The Spurs Rules

Ah, playoff time again. Nothing like watching a more talented team get demolished by good coaching and their own personal poor defensive play. It's all too familiar territory, any Suns fan will tell you about it, at length, just before they break down in tears. But what if, and this is purely speculation, the Suns were actually defensively prepared to stop the Spurs from getting any shot they wanted on the floor? Like I said, purely speculation, but if this were to happen, there would be certain adjustments to make on the defensive end. (For instance, no buying popcorn from vendors when the ball is in play.) Now, I think the Suns would be able to do this, were they to be given proper instruction on how to play defense against the Spurs. So, without further ado, the Spurs rules! These are the plays that the Suns have gotten burned on a million jillion times this season, and how to stop them...

- Always go under picks on Tony Parker. You would always rather have him take a 19-22 foot jump shot than get in the lane. Always. I don't care if he just hit a no loot around the back full court shot with 19 seconds left on the shot clock, just go under the pick. This allows Shaq to remain firmly anchored to the painted area, as he tends to be regardless, without giving Tony Parker the ability to get anywhere on the floor he wants while simultaneously giving him a passing lane to the roller.

- Unless Manu has hit at least two three pointers in the past 6 minutes, you go under the pick for the same exact reason you go under the pick with Parker. Manu is a streaky shooter who can hit that three pointer if you go under *sometimes*, but it's not within the flow of the offense and you want to make him take those shots more than you want to give Duncan a wide open lay up.

- When the guard can't get under the pick because Duncan or Kurt Thomas sets a moving pick (It happens a lot), the big can't play middle field. The big has to move to contest the shot. Usually when this happens, it leads to a wide open lay up by Fabricio Oberto when Duncan shovels it to him under the basket... but there's more to the plan! The SG or SF has to come over on the wing and pick up Oberto. Yes, you leave Michael Finley, Brent Barry or Bruce Bowen open from the wing or side, but it's better than a lay up. Always. There is roughly a 0.2% chance that Oberto will miss the wide open lay up, while there is roughly a 60% chance that one of those guys will miss the three point shot, and if everyone rotates back once the pass is made (That's what it's called when the big guy who stepped up to contest a shot goes back to his guy so the perimeter guys can cover their guys. It's a real part of defense, trust me on this one.), it will be a partially contested three point shot.

- This is only being run on Amare and Shaq, but primarily Amare and primarily with Michael Finley, but it's how Michael Finley has gotten basically every point he's had in the series. Finley will come off of a screen (or moving screen) from Kurt Thomas or Fabricio Oberto while Raja or Leandro chase valiantly through the screen. The problem with this is that Amare doesn't flash help. At all. He stares blankly at the guy he's guarding. If Amare gives a quick show once Finley gets the ball, Oberto or Thomas will make a move to roll to the basket. Amare's job is to flash the help then run back to Thomas/Oberto and make sure they aren't able to catch a lob pass from Finley.(Amare should be able to do this just fine...) This allows the jump shot to be at least mildly contest if Finley pulls up straight away and allows the wing guy time to get back in front of Finley if he doesn't pull up straight away.

I was pondering making some pictures illustrating these points in vivid detail, with bright shiny colors to keep the attention of the viewers, but it seemed like an awful lot of work for something that wasn't going to get used... so I'm content with putting these in word form. Hopefully the Suns manage a win tomorrow morning, and then we'll see about getting Mikey D a link to this.