Perhaps Nash Slowing Down?

[Mainstreet]

As I think most fans realize Steve Nash has provided instant chemistry for the Suns. The remarks in the Paul Coro article dated March 6th, 2008 from The Arizona Republic make me believe he might be slowing down. This perhaps may be why the Suns are not clicking more than any other reason. Coach D'Antoni may need to adjust his style of play sooner rather than later if not for Nash then for the rest of the Suns.

Link: http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/articles/0305sunsnotes0306.html

Proceed with caution

Suns guard Steve Nash's four assists in Portland on Tuesday marked his lowest total since Jan. 9. He passed that total in Wednesday's first six minutes and had nine first-half assists to two turnovers.

Nash called his Tuesday play conservative, and it was intentional.

"I just can't be quite the same player," Nash said. "I've got to just change gears a little bit in the halfcourt and realize we're not the same team, so don't try to force the issue, like my job was in the past perhaps."

Part of that was quickly passing out of traps.

"We're not really good at that yet, so when I get out quick and we don't get anything from it, then it makes me want to try something else," Nash said.

 

[TucsonDevil]

Perhaps?! There is no 'perhaps' about it.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

I think that Nash is suffering from not knowing his role anymore. The entire offense focused on him, and his playmaking abilities. Now he is being limited.

I also think that he gets fouled much more than they call on him.

He may be slowing down though.

 

[JS22]

Someone his age, and with chronic back issues, is going to wear down after playing nearly 35-40 minutes a night all season.

 

[Mainstreet]

It makes me wonder how the Suns could have ignored the backup PG position the past several years. I'm certainly not putting Banks in the PG category.

 

[Captain America]

Someone his age, and with chronic back issues, is going to wear down after playing nearly 35-40 minutes a night all season.

Bingo!

 

[cly2tw]

He is slowing down. The league has caught up with his game. The accumulated results are he is forcing it trying to be as effective orchestrating our offense as he used to.

Nash certainly is frustrated himself, particularly contrasting the success of his conservative approach of 4 assists 1 turnover vs. Blazers with the failure of 13/5 a/t game vs. Nugs. It's so clear now that, as I put it already early in the season, Less (Nash) is more (for the team)!

It's to a point that DA must stop making Nash his on-court coach and figure everything out by himself. Now he needs to make clearer, more specific job descriptions for Nash and play more structured sets to make it easier for Nash.

 

[Trophytown]

It makes me wonder how the Suns could have ignored the backup PG position the past several years. I'm certainly not putting Banks in the PG category.

This is whom should shoulder most of the blame here. Management and ownership. D'Antoni (known in some parts of the country now as Whaaantoni) was GM at one point and allowed the Suns evolve into an aging defenseless team. Then you have Sarver and his cost savings that ushered the movement of Joe Johnson (who was a very good defender and one who could create for himself off the dribble not to mention having a nice range from the arc). Im not even gonna get into the KT debacle and the pawning off of draft picks.

I cant believe they traded Rajon Rondo...........i never knew they drafted then traded him to Boston. Daaaaaaaaaaaang !! I bet you guys long for the Colangelo days now.

 

[nowagimp]

I remember a few years ago when the suns had alot of new faces, nash had a terrible 10-12 games to start the season, he turned the ball over alot and the suns looked terrible. At that time it was due to poor off ball movement and forced decision making by nash.

Steve Nashs strengths are in probing the defense off the dribble and making passes to open spots vacated by the defense. Defenses have adapted by moving around Nash and trying to close off passing lanes as soon as they open up on the dribble penetrations. Poor off ball movement can lead to alot of forced passes and turnovers, especially if nash is trapped and needs to get rid of the ball. If suns players dont make themselves available by moving as the defense shifts, there are few passing lanes that nash can use. Marion was very good at off ball movement in that his man was always concerned about his movement around the hoop. Shaq doesnt move much without the ball and brings his defender into the lane area, clogging it up. If shaq is gonna operate in the lane area, he needs to score more to punish his man doubling off, and his shot has been falling short. Last night amare, shaq and nash each had 5 turnovers, that cant happen, and only 1/3 of that is by nash who handles the ball alot more and actually makes assists.

