Coro: Calling out all Suns

WuRaider

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http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/PaulCoro/18391

Calling out all Suns
For starters, let's address the team as a whole. The Suns have been terrible in two departments -- turnovers and defense -- for four consecutive games.

Facing a team Saturday that was nothing like the Lakers, Pistons or Hornets, they didn't show improvement in either area of "concentration"? The 76ers rank 26th in offense but scored 24 points above their average in beating the Suns,119-114. The worst turnover average in the league is 16.2 (Seattle) but the Suns are averaging 17.8 in the past five games.

In four years, have the Suns looked further away from winning a championship when fully stocked than they appear right now? The talk in the locker room is that this will take another two weeks. Another two weeks of this?

Hey, at least they helped Atlanta stay in ninth place in the East!

Let's slice up the orange individually . . .

Steve Nash: Never have fans turned on Nash as much as they are doing so right now. He's earned it. If it's not enough that Nash's defense is a constant Suns handicap (especially now that they play straight-up more with Shaquille O'Neal), his run of turnovers is befuddling. He made six Saturday, giving him 23 turnovers in the past five games (4.6 per game, matching his career-worst February average).

By the way, when you run a high two man-game with Shaq and he dives, nobody believes the ball is going there on a roll 10-12 feet from the basket. That cross-court pass to the 3-point shooter is more predictable than ever so it's getting picked. (ZING!)

"We can play easily the way we used to play," Mike D'Antoni said before the game.

It sure doesn't seem like it.

Nash never talks about his own play being off but that's in line with him never banging his chest about his good nights either. It's always a team reaction with Nash, who was supposed to benefit from an emotional jolt out of O'Neal's presence but it looks like that already has passed amid the losing.

Between the final 30 seconds of the first half and first 2:30 of the second half, he made three turnovers that led to a one-on-nothing dunk, a three-on-one fastbreak layup and another one-on-nobody dunk, not to mention the missed jumper between them that created a breakaway layup. The 76ers had 30 fastbreak points with a bunch of those coming off Suns turnovers. Those turnovers for easy points are compromising the Suns defense effort but Nash's individual defense is not helping.

"Right now, we're just struggling," said Nash, who is 7 of 19 from the field in the past two games.

Raja Bell: You expect an impact from his defense at the least but the Suns aren't stopping anybody lately and he's included. See Andre Iguodala quote about how Bell lit his flame.

"He started giving me bumps here and bumps there," Iguodala said of Bell. "Getting on me really tight. That kind of turned me onto the game a little more. It gave me a little more focus. When he started to do that, I said to myself, 'Pick it up and try to get your team a win tonight."

Iguodala scored 32 on 15-of-23 shooting, some of it was just a sick streak. He made 11 of the 16 perimeter shots he tried with Grant Hill contesting many, including Iguodala's 50-foot heave at the end of the third quarter.

And his offense still hasn't been too hot. It's not just the mediocre 3-point shooting (17 of 56 in the past 10 games). He's having trouble scoring anywhere else, going 4 for 17 inside the arc in the past four games.
(Raja needs to be benched, what's the point of keeping him in for defense if he can't even defend right now?)

Shaquille O'Neal: "This has nothing to do with Shaq," Mike D'Antoni said after the team went 2-4 with O'Neal playing.

Maybe. But O'Neal is contributing to the turnover problems. He has made 19 turnovers in his six games. His presence 15 to 18 feet away from the basket continues to look like a fish out of water. Defenses don't care if he has the ball out there. He is not used to being there with the ball. For the second straight game, he was in a position where he actually went into the air with the ball to make a pass.

His two early fouls compromised plans early Saturday but Phoenix fared better with him on the court (plus two) and he again helped the Suns play an even game on the boards against the league's No. 2 offensive rebounding team.

Shaq missed his first jump hook (short, like all his misses seem to be) and then made his other four shots, including a couple of impressive post-up shots.

Amare Stoudemire: Often a defensive liability as well, Stoudemire's shot was out of sorts Saturday too. He missed his first four shots. By then, the Suns were down 10 points. He didn't score for 12 consecutive minutes on the floor in the middle of the game. The five offensive rebounds were the highlight of Stoudemire's line for the night.

"I take this loss and put it on my shoulders tonight," Stoudemire said. "My energy wasn't quite where it should have been from the jump ball."

OK. Strange time to do that but at least he was willing to assess some self-blame.

Grant Hill: He would seem to be one of the players trying to find his fit in the O'Neal era as well. Again, offense really isn't the team's biggest problem but it can be when misses and turnovers are getting the other teams running more against the Suns.

Hill is 21 of 54 from the field in the past five games. That's not very Hill-like, although those jams he had in Memphis and New Orleans were classic Hill. He even sped up on the latter one when he saw a poster shot waiting. And that baseline reverse he made in the first quarter was just as impressive.

