D'Antoni Ball

LoyaltyisaCurse: "D'antoni did not invent this style of basketball..."

Obviously everything has been done before in some manner or another, but I think the combination of characteristics is pretty rare.

1. Run On Made Baskets: Very few teams run every time down the court, but that's what D'Antoni tries to get done. Most teams run in order to get "easy baskets" while D'Antoni is trying to get into the offense before the opposition gets set.

2. Speed At Every Position: Most teams try to use a speed advantage to create matchup issues at one or two positions, but the Suns try to do it every position with the goal of forcing the other team to play small. This means taking away the opponent's main advantage (size and strength) as they try to keep up with the much faster Suns.

3. Total Emphasis on the "Hit the open man, shoot the open shot" philosophy:Not only does he emphasize hitting the open man, but that the open man should take the shot. Most coaches make a point of defining who can shoot shots and when. Players new to the Suns are amazed that they will get yelled at for NOT shooting.

4. Shooting Three Point Shots Off the Break Is Encouraged: Unlike most NBA teams that emphasize layups off the break, the Suns typically look for open shooters on the break. This is fairly common in Europe, but is only recently catching on in the NBA. This style requires having a couple of high quality catch and shoot guys on the floor at any point in time.

5. Unstructured Half Court Offense: The Suns don't run many plays other than after time outs. As a general rule, they are being taught to look for open players to pass to, rather than the next guy in the progression of a fixed play. This requires having several guys who are good at passing, are aware of who is where, and are unselfish while still being agressive. Nash is the perfect player for this approach, but everyone has to buy into unselfish play.

6. Wide Range of Options Off the Pick and Roll: Every team runs the pick and roll, but the Suns do a lot more with this play including kick out passes to three point shooters, back door plays, pull up mid range shots, and Nash "wandering about" so that defenders lose sight of him to make passes from odd angles. This is so hard to do that the Suns struggle when Nash isn't around - but it is a big part of their offense.

7. High Post and Spread the Court: The Suns try to spread the floor to limit the ability of defenders to guard two guys while making sure that every player is a scoring threat. This tends to pull defenders away from the paint which makes their pick and roll all the more effective. At the same time, when opponents go to a zone, the Suns have someone at the elbow who is effective at shooting the mid rang shot.

Obviously some of the unique aspects of the Suns is their personnel. Nash is unique and Amare's skills are almost as rare. But D'Antoni has tried to get people who are suited to his style so it is not an accident that he's got a team loaded with athletic shooters