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LMAO! Id love to see our fanbase reacting to Amare only playing 30 minutes a night!
Diaw needs more minutes than 24, too.
Donnie, Avery and Cuban have more of a clue than D'Antoni and Sarver.
LMAO! Id love to see our fanbase reacting to Amare only playing 30 minutes a night!
Diaw needs more minutes than 24, too.
I agree 100% with that statement. I would go on to add that he also seems to be environmentally re ed. On the bright side, I don't think he is truly developmentally disabled, meaning he may pull his head out of his ass someday. I wouldn't wager on it, though.
Mike D'Antoni is the biggest whiner this league has seen since Danny Ainge was an active player.
I'd feel better about the Suns chances of winning a le if they were coached by someone other than D'Antoni
That's pretty much the rotation I've run on NBA 2k8 and my boys have energy all year long, with little chance of injury too. I liked seeing Strawberry out there last night because he hustles and does a lot of little things on both ends of the court. I think D'Antoni misses the trees for the forest, if you will and doesn't realize how little mental mistakes can add up to big losses in the playoffs (aka everytime Barbosa runs the point - shooting with too much time left on the clock and giving Farmar a 3; shooting 5 times in a row instead of spreading the ball around; the list goes on with this guy at PG).
On the flip side, smart mental and hustle plays can win games in the season and the playoffs and those are the types of plays I see from Strawberry, especially defensively with his 6'5" frame and quick feet. Even though D'Antoni likes have 3,000 possessions per game, they still have 5 to 6 key ones throughout a game and it's better to win those than lose them. It's stupid to see Nash have to run everything himself out there for 35+ minutes per game.
In other news, Diaw has been great in his starter's role since Hill went out. I can't help but think that he does a great job when he starts. Not to discredit Hill or what he's done out there, but I might like to see him become the 6th man with Barbosa and let Diaw start. The team seems to play better and I've seen an incredible change in his energy these last few games. I think Hill is team-first and savvy enough to pull a Ginobili off the bench.
I think a lot of fans here would be great at Tony LaRussa's assistants.
Its not as easy as just dividing up the minutes in an excel spreadsheet.
Avery Johnson attempted this kind of over-managing with the Mavs and it got his team NOWHERE fast!
At some point, you have to look at everything in a REAL WORLD perspective.
We know the Suns absolutely stink with Banks in the lineup. Do you really want to keep him in the game when our team is falling further and further behind because it looks better in the boxscore?
Some might say yes if it means Banks would improve. Banks has gotten plenty of opportunity to improve! The coaches don't like him because he's always the first one out the door after practice. They question his work ethic and how much he REALLY wants to be part of the rotation. Don't forget that he was given starters minutes in Minnesota and Boston and they both like him so much that they didn't offer him a contract (SEE YA!).
As for JMarks, rotation, Id like to see how easy it is to tell guys like Raja Bell and Amare Stoudemire that their minutes are being cut so our coach won't have to take as much heat from the media.
Im also sick of people bringing up game 5 and how our bench guys weren't ready to come in play. When you lose two starters to suspensions, youre suppose to lose! Its great that they made it so close, but you can't expect miracles. D'Antoni could have played the scrubs in every game last year and they still would have been terrible.
Dont' forget that Jalen Rose, Jumaine Jones and Pat Burke are so great theyre not even in the freaking league anymore. And I've yet to see a single D'Antoni flunkee who made it with another team.
There's a reason D'Antoni doesn't play more than eight guys: The drop off from 8 to 9 is ASTRONOMICAL. Don't blame D'Antoni, blame Sarver. Or blame our top eight guys for being so freaking good.
Last edited by da_suns_fan; 01-21-2008 at 11:54 AM.
I bet if he told them he was doing it to win a championship and to make them go down as immortals in Phoenix, they would buy off on it. I'm pretty sure Raja Bell would like 28-30 mins per game over 82 games instead of 35 mins per game and nagging ankle and back problems and DNPs.
Also, Jalen Rose showed great smarts and feel for the game out there, just not feel for D'Antoni's game, I guess. He got along great with his teammates and he was always willing to make the extra pass. I don't think very many people have problems with Amare, Marion, and Bell's minutes, but are concerned at how much Grant Hill and Steve Nash play out there.
Personally, I want someone to step up at the PG spot so we don't have to see Barbosa bring the ball up the court anymore. I'm so sick of that guy turning the ball over and running a terrible offense because he has only one speed: lightning. Why do the Suns lose the lead while Nash is out? Because Barbosa can put up 30 shots in 1 minute and give the other team easy fast breaks with his stupid passes. I'm not a big Damon Stoudemire fan, but signing him and putting that guy in for 20 mins per game would be a Godsend because it could move Barbosa to the 2, rest Nash, and bring in a backup PG with a knack for hitting some big shots.
You simply cannot win an NBA championship without a solid bench. Suns will never get it and they will continue to never win.
Most teams only play eight guys during the playoffs.
Who has a better three than Barbosa (SMOY), Diaw and Skinner?
