And this was also one of the reasons why the Suns management later decided to trade O'Neal to the team.
However, for the Suns to truly solve their backcourt rebounding issues...
They had to wait until Grant Hill joined and Alvin Gentry took charge.
In the 09/10 season, under the joint efforts of Hill and other forwards, Suns fans would be surprised to discover that...
As long as the forwards didn't always think about sneaking out for fast-breaks like in the D'Antoni era, they could completely protect their backcourt rebounds well.
To aggressively push the speed of transition offense, the early fast-breaks by Bell, Diaw, and others indeed provided Nash with more passing options on offense.
But as long as the Warriors could grab the offensive rebounds, the points that should've been fast-break scores for the Suns would turn into an excellent second-chance opportunity for the Warriors.
Let the opponent score 2 fewer points.
While we score 2 more points.
