Basketbawful on Nash, Hill - Old

[JohnVancouver]

Rsavaj - I gave this a thread as I thought it prompts a discussion not specific to other threads, and the Magic game thread was pretty old to be adding to.

(BTW, Jarron Collins earned a Voskuhl in this game. "Jarron Collins took down one board in 12:24, only to foul twice for a Madsen-level 2:1 Voskuhl."
I swear, Basketbawful is like the Daily Show. You really can get all the news you need form it.)



"The Phoenix Suns: Sure, they were missing Leandro Barbosa (sore right wrist), but the Magic were minus two former All-Stars: Rashard Lewis (suspension) and Vince Carter (sprained ankle). That should have evened things out, right? Wrong. The Suns simply couldn't keep their men in front of them, letting Orlando shoot 52 percent from the field and from beyond the arc. Phoenix kept things close in the first half, but fatigue rendered oldies-but-goodies Steve Nash (12 points, 5-for-11, 4 assists, 3 turnovers) and Grant Hill (0-for-5 for zero points, 3 boards and an assist) ineffective as the Suns lost by 22. By the way, their combined plus-minus score was -42.

Note that I called this in the comments section of yesterday's post. It's not that I don't like the Suns. I root like hell for them. But I've watched a lot of my favorite players get older: Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, Reggie Miller, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Charles Barkley...so on and so forth. Even when they were "old" in basketball terms, those guys could still rip off big games and lead their teams to 50-win seasons. In fact, their teams might have won close to 60 if not for long road trips and back-to-back games. But scheduling is a bitch. I couldn't help but notice, while watching those players age, that they would struggle mightily on the second night of back-to-backs, especially on the road. Bird's Celtics and Malone's Jazz lost to some truly awful teams and got destroyed by good teams under those circumstances. On paper, with all things being equal, those teams should have been competitive every night. But all things aren't equal. Fatigue sets in. Now that I'm into my 30s, I get that in a way I never understood before. If I play basketball on back-to-back nights, I'm hurtin'. (It doesn't help that I'm one of those "dive for every loose ball" and "sprint down the floor on every possession" guys.)

At any rate, as long as the Suns rely so heavily on Steve Nash, they're going to be at their best when Captain Canada has a little rest going for him.

As a sidenote, Phoenix gave up 25 points on 18 turnovers. That didn't help."


Fair enough, and I really like this site and the guys who write for it - but: The Spurs won several championships when they were "too old". The Spurs never had the best record in the league but there were no back to backs in the playoffs, the elders got their rest and we all went home in tears.

Maybe we should rest Nash and Hill more on the second night of these doubleheaders. Of course, the West is so tough now that every game counts big.

[rsavaj]

I love basketbawful. I think the reason that the Spurs won was the fact that they had an astoundingly effective bench. Our bench rocks but it's still not ready for prime-time; when our starters lay a complete egg, it appears as though they can't win the games for us.

[justinb80]

I think a team is extremely, extremely lucky if their bench can win games for them. For the most part, there's a reason those players are on the bench and not starting: they're not starters. A bench is around to spell the starters, so if the bench doesn't lose a lead and holds ground, they're a success.

[JohnVancouver]

Our esteemed mod is right - when you can afford to bring Ginobli off the bench, you got a strong squad. We're getting there though.
(Once again, SA has a great bench, and way into lux tax to do it. How can a small market team in Texas do it and the Suns can't?)

[-SDU-]

championships bring money

[RunDogGun]

Our esteemed mod is right - when you can afford to bring Ginobli off the bench, you got a strong squad. We're getting there though.
(Once again, SA has a great bench, and way into lux tax to do it. How can a small market team in Texas do it and the Suns can't?)

Winning two number one players, in years where there were clear number one players, got the ball rolling. Couple that with good drafting and then players taking less to keep a strong team, leads to good things always.

Oh, and being Stern's favorite team doesn't hurt.