1) Jalen Rose was completely worthless. His shot was terrible, he couldn't run, he couldn't play defense, he couldn't do anything.
2) I don't see the same need at the backup pg. Give Hill, Diaw and Barbosa more time to figure things out.
Diaw sucks and he'll only give Skinner about 14 minutes a game. IMO Skinner does the dirty-work type stuff and he's a good rebounder, he should be playing closer to 25.
He averages 32. Two minutes over the course of a season might cost the Suns a regular season win or two, but it might help in the playoffs.
As a fan of an opposing team, I concur. Play Donuts more!Diaw needs more minutes than 24, too.
He never gives Hill or Diaw a chance to figure things out and just keeps handing the ball off to Barbosa every game. Last year, I remember a specific game in which Barbosa was having a terrible time running the point (it was at Sacramento). The Suns were down all game, until the 4th when D'Antoni let Diaw take the ball up the court and get the Suns into their offense. They ended up winning the game, while executing very well down the stretch, but then we never saw Diaw in that role again, which made no sense to me.
You obviously haven't been watching Diaw play over the past few games... or you just watched the Mavs play today and then had to get on here and about other teams to make yourself feel better.
No, I haven't been watching Diaw play the last few games. It was just more of a general comment over what has happened to him since Amare's return. He was so good in the Amare-less year and since then he's pretty much been a pussy.
I guess you're the only one that doesn't see a need for a backup PG, since obviously D'Antoni sees it judging by how quickly he'll bring Nash back in the 4th when things start to stall.
He has the anti-Ginobili syndrome. When he's a starter, he plays with aggression and gets more minutes out there, so his impact is greater. When he comes off the bench, however, he plays like a pussy and can disappear mentally at times.
Ginobili, on the other hand, can start or come off the bench and play great.
Three of his last five performances have been good, but you can't deny that he's been a huge disappointment since Amare's return. I know that they both like to set up on the left block and that's Amare's territory now, but if the Suns need a backup PG, then why the isn't that Boris Diaw????
Every team loses momentum when their best player isn't in the game.
I agree that Diaw needs to have a more active role controlling the offense when Nash is out. He's been much better the last week. We'll see where it goes.
The reason why D'Antoni's bench sucks is because he has no idea how to develop them. Diaw IS a good player, when given minutes. His development has been hampered because D'Antoni refuses to lose regular season games in order to develop the bench.
LMAO! Diaw won the most improved player award after a single season with D'Antoni.
Thats the worst argument I've ever heard. You truly suck as a poster.
Also, you can't tell me that Jalen Rose, Jumaine Jones and Pat Burke were so in' terrible that it's worth running his top six into the ground. They might have won that Game Five against the Spurs if he had been willing to spell his guys just even a little, or if those guys had had playing time on a regular basis. Anybody who has ever played can tell you it's very hard to prepare yourself mentally if you know you're going to be grabbing some bench, plus there's the rust factor.
I agree. As I said above, in games were Diaw ran the point last year, the Suns played great.
D'Antoni doesn't realize that he needs to adjust his game plan when the subs are in. They can try Amare or Diaw on the low block, while running some cutters or waiting for a double team... yet he tries to run the pick and roll with people that can't do it (aka Barbosa, who probably causes more moving screen fouls for his big men by taking off well before the pick is set) and then wonders why his offense stalls. It's really not rocket science, but he makes it harder than it is. And it's not like he learns his lesson (only playing 6 guys in Game 5 of WCSF last year).
Diaw running the point or from the high post when Nash is out seems like a very simple solution to me, but I guess I'm just the idiot who has watched over 200 Suns games in the past 3 years and watched how the Lakers and Celtics utilized deep benches and fast breaks throughout the 80s to win les.
Few things are more evident than the difference between D'Antoni and Robert Horry. Horry is the ultimate role player and has the most "non-Celtic" championship rings in NBA history. D'Antoni is so star-heavy in his rotation that it's pretty evident why his fingers have been empty these past 3 years. If D'Antoni ever coached Horry, he never would have gotten off the bench because he's not Shaq, Kobe, Hakeem, Clyde Drexler, or Tim Duncan. Horry has come up huge in so many games because coaches like Rudy T, Pop, and Jackson gave him a chance out there.
Or they might have lost by twenty instead of only three.
btw - Whats with all the F-bombs? Are you seriously that pissed over one loss to the Wiz?
Jalen Rose was awesome when he actually played last year. He made a lot of great plays and hustled after some loose balls. He wasn't the greatest one-on-one defender, but he wasn't asked to guard Kobe, either. That's also why it's good the NBA has allowed zone defense.
If they keep wondering why there are chemistry issues, I have to think it's because the bench guys all know they're not gonna get any time out there and they're probably mopy on the bench.
Also, I don't think it's difficult to see how bad D'Antoni is when it comes to a management role: whether it's managing time (6-man rotation in Game 5) or a team (2 signings: Marcus Banks, and Eric Piatkowski get no playing time; a 3rd - Jumaine Jones - is not with the team).
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