Your implication is that it made him much better, which I don't think is borne out by the stats at all. It made him slightly better, but every player can be made slightly better by tailoring a system to their talents. At this point in time, though, I don't think you need a particular coach or system, because Nash now knows how to play to bring out his best. Credit that to D'Antoni if you'd like, but Nash was close to as good in his final three seasons in Dallas.
not batum, again, which everyone has agreed upon, basically. the salary we can figure out once we see how he plays here.
This is what I was thinking; which will give Phoenix a young promising talent in E Will. E Will, Felton and Wallace for Nash and Frye
Why would they do that though? They'd end up letting Wallace and Felton go after this season, and EWill would be the only one they kept after giving up Nash...
they lose frye's salary, gain a prospect in EWill, gain more cap space this offseason. Likely losing nash anyways.
I think going from 9 assists per game to consistently putting up 11 assists per game is pretty significant. He also saw an increase in numbers across the board. Maybe some weren't as drastic as others, but to take someone from borderline All-Star to MVP is pretty impressive I think.
What RR7 said. They just saved a lot of cap space and still have a young prospect in E Will. We won't give them Batum, but I think we would give them E Will. And personally, I think E Will will do great in Phoenix. It may look like shit at first, but may help them in the long run.
Also after March 1st; you can offer Rhino too. So you can replace their Frye with Rhino; whom is very capable of being a legit back up PF to Aldridge.
It's not because you're not factoring in pace. They played faster, so they had more possessions...more possessions even at the same level of play will lead to more of everything. Pace-adjusted or pace-neutral numbers, like PER or scoring efficiency, tells a different story. Nash was never MVP-level, but he was excellent...both before and after working with D'Antoni. He was probably a bit better with D'Antoni, but that's the effect of good coaching...figuring out how to get the most out of your best players. He didn't improve by leaps and bounds, by any means.
His raw stats, yes. You seem to be arguing that the Nash we saw in Phoenix is not the "real Nash" and only an illusion of the system. The Nash we see in Phoenix is the real Nash and the Nash we'll be getting. If you're arguing that we won't be getting an MVP-caliber player, sure, I agree, but I don't think anyone was thinking we would. Nash was never MVP-caliber. We will be getting what Nash is and has always been (well, always since the light clicked on in Dallas)...an excellent All-Star-caliber point guard. My point is that there's no D'Antoni effect in terms of Nash getting much better. If you want to say that there's a D'Antoni effect in causing the casual fans and media to overrate players, I can agree with that, since most people don't seem to understand the effects of pace.
Couldn't you say that about every player? LeBron, yikes, wonder if he'll suck under Nate. Wade, yikes, wonder if he'll suck under Nate. Howard, yikes, wonder if he'll suck under Nate. Yadda yadda yadda...
It took a D-League scrub balling his ass off to save D'Antoni from being fired, yet still the Knicks are hovering at about .500. Hell, he still may be if Lin comes back to earth. If the Blazers had a front-line of Anthony, Stoudemire, and Chandler (three Team USA members), with Landry Fields too, and were 8 games under .500, this place would have been going apeshit about how D'Antoni is a terrible coach, and how it was Nash who made him look good in PHX. Which, I think is closer to the truth than it is D'Antoni being some sort of elite coach.
Actually, Portland's 8th in pace this year, and PHX is 13th. At least those were the stats from yesterday.
It is funny how quickly he went from close to being fired, and people realizing he is overrated, and then all of a sudden, the he is a coaching genius shit started up again. As for pace, I was using basketball reference, that showed us both at 92.3 possessions per 48. Possible another sight had it different, though.
Funny how all three of those guys are in their 20s, in their primes, and two of them are ball-dominant wings that would fit perfectly into nateball. I don't see how LeBron, Wade, or Howard compare to a guy who is 38 years old and has enjoyed a much different offense from the one that Nate has run for most of his coaching career.
I was using Hollinger's stats. Roughly the same, anyhow. PDX - 94.8 PHX - 94.5 http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/teamstats/_/sort/paceFactor What's worth noting is that while the Blazers are also 8th in OFF EFF, PHX falls to 17th. NYK are 2nd in pace, and 24th in OFF EFF. Yep, D'Antoni is a real genius.
