into 2 years. If you are including last year when Woodson was an assistant I wouldn't put a lot of stock in that but Amare played 47 games for the entire year last year. He has played in 48 regular season games since Woodson had any position there.

Andrew wrote:I really like amare, but he said nearly the exact words in 2010.

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2...

“It was fair,” he said. “I was never taught defense. I just never was taught it in high school and also in the NBA…”

“I’ve got to give it to Alvin Gentry,” Stoudemire added. “He really implemented some strategies that were helpful to me. I took what I learned last year and carried it over to this year.”

Yeah I though he said something like that when Terry Porter was his coach but it must have been Gentry.

So, is Amar'e discredited here? Or does D'Antoni ignore defense? I was expecting a thorough bashing of D'Antoni again. Surprised.

I love STAT but on this one he's a liar. He most certainly has been taught defense over his long career. 2 more coaches that people forget he had were Johnson and Marc Iavaroni, who was the respected defensive assistant in PHX. As was mentioned Porter was brought in to focus on D and Gentry tried to get the team to improve on D. MDA had his issues with STAT based on STAT's poor D.

Stoudemire and D'Antoni have had their differences, both privately and publicly. Stoudemire was the lone Suns player to show no disappointment about D'Antoni's departure from Phoenix in 2008; he had bristled at D'Antoni's criticism of his defensive deficiencies, mainly on help defense, which led to troublesome breakdowns. Stoudemire often deflected the blame back on D'Antoni for not putting enough time into coaching defense, which touches a nerve for D'Antoni.

The Suns were better defensively when STAT was out of the lineup and KT was the Center.

True, the Suns will never be mentioned in the same breath with Detroit and San Antonio when it comes to physical, in-your-face, shut-down defense. You can't lead the league in scoring and be a steel trap on the other end. But before Kurt Thomas went down with a foot injury in late February, the Suns ranked 10th in the NBA in field-goal-percentage-against (44 percent) and were allowing just over 100 points (100.2) per game. With Thomas out and Boris Diaw forced to play center 40 minutes a night, opponents shot 47.8 percent, scored 107.6 points and the scales were tipped. With Thomas and Amar'e Stoudemire back to bolster the inside and the addition of Marcus Banks to the backcourt, can the Sun's defense be at least good enough to quiet critics who feel it will always be the chasm that keeps them from a championship? We're better on defense than you guys think, and now we have to turn it up one more notch, be one level better, D'Antoni said. If we get a little better on defense and keep the same offensive output, we should be better.

Does that sound like a coach that isn't interested in defense? MDA had better success when he could put Jared on the floor to help cover up for Amar'e. Funny how almost every other big we had seemed to know what to do on D and somehow STAT has been ignored by all his coaches for a decade?

CrushAlot wrote:

3G4G wrote:http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basket...

"I think having a defensive coach for the first time in my career is going to help,'' Stoudemire said after practice in Greenburgh on Wednesday. "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.''

Question.... does his whole career include the 2yrs under Woodson? The reason I ask because he still doesn't know how to play it. So D'AnToni/Porter/Gentry/Woodson and now after a couple yrs Woodson is presenting to you groundbreaking defensive tools where it's starting to sink in?

"I'm taking it as a challenge,'' he said. "I'm going to accept the challenge. And I'm going to try to improve as a player."

So receiving 2 near $100mil contracts in your career hasn't created a desire to improve as a player? You want to start at age 30 and after enduring several injuries to focus on improving as a player on both sides of the ball?

GO FOR IT AMAR'E!!!!!!!!!

He has played 12 regular season games for Woodson as his head coach. Not sure how you stretch that into 2 years. If you are including last year when Woodson was an assistant I wouldn't put a lot of stock in that but Amare played 47 games for the entire year last year. He has played in 48 regular season games since Woodson had any position there.

So Woodson can teach Amare only when he's playing in games?

"taught defense"?

This guy is really something else,

There's not much to teach,

Show up, give a fuck, and work hard.

Defense is effort, that's why bums like Jared Jeffries without any real basketball skills can get payed, because they give the effort, nothing to teach

nixluva wrote:I love STAT but on this one he's a liar. He most certainly has been taught defense over his long career. 2 more coaches that people forget he had were Johnson and Marc Iavaroni, who was the respected defensive assistant in PHX. As was mentioned Porter was brought in to focus on D and Gentry tried to get the team to improve on D. MDA had his issues with STAT based on STAT's poor D.

