Time to drop the over achievers tag!

visions · Post #1 » by **visions** » Sun May 30, 2010 4:44 am

In the post ganm press conference Nash said something along the lines of "people said we over achieved but I think we are a genuinely great team."

Now that I can reflect back on the season, I gotta agree with this.

As the season went along and the Suns kept winning I was one of those who thought the Suns were over achieveing and even as the playoffs started I wasn't sure how far they could go but now I think the Suns totally deserved to be in the WCF and were definitely one of the top 4 teams in the league.

So much heart and desire on this team. Amazing team chemistry. Unbelievable bench. A 36 yr old PG playing like he was 10 years younger...they had a legimate chance to make the finals.

In fact I think this group was the closer to the finals then any team in the Nash era. Yeah the '05 and '06 teams went to the WCF but this year was the first time I really thought the Suns could win the WCF.

Let's do it all again next season and make the finals. These guys (Nash especially) deserve it.
Proud to be a supporter of this incredible team.

Post #2 » by **lilfishi22** » Sun May 30, 2010 4:54 am

If we go with the preseason predictions, then yeah we overachieved, by a mile.

But I think the 2nd half of the season showed we were a legit team. Maybe not legit contenders but a legit team nonetheless. We played great D and was the best offensive team.

mkot · Post #3 » by **mkot** » Sun May 30, 2010 5:55 am

Nash is right. And that's exactly what I thought about our season. I had low expectation too beginning of the season to be honest. No one expected Frye to shoot 44% from three. Dudley? Played a little bit under Porter and mostly garbage time. We don't know what Goran and Lopez can bring to this team. And we have no idea how Gentry is going to coach this team. We started the season well, but then I thought they will come back down to earth and they did. Then after the all-star break we really started to playing like a legit playoff team and that's when I believed we are a legit threat in the post season. We totally deserve to be in the WCF. Not luck. Not over achieving. We are a great team.

Just...another season without a title. Well, there's always next year...like every year.

dantian · Post #4 » by **dantian** » Sun May 30, 2010 6:56 am

What I said in another thread is more proper here, sorry for double posting.

Really proud of the team. Considering the time span of our turnaround, it's highly improbable achievement for the whole team. We have been learning to play as a team, particularly over the playoffs. We have been constantly adjusting and improving. Just not enough time to make good on earlier mistakes. But the team has still a lot of room for improvement on technical level.

More. Chemistry wise and expectation wise, they overachieved. Talent wise, however, they might have underachieved. Amare, JRich, Frye could play better.
It's about the right combination of game plans and motivation and chemistry. We started the season by starting Frye to maximize Nash's dribble dominated offense, which failed miserably by end of December. Nash got worn out, JRich and Amare were way underused. As cited in my sig, Gentry and coaching got fed up with the results and finally ordered less dribble by Nash which revitalized JRich, Amare and particularly the bench and Dragic so much that we had this success.
Yet, old habits stick stubbornly. Nash would revert to over dribble at times. Amare would get back to his focus problem if not involved on offense early on. Frye and LB would have mental issue around shooting. All these needed to be well addressed and smoothen out with experience. So, it's quite surprising that with adjustments on the run we went so far!

visions · Post #5 » by **visions** » Sun May 30, 2010 7:08 am

lilfishi22 wrote:Maybe not legit contenders

I think the Suns are legit contenders.

They only have themselves to blame for losing the WCF. They had a genuine chance to knock off the Lakers...yes, the same Lakers who everyone would agree are title contenders. That, coupled with the fact that the Suns made the WCF at all, makes them a contender in my eyes.

If they had won this series I think some people - i.e journalists etc, not Suns fans - would have picked them to beat the Celts. I doubt it woud have been a unanimous vote for the Celts to win it all.

dantian · Post #6 » by **dantian** » Sun May 30, 2010 7:14 am

visions wrote:
lilfishi22 wrote:Maybe not legit contenders

I think the Suns are legit contenders.

They only have themselves to blame for losing the WCF. They had a genuine chance to knock off the Lakers...yes, the same Lakers who everyone would agree are title contenders. That, coupled with the fact that the Suns made the WCF at all, makes them a contender in my eyes.

If they had won this series I think some people - i.e journalists etc, not Suns fans - would have picked them to beat the Celts. I doubt it woud have been a unanimous vote for the Celts to win it all.

As I said, the time was too short after they came to their winning game plans middle in the season, and still trying to perfect it over the course of playoffs.

