Practice Report - Barbosa smiles, Gentry laughs, Nash defends
by Phoenix Stan on Apr 2, 2009 7:11 PM MDT
33 comments
There was a definite bounce in the step of the Suns today at practice. Guys were smiling more and there was more then the normal level of joking around.
Shaq's cookies
Shaq, perhaps motivated by Jozy Altidore's hat trick last night, once again took up position in "goal". I didn't get a good look at who was blasting shots at him but sure enough, there he was blocking basketballs fired off the feet of his team mates....on second thought I would bet a dozen donuts that Shaq doesn't know who Jozy Altidore is.
I didn't get a chance to ask him though because he was doing a special interview with one of the local TV stations that involved the newscasters' grandmother and a box of cookies. Shaq was across the gym from me at the time but I did see him eat some of grandma's treats.
Shaq has yet to respond to my tweeted question on the matter.
Gentry's bracket
As is the norm for these things, Coach Gentry led off talking to the assembled horde about the Suns 1-0 start to the new 8 game season. Coach talked about the defensive stand from the Suns in the fourth quarter of last night's game and when asked about the difference in the Suns defense from Sunday's game against the Kings he said, "Sacramento is a good offensive team. They scored 141 points last night." Hear that Ziller. Stop dogging the Kings!
Nothing was going to kill the good mood, not even talking about the Suns defense.
Sports 620 KTAR's Craig Grialou asked more about Sunday's game against the Kings and Gentry responded with another classic response.
"I don't know. That was last season. We are not worried about last season. We are talking about this season." He went on to say when asked about the difference between last season's Kings and this season's, "They are very similar to last season. They are playing with the same guys and they practically have the same roster. This is our first meeting with them so we will have to see how it goes."
In case you were curious, Gentry reported that he did get a new contract for the new season. Another multi-week deal.
Classic.
I asked Coach about Robin Lopez' 46 second performance and asked what he was looking for the rookie to work on this summer. Gentry talked about Robin working on his strength this summer and that big men take time to develop. He brought up Shaq's rookie season and how different he was then.
I of course, then had to ask about Shaq looking like a rookie himself flying to the rim a few time in last night's game. "He did. I don't know that anyone realizes the great year he's had at the age that he is. To till have the athleticism that he has and things that he does and the way that he's sometimes offensively just taken our team on his back. It's been a great year for him."
Gentry reported that he still has UNC and UConn going in his bracket. I asked him about Tim Floyd as well but that was before the news broke that Floyd turned down the Wildcat the job. Sorry Tucson. Ever the bridesmaid.
Leandro smiles
It was great to see Leandro smiling again. I haven't seen that since his injury. He clearly is feeling better today reporting improvement in his left knee even since yesterday.
"The swelling went down. It feels better today. If tomorrow it feels the same way it does today I am ready to go. Today it is not stiff like it was yesterday." Asked about the pain he said it was "way less". LB said they did something with the muscle in treatment yesterday to help the tightness and that helped with the pain in his knee.
He reported being tired after practice today after not doing any cardio for 10 days or so. Leandro said he is "thirsty to play" and will go at his normal (blazing) speed for for the first few minutes anyway but then will see how the game goes. You listen to this kid and and can clearly tell how much he's missed being on the floor.
I asked Leandro if he expects to come back next season and play more of the point. He said he wasn't sure and didn't seem to care either way.
Leandro expects to play for Brazil this summer.
Nash on change
This conversation with Nash was by far the most interesting of the day. We've all heard Nash express his frustration with the changes that have gone on this season and the difficulty that has created. I asked Steve what specific changes he felt were the most impactful.
"Obviously changing styles at the start of the year is something no one really forsaw. It was difficult I think for us to come to terms with and it didn't really suit our personnel."
Nothing new there but I did want to know more about the way the team responded to the change. I brought up the fact that Raja Bell had complained about the new system on November 11th when the team was 6-2 and asked Steve if they gave Porter a fair chance.
