mojorizen7

S.A. STERNS
When TD sat Parker/Ginobli would take over & run. It was a simple plan & everyone bought into it.

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Fishing in the Lou

cly2tw

So, the failure is in the SYSTEM. I agree with that.

For the franchise, DA's system was a dilemma of great regular season success vs no legs for postseason. Nash owes his MVPs to DA's system. No doubt about it. Despite some bias, Simmons is right in principle.

nowagimp

the NBA is the easiest sport to predict success in, you make it too complicated. When you have the horses, MJ, Kobe, young shaq, tim Duncan, KG+PP you win. When you have no defensive presence in the middle or inside game, you dont win. The suns have never had a defensive presence in the middle. Now, that should be easy to comprehend.

hsandhu

And whoever had 12/30/2008 in the pool for when the first "steve nash was strictly a product of the d'antoni system" article would come out wins!

I like bill simmons, but how completely lame, unoriginal and lazy on his part. This article already wrote itself as soon as d'antoni left. Of course anyone who has been watching the suns game in and game out knows it is a bogus premise.

He's comparing nash mvp years to nash now. Wow what an observation Bill, players slow down as they get older! Compare nash now to nash second half of last year, he is the exact same player. Last time I check pringles was here last year.

HooverDam

Bill Simmons is a high function retard, I can't believe anyone would put any salt into any of his articles. He's just another in a multitude of uneducated Boston homers who somehow lucked into a column with ESPN.

S_Nash

*Yawn*

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...simmons/070117


Guy changes his mind more times than a QB on the fly.

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Walking through the park the other day, I stumbled across a season ticket pass for the Clippers nailed to a tree.

Naturally I took it. You can never have enough nails...

gusmahler

I normally like Simmons's basketball columns. His writing on other sports is terribly Boston-centric, but his love of basketball shows in his columns and he's usually sort of objective.

That said, this was the worst column I've ever seen by him. (Made even worse by the link earlier in this thread to the column praising the Suns.) It just seemed like he had nothing to write about, so he chose a subject and went to the extreme on it. Seriously, one can argue about Nash's decline or the acquisition of Shaq. But how can anyone deny that STAT is an all-star? 21/9 (his average for December) is certainly All-Star quality. Does any other PF have those kinds of stats?

Irish

I'm pretty sure that most writers don't see the Suns enough to understand what 'D'Antoni teams do.

1. Runs all the time
2. Shoots a lot of early threes (before the defense is set)
3. Uses Pick and Roll or Drive and Kick plays with a goal of collapsing the opposiiton and then shooking threes
4. Avoids intentional fouls to keep the game going and wear down the opponent while keeping guys in the game
5. Played a very short bench so seven guys got starter minutes.

The D'Antoni system was completely dependent on the three and had trouble against a Spurs team that guarded the three point arc while having Duncan back to guard the rim.

The problem we have in discussing the D'Antoni system is that it never got a real test since injuries proved fatal

2004-05 Joe Johnson was injured
2005-06 Amare Stoudemeire and Kurt Thomas were injured
2006-07 Raja Bell was injured
2007-08 Grant Hill was injured

Key guys left or traded: 2005 Joe Johnson left through free agency and 2006 Tim Thomas left through free agency. 2007 Kurt Thomas and James Jones traded.

It is not clear how much of D'Antoni's system was undone by D'Antoni's total failure as a GM. Nor do we know if the injuries are just a sign of bad personnel planning or just bad luck.

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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."

dodie53

what's SSOL?

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“You can’t worry about things you have no control over.”

"Above and Beyond"

-- Steve Nash

"I don't even care how much I score.
I just want to win."
-- Ron Artest

S_Nash

__________________
Walking through the park the other day, I stumbled across a season ticket pass for the Clippers nailed to a tree.

Naturally I took it. You can never have enough nails...

S_Nash

Not to worry YJGS'D, I got your back

__________________
Walking through the park the other day, I stumbled across a season ticket pass for the Clippers nailed to a tree.

Naturally I took it. You can never have enough nails...

leclerc

I don't read too much on ESPN but I think Bill Simmons is far better than most of their basketball writers. He needs to ease up on the old sitcom memoirs and Vegas romance cause he's getting too old for that stuff. A guy aged 40 still in love with Beverly f'ing Hills 90210. I'd like him to not simplify the writing or the conclusions. And clearly Amaré is an all star, that's just stupid!

One has to take into account what Nash brought to Dallas and Phoenix and the Suns bad luck with playoff injuries. Joe went down. Bell tore his calf. Barbosa had a bruised elbow. All that. I know injuries happen to every team but how many NBA champs have had playoff key injuries like that in recent time?

SSOL = Seven seconds or less. I had to google it even though I've read the book. Which is good btw. Especially the Lakers beating was highly enjoyable. They're a good team and a great franchise off course, but we still can't stand them bastards.