Rescue Effort: Gordon Giricek

[Cheesebeef]

No arguement here. I though he should be held out of the spurs series altogether. Bottom line is the suns can't win it all without the guy, they are thin at the swing positions. Playing an injured 36 year old is just ... beyond me.

we finally agree!

 

[nowagimp]

see, i'd say that amare has actually REGRESSED in both his defensive mentality and effort. more so this season than in seasons past. i attribute that to iavaroni's absence. sure he might not have been good in the past, but now he's simply atrocious.

and i see NO improvement in barbs' defense. none.

amare was never good to my eye. Barbs looks better at playing the passing lanes, and he's stronger than he was so he can take more of a bump without folding, but thats all. He certainly has never fought through screens or switched well.

 

[Cheesebeef]

amare was never good to my eye. Barbs looks better at playing the passing lanes, and he's stronger than he was so he can take more of a bump without folding, but thats all. He certainly has never fought through screens or switched well.

i don't know how it's possible, but Barbs has perfected the art of playing on his heels, while seemingly leaning forward at the same time on defense. dude's a sieve defensively... and my guess is he'll probably get the start on Friday. YEAH!

 

[Cheesebeef]

amare was never good to my eye.

and he wasn't in Ouchie's eyes either if you read his post again. However, whereas before he wasn't good, now he's seemingly the worst defensive big man in the game. I never remember thinking he was THAT bad prior to this year.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

and he wasn't in Ouchie's eyes either if you read his post again. However, whereas before he wasn't good, now he's seemingly the worst defensive big man in the game. I never remember thinking he was THAT bad prior to this year.

Give Amare a break on his defense. He had to sacrifice one part of his game to master the 3pt. shot he spent all offseason working on.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

amare was never good to my eye. Barbs looks better at playing the passing lanes, and he's stronger than he was so he can take more of a bump without folding, but thats all. He certainly has never fought through screens or switched well.

i will never argue that amare was EVER anywhere approaching "good." but his bad has gone to nonexistent.

and i've never seen such an athletic individual as barbs is try to play defense, where the key is quick foot movement, flat-footed. watch him. he plays defense flat-footed. making it impossible to react and shift momentum quickly. utterly baffling.

 

[mojorizen7]

i will never argue that amare was EVER anywhere approaching "good." but his bad has gone to nonexistent.

and i've never seen such an athletic individual as barbs is try to play defense, where the key is quick foot movement, flat-footed. watch him. he plays defense flat-footed. making it impossible to react and shift momentum quickly. utterly baffling.

Yeah thats the thing that drives me fricken nuts! Barbs has got some physical tools with those long arms and the ability to go from 0-60 in 2 dribbles. Put him on the offensive end and he looks smooth & athletic, on the other end he looks like Jeff Hornacek.
It's coaching, wasn't Dan D'antoni primarily
teaching Leandro english?

 

[nowagimp]

i will never argue that amare was EVER anywhere approaching "good." but his bad has gone to nonexistent.

and i've never seen such an athletic individual as barbs is try to play defense, where the key is quick foot movement, flat-footed. watch him. he plays defense flat-footed. making it impossible to react and shift momentum quickly. utterly baffling.

good point, he is a flat footed guy, esp when changing directions, but fundamentally his defense is terrible as well.

 

[nowagimp]

and he wasn't in Ouchie's eyes either if you read his post again. However, whereas before he wasn't good, now he's seemingly the worst defensive big man in the game. I never remember thinking he was THAT bad prior to this year.

agreed with both of you guys. I love amare, but I fear he will never defend well, defense is about discipline, passion and relentlessness and amare only does that on offence.

 

[Cheesebeef]

agreed with both of you guys. I love amare, but I fear he will never defend well, defense is about discipline, passion and relentlessness and amare only does that on offence.

i think the only thing that would ever turn Amare around at the other end of the court is if the media just started blasting him en masse about how pathetic of a defender he is. More than anything else, Amare wants to be adored and if more people like Barkley starting lighting into him as being the reason he can't be considered great I actually think his ego might just be bruised enough to give a crap. Sadly, defense isn't what gets you 1st Team All-NBA or All-Star teams. I mean, seriously, what the hell was he practicing his 3 pointer for all summer?