Stoudemire and D'Antoni have had their differences, both privately and publicly. Stoudemire was the lone Suns player to show no disappointment about D'Antoni's departure from Phoenix in 2008; he had bristled at D'Antoni's criticism of his defensive deficiencies, mainly on help defense, which led to troublesome breakdowns. Stoudemire often deflected the blame back on D'Antoni for not putting enough time into coaching defense, which touches a nerve for D'Antoni.

The Suns were better defensively when STAT was out of the lineup and KT was the Center.

True, the Suns will never be mentioned in the same breath with Detroit and San Antonio when it comes to physical, in-your-face, shut-down defense. You can't lead the league in scoring and be a steel trap on the other end. But before Kurt Thomas went down with a foot injury in late February, the Suns ranked 10th in the NBA in field-goal-percentage-against (44 percent) and were allowing just over 100 points (100.2) per game. With Thomas out and Boris Diaw forced to play center 40 minutes a night, opponents shot 47.8 percent, scored 107.6 points and the scales were tipped. With Thomas and Amar'e Stoudemire back to bolster the inside and the addition of Marcus Banks to the backcourt, can the Sun's defense be at least good enough to quiet critics who feel it will always be the chasm that keeps them from a championship? We're better on defense than you guys think, and now we have to turn it up one more notch, be one level better, D'Antoni said. If we get a little better on defense and keep the same offensive output, we should be better.

Does that sound like a coach that isn't interested in defense? MDA had better success when he could put Jared on the floor to help cover up for Amar'e. Funny how almost every other big we had seemed to know what to do on D and somehow STAT has been ignored by all his coaches for a decade?

Amare has played in 642 regular season games. His coach in 527 of those was Mike D'Antoni. Not sure how you can care that much about defense when your players in Phoenix reported that you sometimes practiced for up to 45 minutes. Amare needs to take responsibility for his play on the court. However, he didn't play for a guy that taught defense for his almost his entire career and he came out of high school straight to the nba. D'Antoni definitely played a part in stunting Amare's development as a defensive player.

Andrew wrote:I really like amare, but he said nearly the exact words in 2010.

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2...

“It was fair,” he said. “I was never taught defense. I just never was taught it in high school and also in the NBA…”

“I’ve got to give it to Alvin Gentry,” Stoudemire added. “He really implemented some strategies that were helpful to me. I took what I learned last year and carried it over to this year.”

I knew he was on record saying something close to this before, hence he and D'AnToni had to iron some things out before his signing here. I just think Amar'e is trying to borrow time because he's on borrowed time not being a dominant player anymore. His skillset is rapidly diminishing.

CrushAlot wrote:He has played 12 regular season games for Woodson as his head coach. Not sure how you stretch that into 2 years. If you are including last year when Woodson was an assistant I wouldn't put a lot of stock in that but Amare played 47 games for the entire year last year. He has played in 48 regular season games since Woodson had any position there.

This is a bunch of crock Crush and you know it. According to what Amar'e spoke on what he's picking up, those are things he could have picked up from Woodson without playing any real games because most are based on fundamentals and effort.

Bonn1997 wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

3G4G wrote:http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basket...

"I think having a defensive coach for the first time in my career is going to help,'' Stoudemire said after practice in Greenburgh on Wednesday. "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.''

Question.... does his whole career include the 2yrs under Woodson? The reason I ask because he still doesn't know how to play it. So D'AnToni/Porter/Gentry/Woodson and now after a couple yrs Woodson is presenting to you groundbreaking defensive tools where it's starting to sink in?

"I'm taking it as a challenge,'' he said. "I'm going to accept the challenge. And I'm going to try to improve as a player."

So receiving 2 near $100mil contracts in your career hasn't created a desire to improve as a player? You want to start at age 30 and after enduring several injuries to focus on improving as a player on both sides of the ball?

GO FOR IT AMAR'E!!!!!!!!!

He has played 12 regular season games for Woodson as his head coach. Not sure how you stretch that into 2 years. If you are including last year when Woodson was an assistant I wouldn't put a lot of stock in that but Amare played 47 games for the entire year last year. He has played in 48 regular season games since Woodson had any position there.

So Woodson can teach Amare only when he's playing in games?

Pretty much. If the guy is too busted to play the coach is focused on getting the guys that can play ready.

CrushAlot wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

3G4G wrote:http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basket...

"I think having a defensive coach for the first time in my career is going to help,'' Stoudemire said after practice in Greenburgh on Wednesday. "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.''