The shaq experiment isnt over, but clearly its not a simple adjustment, with the downside, at least for now, being poor spacing. The suns will have to address these issues, but clearly the DA system is hampered by integrating shaq. Hopefully, shaq will continue to increase his contributions and his teammates will get used to his tendencies. The suns performance in back to back games is expected with their age, but it means very little in the postseason, where there are no back to backs. For now the suns need to just get in the playoffs. The good thing is that playoff seeding may not mean too much this year with all the tough teams in the west. The hornets, jazz, spurs, lakers, perhaps the mavs all look very tough. The suns would probably rather not see the warriors in the first round, one of the top seeds will. I just dont think seeding means that much this year.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

It makes me wonder how the Suns could have ignored the backup PG position the past several years. I'm certainly not putting Banks in the PG category.

You should. It was their attempt, and it failed.

I'm won't saying that they haven't tried to address the position, because they have.

Just not very hard, and not very well.

 

[DKCards]

I think that Nash is suffering from not knowing his role anymore. The entire offense focused on him, and his playmaking abilities. Now he is being limited.

I also think that he gets fouled much more than they call on him.

He may be slowing down though.

I think that is the main reason the Suns are struggling. Nash has changed his play. We have seen in the past when Nash was out the Suns were an average team. Now that they have Shaq, Nash seems to have changed the way he plays. So in effect Nash is taking himself out and once again the Suns are an average team.

When Nash struggles the Suns struggle and he does not look like the same player as he was before the trade. I don't think he is wearing down anymore then he has in the past it just seems that he is unsure of how to play.

If Nash gets it together the Suns will be fine, if he doesn’t it will be a short season.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

I think that is the main reason the Suns are struggling. Nash has changed his play. We have seen in the past when Nash was out the Suns were an average team. Now that they have Shaq, Nash seems to have changed the way he plays. So in effect Nash is taking himself out and once again the Suns are an average team.

When Nash struggles the Suns struggle and he does not look like the same player as he was before the trade. I don't think he is wearing down anymore then he has in the past it just seems that he is unsure of how to play.

If Nash gets it together the Suns will be fine, if he doesn’t it will be a short season.

Force feeding Shaq at the beginning of games/quarters to get the other team in foul trouble seems like a good strategy, but it appears to not be working well overall.

 

[cly2tw]

Nash's turnover and forcing issue has been here all season long, against almost any reasonably good teams, not just after the trade!

It's not like all of a sudden his teammates don't try anymore to get open. It's just every other team learned from Spurs and Paul's defense and now know how to limit Nash's effect on his dribbles. Shaq's addition makes even worse of a problem and even clearer that he, and the whole team, must change his/their approaches to offense.

 

[shazaam6]

Dantoni is too near sighted and stubborn to listen to advice. Remember he called the fans out at the beginning of the season. How long have we all said we need a backup point for Nash because he cant hold up to all the minutes damtoni plays him.

Damtoni should have been saying "give me a guy to spell Nash or we are wont get far." Ok damtoni who do you want???? Banks (too bad it didnt work out,who ok'ed that idea?) Diaw(get serious), Barbosa (he is a scorer, and definitely not a distributer. How long have we known this) Has there not been a backup point available for three years. Point by committee sounds like a cost cutting move, "SARVER" did you inspire that idea.

Damtoni is going to go down for this as soon as Nash gets hurt(Will we make playoffs if Nash is out for a couple of weeks?) We have been playing without any insurance at point and Nash has been unbelievably tough. Get him some help so he can rest. All teams have been focusing on him to stop the Suns. How much pressure has that burden caused.

I wouldnt be surprised if Nash is mentally fatigued as well. Now he has to figure out how to incorporate Shaq in a hurry. I hope he can but I'll understand if he cant do everything for this coach and owner. Nash has been covering up their shortcomings for too long.

 

[sly fly]

Despite my frustrations on how the team is currently playing, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt until the playoffs are over. Steve Nash deserves as much, as we've seen him resurrect himself over and over.

