2. I didn't include Phoenix guard Steve Nash on my All-Disappointment team that's coming later today, but perhaps I should have. Nobody has had a rockier adjustment to the Suns' seven-seconds-or-more approach than Nash, who is having a much harder time getting free now that the middle is always occupied and the Suns are running less often.
He showed he still has some of his magic passing ability -- twice last night he threaded a bounce pass between an opponent's legs for a dunk -- but at night's end he was 3-for-9 with eight points and 10 dimes.
That's been an all-too-common occurrence this season. For the year, Nash has lost 3.5 points and 3.5 assists from his 40-minute rate of a year ago, his turnovers are up and his shooting percentage is down, and his 17.39 PER puts him below 20 for the first time since 2001-02.
And people are noticing. Our Kevin Arnovitz described him as "a hummingbird trapped in a sandwich bag." One reader e-mail more pointedly said, "Porter has totally destroyed Nash's game … [he] is Quasimodo to Nash's Einstein."
Whether it's age, the system, or a combination of both, the Suns -- who are a mere sixth in offensive efficiency after leading the league the previous four years -- look decidedly out of kilter, and nobody seems more out of place than the man who so expertly stewarded the previous system.
3. Speaking of Phoenix point guards, the Goran Dragic era came to unceremonious end last night when the Suns installed Sean Singletary, a rookie from Virginia, as the backup and didn't play Dragic, who has been brutally bad (32.6 percent shooting, 5.03 PER), until garbage time. Singletary wasn't much better, it saddens my Wahoo heart to say, and ultimately the best solution still seems like going back to square one by letting Leandro Barbosa and Grant Hill handle the ball when Nash checks out of the game.
We need a backup PG asap, and if Nash/Porter can't get on the same page...we're screwed.
