Is this series emphasing that Jackson is a good coach or that the Suns and D'Antoni have a flawed concept which wins in the regular season and can't win in the playoffs? D'Antoni can't spell "defense" and Jackson just happened to place it on a small corner of the pre-game chalk board.
9 rings, I think you're right. He has proved it this season taking the Lakers to the playoffs after many thought he didn't have enough talent.
I always like to see conventional wisdom fail (except when it is applied to the Rockets.) I was very happy when Detroit won. That silenced the conventional belief that you have to have a top 5 player and an all-star caliber sidekick to win a championship. I hope to see a run and gun team win big to silence the conventional thinkers.
There are several conventional wisdoms I want to see fail, and there are always conflicts. I am with you on Detroit. But here is the thing, the conventional wisdom on this board is that JVG is a better coach for the Rockets than Phil Jackson, which I think is baloney. I like Nash, but not much everyone else on the Phoenix team (Marion is OK). So at least for the Suns-Lakers series, I want to see LA come out on top.
Unless the "run and gun" team is way more talented than any other team in the NBA, it won't happen. Unless the "run and gun" team can score consistently in the 1/2 court, it won't happen. Unless the "run and gun" team can play defense in crunch time, it won't happen. Said it before: The Suns style of play is shock therapy during the grind of the regular season. In the playoffs, it's a shock for about the first quarter of game one. After that, the other team adjusts and shuts off the easy baskets, unless you are the gutless Grizzlies or the defenseless Mavs of last year's playoffs.
The Lakers will beat the Suns, they figured out that they need to shove them around a bit and and pound it inside. More importantly, I think it's clear that Steve Nash has run out of gas and it's more clear than ever that Shawn Marion sucks.
I don't know about Nash running out of gas. But the Suns can be pushed around and in addition to their talents and skills, they miss Amare's and JJ's attitude and toughness. Nash is the only key player they have that cannot be intimidated. But please don't count the Suns out of this series yet.
The Lakers are my favorite team with the Rockets. Phil Jackson is a great coach. Can you imagine if the Rockets had Phil? Phil's big two wold have been Yao and T-Mac. MJ and Pippen, Kobe and Shaq, thnn Yao and T-Mac! PJ could have done wonders with these Rockets.
No doubt. Compared to last season, the Suns are a depleted roster. None of the guys they have next to Nash can create their own offense/shots and with the exception of Raja Bell no one can make a stop when it counts. I thought all season long that they were a 'misleading' team and that come playoff time the absence of not only Amare, but also the likes of Joe Johnson and Jim Jackson off the bench was going to impact them. I simply can't get beyond the fact that the Suns' entire roster is made up of average/complimentary players who were 2nd or 3rd string players on other teams, or completely unwanted players (i.e. Tim Thomas). They're not crappy by any means, but I actually thought that both the Lakers and the Kings would've beat them, because they not only can run with them, but can also man-handle them physically, can make defensive stops, have more height/combination of players to use, and in the case of the Kings had the experience advantage against the Suns' more inexperienced squad. It's been said before and some consider it somewhat of a cliche, but it's absolutely true: the playoffs are ALL about matchups and it's the time when great coaching is amplified and it truly makes a huge difference. To be honest, I thought the Kings would give the Suns even a harder time and would've disposed of them in no more than 6 games, I thought the Lakers would do it in 7 games. I guess we will see... I am not, they still can win and it will be a close series as we've seen so far, I just think the Lakers have a few advantages over them, while I don't think the Suns have any. It's all about matchups, throw the regular season out of the window, it means absolutely nothing.
OMG, Phil Jackson is actually getting respect...Where is clutchfans NBA dish and what have you all done with it?
Outside of Houston, people believe that the only time that JVG can be said in the same sentence as PJ is that neither has any chance to become movie stars.
Lakers in 6. If Lakers can pull out game 4 the series might end in game 5 with Kobe going off for 40+ and willing his team to victory although that hasn't been the conventional way to beat the Suns thus far. Either way it will go 6 games max. As for Phil Jackson he's made Kwame "ultimate dud" Brown look like a born-again number 1 overall pick and he's getting it done playing Walton, Vujacic, Cook and Parker (rightfully so) heavy minutes while getting Kobe and Odom to believe in a system and lead. That's an amazing feat by any means.
How did Nash take this talentless roster so far? These guards are worse than ours....well,maybe not that bad.
Assuming whatever Jackson has done with Brown has been an improvement and is sustainable over the long-term, let's look at how he accomplished that.... "This was in the Los Angeles Daily News yesterday: “Just for the record, Lakers coach Phil Jackson said Thursday he does not question forward Kwame Brown’s manhood every time the two cross paths. ‘The thing I do is that I meow when I go by him,’ Jackson explained. ‘I don’t call him a (sissy).’” Oh, ok Phil. That makes it much better. …" http://www.dimemag.com/smack_sub.asp?id=2069 After we all applaud Phil for raising Kwame into consciousness, how about we all remind ourselves that the 2005-06 Suns were 13-11 over their last 24 and 5-5 over their last 10 regular season games?
Is that suppose to discredit his work or something? Sorry I don't quite understand. Yes, the Suns got worse after they lost K Thomas, but it's obvious the good work PJ has done by looking at the way they played. Not just the fact they won 2 against the Suns so far.
