What Player Comes First?

[TheNorthCydeRises]

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I totally accept the fact that Nash is great and has made that team a contender. But we can't get Nash or anyone close I don't think. Plus, Nash has always been great and played on some really good Dallas teams. But, they didn't go anywhere because of a lack of defense.

I guess I believe that teams can be successful without a Nash (see Detroit, Heat, Lakers, Bulls), but you go nowhere without bigs.

Still I not saying we don't need a better point esp. on the defensive end. I just thing a big would pay more immediate dividends.

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A "big" will definitely pay more immeadiate dividends than getting a pass first PG. And contrary to what Diesel is talking about, that "big" doesn't necessarily have to elevate the Hawks from a bad defensive team to a good one. What he does have to do, is play solid defense on HIS man, especially near the end of games.

The perfect example of this, is Trenton Hassell of the T-Wolves. Because he is 6-5, the Wolves ask him to guard the other team's best scorer if it's a SG or SF. Sometimes, he even guards PG's.

Statistic wise, Trenton doesn't stand out on defense. He doesn't get a lot of steals, defensive rebounds, deflections, or blocks. He doesn't even shut the superstar players down, from a point production standpoint.

What he does do, is make every shot his man takes, a difficult one. EVERY shot is contested. And because of that, his man may give up the ball 5 - 6 more times a game, instead of shooting that many more times. Even if his man is shooting 50%, it may be 6 - 12 FG instead of 9 - 18 FG.

The problem with guys like Al and Lue, is that they just don't make guys work for their points. When a player knows that he can take a 15 foot jumper with you just giving a "hand flash" to him, or if he can blow past you anytime he wants, without you making him go the other way, they'll attack you every time. And they will keep attacking you until you or somebody else stops them from doing what they want.

The crazy thing about Trenton is that he was much more known as an offensive player, than a defensive one in college. Even in his first year in the NBA up in Chicago, he was more offensive minded than defensive. He took over 150 3's that year and made around 35% of them. Now, he doesn't even shoot the 3-ball, because he's so locked in on being a "defensive stopper".

But he didn't get to that point until a certain misunderstood player on the Bulls told him that "If you want to have a long career in this league, you can do it by playing DEFENSE. If you play good D, you'll always have a spot in this league."

That player . . . was Ron Artest.

[Diesel]

Nash is easy to use in this situation because Nash was not great right out of college. He was not ROY like Kidd.

However, Nelly Saw something in him and gave him a chance.

Now, I don't know. Speedy Claxton may be the next Nash. He has certainly done some things worthy of praise this year.

Steve Blake may be the next Nash. Livingston might be the next Nash. Harris might be the next Nash.

BK has to be able to find that guy on the verge and find a way to bring him in. Unfortunately, we missed out on Chris Paul and Deron Williams this summer and Jameer Nelson last summer.

[Diesel]

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The perfect example of this, is Trenton Hassell of the T-Wolves. Because he is 6-5, the Wolves ask him to guard the other team's best scorer if it's a SG or SF. Sometimes, he even guards PG's.

Statistic wise, Trenton doesn't stand out on defense. He doesn't get a lot of steals, defensive rebounds, deflections, or blocks. He doesn't even shut the superstar players down, from a point production standpoint.

What he does do, is make every shot his man takes, a difficult one. EVERY shot is contested. And because of that, his man may give up the ball 5 - 6 more times a game, instead of shooting that many more times. Even if his man is shooting 50%, it may be 6 - 12 FG instead of 9 - 18 FG.

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This is a horrible example that just proves my point.

Hassel is surrounded by a defensive team. At one point, when he was most effective, he had Spreewell, KG, and Cassell playing beside him. None of those guys are Artest and Ben Wallace, but all of those guys play above average defense. When you have a good framework for defense, it's easy to play up close, personal, and bother everyone. That's what Bruce Bowen does in San Antonio... He has Tim Duncan and Co. backing him up... It's easy for him to play a tight defensive game against the other teams better offensive player.

However, what happened when Hassell played for Chicago...

Go get Mudderfudder and ask him.

Hassell was definitely not a defensive stopper. In fact, they cut him...

[unknownjdb]

Pass First "Defensive" PG would improve both ends tremendously. Sure, we're getting the lay-up drill half the time, but if you had someone to stop the PG on the outside, we wouldn't necessarily need extra in the middle.

I'm tired of "good" PG's having "GREAT" games against us.

