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129 commentsby Paul Coro - Oct. 5, 2008 10:00 PM
The Arizona Republic
Nobody had a more inquisitive Suns training camp than guard Raja Bell, whose inquiring mind was emblematic of how much the Suns' inner workings have shifted under new coach Terry Porter.
"Everything is different," Bell said. "If you don't know, you better ask. When everything changes on you, sometimes you've got to ask questions to make sure you're on the same page.
"It's a 180 but that's what we've decided we need to do to win. Now, it's about us all understanding the way we're going to play and the schemes."
Bell was frequently the player Mike D'Antoni couldn't bring himself to take off the floor in recent years. He averaged a team-high 35.3 minutes last season because D'Antoni needed Bell's All-NBA defense and his 3-point shooting to spread the floor offensively.
"From an offensive standpoint, he may be touching the ball more," Porter said. "In the past, he may have been just running to a spot, so to speak. He's going to be able to touch it, move it and put it on the floor more than in the past. There'll be more screens, pin-downs and things of that nature."
Porter also has the Suns changing defensively, going from a team that funneled dribblers to the middle to one that shades them to the baseline.
"If we can get it done, which I'm sure we will, we'll be a much improved defensive team," Bell said.
Porter said Bell is ideal for what he expects in perimeter defense.
"The first line of this defense is you've got to take care of the job of guarding your man and having some containment principles, not letting them get great blow-bys," Porter said. "He's going to be great from that standing point."
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"I like to act decisively whenever I'm trying to get something done," Dumars said. "But I'm well aware that there has to be another team that's willing, and there has to be a good deal for both teams. Those two things will slow you down in doing a deal."
From an offensive standpoint, he may be touching the ball more," Porter said. "In the past, he may have been just running to a spot, so to speak. He's going to be able to touch it, move it and put it on the floor more than in the past. There'll be more screens, pin-downs and things of that nature."
Im not sure you want Raja putting the ball on the floor too much, sounds more like what an opposing coach wants. I know it just a quote, and I like the part withe the screens, but what Raja Bell does best is catch and shoot and defense. That was true when he was with sloan and the jazz as well as the suns. I just hope porters plans fit his personnel, that he is not trying to fit the personnel to a plan as opposed to the opposite.
From an offensive standpoint, he may be touching the ball more," Porter said. "In the past, he may have been just running to a spot, so to speak. He's going to be able to touch it, move it and put it on the floor more than in the past. There'll be more screens, pin-downs and things of that nature."
Im not sure you want Raja putting the ball on the floor too much, sounds more like what an opposing coach wants. I know it just a quote, and I like the part withe the screens, but what Raja Bell does best is catch and shoot and defense. That was true when he was with sloan and the jazz as well as the suns. I just hope porters plans fit his personnel, that he is not trying to fit the personnel to a plan as opposed to the opposite.
I don't agree. When Nash was fresh, Suns offence had no problem with Raja's spot up shooter role. But now, Nash does not have enough energy to manage all suns offence during his 35 minutes of playing time. When Nash was younger, basically all other 4 just spread and wait for nash's pass all the time. Simply it does not work all the time anymore, because Nash's 34 years old. Nash's not a superman anymore. Raja's adding another option in his resume.
Again, all Porter's work is useless if Nash is two or three years younger. But Nash's not. So what Porter's doing is to make suns to create offence without Nash sometimes, so Nash can rest a little.
It might be for the "motion offense" which Porter seems to be deploying. There will be more passing instead of dribbling b4 a shot is taken. Nash is still the center of ball movement, but we won't need to him dribble out the the clock to create a chance. The other wing players will do a lot of quick in and out passes, so will Bell.
But for Bell to put the ball on floor more ... I'm not sure what's the meaning here. He is not a good ball handler, doesn't have the skill to create shots by dribbling. Maybe Porter sees him good enough to do it in high pick&roll? ... Sounds weird to me.
Don't you love coach speak. It is like a foreign language where translating is easily garbled.
What am I looking for (hoping probably), lots of rapid passing and movement without the ball. Drive and kick as well as interior dump passes. Girve the defenses enough to think about that they can't just stack to deal with the pick and roll.
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"I like to act decisively whenever I'm trying to get something done," Dumars said. "But I'm well aware that there has to be another team that's willing, and there has to be a good deal for both teams. Those two things will slow you down in doing a deal."
