As Suns and Warriors Fade, So Does Run-and-Gun

WRITER'S NOTE: Statistics and standings in article are current as of March 6, 2009.

For four thunder-and-lightning-filled seasons, the Phoenix Suns—and to a lesser extent, the Golden State Warriors—have captivated NBA enthusiasts with their breakneck, run-and-gun style of free-flowing offensive basketball.

Led by Steve Nash and a motley crew of freakishly gifted high flyers like Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion, the Phoenix Suns took the term “fast-break” to a whole other level, using it as their main game plan, to be employed with just the slightest hint of opportunity.

Over in the Bay Area, a resurgent Baron Davis spearheaded a chaotic “mad genius” offense that seemed to defy the existence of the 24-second shot clock.

Both teams used this high-scoring style of basketball to gain great gameday success, and both ultimately became the darlings of the sports media. Suddenly thrust into the spotlight, this "speed" basketball became a craze among talk show pundits and playground ballers alike.

But now, as the 2009 NBA season starts to wind down, both teams are a shell of their former selves. Decimated by personnel changes and philosophical overhauls, both are on the outside of the Playoff race looking in. And as they decline, so does the brief fame of their unstructured, improvisational method.

"Seven seconds or less," revered by fans and reviled by purists, seems to be disappearing fast.

Although Phoenix and Golden State are the latest to run such an unorthodox offense, they are by no means the first. The break-centered style seems to pop up every so often in professional basketball history; fast-paced scoring was prevalent in the entertainment-driven ABA of the 1960’s and 70’s. And the Los Angeles “Showtime” Lakers, led by Magic Johnson, used similar tactics to win five NBA championships in the 1980’s.

Nevertheless, true success with the strategy remains rare, as most NBA coaches and connoisseurs maintain that solid, fundamental defense and careful, structured offenses are the keys to basketball success.

Indeed, when examining the facts, it appears that this belief is held with good reason, especially in contemporary times. The reluctantly-accepted dominant team of the decade, the San Antonio Spurs, have won three of the last six NBA championships with their slow, defense-oriented style of play. Last year’s champion Boston Celtics held teams to the lowest field goal percentage in the league, and were second in opponent scoring per game.

It's no coincidence that this season, the three top defensive teams in the NBA—the Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics, and San Antonio Spurs—are also three of the top five in the standings.

Unfortunately, the same reasons that made the Golden State and Phoenix offenses so dynamic and exciting to watch also made them terrible defensively. Quick shots and daring passes were great when everything was working, but when the teams weren't clicking, it often led to easy buckets for their opponents going the other way. Even in the best of times, the frenetic attack was just too disorienting to allow for consistent defense.

Ironically, in the Phoenix Suns' case, it is only when they tried to conform that they lost their dominance. After several disappointing Playoff exits, management decided to go another direction with the philosophy of the team.

Last season, despite sporting a 37-16 record at the time, the Suns decided to send uberathletic and versatile wing Shawn Marion to the Miami Heat for the aging but capable Shaquille O’Neal. With Marion went any chance of maintaining the high-risk, high-reward attack that had made the Phoenix Suns a juggernaut in the Western Conference since Steve Nash arrived in 2004.

Then, Mike D’Antoni, the key innovator of the system and undisputed general of the organization in its golden years, was out of Phoenix at the end of the season.

The coming of O’Neal marked the end of an era for many inside and outside the Phoenix organization. Now in the twilight of his career, the Diesel relies on a bruising style of play with an emphasis on camping out in the key on offense and playing the role of mighty intimidator on defense.

The wide-open lanes and spread-out defenses that Phoenix had become accustomed to quickly evaporated. The daily track meets were replaced with a more careful, measured approach. 

The game slowed down, and the Phoenix swagger, at one time monumental, started to waver. From to the 2004-05 season and up until the Shaq trade, the Suns boasted an incredible .718 winning percentage. Since his arrival, that number has plummeted to .577, a drop off of 11 games per season.

Nash, the two-time MVP and ringleader of the NBA’s version of the circus for four years prior, has become mortal again. This season, he is averaging 14.5 points and 9.7 assists per game, his lowest totals since rejoining the Suns. And looking past the numbers, it is hard to negate the huge impact the change has made on Nash’s game.

Factoring in an aging and worn down body—Nash recently turned 35 years old—the Suns long-time leader has not been quite the same wunderkind that NBA fans are used to seeing.        

The man-beast Amare Stoudemire has been the subject of several trade rumors, and there have been grumblings throughout the season that he is unhappy with his role.

The Suns currently sit in the ninth spot in the Western Conference, behind the Dallas Mavericks, in danger of not making the postseason for the first time since 2003 (and only the second time in the last 20 years).

In California, the Warriors' collapse was the result of a flurry of front office moves and free agency departures. Only four players remain from the 2006-07 “We Believe” Playoff run, in which the team upset of the No. 1 seed Dallas Mavericks.

That run marked the peak of the run-and-gun glory and captured the interest of thousands of basketball fans. But soon after, Matt Barnes and Jason Richardson ended up in Phoenix, Al Harrington was traded to New York, and Baron Davis left for his hometown of Los Angeles, where his numbers and popularity are now rapidly declining.

Coach Don Nelson, one of the masterminds behind the pace that some have described as “organized chaos," was not immune to the fall from grace. Once considered a savior by the fans in the Bay Area, many are now clamoring for a change.

The Warriors are on pace to lose 54 games this year, which would be their highest total since the 2001-02 season.  They're still scoring in bunches, but their fast break offense has morphed from an exciting form of poetry in motion to a sloppy, mistake-laden sideshow run by one of the most inexperienced rosters in the NBA. They are giving up an inconceivable 111.3 points per game and are being outrebounded by 5.6 rebounds per contest.

The Warriors and Suns served as glittering examples of the unorthodox and superbly entertaining whirlwind offense. Fittingly, with their decline, “run-and-gun” basketball has slithered into relative obscurity.

Sure, teams like D’Antoni's Knicks and the Oklahoma City Thunder still run an “up and down” system, but none come close to recapturing the chaos that Golden State and Phoenix depended on, and none hold the pure commitment to the philosophy that made the two so unconventional.

For now, the cliche that “defense wins championships” holds true. Teams in the NBA find success today by following the model that most basketball coaches have been preaching all along. This is bad news to many casual viewers, who spurned the machine-like precision of teams like the Spurs for the unpredictable fireworks of the Suns.

Many will miss free-wheeling expressiveness of the rip-roaring, high-scoring blitz. 

But if basketball history repeats itself, some form of the fast break offense will be back in the future. It seems to pop up every once in a while, with a bang, and then sink back into the shadows with a fizzle.

For now, though, the NBA is reverting to the purists’ style of play: It's becoming sturdier, safer, and—undoubtedly—slower.