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Scouts views: observations from an Eastern Conference scout

Sporting News, The, Feb 11, 2005

The best chance to beat the Suns, and I think everyone's starting to pick up on this, is you've got to make Steve Nash a scorer instead of a passer. He's good enough that if you force him to score, they still might beat you. But if you make him a distributor, they'll definitely beat you. Whenever he gets into the paint and a defender leaves to help right away, it's a 3 or a dunk for whoever's left open.

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But if you send help late, you might get him caught up in the air. Hold him under 10 assists, and you're in pretty good shape. Getting his field-goal attempts up is most important.... Gary Payton is playing head and shoulders better than last year. 1 figured he would be the worst pickup of the summer because I thought he would be a bad guy to have around such a young team, but he's been just the opposite. He's doing what Doc Rivers expects of him, and he's been great for Marcus Banks. I really like the Celtics' rookies, AI Jefferson and Tony Allen. A player Allen reminds me of--I know he's not as good--is Ron Arrest as a rookie. I don't think Allen will ever develop into a shooter like Artest did--I hear he has a depth perception problem--but he defends his butt off. He can score posting up, he brings so much energy, and he's a tough cookie.... The All-Star break can't get here quick enough for the Pistons and Pacers. I don't think you can overestimate how much of a problem getting past the fight has been for both teams. I'm not condoning what the players did, but they still are getting blamed, they're still seeing it on TV, they're still hearing about it constantly. After they have some time to get away from it all for a couple of days, I think they'll come back in a different frame of mind.... As for the Pacers bringing Attest back to practice, I think they were worried about him and what he might do. Everything I hear is that they want to get rid of him. But just in case they can't trade him, they need to have him around the guys so if he does come back in October, it won't be as big a deal. Personally, I don't see how he doesn't end up in New York. It probably would have to be a three-team deal, and I don't know how it would work, but it makes sense for the Knicks and for Artest.

Scouts views: observations from an Eastern Conference scout

Sporting News, The, Feb 11, 2005

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