His jumper failed him Saturday. And he's going to prove me wrong on 3-pointers. I thought he'd become a fair threat out there and he was until the appendectomy. He made 16 of 37 (43 percent) 3-point tries in the 22 games prior to his surgery. He is 2 for 13 since then in 17 games.

Boris Diaw: Might as well leave this blank and let you all do this one. What more can be said? He's as talented as his 13-point second quarter and as pass-from-the-rim frustrating as his one-shot second half. You can't just stop being aggressive when it is the most effective thing your team had going.

Without seeing the replay, I can't be sure but it sure seemed like there was a play in which Diaw got the ball on the block with a guard on him. The guard was not even on his back but Diaw flung the ball to the cross-court corner for a 3-point shot. Of course, it went in so he made "the right play."

Leandro Barbosa: His defensive liabilities probably don't get called out nearly enough. The Suns can't hardly afford to have Barbosa and Nash play simultaneously because of the defensive impact.

It does look like LB has found his 3-point stroke. He is 11 for 19 on the long ball in the past three games. He has not made that made in a three-game stretch since mid-November.

Sean Marks: The buzz cut is 0-1.

Mike D'Antoni: It's the trade he wanted so now he's got to make it work.

And just for grins . . .

The Adio Sol Patrol broke the net on the Suns basket between the third and fourth quarters, when it does its dunking exhibition. The dunkers still did all of their routine and the game was held up until the net was replaced. The new one stayed tight-looking for a while because Phoenix did not score on its first five possessions of the fourth.

Philadelphia has won 11 of its past 12 second games in back-to-back sets. That's crazy impressive.

Remember how awful the offense looked in that Boston game when Leandro Barbosa got whacked and left after a minute of play? That showed some vulnerability at point guard depth that led to this exploration of signing Tyronn Lue.
 

pokerface

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See thats the thing, a lot of fans have been concentrating on the O'neil trade as the culprit when in reality incompitence is running rampant all the way down the line. Nash isnt Nash, Bell isnt Bell, Diaw IS Diaw (but that isnt exactly saying much). Plus I think D'Antoni only knows one way to coach which is not to coach at all and let his players hang themselves. The whole team in general is falling apart in front of our eyes.

But you know what? This is actually more entertaining than before the Shaq trade. The drama now is unbelievable! Watching D'Antoni on the hot seat and the players scratching thier heads is more fun to watch than the pre-Shaq Suns who were going to be road kill down the road in the playoffs. I'd rather see anarchy than complacency anyday.
 

TucsonDevil

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I'm glad to see a beat writer calling out the Suns. We don't have nearly enough of the local press getting on the Suns for their poor performance. I would like to have seen Paul Coro get on Mike D'Antoni a bit more. He is 100% correct about Nash and LB playing together. For the life of me, I can't see why LB isn't a better defender. He has the tools of a good defender, but just lacks the motivation. Many say you can't be taught or coached to have a 'nasty/mean' streak, but I disagree. Diaw and LB ought to be thrown into a cage, starved for 4 days, and then fed raw meat. Since both are signed for awhile, this off season should be the "summer of Diaw/LB" in which the Suns turn these players into monsters. Force them to miss the Olympics, stay in town and coach them into defensive machines.

Oh well, a guy can dream, can't he?
 

cly2tw

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It's the coach that should be called out. After watching teh 76ser game, the biggest problem on offense is our defense of pick-n-rolls. Particularly, Amare is like a robot showing hard, so that the opponents often just fake a pick or so and would get the best inside position against Amare right away. It's so frustrating to watch. Shaq, probably instructed by coaches the same way, shows hard only occasionally. It's the coach's job to instruct Amare mix it up a little and concede the jumpers by the PG from time to time, to make it less predicatable for the offense.

On offense, we had 8 turnovers, 5 by Nash and 3 by Shaq, within 5 min or so in the 4th. Shaq's were due to his lack of conditioning to keep his balance fighting for position underneath. Nash's were just by his dribbling too much and the defense now seemingly had his tendencies all figured out and was already waiting for body turns and passes. This could be easily fixed by instructing Nash to stop dribbling but to pass without dribble. The problem with those tos is they lead to fastbreak points too easily. Plus us unable to defend p-n-rs, we deserved the loss.
 

TucsonDevil

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It's the coach that should be called out.

Chris Sanders, Where are you? This post by cly2tw needs to be placed in the D'Antoni complain thread, so we can hide the criticism. Quick, don't let it spread like wild fire... Hide it Now! Please, before we all agree with it.
 

Rab

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I loved this article when I read it yesterday. I've always enjoyed reading Coro's articles, but this one may be my favorite.

He comes off as much more of fan of the team then a member of the media. He has a lot of the same concerns as we do. Kind of refreshing.
 

sly fly

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This article hits home on so many levels. Thsi team needed to be called out, and I'm glad Coro had the balls to put it out there.
 

