I don't understand...Isolate Barbosa

[jbeecham]

I agree with everyone who's saying that we change our offensive strategy at the end of games (when we have the lead). Nash tries to do everything himself off of the dribble and everyone else stands around the 3 pt line and watches him (except KT sets a pick for Nash over and over). We have no ball movement at all and no one moves without the ball either. Detroit was running guys through double illegal screens to get wide open shots and we just stand around and watch Nash try to do it all himself. We've now blown 3 double-digit leads in the 4th qtr by doing the exact same strategy of playing not to lose instead of playing to win. We milk the clock and slow the game down and get beat every time. It's pathetic.

 

[nowagimp]

I agree with everyone who's saying that we change our offensive strategy at the end of games (when we have the lead). Nash tries to do everything himself off of the dribble and everyone else stands around the 3 pt line and watches him (except KT sets a pick for Nash over and over). We have no ball movement at all and no one moves without the ball either. Detroit was running guys through double illegal screens to get wide open shots and we just stand around and watch Nash try to do it all himself. We've now blown 3 double-digit leads in the 4th qtr by doing the exact same strategy of playing not to lose instead of playing to win. We milk the clock and slow the game down and get beat every time. It's pathetic.

I'm glad is isn't just me that sees these illegal screens. These guys (the wallaces, mcdyess) are moving to prevent the defender from evading the screen. It just makes me sick to think about it. I think the strategy is that if they move together, the refs wont notice.

 

[myrondizzo]

I'm glad is isn't just me that sees these illegal screens. These guys (the wallaces, mcdyess) are moving to prevent the defender from evading the screen. It just makes me sick to think about it. I think the strategy is that if they move together, the refs wont notice.

as long as the continue to do it the refs will get tired of calling fouls and getting stars into fouls trouble. its just like there defense. they have a reputation of being a good defensive team and so they get away with fouls because of there rep. we have a reputation of being bad on D so when we do get a stop we get called for a fouls because we aren't supposed to be able to do that.

 

[nowagimp]

as long as the continue to do it the refs will get tired of calling fouls and getting stars into fouls trouble. its just like there defense. they have a reputation of being a good defensive team and so they get away with fouls because of there rep. we have a reputation of being bad on D so when we do get a stop we get called for a fouls because we aren't supposed to be able to do that.

I agree on all except that moving screens arent called because they have a good defensive rep. This is not about being physical on defense, this is like carrying the ball(oops,bad example!), 3 seconds in the lane, stepping out of bounds, or being on the 3pt line, 2pts, not 3. A better defense may be allowed more contact, but not moving picks. The NBA even instructed the refs to call them on Yao last year(uh oh, they have to be instructed, o crap!)

 

[myrondizzo]

i was saying that it was LIKE there D. not because of it.

 

[The Matrix Effect]

i'm pissed off because i think i could have done a better job with strategy.

-why double diaw's man in the post? with NASH of all people? that's useless. doubling in the post is the kiss of death against a team that is hot.

-if they couldn't create offense off nash, give it to Diaw in the post! the guy has proven effective at finding the open man, and in the post he can kick out.

these two things frustrated the hell out of me. yes barbosa played great, yes nash did not do great defensively, but strategically, the two points above were the biggest issues imo.

And kick it out to who? What pissed me off the most about that game is James Jones not starting AND him not being in the game at the end. We went out to get him to fill a role that we lost in the offseason, which was three-point shooting and to be a scorer.

At the end of the game, the Suns had a terrible offensive set going on. It was like Nash vs. The Pistons 5. It was awful and was like that against Dallas as well. Now I haven't seen all the games totally through (except the Dallas one, which I went to) but James Jones has that shooter/scorer swagger to him on the court. He isn't afraid to shoot the ball and he can shoot it well and we all know that. Otherwise we wouldn't have him.

Back to the game, we needed Jones in there so that we could have a different look besides Nash: drive, tight pass, turnover. ESPECIALLY with Kurt Thomas (sorry excuse for an NBA center/power forward) and Brian Grant (another sorry excuse) being our post options. If there is nothing inside, why not try outside? We had two (Jones and Barbosa) significant outside threats sitting on the bench in the last 6 or so minutes of the game and instead we have Brian Grant and Kurt Thomas in the game, quite sad, no wonder we lost. Or like you said, we could have had Diaw in the post and have him kick it out to Jones and Barbosa.

Everyones complaining about how Nash is having problems late in games, but its because everyone else seems scared to shoot the ball, (because they are worried about missing and D'Antoni bringing someone else in because we have a bench now) which forces Nash to take bad shots and makes dangerous passes. This new philosophy (more equal playing time for everyone) is not looking good in the early stages, I know that to fully judge it without our superstar isn't totally fair but with proper coaching, we could be undefeated. I say stick with what worked (6-8 man rotation) until its not working anymore. I see D'Antoni AND the front office pulling this bull and panicking because Amare's gone, and because the Suns ONE knock last year was we had no bench. But look where "No bench" got us last year, a 62-20 record and a Western Conference Finals appearance, which we lost in to the eventual NBA champs. We we're close and a new (togetherness wise) team and had only 1 season to gel. I feel like this team is very good but changing the lineup frequently is not a recipe for success.

Why change so soon? It was only 4 games in, give it at least 10-15 games before you make changes to the starting lineup, doing that with a young guy like James Jones could hurt his confidence.

 

[elindholm]

Who are you really?

 

[The Matrix Effect]

Who are you really?

Whats that supposed to mean?

 

[Errntknght]

"I say stick with what worked (6-8 man rotation) until its not working anymore."

The Suns other losses seemed mostly due to lack of rebounding and Jones has been pathetic on the boards so D'Antoni was trying to fix what wasn't working. At the end Detroit crossed us up by making all their shots so they didn't need any offensive rebounds.

I do agree at the end that it would have been a good time to have Jones on the floor for his long range shooting - and with both Grant and Thomas on the floor we had the rebounding fairly well covered.

I was against the lineup change but I think the bigger mistake was not starting JJax at the beginning of the season and making Jones earn the spot with his play when it counts, instead of training camp. Probably would have helped Jimmy's game to be a starter, too.

Jones to me, though, is a bench player because he's one dimensional - he's a shooter and very little else. Average defender at best, no play making, lousy rebounder and his idea of moving without the ball is to slide six feet left or right around the arc. He's showing some signs of creating his own shot but he's not there yet - when he creates a shot it's usually a contested jumper. Probably no other coach in the league would have let him start but D'Antoni has the hots for long guys who shoot from long range - he'd have gotten Padgett, too, if he could. And he doesn't really care about movement without the ball.