If I said it before, Ill say it again: Shaq was clogging up the middle for the high octane offense. The offense looked so much different before Shaq came into the picture, it was ridiculous.
You mean the offense looked prettier and more fun. Because the Suns still had one of the best offenses in the entire NBA with Shaq. So what you call clogging up the middle, I call getting easy baskets and making the team one of the best paint offenses in the entire NBA. Offense was not this teams problem while Shaq was here...it's defense.
What is the point of looking better offensively and score a few more points? We already were putting up big points with Shaq here. We just couldn't stop anybody because of the horrid guard play and oh yeah....Amare's piss poor defense before he got hurt.
At least Amare at the 5 again is going to produce better numbers and mismatches on the offensive side of the ball, as well as J-Rich and Grant Hill getting better numbers. The talent on this team can more than make up for the loss of Shaq. His main job was to stop the dribble penetration and he failed. Shaq did nothing for this defense and again, his offensive numbers can easily be made up for.
And..play worse defense from the center position and make the interior paint play much worse. Oh and by the way, Shaq's job was NEVER to stop dribble penetration. That is your guards job. All your FC can try and do is rotate when your guard gets burned (like Nash does so often). This coaching staff is worse then I thought if they were depending on a center or power forward to stop dribble penetration. When Amare was playing the 5 we had a terrible paint defensive team. When Amare played center he had trouble keeping any FC player with any amount of size out of the paint and opposing guards did layup drills knowing that Amare was our biggest FC player.
For every time Amare causes a mismatch on the offensive end I will show you a play with him getting worked by an opposing FC player or a guard that went right by him. So...let's call that what it is....it's a push.
Also, ofcourse you can make up for Shaq's points. Here is the big difference....it will be with jump shots. Your trading easy layups and dunks for much lower percentage jump shots. That means your team will end up taking alot more shots to make up for easy buckets. Can we make up those points? Ofcourse but it will be at a cost.
And once again, the word "defense" should not be uttered ever again on this board. This is not going to be a defensively strong team. Period. The team is going back to "run and gun." The argument for getting better defensive players is moot. Perimeter D no longer exists on this squad. Count on results being 115-111.
Once again...just because you don't have a good defensive team doesn't mean you should forget about it or not put your best foot foward so to speak. You just don't go "oh well" and ignore it. Better defensive play is never moot and it will slap this team in the face during every close game and especially IF and WHEN they make it to the playoffs.
I never said Frye or Lopez would be the panacea for this team. I will say Frye adds some depth off the bench. Lopez totally blows, so I dont give a crap about him.
Well then all your doing is moving Amare's points from Power Forward to Center (assuming that is what you meant). Your leaving a gaping hole at PF in division dominated by PF's (not centers). So your really not "making up" for Shaq. Your just moving that hole from Center to PF. The only way to make up for it is to find another FC besides Amare that can produce without taking away from your other positions by playing guys out of position.
