How good would the Nash Suns have been if you replaced Amare with prime David Robinson?

[lessthanjake]

Nash’s Suns were probably the best offensive team ever, at least relative to the league. The problem they had was defense—in order to have such a great offense, they were typically running Amare at the center position, and his lack of rim protection (and rebounding) hurt them a lot defensively.

But what if you replaced Amare with prime David Robinson? I think prime David Robinson would’ve made that defense really good. And I don’t really think the offense would’ve been any worse off with Robinson instead of Amare, nor do I think they’d have to have run a different offensive scheme to accommodate Robinson—I think it would’ve been a similar sidegrade offensively.

So what do we think would’ve happened? For my money, I’m fairly convinced that if you put prime David Robinson on those teams, they’d have won multiple titles in fairly dominant fashion.

[rand]

Massive title favorites in 2005-2007 Who knows after that since they wouldn't have done the Marion/Shaq trade and everything would have been different but they could have won more titles after 2007 too.

[penbeast0]

Ouch, yes, massive difference assuming Robinson's prime coincides with Nash's tenure in Phoenix. If they have playoff luck/success, ATG team up there with Durant/Curry Warriors.

[Ron Swanson]

Obviously a massive difference defensively and overall, but I certainly don't feel comfortable saying the offense would essentially have "no drop-off". You can't just assume that throwing any ATG big with Nash completely replicates the near perfect pick & roll synergy he and Amare shared. D-Rob also didn't have Amare's touch outside of 3-feet.

[lessthanjake]

Obviously a massive difference defensively and overall, but I certainly don't feel comfortable saying the offense would essentially have "no drop-off". You can't just assume that throwing any ATG big with Nash completely replicates the near perfect pick & roll symmetry he and Amare shared. D-Rob also didn't have Amare's touch outside of 3-feet.

It’s true that we can’t assume pick and roll synergy with Nash and Robinson, since they never played together. That said, Nash kind of had great pick and roll synergy with everyone.

And the Suns had a +5.3 rORTG even in the year Amare was out (which is still extremely good!), while averaging +6.9 in the other years Amare was there, so it’s not so clear to me that Amare had particularly massive/unique marginal value to the offense that we wouldn’t expect a really good offensive player like David Robinson to match. Amare was good, of course, and the offense was definitely better with him, but we’d expect David Robinson to be a significant offensive improvement on the Amare-less year too!

Also, I’m not sure I agree on shooting touch. If we look at the data we have for Robinson from 1997-2002, Robinson had 38.9% of his FGAs outside of 10 feet. That number was actually only 29.1% for Amare for his career (and 30.2% for Amare in his years with Nash). In his years with Nash, Amare’s FG% on those shots was much higher than Robinson’s, but having Nash is a big deal! If we just look at Amare’s Knicks years, Amare shot 39.2% on shots between 10-16 feet and 42.4% on shots between 16 feet and the 3-point line. Meanwhile, in that 1997-2002 timeframe, Robinson shot 38.8% on shots between 10-16 feet and 42.4% on shots between 16 feet and the 3-point line. It’s very similar! I guess it’s possible that Robinson wouldn’t go up in FG% on these shots with Nash the way Amare did (Amare shot 45.9% and 45.3% on those sorts of shots with Nash), but the two look really similar in this regard in non-Nash years, so I’m guessing Robinson has a good chance of having the same sort of improvement with Nash.

[rk2023]

Feel like they win at-least one title in the 05-07 time-frame, 06 &/or 07 bring more likely as I feel more confident in Robinson facing the Heat and Cavs opposed to the Wallace^2 backline Detroit had to offer. Don’t think Robinson would have the full play-finisher efficacy of Stat, but I like what he could be able to do playing in a fast system (great transition big, much better passing : decision making chops, and a lot of his on-ball responsibility would be streamlined). Marion - Robinson could also be very close to the best “non-big and big” defensive paring - without counting insert X player and Bill Russell.

[iggymcfrack]

Back-to-back champs in ‘06 and ‘07 anyway

[migya]

They win every season until either Nash or Robinson get injured or regress (Nash was older).

Robinson's speed and athleticism is among the few that are better than Amar'e.

[One_and_Done]

Devastating combo. Prime D.Rob could hit the midranger, and ran the floor like a deer on pogo sticks.

[jkvonny]

2006 and 2007 NBA Champs Suns.

[jkvonny]

Back-to-back champs in ‘06 and ‘07 anyway

This

[CumberlandPosey]

Just unfair.talking about defense-offense combo out of this world.would have to counter with lebron james-timmy combo or some other fantasies.admiral vs stat...help

[tsherkin]

They'd be wild. Titles all over the place.

[Blame Rasho]

They'd be wild. Titles all over the place.

Just think…they selected Deng and Rondo when they were penny pinchers and got um some guy named Vroman and umm cash in those trades. They should have asked for a copier and fax machine as well.

[PhiEaglesfan712]

Both Amar'e and David Robinson had one season injured. So, I guess these are the comparative years:

2003-04 Amar'e -> 1994-95 Robinson - First round exit
2004-05 Amar'e -> 1995-96 Robinson - NBA Finals (loss to Pistons)
2005-06 Amar'e -> 1996-97 Robinson - Western Conference Finals (same result, this was the year both were injured)
2006-07 Amar'e -> 1997-98 Robinson - NBA Champions (Robinson would have got them over the hump against the Spurs)
2007-08 Amar'e -> 1998-99 Robinson - NBA Finals (loss to Celtics)
2008-09 Amar'e -> 1999-00 Robinson - Miss playoffs (Western Conference too strong)
2009-10 Amar'e -> 2000-01 Robinson - Western Conference Finals