"Absolutely." Said Nash and after a pause went on to say, "We uh, we tried our best to do what he asked of us. I think it was really hard for guys because it wasn't comfortable for them and it didn't suit their abilities but everyone tried to do what they could. Everyone was hungry this year to come in this season and really have a great year and try to put ourselves in a position to win a championship. We just couldn't find any confidence playing that way ultimately."
Still curious, as I have been for awhile now, about that lack of confidence showing up so early in the season at a point when the team was 6 and 2, I asked about the good start and what changed.
"I think what you saw in the first week of the season is that we really didn't know who we were yet so we were still doing a lot of things from last year but we were starting to evolve into more of a half court team, just throwing the ball into the post which you know doesn't suit most of our team. So I think that was just tough on our guys. Tough on our pysche."
I don't expect Steve to suddenly change his tune about all this but I still find it hard to see how "the system" is totally at fault here. The Suns are going through Shaq in the post now and that's not a problem. Terry Porter wanted the Suns to run off misses and stops just like they are now. I don't know what it is, but I feel there is more to this then the half court system being tough on the psyche.
Stay tuned. I am determined to get a more satisfactory answer as to what went wrong this year.
Coach Igor Kokoskov
Coach Igor (as I will call him for simplicity's sake) shares duties with Coach Thunder in working with the young back court and wing players. Coach Igor normally spends his time with Goran but today stayed almost 30 minutes after everyone had left working with Alando Tucker. They worked mostly on some ball fakes and other moves designed to create separation so Tucker can get his shot off from around 15 feet on the wing.
I hung around hoping to ask Tucker about the work he's putting in to improve the arc on his shot (which looked good in practice) and about the hilarious birthday tribute to Robin Lopez he did with Shaq. (Suns.com Stefan Swiat promised would be posted soon.)
Instead, as I was waiting I decided to check in with Coach Igor and get his perspective on the development of the youngsters Dragic and Tucker. Igor talked about Dragic having room to improve all aspects of his game this summer like all young players.He felt that Goran more then anything needs to play and that he will get some great experience this summer both in Vegas and with the Slovenian National Team.
As for Alando, he echoed what we've been saying about his not having an opportunity but he was noticeably circumspect in offering any specific praise for Tucker. I may be reading too much into this (I do that) but he seemed to almost be saying that Tucker mentally needs to be more prepared to play when his name is called even though that is difficult given his role.
I asked Coach Kokoskov if he was coming back next season. He didn't say for sure but expressed how much he's enjoyed his time here so far despite the difficult season.
I can tell you this about Igor. He looked very fluid and mobile working with Tucker and he would be my hands down pick of all the Suns coaches to win a Dancing with the Stars competition.
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Great interviews. It’s interesting to hear Nash’s comments. They had great energy last night. I was super impressed with Grant Hill. He may be getting long in the tooth, but he’s still capable of putting the team on his back for stretches and its great to see. Nash looked like the old Nash and as always, what more can you say about Shaq. The Cs are my team, but I have mad love for the Suns. I’m rooting for them to put it all together and succeed.
by inanemusings on Apr 2, 2009 8:31 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs
Solid interviews
I may be reading this wrong, but I’m thinking Nash may never come clean with a straight answer until he is either: a) not a Sun or b) retired and looking back on things. He may come out with it after the season as well for all we know, it could just be him using his head and not wanting to draw negative attention right now. I agree though Stan you shouldn’t be satisfied with his answers. Keep digging man. I’m a huge Nash fan, and a Canadian kid who can’t play hockey worth a damn, so Nash is kind of important. He needs to really level with people about that whole situation though.
It doesn’t take away from his fantastic game last night, as well as the rest of the Suns. Grant Hill drinks Sprite!
by Willman on Apr 2, 2009 9:23 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs
OK, I would really like to hear...
what everyone thinks the big conspiracy is with nash and the other senior members. is it something like:
Nash: yea, so even though we’re getting to the end of our careers, and every season we get together is borrowed time, we thought it would be great to half ass our way through the first half of the season.
Hill: yes, we really hated porter so we went on strike until they ran him out of town..sure I’m 36 and every second on court is like gold to me, but I thought, why not. I got the sportsman of the year award and that’s all I need.
