Is Steve Nash a System QB?

I wrote out an expanded version of my video take on the Phoenix Football Suns over at Sports on My Mind. Comment there on the story--I'm just re-pasting it here because I like to keep a record of my writings in one place.
http://sportsonmymind.com/2008/12/12/the-phoenix-football-suns-starring-steve-nash-as-the-system-qb/

I’ve enthusiastically followed the Suns this year, because they have a fascinating cast of characters. They have four players who have been major stars at one point or another (Grant Hill, Steve Nash, Shaq, and Amare Stoudamire), and they just added the athletic Jason Richardson to their squad. The Suns finally have lowered expectations, as most prognosticators only picked them to finish 6th or 7th in the West. At one point they had the second-best record in the West. And yet this team has been surrounded by turmoil from the beginning. Why is that?

Quite honestly, I think that Steve Nash and Amare Stoudamire are the problem here. Remember, Amare wooed Steve to Phoenix by telling him that they could win championships together. The two have become the NBA’s version of Manning to Harrison. Steve Nash is the perfect QB for the D’Antoni system. But is Steve Nash really a glorified system QB? His numbers this year are not that far off from his numbers of the last five years. But we have Grant Hill comparing Steve to a hummingbird trapped in a plastic bag. We have Steve moping around that Raja Bell was traded and complaining that the team is in a “dark place.” With all these budding poets on the Phoenix Suns roster vying for new metaphors to describe how bad things are, you’d think the team had started 2-7 or so like the Mavs. But instead, they’ve been north of .500 for most of the season. What gives?

And let’s not forget Amare Stoudamire’s sulking. Before the season began, I picked the Suns as my dark horse, because I thought Amare was due for a break-out year. He finally has his legs most of the way back from microfracture surgery, and he has Shaq to take off most of the pressure. But did anyone else read his column in the back of Slam magazine? He spent most of it remembering Mike D’Antoni like some college kid pining for his ex-girlfriend who went to study in Europe. Not one good word for Coach Porter in the whole thing–just a lot of “well, I’ll have to adjust to his system.” Come on, Terry Porter’s one of the NBA good guys–why is Amare moping like a wide receiver who isn’t getting enough touches?

And finally, we have Shaq. Terry Porter was wisely pushing the Suns to establish Shaq early on in games. This makes a lot of sense; establish Shaq in the low post early in the game, when he’s fresh. After he wears out teams in the half-court, spend the second-half pushing the ball. It’s just like NFL teams that run early to set up play-action later in the game. I love this strategy! It should work! But oddly, the Suns were turning the ball early at a huge rate while trying to do so (something like 9.7 turnovers in the first half, 6.8 in the second half, according to Henry Abbott of Truehoop.com). What’s the use of getting the ball to your “big back” if there’s just going to be fumbles and turnovers?

Ok, I’m getting carried away with my football analogy, ha. But it fits, don’t you think? Steve Nash and Amare Stoudamire as the system QB and his talented but lazy wide receiver? (Defense? what’s that?). Shaq as the bruising Jerome Bettis-type back? Anyway, the question is, is Jason Richardson part of the solution or problem? Here’s another guy who wants the ball a lot; can he make this work in Phoenix? I say yes, it should work; Jason is hungry to win and he probably welcomes a move back to the Western Conference. But I thought Porter’s strategy for the Suns should work…and so far it seems like his stars are themselves sabotaging the strategy before it has a chance. It’s only been one-fourth of the season, and yet Steve and Amare appear determined to mourn the demise of the 7-seconds-or-less offense for 7 months or more!

Your Phoenix "Football" Suns

I love my analogies, and I think I finally figured out what the trouble is in Phoenix. Click the video to see just how badly I mix my basketball and football analogies.


I'm just starting out with video*, so I appreciate your feedback.

*Of course, I don't count my various starring roles in childhood home videos in the role of "Annoying kid with overbite", "Baby who won't shut up", and "Obnoxious sullen teenager", ha.

Terry Porter's Attempt to Rescue the Sinking Suns

Before I start talking about the Suns, a little news about my favorite NBA team, the Cavaliers. One of the benefits of Thanksgiving break was some free time to watch the Cleveland Cavaliers, especially the Cavs-Warriors game. Mo Williams and Delonte West are making a huge difference to the Cavs. Having extra ball-handlers and shooters frees up Lebron in ways that Eric Snow and Larry Hughes never could. I was also impressed by their unselfishness. When reputed gunners like Wally and Mo are willing to give up nearly open 3's just to pass to Lebron and Danny, respectively, for completely open 3's, something different is going on!

