Thoughts on the Scrimmage

[George O'Brien]

D'Antoni mentioned that they started very fast but faded after getting tired. Obviously they weren't in mid season form, but they certainly pushed.

Due to the camera angle, it was hard to tell who was doing what. Still, a couple things seemed notable.

I noticed they seemed to be moving without the ball more than usual and I saw several instances where people were passing on the run rather than stopping and picking up the dribble before passing. (On one play, it looked like it was Marion who cut across the lane before kicking out to a shooter - which he almost never did). It looked ragged, but there was more than just Nash on the pick and roll when they got into the half court.

I didn't see much defense, at least not early, but there were some blocks and steals as the game when on. Good defense or sloppy ball handling?

It wasn't the same old Amare, but he was very active and hit a dynamite fall away jumper. He may be sore, but he was still pretty impressive.

 

[Treesquid PhD]

where did you see the scrimage?

 

[Treesquid PhD]

nevermind I found it...hey foamy fits right in with the french.

 

[Cheesebeef]

nevermind I found it...hey foamy fits right in with the french.

want to let the rest of usin onit?

 

[Treesquid PhD]

www.suns.com under training camp 2006 http://www.nba.com/suns/news/2006_camp_index.html
-Nash is Nash, his shot looks on, he was moving well I think he is going to have a big year again.
Trix looks healed from the summer.
-The team is loaded absolutely loaded. Then Raja came in, the team is loaded.
-The Piakowski is going to hit some big shots for us this year. He has a beautiful shooting stroke.
-OMFG that buzzer was hiddeous.
- STAT at first he was kind of feeling it out, not really jumping, but I'll tell you the man gets position and will get to the line. He is now 1996 Karl Malone like. The Suns are going to pick and roll teams to death. He can still dunk off the run. Looked pretty good to me.

 

[Chaplin]

I thought Nash looked almost perfect, and Marion was a machine out there--he was easily the best player on the floor that night.

 

[George O'Brien]

Burke had a pretty reverse layup. Maybe the last time we'll ever see him, so I thought I'd mention it.

 

[Treesquid PhD]

Burke had a pretty reverse layup. Maybe the last time we'll ever see him, so I thought I'd mention it.

You know, I was thinking how baddly a dude like Burke would school the park ballers around phoenix.

 

[George O'Brien]

Seriously, Burke was a starter on a couple of the better Euroleague teams like Tau Ceramica and Real Madrid in Spain as well as Panathinkos of Greece. As we've noted during the FIBA World Championships, the FIBA rules are a lot different and it seems to be especially hard for Euro trained centers to make the transition to the NBA. (The Euro bigs that do make it, are typically noted for their scoring. There are exceptions, but it seems to be a common thread).

 

[boisesuns]

It looked like burke put it up every time he touched it! Instant offense

 

[basketballfan]

It looked like burke put it up every time he touched it! Instant offense

Burke always puts it up everytime he touches it. Remember Game 7 against the Lakers when he put up that three from 4 feet behind the line. Anyways, I thought the Suns looked really good. I think Suns.com does a really good job of showing us exclusive videos. I bet other NBA team's fans never get to see stuff like that. Barbosa was hitting a lot of 3's coming off picks which is a nice sign. D'Antoni said that James Jones summer of work paid off because he looks to be much improved. So it'll be interesting to see how much they use him this year. Someone also said that every time Jumaine Jones' shoots, you think it's going in. That's a very good sign. I'm interested to see the bench this year because that's an element that we've been missing the past couple of years. Overall though, I think the Suns looked good for not being in top flight basketball shape.

 

[B-Dogg]

One thing Dantoni mentioned was that he wants to play faster this year and that his second five is going to allow him to do that... so I think we will see much more of a bench than we have in the past I also think we will play at a much faster pace throughout the game because of it and you will see us really wear teams down in the fourth quarter of alot of games...

