One could potentially revise Lombardi's adage about "fatigue makes cowards out of us all" to include age - although getting older usually means imparting experience (in life), it also spells less hope in the sporting arena...
Two years ago the Spurs had a margin of approximately 5 points in which they could operate - keep it close and hopefully the defense could ignite a furious flurry at the end to eke out a win; last year, the age of the big 3 proved revealing in that the margin of 5 had evaporated - to try to remedy this, the Spurs aimed to get younger; however, instead of being able to secure tier 1 players, the Spurs have only been able to plug w/ 1C, 2, 2A, etc. personnel - Parker's career spans his teens back in France whereas Ginobili also has logged major minutes w/ the Argentinian national side and Duncan's tenure in the league speaks for itself - especially given the number of post regular season runs he's enjoyed.
Parker, Ginobili, and Duncan are old (as in dog years) and diminished - and that brief interlude a couple of weeks back when the Spurs went on a mini winning spree? A mirage in all likelihood...
As for Phoenix, it's pretty revealing that Dragic brings the ball up court w/ Nash beside him - instead of confidently interweaving both points, Gentry's desperation in the late stages of tonight's contest against Utah spoke volumes when he employed this tactic. If Frye was a keeper, wouldn't a character-driven, hard-nosed squad like Portland have kept him? B/w both Frye and David Lee (given their starts w/ the Knicks), who would a current GM rather have? Don't think the choice is that difficult... The Suns are as fragile as they have always been - teetering on the brink of disaster, but able to con the public b/c of the pace they play at; they don't fast break like they used to though and don't position themselves all along the 3 point line to drill the opposition - that's Orlando's MO now (although as w/ all jump shooting teams, if you live by the 3, you also die by it as well). And despite Nash's avowed and publicized prowess offensively, why doesn't he receive more criticism about his defensive shortcomings? The 2 point jumper he allowed Deron Williams by not fighting off a Boozer screen at the end pretty much killed any residual momentum for the Suns.