Does that sum it up? Because I’m trying to understand what is so mysterious about all this..
here’s a craaazy theory of my own which has taken me several minutes of hard thinking to formulate:
Porter’s plan to turn us into the spurs backfires because his micro managing of plays and players takes the decision making capabilities from the vets and confuses the young players. As losses mount, bench players see less playing time and vets log more minutes as they struggle to not only to win, but win in a way that is deemed acceptable by their coach ( see the ’ I don’t like it one bit ’ comment after the highscoring WIN in detroit). Misused starters + under utilized bench= fail.
controversial, eh?
And another thing…why is everyone working so hard to avoid saying the most obvious thing: Porter was not the man for the job. Without speculating on his actual abilities as a coach ( which is another thing no one seems to want to tackle ) is it just possible that Kerr hired the wrong man and/or gave him the wrong plan?
NO, of course not! the REAL answer is that the classiest, hardest working starting lineup in the entire league decided to stage a sit in to protest playing some D! The core team that dragged itself into the playoffs every year regardless of who’s face knee or ankle was smashed beyond repair decided to go on a break. The guy who nearly took down the spurs by himself in in the playoffs with a ragged flap of flesh hanging off the bridge of his nose said : my word, I dont much feeling like winning these days. Our #1 defensive player said: well, even though I play good D, I dont really buy into this playing D business at all! Somebody trade me to the first crappy team that comes up!
Well kids, you heard it here first…
But that’s not all! now we want to hear nash say it! because we all love love LOOOVE it when nash speaks his mind!
nash: it sucked to lose raja and boris
suns fans: OMG WTF WHINER! why dont you go back to whinetown and whine some more, loser! If you love raja so much why dont you marry him, you whining loser, why dont you play some D instead of losing and whining, and then we can trade you!!1111
nash: here’s an interesting article on the leader of Venezuela
suns fans: OMG WTF what a hippy!! trade that communist hippy!! who cares what he thinks he should shut up and play!!!! Play some D instead of that fancy book learnin, hippy!
gosh, I can’t imagine why he would want to keep his mouth shut..maybe if we keep asking him again and again he’ll totally come clean!
by Fritzy on Apr 3, 2009 1:00 AM MDT reply actions 3 recs
That's one way to look at it...thanks
I’ve said many times that Porter obviously was a bad fit. It is easy to blame Kerr as well. But the players on this team, the leaders of this team also publicly undermined Porter and what he was trying to do before it even got started.
They didn’t believe in it so it didn’t work. It didn’t work so they didn’t believe in it. Its a cycle not a linear thing. So far, we’ve only heard one side of this story and I want to hear the other. Why? Because to tell a story you need to hear all of it.
Kerr/Porter weren’t trying to make the Suns into the Spurs. That’s a lazy strawman. Look at the Lakers. Their improvement this season has been on the defensive end. Look at the Cavs, they’ve added a few pieces and got better offensively. Good teams recognize their weaknesses and try and improve them. That was the plan going into this season. Get better. Not turn into the Spurs.
That change process (which was obviously not executed properly) is always going to be painful. Before the season we all said that it would be a rough start but if the team was patient and learned the new system the team would have been better. More balanced. The plan and the focus was to improve the defense first and then tweak the offense.
Why is Raja Bell, now happy and playing well for Larry Fricking Brown, not suited for a half court game? Why can this team make entry passes to Shaq now and run the half court offense through the post now but couldn’t then?
“The system” doesn’t answer those questions.
Blogging Suns Basketball
by Phoenix Stan on Apr 3, 2009 7:45 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
I think the change process was disrupted with D’antoni affair. The end of the previous year with Shaq showed a lot of promise…..if Mike had stayed it would have eliminated a great deal of the confusion which we have seen with the new direction and combined with Porters inability to relate to the team made it worse. Is this a sentence?
To paraphrase early John Madden any change to a teams preparation ruins its focus. His example was a loss that should have been a win when the team lost focus because it encountered a traffic delay on the way to the game.