 

[nzcloud]

One thing Dantoni mentioned was that he wants to play faster this year and that his second five is going to allow him to do that... so I think we will see much more of a bench than we have in the past I also think we will play at a much faster pace throughout the game because of it and you will see us really wear teams down in the fourth quarter of alot of games...

This fast play could bring us more wins in a regular season. But as we have seen in the past 2 years, opponents would gear up for Suns in playoff games, either building up their stamina, or slowing us down. IMO, this will not guarantee a playoff success this year, unless a healthy return of Amare.

 

[se7en]

I watched the video and I’m not sure I can deduce anything from a lackadaisical scrimmage. The only things that stood out were Nash, Marion and Pike seemed sharp. Barbosa seemed pretty decent out there as well at times.

Banks was the only other player to stand out. Unfortunately his play was on both ends of the extreme spectrum for me. I thought that I saw a lot of lazy turnovers from him. And his play reminded me more of a shoot first pg. But I did like his speed, hustle and drive to the basket. I just came away thinking that he was not getting the ball to his teammates and seemed to take more ill advised shots rather than make the extra pass.

That type of play especially stood out when he tried to go one-on-one with some Marbury-esque dribble moves with Nash in his face and took a very poor shot instead of passing.

As an aside, one thing that concerned me was a play where Amare went up for a dunk or rebound or put-back (can’t remember now) and the footage inexplicably cut to future action before the play seemingly ended. It was as if the Suns organization didn’t want fans to see how that play ended. It was a very odd place to cut a video that didn’t appear to have many edits.

Just my observation from a quick watch.

 

[George O'Brien]

This fast play could bring us more wins in a regular season. But as we have seen in the past 2 years, opponents would gear up for Suns in playoff games, either building up their stamina, or slowing us down. IMO, this will not guarantee a playoff success this year, unless a healthy return of Amare.

Welcome aboard.

Teams are always trying to slow the pace down against the Suns, but it is a two edged sword. Slowing the pace means taking longer before taking a shot, which reduces the number of easy shots.

The only effective way to slow down the Suns is to hit all your shots. Missing shots creates a dilemna because the Suns run EVERY time they get the rebound. Teams that focus on getting offensive rebounds will get some points, but it will not slow the Suns down and means they are no position to stop the Suns on the other end.

The biggest difference in the playoffs is the length of time during timeouts. Every timeout is about the length of quarter change due to the number of commercials, so even slugs have a chance to catch their breath.

 

[Lean Mass]

As an aside, one thing that concerned me was a play where Amare went up for a dunk or rebound or put-back (can’t remember now) and the footage inexplicably cut to future action before the play seemingly ended. It was as if the Suns organization didn’t want fans to see how that play ended. It was a very odd place to cut a video that didn’t appear to have many edits.

So then you too have noticed the glaring lack of Amare coverage by Suns-related media? Considering the fact that reporters from azcentral and the republic can't go 5 hours without posting an update on the amare doom-and-gloom, it's odd that whenever the Suns cameras are on, Amare disappears.

And if I hear another person talking about a nice jumper that Amare hits during a scrimmage, I swear my head is going to explode. If you guys really want that so much, just get in touch with Jerry Colangelo, have him throw a lot of money at the U.S. Congress, and have them put human cloning on the fast-track. That way, we can just clone Kurt Thomas and have the two KT's play center and power forward. The only difference is, D'Antoni will just tell the one who replaces Amare to act like he has zero lateral quickness on the defensive end. After all, we'd get the same result, but it'd be a lot less of this emotional "Amare is healthy! Wait, he's out 6 months?? But he's healthy again! No he's not..." yo-yo that we've been experiencing the past 12 months.

 

[Gaddabout]

I think it's going to take Banks half a season to figure out his role on the team and what his responsibilities are. I think you'll see him pass more when he plays more with the first-teamers, and also when the depth chart settles in and he figures out who the scorers are and where they'll be on the floor.

Banks is not a pure distributor, though. I hope no one was anticipating Nash II. He also has to show he can knock down a 16 footer so defenses don't sag on him.