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I am pretty sure he will switch between the 2 just as he did with AI and Carmelo.
Do you guys have any idea who Bruce Bowen will be guarding primarily in this series?
Will Pop stick him on Marion or Nash?
I am pretty sure he will switch between the 2 just as he did with AI and Carmelo.
Just like 05, Marion.
Marion is a big X Factor.
You make Parker make Nash a shooter as opposed to a distributer, shut off Marion completely, let Duncan, Oberto and Finley take their turns on Amare slowing him down.
Who will be guarding Barbosa?
Bruce vs Marion
But Marion knows what's coming up ; in fact, that's what he said after eliminating L.A :
""We gotta be better in the next round cos the Spurs have leadership and can play at this level"
That's somewhat of a relief. The idea of Bowen guarding Nash terrifies me.
if they ran a nash/barbosa back court at times i'd imagine it would be tony on barbosa and bowen on nash..
if they throw out:
nash
barbosa
bell
marion
stoudemire
i'd assume we'd counter it with
bowen
tony
gino
horry
duncan
but damn that phx line up is fairly scary.
Our best offensive lineup is:
Nash
Barbosa
Bell
Marion
Stoudemire
I'd prefer a more defensive lineup to start the game:
Nash
Bell
Marion
Stoudemire
KThomas
Parker guarded him a lot in the regular season.
I don't know if D'Antoni is going to start KThomas on Duncan (it would be smart if he did). If he does, then Elson on Stoudemire. Duncan on KThomas. Bowen on Marion. Finley on Bell. Parker on Nash.
If Thomas doesn't start, then Elson on JJones. Duncan on Stoudemire. Bowen on Marion. Finley on Bell. Parker on Nash.
When Barbosa comes in, if Parker is still in the game, then Parker slides guard Barbosa. And if Nash is still in, Bowen moves to him.
According to your Offensive lineup, the best Spurs team facing this team should be:
Parker
Bowen
Ginobili
Finley
Duncan
Otherwise, to counter your Defensive lineup it should be:
Parker
Bowen
Ginobili
Horry
Duncan
Defensively, I think D'Antoni will have Marion on Parker, Bell on Manu, Nash on Bowen, James Jones on Elson, Stoudemire on Duncan.
What are the chances of Pop going even smaller than Elson?
Good chance if Elson doesn't show up.
If Spurs go small, then I think the Suns stand a better chance in this series. I'd stick with Elson, even if he plays poorly. A secret to beating the Suns is to control the glass, and the Spurs won't do that if they go small.
I seriously doubt KThomas will get the start or too much burn against the Spurs. He's the only one who can give Timmy fits, but he absolutely kills the D'Antoni style of run and gun (or Controlled Chaos as he calls it), and I'm thinking D'Antoni figures getting the game up tempo is going to be the only way they can beat the Spurs. I think he just saw what SA did to a Nuggets team that had to play in the half court, and IMO the Nuggets have better pieces in which to play a half court game with the Spurs.
Amare will go off again, I see no reason why Pop changes his gameplan for 05
with the way finley's playing defense and shooting the ball, i'd imagine it wouldn't be as much of a defensive drop as would normally be expected if we went with parker/manu/finley/horry/duncan to offensively counter that small phx lineup.
it will be an interesting series for sure though.
I'd think it would be bowen on marion, parker on nash, manu on barbosa, finley on bell, the bigs on amare.
And I have this tingly feeling in my spine that diaw will be a problem...
Elson isn't much a factor on the glass normally anyway
But I think he'll have a decent series against the Suns.
The Suns are a better half-court team than the Nuggets, I can guarantee you that.
The Spurs are going to try their best to slow this series down, and for the most part, I think they'll be successful. If D'Antoni fruitlessly sticks to a small lineup even though the game has slowed, the Suns will lose. Why not use Kurt when the Spurs control the pace?
Horry and Oberto will see much more playing time during this series. I just can't see Elson out there guarding Amare.
If the Spurs can find a guy for Oberto to guard, he's the type of guy who can burn the Suns with rebounding and baskets close to the rim. Unless Kurt Thomas plays, the only other guy Oberto can guard outside of Stoudemire is perhaps Diaw.
Because a slow paced team isn't what got him there, does D'Antoni even know how to slow that ball up?
I think you have to have Tony on LB whenever the two are on the court together. He's pretty much the only one we have who has the quickness to stay with him.
I like the idea of Bowen on Nash as much as possible. Bowen is stronger, longer, bigger and can mess up the timing of Nash's pick and rolls. He might be able to get away with the occasional elbow or bump because of his reputation as an elite defender that Tony can't get away with. I don't think Tony can bother Nash defensively as much as he bothered AI because Nash isn't looking to score, he's looking for passing angles mainly. You need somebody with some size and wingspan to take those angles away. And Nash's main offensive weapon will be the fadeaway, and Tony can't take that away even if he wanted to.
I really think people are overrating Marion offensively. We can put Finley or Manu on him and get away with it. The guy doesn't post up, he doesn't have a back to the basket game, and he's not much of a driver. His whole game is offensive rebounds, transition, and 3 pointers. You don't need Bowen's size to take away the last two. As long as we keep him off the boards, Fin and Manu can neutralize him about as well as Bowen did.
if parker closes out well, he should be the one defending nash most of the time. when nash and barbosa are both on the floor, put him on barbosa..with good defensive pressure he could get some open looks from the 3pt-line(bowen that is), so could finley for that matter..if the suns duo is not together on the floor, put him on marion..he's already shut him down numerous times..I also think elson could do a good job defending him
Last edited by naico; 05-03-2007 at 02:26 AM.
My guess is Bowen on Nash and Parker on Barbosa. Bowen's length will bother Nash's vision as well as make it hard for him to penetrate.
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