http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/6514884
Alright, so the guy's led the league in assists twice, made the All-NBA team twice, and been honored twice as the league's MVP. But what exactly is it that Steve Nash does?
In a stunning 103-92 come-from-behind conquest of the Pacers, Nash did just about everything. His official stats were certainly impressive.
But the following unofficial stats provided a broader measure of his dominance and his true value. While Nash was on the floor the Suns had the ball for a total of 81 possessions, during which:
# He had 107 touches, approximately three-times as many as any of his teammates.
# He made 87 passes.
# Seventeen of his passes resulted in open shots that were missed by his teammates and could theoretically have resulted in 17 more assists.
# He set 5 screens.
# He was involved in 25 screen/rolls, most of them brush-screens initiated straightaway and above or near the 3-point line in conjunction with Amare Stoudemire.
# Ten of his shots eventuated from Nash's involvement in these S/Rs, and he bagged seven of these.
Now let's go to the live action.
For most of the first half, Nash was content to either reverse the ball or dribble off the high brush-screens and then, as the defense collapsed, kick the ball to an open perimeter shooter, or drop it to a cutting teammate (usually Stoudemire or Marion). Nash drove to the hoop only once, after his defender (Darrell Armstrong) got nailed on a wing S/R and left an open lane along the baseline. Perhaps Nash's relative passivity was the reason why the Suns lacked intensity at both ends of the court.
Steve Nash scored 25 points to lead the Suns' comeback. (Ron Hoskins / Getty Images)
With Jamaal Tinsely out with an injury, Armstrong had to play 39 minutes. The sprightly old-timer hounded Nash on a full-court, full-time basis, hoping to wear out the younger man and reduce his effectiveness late in the game. Indeed, Nash teamed up with Leandro Barbosa for 26 minutes and on only two sequences did he allow The Blur to carry the ball across the time-line. In the endgame, however, neither Armstrong nor Nash looked the slightest bit weary.
The Suns found themselves in an 18-point hole midway through the third quarter, and that's when Nash became more aggressive with the ball. Driving hoopwards and flipping passes behind him to a trailing Stoudemire. Pulling and popping. Slipping through the Pacers' bigs for a couple of layups. And when a S/R forced the Pacers to switch, Nash teased Jermaine O'Neal with a series of stutter-dribbles before stepping back and bagging a 3-ball.
During the Suns' run to glory, Nash also provided the game's most delicious highlight: Phoenix was moving swiftly into the attack zone, with Nash on the right wing and Barbosa with the ball above the 3-point line. Barbosa snapped a pass to Nash, who, while running at full-speed, caught the ball and, in one continuous motion, whipped a behind-the-back bounce-pass with his left hand to a cutting Raja Bell. For a dunk.
Of course there were other reasons why the Suns were able to overcome such a huge lead. O'Neal had been abusing Stoudemire all game long, taking full advantage of Stoudemire's inability to play acceptable on-the-ball defense. But then Mike D'Antoni ordered his team to start doubling O'Neal on the catch, while the other three Suns poached the passing lanes. Steal followed steal. Layup followed layup. As their lead shrank, the Pacers played with undue caution.
Then, late in the 4th quarter, Nash tallied 8 consecutive points and Phoenix rose from the ashes of a sure defeat.
So, then, what are Nash's specific skills on offense?
# A quick pop-and-stop release (especially going right) and a smooth stroke with easy 3-point range.
# The ability to pass on the move with either hand without having to load up before releasing the ball.
# Exquisite timing and anticipation. Like Larry Bird, Nash can see lanes opening and players moving a heartbeat before they actually occur.
# His multiple release-points make it virtually impossible for defenders to anticipate when and from where (and even if) the ball will leave his hands.
# The sheer unpredictability of everything he does with and without the ball.
Overriding all of the above is that fact that he trusts his teammates and they trust him. Watch how many times a game Nash will dap a teammate's hand after the guy makes or misses a shot, executes a hard cut or a good defensive rotation, even after one of his guys commits a savvy foul. That's another reason why every player in the league would love to play with Steve Nash.
It should also be noted that Nash's defense isn't quite as bad as previously advertised (particularly by me!). True, Armstrong rarely put an inordinate amount of pressure on Nash's defense — successfully taking him to the hoop only once on a S/R when the Suns failed to rotate properly. This left Nash free to roam in the middle where he was instrumental in:
# Helping on ball penetrations.
# Denying O'Neal the middle on several occasions and forcing him to spin.
# Reading a give-and-go, then beating Troy Murphy to the paint and drawing a charge.
# Directing his teammates (particularly Barbosa) to their assigned help-spots.
# Scurrying around and under screens, and, in the third quarter, doing this so quickly that he suckered O'Neal into committing a moving screen.