 

[95pro]

No arguement here. I though he should be held out of the spurs series altogether. Bottom line is the suns can't win it all without the guy, they are thin at the swing positions. Playing an injured 36 year old is just ... beyond me.

yup. playing GH injured. stupid of coach. you take your chances with someone 100%, like GG.

with GH & barbs out there at the same time, zero D & zero offense. not the best solution for TonyLongoria & GINAbli.
atleast GH has a documented excuse, barbosa not so much.

 

[cly2tw]

i think the only thing that would ever turn Amare around at the other end of the court is if the media just started blasting him en masse about how pathetic of a defender he is. More than anything else, Amare wants to be adored and if more people like Barkley starting lighting into him as being the reason he can't be considered great I actually think his ego might just be bruised enough to give a crap. Sadly, defense isn't what gets you 1st Team All-NBA or All-Star teams. I mean, seriously, what the hell was he practicing his 3 pointer for all summer?

No. We just need another coach that focuses on defense. Rest Nash for a month or two so that we couldn't win by simply outscoring the opponents. This will force a competitor like Amare to concentrate on defense. It's really a question of attitude!

 

[Cheesebeef]

No. We just need another coach that focuses on defense.

I don't think even that would take care of it by itself. he'd need to be shamed into as well.

 

[BC867]

You know that's really the frustrating thing to me about barbosa, in all fairness he is a talent, but we tend to think of him as this innocent young kid, in reality he has a ton of playoff experience and is the same age as amare, he shouldn't really even need these gimmicks at this point, he needs to just suck it up and do something, we bang on amare for 33 and 7 but Leandro needs to be jump started to avoid 0-7's

Barbosa is one of those 2-Guards in the body of a Point Guard. He's never going to be outstanding other than as short spurts of instant offense.

I know the regular season stats show that Barbosa does better when he starts, but that's been in spurts over a long season.

In the playoffs, you're playing the same team for 4 to 7 games. It's a whole different mindset. This seems to be a concept that the Suns have historically never embraced. It's why we've reached just two Finals in 40 seasons.

 

[nowagimp]

i think the only thing that would ever turn Amare around at the other end of the court is if the media just started blasting him en masse about how pathetic of a defender he is. More than anything else, Amare wants to be adored and if more people like Barkley starting lighting into him as being the reason he can't be considered great I actually think his ego might just be bruised enough to give a crap. Sadly, defense isn't what gets you 1st Team All-NBA or All-Star teams. I mean, seriously, what the hell was he practicing his 3 pointer for all summer?

This might work but it also might take 2-3 years and he might leave the team at the end with wounded pride. Amare is a child psychologically, easily baited, throws tantrums, needing of approval. Youre right about amare wanting to be adored, his selection to the all NBA team probably just hurt his defensive development. So much for the "most improved player" goal by improving his defense.

 

[DeAnna]

Embarassing him thru the media will never, ever happen while D'Antoni is the coach. He would not allow something like that to happen. The entire organization is built upon the power of positive thinking, positive reinforcement, and never putting someone down - especially millionaire athletes with fragile egos.

Even his wife was quoted as saying D'Antoni needs positive people around him for what he's trying to accomplish.

 

[nowagimp]

Even his wife was quoted as saying D'Antoni needs positive people around him for what he's trying to accomplish.

LOL, Yeah he doesnt need any of us!

 

[95pro]

so much for GG getting playing time.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Embarassing him thru the media will never, ever happen while D'Antoni is the coach. He would not allow something like that to happen. The entire organization is built upon the power of positive thinking, positive reinforcement, and never putting someone down - especially millionaire athletes with fragile egos.

Even his wife was quoted as saying D'Antoni needs positive people around him for what he's trying to accomplish.

uh, since when does the media have anything to do with the organization. I'm not saying the coaches need to bash him in the media, I'm saying the actual media needs to bash his ass.

 

[95pro]

this kat did good today. some nice D out there on giflopli.

 

[jagu]

Man Giricek has excellent footwork on defense. D'Antoni-- i hope you were watching this man play D.

 

[BC867]

Man Giricek has excellent footwork on defense. D'Antoni-- i hope you were watching this man play D.

And has someone to translate the foreign language called Defense for him.

 

[Irish]

I don't think GG is athletic enough to be an exceptional defender, but he's a lot bigger and stronger than Leandro.