D’Antoni: Defensive Genius?

From Kevin Pelton of Basketball Prospectus:

As a group, the Knicks have improved, but the difference is negligible. Their more accurate shooting has been at least slightly offset by an increase in turnover rates. (Odd in that D’Antoni’s Phoenix teams took care of the ball well. Of course, a certain Canadian point guard may have had more than a little something to do with that.)

Besides Quentin Richardson returning somewhat to form, the only New York player to substantially step forward is Duhon. I assumed, based in part on his 22-assist game earlier this season, that Duhon was taking advantage of D’Antoni’s desire to keep the ball in his point guard’s hands and racking up way more assists. Again, that’s not really so when we account for pace. Last year, Duhon assisted on 7.8 percent of Chicago’s possessions. This year, his assist rate is 8.8 percent. The bigger change is Duhon has suddenly become a dangerous three-point shooter, making 40.2 percent of his tries from beyond the arc.

If the Knicks’ improvement cannot be traced entirely to the offensive side of the floor, that leaves defense–you know, the thing D’Antoni supposedly considers an afterthought played only in accord with the NBA rulebook. Granting that there was plenty of room for improvement taking over the league’s worst defense, here’s the funny thing–New York has improved relative to league average just as much on defense as on offense. At the same time, there’s an eerie symmetry in that the Suns have dropped off by the same amount as the Knicks have gained on both offense and defense.