Nash has previously gone through stretches of "dead legs" only to come out of it looking and playing like a two-time NBA MVP.

I've definitely seen ominous signs of a possible decline. However, I can pretty much guarantee Nash's game will elevate during the postseason. And, once this happens, he can CARRY AND WILL this team to another level. It's occurred before, and can possibly occur again. Don't bet against this guy or this team once the postseason begins.

 

[Covert Rain]

Force feeding Shaq at the beginning of games/quarters to get the other team in foul trouble seems like a good strategy, but it appears to not be working well overall.

It was working great. The problem is why did we stop? That strategy was working then all of the sudden everybody starting shooting jump shots.

I thought for sure after Shaq's came back from his first rest off the bench that they would go back to that. They never did.

 

[Chaplin]

Nash was referring to Shaq's presence, not that he can't run anymore. Come on guys -- this board has become hugely alarmist.

 

[cly2tw]

It was working great. The problem is why did we stop? That strategy was working then all of the sudden everybody starting shooting jump shots.

I thought for sure after Shaq's came back from his first rest off the bench that they would go back to that. They never did.

In particular, they should have done that while putting Giri in, to make it simpler for everybody. Instead, Giri forced 4 missed jumpers in short time finding nobody to pass the ball to.

 

[doomsday]

Nash needs to man up and show NBA fans why he won consecuive MVP awards. How is it possible that Nash gets so much rest time during crunch time? Perhaps he is defensive liability or perhaps he was awarded MVP honors to clean up the NBA's image. Supposidly he makes others better, well let's see. Now that Marion is gone, his game is suffering. There is no way he made Amare or Marion better. It was all a fluke to give him the awards. Also, there is no way he won MVP awards two years ago and all of a sudden his game is plummeting. That is not an MVP.

 

[malooga]

Nash was referring to Shaq's presence, not that he can't run anymore. Come on guys -- this board has become hugely alarmist.

You've got that right. Seem to be a lot of really immature people posting here. Makes me wonder how old some of them are. Take a chill pill people. This is called a slump. All teams go through it. The problem here is that Phoenix fans are spoiled. They expect 15 game winning streaks every year. Here's news for you: most teams don't get that. The very reason this team has been so successful over that last few years is because of Nash. Some of you have very short memories. I can't believe all the bashing that goes on here.

Is Nash slowing down? Of course he is. He's getting older. What would you expect? The real question though is how much? Actually, very little. He's having problems adjusting to a team without Shawn Marion and with Shaq. That doesn't mean he's slowing down.

 

[STATfan4Life]

You've got that right. Seem to be a lot of really immature people posting here. Makes me wonder how old some of them are. Take a chill pill people. This is called a slump. All teams go through it. The problem here is that Phoenix fans are spoiled. They expect 15 game winning streaks every year. Here's news for you: most teams don't get that. The very reason this team has been so successful over that last few years is because of Nash. Some of you have very short memories. I can't believe all the bashing that goes on here.

Is Nash slowing down? Of course he is. He's getting older. What would you expect? The real question though is how much? Actually, very little. He's having problems adjusting to a team without Shawn Marion and with Shaq. That doesn't mean he's slowing down.

 

[MiamiHeat]

yeah it's just insane for me to see PHX SUNS fans bash their 2 time NBA MVP point guard like this after a huge trade

 

[jagu]

im not gonna knock Nash, his defense was never a problem when they used to win but now it is. the team has defensive problems. nothing u can do about it.

 

[green machine]

Nash needs to man up and show NBA fans why he won consecuive MVP awards. How is it possible that Nash gets so much rest time during crunch time? Perhaps he is defensive liability or perhaps he was awarded MVP honors to clean up the NBA's image. Supposidly he makes others better, well let's see. Now that Marion is gone, his game is suffering. There is no way he made Amare or Marion better. It was all a fluke to give him the awards. Also, there is no way he won MVP awards two years ago and all of a sudden his game is plummeting. That is not an MVP.

Well you're off to a great start.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Nash was referring to Shaq's presence, not that he can't run anymore. Come on guys -- this board has become hugely alarmist.

Becoming?