# Bumping cutters in the paint.
# Rotating into Danny Granger's path and forcing a missed layup.
# In the second quarter, Nash navigated his way through staggered weak-side screens quickly enough to deny a pass to Armstrong. In the third quarter, he repeated the process and this time came up with the steal. By contrast, when Barbosa was subjected to the same staggered screens he got caught in the traffic and was unable to challenge the subsequent wing pass.
In 37 minutes, Nash made only three bad plays on defense:
# He got hung up on a screen and couldn't prevent Armstrong from launching (and netting) a wide-open triple.
# He flew into the air on a fake and left Armstrong open to bury another trey.
# He showed in the lane to help on O'Neal but couldn't recover in time to keep Armstrong from dropping still another 3-bomb. Armstrong wound up with 17 points, a deuce coming on the aforementioned drive, and the rest (5-6) on long-distance dialing. Obviously, the more offensive-minded point guards in the league are liable to attack Nash more directly and with better results. But Nash never backs down, and usually takes more than he gives.
Shawn Marion remains the most underrated player in the league. But forget about Stoudemire, who still can't spin as quickly or as tightly as he used to. Forget about Bell, whose pockets and line scores Nash fills with cookies. Forget about Boris Diaw, whose open spaces are mostly created by Nash's hands, feet, and brain power. And forget about The Blur, who's still learning how to play.
The Suns are Nash's team.
There's no question that the likes of Kobe, LBJ, D-Wade, Melo, Mister Zero, et al, are more athletic and more talented than the league's reigning MVP. But, as long as he has the basketball in his hands, none of these super-duper stars can match Steve Nash's sheer genius.
I thought this article was interesting for quite a few reasons. First off, it was written by Charlie Rosen. Also, the unofficial stats on the Suns play with Nash in the game are pretty amazing, and show that Nash is the MVP by construction. There isn't a team in the league that relies on a player so much. If the definition of MVP is, "most valuable to his team," then it has to be Nash once again. Although, this definition does change from time to time. Also, the article backs up what I've been saying for a while now, that Nash's defense is underrated.
Oh, and here is another interesting tidbit in another article about Nash...
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/articles/0228sunsnotes0228.html
North of the border
Nash went north of the rim in Monday's practice. Nash dunked left-handed twice and finished an alley-oop pass from Bell after D'Antoni asked Nash, "Am I lying to people that you can dunk?"
"I think he surprised himself," D'Antoni said.
How sweet would it be to see that as we finish off a sweep in the NBA finals?
Alright, so the guy's led the league in assists twice, made the All-NBA team twice, and been honored twice as the league's MVP. But what exactly is it that Steve Nash does?
In a stunning 103-92 come-from-behind conquest of the Pacers, Nash did just about everything. His official stats were certainly impressive.
But the following unofficial stats provided a broader measure of his dominance and his true value. While Nash was on the floor the Suns had the ball for a total of 81 possessions, during which:
# He had 107 touches, approximately three-times as many as any of his teammates.
# He made 87 passes.
# Seventeen of his passes resulted in open shots that were missed by his teammates and could theoretically have resulted in 17 more assists.
# He set 5 screens.
# He was involved in 25 screen/rolls, most of them brush-screens initiated straightaway and above or near the 3-point line in conjunction with Amare Stoudemire.
# Ten of his shots eventuated from Nash's involvement in these S/Rs, and he bagged seven of these.
Now let's go to the live action.
For most of the first half, Nash was content to either reverse the ball or dribble off the high brush-screens and then, as the defense collapsed, kick the ball to an open perimeter shooter, or drop it to a cutting teammate (usually Stoudemire or Marion). Nash drove to the hoop only once, after his defender (Darrell Armstrong) got nailed on a wing S/R and left an open lane along the baseline. Perhaps Nash's relative passivity was the reason why the Suns lacked intensity at both ends of the court.
Steve Nash scored 25 points to lead the Suns' comeback. (Ron Hoskins / Getty Images)
With Jamaal Tinsely out with an injury, Armstrong had to play 39 minutes. The sprightly old-timer hounded Nash on a full-court, full-time basis, hoping to wear out the younger man and reduce his effectiveness late in the game. Indeed, Nash teamed up with Leandro Barbosa for 26 minutes and on only two sequences did he allow The Blur to carry the ball across the time-line. In the endgame, however, neither Armstrong nor Nash looked the slightest bit weary.
The Suns found themselves in an 18-point hole midway through the third quarter, and that's when Nash became more aggressive with the ball. Driving hoopwards and flipping passes behind him to a trailing Stoudemire. Pulling and popping. Slipping through the Pacers' bigs for a couple of layups. And when a S/R forced the Pacers to switch, Nash teased Jermaine O'Neal with a series of stutter-dribbles before stepping back and bagging a 3-ball.