It seems like the last year has been a reality tv show.
Also these guys are athletes not necessarily deep thinkers and as such are reactionaries (in the real sense of the word) .
by overthere on Apr 3, 2009 9:42 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
that is the question, isn't it?
because our philosophy hasn’t changed all that much since porter, and as you point out we’re doing the things now porter always wanted to see
so the answer seems to be, depending on your world view, either that:
1. Porter was a poor communicator, a poor motivator, and possibly a poor coach
or
2. The team gave up on him
Or of course, some combination of both.
personally, I’ll give our guys the benefit of the doubt based on their track record..now, did #1 eventually lead to #2 to some extent? I don’t see how it could NOT have. Ever worked for a lousy boss? Now, did the team pout and stop playing? no, they did the best they could and went into all star at 28-23 or something( at the time, good enough for the playoffs, if I recall correctly)…now had they tanked and finished 10-40, I could see having this conversation…as it is I just don’t get it..
on another note,
But the players on this team, the leaders of this team also publicly undermined Porter and what he was trying to do before it even got started.
Admittedly, I dont live in the valley so I dont hear everything that gets said, and maybe this is why most around here seem inclined to blame the players, but at no time in the preseason did I hear anything besides enthusiasm and optimism for the new coach and system…
are there any specific instances of this happening that you can point to?
by Fritzy on Apr 3, 2009 11:40 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Agreed
and my point is that its both and not just 1. We all know about #1. Porter got canned. Kerr is vilified and I think there’s a good chance he doesn’t come back next year.
But the players are part of the mix and to the extent that the team will make important personnel decisions this summer, it matters.
As for specifics it started with Bell’s complaints on the 11th of Nov. I am not going to dig up all the links but there were many instances of Shaq and Amare talking about wanting to play inside out and Shaq always talking about defense while others (Bell mostly) talking about the system not fitting. Once Bell left he said more as did Diaw on his way out the door. I don’t recall Nash saying much publicly at the time but he certainly has since then.
Frankly, I have not once seen an interview with him in the past few weeks where he’s not talked about the frustration at all the changes. He brings it up. It’s not like he’s constantly being asked about it. The question might be something general like “Steve, talk about how the team is feeling about being in the 9th seed” and he will respond by talking about the frustration with the changes.
I don’t dislike Nash at all and in fact the opposite is true. I love what Steve Nash as done for the Suns and personally thinks he’s a great guy. I drive a Prius. I didn’t agree w/ invading Iraq and was on the board of a veterans against the war group in 2003 in fact.
But I am also not just going to ignore what he’s talking about it because I think it is a big part of what happened here. Believe me, the easiest thing in the world for me to do would be to ignore all this and not press this issue. But I want to know more and I assume others do as well.
Blogging Suns Basketball
by Phoenix Stan on Apr 3, 2009 12:12 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
I'm not afraid of the truth.
I really would like to know, but I have no means to as I live in a different country….Would be wonderful if you could represent us Suns fans, who’ve dying for justice, dying to know the truth. Go stan!!
by felixthm on Apr 3, 2009 12:31 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
You are totally, completely, incredibly wrong
Did the team pout and stop playing? <—— YES THEY DID. YES THEY FUKING DID. That just destroys your whole argument. Their effort level on the court was downright pathetic. The Amares, Nashes, and Bells were playing so freaking piss poor, I vomitted buckets of blood. How bad were they? It was as if: They were trying to turn the ball over. They were trying to get scored upon in defense. They were trying to make bad decisions and make bad plays.
Of course those were not intentional as in some ridiculous conspiracy. But the complete and dire lack of effort is what was intentional. And I believe this is what Stan has insinuated all along.
by felixthm on Apr 3, 2009 12:35 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Lakers
Eh, as a Lakers fan I wish what you had said was true. It is, for the most part, when Bynum is in the lineup but our defense is still inconsistent at best with Pau as our only center. The best you can say is that they’ve shown that while they CAN play with much improved defense even without Bynum, they’ve just yet to string four quarters worth.