Your random photo accompaniment for today: Shaq figurines/cut-outs and the people who pose with them. Yes, there's a joke about Shaq looking a little stiff nowadays in there somewhere...and yes, even Shaq's cut-out gets more ladies than sports bloggers do, ha.


But I doubt you came here to be drenched with my Cavs-centric drool. In the last five games, the Warriors have scored 100, 111, 97, 125, and 129 points. Those numbers resemble the glory days of the Phoenix Suns, and sound great...except that the Warriors have gone 0-5 during that time span. It was a little sad to see the Warriors players against the Cavs. It was one dribble and shoot, one dribble and shoot, over and over again. Their running game was completely shut down, and so they were unable to execute in the half-court.



Watching the game convinced me that Terry Porter is doing the right thing to go away from the running game in Phoenix. Steve Nash and Amare Stoudamire have been complaining and sighing in the press about the demise of the 7 seconds or less offense. But they are wrong, and Terry Porter is right.



The Suns lack the athletes to run the 7-second-or-less offense anymore. They used to have clear athletic advantages at most positions (Amare Stoudamire, Shawn Marion, Joe Johnson, even Steve Nash is more athletic than you think) over the average NBA team. Those players could run and play major minutes without getting tired. But now, Steve Nash, Grant Hill, and Shaq are old, and the bench is young. The running game isn't a good fit for what this team does best. The team instead has to rely on its new advantage: the big-man pairing of Shaq and Amare.



Shaq has had a disturbing tendency to drift early in the season. But with Terry Porter making him more of a focus offensively, Shaq has been forced to get in shape quickly. He's even doing yoga, of all things. An unhappy Shaq can be a destructive force on any team--just ask the Lakers and Heat. By getting Shaq on board early, Terry Porter is giving himself a better chance at success.



Plus, the Suns will need Shaq's post-up game in the playoffs. The running game is less successful in the playoffs, when no team is coming to Phoenix on the second night of a back-to-back, and teams can focus their preparation on Phoenix. Oh, the Suns should still run when they can. But as I said above, their athletes no longer have the advantage over other teams as they once did.



I believe that Coach Porter will return to the running game more in the coming months. This will satisfy Steve and Amare and make it seem like he's an open-minded coach. But by forcing the Suns to include Shaq in the offense early, he's also made sure that he'll have a motivated, alert Shaq for the whole season. And come play-off time, when the Suns need to get baskets in the half-court, they can go to Shaq in the post. Or, if the Suns are really lucky, Robin Lopez will rapidly improve, leading to the Suns being able to run when Robin is in the game and then going more to a half-court offense when Shaq is in the game. That would be a difficult team to stop. Although I have no idea if Robin will become a decent NBA player, the pairing of Amare and Robin, with Robin playing the hard-working Robin to Amare's high-scoring Batman (sorry, couldn't resist), has a lot of potential.



However, I have to wonder if Terry Porter will have enough time to work his excellent plan of getting the young guys decent playing time and establishing Shaq. Come play-off time, those moves will pay off. But right now, Phoenix is coming off home losses to Miami and New Jersey. The perimeter players and Amare will complain. Shaq's passing will continue to need improvement, and Amare will struggle in the high post. I'm concerned that Terry Porter will be fired before he gets a chance to make his plan work. Is Steve Kerr willing to stand behind his choice? We'll see in the next two months.



By the way, the Suns are merely my team of choice to follow in the 2008-2009 season. For regular Suns content, see the following:
Bright Side of the Sun
Ben's Suns Blog

The Shaq figure pictures that didn't quite make the post.

Shaq and Amare take on Oden, Shaq talks about Kobe

As most of you know, I'm a Cavs fan, but I always like to follow a team in the other conference. The Phoenix Suns are my adopted Western Conference team this year. Thus, you'll be seeing a fair amount of posts about them. With characters like Shaq, Amare, Nash, and Grant Hill, I think they'll stay an interesting team on and off the court.

First, check out this video of Greg Oden going up against Shaquille O'Neal and Amare Stoudamire. Much thanks to tommyhtc for putting this up on Youtube. Greg shows some occasional flashes of skill, but he obviously still has work to do. (Check out Shaq's nice moves toward the end of the video--Shaq's looking light on his feet this year).



Second, check out Shaq and Steve Nash being interviewed before the Suns game. Shaq makes an interesting choice of fingers to wipe off his face around 1:08. Also, hear Shaq claim that he and Kobe just like to keep the media guessing about their relationship (around 2:30). The one thing that bothers me about Steve Nash (around 5:00) is how tired he already looks. It's only November, Steve!


I probably won't be back posting until after Thanksgiving break. Hope you all have a good break, and don't forget, even in this messed-up economy, most of us have a lot to be thankful for.