by Dee4Three on Sun May 26, 2019 1:11 am
I was hoping you guys were trolling, but you are being totally serious... it's unreal.
The eye test shows they played a totally different brand of basketball when he was coaching the Suns, and Nash and Harden were used totally different. But stats also show it.
3PA
18-19 Rockets - 45.4
06-07 Suns - 24.0
3PA Ratio
18-19 Rockets - 51.9% (Over HALF the teams shots!)
06-07 Suns - 28.7%
USAGE % (Pay attention)
James Harden: 40.5% (7.5 APG)
Steve Nash: 22.9% (11.6 APG)
Primary Ball Handler 3PA Ratio (Comparing how many threes they took relative to twos)
James Harden: 53.9%
Steve Nash: 35.3%
Primary Ball Handler Assist Ratio
James Harden: 39.5%
Steve Nash: 50.1%
You guys stating that D'Antoni is getting a bad rap, and not faulting him at all for this system, and actually comparing it to the way he used Nash and the Suns, is really poor. Watching the two teams is literally night and day. Almost double the three point attempts for this Rockets team, OVER HALF of the teams shot attempts, with constant ISO with the teams SHOOTING GUARD at the top of the key. Meanwhile, the Suns with Nash were shooting about HALF of the three pointers, and were in constant movement offensively. Screens, back picks, high pick n roll, players diving and cutting, posting up, etc. Which is why they only attempted 24 threes a game and averaged about 110 PPG.
The primary ball handler Nash had almost HALF the usage, but 4 more assists per game. He wouldn't hold the ball long at all, it was CONSTANT movement on offense. These stats easily show that the way D'Antoni is coaching the Rockets and the way he coached the Suns is night and day different. Just because it's the same coach, doesn't mean that he is coaching the same way, and certainly doesn't mean that he is just getting a "bad rap". he deserves to be criticized and critiqued. Saying Nash got a free pass, when he played entirely different than Harden, and the offense ran entirely different, is a really poor take.
And finally, just because both teams didn't make the finals with the same coach, it doesn't means that the brand of basketball is the same in the least, or that one isn't better than the other. Vastly different styles of play. And the fact that you both were old enough to watch those Suns, and are still saying this, is incredibly puzzling, and why I questioned if you were trolling. During those years with the Suns it wasn't the offense that was knocked, it was the defense mostly. The offense was considered elite. For the Rockets, the OFFENSE was consistently critiqued all year by many former players, Chris Paul himself (And supposedly other Rockets teammates), the media and the fans. It is a incredibly poor comparison.