SB Nation User Blog: watdogg10

Steve Nash = Perfection (in video)

watdogg10 — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:13:22 -0000

Happy Steve Nash Internet Day everybody! To help get you in the right state of mind here are some videos brought to us by the great Steve Nash.

60 Million Dollar Man Nike ad:

More after the jump.

Clean Hands:

Vitamin Water Commercial - The Model:

Vitamin Water Commercial - The Pitchman:

Vitamin Water Commercial - The Spokesman:

Steve Nash and Baron Davis - Stepbrothers:

Steve Nash Finals Correspondent - David Letterman:

Steve Nash - Training Day

There you have it Nash fans...a little something to wet your appetite on Steve Nash Internet Day. Enjoy and feel free to post links to other Nash clips in the comments (we all know there are many, MANY more).

A life lesson for Suns fans

watdogg10 — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:03:32 -0000

"The sky is falling!" These four words are universally recognized by anyone who had a childhood. They come from a famous tale about a small chicken who believes his world is coming to an end when an acorn falls on his head. With this simple phrase Chicken Little is able to rally a team of animals on his quest to save their dying world. Now, there are many different versions told about what actually happens to the barnyard gang but in my personal favorite version (read into this what you will), the animals are duped into trusting a fox and ultimately become dinner. The moral of the story is simple, don't panic or you'll get eaten by a fox.

The Suns have now lost two straight games (on back-to-back nights) by a combined total of 44 points to drop their record to 14-5 which puts them second in the division (behind those stupid Lakers) and tied for second in the West with the Mavericks. They have fallen from #1 in Hollinger's power rankings (an automated statistical system) to #12 in four days. The sky (or at least it's Suns) is quite literally falling!

Now, before anyone runs off to warn of the impending apocalypse, let's take a moment to reflect on what has happened with our beloved Suns so far this season.

Before the season started very few people believed that this Suns team would amount to anything. Let's take a look at the predictions given right here in our own backyard:

Stan: 46 - 36, 7th seed (hopefully)
Will: 48 - 34, 8th seed
Max: 41 - 41, No playoffs
Watdogg: 52 - 30, 5th seed

Up to this point I think it's fairly safe to say that the Suns have exceeded expectations as they are on pace for about 60 wins. Granted we've only played the Lakers once, the C's once, the Magic once and the Cavs once and of those four games we only won one. But it's not like our schedule has been cake as we've been on the road for the majority of these first 19 games. So why, given the expectations at the beginning of the season, should we jump a perfectly functioning ship like it's the titanic?

In sports we always hear the old cliché 'one game at a time' meaning that win or lose the athletes need to put the game behind them and focus on the next task. We expect our favorite athletes to be able to put past mistakes aside and rise up for the next challenge that comes and ridicule those that are unable to do so...yeah I'm looking at you Jake Delhomme, sorry the Cardinals had to kill you and ruin your confidence in last year's playoffs! (See what I mean?)

If we are going to hold athletes to this standard, shouldn't we, as fans, be able to do so ourselves? Yet, instead of concentrating on the fact that the Suns are 14-5 and second in the Western conference many can't get past the fact that they have allowed Mike D'Antoni and Shaquille O'Neal get their respective revenge on back-to-back nights.

Now, don't get it twisted, I'm not saying that there is no cause for concern. The Suns effort has been just awful the last two games and they have looked nothing like the team that we have all enjoyed watching so far this season. Clearly there are things that need to be worked out with this team and something needs to happen to bring back the 'nobody believes in us so we gotta go out and kill whoever we're playing' mentality/effort. However, it is not time to panic. The Suns still have one of the top PGs in the game running the show, they still have one of the best scorers, they still have a newly revived JRich, they still have the junkyard dog Dudley, they still have LB (you know...once he gets back), they still have Gentry and his system and they're still the second best team in the West with a chance to take back the top spot when they face the Lakers on Sunday.

It's a long season and EVERY team goes through ups and downs. Remember the awful start the Cavs had? During that stretch many Cavs fans worried that the Cavs had fallen from grace...seems pretty silly now, right? The Suns will rebound and will get back to playing Suns basketball. For now, let's collectively focus on the good and understand that this team is not perfect. There are many flaws that on some nights will be exposed especially as Gentry tries to figure out what to do with his rotations. Bumps are to be expected and acorns will occasionally fall from the sky. I urge all of you Suns fans not to get carried away in panic because, as Chicken Little teaches us, there are plenty of hungry foxes out there.

