Amar'e Stoudemire indirectly criticized Mike D'Antoni while praising current head coach Mike Woodson.

"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.''

Stoudemire vowed to improve his defense in his new bench capacity.

"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."