Shaquille O’Neal Knows His Role; Steve Nash Has Almost Perfected His
Coach D’Antoni: Here’s the play. Steve, you bring up the ball. Amare, set the pick for Steve. Shaq, get out of the way.
The pick and roll at the top has always been the Suns bread and butter, but then Shaq arrived, and that butter made ya put on an ugly face. Shaq picking and roliing wasn’t working. And, even when the screen was set by Stoudemire, the Big Diesel seemed to get in the way. Steve Nash was having trouble adapting to the big fella. Nash was playing with a dominant big man for the first time in his career, and D’Antoni was putting this big man in a position where he wasn’t going to be successful - at the free throw line and beyond.
Since then, things have been figured out. Shaq either gets the ball in the post, or he gets off the block and watches Steve and Amare work their magic. The key thing is that everyone is doing what they do best. Stoudemire continues to finish at the rim and doesn’t look for Shaq at his spot along the baseline; Shaq isn’t great at finishing from there, but he is useful. Just as the front office planned, he receives the ball down low in post up situations or he gets a feed when he’s stationed only a couple feet from the bucket. Meanwhile, the Nash is free to roam the way he’s been roaming for years. Creating, distributing, getting out on the break, and he’s also hitting his shots.
Which brings us to the two-time MVP that hasn’t won a ring. To me, Nash’s downfall in the playoffs has been that he’s too unselfish. He just doesn’t look for his own shot enough when his team really needs him to. When the postseason gets going and the D tightens up, Nash needs to get a little greedy and stroke that sweet J. I keep thinking of last season, round 2: a game 5 loss to the Spurs when both Stoudemire and Boris Diaw were suspended. As time wound down in a close game, Nash either passed off, or, when he did decide to shoot, his reluctance threw him off just enough so that he’d miss shots he’d made thousands of times.
It isn’t a concern to me that he feels he doesn’t need a ring to validate his career. He has the drive to win; he wouldn’t have come close to this point if he didn’t. I just think he has to change who he is a little bit to get there. Nash has never been a typical NBA player - he’s selfless. Monday against the Nuggets, his 36 point performance was selfish, and it was beautiful. He got hit in the face, he was angry, and he went and got his. Now, we’ve seen Nash score 40+ in the postseason before, but his shots have never won a series. To me, a little helping of “Selfish Steve” would do just that.
The Shaq trade has brought a bit of urgency to the Suns organization, and it surely has made Nash take notice. The front office has made a statement: the time is now. Steve isn’t dumb, he sees it. He also understands that sometimes if you wanna get things done, you just gotta do it yourself.
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The Basketball Jones is a NBA blog and podcast, written and recorded five times a week by J.E. Skeets, Tas Melas and Jason Doyle. Comments, questions and cold hard cash are always welcome and much appreciated. Contact us.
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shouldn’t you be ironing your big collars or watching porn???? posting at 3:30am, good on you. guess you will be slurring your words on this mornings podcast.
now about Nash, could it be that he just doesn’t have the onions to take the big shots??
I like the idea of calling Nash “the Nash.” He’s needed a nickname for a while.
No show today. Sorry peoples.
Tas on Canadian jury duty? Knowing you’re a real man I predict you vote guilty on the plaintiff. Stay away from that Canadian mafia too.
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Good read Tas, I agree with you that Nash needs to shoot more. He’s the best shooter on the team. Most of the time defenses are expecting him to pass, so he can throw people off by taking the shot himself. He shouldn’t worry about missing it as much, because Shaq and Amare are there to help with the boards. I use to dreg watching the early shaq-es suns (like watching a car wreck waiting to happen), but find them more tolerable and exciting now they have found their groove again.
Actually Tas, why dont you do a regular written column on weekends and expound on topics you didnt have time to during the week?
Btw, I agree with everything but I dont like when we give excuses for athletes we like:
>his reluctance threw him off just enough so that >he’d miss shots he’d made thousands of times.
If we like the guy like we do S. Nash we say the above. If its Wince Carter, we say he is a choking dog. (Which of course, he is.)
really good read, and I agree with Papa Chango, i would love to read more articles like this on weekends. However, tas and skeets and jd don’t get payed for this so really anything we get is a gift. On the nash issue I think that he should play how he does the first three quarters but then in the 4th he needs to take over. Sort of how lebron figured that out last year, down the stretch nash should want to decide the game, not barbosa or bell.
Tas - come on now is this just Candian bias your showing here? As we discussed over at BSoS, the lack of dependence on Nash is a HUGE plus for the Suns.
Two years ago in the playoff’s Nash was carrying the team. Every game. Every night. And he was wore down. Its just too much to ask of the tough little feller. Last year we saw when Amare wasn’t on the floor to run that beautiful pick and roll that Nash still had to carry too much of the load.
In the 4th qtr against the Spurs it always came down to the same thing. Nash. Amare. Pick. Roll. The Spurs are too good to beat them the same way time and time and time again.
The Suns needed more balance. And this year even before the Big Catcus the Suns worked hard to take the ball out of Nash’s hands so he wouldn’t have to work as hard. Its been probably the biggest unnoticed improvement on the Suns this year.
But your right. The guy showed he can still carry the team and come playoffs I am sure there will be a few games that he does again. But he knows - and I know - that the Suns are better with him less involved and not more.
oh yeah, and put down the Molsen and pick up the mic.
I want my damn podcast!
the suns are not going to any championship any time soon…. they just have the bad luck of being in a very tough western conference. Noh,Sas,Lakers,jazz are more potent and formidable compared to the suns. Adding shaq though not a bust as earlier predicted by most, it didnt really make things that much better. Before the shaq trade they were no.1 in the west, now theyre more likely to finish 5th or 6th . a first round with the jazz , a end to the nash and run and gun suns era is imminent
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if anyone needs to step it up shooting wise its boris diaw he is a strong person but does not use that stregnth. instead of driving it to the hole strong he will take a jump shot. if diaw plays strong in the playoffs coming off the bench the suns have the depth to go some where
YOU WANT A NICK NAME FOR NASH JUST CALL HIM DOING IT (NASHTY).
LOOK OUT WITH THE DIESEL AND STAT BUT DON’T FORGET THE BRASILIAN BLUR,ONCE THY GET ON THE ROLLE YOU BETTER MAKE NOTE, IM CALLING IT: THE SUNS ARE GOING TO GO TO THE FINALS AND WIN IT ALL….THIS IS THE YEAR!!!!!BABY!!
this canadian git’s alright!!
the suns are good but aren’t good enough. they need to finsih games against struggling teams such as the mavs. Even though the are in six i hope they can make there way up to the 5 spot to let them play utah. They can win it this year because i think their big three: NASH, SHAQ, and red hot STOUDEMIRE, is bigger than the celtics. THey can win it all, just need to put in more effort. LEts go for it,eh
Nash is the best player, hes good in offense but poor in Big D
Now that the Suns have Shaq, they will win it all no problem!
I’m rooting for Shaq to score 100 points (even though I know he won’t) but in defeat. I hope Phoenix totally falls, crashes, and chokes in the playoffs as long as Shaq gets his. I appreciate Nash for the playmaker that he is but the city of Phoenix does not deserve to be NBA Champs. Your sports stations act like the Lakers and Spurs do not exist by not showing highlights of their games.