During the Suns' run to glory, Nash also provided the game's most delicious highlight: Phoenix was moving swiftly into the attack zone, with Nash on the right wing and Barbosa with the ball above the 3-point line. Barbosa snapped a pass to Nash, who, while running at full-speed, caught the ball and, in one continuous motion, whipped a behind-the-back bounce-pass with his left hand to a cutting Raja Bell. For a dunk.
Of course there were other reasons why the Suns were able to overcome such a huge lead. O'Neal had been abusing Stoudemire all game long, taking full advantage of Stoudemire's inability to play acceptable on-the-ball defense. But then Mike D'Antoni ordered his team to start doubling O'Neal on the catch, while the other three Suns poached the passing lanes. Steal followed steal. Layup followed layup. As their lead shrank, the Pacers played with undue caution.
Then, late in the 4th quarter, Nash tallied 8 consecutive points and Phoenix rose from the ashes of a sure defeat.
So, then, what are Nash's specific skills on offense?
# A quick pop-and-stop release (especially going right) and a smooth stroke with easy 3-point range.
# The ability to pass on the move with either hand without having to load up before releasing the ball.
# Exquisite timing and anticipation. Like Larry Bird, Nash can see lanes opening and players moving a heartbeat before they actually occur.
# His multiple release-points make it virtually impossible for defenders to anticipate when and from where (and even if) the ball will leave his hands.
# The sheer unpredictability of everything he does with and without the ball.
Overriding all of the above is that fact that he trusts his teammates and they trust him. Watch how many times a game Nash will dap a teammate's hand after the guy makes or misses a shot, executes a hard cut or a good defensive rotation, even after one of his guys commits a savvy foul. That's another reason why every player in the league would love to play with Steve Nash.
It should also be noted that Nash's defense isn't quite as bad as previously advertised (particularly by me!). True, Armstrong rarely put an inordinate amount of pressure on Nash's defense — successfully taking him to the hoop only once on a S/R when the Suns failed to rotate properly. This left Nash free to roam in the middle where he was instrumental in:
# Helping on ball penetrations.
# Denying O'Neal the middle on several occasions and forcing him to spin.
# Reading a give-and-go, then beating Troy Murphy to the paint and drawing a charge.
# Directing his teammates (particularly Barbosa) to their assigned help-spots.
# Scurrying around and under screens, and, in the third quarter, doing this so quickly that he suckered O'Neal into committing a moving screen.
# Bumping cutters in the paint.
# Rotating into Danny Granger's path and forcing a missed layup.
# In the second quarter, Nash navigated his way through staggered weak-side screens quickly enough to deny a pass to Armstrong. In the third quarter, he repeated the process and this time came up with the steal. By contrast, when Barbosa was subjected to the same staggered screens he got caught in the traffic and was unable to challenge the subsequent wing pass.
In 37 minutes, Nash made only three bad plays on defense:
# He got hung up on a screen and couldn't prevent Armstrong from launching (and netting) a wide-open triple.
# He flew into the air on a fake and left Armstrong open to bury another trey.
# He showed in the lane to help on O'Neal but couldn't recover in time to keep Armstrong from dropping still another 3-bomb. Armstrong wound up with 17 points, a deuce coming on the aforementioned drive, and the rest (5-6) on long-distance dialing. Obviously, the more offensive-minded point guards in the league are liable to attack Nash more directly and with better results. But Nash never backs down, and usually takes more than he gives.
Shawn Marion remains the most underrated player in the league. But forget about Stoudemire, who still can't spin as quickly or as tightly as he used to. Forget about Bell, whose pockets and line scores Nash fills with cookies. Forget about Boris Diaw, whose open spaces are mostly created by Nash's hands, feet, and brain power. And forget about The Blur, who's still learning how to play.
The Suns are Nash's team.
There's no question that the likes of Kobe, LBJ, D-Wade, Melo, Mister Zero, et al, are more athletic and more talented than the league's reigning MVP. But, as long as he has the basketball in his hands, none of these super-duper stars can match Steve Nash's sheer genius.
I thought this article was interesting for quite a few reasons. First off, it was written by Charlie Rosen. Also, the unofficial stats on the Suns play with Nash in the game are pretty amazing, and show that Nash is the MVP by construction. There isn't a team in the league that relies on a player so much. If the definition of MVP is, "most valuable to his team," then it has to be Nash once again. Although, this definition does change from time to time. Also, the article backs up what I've been saying for a while now, that Nash's defense is underrated.
Oh, and here is another interesting tidbit in another article about Nash...
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/articles/0228sunsnotes0228.html
North of the border
Nash went north of the rim in Monday's practice. Nash dunked left-handed twice and finished an alley-oop pass from Bell after D'Antoni asked Nash, "Am I lying to people that you can dunk?"
"I think he surprised himself," D'Antoni said.
How sweet would it be to see that as we finish off a sweep in the NBA finals?