The unofficially official Phoenix Suns comic strip

watdogg10 — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:48:33 -0000

We're back! Welcome to the seventeenth edition of Box n' 1 - a comic strip featuring the Phoenix Suns. Sorry for the little hiatus but we're back now...as always, don't forget to rec it if you like it and/or leave feedback even if you don't.

The unofficially official Phoenix Suns comic strip

watdogg10 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:21:30 -0000

Welcome to the fifteenth edition of Box n' 1 - a comic strip featuring the Phoenix Suns. Don't forget to rec it if you like it and/or leave feedback even if you don't.

The awesomeness that is Steve Nash

watdogg10 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:49:27 -0000

More photos »

Steve Nash continues to impress. (Photo by Max Simbron)

Browse more photos »

Over the past five seasons I, with many of you, have had the absolute pleasure of watching Steve Nash run the point for one of the best offensive teams in the history of the NBA. I've seen him bury teams with last second heroics (yeah, you remember the game against the Nets), carve up teams with his penetration and passing and carry this Suns organization to great heights on his weakened back.

I've witnessed his two MVP seasons and although I've heard all of the naysayers I have to say that seeing every game of those two seasons there is no doubt that he was the most valuable player in the league. In fact, one of the biggest issues for the Suns has always been that they haven't been able to get him rest because the Suns have been unable to sustain anything when he's on the bench. Don't get me wrong, there have been GAMES where the bench did their job and kept it going but for the most part when Nash went to the bench every Suns fan would hold his/her breath knowing that his break would be cut short out of necessity. In fewer words, Steve Nash has been awesome.

All this being said, I don't think I've ever fully appreciated the total awesomeness that is Steve Nash. Yes I am a long time fan of his defensive instincts...wait...did I just say defense? Yes. Nash has consistently been one of the best in the league at drawing charges on PGs drives and anyone who plays and knows the game knows how difficult this really is. Is his defense lacking? Of course. But would we have such an issue with it if he had somebody behind him willing and able to protect the rim at all costs? Honestly, I don't know. I've always enjoyed watching him shoot crazy percentages from everywhere on the court and I don't need to use any adjectives when talking about Steve Nash's passing. However, it wasn't until this past Saturday that my eyes were truly opened to just how great Stevie Wonder/Nashty/The Golden Sun really is.

Saturday started out innocently enough. I woke up around 10 (yes, I enjoy sleeping in on Saturday mornings if I'm not playing ball), played with my little girl a bit and prepared to go to the Suns open scrimmage. Long story short, a friend of mine's wife bought a cat without discussion, felt bad and then bought him season tickets to make up for it. As new season ticket owners we were treated to a free t-shirt and some snacks while we were fed the company line about Clark, Dragic and the Big Fail aka Shaq. Afterwards we were taken down courtside to watch the scrimmage and other Suns entertainment.

Jermaine and I quickly grabbed seats right at the free-throw line of the black team's (Nash, Hill, Amare, Frye, JRich, Griffin and Tucker) basket. Let me start by saying that I have never sat courtside at a game and maybe never will again so this was awesome. As the scrimmage opened you could tell that Nash was just on another level. A lot of the players were joking around, smiling and enjoying themselves but Nash was all business. Even though his team was clearly superior, Nash was not there to put on a show or play to the crowd - Nash was there to win. I don't know if it's his size or his personality or the fact that Nash is Canadian but for some reason people tend to underestimate Nash's competitive drive.

As I sat watching the action I had no idea that I was about to witness basketball perfection. One play...wait, scratch that...one pass in the middle of a play was about to show me all that I knew to be true with Steve Nash and more. It all started with an Amare rebound (yes, he does get rebounds every so often). After grabbing the board Stoudemire quickly outleted the ball to Nash and the break was on. Nash came down full speed ahead of everyone on the black team to the 3-point line directly opposite where I was sitting on the court and threw a pass without more than a quick glance that was headed right for me with only two white jerseys even in the vicinity of the ball. In that moment time slowed like a scene from the Matrix and everything became clear. As I watched the ball heading straight towards me in slow-motion, Grant Hill appeared out of nowhere and pulled the ball out of the air as if he was taking a handoff from a quarterback.

Now, I have absolutely zero idea what Grant Hill did with the ball because I sat there frozen, just watching the spot where Hill materialized trying to fully grasp what I had just witnessed. How Steve Nash knew the exact velocity/placement needed to get the ball to a player that he couldn't have seen more than a sliver of out of the corner of his eye while moving at top speed and dribbling between three defenders is beyond me. I cannot comprehend it...cannot even try to make sense of it. No human being should be able to make that pass under those circumstances and Steve Nash is one of probably four humans alive who can.

