With David Lee coming to town Wednesday for his Garden homecoming, Mike D’Antoni appeared to take a dig at the Knicks former big man.
With the Knicks having improved in blocked shots and interior defense over last season, D’Antoni said,
“I don’t think it’s not a matter of playing hard, just athletically. We got 7-footers who are very athletic. We used to have 6-8 guys who weren’t athletic. (Ronny) Turiaf came to us as a shotblocker. (Timofey) Mozgov is 7-1. Amar’e (Stoudemire) blocks shots. (Wilson) Chandler always did. We just have better athletes and taller people. It allows us to play faster. It’s not a knock on the other group. They played hard. They weren’t athletic enough.”
Lee’s downfall with the franchise was an inability to block shots and defend inside.
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Eddy Curry, out since the second day of training camp, is supposed to finally return to practice in full today, participating in scrimmages.