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Seriously. Hedo is not the starting power forward, right?

As the season gets closer and as I read more into what staff, coaches are saying, it appears it isn't a joke afterall: Hedo a PF?

Back when trade was first announced I didn't make much of it, but as pre-season looms, I think Suns will actually go into it this way - which is a huge mistake.

Reason it's a huge mistake is b/c Hedo cannot possibly play PF and I've seen the guy play a number of times. And when he was with the Sacto Kings, they actually listed him at 6 foot 8 as a youngster (check your old NBA Live video games as proof). Guess he grew, but no way he can handle the KG, Duncans, Boozers, Boshs, and Gasols.

It is a scary thought this may actually happen. Suns will regret this and make a mid-season shift causing players to get angry (Dudley) so Hedo can go back to SF.

With Joe Smith still available, I'd sign him and go with this lineup for some decent size. Joe Smith's jumper is deadly still and he is a weaker, poor-man's Kurt Thomas with more offense.

C Lopez-Smith-Lawal
F Frye-Warrick-Clark
F Hedo-Hill-Dudley
G JRich-JChill-Janning
G Nash-Dragic-Janning

Hedo will be fine...he will probably even get some time at center this season (sounded like it at the press conf)

stretch 4. kinda like Jamison. he did it in Orlando where he was most successful. But i agree that our size or lack thereof down low is gonna hurt us when it counts.

im just going to respond with this witty picture i made (again):

MaryvalesFinest wrote:Hedo will be fine...he will probably even get some time at center this season (sounded like it at the press conf)

I think I just had a heart attack.

JPHX wrote:stretch 4. kinda like Jamison. he did it in Orlando where he was most successful. But i agree that our size or lack thereof down low is gonna hurt us when it counts.

Well, only 1 small problem: When Hedo played PF in Orlando, there was this guy named Dwight Howard in the middle. And when he was playing SF, there was this 6 foot 10 guy named Rashard Lewis in addition to Dwight Howard. All Turk has going is 6 foot 8 Hill and Lopez next to him.

That's trouble.

Hedo at the 4 isn't ideal but in our system even Dudley could play the 4 so it really isn't as big of of an issue as it would be if he played the 4 on a team with a traditional lineup. It would be nice to see him play the 3 but that would mean Hill would have to come off the bench.

I was skeptical at first but it doesn't matter because we're not contenders. There's enough bad teams in this league that we can run outta the building and maybe sneak in as an 8th seed. The whole point of this lineup will be creating mismatches. It'll work well against scrub teams and fail miserably against good teams. Unless we can somehow pull a trade for a legit PF we won't make any noise.

Sunsman44 wrote:With Joe Smith still available, I'd sign him and go with this lineup for some decent size. Joe Smith's jumper is deadly still and he is a weaker, poor-man's Kurt Thomas with more offense.

I'd rather bring in a 45 year old Rodman than Joe Smith and his blown out knees.

Sunsman44 wrote:
Well, only 1 small problem: When Hedo played PF in Orlando, there was this guy named Dwight Howard in the middle. And when he was playing SF, there was this 6 foot 10 guy named Rashard Lewis in addition to Dwight Howard. All Turk has going is 6 foot 8 Hill and Lopez next to him.

That's trouble.

Agreed. I didnt say it was gonna be a good idea. But thats probably how their gonna play him. Think of the suns as a less athletic version of the ATL hawks. our bigs arent that "big" in terms of size but we have big wing players to supplement our weaknesses down low.

Kerrsed wrote:im just going to respond with this witty picture i made (again):

you sig is graced with an enigmatic goddess of intense beauty. I must have her, or your sig.

On any other team (except Orlando), Hedo is not a PF. But on the Suns, well, things are different.

DirtyDez wrote:I was skeptical at first but it doesn't matter because we're not contenders. There's enough bad teams in this league that we can run outta the building and maybe sneak in as an 8th seed. The whole point of this lineup will be creating mismatches. It'll work well against scrub teams and fail miserably against good teams. Unless we can somehow pull a trade for a legit PF we won't make any noise.

