What's happened to Nazr's game?

[zocool16]

Mohammed at a point made me think that he had been watching a lot of Tim Duncan moves and that he was even trying to copy Duncan. That was like in the final 20 games of the season, I saw him doing some Duncan-like moves and he was actually making them, he would pump fake too like 100 times and get a good shot off. Nowadays he's gone back to play with no confidence and I don't see why?

Well did anyone else notice this?

[Phenomanul]

CIA Pop is diminishing his post-season value....

[thispego]

if nazr would at least start rebounding again i would be happy

[leemajors]

nazr's post moves have never resembled anythign approaching duncan's smooth polished post footwork. i don't know when you saw anything like that...

[timvp]

He's just not that good. He's like Malik Rose plus five inches and minus shooting ability, rebounding ability, passing ability, the ability to come up big in big games and the ability to know where to be defensively.

That said, Nazr will probably have to see some action if the Spurs advance to play teams like the Mavs, Suns or Pistons.

[ShoogarBear]

Eh, he's in the top 5 in offensive rebs/48 min and his mid-range jumper isn't bad. Occasionally he provides some energy on the court when everyone else is sleepwalking. If you could combine his best aspects with those of Rasho, you'd have a pretty nice center.

But his defense is horrible way too frequently. The worst part is, there doesn't seem to be any trajectory of improvement.

[leemajors]

he can shoot free throws, i'll give him that.

[zocool16]

nazr's post moves have never resembled anythign approaching duncan's smooth polished post footwork. i don't know when you saw anything like that...

lol i said he tried.. like he was trying to copy some of his moves

[smoke1]

damn, again with this... listen carefully - Nazr doesnt match up well with ANYONE on the Kings. He is too slow for wells, and doesnt range out enough to cover miller at the 3 point line. This matchup has been horrible for him, and if we play the Mavs he will be in his element again. Basketball is a game of matchups, and Nazr matches up much better with dampier and other low post bigs than he does with anyone on the Kings. Calm down.

[50 cent]

http://www.fotosearch.com/comp/ARP/ARP123/doghouse.jpg

[Kori Ellis]

Even when he's a better matchup for the Mavs (if the Spurs advance) he'll still suck defensively and likely won't see as much time as some people expect.



But his defense is horrible way too frequently. The worst part is, there doesn't seem to be any trajectory of improvement.

That's my main problem with him. He never improves.

[2centsworth]

Nazr might not be able to shoot, rebound, or play defense but one thing is for certain he sure is slow.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

In his defense, the man can shoot a mean three-pointer!

[MannyIsGod]

The guy just sucks.

[SANANTOJAMES]

He doesnt suck, he came up big in the finals. We need him just for another big body or to foul and tire players

[zocool16]

wow i understand the matchups explanations, but that he sucks? or he cant do anything? i dont think we were sayin this a couple of months ago.

[timvp]

He doesnt suck, he came up big in the finals.

No he didn't. He just wasn't play as bad.

[ploto]

I really don't know what happened. This Nazr looks like the Nazr of December and January- the one who looked like he wasn't even trying all that hard. He doesn't hardly run the floor, or try to fight for position. The only aggression I have seen is in garbage time of games 1 and 4. I think that he- like many here- assumed this was last season. But Rasho was hurt when the play-offs started last season. Say whatever you want, attempting to rehab from the second injury to the same ankle in two months and get into some type of game shape in the middle of the play-offs is not easy. Rasho really never got a real chance to try to contribute. That is what Rasho wants- to have the chance to play and participate and help the team succeed, and he is playing like that. He knows the way he gets onto the court is to rebound. Nazr seems to have misunderstood how he earned his minutes- by rebounding and getting easy baskets off of offensive rebounds. I don't want to see him try to imitate Tim's moves in the post. That is not his game. And he just still does not seem to understand things very well.

I agree with you Kori. People just write off Rasho against Dallas but Rasho has had some great games in his career against the Mavericks and he matches up fine against Dampier. Horry usually plays more against them anyway. So if Pop only goes wth 3 bigs into hopefully the next series, I don't really see it magically going back to being Nazr- especially if you start Horry and you bring in Rasho off the bench against Dampier.

[MannyIsGod]

I don't know what Finals you guys watched last year, but other than a game or 2 he didn't come up big. He's a turnover machine who clogs the lane and makes it extremely difficult for penetrators like Parker and Manu. When they make it to the rim they can't dump it off to him because he will drop it or the rare times he does catch it he goes into convulsive pump fakes that never end well. I've never seen a 6'10" center have such a hard time taking it up strong and dunking the damn ball.

On top of that the man rarely makes correct defensive rotations and is a poor shot blocker at best.

One of the reasons he's able to get offesnsive boards (and I believe his skills in this matter are vastly overrated) is the fact that people play help defense off of him so much. The switch off of him constantly and there is no one way to combat this because of what I mentioned above. The one beneficial side effect is that he gets more offensive boards than someone who has to constantly deal with a box out but its negated by how much he hurts penetration.

He's just not worth what he provides in terms of what he takes away. The only team he can play well against is Pheonix because of their total lack of inside presence. But then again, look how good Kwame fucking Brown has looked against them.

[PM5K]

Isn't he going to be a FA? He'd better step it up before he finds himself in a position where he can't feed his family...

