# Diaw Impresses at European Championships



## azirishmusic (Feb 25, 2004)

Suns.com 

Diaw Impresses at European Championships


Posted: Sept. 23, 2005 
If Boris Diaw’s efforts in the European Championships are any indication, the Suns have found their back-up point guard for the upcoming season. 

Diaw continued his strong play in Belgrade with an 18-point, 11-board and three-assist effort in Thursday’s 63-47 quarterfinal win over defending champ Lithuania. It was his biggest scoring outburst since he dropped 23 on Bosnia & Herzegovina last week. The guard’s 14.6 ppg average is not only tops for a French team that also features fellow NBA ballers Tony Parker and Mickael Pietrus, but it should also make the Suns coaching staff a lot less nervous when it comes to periodically resting reigning NBA MVP Steve Nash in 2005-06. 

“Watching Boris play overseas, he's been playing very well,” Suns assistant coach Marc Iavaroni said. “He’s been very aggressive and confident. Obviously he can play one, two, maybe three. He can defend pretty well. He’s got size and quickness. We’re excited about him as a sleeper kind of guy.” 

Coming over from the Hawks with a pair of future first-round draft picks in the Joe Johnson deal last month, Diaw will be back in Phoenix for the start of Training Camp in less than two weeks. Until then, or as long as his overseas team keeps their winning ways going, the 23-year-old will be staying busy in Yugoslavia. 

France’s next challenge comes Saturday when it takes on a tough Greek team that beat them convincibly a week ago. The semifinal matchup vs. Greece airs live on NBA TV at 9 a.m. 

:cheers:


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## futuristxen (Jun 26, 2003)

Yeah they are showing this on NBA TV. He looks amazing. Better than Parker and Pietrus right now. I hope the Suns finally can get it out of this kid. He has more potential than Joe Johnson even. But he's much farther away from realizing. But it's not impossible. And France is using Parker as a scoring guard off of Diaw...similiar to what Phoenix can do with Barbosa now with Diaw on the floor. Diaw could also open up Barbosa's game finally.


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## Kicito (Jun 3, 2003)

He was named to the all-tournament team with Nowitzki (MVP), Papadoloulos (greek center), Diamantidis (greek PG), Navarro (the 2nd top scorer).

Here are Diaw's final stats : 13.7 ppg (2PT FG : 35/60 - 58.3% /3PT FG : 7/16, 43.8%) , 5.3 rpg, 3.4 apg, 1.0 spg, 1.3 blpg in 31.3 mpg and 7 games.

As usual, Diaw was impressive playing for the national team, he was agressive in offense, played an unselfish ball and was not afraid to take the clutch shoots, he was the true leader of the team and was very consistent during the tournament. He was great at running the offense, he never forced a shoot and took what the defense gave to him. The only hole in his game was obviously the FT, he shot an abysmal 19.2% (5/26) from the line. He never has been a great FT shooter, but that was getting ridiculous especially against Slovenia where he shot 0/11.

Now if he could do the same in the NBA, that would be great, i'm not sure what is role will be on the Suns team, but if he plays like he played during the European Championship, he will get a place in the rotation that's for sure. He could be the main distributor off the bench and give some rest to Nash. His versatility and great defense allow him to play all the perimeter positions and with a team that doesn't need anymore scorer like the Suns, Diaw could be a nice surprise.


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## azirishmusic (Feb 25, 2004)

Diaw's best chance ito get into the rotation is at backup point guard where he competes with Barbosa and House. None of the three are proven point guards so Boris has as good a chance as any.


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## rebelsun (Nov 25, 2003)

It definitely won't hurt having Boris on the roster. Now, about those free throws...


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## Tiz (May 9, 2005)

You gotta like that 44% 3pt stat. Even though it is from a shorter distance, he can hopefully keep that up or at least within 4-5%. That' will be nice coming off the bench.


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## ChristopherJ (Aug 10, 2004)

Good to hear. He always had potential but he hasn't really shown much so far in his career. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come and he blooms into a solid player for us this year.


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## xtf (Jun 20, 2003)

i put this little clip together to show the best plays by Boris Diaw during the elimination round at the Eurobasket 2005.
http://rapidshare.de/files/5749256/Boris_Diaw.rm.html


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## azirishmusic (Feb 25, 2004)

Draft Express 

Boris Diaw

Jonathan Givony

On the opposite spectrum of seeing NBA-based players who struggle to return to Europe and adapt themselves once again to the team oriented style of the international game, we have here the exact opposite type of player in the case of Boris Diaw. 

Having the misfortune of playing for one of the most chaotic and talent-depleted rosters in the NBA in the Atlanta Hawks, Diaw has suffered through two seasons of looking like a fish out of water on a team surrounded by stat-padding future free agents whose sole purpose in their time on the floor has been to score enough points (field goal percentage be damned) to work their way into a better contract. 

Just after being traded to one of the winningest teams in the NBA last year, the Phoenix Suns, Diaw took advantage of playing for his home country of France to show that he is still oozing with the basketball skills, talent and upside that made him a first round pick to begin with in 2003. 

Diaw’s excellent size, length, athletic ability and unique skills were on full display throughout the Eurobasket tournament. He handled the ball wonderfully both in France’s half-court sets and in transition, showed terrific court vision and passing skills to rack up some of the most impressive assists seen here in Belgrade, and played outstanding defense on whoever he was asked to guard to eventually lead his team to a surprising bronze medal as his team’s best and most versatile player.

Despite shooting a horrendous 5/26 from the free throw line (an amazing 19.2% clip), Diaw was the catalyst for his team and a worthy selection of being named one of the top five players in the Eurobasket. His perimeter shooting skills still leave something to be desired (contrary to what his 44% average from outside would indicate), but possibly the best sign seen here from Diaw was the fact that he is indeed willing to step up and take big shots for his team when he is called upon. He showed impressive ability to knock down shots off the dribble at times with his combination of ball-handling skills and excellent spring to his step, while not shying away from putting his head down at times and taking the ball strong to the basket to either score, draw the foul or find the open man off the defensive’s rotation. Best of all, though, was the outstanding feel for the game, unselfishness and constant commitment to contributing to the ball-movement of his squad that kept France right in the thick of things when his team started to go off track. His all-around versatility, fantastic physical characteristics and highly unique skills left a strong impression that the best days of this 6-8, 23 year old shooting guard are well ahead of him, hopefully now on a team that actually knows how to take advantage of these skills.


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## kpc (Oct 4, 2005)

I am so excited that he was transferred to the Suns.
I actually know Boris very well, we lived close to each other in France. I played Basketball and Judo with him. Before he joined big (city) teams, he already had that kind of versatile and complete style. 

I really hope he'll be able to show what he's really got in this team.

I just moved to NY and I got tickets for Knicks vs. Suns as soon as they were up for sale.

I unfortunately didn't see him during the European championship, but I was talking to my parents as they were watching it live and telling about how great Boris was doing.

Thanks for all these great comments some of you wrote.


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