duncan228
04-18-2008, 01:54 PM
http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/8043598/If-Shaq-shows,-it'll-change-dynamics-in-West
If Shaq shows, it'll change dynamics in West
by GREG BOECK
PHOENIX - Time to roll the dice on The Big Gamble.
What gamble, Shaquille O'Neal asks with a menacing glare on the brink of the NBA playoffs? The aging, four-ringed warrior the Phoenix Suns acquired in late February, resulting in a new offensive philosophy in mid-fast break and a dip from the No. 1 seed in the West to No. 6, says he's no gamble at all.
"I'm an investment,'' says O'Neal. "I'm a government bond. You never lose betting on me. I'm a long-term government bond. I'm not high-risk. You may not make your money at first, but you will in time.''
Here's the big question as the most competitive playoffs in Western Conference history climax arguably the biggest in-season chess match in NBA lore: Is the time now for the Suns, who have wandered through the desert for 40 years, to claim their first championship, and their newly self-anointed The Big Government Bond?
Tracy McGrady says yes. The Houston Rockets star has tagged the Suns the team to beat in the West.
"With that team they had, it was great for the regular season," McGrady told reporters during the Suns' last trip into Houston. "But postseason, it wasn't going anywhere with that team."
And now? He considers them the conference favorites.
"It's just Shaq's presence," said McGrady. "He's still a force down there. There's nobody in the West that can guard him. You add that with their shooters. Amare (Stoudemire), he's definitely benefiting from Shaq's presence out there."
The Shaq Factor is undeniably the X Factor in the West, where the top six teams finished two games apart and the ninth-place team, the Golden State Warriors, would have grabbed home-court advantage in the East with 48 victories.
Correct that, says Suns coach Mike D'Antoni. "Shaq's a little more than the X factor. He's more like the XYZ factor. That's why he has four rings."
Title aspirations from the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers to the eighth-seeded Denver Nuggets all revolve around O'Neal, even at 36. He will likely have more to say about who wins than even MVP favorite Kobe Bryant.
That's because no team, not even the Suns, knows what O'Neal will bring into his 15th playoffs. He showed flashes of his old Lakers and Miami Heat self down the stretch, but the Suns also showed inconsistency and, at times, unfamiliarity in playing with O'Neal.
Still, Shaq is Shaq, says Don Nelson.
"We've never had an answer for Shaq, wherever he's been," says the dean of NBA coaches, who has coached against O'Neal with the New York Knicks, Dallas Mavericks and Warriors.
"Put Shaq on any team and you're probably going to be a better team."
Although they lost their No. 1 seed and even home-court advantage with an 18-11 finish while integrating the lumbering 7-1, 325-pound giant into their once sleek, fast-breaking offense, the Suns believe they are better for it.
Now, say the Suns brass, they have an answer for nemesis Tim Duncan of the rival San Antonio Spurs, the first-round opponent they beat twice in the regular season with O'Neal shackling Duncan in both wins, and the Lakers' Andrew Bynum, should the youngster be back in the lineup for a potential Western Conference final showdown.
"This time around, we're feeling confident about ourselves," star forward Amare Stoudemire says. "The Spurs are not coming into this game knowing I'm undersized. Now big fella's there. So he's going to take up that size differential. There's going to be two 7-footers, versus me and Shawn Marion in the paint. Now we've got the big fella. He's a difference-maker for us."
Now, the Suns can still go small and run with the Nuggets and the New Orleans Hornets. Now, they can match up however they choose with the Utah Jazz, Dallas Mavericks and Rockets.
"We're more balanced and flexible," says Steve Kerr, the general manager who pulled the trigger on the trade that sent the popular Marion to Miami. "We were vulnerable before. We're less vulnerable now. We can play two styles. I think we have a better chance to win now than before the trade. With that said, we're a sixth seed."
The risk, says Kerr, wasn't in acquiring an aging O'Neal as much as it was changing the offensive philosophy in the middle of a successful season. "Our biggest concern was going from playing small-ball to being a traditional team on the fly," he says. "And I'd say we accomplished that."
The numbers back him up, even though the five-place drop in the seedings doesn't.
The Suns weren't supposed to light up the scoreboard with O'Neal on deck, but they averaged 112 points the final 20 games.
Of note: In April, they gave O'Neal a rest against Memphis and rang up 127 points. The next night, against the Spurs on the road, O'Neal's defense against Duncan produced a 96-79 victory.
The Suns' Achilles heel before O'Neal was rebounding and defense, the two weaknesses that essentially eliminated them in the playoffs the last three springs.
