How should Nate counter the Grant Hill on Andre Miller move that Alvin Gentry made? Starting Jerryd Bayless at the 2 instead of Rudy, would force Steve Nash to guard a player that has the speed and aggresiveness to make Nash pay for his defensive liabilities. If the Suns are willing to pressure full court to keep the ball out of Millers hands it imperative to have someone handling the ball that can put pressure on the rest of the defense. Bayless can not only beat the press, he can single handidly put enough pressure on the Suns interior defense that they may be forced to back away from the press. Not to mention, forcing Nash to play defense is an effective way to slow him down on the offensive end.
My initial response is the we'd get abused by Jason Richardson, but then again, Rudy could not have done any worse on defense last night. May as well start Bayless, put him on Nash, and let 'Dre try to at least get a hand in Richardson's face when he shoots.
Hoping that Nic can go, I think Batum on Richardson would be an effective match-up also. Put Andre on Hill, he's less physical and would rather play that mid range game anyways. Portand would need some length (and speed) to close out the corner 3 point shot that Richardson loves so much. Just an idea...
If Nate does stick with Rudy, it might be a good idea to actually run a play for the guy. Lord knows he can't get his own shot, so if he's going to be out there and they're going to stick Nash on him, a couple of plays designed to get him an open perimeter shot or a backdoor cut to the basket would be nice.
Not to take anything away from the crappy effort LMA gave, but essentially Rudy was initiating the offense for probably the first time in his career. LMA needs better effort, but having Rudy start the offense most likely put Aldridge in positions he's not used to. The easiest way to beat a double team is to turn and shoot before it gets there. If LaMarcus doesn't get the ball in a position to do that, it makes it far tougher. He does however need to pass better out of the double team, and he wasn't doing that last night.
I will adjust by watching the game. I had a conflict last night and couldn't watch, but I will make sure I can watch game #3. Sorry I let all the fans down.
Play better defense. The intensity was noticeably lacking in game 2, while the Suns didn't let up one inch. The Blazers simply weren't ready to play last night. The blazers actually scored more pts in the 1st half yesterday than they did in game one. It was the defense that was lacking.
Obviously there are a lot of areas where we can improve, but from the coaching adjustments angle, I agree with starting Bayless.
Seriously, though, start Bayless and bench Rudy. Tell Camby to learn how to dunk. Tell Bayless he's got a free pass to drive into the lane whenever he wants. He'll probably continue to collect a few offensive fouls, but I think he'll score more times than not. And even when he doesn't it puts pressure on Nash. If he fouls out again by the fourth quarter, so be it. At least Nash will have had to work. He's an old man and you don't want him feeling young going into the fourth. Tell Howard to go hit someone. Anyone. Hell, hit Camby if he blows another dunk. Leave Aldridge alone. He knows what went wrong. Let him right his own ship. Ditto with Miller. Give Cunningham more minutes at the expense of Howard and Rudy. He's better at getting out on shooters than Howard, and he's a more fearless shooter than Rudy. That last one is probably the biggest point. We need more length, speed, fearless shooting and athleticism than Howard and Rudy can provide. Dust off Dante Cunningham and put him in there for 20 minutes.
If Nic can go, I say start both Nic & Martell. If not, I agree with starting Bayless. Either way, I'd put Rudy behind Mills in the guard rotation. Maybe he can stay ahead of Diener...maybe.
They need to pull Rudy aside and lay down the law. Either you pull your shit together and start playing like a professional, or you get to ride the bench for the next 2 years and watch a major portion of your career drop down the sewer. Quit playing like shit in order to get moved. The easiest way to get moved, is to actually play better not worse.
Good ideas. I especially liked the 'scrappiness' idea. They'll never be expecting that! Seriously I couldn't believe Rudy wasn't shooting over Nash. Was he completely shell-shocked from game 1? Camby missing about a dozen layups didn't help much either, on the day of signing his dream contract no less, LOL. I wanted Nate to call a timeout about 1 minute into the game. Adjustments? In the playoffs, the cigar usually goes to the coach and team that makes them. Nate sometimes moves like a glacier. I hope that Suns game thawed him out some. At least it only counted as one game. We'll get 'em next time.
Nate is pretty glacial, but once the playoffs come he actually does move things around quite a bit. Seems like he did last year in the playoffs, anyway. Rudy is playing absurdly bad at this point. Even the Suns announcers, who usually are too preoccupied felating Amare and Nash to notice anything else, commented a couple of times about how lousy a defender he is. I'll be pretty stunned if Rudy is a starter for game 3. I see Nate saying something like, "He just needs to find his rhythm. Maybe bringing him off the bench where he's used to playing will help him do that." Rudy still probably gets minutes as the first or second guy off the bench, at least for one more game.
