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Yea, Sean Marks getting minutes makes them much better than last year
http://www.nba.com/suns/news/tribune_071028.htmlNash: Suns Better, Deeper Than Last Year
By Jerry Brown
eastvalleytribune.com,
Oct. 28, 2007
As always, he’s polite about it. But Steve Nash would still rather not talk about it. More than five months later, the pain and frustration is still there, still raw, masked only by the promise of another season and another opportunity to make things right.
But think about it? How can Nash not mentally return to last year’s epic playoff series with San Antonio, replay the plot twists and turns worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster?
How can he not think about his nose that wouldn’t stop bleeding in Game 1? The rogue referee who was holding the whistle in Game 3? Robert Horry’s hip-check that sent him flying into the scorer’s table in Game 4, which started the dominoes toward two back-breaking suspensions in Game 5?
Even if he wanted to forget, every trip down the street in his summer home of New York City turned into a walk down memory lane.
“It’s New York. A thousand people a day, at least, came up and said 'You guys got robbed,’ ” he said. “You don’t know what to say. Do you say 'Thanks?’ I guess they think they’re helping, but you really don’t want to go there.”
He’ll turn 34 in February, but Nash still feels and sounds and looks like a player at the peak of his production. But after watching the Spurs lose only one more game after eliminating Phoenix while rolling to another championship, will Nash and the Suns ever have a better chance to break through themselves?
“I realize we got beat and it’s over and done with. But I’m not sure it’s behind me,” he said. “It’s not really washed out. It stays with you. It was a difficult series in a lot of ways — the difference in the way games are officiated; how rules are interpreted … I really don’t lik e talking about it.”
With the Suns regular-season opener scheduled for Thursday at Seattle, Nash sat down with the Tribune for his annual “State of Steve” preseason interview, talking about the 2007-08 Suns, the changes, the expectations and his busy, evolving life off the court.
Q: You mention the word “karma” a lot. Do you think it has a lot to do with the way things work out in basketball?
A: I don’t look at things that mystically, so no. But the work and effort and the motives that you put into something, I believe you get rewarded for it. I’m not saying we sabotage our own cause, but if we’re going to win it, we have to continue to keep pushing and fighting and learning with a clear, unselfish motive. If we do that, then I do believe that we’ll be rewarded with a championship.
It’s self-fulfilling to say we were cheated out of something. Obviously, we have to be better. Winners say we have to find a way to get better and overcome our deficiencies.
Q: You’ve always kept yourself in great shape. But at 33, do you find yourself having to do something different to reach your optimum? Is that process changing?
A: I still feel great, I feel like I’m moving as well as I ever did. The difference is that every year, it’s a little bit harder to get in game shape for the season. I’m there now, but I can tell it took longer. Now that I’m there, I don’t see a drop-off, so I’ll keep doing what I’ve always done.
Q: Does that mean you take less time off during the summer?
A: Physically, I don’t take much of a break because I just can’t sit still. I like to be active, I like to feel fit. I like to eat well and if I don’t work out I can’t eat well, so that’s a motivator. I generally stay in shape year round.
Q: But you still give basketball a healthy break?
A: Yeah, it’s important for me not to play a lot in the summer. My passion for the game now is more about winning a championship and being a part of a team that achieves the ultimate goal. It’s not the passion to just play the game all day long, which I had when I was younger. I still love the game when I’m out there playing, but when I’m not out there I’m not thinking about when I can play again.
Q: Every year, questions are asked about whether you play too many minutes. At this point in your career, wouldn’t that benefit you and extend your career?
A: Why? Am I ever going to be better than I am right now?
You have to say that in my 30s, I’ve played my best basketball. I’ve improved every season. I feel great, so why not play a ton and get the most out of it? Most guys don’t get a chance to play at this level, so while I can do that I want to make the most of it.
I’ll worry about the other stuff later. I think if I continue to prepare myself physically and mentally for what’s coming, I’ll be OK. There’ll be a day when that’s not enough, but it’s not today. At the end of the last two seasons, I felt strong and I felt I was playing well. I didn’t see the drop-off.
Q: You have approached this training camp differently. Why?
A: Last year, I was in great shape coming into camp and by the end I had a little dip and we got off to that slow (1-5) start to the season. This year, I’m trying to build up more instead of being high early and then coming back down. I know I’m going to have to play a lot of minutes, and that the minutes at the end of the game are the most taxing. As I get older, it’s about finding the right motivation and it’s about pacing. It’s about being able to deliver what your team needs when it needs it.
