This season’s Suns proved importance of chemistry
Apr 13, 2011, 9:43 PM | Updated: 11:06 pm
It’s been said that you never know what you have until it’s gone.
Phoenix Suns fans could apply this in many ways in regards to last season’s team.
There was that Amare Stoudemire fellow who called for double teams and took a lot of scoring pressure off the outside shooters. There was Robin Lopez finally becoming comfortable in his starting role. There was the bench, led by the Spurs-slaying Goran Dragic, which built leads instead of giving them up.
Most of all though, last season’s Phoenix Suns had a chemistry that wasn’t given enough credit until the curtain fell and the Lakers advanced to the Finals.
The 2010-11 team never found that chemistry which, among other faults, doomed them to Wednesday night’s season finale.
“If you can get the combination of both where people’s skill and personalities work together, you’ve got a chance to be something special and I think that’s what we saw last year,” said point guard Steve Nash on Sports 620 KTAR’s Doug and Wolf. “This year we just couldn’t find that connectivity enough.”
As the team’s unanimous leader, Nash is familiar with the idea of meshing players’ specialties to create a competitive team. He’s given it his all applying that since coming to Phoenix.
After the team made trades with the Orlando Magic in December and the Houston Rockets before February’s trade deadline, Nash admits that they weren’t given enough time to harmonize and make the playoffs.
“It is a lot of change,” Nash said. “We got a lot of new guys [and] it’s really hard to judge them because we never quite fit together. But on a positive note there are some great guys in that locker room.”
Nash isn’t about to place the blame on other teammates, the coaches or even the front office, though. He knows it wasn’t the fault of any one person in particular. Despite that acknowledgement, he shares that he put a lot of this season’s expectations upon himself.
“For myself, I’ve been spoiled by success and I expect success,” Nash said. “I came out of the playoffs last year obviously devastated…[but] extremely motivated and ready to take it to the next level and everything changed after that. For some reason, I’m too naïve and stupid to change my expectations. It puts me in a position a lot of nights where I’ve taken on way too much emotionally. I think that the hardest thing for me is to let go and not to accumulate all that stress and all that negative energy or disappointment.”
Nash’s personality shines every season as he works to build chemistry and take this team to a championship.
It’s been said that you never know what you have until it’s gone.
While the 2009-10 Phoenix Suns exemplified successful chemistry, the 2010-11 Suns proved its importance.
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