I think Doug is great, but you can't teach heart. Our guys just aren't good defenders and will never be good defenders. That doesn't mean they can't improve, but they're not going to go from the worst in the league to anything more than average. The problem is not the coaching.
Sure you can teach heart, haven't you seen "Stand and Deliver"? You got to have the ganas!
That's a chicken/egg situation, though. I would argue that they will play for lottery position, until they decide to be passionate about being the best defenders they can be.
DC would tell you he became passionate about defense, when he learned that was what was going to get him on the court, even though he was a very good scorer coming into the league.
Among our wing players, we have: Salmons, who's probably already our best defender; Garcia, who does have defensive passion; and Martin.
So let us be clear, the player who would have the most to gain from emulating Christie is Martin. Martin also happens to be the #1 option on offense, whereas Christie was our #5 option on offense in the good old days. So while Christie had every reason to put his energy and passion into defense, threatening to reduce Martin's role is an empty threat.
I do agree with you that there's a chicken/egg problem. The way to break this cycle is to bring in someone that provides leadership on defense. I personally think this is the role of a player, and not an assistant coach. Ron Ron did it for half a year, by offering a vision of making the playoffs. But currently, the management of the team is signaling rebuild and youth development. Our team is crappy by design.