Pre-Shaq, the Suns were outrebounded in 40 of their first 53 games. With Shaq, Phoenix was outrebounded seven times in the last 30 games.
The Suns finished with a 5.4 point differential, a defining defensive measuring stick. Only three other West playoff teams were higher.
"We thought we'd be better because the things we were missing are the things he brings," says D'Antoni. "That's toughness inside, interior defense and rebounding — and he's done that."
And more. To even D'Antoni's mild surprise, O'Neal, after the Suns' 3-6 belch with him out of the gate, has added offense to the mix — even at the line. In his final 13 games, O'Neal had eight double-doubles. He even sank seven of nine free throws against the Spurs.
"Now,'' says D'Antoni, "our team is more complete. We can play any style — grind it out with the best of them in the playoffs. We're in the hunt.''
The Suns finished 15-5 with a team that can now bury threes on the run outside or burn opponents inside with Steve Nash feeding a posted-up O'Neal or pick-and-rolling with Stoudemire.
That's two MVPs and one in-the-making in the half-court mix.
O'Neal's presence benefited Suns shooters, who shot a league-best 50 percent from the field and were one of only two teams with three players (Nash, Raja Bell and Leandro Barbosa) who made at least 150 3-pointers.
However, no two players were more impacted than Nash and Stoudemire. D'Antoni says O'Neal allowed Nash to preserve his energy. And Shaq allowed Stoudemire to return to his natural position, power forward. The result: Stoudemire averaged almost 30 points playing alongside O'Neal since the All-Star break.
"He allowed me to be myself,'' says Stoudemire.
More than anything, says Warriors star Baron Davis, O'Neal brings a championship attitude to the locker room that has been so close to a ring the last three years.
"There is something with a center like him,'' says Austin Croshere of the Warriors. "They're bigger than the game. You think about Kareem and Wilt. Shaq knows what it takes.''
He knows what he wants, too, and that's a fifth title. He's won three on the West Coast and one on the East. A cherry-topper in the desert would be the perfect dessert, making him the third player in league history to win championships with three different teams. The others: Robert Horry and John Salley.
"I'm ready for this," says O'Neal. "We're close. All the problems we have had are mental mistakes."
Belief, he says, is the key. "A lot of teams talk about getting it done but don't have the belief. We know what we have to do."
That's invest in The Big Government Bond.
If Shaq shows, it'll change dynamics in West
by GREG BOECK
PHOENIX - Time to roll the dice on The Big Gamble.
What gamble, Shaquille O'Neal asks with a menacing glare on the brink of the NBA playoffs? The aging, four-ringed warrior the Phoenix Suns acquired in late February, resulting in a new offensive philosophy in mid-fast break and a dip from the No. 1 seed in the West to No. 6, says he's no gamble at all.
"I'm an investment,'' says O'Neal. "I'm a government bond. You never lose betting on me. I'm a long-term government bond. I'm not high-risk. You may not make your money at first, but you will in time.''
Here's the big question as the most competitive playoffs in Western Conference history climax arguably the biggest in-season chess match in NBA lore: Is the time now for the Suns, who have wandered through the desert for 40 years, to claim their first championship, and their newly self-anointed The Big Government Bond?
Tracy McGrady says yes. The Houston Rockets star has tagged the Suns the team to beat in the West.
"With that team they had, it was great for the regular season," McGrady told reporters during the Suns' last trip into Houston. "But postseason, it wasn't going anywhere with that team."
And now? He considers them the conference favorites.
"It's just Shaq's presence," said McGrady. "He's still a force down there. There's nobody in the West that can guard him. You add that with their shooters. Amare (Stoudemire), he's definitely benefiting from Shaq's presence out there."
The Shaq Factor is undeniably the X Factor in the West, where the top six teams finished two games apart and the ninth-place team, the Golden State Warriors, would have grabbed home-court advantage in the East with 48 victories.
Correct that, says Suns coach Mike D'Antoni. "Shaq's a little more than the X factor. He's more like the XYZ factor. That's why he has four rings."
Title aspirations from the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers to the eighth-seeded Denver Nuggets all revolve around O'Neal, even at 36. He will likely have more to say about who wins than even MVP favorite Kobe Bryant.
That's because no team, not even the Suns, knows what O'Neal will bring into his 15th playoffs. He showed flashes of his old Lakers and Miami Heat self down the stretch, but the Suns also showed inconsistency and, at times, unfamiliarity in playing with O'Neal.
Still, Shaq is Shaq, says Don Nelson.
