Frank Lee wrote:This is becoming a battle of styles/philosophies as well. GS lets this one slip away, it will be a coffin nail for jump shooting teams. They sure get away with a lot on D (and O) BTW. There RDog.... that was for you.
Our Nash teams always play to their strengths, which was Nash. I like what Griffin said.... run the legs out from under the other team. It was the most enjoyable 5 yrs of basketball I have witnessed. No Ring will always be the rebuttal, but in my mind the Black Hand of F-n Fate took away least 2 opportunities to be in the finals. We got Fannucci-ed.
Thanks, glad someone else sees it.
During the D'Antoni years, it seemed quite clear that our goal was not to foul. It slowed the game down, and often when the other team may be celebrating, we'd already be down the court scoring. The bad part of this was often a ref could slow the game down, and this was out of our control. Moreover, we were often perceived as less aggressive on defense, and sometimes refs allow aggressive teams to continue playing that way.
I'm not sure what Gentry is talking about other than Kerr trading away of best defenders, before Gentry became head coach. I really hope he wasn't saying that he himself did a poor job coaching defense.
As for our above average defenders, Diaw was, so was KT, James Jones, and Banks. And if anyone doesn't list Hill as an above average defender, than I think a caning might be in order. Shaquille was a decent defender. I know many think Nash was terrible, but to anticipate so many player's moves and take the charge, is often overlooked because it's not listed in the stats. Nash's biggest weakness was lagging off his man to help, and his limited lateral movements. I think if had had KG in the middle, Nash would have gone over more screens instead of under them, and lagged less off his man knowing there was a competent defender watching the paint. During the Gentry years both Dudley and Lou were good defenders.
The Suns main issues were we had Amare at center, and he was not a good defender. I think he still turns his head on shots before boxing his man out. It probably comes from relying so much on his athleticism and never taking the time to learn position.
We had good to great chances to get to the finals. Some bad luck, some poor adjustments, some unfortunate calls, and sometimes just facing a prepared opponent, did us in.
Green and Smith are my least favorite players in the league. 
