I've seen a few times where Wallace has pulled aside Batum and discussed with him what he should of done, or where he should have been. Its almost like a Wallace is embracing the veteran role on this team. Oh, and he's only 28.
BTW, if we would have had Gerald Wallace last year in the playoffs, we would have beaten Phoenix easily. Miller absolutely killed Nash in game 1. So, Alvin Gentry put Grant Hill on Miller for the rest of the series and hid Nash' poor defense by putting him on Batum. Batum was very passive, and Nate refused to run any plays for Nic to expoit the mismatch. Hill was able to use his length to smoogther Miller and stop the Blazers offense before it even got started. If there's one thing Gerald Wallace isn't, it's passive. Can you imagine how he would have destroyed the Suns if they would have tried to "hide" Steve Nash by putting him on Wallace? Nash would have had to go back to guarding Miller, who would post him up all day long, and be able to run the offense much easier without a much taller, better defender on him - and Wallace would have given us an advantage at small forward, even with Grant Hill on him. It would have been a totally different series - a lot like game one, only even more lopsided in Portland's favor. BNM
Only 28, but in his 10th NBA season. Not old, but definitely a veteran whose been around the league long enough to teach a guy like Batum a few tricks. Wallace and Batum are such versatile defenders it's easy to play them together, even though SF is the natural position for both. I really like seeing them both out there in the 4th quarter as they make such a good defensive duo. BNM
This is why I like the potential matchup against Dallas for us. As we saw earlier this week, there is nowhere for them to hide the weak defense of their undersized guards. They have 2 of Kidd, Buebois, Terry or Barea on the floor almost at all times. We can go down low to any of our guards or SF's when they have any of those guys (not as much against Kidd). That will cause foul problems and double teams. The Lakers don't have that problem with us. Neither do the Spurs since Parker is so quick he offsets the post up advantage that Miller presents.