As to the finals, I'd consider Suns a favorite over Celtics as their offense would not pose as much of a problem as Kobe and the Lakers, while they wouldn't be able to stop us like they did Magics or Cavs. OTOH, I think Celtics will win it against the Lakers now.

Post #7 » by **lilfishi22** » Sun May 30, 2010 7:55 am

dantian wrote:
visions wrote:
lilfishi22 wrote:Maybe not legit contenders

I think the Suns are legit contenders.

They only have themselves to blame for losing the WCF. They had a genuine chance to knock off the Lakers...yes, the same Lakers who everyone would agree are title contenders. That, coupled with the fact that the Suns made the WCF at all, makes them a contender in my eyes.

If they had won this series I think some people - i.e journalists etc, not Suns fans - would have picked them to beat the Celts. I doubt it woud have been a unanimous vote for the Celts to win it all.

As I said, the time was too short after they came to their winning game plans middle in the season, and still trying to perfect it over the course of playoffs.

As to the finals, I'd consider Suns a favorite over Celtics as their offense would not pose as much of a problem as Kobe and the Lakers, while they wouldn't be able to stop us like they did Magics or Cavs. OTOH, I think Celtics will win it against the Lakers now.

Contenders are built, they don't come randomly. When we first put this team together we didn't do it to win a championship, we did it because it was all we could do with the money available.

visions · Post #8 » by **visions** » Sun May 30, 2010 12:59 pm

lilfishi22 wrote:Contenders are built, they don't come randomly. When we first put this team together we didn't do it to win a championship, we did it because it was all we could do with the money available.

I get what you're saying I agree, some teams are purpose built to win a title but at the end of the day you have to be in it to win it and the Suns came closer to contending for the title than other so called contenders like the Cavs & Nuggets.

Post #9 » by **lilfishi22** » Sun May 30, 2010 1:54 pm

Good point. I just think legit contenders have their roster built to cover their weaknesses before the season begins. We had a lot of weaknesses which were not addressed in the off season because we just didn't have any money.

visions · Post #10 » by **visions** » Sun May 30, 2010 2:01 pm

Agreed - management probably did the best they could under the circumstances.

I also agree there was no reason to label this team a contender before the season started but as it went along it quickly became clear (especially from all star break onwards) that this group was actually really good.

It all went from "trade Nash/rebuild" to "omg we were THIS close to making the finals".

Calvin Klein · Post #11 » by **Calvin Klein** » Sun May 30, 2010 3:10 pm

+1 to the whole thread.

Keep this team together. Nash doesn't want to go ring chasing. He wants to win it with this team even if that means there are less chances. We just reached the WCF and had a shot to win it. Lopez, Dragic, Dudley and Clark will get better. KEEP IT TOGETHER!

DBrimstone · Post #12 » by **DBrimstone** » Sun May 30, 2010 5:19 pm

Next year, the young guys will have had a playoffs worth of experience (not to mention Dragic playing in the worlds over the summer). This was almost the rookie year for most of them and they got far far more playoff experience than most people their age. Next year everybody will be more level headed and a bit more consistent. If we we keep this group together, I believe we can get to the WCF, and have just as much, if not more of a chance to win it then

Post #13 » by **lilfishi22** » Mon May 31, 2010 4:45 am

In order to make playoffs again, we're going to need to resign Amare I'm afraid. There's no one out in FA who's in our price range that would give us what Amare did.

MrVince · Post #14 » by **MrVince** » Tue Jun 1, 2010 1:08 pm

lilfishi22 wrote:In order to make playoffs again, we're going to need to resign Amare I'm afraid. There's no one out in FA who's in our price range that would give us what Amare did.

+1

I didn't think the Suns would have made it to the WCF but I guess I was wrong. I mean I had a lot of faith in the Suns but I thought we'd be good enough getting past the first round. Surely they're overachievers in my book.

shaq_diesel_33 · Post #15 » by **shaq_diesel_33** » Tue Jun 1, 2010 2:14 pm

lilfishi22 wrote:In order to make playoffs again, we're going to need to resign Amare I'm afraid. There's no one out in FA who's in our price range that would give us what Amare did.

I like this team mostly because of amare and agree with you, if he goes the Suns will need to build a new team around somebody else. I know they like to play run&gun but defense wins championships and i can see a lots of room to improve in that aspect of the game

sunskerr · Post #16 » by **sunskerr** » Wed Jun 2, 2010 12:02 am

I agree. We can't find a player who will do for us what Amare does. Good to hear extension talks are coming soon.