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whottt you are talking to yourself?
I don't blame Shaq for those traits. It is what it is. He's never defended the P/R effectively. Poor coaching? Maybe but also an indication of a lower BB IQ than previously believed? Probably since as a younger and more athletic player he could make up for his mistakes but now he can't. As a younger player he was virtually unstoppable but now he's hit a point in his career that he isn't capable of doing those things anymore. He's flat out too slow for Tony or Manu. Comes with age and carrying around 300+ lbs. His knees must be shot.
Also let's add a couple of other views. The Hack a Shaq is working. It not only reduces the Suns scoring - Shaq shot poorly from the line - but effectively destroys or severely hampers their team rhythm. This team wasn't in sync last night. They just couldn't get going and get into a rhythm. They need to do that in order to be effective. I believe that a secondary effect of the Hack a Shaq move was in disrupting their rhythm.
Amare isn't a very good help defender either. Low BB IQ. When Shaq gets beaten on the P/R there isn't any help. Either the help is too late or nonexistent.
We're looking at a possible sweep or 4-1 exit on their part. This wasn't expected in the beginning. Far from it. This was going to be epic. Instant ESPN classic. Best first round series ever. Now a possible sweep?!
Oh Stevie if you could have a mulligan what would it be?
Shaq - How the mighty have fallen.
whottt you are talking to yourself?
Shaq scored well last night.
He stayed out of foul trouble.
He defended well in weak side defense and in the post.
However, and what I think Whott is ignoring..
He, especially when paired with Nash, were DESTROYED by the PnR. I would like to see the scoring % on them, it must be like 75%...
Sure, that was not why he was brought in...but it can't be ignored like it didn't matter. Like it doesn't counter-balance his positive impact on the game, and doesn't expose how, overall, he was a hindrance to his team.
TRUE, if Grant Hill is Healthy, that matchup is harder to produce b/c grant hill guards parker, and makes that PNR harder to exploit.
Yet, that reality was not before us, and in this world the Nash/Shaq defensive combo in the PNR was a disaster for Phx.
That, and Nash was uncharacteristically knocked off his stride by Bowen; normally Nash is clutch as and like nails in general. He did still have 9 assists, but his scoring was amazingly limited. Good job Bowen.
Its not like Shaq sucks overall, but his impact in the game was nearly negated by his bad free throw shooting and his defensive limitations, if not turned into a negative psychologically speaking for the rest of his team mates.
Phx has, in the past, been able to play stretches of some defense, don't kid yourself whott; the spurs found an area that phx has a HUGE liability that could not be sewn up, and that gaping wound has yet to be s ched up. Their current roster does not really have an answer to it.
Yeah...but you guys are basically claiming that this series would be much more in the favor of the Suns if Marion was here instead of Shaq...
I think you guys are clearly on crack. Shaq's been a hundred times the factor Shawn Marion ever was...get ing serious.
Shaq was 100 times the factor Marion was?
It is mostly that Suns gained inside but lost outside.
If Marion was in the game spurs would be 5-0 in the series instead of 3-0?
If it makes any difference, I agree with what Whottt's been saying.
I called my buddy last night after the game and we talked about the game for like an hour. We both came to the immediate conclusion that Shaq played a good game, kept Tim Duncan from dominating us, prevented a lot of points in the paint (only 28 scored in the paint for the Spurs last night), stayed out of foul trouble, etc.
Nash, on the other hand, was 100% non-existent in last night's game. Our playoff warrior, our leader, our clutch shooter, our go-to guy when things are looking bad, gave up on the game and the team last night, leaving Leandro Barbosa to pick up the ing pieces in the 4th quarter. D'Antoni might as well have started DJ Strawberry and brought Nash off the bench. At least then, DJ's solid D would have prevented Parker from going off to the tune of 85 points, 73 assists, 21 rebounds, 16 steals, 2 blocks, and 1 demoralized counterpart.
Last night was the first time I've seen Steve Nash give up on the Phoenix Suns.
People need to stop taking whottt seriously. Since his "Cavs over Spurs in 5" arguments, you know he lives in a parallel basketball universe.
Bottomline, this isn't about this series itself. After Shaq joined the Suns they had a lot of trouble defending perimeter oriented teams. Pop just made sure he temporarily eliminated 4-down from the playbook and added a few variations of screen-and-roll.
I'm not saying Marion would have been an improvement, because then we would be seeing less pick-n-roll, more 4-down. Basically with Marion, Duncan would kill them. With Shaq, Parker and Ginobili get to wield the sword.
The Suns have defensive deficiencies in either case. However several posters on this board claimed that Shaq would give them the upper hand. Just before the series started I argued that changing the "inside-out" attack to "outside-in" was all the Spurs needed to do to regain dominance. QED.
This is not a tongue and cheek argument...I'm saying Shaq is a better playoff player and more difficult match up problem for us, even now, than Shawn Marion ever was or will be...he's also more of a leader.
Anyone that thinks otherwise really wasn't paying attention during the Marion years of the Suns. Shawn Marion had jack to do with their success against us and everything to do with their failure...he was the weakest link...Steve Nash wasn't even close to being the weakest link...and he is now...and Shaq hasn't been anything close to being the weakest link in this series...I'd say he's been the second best player in this series for the Suns..at worst, at the absolute worst he's been the third best.
I thought Shaq was good in Games 1 and 2. In Game 3, Shaq went into sweep mode. Even then, he still wasn't the reason they lost. Stoudemire is an even worse pick-and-roll defender and worse post defender. Shaq was bad but he wasn't the worst player and he wasn't a top three reason why they lost.
Oh and I like how picnroll threw Duncan under the bus during the regular season as the excuse for why Shaq and the Suns beat the Spurs during the regular season. Didn't see much picnroll posts after Duncan went wild in Game 1. I guess Duncan wasn't as done as picnroll made him out to be.
lol @ the idea of...
Shaq = The answer
I haven't been able to watch but a few minutes of each game. For work ressons. I did have my doubts of Duncan usual abioiy to conisitly dominate a game the way he had in years past. I still think he's slipping there and becoming increasingly dependent on his co-stars.
Shaq played well in game 1. I thought he hardly played from foul trouble trouble and being taken off the floor in crunch time because he's an inept FT shooter, something that will undoubtedly be exploited one more time this year as a key piece of the Spurs shaqling the Suns.
picnroll
know your roll and leave
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