More on topic, I think Raja Bell and Diaw’s performance after the trade is the biggest indictment on the team’s mentality under Porter. It just doesn’t make sense that they go to a team that plays slower, has less talent, and with less familiarity and see their production go up. I doubt that they were the only ones unhappy with the Phoenix situation at that point.
by Worthy J. on Apr 3, 2009 12:20 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
You go, Stan! We're counting on you!
I want to know how the players suddenly learn to deliver entry passes instead of not focusing and throwing it straight in the face of a guy actively fronting Shaq.
I want to know how the players suddenly learn to move their feet on defense and run out to shooters.
I want to know how the players suddenly play with passion/energy/effort/focus.
I want to know how Boris Diaw is suddenly able to score without hesitating for 5 seconds and deferring his open shots to people who’re tightly guarded.
I want to know how Raja Bell “was built for running” when he is slow, is unable to run, has horrible handles, can’t finish in traffic, can’t finish at speed, can’t finish under contact, can’t finish under pressure, can’t finish on the break EVER. And how his skillset, which basically revolves around defensive dirty-work guy who goes around and under screens and shooting open 3s, makes him “built for a run and gun system”. And how those same skills somehow resurfaced in Charlotte’s defensive mentality and half-court heavy offense.
by felixthm on Apr 3, 2009 12:29 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Perfect Felix
could not have said it better.
"Have You heard of the Boom on Mizar 5?"
by Grockcubs on Apr 3, 2009 3:59 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Porter is your answer
Listen. Just because Porter said he stressed D, does not mean he was any good at teaching it. I think that was the problem. Our players wanted to listen, and tried to impliment what they were taught. Problem is their teacher didn’t teach well. His system was basically retarted. They got fustrated because they’re like “dude, Porter, i did what you wanted me to, but it resulted in a turnover.” It would piss me off too
by Funky Flapsack on Apr 3, 2009 4:30 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
First of all,
I live in whinetown and it’s not as whiny as you would think. It always sucks to lose good friends on the job, but it happens. If everyone just stopped doing their job because a friend quit/got fired, would they have good reason? A lot of us have bosses we don’t like or agree with, should we just tune them out and do a half-assed job? There was no real effort to compromise, or adapt to change. The fact is the players had it good under D’antoni, they were spoiled and coddled because he didn’t have the balls to stand up to the players and get them to work on their shortcomings. Then a guy like Porter comes in and tries to change that mentality, and instead of seeing the merits of his argument, they sulk like spoiled teenagers. The inflexibility was on both sides, granted, but the players started it all by not even trying to integrate any of Porter’s ideas into their system. What really pisses me off is seeing a bunch of millionaires acting like life is so horrible. I would trade a whole lot for Nash’s money and basketball skill, these guys should just feel lucky to be in the situation that they’re in. Sorry if I rambled on, but beer and insomnia don’t mix.
"I can shoot with my left hand, I can shoot with my right hand, I'm amphibious"
by Diosnomeama on Apr 3, 2009 2:44 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
In fact the NBA players are not working guys like you or I. We are easily replaced and no one outside the company will care. The Marbury situation would not happen in the real business world. He’d be gone and quickly. As long as they keep score the NBA players will not need to act in any other way than they do. In my opinion most NBA players act reasonably well given the lack of outside constraint on their personal and professional lives. In some ways it looks to be a double standard, in that on one hand we want to know all the inside info on any interesting situation ( something that we would never do in our professional lives) but at the same time bust their asses if the response is not one we could get away with in our lives.
The successful franchises just do a better job of a) finding a coach that can motivate their players and b) trading for and drafting players that fit into their ‘team mentality’. In retospect it seems that Kerr’s big mistake was hiring Porter. He admitted this by firing Porter so quickly.
by overthere on Apr 3, 2009 5:14 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
You're absolutely right.
They aren’t just working stiffs. Hence the title “professional”, which supposedly indicates being at the top of your chosen field.