[Trainwreck2100]

In his defense, the man can shoot a mean three-pointer!

I think Rasho has something to say about that.

[exstatic]

He doesnt suck, he came up big in the finals. We need him just for another big body or to foul and tire players
You realize almost anyone can fit that bill, don't you?

[timvp]

I guess AHF, T Park and others aren't running the Baby Hakeem smack anymore. . .

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Wow, you guys sure are quick to run him down. Two months ago when he took the starting job from Rasho you were all pimping his aggressiveness.

If we're going to stand any chance of beating Detroit he's going to have to be a workhorse for us on the glass. He was one of the few Spurs to show up for the two games with Detroit this year.

As much as some folks bag on me about criticizing Pop, there's a few posters in this thread that are equally as bad about Nazr.

The Sacramento series is a bad match up for him, but we'll need him when we run into some more physical squads down the line.

[Vashner]

13th man rule... I say Activate David Robinson on a couple 10 day contracts :)

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

He's like Malik Rose plus five inches and minus shooting ability, rebounding ability

:lol Rebounding ability, LJ? His numbers are better than Rose's at their peak.

[timvp]

I spoke too soon.

[Bruno]

Even if Nazr isn't the better center in the league, he is not playing at his level against Sacramento.
I don't know exactly why but I think that his low BBIQ is a reason why he sucks so. Sacramento is a strange team : swingmen are post-players, big men are jumpshooters and the better rebounder is a SG. My guess is that Nazr is lost because it didn't use to play against that kind of teams and his lack of feelings for BB makes that he can't adapt well to this new scheme.

[Kori Ellis]

Wow, you guys sure are quick to run him down. Two months ago when he took the starting job from Rasho you were all pimping his aggressiveness.

If we're going to stand any chance of beating Detroit he's going to have to be a workhorse for us on the glass. He was one of the few Spurs to show up for the two games with Detroit this year.

As much as some folks bag on me about criticizing Pop, there's a few posters in this thread that are equally as bad about Nazr.

The Sacramento series is a bad match up for him, but we'll need him when we run into some more physical squads down the line.

Even when he was aggressive, I was still vomiting at his defense. He doesn't seem to be stupid, but I don't get why he still can't catch on to the basics defensively. He's constantly being yelled at on D from everyone from Horry to Duncan to Manu to Pop. And on offensive, he stands in everyone's way. Manu and Tony exert a lot of energy just waving him out of the lane.

Since Rasho is not mobile, they'll use Nazr more in other series and I'm sure that he'll do an adequate job. I understand his shortcomings and can live with the fact that there's some things he's just not good at it. But the fact that he doesn't appear to care to get any better on D, kind of makes me sick. You'd think that since he wants a contract in the summer, he'd at least learn how to rotate by now.

[picnroll]

NY would trade Malik for Nazr in a NY minute, but then so would any team in the league. Malik has one thing nobody wants, his contract.

[timvp]

:lol Rebounding ability, LJ? His numbers are better than Rose's at their peak.

Nope. Rose's first year in SA he rebounded at the same rate as Nazr this year. And I'd like to see Nazr average 8 boards a game over the course of a playoffs like Rose did.

[2centsworth]

Nazr was very good against Denver in last year playoffs, ok against Seattle, and good against Phoenix. But none of that matters right now, he's way off his game in this series. Hopefully that spurs can get it done without him.

[Trifecta]

Even when he was aggressive, I was still vomiting at his defense. He doesn't seem to be stupid, but I don't get why he still can't catch on to the basics defensively. He's constantly being yelled at on D from everyone from Horry to Duncan to Manu to Pop. And on offensive, he stands in everyone's way. Manu and Tony exert a lot of energy just waving him out of the lane.

Since Rasho is not mobile, they'll use Nazr more in other series and I'm sure that he'll do an adequate job. I understand his shortcomings and can live with the fact that there's some things he's just not good at it. But the fact that he doesn't appear to care to get any better on D, kind of makes me sick. You'd think that since he wants a contract in the summer, he'd at least learn how to rotate by now.

Its definitely his defense -- a big liability.

His footwork is terrible -- someone needs to book him a gig on "Dancing with the Stars" to work on his footwork. He just doesn't look confortable on the court.

Does not play good pick and roll defense or set screens well for his teammates.

Need I say anything about those hands -- the way he catches the ball sometimes, youy would think he is catching a "wet bar of soap"!

I'll leave hjm with a positive (as a previous poster mentioned) -- his free throws are good!

[wildbill2u]

I remember early in the season when many of us were defending his matador defense with the argument that he was still learning the defense.

I live at Clear Lake without cable so I don't get to see many games on TV but when I have been able to see him play recently it has been disheartening. Watching Duncan try to point him to a spot or say something after another layup where Nazr's man went right by him has been a revelation. Not much upside to his game.

At one time I thought he had potential and was a keeper in FA. But now I don't think he'd be worth the money he'll probably draw in FA. Might as well keep Rasho and back him up with Horry and Marks and maybe one of the Euros next year.

[NCaliSpurs]

I really don't see what Nazr gives us over what Rose gave us (before the Spurs organization decided they couldn't keep his contract).

Rose at least was in place defensively, and had the body to push guys off the block.