With Dan Majerle’s move to the Phoenix Suns’ bench alongside Terry Porter, Scott Williams moved into the team’s vacant color analyst position alongside Tom Leander in games aired on my45. Eddie Johnson and Gary Bender will reportedly still work games on FSN AZ.
Williams has worked as a color analyst for the Cleveland Cavaliers and did pre/post game analysis for the Milwaukee Bucks. I don’t remember much about Scott Williams from when he played with the Suns, and I know zilch about his skills as a color analyst. I’ve seen a few sites that have mentioned the Bucks were sad to see him go, so that’s something I guess. The man has spent 15 years in the league, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t based on an overwhelming amount of talent, so I’m guessing he must have been a hard worker and a high character guy. Obviously, that has little or nothing to do with how well he does covering the game, but it does give him a unique perspective and one that I can respect. He’s also played with megastars like Lebron and MJ and volume scorers like Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury; shooters like Michael Redd and Ray Allen and point guards like Tim Hardaway and Avery Johnson, who now coaches the Dallas Mavericks. He also played with the Suns’ own Amare Stoudemire, so I’m sure Suns fans will hear a lot about how much better Amare is now than he was in 02-03. In case you were wondering, Amare is the only player on that roster still with the Suns now.
I’m sure Scott Williams will do a decent job as color analyst for the Suns. It would take an awfully lot for me to mute the TV during a Suns game anyways, though Al McCoy is a pretty tempting alternative. I look forward to hearing Williams’ opinions during the broadcast, if for no other reason than it means the season has started.
Also, I was able to find what is quite possibly the only Scott Williams tribute video ever made.
I read an article East Valley Tribune reporter Scott Bordow wrote last week about how Nash doesn’t know if the Suns will be good enough to sit him for a dozen games next season. “If you can get to the postseason well rested, it’s perfect,” Nash tells Bordow. “But you can’t always afford to do that.” It’s been Steve Kerr’s plan for quite a while now to rest Nash for about a dozen games this season. To this end, he traded up in the draft to get Goran Dragic and recently swung a deal to acquire Sean Singletary, who was taken a few spots ahead of Dragic. And as self-centered as it may sound to suggest that the Suns can’t win without him, Nash has two MVP trophies that back up his claims. Not that I think he is self-centered in any way – he has a pretty extensive track record that suggests otherwise.
I don’t think that Nash is saying the Suns’ new rookie PGs aren’t good enough to hold his jock strap, but realistically the Suns aren’t going to have a large margin of error for making the playoffs. Sure, the Celtics won a championship last year with Rajon Rondo starting, but they had the Big 3 who could create their own shots if the second-year guard was struggling. O’Neal has trouble doing that now, and Stoudemire, Barbosa, Diaw, and Hill are pretty inconsistent. Plus, the Celtics were playing in the Eastern Conference, where the lowly Atlanta Hawks made the playoffs with a losing record. Of course, those same Hawks took the Celts to 7 games i the first round, even with self-proclaimed “World’s Best Player” Paul Pierce playing injury-free. But I digress.
So if the Suns will be hard-pressed to make the playoffs this year in a tough Western Conference, can they really afford to sit Nash for 12 games? Maybe. I suppose it depends on who they rest him against. Against the Bucks, T-Wolves, and Grizzlies, Nash shouldn’t have to play for the Suns to win. He’s not the same player he was a few years past, when the Suns struggled against the scum of the league without him. If the rest of the team can’t post a winning record against such teams without Nash’s help, the Suns’ championship hopes are awfully dim.
I suppose another school of thought asks why Nash needs to be removed from games entirely. Wouldn’t it be enough to just lower the minutes he plays per game? Surely Dragic and Singletary can fill in for a quarter and a half each game. I tend to subscribe to former coach Mike D’Antoni’s way of thinking. Does five minutes a game really matter to a world-class athlete? Will he really be that much more rested for the playoffs if he sits on the bench a few minutes less each game?
I think Kerr’s plan to sit Nash is a good idea, assuming of course the games are strategically chosen. I don’t think it would be wise to sit Nash the final 12 games of the season. And as much as this plan has to do with winning his season, it also has a great deal to do with the Suns’ future. Stoudemire needs to prove he can win without Nash, and either Dragic or Singletary need to show themselves capable of starting in the NBA. The Suns need to start preparing for life without Nash. Take a break, Steve Nash. The team afford to play a few without you this season. The question is, can they really afford not to?