Question.... does his whole career include the 2yrs under Woodson? The reason I ask because he still doesn't know how to play it. So D'AnToni/Porter/Gentry/Woodson and now after a couple yrs Woodson is presenting to you groundbreaking defensive tools where it's starting to sink in?

"I'm taking it as a challenge,'' he said. "I'm going to accept the challenge. And I'm going to try to improve as a player."

So receiving 2 near $100mil contracts in your career hasn't created a desire to improve as a player? You want to start at age 30 and after enduring several injuries to focus on improving as a player on both sides of the ball?

GO FOR IT AMAR'E!!!!!!!!!

He has played 12 regular season games for Woodson as his head coach. Not sure how you stretch that into 2 years. If you are including last year when Woodson was an assistant I wouldn't put a lot of stock in that but Amare played 47 games for the entire year last year. He has played in 48 regular season games since Woodson had any position there.

So Woodson can teach Amare only when he's playing in games?

Pretty much. If the guy is too busted to play the coach is focused on getting the guys that can play ready.

What about the off-season? Since Amare made this kind of comment in 2010, you'd think at some point in the past 2 years Woodson would have found time to work with him.

3G4G wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:He has played 12 regular season games for Woodson as his head coach. Not sure how you stretch that into 2 years. If you are including last year when Woodson was an assistant I wouldn't put a lot of stock in that but Amare played 47 games for the entire year last year. He has played in 48 regular season games since Woodson had any position there.

This is a bunch of crock Crush and you know it. According to what Amar'e spoke on what he's picking up, those are things he could have picked up from Woodson without playing any real games because most are based on fundamentals and effort.

I thought I covered that in the part of the post that you didn't copy.

Amare needs to take responsibility for his play on the court. However, he didn't play for a guy that taught defense for his almost his entire career and he came out of high school straight to the nba. D'Antoni definitely played a part in stunting Amare's development as a defensive player.

Bonn1997 wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

3G4G wrote:http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basket...

"I think having a defensive coach for the first time in my career is going to help,'' Stoudemire said after practice in Greenburgh on Wednesday. "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.''

Question.... does his whole career include the 2yrs under Woodson? The reason I ask because he still doesn't know how to play it. So D'AnToni/Porter/Gentry/Woodson and now after a couple yrs Woodson is presenting to you groundbreaking defensive tools where it's starting to sink in?

"I'm taking it as a challenge,'' he said. "I'm going to accept the challenge. And I'm going to try to improve as a player."

So receiving 2 near $100mil contracts in your career hasn't created a desire to improve as a player? You want to start at age 30 and after enduring several injuries to focus on improving as a player on both sides of the ball?

GO FOR IT AMAR'E!!!!!!!!!

He has played 12 regular season games for Woodson as his head coach. Not sure how you stretch that into 2 years. If you are including last year when Woodson was an assistant I wouldn't put a lot of stock in that but Amare played 47 games for the entire year last year. He has played in 48 regular season games since Woodson had any position there.

So Woodson can teach Amare only when he's playing in games?

Pretty much. If the guy is too busted to play the coach is focused on getting the guys that can play ready.

What about the off-season? Since Amare made this kind of comment in 2010, you'd think at some point in the past 2 years Woodson would have found time to work with him.

Except he wasn't allowed to do drills that first offseason and it was a lockout. Didn't Woodson hook up Amare with Hakeem?

Now Amare is a "liar" hillarious

Haha - I love him anyway cause he made the knicks relevant

2 years under Woody? Who made this claim? Its a funny claim.

Amare is a training camp star (at this point).

And guess what? He is now jewish too. Mazel tov!

CrushAlot wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

3G4G wrote:http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basket...

"I think having a defensive coach for the first time in my career is going to help,'' Stoudemire said after practice in Greenburgh on Wednesday. "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.''

Question.... does his whole career include the 2yrs under Woodson? The reason I ask because he still doesn't know how to play it. So D'AnToni/Porter/Gentry/Woodson and now after a couple yrs Woodson is presenting to you groundbreaking defensive tools where it's starting to sink in?

"I'm taking it as a challenge,'' he said. "I'm going to accept the challenge. And I'm going to try to improve as a player."

So receiving 2 near $100mil contracts in your career hasn't created a desire to improve as a player? You want to start at age 30 and after enduring several injuries to focus on improving as a player on both sides of the ball?

GO FOR IT AMAR'E!!!!!!!!!