"I can shoot with my left hand, I can shoot with my right hand, I'm amphibious"
by Diosnomeama on Apr 3, 2009 5:58 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
I forgot to add,
the title of “professional” comes with certain expectations. I’m not going to pretend that I’m not jealous of the money that pro athletes make. However, in my chosen line of work(baking), I’ll probably never be rich, but I’m lucky enough to do something that I love doing, and that’s despite having to occasionally work with people I dislike or downright loathe, and having bosses that I disagreed with or just thought they were plain incompetent. That doesn’t give you the right to give an inferior product to the people who pay for it(NBA fans, or in my case, fat people that love cake).
"I can shoot with my left hand, I can shoot with my right hand, I'm amphibious"
by Diosnomeama on Apr 3, 2009 6:18 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
I don’t feel that the way the team has play generally since Gentry took over has been substandard. The team has shown that it still lacks some pieces ……which we are all only too happy to debate.
My point was given the realities of pro sport you cannot use traditional methods of free enterprise motivation to get the best out of your personnel.
After 40 years in the construction industry I now consider a professional only someone who gets paid for what they do.
by overthere on Apr 3, 2009 7:20 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
+1
I agree with everything you’ve said in this and your previous post, although I’d say that it was their play before Gentry that was substandard. Work place translations just don’t work because NBA players work under contract and so hold power over their employer that regular people don’t. I’d say that it’s better to call players CEO’s of their own “brand”.
by Worthy J. on Apr 3, 2009 12:29 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
CEO’s of their own brand, I love it.
I’m gonna spend some time trying to come up with Amare’s brand………good product poor management/PR
by overthere on Apr 3, 2009 2:48 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
It sure is a great feeling
when absolutely no one agrees with me.
"I can shoot with my left hand, I can shoot with my right hand, I'm amphibious"
by Diosnomeama on Apr 3, 2009 6:00 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Again I agree in part.
They are not playing substandard, unless you throw in the fact they lost to the team with the worst record in the league. There’s still little to no defense, and almost no effort to minimize that weakness. That’s not a matter of lacking some pieces, it’s a matter of the pieces already in place not trying to find a way to improve on a glaring deficiency.
"I can shoot with my left hand, I can shoot with my right hand, I'm amphibious"
by Diosnomeama on Apr 3, 2009 7:49 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
This is a fundemental question
On defense is it about effort or ability. I’ve asked a lot of people about this and really thought a lot about it and I think the answer is it is both.
It is not fair to expect Nash and Shaq to be Paul and Duncan just as it is not fair to ask Tucker to be JRich.
At the same time, the desire and system on D matters. Ray Allen and Tony Parker are not natural great defensive players but in the systems they are in they’ve adapted and gotten better.
I never heard any one in the Suns organization expect this team to be great defensively. Just better then they were.
Blogging Suns Basketball
by Phoenix Stan on Apr 3, 2009 8:11 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
I think the reason these dicussions don't get very far...
is that everyone talks about defense as though it’s a single activity to get better at. We need more D! Work on your D! We need to Defense the hell out of them!
I’ve not seen a whole lot of specific intelligent breakdowns on the subject which is strange considering how much we talk about it..
let’s take nash for example..the old canard is that he plays no D..the reality is there’s things he can and can’t do, and things he should and shouldnt be doing..
Charges? he takes a knee to his junk 50+ times a season, good enough for 2nd best in the league..i’d say that’s pretty good D. shot blocking? er…why dont we leave that to Lou.
1on 1 D? yea it would be nice, but he doesn’t have the wheels for it, he’s only got so much gas in the tank and no strong back up yet. so if you force him to play straight up, you’re going to end up with more fouls on him, and tired legs, which leads to sloppy passes, more turnovers, and diminished decision making abilities ( saaay…those things sounds really familiar…almost like…like all those things were happening earlier in the season..for some weird reason..eh, it’s probably nothing) SO it wouldnt make sense to be pushing him in this direction, unless maybe you were an inexperienced coach who didn’t know his staff or something..
