Yesterday's message from the Phoenix Suns seemed to be about technical fixes like communicating better, tweaking schemes, etc. Today was all about the attitude and mindset when it comes to lifting the Suns from the dregs of rebounding and defensive rankings in the NBA. Steve Nash talked about what his team needs to do and expressed his impatience with the process.
"The biggest thing, we've got to have more fire," Nash said.
"Maybe it's not the make up of our team, personality-wise, and so sometimes you have to manufacture that. Right now, I think that's our chore -- to manufacture a little fire and find a way to make it contiguous and find a way for guys who maybe aren't naturally the most energetic or outgoing people to lift each other up and make everyone feel like we can do it together."
Go ahead and assume he's talking about Hedo Turkoglu, but really it could be Warrick, Childress, Dragic, Richardson, Frye,himself or really anyone on this roster not named Jared Dudley.
You can also take the old kick-in-the-ass thing too far and Nash is one who always seemed focused on having a good "spirit" and is more of "carrot versus stick" guy. But right now, he doesn't seem to have the patience for that.
"Right now, the level of play that we're at with the defense and rebounding categories, we don't have time to sit back and be like, 'Oh, we'll get it back.' We've got to emphasize it, even if it means giving ourselves a kick in the butt. We've got to take that, process it, and find a way not to have some sort of paralysis and then go out there and play hard and enjoy it. We've got a good group of guys and we've got to find a way to have that energy consistently and good things will happen."
He spoke about the discipline needed to do things right on the court, like not stare at the rim while an opposing offensive player streaks in uncontested to steal the rebound. You have to simply turn your head and look for that guy and, according to Nash, that's all about staying disciplined. Nash is hopeful that these two days of practice, along with the rest on Monday, will help fix some of the slippage in defense and rebounding.
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