There has been a lot of talk here on Planet Orange about whether or not the Suns should have signed Steve to the extension this summer or just decided to go for broke and move away from the Steve Nash era. I'm here to plead with every Suns fan to enjoy and appreciate the fact that we get to watch Steve Nash do what Steve Nash does on a nightly basis. Steve Nash, even in his "advanced" age, is still a top 5 PG (I think he's top 3 but I'm adding two spots to cover my hometown bias) as well as one of the most clutch players/pure shooters in this league and when he is free to do his thing - i.e. doesn't have Shaq sitting on him - Steve Nash is an absolutely incredible player to watch.

As a Suns fan, you have to ask yourself, would you rather watch the team that captured the imagination of every NBA fan with the run n' gun and Steve Nash or the train wreck we all had to witness last year? Would you rather watch a team that probably isn't going to win the title but has a chance to beat any team on any given night or a team in rebuilding mode with a bunch of young guys just learning to play the game who may or may not pan out? Look what happened to the Bulls when they went into full on rebuilding mode or the Lakers when they shipped Shaq - they even had one of the best players on the planet trying to keep them afloat.

Look, don't get it twisted...if a creepy guy with half a face came to my door and told me that with the push of a button the Suns would win the title I would push it before he even finished his disclaimer saying that some stranger would die - I want to see the Suns win it all. However, for me, if winning it all isn't even an option (for the record I'm not saying that it isn't), watching Steve Nash run the most entertaining offense in basketball on a team that truly enjoys playing together for a full season would easily be the next best thing.

Personally, it took seeing a pass up close in a team scrimmage to come to grips with the awesomeness that is Steve Nash...my hope is that the rest of Planet Orange sees and appreciates it, too.

The unofficially official Phoenix Suns comic strip

watdogg10 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:55:38 -0000

Welcome to the fifteenth edition of Box n' 1 - a comic strip featuring the Phoenix Suns. Don't forget to rec it and/or leave feedback.

SUNS AWARDED JARRON COLLINS

watdogg10 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:19:46 -0000

[Note by Phoenix Stan, 10/26/09 4:41 PM MST ]

I added a poll....chime in. I don't know what else you ungrateful ~~maggots~~ fans would have the Suns do. They are already over the luxury tax so they can't afford anyone really good and they really can't and don't want to make any trades.

The options were Collins, some other guy with either no experience or bad numbers or save the money and do nothing.

They needed a big man to pick up minutes behind Frye and bang a little. Why not Collins? Good guy. Smart player. Good defender. Big. Cheap.

What else are you expecting?

[Note by Phoenix Stan, 10/26/09 4:56 PM MST ]

Of course, this also means that the Suns don't think Clark is ready to play the PF position in the NBA. Shocking, since the kid played the perimeter at college so to expect him to come in and battle in the paint as a rookie is obviously a stretch.

[Note by Phoenix Stan, 10/26/09 5:13 PM MST ]

Here's what Gentry said about Jarron Collins on Sunday after practice:

"He's been a guy who's lasted in the league and done a good job. He's a big guy."

I asked Gentry if it matter that Collins had played 8 years in Utah for Jerry Sloan. Gentry said it didn't matter where he played.

Press Release after the jump...

PHOENIX – The Phoenix Suns today announced that the club has been awarded the rights to center Jarron Collins. Collins, who spent the preseason with the Portland Trail Blazers, became available after being waived October 22, 2009.

The 6-11, 249-pound Collins is an eight-year NBA veteran who has spent every career regular season with the Utah Jazz. The 30-year-old owns career averages of 4.3 points and 3.1 rebounds in 16.9 minutes in 480 games (206 starts). Collins, who has averaged 8.8 rebounds per 48 minutes over the course of his NBA career, is a durable post player who has appeared in 70 or more games in five of his eight NBA seasons.

Collins was a four-year performer at Stanford where he helped lead the Cardinal to the 1998 Final Four. He is one of 10 players in Stanford history with 1,000 points and 700 rebounds.

Jarron is the younger twin brother of Hawks center Jason Collins. He joins teammates Robin Lopez (New Jersey’s Brook) and Taylor Griffin (L.A. Clippers’ Blake) as Suns players with brothers in the NBA. Phoenix now has a member of three of the NBA’s five active brother pairings.

The Suns tip-off the club’s 42nd NBA season this Wednesday, Oct. 28, visiting the L.A. Clippers at 7: 30 p.m. on My45.Phoenix returns home to open the home portion of the 2009-10 slate on Friday, Oct. 30, hosting the Golden State Warriors at 7 p.m. at US Airways Center on FOX Sports Arizona. All games can be heard on Sports 620 KTAR.

