Posted by TrueBlue:
It worked in 05-06 Diaw performed more than well. He kinda lost his way once Amare came back into the fray. The way I look at it Amare, Diaw, Shaq, Brian Skinner, Hill, Tucker are more than capable of handling any front court player in the West. Playoffs are about half court basketball and defense not Run N Gun and offense.
Boris' problem is that he's a natural at the 4. In '05-06, he was playing the 4 and sometimes the 5. He was quicker, smarter and more athletic than most players he was going up against on a nightly basis in the regular season. He also spread the floor and took opponents' best rebounders from the basket. You now put him at the 3 with Shaq and Amare. He worked much better with Shawn than he does Amare whose ball dominance hurts Diaw's Odom-like game. Amare's jumper is incredible compared to what it used to be, but he still likes to come across the lane for jump hooks and dunks...a lane that will now be filled by Shaq who is wholly ineffective outside of 8 feet.
The good thing for the Suns is that no one is going to double Shaq, yet you still have to double Amare. If Shaq moves his slow ass for the first time in 2 years, he'll get plenty of open looks off passes from Amare and Boris.
But defensively, having Shaq stand there and watch as all of the faster 4's and 5's in the west eat him alive or picking up cheap fouls when Tony, Chris, Deron, and almost every other point guard not named Fisher or Skip blow right past Nash on a nightly basis, is not helping the cause. Who is the person on the Suns that D'Antoni is going to call on in the 4th quarter to stop the opponent's best player? Shawn Marion guarded everyone from Parker to Dirk to Kobe to Duncan. Now what? Diaw? Hill? As bad as the Suns were defensively, they will be far worse now that they don't have Marion out there creating turnovers, forcing players into bad shots, and playing help side to make up for all of Nash, Barbosa and Amare's mistakes. Raja Bell can't do it alone.
2/6/2008 9:51 AM
