said he liked playing with Nash better?

Well, maybe Amare is just a selfish, selfish superstar. Complaining about touches while on the second best team in the league? What?:

As last week’s road trip neared the end, Stoudemire indicated he wanted more touches in the Suns’ offense.

The comment seemed curious in that he’s averaging 26.0 points (No. 5 in the league) and had a 40-point game on the trip.

Stoudemire backed away from that comment Wednesday, saying, "I don’t feel that way.

"A few games, we could have scored more in the fourth quarter. But we do a good job of getting everybody involved."

On a team with so many weapons, "You’ll have nights where some guys don’t get as many touches. As long as we get the win, that’s the most important thing."

Steve Nash indicated he thought the earlier comments were made in a moment of frustration.

"He’s fine," Nash said. "We all have our frustrating moments. We all come back from them."

Asked if he’d discussed the matter with Stoudemire, D’Antoni said he "always" talks about such subjects with his players.

Told Stoudemire said all the right things Wednesday, the Suns coach smiled and said, "That’s good."


http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=38804

Amare is a beast. Beasts have to be fed.

If Isiah somehow got Amare on the Knicks you would be foaming at the mouth.

The minute that...no, the second that he didn't get the ball in the paint you will be creating threads about how Herb Williams can't coach!

I know your type.

I see what you're saying. My point is, should we really take this guy seriously when he calls Steph selfish when he now says STEVE NASH isn't looking for him enough? It seems like he may be a LITTLE self-centered.

Posted by Allanfan20:

Amare actually doesn't seem like one of those prima donna types. I mean, I don't know the guy, so I can't totally tell, but he doesn't show off on the court or anything, and when he's speaks to the media, it seems like all he wants to do is win and play better. And what's wrong with him saying that he likes playing with Steve Nash better than Marbury? He's on a championship contending team with Nash.

what's wrong is that now he's complaining about Nash, one of the only pure PGs in the league.

Also, the Suns will never win a championship with that lineup.

Well, Amare is young and kind of dumb. It's like that with most of the young players. He's not perfect and a lot of these players will say controversial things. I mean, who doesn't want more touches though? You have all that talent, of course you are gonna want to touch the ball all the time. Wouldn't you? Heck, I even remember Allan Houston saying way back, that he felt like he wasn't getting enough touches. I really can't complain when I hear a guy saying he wants more touches.

About the Suns winning a championship. You're right that it will be very difficult for them, and they are far from being guaranteed the ring. However, it's not as impossible for them as it seems. I mean, if they play the Heat in the finals, if they run run and run some more and hit their shots, then they are gonna WEAR SHAQ TO THE GROUND. He's old and pretty out of shape. If he gets tired and becomes even ineffective in this transition game the Suns will be playing, the Heat could very well crumble. They most certainly would have a shot against the Heat. It's the Pistons and a team like the Sonics that should scare a lot of Suns fans. The Spurs will not make it far in the playoffs w/o Duncan. Maybe 2nd round, but that's it.

Posted by Allanfan20:

Well, Amare is young and kind of dumb. It's like that with most of the young players. He's not perfect and a lot of these players will say controversial things. I mean, who doesn't want more touches though? You have all that talent, of course you are gonna want to touch the ball all the time. Wouldn't you? Heck, I even remember Allan Houston saying way back, that he felt like he wasn't getting enough touches. I really can't complain when I hear a guy saying he wants more touches.

About the Suns winning a championship. You're right that it will be very difficult for them, and they are far from being guaranteed the ring. However, it's not as impossible for them as it seems. I mean, if they play the Heat in the finals, if they run run and run some more and hit their shots, then they are gonna WEAR SHAQ TO THE GROUND. He's old and pretty out of shape. If he gets tired and becomes even ineffective in this transition game the Suns will be playing, the Heat could very well crumble. They most certainly would have a shot against the Heat. It's the Pistons and a team like the Sonics that should scare a lot of Suns fans. The Spurs will not make it far in the playoffs w/o Duncan. Maybe 2nd round, but that's it.

Agreed about Amare. I agree with Bonn too, Nash is just a better fit for a team that wants to run. Marbs is better in the half court (which should mean, EVENTUALLY, when we get some talent around him, he'll be better in the playoffs).

About the playoffs, I see a team like Denver giving the Suns a LOT of problems in the first round, with Denver's size. I see Seattle and Houston being able to give them problems, Seattle with their shooting and rebounding and Houston with Yao and Tmac. Even Dallas' scoring. I wish San Antonio was healthy, because they would be so great.

I don't know what to think about Shaq. Will the Suns be able to run in the playoffs? Will they be exhausted by basically the 100th game of the past six months? Can they stop Shaq? Can anyone stop Wade? Wade gave Nash MAJOR problems. It'd be a great matchup. For some reason, I really don't see the Suns coming out of the West though. Nash strains his back or a hammie and it's over for Phoenix.