He has played 12 regular season games for Woodson as his head coach. Not sure how you stretch that into 2 years. If you are including last year when Woodson was an assistant I wouldn't put a lot of stock in that but Amare played 47 games for the entire year last year. He has played in 48 regular season games since Woodson had any position there.

So Woodson can teach Amare only when he's playing in games?

Pretty much. If the guy is too busted to play the coach is focused on getting the guys that can play ready.

What about the off-season? Since Amare made this kind of comment in 2010, you'd think at some point in the past 2 years Woodson would have found time to work with him.

Except he wasn't allowed to do drills that first offseason and it was a lockout. Didn't Woodson hook up Amare with Hakeem?

What about watching and discussing video?
Why does Amare need someone to teach effort anyway?

CrushAlot wrote:

3G4G wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:He has played 12 regular season games for Woodson as his head coach. Not sure how you stretch that into 2 years. If you are including last year when Woodson was an assistant I wouldn't put a lot of stock in that but Amare played 47 games for the entire year last year. He has played in 48 regular season games since Woodson had any position there.

This is a bunch of crock Crush and you know it. According to what Amar'e spoke on what he's picking up, those are things he could have picked up from Woodson without playing any real games because most are based on fundamentals and effort.

I thought I covered that in the part of the post that you didn't copy.

Amare needs to take responsibility for his play on the court. However, he didn't play for a guy that taught defense for his almost his entire career and he came out of high school straight to the nba. D'Antoni definitely played a part in stunting Amare's development as a defensive player.

You're making excuses and enabling him in the end as a fan. Yes D'AnToni wasn't the best mentor but like I said even in his second year under Woody he still sucks. You learn how to guard certain plays in film sessions and practice, something I'm sure Woody has covered to a respectable degree. Porter was also a defensive coach and player but during that stint Amar'e chose to pout because Shaq was a major feature in their offense. Instead Amar'e wanted to make comments about how no one fears him anymore waaahhnnn waaaahhhhnnn waaahhhn instead of rebounding and playing defense.

CrushAlot wrote:

nixluva wrote:I love STAT but on this one he's a liar. He most certainly has been taught defense over his long career. 2 more coaches that people forget he had were Johnson and Marc Iavaroni, who was the respected defensive assistant in PHX. As was mentioned Porter was brought in to focus on D and Gentry tried to get the team to improve on D. MDA had his issues with STAT based on STAT's poor D.

Stoudemire and D'Antoni have had their differences, both privately and publicly. Stoudemire was the lone Suns player to show no disappointment about D'Antoni's departure from Phoenix in 2008; he had bristled at D'Antoni's criticism of his defensive deficiencies, mainly on help defense, which led to troublesome breakdowns. Stoudemire often deflected the blame back on D'Antoni for not putting enough time into coaching defense, which touches a nerve for D'Antoni.

The Suns were better defensively when STAT was out of the lineup and KT was the Center.

True, the Suns will never be mentioned in the same breath with Detroit and San Antonio when it comes to physical, in-your-face, shut-down defense. You can't lead the league in scoring and be a steel trap on the other end. But before Kurt Thomas went down with a foot injury in late February, the Suns ranked 10th in the NBA in field-goal-percentage-against (44 percent) and were allowing just over 100 points (100.2) per game. With Thomas out and Boris Diaw forced to play center 40 minutes a night, opponents shot 47.8 percent, scored 107.6 points and the scales were tipped. With Thomas and Amar'e Stoudemire back to bolster the inside and the addition of Marcus Banks to the backcourt, can the Sun's defense be at least good enough to quiet critics who feel it will always be the chasm that keeps them from a championship? We're better on defense than you guys think, and now we have to turn it up one more notch, be one level better, D'Antoni said. If we get a little better on defense and keep the same offensive output, we should be better.

Does that sound like a coach that isn't interested in defense? MDA had better success when he could put Jared on the floor to help cover up for Amar'e. Funny how almost every other big we had seemed to know what to do on D and somehow STAT has been ignored by all his coaches for a decade?

Amare has played in 642 regular season games. His coach in 527 of those was Mike D'Antoni. Not sure how you can care that much about defense when your players in Phoenix reported that you sometimes practiced for up to 45 minutes. Amare needs to take responsibility for his play on the court. However, he didn't play for a guy that taught defense for his almost his entire career and he came out of high school straight to the nba. D'Antoni definitely played a part in stunting Amare's development as a defensive player.

Why are you focusing on games played as if that's the only measure of how much work a coach puts in with his players. There were other coaches who had STAT in their Camps besides MDA and in those camps he had assistant coaches who were their to help with the defense as well as the head coach. In the Training Camp is where a coach really gets to work on the defensive principles the team will run and get to spend time with players on the details.

