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Diaw sucks. He is just a scrub who will never do anything. Just trying to piss you off.
Have you guys checked him out recently?
The guy's an assist machine! He's outassisting Nash!
that's very weird...
Diaw sucks. He is just a scrub who will never do anything. Just trying to piss you off.
Never said he was good, but I see someone who could teach Parker a few moves when it comes to assists....
Never said he was good? He plays all five positions and puts up 14-7-6-2-2 per game. Yeah, he's mediocre
Never said he was good? He plays all five positions and puts up 14-7-6-2-2 per game. Yeah, he's mediocre
I didn't judge his skill......
in a PHX team, even Rasho can get his....
Yeah... OK
That's not the argument I heard from most here when I said the Suns would be just fine without JJ and Richardson. In fact, I heard the Suns were basically made because of those two's outside shot. I argued that the Suns style enabled those two to shine. Now I'm hearing an echo... funny.
Sure, Diaw is certainly aided by the system and style of play, but I didn't see Amare or Marion averaging 7 assists. Not last year, not this year... , I didn't see Johnson averaging 7 assists.
Diaw is emmensly talented and has great skills. It took the Suns system to shine, to be sure, but unlike last year when both Nash and Amare were there to create open looks and driving lanes, this team is severely short-handed, yet has done very well, in large part to Diaw's playmaking and versatility.
Don't judge his skill... Fine... I will and I'll say he's as talented as any non-All-Star in the League. 14-7-6-2-2 with very good percentages is nothing to scoff at, no matter the system.
Getting Diaw from Atlanta through the Joe Johnson trade was a stroke of genius
Personally I think he's a way off, but it's a nice column anyhow. Magic? Please) with Nash's IQ. But that doesn't equal Magic!
A little touch of Magic
By Royce Webb
ESPN.com
Three years from now, who will be the best player in the notorious Joe Johnson trade? Will it be Johnson, who will have developed his fine talents in the obscurity of Atlanta? Will it be one of the two first-round draft picks -- lottery picks, no doubt -- the Suns received from the Hawks? Or will it be Boris Diaw, the player the Hawks handed the Suns to seal the deal?
The surprising answer is becoming clearer during every Suns game. As Diaw, the drive-and-dish specialist with the Mensa-level basketball I.Q., continues to grow in confidence, he is showing a very rare set of skills that have us searching for the right comparison.
Or, to put it another way: Maybe it's just me, but if I'm running the worst team in basketball, I don't give away an athletic, 23-year-old, 6-8 guy who can do a reasonable impersonation of Magic Johnson.
Is Boris Diaw really another Magic? Of course not. Not yet, anyway.
For one thing, there is no one else like Magic Johnson. For another, Magic had the ball in his hands all the time, as the point guard for one of the greatest teams ever. And, perhaps most significant, Diaw's personality is passive and Kareem-style cool, whereas Magic was an effervescent leader who had the same effect on the staid Lakers of the late '70s that Steve Nash did on the Suns in 2004-05.
But, then again, how many guys can even be in the sentence with Magic?
In Atlanta, Diaw had a big problem. He could get into the lane at will, but he wouldn't or couldn't finish at the basket -- he preferred to look for a teammate on almost every drive. He had, as John Hollinger noted, an "inability to score," largely because he was "almost comically unselfish."
The Hawks, as dumb teams do, focused on what he couldn't do. The Suns, as smart teams do, saw what he could do.
So, in a genius move that probably only Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni would try, they took the point guard and made him a center. (This is where the Magic comparisons start to make a little more sense, if you recall Magic playing the post in the 1980 Finals or during his 1996 comeback.)
Diaw's got some work to do to reach his peak. His shot is flat, which costs him a potential weapon in the Suns' run-and-gun offense.
Also, he needs to finish stronger. He can drive past almost anyone, with his long, smooth strides. (It's not his first step that gets you, it's his third, when he turns the corner and swoops in for a layup or draws the help defender and makes the dish.) But he tends to still look to pass or flip the ball up instead of dunking it when he approaches the rim.
Sunday night, the Suns started to see signs that he's getting it, and fast. He tried a power slam on a drive in the first quarter, drawing a foul. In the second quarter, he followed a Suns miss with an Amare-like one-hand rebound jam, and in the third, he rolled to the basket for a convincing two-hand throwdown. If that's what Diaw's finishes of the future look like, watch out.
Because otherwise he's got the total game. He guards power forwards and centers routinely, shutting down the 'Sheeds and Yaos of the world. He grabs boards and starts the break (though, unlike Magic, he doesn't often lead the break, given that the Suns have Nash). And he has eyes on all sides of his head and the imagination and passing touch to match.
On Sunday, in his return to Phoenix, Joe Johnson played a very respectable game (23 points on 9-for-16 shooting, with an assist and two rebounds), especially considering the boos from the stands and the utter lack of help on the floor from the hapless Hawks. It certainly wasn't his fault the Hawks were blown out, trailing by 36 on the way to a 112-94 loss.
But it was Diaw's nifty play and the efficiency of his stat line -- 5-for-6 FGs, 4-for-5 FTs, nine assists, four boards, four blocks -- that bring us back to the original question: Which team got the best player in the trade?
Diaw has to improve his jumpshot but he has a lot of qualities : long, great court vision, good ballhandling, fast and good defender.
He sucks with Hawks mainly because it's difficult to be a team player when you are with a and1 team.
Diaw is a real team player and it's not an excuse to hide his weaknesses, some details to explain his unselfish at ude :
- He goes to a school without marks (not Sean) when best pupils help the worst.
- After his first game, Boris goes to see the score sheet. His mother ( a great french Center) take it from the hands and says "How much points you have score is not important, what counts is that your team has won."
Diaw has the bball smarts and is slick passer by mistake. He needs to learn how to finish around the basket and play under control. It seems he gets lucky with some of his passes and layups while being a little wild at times. He's gaining confidence though and has stepped up in Amare's absense.
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