Poll

Sensing a lot of unhappiness with the Collins pick-up. I ask you what else would you have the Suns do to fill in for Robin until he recovers?

Nothing. Suns are better off w/o Collins no matter what

31 votes

Collins was the best option out there. It's something

189 votes

Like to see some other big like maybe Sims, Siler or Earl Barron

38 votes

Make a trade to get a better big (if you pick this, explain in comments)

25 votes

283 votes | Poll has closed

The unofficially official Phoenix Suns comic strip

watdogg10 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:48:34 -0000

Welcome to the fourteenth edition of Box n' 1 - a comic strip featuring the Phoenix Suns. Don't forget to rec it and/or leave feedback.

My day as a professional basketball player, a D-league tryout story

watdogg10 — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:22:21 -0000

Throughout my life many things have changed for me. For starters, the TV show that used to be the end-all be-all of television (Gilligan’s Island – I loved that show when I was little) has now become only my second favorite show about people stranded on an island trying desperately to get home while, at the same time, trying to adapt to their surroundings.

I’ve also gone from using a computer maybe 5 times throughout my entire HS career to absolutely, positively, without it I would probably cease to exist relying on computers every day of my life. Seriously, I can’t even remember the last time I went an entire day without getting on a computer at least once (my guess would be my wedding day 5 ½ years ago).

However, through all of the changes, there has always been one constant…one answer to the question "what do you want to be?" My answer when I was a kid is the same as my answer now (just because it aint going to happen doesn’t mean it can’t still be my ultimate goal, right?), I want to be a professional basketball player.

I have been blessed with a 6’8" wingspan to go with my 6’3" frame…you know, the type of arms that are only useful to ball players and apes, NBA 3-point range, and since the year 1999 I’ve been a card-carrying dunker (for those who don’t know you have to get at least one in-game dunk each year to renew your "dunker" membership).

My HS career went well enough…I wasn’t always happy with my minutes and felt that I was underutilized on more than one occasion but as a player you just got to play, right? In college I made an attempt to play JuCo ball but was stopped short by a hernia and later by…well I got married and priorities changed.

After that, I sort of accepted that my basketball career was going to be lived out playing in rec leagues and pick-up games.

Then, about six weeks ago, our own Phoenix Stan came to me (via twitter and email) and stirred up new illusions of grandeur when he A) asked if I would participate in the Iowa Energy (the Sun’s D-League affiliate) open tryout to which I originally replied, 'maybe 5 or 6 years ago' and B) told me that he was already on the path to getting me in. Here is a small portion of his email to the Energy coaches:

"We will definitely be covering this and in fact one of our writers is a 6'4" (I’m actually 6’3" but you know how teams exaggerate that sort of thing) former dunk champion at like the JuCo level (I have won three different slam dunk contests but that was a long time ago) who's also 28 and not exactly in top game shape but we were thinking he could participate (until he pukes) and then write about it from an insiders perspective (which is what you’re currently reading)."

With that, I was in and the coaches were clear not to be expecting the next Michael Jordan.

Basically, if I could make it the whole day without puking it would be considered a success. On a personal level, I had six weeks to go from playing for a couple of hours a week on a ¾ size court to being ready to go full out at a tryout with dudes a lot younger, bigger, faster and stronger than me!

Over that period I ramped up my training a little bit (probably not as much as I should’ve) and tried to prepare myself both mentally and physically (aside from the extra court time I gave up my weekly trip to Cici’s Pizza for the usual 14 slices) to be sure that I treated this last shot at pro basketball the same way I would’ve treated it 6 years ago.

Finally, this past Saturday, the tryouts came. I arrived at the gym along with the some 40 other hopefuls ready to go at 9 AM and I’m not going to lie to you, I was NERVOUS!

Now, I knew I wasn’t going to make the team and knew that I had nothing to lose and had low expectations but I was nervous all the same. The morning started simply enough, just a little bit of stretching and some light passing and shooting drills then it started to amp up when we ran some full court passing drills. Then, the tryout was on. They split the participants into four teams - there were two teams that were clearly the A teams and two of the next tier teams –I was put on one of the better teams. Now, I have three theories as to why this happened:

1) They wanted to try and make me puke/quit ASAP

2) They wanted to put me with guys who could cover up the old and out of shape writer

3) They liked what they saw and figured I could ably fill the role of shooter on that squad

Personally, I like to think it was the third scenario, but I digress. Once the teams were split up we started running some full-court transition drills. These drills are meant to expose the kind of shape the players are in as well as their defensive instincts/abilities in transition when the offense has numbers.