Steals? forced turned overs? you bet your balls he should be doing better here..the same skills that makes him one of the best passers in the league should make it easy for him to read passes to break up. Also his size and good hands should make him good for a couple of swipes on big guys in the post. Look at D Fisher..that bastard is always playing hokey pokey with everyone in the league. At the very least, Nash can put out a hand in the passing lane and make them think twice about making the pass they want to make. These are all low energy, low risk things he could be doing to help his team.Against Houston he had 3 steals..honestly there’s no reason why he shouldn’t average 3-4 a game consistently..
and so on and so on…
Any serious discussion about D should start with an assessment of what we have and go from there..clearly Coach has done this because he’s making some good calls on how to work with what he’s got and it’s resulted in some tough wins against good teams.
On another note, I’ve now written the word defense so much that it looks wrong when I read it…
by Fritzy on Apr 3, 2009 12:24 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
System
I think what has been missing from the discussion, is any mention of just what kind of defensive system that the Suns were trying to employ under Porter. Everyone (not talking about just on here, I mean in general) always talks about offensive systems but no one really talks about defensive systems. The only real talk I can remember is the first month or so this season when there was some analysis of the Lakers’ new strong-side trap defense.
I think we’re all letting people off the hook when we say that they just cannot play D. I mean, sure Nash physically can’t keep up 1 vs 1 versus most pg’s but, unless it’s a fast break, you never play 1 vs 1 in basketball. There are 8 other guys on the court even in isolations. If everyone and there mother knows that Nash’s man will beat him on the drive, there should be a system in place that at least tells everyone on D that Nash will force baseline and help needs to come, with everyone making quick rotations. There are enough athletes on the Suns where they should be able to be in the top 10 in defense in the league.
The Hornets had a great defensive team last year – Nash is no more of a defensive liablity than Peja. In fact, with Nash’s basketball IQ, I’d say he’s the perfect sort of player that should be able to play much better D in a solid system.
by Worthy J. on Apr 3, 2009 12:41 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Thank you!
I seldom agree with Lakers fans but you seem to know what you are talking about. I’ve said it a thousand times here. There are ways to rotate so that Nash’s man doesn’t end up driving to the basket or making an uncontested shot. It’s all about the defensive system. Pro-basketball is not like a pick up game where you can blame your team mate for not having good one on one defense. There’s a reason why you spend a lot of time learning how to rotate.
"Basketball doesn't build character. It reveals it"
by PanamaSun on Apr 3, 2009 12:54 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Yup
System matters and early early in the season the system was about pushing people baseline and denying penetration to the middle of the lane. There was less zone employed and Shaq hung back on screen and roles knowing that he’s too slow to trap and recover.
Teams were not getting the kinds of looks at the rim they had in years past but of course the Suns were prone to leaving shooters open as those rotations weren’t yet crisp. We talked a lot about this early and almost always said that the defense would improve with time as the team got better at their rotations.
Instead as you saw in games like the Dec 5th game in Dallas, the effort just fell off the table. No amount of rotation will overcome that
Blogging Suns Basketball
by Phoenix Stan on Apr 3, 2009 1:38 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
2 notes
1.that same worst team in the league gave the hornets all that they could handle the next game ( only a last second 3 saved them), and then hung 141 on the warriors the next night… they also beat denver before us..they’ve somehow figured out how to be successul, and I would not expect an easy game tonight…
2. with the introduction of our bench mob we have been seeing some excellent stretches of defense..we’ve also had some very nice 4th quarter close outs against strong teams. SO, if you’re seeing ‘little to no defense and almost no effort to minimize that weakness", well, all I can tell you is get a good DVR .
With a full preseason to work on our weaknesses, there’s no reason why this exact roster can’t get the job done…
by Fritzy on Apr 3, 2009 11:50 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Bravo Fritzy
Stan should give you more face time dude. You’ve been able to articulate exactly how i feel. Nice
by Funky Flapsack on Apr 3, 2009 1:13 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Absolutely
anyone who writes good stuff will get promoted. It just needs to be in a Fan Shot of its own and not just comments b/c I can’t really do anything with comments.
I love the discussion btw and appreciate being challenged on my assumptions
Blogging Suns Basketball
by Phoenix Stan on Apr 3, 2009 1:35 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
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