Earlier this week, my colleague Brett Edwards posted his thoughts on the Suns strategy to rest Shaquille O'neal on back to back nights. With good reason, Brett thinks that the Suns should reconsider the strategy of resting Shaq on back to back nights this early in the season. I rarely disagree with Brett, but I think the Suns strategy might actually work. Last night Shaq look great. He scored 29 points (his highest point total since March 7, 2007), and was more mobile than he has been in years.
One of Shaq's go to moves used to be a baseline spin move that he would always finish with a dunk. It was the kind of move that set Shaq apart from the rest of the bigs in the NBA, as he was so big and powerful, yet still quick and athletic enough to spin baseline and elevate quickly for a powerful finish. That move really hasn't seen the light of day over the last few seasons. He would either attempt the move and not be quick enough to get by defenders, or if he got by the defender, he couldn't get off the floor to finish when he got to the basket. Last night, the move made its return.
Although just against Andrew Bogut, Shaq quickly spun baseline and finished with a two handed flush. He's already had a lot more dunks around the rim than he had last season. Of course, he's not exploding off the ground as well as he was during his prime, but at least he's starting to getting off the ground. Last season that explosion was pretty much non-existent.
I do agree with Brett that resting Shaq this early in the season will likely cause the Suns to lose some games that they normally would win, but I think that is exactly the point. Mike D'Antoni loved to recite how his system worked because his teams always won 50+ games and finished as one of the top teams during the regular season. While D'Antoni's full speed ahead approach during the regular season created much regular season success, it didn't really prepare his team to be successful during the playoffs. He wasn't willing to make choices like sitting Shaq on back to back nights, playing Steve Nash less minutes, developing a bench, or developing a defense that might have caused him to lose some regular season games but made the Suns more prepared for a playoff run.
At this point all the Suns care about is the playoffs. They could care less about regular season success. They know that this might be their last true run at the title and that they need to have their focus on the playoffs and not the regular season. If they can have Shaq healthy, mobile, and in shape, they are going to be a tough out come playoff time. We really haven't been able to say those things about Shaq since the 2006 playoffs, and let's just say he played pretty he performed pretty well back then.
The Suns really don't even need Shaq to score big to be successful in the playoffs. They just need him to be in shape and healthy enough to block shots, rebound, and guard the Western Conference's vault of big men. If they get the Shaq that's capable of having nights like this during the playoffs then that will just be an added bonus. I guess we will just have to keep an eye out on this situation and see how it plays out.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Good stuff, and hard to argue when Shaq has nights like he did against the Bucks. Next week's schedule is pretty tough, and includes back-to-backs at home against Detroit and then at Utah. It'll be interesting to see if (or maybe, which game) they rest Shaq in one of those two against the league's elite. I'm just not a fan of basically conceding games this early in the season, but if they can get away with it, a fresh Shaq for the playoffs could make this team legit.
Something to keep in mind is that Shaq performed well against Andrew Bogut. If he does this against a bigger big man I might pay attention.
Further, I think it's a big liability for the Suns to have a key player on their team only on the court for one game of a back-to-back. In the West you have to play top-notch competition in back-to-back games on a regular basis. At some point Shaq will need to play in both and we'll see whether this experiment pays off. I just don't think a lax schedule for Shaq will be kept around very long.
For the Suns they need to treat these early games like late-season ones and capitalize from a Western Conference ripe with injury and new rosters trying to gel.