It was during these drills that, in my opinion, I played my best ball of the day. It was still early so my legs were feeling good and I was moving well – my favorite moment came when (after hitting a three the previous possession) I got the ball and drilled a second straight three over a dude who had a good two – three inches on me.

Anyway, we ran these drills for the majority of the morning before our "lunch" break. After the break, we stretched and warmed up a bit more, split back into our teams and ran games for the rest of the afternoon.

The games consisted of a 4 minute layup line/warmup period and two 8-minute halves with a one or two minute halftime break. After which you would rest and watch the other two teams play a game (A teams got to run three games and other teams ran two).

This is where I got in trouble…see, at this point in my life my legs don’t bounce back like they used to and in our second game I noticed a steep drop in my ability to defend the younger quicker dudes at the tryout.

When it came time for my team’s third game, there was a player from the other game that the coaches wanted to see run with the A teams and I was kindly told to head to the end of the bench – that I would not be playing in that final game. With that, I watched my team lose it’s final game and my day was done.

When asked what he thought of my performance at the tryout here’s what Iowa Energy Coach Nick Nurse had to say:

"I thought Dustin held his own just fine in the tryout, even had some big moments hitting back to back three's early in the camp. He was in pretty decent shape too and had a great attitude in the camp. It was fun to coach him."

Okay, so it’s not the professional basketball contract that would’ve been the best-case scenario but it’s better than "Dustin puked and quit within 25 minutes of the first drill," right?

As for the tryout, there was some good competition as well as some poor competition. I went in fully expecting to be the worst player there but was surprised to find that I was able to (as coach said) hold my own against the best players at the camp and that I played as good or better (again, in my own opinion – Phoenix Stan may be able to confirm or deny) than a number of other guys out there.

From what I saw, there were probably five dudes that have a shot at showing up in the D-League and possibly even moving up at some point in the future. Here is what Coach Nurse said about the overall competition:

"The overall talent was much better this year which is a good thing. There were a handful of players that I would think have a chance to get drafted in November. [We saw] great enthusiasm and effort by the entire camp. We are really happy with all facets."

I felt the coaches did an awesome job at running the tryout in a way that allowed them to see which players were not only talented enough, but smart enough to play professional basketball. The tryout efficiently tested the endurance levels of the players as well as their ability to take in, retain and execute instructions.

The best part of the tryout was seeing first-hand that the Iowa Energy has GREAT coaches who know how to get the best out of and develop players. Last season there were 15 call-ups to the NBA from the D-League and nine of those came from the Energy organization.

Suns fans, rest assured that our D-League affiliate has game. I have never been surer that it would be in Goran Dragic’s best interest to take a trip to Iowa to get some run.

I (as all Suns fans should) wish nothing but the best for the Energy organization and their coaches and players. As for me an my professional basketball career, well…judging by the fact that I am struggling to even move sufficiently to write this right now…I’d say this was the beginning and the end of my career. But rest assured, there is still only one answer that you will hear when you ask me what I want to be.

[Note by Phoenix Stan, 10/12/09 3:31 PM MST ]

I only stayed for a couple of hours but I can definitely say that our man has got a little game and in my opinion deserved to get some run with the top 50% of the fellas out there. Those two three's he drained got Coach Nurse's attention.

Overall, I agree that there were 3 or maybe 5 guys that really had any kind of shot and they were head and shoulders above the rest. Literally.

One guy named Matt apparently played for Michigan State and was a 6'7" banger type who Coach Nurse told me averaged about 5 and 5 in his college career. He also might have had a camp invite with the Arizona Cardinals. While he certainly wasn't a highly skilled basketball player when you think about the guys at the NBA level, he was obviously an athlete of much higher caliber then most out there. Ever little thing he did on the court separated him from the rest even if it was just running a baseline sprint.

There was another guy that was about 6'7" that was wearing practice jersey from the Charlotte Bobcats and while he also had some skill his crappy attitude probably didn't impress the Energy coaching staff. There were a few other guys that clearly stood out but they either weren't athletic enough or weren't skilled enough.

The most disappointing thing about the tryout was seeing guy dogging it during warm ups and jacking up any random shot like they were on the playground. You would think these guys would understand that they were being watched by trained eyes that saw there every move and that the way to stand out was to be fundamentally sound and appear coach-able.

All of that should remind us just how good the players are "even" at the D-league level. They may not be the "best of the best" like the NBA players but they are right there in that category while sadly, our own Dustin is destined to be a YMCA legend. Not there's anything wrong with that.

The unofficially official Phoenix Suns comic strip

watdogg10 — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:30:28 -0000

Welcome to the thirteenth edition of Box n' 1 - a comic strip featuring the Phoenix Suns. Don't forget to rec it and/or leave feedback.