The Bill Walton Rebuttal ... Why Phoenix Will Never Win a Championship.
The Phoenix Suns have a lot going for them. A two-time Most Valuable Player winner in Steve Nash, the best offense in the league and the second best record in the league at 27-8. Unfortunately, a shot at the league's coveted Larry O' Brien trophy is not one of them. As long as Phoenix champions the D'antoni/Nelson run-and-gun style of play, a championship will always be two steps further than this Suns team can take.ESPN's Tim Legler, former NBA coach Doug Collins and hall of famer Bill Walton have all jumped on the Suns' bandwagon, proclaiming that this is the year for the Steve Nash team to win it all. Nash is an unrivaled play creator, a high percentage shooter and a deserving recipient of two MVP nods. Amare is back and in excellent form. Leandro Barbosa has found his role as a lightning fast scorer. While the stars may seem to align with Phoenix finishing sans-peril, here's why they will come short as they have the previous two years.
BILL WALTON
"I just don't see the same fire and drive to win a championship in San Antonio that I do in Phoenix."
Walton's observation is not completely ludicrous as the Spurs have lost more than 5 games they know they should have dominated. Losing to Charlotte, Milwaukee, Golden State and Minnesota does not bode well for the Spurs being at the top of the NBA's totem pole. However, the Spurs have avenged all but one of these losses with massive blowout victories.
Less than halfway through the season, The Spurs sit 15 games over 500 at 26-11, just four games behind the piping hot Mavericks. Four games? Geez Bill, I guess the world is falling down for the Spurs and we should predict armageddon. Give me a break Walton.
"The Suns are just beating everybody with their unique style of play. They're going to win the championship."
If the Suns style is unique, which in fact it isn't, it's because teams who win championships know how to play real defense. Phoenix supporters have thrown numbers out that might suggest they have improved defensively. #1 in defending the 3-pointer, 3rd in opp. FG percentage.
These stats are great, but they are not the only keys to great defense. Phoenix runs teams up and down the floor at hyperspeed, outscoring and outrunning them. When most teams try to play at Phoenix tempo, they're tricked into taking quick, wild outside shots that ultimately clunk. Nobody can consistently play run-and-gun better than Phoenix. Golden State and Washington play a similar tempo game, but are likely losers when trying to outrun Phoenix. They're the Miles Davis, the Queen Elizabeth of this style of offensive-centric basketball.
There's a difference between forcing your opponents to shoot outside jumpers because of stellar interior defense and daring them to match your speed. Phoenix does the latter. It's not defense Doug and Bill, it's speed.
Phoenix still ranks in the bottom five defensively. With the All-Star break around the corner, that stat is as reliable as a high electric bill.
MOST IMPORTANTLY, three of the eight losses in that L column have come thanks to Dallas and San Antonio, the latter team of which you said is not hungry enough to win a championship. I may be brain-challenged Bill, but how many times has Phoenix reached the Finals in the last two years? None.
Dallas and San Antonio may only be two out of 30 teams, but for Phoenix they're the only two teams that matter.
The Spurs play a methodical, defensive-centric game. The Mavs are learning to imitate their I-35 rivals and reaping the benefits. Both the Mavs and Spurs have beaten the Suns playing run-and-gun in a playoff situation. Until Phoenix starts generating their offense from defense, they will not be NBA champions.
Offense may win games, but defense wins championships.
The San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks, Miami Heat, Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets, Philadelphia 76'ers, New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks--all teams that have reached the Finals in the last 11 years.
Did any of these teams get there playing Phoenix style run-and-gun? Defense wins championships. I rest my case.
posted by Robert Kleeman @ 10:32 PM
1 Comments:
The last time a team won a championship palying run-and-gun they did their runnin' and gunnin' in tiny little shorts. THat goes back to Walton's era of being more than a mouth in the NBA.
The defensive minded Rodman era Pistons and Phil Jackson's well-crafted finesse offensive Bulls made run-and-gun obsolete.
The Suns are a great team. Just like the 2003 Mavericks. There were fans (like me) and Walton-esque blow-hards who said the Mavs were going to win it all back then... but that proved not to be the case.
The Nelson-Nash Mavericks were so offense orientated and defensivelly weak that still today the Avery-Damp-Diop Mavericks have to work hard to shake that no D image.
But championships are funny things. How many people at the start of the playoffs thought it would be Dallas and Miami? And Miami won? Udonis Haslem? Miami wasnt the best team of 2005-06 but they were the Champions.
Phoenix has the talent to win it all, but do they have the will? Maybe, but they aren't winning anything on t he sheer force of their style of play.
If the Phoenix Steve Nashes play San Antonio, Houston or Dallas in a seven game series they arent going to be able to pull-off 4 victories playing that same style of play.
Beat San Antonio with speed one game, then the next game they will match you with the speed of Parker and Manu and their quick centers. Then the next game Amare won't be able to handle Duncan's mid-range game. Then the next game, Duncan will dominate the paint defensively and offensively.
As far as Houston vs. Phoenix for every game that the Suns run away with, the Rockets will pullout a grinding, swatting, rebouding victory. And if it comes down to a shooting battle well... maybe someone in Clutch City can make a three.
Now Dallas is, of course, my personal favorite. Last year when Phoenix put up a good fight against Dallas in the Conference Finals one Mav-killer was Tim Thomas. He is gone now. I his place another Thomas who when matched up against the 2 headed monster of Dampier and Diop isn't very scary at all. Otherwise Dallas has seen key improvements from Howard and Harris. And that German fellow is pretty good too.
Any team with someone called "Jet" on their team knows how to run. But when you have a couch who won a championship with the Spurs your team knos how to do a lot more.
wow.. pretty long comment..sorry
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