MiamiHeat

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I'm not sure if I agree with all of it because the suns, problems or not, were #1 in the west again and were once again going to be championship contenders. those same players are still here, except for marion and add shaq. now suns are losing to 76ers at home? to me it looks like the players are struggling because shaq does not allow them to play the style they are used to.
 

pokerface

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I'm not sure if I agree with all of it because the suns, problems or not, were #1 in the west again and were once again going to be championship contenders. those same players are still here, except for marion and add shaq. now suns are losing to 76ers at home? to me it looks like the players are struggling because shaq does not allow them to play the style they are used to.

Apparently you havnt watched the Suns schedule.

The Suns have lost to +.500 teams at an alarming rate (with Marion). They only had a very good record with Marion by beating up eastern teams.

Now the Suns have been playing tougher teams and its showing on ther record.
 

nashman

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The Suns have been playing tougher teams while intergrating a new player and offense and its showing on their record.

FTFY
 

MiamiHeat

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well with rockets yao ming injury and denver's killer upcoming schedule, it would be very hard for the suns to miss the playoffs
 

arwillan

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well with rockets yao ming injury and denver's killer upcoming schedule, it would be very hard for the suns to miss the playoffs

the rockets are playing very well without yao (2-0) as they have some guys stepping up very nicely.
 

Griffin

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Shaq, probably instructed by coaches the same way, shows hard only occasionally. It's the coach's job to instruct Amare mix it up a little and concede the jumpers by the PG from time to time, to make it less predicatable for the offense.

This could be easily fixed by instructing Nash to stop dribbling but to pass without dribble
You are basing all your arguments based on what you think the players are being told. Now unless you attend practice and team meetings, you don't really know that. You also make it seem like these players are nothing but chess pieces that do exactly what they are told and only what they are told. I have no doubt the coaching staff has made mistakes, but the players have also made mistakes executing. And Nash is a pretty smart player and knows what works out there and what doesn't better than anyone here. Are you implying that he fails to see the problem, or that he sees the problem but the coaching staff doesn't allow him to address that?
 

devilalum

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Coro will no longer be welcome at the media buffet.
 

Suns_fan69

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The Suns have been playing tougher teams while intergrating a new player and offense and its showing on their record.

FTFY

Like Philadelphia?

Lakers game, Detroit game and the NO game I can handle. Those were good teams and one on the second of a back to back. But we had 2 days rest before Philly and we dropped an egg. That has been the most discouraging loss by far.
 

DeAnna

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You are basing all your arguments based on what you think the players are being told. Now unless you attend practice and team meetings, you don't really know that. You also make it seem like these players are nothing but chess pieces that do exactly what they are told and only what they are told. I have no doubt the coaching staff has made mistakes, but the players have also made mistakes executing. And Nash is a pretty smart player and knows what works out there and what doesn't better than anyone here. Are you implying that he fails to see the problem, or that he sees the problem but the coaching staff doesn't allow him to address that?

:yeahthat:
 

cly2tw

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You are basing all your arguments based on what you think the players are being told. Now unless you attend practice and team meetings, you don't really know that. You also make it seem like these players are nothing but chess pieces that do exactly what they are told and only what they are told. I have no doubt the coaching staff has made mistakes, but the players have also made mistakes executing. And Nash is a pretty smart player and knows what works out there and what doesn't better than anyone here. Are you implying that he fails to see the problem, or that he sees the problem but the coaching staff doesn't allow him to address that?

The way I see it, Nash is a smart player that has been piling up turnovers at a record pace without doing anything to correct it. Or is it coach's job to recognize the big picture and intervene at some juncture, provided they know how?

As to showing hard on pick-n-roll defense, we read at length that DA was demanding it from Amare already back on the national team practices and said even something like this was the only way to play for our bigs. Knowing Amare is not the best and smartest defender yet, probably not mastering all the nuances of adapting his moves to situations, isn't that coach's responsibility too to pick the lesser evil and allow him to stay home at that?

The fact is, the problems we all see are nothing what can't be reasonably fixed by coach doing some work. To use DA's own words, our roster is too talented to not win. And we are not winning because we are stuck with two simple issues, pick-n-roll defense and Nash overdribbling. Period.

PS: in the only quality win with Shaq, Celtics were not using picks or screens that much like the other teams did. They were doing a lot of 1-on-1s and we didn't have much problem defending that. In the Lakers' game, Amare defended Gasol and Odom 1-on-1 lowpost attacks very well. It's again him being picked and screened that was the problem.
 
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nashman

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The Sixers are playing well they have won 10 of thier last 13 and Iggy has been going nuts, its not like we got beat up by Miami. The sixers have talent and have been better post Iverson. They are not one of the best teams I was talking about but they aren't the scrubs you make them out to be either. The Lakers must suck and be panicking too since they got beat by Portland by 8 and they are not even in the playoffs...silly right?
 
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