Again, my checklist of "realistic" possibilities from the Unrestricted PG Free Agents of 2006:

1. Speedy Claxton

2. Jannero Pargo

3. Marcus Banks

4. Bobby Jackson

"Realistic" possibilities for bigs:

1. Pryz

2. Nazr

3. LoWright

4. Olowokandi

5. Battie

[TheNorthCydeRises]

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The perfect example of this, is Trenton Hassell of the T-Wolves. Because he is 6-5, the Wolves ask him to guard the other team's best scorer if it's a SG or SF. Sometimes, he even guards PG's.

Statistic wise, Trenton doesn't stand out on defense. He doesn't get a lot of steals, defensive rebounds, deflections, or blocks. He doesn't even shut the superstar players down, from a point production standpoint.

What he does do, is make every shot his man takes, a difficult one. EVERY shot is contested. And because of that, his man may give up the ball 5 - 6 more times a game, instead of shooting that many more times. Even if his man is shooting 50%, it may be 6 - 12 FG instead of 9 - 18 FG.

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This is a horrible example that just proves my point.

Hassel is surrounded by a defensive team. At one point, when he was most effective, he had Spreewell, KG, and Cassell playing beside him. None of those guys are Artest and Ben Wallace, but all of those guys play above average defense. When you have a good framework for defense, it's easy to play up close, personal, and bother everyone. That's what Bruce Bowen does in San Antonio... He has Tim Duncan and Co. backing him up... It's easy for him to play a tight defensive game against the other teams better offensive player.

However, what happened when Hassell played for Chicago...

Go get Mudderfudder and ask him.

Hassell was definitely not a defensive stopper. In fact, they cut him...

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Hassell got cut because his offensive game fell off tremendously that 2nd year. He shot like 36% that year. Plus, he had Jalen Rose and Jamal Crawford playing in front of him. And at the time, both of those guys were in the Bulls future. So it was easy to let a 2nd year player like Hassell go. They let Fred Hoiberg go that year too, for basically the same reason.

And LOL @ Hassell being surrounded by a defensive team. Cassell is DEFINITELY not a defensive player. And Spree's defense was nowhere near what it was back in the 90s, but he could at least guard his man.

Don't get it twisted. Minny was a good defensive team that year because KG could eliminate things in the paint and control the boards, and Trenton could slow things down on the perimeter and shut lesser 2's and 3's down. Sam and Spree's job, was to help KG with the scoring.

In the playoffs that year, it wasn't Spree guarding Melo, Peja, and Kobe . . it was Hassell.

Minny got their scoring from Spree, Sam, and KG, and asked everybody else on the team to fill specific roles. All Hassell was asked to do, was concentrate on defense. And remember, this is a team without Wally Szczerbiak and Troy Hudson, two of their better offensive players, who were hurt most of that year.

They had guys like Mark Madsen, Fred Hoiberg, Anthony Carter and Eddie Griffin that would come off the bench, and play solid defense. Hoiberg was the hired gun of the team off the bench

Basically, that team had role players that understood that they probably wouldn't even get over 3 - 4 shots a game.

LOL . . and once again tonight, it was the same old song.

Al getting beat by his man not only to the basket, but also on the boards.

Lue letting people blow right past him, and the team watching the man blow right past him straight to the basket.

But the whole team is bad on team defense. It's just that Lue and Al stick out the most because it's their man who does the scoring. IF Al was protected by a defensive C, then he may not look so bad.

I mean, what good is the guy's offense, if he's going to give it all back and then some on the defensive end?

He's quickly turning into our version of Wally Szczerbiak.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

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Pass First "Defensive" PG would improve both ends tremendously. Sure, we're getting the lay-up drill half the time, but if you had someone to stop the PG on the outside, we wouldn't necessarily need extra in the middle.

I'm tired of "good" PG's having "GREAT" games against us.

Again, my checklist of "realistic" possibilities from the Unrestricted PG Free Agents of 2006:

1. Speedy Claxton

2. Jannero Pargo

3. Marcus Banks

4. Bobby Jackson

"Realistic" possibilities for bigs:

1. Pryz

2. Nazr

3. LoWright

4. Olowokandi

5. Battie

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If those are the possibilities, give me Bobby Jackson ( because he's a veteran guard who can defend and score, and has playoff experience ) . . and Lo Wright ( because of the same reasons, plus he can rebound ).

Too bad that Bobby would probably never come here. Lo Wright, we could get, seeing that his status in Memphis is up in the air.

I DON'T want Pargo or Kandi. Lue is better than Pargo.