Q: Grant Hill’s addition has you very excited. Beyond his obvious talents and contributions, how does he affect what this team does and where it wants to go?
A: He makes us a tougher team to defend and much less predictable. When that ball gets swung around, instead of going to a guy who can only shoot it, we have a guy who can shoot, who can drive and finish and who can pass with play-making ability. We’re more balanced and teams will have to adjust to that. He’s hungry to win and he’s going to be another person pushing the team to be at its best.
We could have won it last year and I think we’re a better team with Grant and Brian (Skinner) and Sean (Marks) being used more and who knows who we might pick up before the (trade) deadline. I like our makeup. Some of the younger guys are getting better and more experienced. I think we’re getting deeper. We were right there the last three years and there’s no reason with improvement and experience this team can’t be the champions.
Discuss.
Yea, Sean Marks getting minutes makes them much better than last year
I was walking through the streets of New York last night and I had at least a thousand people come up to me and tell me I got 2 minutes of my life robbed from me after reading this article.
Unless Stern and the other big $$ guys are completely fed up with the Spurs making the championship, I don't see the Suns beating them. I think they are weaker than last year. I'm excited to see how they do though, in the playoffs.
Last edited by Walter Craparita; 10-29-2007 at 01:09 PM.
Coro's Suns dish
Some slices of orange that go beyond the daily Suns coverage.
Stern dumps rule
Word is NBA Commissioner David Stern will appear downtown today at the Suns' noon pep rally at the Arizona Center.
Whoa, whoa.
Put away the megaphone and that file of heckling material. It's not true. Well, there is a pep rally with Mike D'Antoni and Amaré Stoudemire. But no commissioner. We are not sure when we will see him again unless there is a Larry O'Brien Trophy to be handed out in June. In that case, it seems like Suns fans would consider him to be a skunk at a wedding, especially after the decision he made last week.
When the majority of his referees were found in violation of a rule prohibiting nearly all forms of gambling, Stern concluded that they should not be punished because the rule was "too absolute" and "too harsh." In Phoenix, that makes Stern hypocritical.
Fans may find it hard to understand that Stern would bend the rule for his officials, a group whose integrity in this gambling department has been gashed by Tim Donaghy, but so steadfastly and dismissively enforce a rule absolutely when Stoudemire and Boris Diaw left the bench when San Antonio's Robert Horry hip-checked Steve Nash into the scorer's table during last season's playoffs.
It is easy for some to see the hypocrisy and for others to call the matters unrelated. But for a commissioner who fines any player not wearing a shirt collar and who said this summer to officials that, "Legal betting will cost you your job," it seemed unprecedented for him to not even go with the "undisclosed fine" to acknowledge a violation.
These officials definitely broke a rule.
Stoudemire and Diaw broke a rule by an interpretation, although you could argue until you turn purple that the players did not head down the sideline "during" an altercation, only because of a foul. And you could also forever question what "the vicinity of the bench" is deemed. Those are lasting questions because the rule remains the same.
There is a common denominator with these rules. Both address mind-sets and nip a behavior's progression.
Most players who leave the bench don't engage in fights but a rule aims to prevent those who do. Most players who frequent a blackjack table or bet on a round of golf are not going to fix a game but a rule eliminates a possibly addictive path.
So the Suns must be steaming, right? It's bygones for the most part, although the feelings of being wronged seep back into the conversation the longer you stay on the topic.
"Two wrongs don't make a right," D'Antoni said of the ruling on referees. "They needed to do that and move past it."
"There should be a change (in the rule) so you can arbitrarily look at it and make it so there's different interpretations, like whether your team even started it. There are different cir stances. If I run out of the house to shoot somebody or if I see my family getting beat up and go out to defend them, one is a little bit different punishment. With one, you throw the key away."
Diaw said, "It's too late."
Stoudemire said, "There's no problem at all with it. . . . That's the last thing on my mind - what happened last year."
Sure, and Horry is as welcome here as any former Suns player.
Don't forget Brian Skinner over Kurt Thomas, either.
Actually, is Grant Hill for 30 mpg 50 games a year better than James Jones for 25 mpg for 75 games a year? Because that's pretty much the only difference between last year and this one, at least as far as the regular season is concerned.