2002-03 camp was with Frank Johnson 
2003-04 camp was with Frank Johnson
2004-05 camp was with D'Antoni's with Marc Ivaroni defensive assistant
2005-06 Amar'e had his surgery and missed most of the season  
2006-07 camp was with MDA and Dan D'Antoni
2007-08 camp was with MDA and Dan
2008-09 camp was with Terry Porter
2009-10 camp was with Alvin Gentry
2010-11 camp was with MDA and Dan
2011-12 camp was with MDA and Woody
2012-13 camp was with Woody

It's clear that Amar'e is indicting quite a few coaches when saying he was NEVER taught defense!!!

nixluva wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

nixluva wrote:I love STAT but on this one he's a liar. He most certainly has been taught defense over his long career. 2 more coaches that people forget he had were Johnson and Marc Iavaroni, who was the respected defensive assistant in PHX. As was mentioned Porter was brought in to focus on D and Gentry tried to get the team to improve on D. MDA had his issues with STAT based on STAT's poor D.

Stoudemire and D'Antoni have had their differences, both privately and publicly. Stoudemire was the lone Suns player to show no disappointment about D'Antoni's departure from Phoenix in 2008; he had bristled at D'Antoni's criticism of his defensive deficiencies, mainly on help defense, which led to troublesome breakdowns. Stoudemire often deflected the blame back on D'Antoni for not putting enough time into coaching defense, which touches a nerve for D'Antoni.

The Suns were better defensively when STAT was out of the lineup and KT was the Center.

True, the Suns will never be mentioned in the same breath with Detroit and San Antonio when it comes to physical, in-your-face, shut-down defense. You can't lead the league in scoring and be a steel trap on the other end. But before Kurt Thomas went down with a foot injury in late February, the Suns ranked 10th in the NBA in field-goal-percentage-against (44 percent) and were allowing just over 100 points (100.2) per game. With Thomas out and Boris Diaw forced to play center 40 minutes a night, opponents shot 47.8 percent, scored 107.6 points and the scales were tipped. With Thomas and Amar'e Stoudemire back to bolster the inside and the addition of Marcus Banks to the backcourt, can the Sun's defense be at least good enough to quiet critics who feel it will always be the chasm that keeps them from a championship? We're better on defense than you guys think, and now we have to turn it up one more notch, be one level better, D'Antoni said. If we get a little better on defense and keep the same offensive output, we should be better.

Does that sound like a coach that isn't interested in defense? MDA had better success when he could put Jared on the floor to help cover up for Amar'e. Funny how almost every other big we had seemed to know what to do on D and somehow STAT has been ignored by all his coaches for a decade?

Amare has played in 642 regular season games. His coach in 527 of those was Mike D'Antoni. Not sure how you can care that much about defense when your players in Phoenix reported that you sometimes practiced for up to 45 minutes. Amare needs to take responsibility for his play on the court. However, he didn't play for a guy that taught defense for his almost his entire career and he came out of high school straight to the nba. D'Antoni definitely played a part in stunting Amare's development as a defensive player.

Why are you focusing on games played as if that's the only measure of how much work a coach puts in with his players. There were other coaches who had STAT in their Camps besides MDA and in those camps he had assistant coaches who were their to help with the defense as well as the head coach. In the Training Camp is where a coach really gets to work on the defensive principles the team will run and get to spend time with players on the details.

2002-03 camp was with Frank Johnson 
2003-04 camp was with Frank Johnson
2004-05 camp was with D'Antoni's with Marc Ivaroni defensive assistant
2005-06 Amar'e had his surgery and missed most of the season  
2006-07 camp was with MDA and Dan D'Antoni
2007-08 camp was with MDA and Dan
2008-09 camp was with Terry Porter
2009-10 camp was with Alvin Gentry
2010-11 camp was with MDA and Dan
2011-12 camp was with MDA and Woody
2012-13 camp was with Woody

It's clear that Amar'e is indicting quite a few coaches when saying he was NEVER taught defense!!!

I think he is talking about a head coach whose mantra is defense. But yeah some of it is on him. As far as who D'Antoni's assistants were I don't give that a lot of weight. In Phoenix Grant Hill said sometimes the team even practiced for 45 minutes. When he was in NY his teams came out of camp and struggled for 12-15 games. Not sure what happened in his camps but I doubt a lot was being done with defense.