Steve Nash Bill Simmons interview

[whambamslam]

Here is the link. It is almost an hour long and is a really interesting interview.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnradio/pod ... id=2864045

[The Diesel]

Can anyone post a recap of the interview?

Thanks.

[rsavaj]

I''ll give it a listen on my flight tmw

[whambamslam]

Well some things I thought were interesting were
1. Bill asked him which Suns team was the best from the last 5 years and he pretty much said it was a toss up between the 04-05 team with Joe Johnson and the Amare & Diaw suspension team.
2. He talks about how he wished Vancouver & Seattle still had teams and that if Vancouver still had a team he thinks he may have ended up there at some point in his career.
3. He says that Shaq played more to prove that he still had some gas in the tank rather than doing what was best for the team and that Terry Porter's system was great for Shaq but not for him. He also said that he probably played with in the system too much and instead of playing how he plays best and he said that other players gave up on the system in day 2 of training camp.
4. He says that after Dallas lost to Sacramento in the first round of the playoffs (his last year there) he got into the best shape he had ever been in and that is what helped him get his game to such a high level.
Well there is quite a bit more, but it is an hour long interview so there is a lot.

[The Diesel]

Thanks!

[The Diesel]

Did he mention which players gave up on the system that early in training camp and why they gave up on it?

Obviously, the first person that comes to mind is Raja Bell.

Who else?

Thanks.

[whambamslam]

He doesn't mention names.

[The Diesel]

Thanks.

[RunDogGun]

Thanks for the link, it was great to listen to while staining the banister. It actually worked out perfectly while I stained, the interview ended minutes before I finished.

I love his points about the pick and roll defense, and that not many guys just blow by someone. It usually comes off picks, and then into team defense. Which seems TOTALLY overlooked when assessing defense. A point I made in the Amare thread goes hand and hand with what Nash said.

The guy is a class act, and really seems to tell it like it is, without throwing people under the bus. He seems very political in his responses, but still keeps it real. Maybe he will follow in the footsteps of KJ, and run for a political office.

[JohnVancouver]

"it was great to listen to while staining the banister"

I'd never heard that euphemism before ...

[The Diesel]

Perhaps, after listening to this interview, Porter was unfairly fired because Nash said most of the team just never bought into the system.

Porter probably deserved more time and Kerr should have brought in players who fit the system better.

To fire a coach THAT quickly was a pretty mean thing to do.

Yes, I wanted Porter gone, but I had no idea the team gave up on him from Day 2 of training camp...

In hindsight, I think he deserved more time.

[realsunsfan]

Perhaps, after listening to this interview, Porter was unfairly fired because Nash said most of the team just never bought into the system.

Porter probably deserved more time and Kerr should have brought in players who fit the system better.

To fire a coach THAT quickly was a pretty mean thing to do.

Yes, I wanted Porter gone, but I had no idea the team gave up on him from Day 2 of training camp...

In hindsight, I think he deserved more time.

I think they waited too long to fire him. He lied when he was hired saying the offense was good and didn't need too much but they had a lot of work to do on the defensive side. Once training camp started he changed EVERYTHING, not a smart move on a team of vets, you don't come in and take away their identity at the snap of your finger. Had he stuck to what he said when he was hired and left the offense alone and really worked on the defense like he was brought to do, he might still be here, but he got a bad case of shaq flu, he thought he was going to ride shaq to the championship...........and as far as bring in players who fit the system better......... he preached improving defense and then asked for the trade of our two top defenders ......... give me a break....

[the_warden]

Perhaps, after listening to this interview, Porter was unfairly fired because Nash

Part of the coach's job is to get the players to buy into the system. He failed miserably in that respect.

[Inconspicuous]

thing is, you can't run SSOL and have great defense. sorry, just not possible. and while i think terry porter's firing was a good thing, i agree with his philosophy in establishing a presence in the post that you can go to late in games when it's slowed down. the problem was shaq couldn't be counted on late in games

[Austin]

Just listened to the interview, he admits that he is not a good defender, as well as what was stated above, and they had some good conversations about his time in phoenix the first few years, his time in dallas, and good info about his time with the Suns. It was a really interesting interview.

[The Diesel]

Part of the coach's job is to get the players to buy into the system. He failed miserably in that respect.

And how was he supposed to do that when some players never gave him a chance?

[realsunsfan]

thing is, you can't run SSOL and have great defense. sorry, just not possible. and while i think terry porter's firing was a good thing, i agree with his philosophy in establishing a presence in the post that you can go to late in games when it's slowed down. the problem was shaq couldn't be counted on late in games

Wrong, well partially wrong, you can run SSOL and have "good" defense, there is no reason why you can't. You can't judge that by the previous SSOL under D'Antoni because he never really worked on the defense during practice, didn't preach during games. No matter what offense you run, if you have players who are "capable" of playing defense and it is emphasized in training camp as well as during in season practice it can be done. D'Antoni just never really worried about it and thus neither did his players. He would rather have them conserve energy for the offense rather than expell it on defense, and whenyou don't play your bench much, there isn't going to be a whole lot of solid defensive intensity.

[the_warden]

Part of the coach's job is to get the players to buy into the system. He failed miserably in that respect.

And how was he supposed to do that when some players never gave him a chance?

Then he's supposed to find a way to make it work. I don't understand what you're getting at; it's the coach's job to get the players to buy into his system. If they "never gave him a chance" he needs to change their minds. That's his responsibility.

[KJ7]

Perhaps, after listening to this interview, Porter was unfairly fired because Nash

Part of the coach's job is to get the players to buy into the system. He failed miserably in that respect.

Amen to that!!!

Porter knew our roster and yet tried to implement something we all (well I knew) would fail. We had close to the luxtax level in salary and *should* have been giving the play-offs a good shake and you want to just get rid of everyone because we got a new coach in? Mate, that's the most ridiculous thing I've heard!

If he couldn't command the respect of his players to change the system then he shouldnt have been hired in the first place. We had a limited opportunity from a time perspective and shouldve brought in a veteran coach ... or better still maybe we should have just kept D'Antoni. All he needed to do was get *one* player to play for the team (Shaq) and he did that reasonably well in half a season. Instead we bring in a coach who had to get 3 or 4 players to adjust their style to appease Shaq.

Both the Shaq trade and the Porter hiring were the most failed experiments I've witnessed as a Suns fan in the last 20 years I reckon. Both were a train wrecks waiting to happen.

Couldn't agree more with everything Nash said ... you only have to look at the amount of times Shaq was talking his career numbers up throughout the course of the season to realise he couldn't give a stuff about the team. The amount of times I heard him say "if I was hitting my free-throws like I am now I would be higher on the all time points list" ... but that's Shaq for ya ... I wasn't really expecting anything less.