I don't know what to make of the Suns this season. Can they win the West? They have enough to do so and reach the Finals. However I am not as certain as I was last year. Maybe last year was their best chance? Point is no matter what Nash says you never know how they will come back from last season's implosion. Hopefully I am wrong and they are playing in June.
We also have a couple of promising rookies that have played well in the preseason. Both Alando Tucker and DJ Strawberry deserve minutes over Sean Marks and Marcus ing Banks. If I'm D'Antoni, here's my rotation when healthy:
Amare/Skinner
Marion/Diaw
Hill/Tucker
Bell/Barbosa
Nash/Strawberry
Of course, we all know D'Antoni won't go 10 deep. The Suns are legitimately deeper this year, D'Antoni just doesn't know how to operate his bench properly.
D"Antoni should follow Pop's example and keep his starters minutes under 30 per game. I have seen Nash play too many minutes in games were the outcome is not in doubt. I can understand close games but really should the starters be playing in games were the Suns are ahead by 20 plus points with 5 minutes to go in the 4th.
Yes, actually Grant Hill is better than James Jones, even if it might be for 50 games. James Jones did nothing for the Suns except miss shot after shot and not play defense like he should have been able to. I'm not sure about Skinner yet since I haven't seen him play. I hated it when we traded Kurt Thomas but we couldn't pay someone sixteen million dollars to sit on the bench since coach wasn't realy going to play him much. I think Kerr may have something to say this year about who he should play (like playing the bench more). At least I can hope that he plays the bench this year!
Kerr has been active in the media talking about how little-used players from last season will see more playing time this season. And it seems like the entire team (GM, coach, players) is high on the two rookies, particularly Strawberry. If that guy doesn't see some regular PT, I might shoot myself.
I hope you are right , and I really like Strawberry! But please don't shoot yourself, you are one of the few Suns fans that I actually like reading their opinions on this board.
What Suns fans fail to understand is that just because people say you got robbed and that the Suns should have won, doesn't meant that's how it should have happened. If you're going by that logic, you should shut the up because all Spurs fans + some say that the Spurs should have won, because they were better.
Anyway, I'd like to see the Suns play before I decide for myself if they are better than las tyear. I don't think they are but who knows? We can find out soon.
Pop keeps their minutes at most to 35 mpg during the regular season. Duncan plays close to that, Parker plays close to that, and that's about it. It's a smart (at times, for me at least, frustrating) strategy that pays off in the playoffs.
yes, the Suns definitely don't whine...“It’s New York. A thousand people a day, at least, came up and said 'You guys got robbed,’ ” he said. “You don’t know what to say. Do you say 'Thanks?’ I guess they think they’re helping, but you really don’t want to go there.”
Suns deeper, don't they say this every damn year?
What a dumbass.
How is Nash whining?
By the fact that it's almost November, and he's still talking about it, perhaps? Read his first two quotes in the article. If I were remotely worried about the Suns as a threat to the Spurs, I'd actually be encouraged that he still cries into his pillow about that series.
at Xylus, Armando and Nashfan stuffing d_s_f's obvious troll attempt.
God damn man do you ever give it a ing rest? All this time and you're still running your yap? No hobbies?
Good to know Spurs are still in the head of Suns players.
Hehe, D'antoni says that Grant Hill is better than Joe Johnson. From http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/DanBickley/9617:
"I'm telling you, the guy has been unbelievable," D'Antoni said. "He's better than (former Suns star) Joe Johnson."
Wow. I guess I can take his declaration that Amare is back to his 2005 ways with a grain of salt as well.
yeah, that nash isn't a whiny at all.</sarcasm>
spurs fans that think this guy is great need to check themselves.
i love the fact, though, that the spurs series is still on his mind. from the mavs to the suns, the spurs have a mental thing on this dude. he's never going to beat them. hahaha
you've got a good starting 5. a good backup point that shrinks against the spurs. and a bunch of scrubs. you got smaller and weaker. the spurs are going to ing destroy you on the inside. amare will foul out in 20 minutes. how the can you suns fans be optimistic about this?
Our backup shooting guard (who apparently you got confused as being the backup point guard, proving you don't watch the Suns) was injured during the San Antonio series, which limited his effectiveness. Diaw is a good player off the bench, and Tucker, Strawberry, and Banks are all sure to get some effective minutes.
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