The Change Up

Hey, big win against the Kings. Almost by 50 points! See? Maybe we are following the Celtic's patttern. They had an embarrassing loss to a bottom feeder team (GSW) and then routed the Kings. Maybe that's us?

Yeah, right, hopeful thinking. I'd like to say that I am still on the record in favor of trading Amare. If we keep this momentum at all, it's only going to be for 2-3 games before we revert to our bad ways. It's not that this team or players are actually bad. On paper I think we're actually one of the most talented teams. It just seems that they're not really trying (esp. Amare) out there. I don't see our concentration/chemistry being fixed on its own... not without a serious trade or staff (fire Porter) change.

But then, how about a total change in philosophy? Word out of Dallas is that after their lopsided loss to the Celtics, coach Rick Carlisle has given up control of the offense almost entirely to Jason Kidd. Kidd now gets to call the vast majority of plays and Carlise will just orchestrate the big plays coming out of timeouts and such. Points, assists, FG%, 3PT%... all offensive stats have been on the upswing and the results have been pretty good so far. The sample size is small at just 3, but it includes a good 15 pt win on the road against MIA and a great 10 pt win on the road against ORL. With POR, UTH, and BOS in 3 of their next 5, if they rattle off like a 4-1 record in that stretch, it'd say this would be a smashing success.

See, this is something the Suns should have been trying all along. Just give Nash control of the offense and Porter can preach his defense all he wants. I don't see why one HAVE to conflict with the other. I know naturally, sometimes these do conflict... i.e. long jumpshots lead to long rebounds, more fast breaks for the opponents, etc. But all we keep hearing out of the Suns camp is that they have "things" to work out. If they're gonna work on some "things" why not a direct merger of Nash's offense and Porter's defense? Not some half assed retarded mix of both.

By the way, I give credit to Carlise for attempting this change. I think it akes a pretty good coach to change when necessary instead of being stubborn and sticking to his guns. Avery Johnson would never have relinquished that much control to Kidd and maybe that's why he left. On the flipside, D'Antoni's refusal to focus more on D or play the bench more eventually got him fired too. I mean if you're Pop or Phil and you have a steady team/system with a fairly consistent championship level results, fine, do what you like. Obviously, your thing works. But everyone else... you gotta be able to see when things aren't working and admit to your faults. Whether that's relinquishing the offense (Carlise this year, Maurice Cheeks last year) or hiring a defensive assistant (Doc Rivers), change things up! Doing the same thing over and over is just going to get you the same results over and over, and if you're a loser, you're gonna lose!

And for your funnies today... courtesy of BDL and GTAS Comics.