G35 wrote:Wrong. Steve Nash had his "Boston scenario" in Dallas. Dirk was KG, Finley was Pierce. Nash was not the Nash you know and love. He was reduced Nash. Any smart coach? I doubt that Rivers would change his successful, WINNING, team to cater to Nash's very specific needs. First off Nash would have to learn to PRACTICE defense. That would be one major change. Some teams practice offense, some practice defense. Which one do you think Doc Rivers preaches? Yeah defense, because it has been successful in Boston.
Magic shared the ball with other great players. Magic gave the ball up to Kareem and got the hell out of the way. Magic didn't run all around the court "probing" the defense. Those Lakers teams were not a pick and roll offense. So very much, not the same. Now Oscar was similar to Nash in that he had those great offenses and crappy defenses and you know what? Their teams had pretty much similar success. I'll let you read into that.
Once again Nash proponents can ONLY measure team success through the offensive side of the ball. Since the Bulls threepeat from 96-98 every championship team has been at least top 10 in defense except for the Lakers 00/01 and they are an outlier because they turned their defense up big time in the playoff's.
Rondo has guided the Celtics offense and been a huge part of their defense and for many that appreciate that the Celtics have largely successful over that period. You are right. Results matter. Show me Nash's rings and I'll show you this.......(cut massive pic)
Same as before, by paragraphs:
On the Cs there were three elite off the ball players, on the Mavs an elite post-ISO and pick&pop guy plus an out of his prime ballhog not even close to Pierce. You can't tell me with a straight face you think that's the same setup. And yet that offense was far better than the '08 Cs.
And the Celtics practiced both offense and defense. Every team does, and one must be (Please Use More Appropriate Word) to think otherwise. Anyone willing to watch the games sees that Nash plays D anyway, he's just not that good at it. Same as Allen really, and Doc has played him plenty. And as a good coach, I would expect him to make all the changes required to get more out of his team.
Magic did that in the same measure Nash does, with the difference that Nash never had other good shot creators on his team other than before-his-prime Joe Johnson, whereas we have an all time great offensive C and another all star level offensive player for Magic.
No Magic didn't run around much in the half court, but he created out of the post and he dribbled using just as much possessions. That's just style of play really.
Once again Nash haters can separate the team's accomplishments from player's. Since the Bulls repeated in the nineties every champion team had both a batter supporting cast and a better main player than Nash's Suns (aside Billups, who just had massive, massive help), so what's the point?
It's pretty damn arguable whether Rondo is the main offensive player on the Cs right now, nevermind when he was a 29mpg sophomore. It's deluded to think he was any more than the 4th best offensive player on the team in 2008, if even that. And not even the most homerish Celtic fan would say Rondo is more important than Garnett for their defense, now as then.