This is what I was afraid of. You take the most potent free-wheeling offense in the league over the last few years, with the most imaginative pg in the league, and you change it competely.
I agreed with Kerr that we needed to step up defense. But completely revamping the offense is a mistake. How can you shackle Steve Nash with set plays? That's like putting a governor on a Ferrari or making Picasso do paint by numbers
You get a choice: free wheeling but totally dependent on Nash or more strucutre that can be run by other guys. What matter is winning and it is not like Nash will not be available to do his thing at crunch time.
Porter has said he loves the three, but is not going to give everyone a "bright green light" in shooting them.
Let's wait until at least the first preseason game before we panic.
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"I like to act decisively whenever I'm trying to get something done," Dumars said. "But I'm well aware that there has to be another team that's willing, and there has to be a good deal for both teams. Those two things will slow you down in doing a deal."
But for Bell to put the ball on floor more ... I'm not sure what's the meaning here. He is not a good ball handler, doesn't have the skill to create shots by dribbling. Maybe Porter sees him good enough to do it in high pick&roll? ... Sounds weird to me.
Like I said, anyone who has seen Bell play knows that you dont want him dribble penetrating, his handles arent very good and he cant create his own shot in traffic. Raja can be an teriffic spot up shooter, the suns best outside nash. Raja can also make that shot when defended. I love Raja Bell for what he does for the suns, but if Porter thinks Raja is going to penetrate in traffic, he should lay off the mai tais. Grant Hill, sure he can do that, maybe even matt barnes can do that some.
I do think the suns offense will take a step or two back from the DA era. Pops always said the DA offense was the hardest to defend in the NBA. I'll bet Pops will be much more comfortable with Terry Porters more simple conventional offense. The key for the suns will be how good will the defense be? Certainly more energy will be devoted to defense and the suns will slow it down to prevent easy pts in transition, but the offense will almost certainly not be as efficient.
All the jive about better shot selection is just jive. More easy open shots exist early in the offense, its just the way it is before the defense gets set. After the defense sets, shots will get tougher later in the shot clock. The suns weakness hasnt been on the offensive side of the ball, not at all. An improvement in defense may more than offset the degradation that will surely occur in the offense. The porter theory is to be able to milk the shot clock to prevent easy opposition baskets and try to get a good shot. This will help to retain leads, make it harder to come back on the suns, but the offense cant slip too much.
In reviewing the pistons shooting percentages in the playoffs over the last several years, its clear that they dont have a highly efficient offense, they hit only 41-45% of their shots in the postseason over the last 4 years. Over this time the suns have been hitting 46-49%, with the 46% coming last year against the spurs with the nash/stat pick and roll suffering due of lack of offensive spacing with the hill injury and all.
Last edited by nowagimp; October 7th, 2008 at 10:38 AM.
It WILL be interesting to see what happens when the lihgts go on. D'Antoni was terribly stubborn about early shooting even when nothing was falling and the opponents were greared to stop it. Will Porter be equally stubborn about slowing it down?
I don't know. With Gentry running the offense, I'd think there will be a serious voice about what to do in early offense. My read on it is that Kerr does not want to abandon what worked either; but just get away from being totally dependent on the Suns style.
Pops may have said the Suns offense was the hardest to stop, but his record shows that knew exactly HOW to stop the Suns, only some of which is within the rules.
IMHO the problem with the D'Antoni offense was too many contested three point shots. If Porter stops guys from taking wide open threes, the team will suffer but his record as a player was that he was a very good shooter and recognizes the value of open shots.
As for the Pistons, we don't know who was in charge of what. My suspicion is that Sheed's desire to play the wing was not Porter's idea. Also, even with Shaq, the Suns are much more athletic than the Pistons.
But if Porter slows the game down AND it kills their their offense, I don't think he'll fail to hear the complaints.
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"I like to act decisively whenever I'm trying to get something done," Dumars said. "But I'm well aware that there has to be another team that's willing, and there has to be a good deal for both teams. Those two things will slow you down in doing a deal."
Its one of tenet's of motion offenses that dribbling in only to used to attack the basket so I'm baffled about TP wanting Raja to dribble more, like everyone else. The only explanation would be that he thinks that we will have pretty wide open lanes to the hoop. Some work on off ball screens, anathema to D'A, should help in that regard but not to the point your SG can cruise in unmolested. Raja has never shown much mid range game so what's he going to do when he's cut off halfway in?
