Diaw: one of the best post defender in the league!

by warmup on Apr 15, 2008 9:56 AM MDT

ed note: Any not totally insane post about Boris Diaw getting this kind of love is getting bumped! Hat Tip to French Suns fan Warmup for the post...and for the record, when you think about it and watch Boris it does make sense...he is a very good defender and usually is matched up against much bigger players so Amare can stay out of foul trouble

Hi
What do you think about this?
It was surprizing!
(what is not surprizing is my low productivity at office the last few weeks. Go back to work!)

All-Defense: Who brought the D this season?
By John Hollinger
POWER FORWARDS

Honorable mention: Anderson Varejao, Boris Diaw, Josh Smith, Lamar Odom

I have to mention Diaw (5.29) because his numbers have been huge and opposing power forwards have had only a 13.6 PER against him. His numbers weren't anywhere near this good in past seasons, and subjectively, I don't see his being close to the class of some of these other guys, but the numbers warrant at least discussion.

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I saw that the other day...

...and nearly fell out of my chair. His good defense isn't nearly as obvious as that of Grant Hill or Raja Bell. As he apparently plays stealth defense, either the French Resistance or Underground (or French Underground Resistance, FUR, for short) should enter the Diaw Synonym Database.

by Mike Lisboa on Apr 15, 2008 10:01 AM MDT reply actions

Well

How often do you see Diaw getting beat by his man? His help defense is respectable and he can take some charges. Guards blow by Nash all the time and Amare does not stay in front of his man very well or box out. Diaw's offense may be infuriating at times, but his defense might be #2 or 3 on the team, and I'll go out on a limb and call him #2 as he is more versatile than Hill.

by slyguy183 on Apr 15, 2008 12:19 PM MDT reply actions

Hollinger

Strange to see him take a break from bashing Phoenix's chances to praise one of our players. Guy looks like Gollum anyway.

by MichiganSunsFan on Apr 15, 2008 4:31 PM MDT reply actions

Hollinger and Rosen

Both he and Charley Rosen (and, um, everybody except Steve Kerr, really) have done a little back-pedaling since the early aftermath of the Shaq trade. It's nice to see that neither of them were too proud to admit they may have been a little hasty to judge.

by Mike Lisboa on Apr 15, 2008 4:36 PM MDT up reply actions

more on that

That's true, even if the team didn't always show the past few weeks they are now a tough team a la Detroit, they are quite good and a lot of obsevers and writers admit now it was perhaps a good move and that the Suns are good with Shaq in the middle.

But what is amazing, is that almost nobody talks anymore about Marion! He was the "sunsest" of the suns, the most versatile player, best incarnation of run and gun, best complement to Steve Nash (look now at the pick'n roll with Amare!), a lot of people loved him (I was one of them)... and now? The only guy to speack about him is Bill Simons, and he ranks him #105 in the league and laugh at him for the poor choice (money over wins are title contention) he made. In my opinion, from being one of my prefered players, Marion is now one of the most silly guy in the league. It seems I'm not alone to have the same feeling... What a pity!

where full french happens on the defensive side (but it doesn't show in the stat, sorry)

by warmup on Apr 16, 2008 2:14 AM MDT up reply actions