Can't argue with that. That's basically been the SSOL philosophy anyway, just run, run, run and on most night it'll work but against bigger opponents, the SSOL teams got whooped.

If Hedo was replacing a solid defensive 4 i would be concered, but he isnt. He's replacing Amare.
The same Amare who struggles on pick and roll defense and leaves his team to play 4 on 5 on the defensive end while he complains to the ref about how he got fouled.
While he doesnt have Amares athleticism his IQ is enough to make up for it. He isnt going to wow you with any weak side blocks like Amare did but i bet he also wont just reach when he shouldnt or be out of position every 5th play like Amare was either.
Nobody has ever accused Hedo of being a bad defender; in fact i've heard people say the opposit on more than one occasion. So lets give the guy a chance before you have an aneurysm.

lol @ there being ANOTHER thread about this.

What is the deal with this guy becoming sooo interested in the Suns all of a sudden?

First of all, Hedo is never going to get minutes at C (I believe it was a joke), secondly, I think even though he'll start at PF, he'll not play PF for an entire game, i predict he'll get his minutes splitted between PF and SF, i say 15-17 minutes each. I also think it's scary that he'll "defend" beast of PF's, but in the bright side, he will also cause some major match up problems, they can not really defend his perimeter game either. but, needless to say, our inside defending could get really hurt by him playing PF.. this can turn out to be good or horrible, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Every minute Hedo plays at SF means a minute Dudley, Hill, or Childress is getting shafted out of. If Hedo plays significant minutes at SF, one of our other guys is going to get screwed out of minutes they deserve.

That said....

Hedo is a poor defensive rebounder, even for a SF. So is Warrick. Frye's pretty bad too. Hedo and Warrick lack the bulk to defend the 4 spot as well. Amare wasn't a great defender, but he was a slightly below average defensive rebounder, Amundson was an excellent defender and defensive rebounder. These guys have been replaced with two guys (Hedo, Warrick) who are beyond awful at both.

Keep in mind, there's two keys to defense:
1. Making the other guy miss his shot
2. Getting the defensive rebound.

With Hedo and Warrick manning the 4, and Lopez and Frye at the 5, we're going to be really bad at #1, and potentially historically bad at #2.

It doesn't matter if we score lots of points, if our defense is so awful that the opponent scores even more easily than we do, we lose.

Hedo at the 4 is going to be a frakking disaster, and everyone who isn't a kool-aid drinking Suns fanboy knows it.

Wormwood74 wrote:Hedo at the 4 is going to be a frakking disaster, and everyone who isn't a kool-aid drinking Suns fanboy knows it.

Every non-kool-aid drinking Suns fanboy also know that this is the lineup we're going with so there really is no better alternative. At least our offense will be good.

lilfishi22 wrote:

Wormwood74 wrote:Hedo at the 4 is going to be a frakking disaster, and everyone who isn't a kool-aid drinking Suns fanboy knows it.

Every non-kool-aid drinking Suns fanboy also know that this is the lineup we're going with so there really is no better alternative. At least our offense will be good.

And whose fault is it that we have such a poorly designed roster? Sarver and his brain dead decicision to f*** with Kerr and Griffin in salary negotiations.

Wormwood74 wrote:

lilfishi22 wrote:

Wormwood74 wrote:Hedo at the 4 is going to be a frakking disaster, and everyone who isn't a kool-aid drinking Suns fanboy knows it.

Every non-kool-aid drinking Suns fanboy also know that this is the lineup we're going with so there really is no better alternative. At least our offense will be good.

And whose fault is it that we have such a poorly designed roster? Sarver and his brain dead decicision to f*** with Kerr and Griffin in salary negotiations.

Before I say, "I'm actually not sure what we could have done this off-season that would have blown me out of the water."

...

What would you have done this off-season with the resources the Suns had at their disposal?