I too am confused by what Porter expects from Raja, but I'm reluctant to evaluate the IDEA until seeing it in action.
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"I like to act decisively whenever I'm trying to get something done," Dumars said. "But I'm well aware that there has to be another team that's willing, and there has to be a good deal for both teams. Those two things will slow you down in doing a deal."
I too am confused by what Porter expects from Raja, but I'm reluctant to evaluate the IDEA until seeing it in action.
I think its just a smokescreen, porter getting used to the media. I think the suns mgmt has learned from the DA era to be more diplomatic with the media. In this case, he appears to have fed the media some crap, just to get them to go away. I dont believe for one minute that porter thinks Raja should be dribble penetrating, but I do think that its a touchy subject, to take the offense out of nashs hands. If Porter is calling plays from the sideline, I suspect he does not trust nash to follow his plan. Kerr wanted DA to instruct nash to go to amare more, perhaps this is kerr trying to make that happen. DA's philosophy was to get the ball to the open shooter, Kerr seems to differ there. It will be interesting to see what happens, but I suspect that amare was more effective with Nash distracting the defense on the pick and roll. Kerr and porter played in an era dominated by isos, clearing the side for a 2 man game. Not sure that this approach will be as effective in the zone era. I will be evaluating Kerr, not porter on this plan. Kerr is the boss and I suspect he is getting porter to execute his vision since porter is a relatively unproven coach.
I think its just a smokescreen, porter getting used to the media. I think the suns mgmt has learned from the DA era to be more diplomatic with the media. In this case, he appears to have fed the media some crap, just to get them to go away. I dont believe for one minute that porter thinks Raja should be dribble penetrating, but I do think that its a touchy subject, to take the offense out of nashs hands.
If Nash is getting 30 minutes a game, then the ball WILL be out of his hands for 18 minutes
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If Porter is calling plays from the sideline, I suspect he does not trust nash to follow his plan. Kerr wanted DA to instruct nash to go to amare more, perhaps this is kerr trying to make that happen
Nash:
Quote:
“On offense, we’re slowing everything down just so we can learn to play at this pace.”
Nash is relying on general manager Steve Kerr’s edict that the Suns will still do what they’ve done best and Porter’s offensive teachings are an add-on to help them paint with a broader brush.
“We need to have more structure and more options, but we’re obviously still a team that’s going to get out and run in transition.
Does this team need to learn how to run? They had the pre-camp workouts to work on running the break.
Quote:
. DA's philosophy was to get the ball to the open shooter, Kerr sees to differ there. It will be interesting to see what happens, but I suspect that amare was more effective with Nash distracting the defense on the pick and roll.
My problem with the Suns shooting was that guys like Marion felt they had a green light to shoot threes in crunch situations, but was not very good at it (34.1 career and very inconsistent). Hill was pushed hard to take threes at the start of the season and shot just 33 of 104 (31.7%).
IMHO, trading Marion helped their three point shooting percentage.
Nov - 37.6%
Dec - 36.2%
Jan - 40.4%
Feb - 39.3% (Marion traded)
Mar - 42.8%
Apr - 40.8%
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. Kerr and porter played in an era dominated by isos, clearing the side for a 2 man game. Not sure that this approach will be as effective in the zone era. I will be evaluating Kerr, not porter on this plan. Kerr is the boss and I suspect he is getting porter to execute his vision since porter is a relatively unproven coach.
I suppose it is my "glass half full view of the world, but I don't think Bell will be used much as a driver on a team with Hill, Barnes, Barbosa, and Dragic on the team. I do think there will be more use of screen to open up shots.
"From an offensive standpoint, he (Bell) may be touching the ball more," Porter said. "In the past, he may have been just running to a spot, so to speak. He's going to be able to touch it, move it and put it on the floor more than in the past. There'll be more screens, pin-downs and things of that nature."
__________________
"I like to act decisively whenever I'm trying to get something done," Dumars said. "But I'm well aware that there has to be another team that's willing, and there has to be a good deal for both teams. Those two things will slow you down in doing a deal."
Last edited by Irish; October 8th, 2008 at 12:32 PM.
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