Posted by Allanfan20:

Posted by Bonn1997:

Posted by Allanfan20:

Amare actually doesn't seem like one of those prima donna types. I mean, I don't know the guy, so I can't totally tell, but he doesn't show off on the court or anything, and when he's speaks to the media, it seems like all he wants to do is win and play better. And what's wrong with him saying that he likes playing with Steve Nash better than Marbury? He's on a championship contending team with Nash.

Nash may even be a better fit for that team (at least on offense) because they don't play particularly well in the half-court offense (where Steph excels); they play well on fast breaks (where Nash excels because he always pushes the ball up court fast). That doesn't mean Nash is the better player obviously; it just means that he's the better fit on that particular team.
In contrast, if you get a big man with a great back to the basket game (which Amare doesn't quiet have yet) and one or two good jump shooters and Marbury is a far better fit than Nash.

[Edited by - Bonn1997 on 03/31/2005 14:39:47]

Interesting comments except I disagree about Amare. He actually has developed a very good post game and that's what the Suns work around. Nash's penetration and Amare posting up (When they are in the half court) and then setting up Marion, JJ and Q-Rich. The Suns mainly run and gun, but they excel at both the half court AND the fast break, b/c they have a starting lineup, in which all the players can bascally do anything.

I agree that Marbury is the much more talented player, but I'm thinking Nash is the better fit, b/c he ran with a similar team in Dallas and took them deep in the playoffs every year, and gained a lot of experience out of that. So in Nash's case, it's probably more so the experience he has in running with that kind of team. Meanwhile, Marbury played like 2 completely different types of teams before the Suns so he had to make a completely different adjustment. Plus, Marion and Amare were still raw. It wasn't a particularly good recipe for Marbury. This is prolly why Nash is so much more successful than Marbury at this point. If you put Nash on a team like, ohhh, The Knicks (Sigh) you'll be hearing how Nash is the most overrated PG in the league.

I didn't mean to say that Amare has no low-post game. He's flat out good at everything you want a big man to do. However, I think he's *better* at finishing fast breaks than in the half court. He's probably a top 3 or 4 big man at finishing fast breaks, whereas he doesn't rank that high yet in low-post scoring IMO. I think guys like Eddy Curry, a healthy Zach Randolph, Elton Brand have more polished low-post games than Amare, but I don't watch these guys every day.
I definitely agree that experience has helped Nash. He has a lot of experience playing on up tempo teams. But I also think for whatever reason, Marbury (unlike Nash) has a preference for playing the half-court offense. It may just be that the Knicks are not good at fast break scoring, though, but Marbury almost never likes to push the ball up court.

Yeah, I've also thought about Jamal at PG for that same reason (that he pushes the ball up court very well). The thing that scares me about Jamal playing PG is that he's a poor decision maker. If he could push the ball up court and then either lead a fast break or slow it down and hand it off to Marbury for half-court offense, that might work out best. I'm not sure he can do a good job leading the fast break, though, because that still takes good split second decision making and a good ability to finish in the open court, which Jamal is only okay at.

I've always wondered if Marbs didn't run more because of his ankles.

The thing about Amare is: he's the fastest bigman in the league when it comes to running up and down the floor. He gets so many points by beating other teams (entire teams, not just his man) down the floor. He is still deadly in the half court, he has a brilliant spin and gets to the foul line a lot. He is developing a jumper. He basically has a chance to be the most deadly big in the league for many moons. I just feel that the Suns dependence on Nash prevents them from ever winning it all. Nash is just too easy to control, at least when you have elite talent to throw at him, he's also a horrible defender (see Bibby, Ginobli and Wade).

Nash didn't lead the Mav's Deep into the playoffs every year.

Last year they were bumped in the first round by Sacromento and they only won 1 game.

The year before that they went to the WC finals the year before and lost to the champs S.A. This was their best year.

The year before that the got smacked in the 2nd round by Sacromento wining only 1 game again.

the year before that they got smacked in the 2nd round again by S.A. winning only 1 game.

Yes that is vakuable playoff experience, but the steve Nash of last year and this year is not really that different. He is on a team with more diverse talent than Dallas. Dallas never had a big man that attacked the glass, everyone was a shooter and finley was a shooter/slasher.

My point is, this is the same Steve Nash, he's just on a better team now. THis Team has the same style of play as his old one, just with more diverse talent. Its a more complete team than the Mav's of last year not necessarily more talent.

ASmare's post game is not all that. He is an incredible player, but when Nash was out he was struggling. If his post game was really all that it wouldn't matter who was running the point, you would dump it in to him and he would do his thing. Here is his fg% for the games Nash was out:
9-24
5-18
4-11
All loses too.
The 3 games were against the wizards, memphis, and detroit (the only tough one).
THe next game Nash comes back is against the Spurs and he scores 35 shooting 15-19. It not a coinkydink.

Suns
They could quite possibly get bumped in the first round depending on who they play. If they play Denver, it could be problematic for them.
Really any of the top 5 teams in the west can beat them.

I predict them getting bumped in the 2nd round by Dallas, if thats how the brackets work out.

Yeah, how silly, calling marbs a selfish player! How rediculous! Marbs makes everyone better, on ever team he has ever been on!