"We've never had an answer for Shaq, wherever he's been," says the dean of NBA coaches, who has coached against O'Neal with the New York Knicks, Dallas Mavericks and Warriors.
"Put Shaq on any team and you're probably going to be a better team."
Although they lost their No. 1 seed and even home-court advantage with an 18-11 finish while integrating the lumbering 7-1, 325-pound giant into their once sleek, fast-breaking offense, the Suns believe they are better for it.
Now, say the Suns brass, they have an answer for nemesis Tim Duncan of the rival San Antonio Spurs, the first-round opponent they beat twice in the regular season with O'Neal shackling Duncan in both wins, and the Lakers' Andrew Bynum, should the youngster be back in the lineup for a potential Western Conference final showdown.
"This time around, we're feeling confident about ourselves," star forward Amare Stoudemire says. "The Spurs are not coming into this game knowing I'm undersized. Now big fella's there. So he's going to take up that size differential. There's going to be two 7-footers, versus me and Shawn Marion in the paint. Now we've got the big fella. He's a difference-maker for us."
Now, the Suns can still go small and run with the Nuggets and the New Orleans Hornets. Now, they can match up however they choose with the Utah Jazz, Dallas Mavericks and Rockets.
"We're more balanced and flexible," says Steve Kerr, the general manager who pulled the trigger on the trade that sent the popular Marion to Miami. "We were vulnerable before. We're less vulnerable now. We can play two styles. I think we have a better chance to win now than before the trade. With that said, we're a sixth seed."
The risk, says Kerr, wasn't in acquiring an aging O'Neal as much as it was changing the offensive philosophy in the middle of a successful season. "Our biggest concern was going from playing small-ball to being a traditional team on the fly," he says. "And I'd say we accomplished that."
The numbers back him up, even though the five-place drop in the seedings doesn't.
The Suns weren't supposed to light up the scoreboard with O'Neal on deck, but they averaged 112 points the final 20 games.
Of note: In April, they gave O'Neal a rest against Memphis and rang up 127 points. The next night, against the Spurs on the road, O'Neal's defense against Duncan produced a 96-79 victory.
The Suns' Achilles heel before O'Neal was rebounding and defense, the two weaknesses that essentially eliminated them in the playoffs the last three springs.
Pre-Shaq, the Suns were outrebounded in 40 of their first 53 games. With Shaq, Phoenix was outrebounded seven times in the last 30 games.
The Suns finished with a 5.4 point differential, a defining defensive measuring stick. Only three other West playoff teams were higher.
"We thought we'd be better because the things we were missing are the things he brings," says D'Antoni. "That's toughness inside, interior defense and rebounding — and he's done that."
And more. To even D'Antoni's mild surprise, O'Neal, after the Suns' 3-6 belch with him out of the gate, has added offense to the mix — even at the line. In his final 13 games, O'Neal had eight double-doubles. He even sank seven of nine free throws against the Spurs.
"Now,'' says D'Antoni, "our team is more complete. We can play any style — grind it out with the best of them in the playoffs. We're in the hunt.''
The Suns finished 15-5 with a team that can now bury threes on the run outside or burn opponents inside with Steve Nash feeding a posted-up O'Neal or pick-and-rolling with Stoudemire.
That's two MVPs and one in-the-making in the half-court mix.
O'Neal's presence benefited Suns shooters, who shot a league-best 50 percent from the field and were one of only two teams with three players (Nash, Raja Bell and Leandro Barbosa) who made at least 150 3-pointers.
However, no two players were more impacted than Nash and Stoudemire. D'Antoni says O'Neal allowed Nash to preserve his energy. And Shaq allowed Stoudemire to return to his natural position, power forward. The result: Stoudemire averaged almost 30 points playing alongside O'Neal since the All-Star break.
"He allowed me to be myself,'' says Stoudemire.
More than anything, says Warriors star Baron Davis, O'Neal brings a championship attitude to the locker room that has been so close to a ring the last three years.
"There is something with a center like him,'' says Austin Croshere of the Warriors. "They're bigger than the game. You think about Kareem and Wilt. Shaq knows what it takes.''
He knows what he wants, too, and that's a fifth title. He's won three on the West Coast and one on the East. A cherry-topper in the desert would be the perfect dessert, making him the third player in league history to win championships with three different teams. The others: Robert Horry and John Salley.
"I'm ready for this," says O'Neal. "We're close. All the problems we have had are mental mistakes."
Belief, he says, is the key. "A lot of teams talk about getting it done but don't have the belief. We know what we have to do."
That's invest in The Big Government Bond.