Minnesota Sports Forum

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

thedoper wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

thedoper wrote:Chris Paul is an enigma. I feel like he could get 50 every game and part of me thinks he should. He always seems to wait too long to take over games.

Steve Nash was knocked much the same way. As was John Stockton before him.

I was thinking about those guys. I never believed that either of them could have scored like Paul can, like in the variety of ways. But those guys had some trouble in the post season like Paul because they didn't have a clear go to option with the game on the line. To me the last PG who had the proper balance was Isaiah (Magic is in a class of his own). That dude just knew when to rip your heart out, great distributor but was selfish enough to know when it was his time.

I know the guy gets ripped for not making the Finals. But I think Nash's playoff resume in Phoenix is excellent.

They made the WCF multiple times and were probably the 2nd best team in basketball each season. There's no shame in that. And they had bad luck, whether it was Nash being pulled from a game for bleeding all over the court with 2 minutes left... the suspensions... et al. As for scoring... Nash improved his scoring numbers in the playoffs most of the time. He was a 14 ppg scorer in the regular season... 17 ppg in the playoffs and went over 20 ppg a couple of times.

And there's the infamous 2005 series vs. his former Dallas team. They dared him to shoot. He scored 46 points one game... and finished the final three games against them averaging something like 37/9/9.


[Note: To be fair, there were times when I wished he'd have shot even more... including that game/series vs. SAS after the suspect suspensions to Stoudemire and others.]

thedoper wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

thedoper wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

thedoper wrote:Chris Paul is an enigma. I feel like he could get 50 every game and part of me thinks he should. He always seems to wait too long to take over games.

Steve Nash was knocked much the same way. As was John Stockton before him.

I was thinking about those guys. I never believed that either of them could have scored like Paul can, like in the variety of ways. But those guys had some trouble in the post season like Paul because they didn't have a clear go to option with the game on the line. To me the last PG who had the proper balance was Isaiah (Magic is in a class of his own). That dude just knew when to rip your heart out, great distributor but was selfish enough to know when it was his time.

I know the guy gets ripped for not making the Finals. But I think Nash's playoff resume in Phoenix is excellent.

They made the WCF multiple times and were probably the 2nd best team in basketball each season. There's no shame in that. And they had bad luck, whether it was Nash being pulled from a game for bleeding all over the court with 2 minutes left... the suspensions... et al. As for scoring... Nash improved his scoring numbers in the playoffs most of the time. He was a 14 ppg scorer in the regular season... 17 ppg in the playoffs and went over 20 ppg a couple of times.

And there's the infamous 2005 series vs. his former Dallas team. They dared him to shoot. He scored 46 points one game... and finished the final three games against them averaging something like 37/9/9.


[Note: To be fair, there were times when I wished he'd have shot even more... including that game/series vs. SAS after the suspect suspensions to Stoudemire and others.]

I think those suns teams were great too. I just never really believed they were going to win it all, despite them getting screwed more than once as you claim. I'm still a believer that you have to know who shoots when the game flips to ISO ball. The NBA devolves to this no matter how strong the system, especially in the playoffs. I love the great ball
movement and shooting we see now, but the ISO scorer will always be relevant in the playoffs.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

thedoper wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

thedoper wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

thedoper wrote:Chris Paul is an enigma. I feel like he could get 50 every game and part of me thinks he should. He always seems to wait too long to take over games.

Steve Nash was knocked much the same way. As was John Stockton before him.

I was thinking about those guys. I never believed that either of them could have scored like Paul can, like in the variety of ways. But those guys had some trouble in the post season like Paul because they didn't have a clear go to option with the game on the line. To me the last PG who had the proper balance was Isaiah (Magic is in a class of his own). That dude just knew when to rip your heart out, great distributor but was selfish enough to know when it was his time.

I know the guy gets ripped for not making the Finals. But I think Nash's playoff resume in Phoenix is excellent.

They made the WCF multiple times and were probably the 2nd best team in basketball each season. There's no shame in that. And they had bad luck, whether it was Nash being pulled from a game for bleeding all over the court with 2 minutes left... the suspensions... et al. As for scoring... Nash improved his scoring numbers in the playoffs most of the time. He was a 14 ppg scorer in the regular season... 17 ppg in the playoffs and went over 20 ppg a couple of times.

And there's the infamous 2005 series vs. his former Dallas team. They dared him to shoot. He scored 46 points one game... and finished the final three games against them averaging something like 37/9/9.


[Note: To be fair, there were times when I wished he'd have shot even more... including that game/series vs. SAS after the suspect suspensions to Stoudemire and others.]

I think those suns teams were great too. I just never really believed they were going to win it all, despite them getting screwed more than once as you claim. I'm still a believer that you have to know who shoots when the game flips to ISO ball. The NBA devolves to this no matter how strong the system, especially in the playoffs. I love the great ball
movement and shooting we see now, but the ISO scorer will always be relevant in the playoffs.

Sure. All makes sense.

I'm just saying that those Suns teams simply weren't good enough in any of those seasons. I just want to make it clear that it wasn't necessarily Nash's fault for that.

Being the 2nd best team is pretty good on its own...

CoolBreeze44 wrote:Remember Paul's first couple years in the league? He had that stop and start style while handling the ball that I had never seen before. He was an enormous problem for anyone trying to check him. Then he got hurt, and that seemed to slow the meteoric rise he was on. Of course he's come back to be one of the best in the game, but I'm not sure he became as good as I thought he might based on his beginnings.

monsterpile wrote:Has anyone been paying attention to the play of Taurean Prince? He put up and other nice game tonight in a loss and looks like he stepped up well enough when he got his opportunities the 2nd half of the season. I liked him and thought it was a good trade they made to add a pick to get him for Teague.