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What made last year's team is that everyone has a chip on his shoulder, having the need to prove everyone wrong. Look at the rotation guys last year:

C: Robin Lopez
Playing competitive. Playing his natural game.

PF: Amar'e Stoudemire
Beasting in the second half of the season trying to earn a max contract. Still playing like a beast right now to shut the critics up.

SF: Grant Hill
To show everyone he still has plenty of fuel left in the tank.

SG: Jason Richardson
To show he is capable of being a big part of a winning team.

PG: Steve Nash
Genuinely wanted to show the world how good this team is.

C: Channing Frye
Trying to show everyone his previous teams were just using him in a wrong fashion.

PF: Lou Amundson
He was undrafted. Not all that athletic, but hustles hard to show everyone he belongs in the league.

SF: Jared Dudley
Wanting to shut everyone who doubted him as a first round pick.

SG: Leandro Barbosa
Trying to prove he is still good after his injury.

PG: Goran Dragic
People were already saying he won't make it a year after his tenure in the league. Seemed pissed when people didn't guard him at the 3 point linel

As you can see, everyone wanted to prove something. You just don't see it this year.
Hakim Warrick's gotten that long contract, guaranteeing him financial security.
Channing Frye doesn't have a chip on his shoulders anymore since he's now recognized as a legitimate 3 point shooter.
Robin Lopez has been placed an unfair amount of expectations from the front office. Now he feels like he has to accomplish some goals set by the management rather than play hard or play the way he usually does and let the flow come to him.
Goran Dragic losing that confidence after not given enough minutes. He is obviously uncomfortable on the floor.
Hedo, knowing that Steve is going to handle the ball, stopped trying early in the season. He wanted to be traded here because everyone loves to retire in Phoenix (and because Orlando didn't want him at the time).

Now VC seems to be looking forward to receiving feeds from Nash so his value will jack up by the end of the season rather than, you know, winning a game.
Marcin Gortat seems to be more interested in his minutes than anything.
Peaches wants to win, but doesn't really work hard enough.

Basically what made the team last year so awesome is the players' common goal of proving everyone wrong. You just don't see it this year.

What made the team gel so well last year was that everyone had a defined role that complimented one another.

Nash - Be Nash
Dragic - Lead 2nd unit and rest Nash
JRich - Off-ball scoring, 2nd offensive option
LB - Offense off the bench
Hill - Defend, board
Duds - Energy/hustle, perimeter-D, 3's, and rest Hill
Amare - PnR w/ Nash, primary offensive option
Lou - Energy/hustle, board, and blocks
Robin - Blocks, clean up offensive glass, cover for Amare on D
Frye - PnP w/ Nash, spread the floor for Amare on offense

The chemistry with that team was great and there were only a few minor problems:
Lack of PT for Lou and LB
Tension between Dragic and LB over handling the ball for the 2nd unit

This year the roles aren't as defined, there's little chemistry with the 2nd unit, and the team is struggling to find an identity. Even if this 10-11' team played with the common goal of proving everyone wrong, I think they would still struggle because it's an incomplete team with players who are either redundant or do not compliment one another.

I came here to post two things...

1. I completely agree with you 99%
2. The 1% I dont is that Lou is not athletic. That guy is mad athletic!

But really, I agree. We are screwed. :/

I agree.
We don't see the same passion. That's what I loved seeing in JRich and Amar'e. That's one of the only reasons I wanted Suns to resign them. They're passion was dangerous. Even after every single Suns player gave up this year, you still saw JRich giving it his all.
No matter what Nash says, about how much he wants to stay in Phoenix, you don't see it on the floor. He's not passionate and craving a win. He's just playing. Yea, he's putting up the numbers, but I don't see the leader in him that I want to see.

Oh, and clearly all the players have obviously given up on Gentry, and he's given up on them
We have a pretty good roster, even though we don't have pretty dominant bigs. Gentry needs to play D'Antoni's run-n-gun game to win. I think that's what FO was aiming for. All our players are three-point shooters and would fit well in that system.
Look who we have! CHlLDRESS, HILL, DUDLEY, CARTER, PEACHES. Those guys are all capable runners and three-point shooters (aside from JChill). Plus, if Gentry is worried bout them getting tired, he shouldn't cuz we have a deep roster when it comes to that. Gortat, Frye, and Warrick are also capable of running and gunning. I don't see why we don't do this.
This will help the chemistry again by making it fun, then all they need to focus on is playing team D, which I'm sure they can do. All of our SF's are very capable of playing good D. freakin HILL STOPPED GRIFFIN. Thats a BEAST right there.

My idea to help make the Suns a good damn team again, if we choose not to pick up a good PF, would be this:
1) go back to SSOL offense.
2) play team D.
this way, even without a dominant PF, we can dominate

sunfire0112 wrote:What made the team gel so well last year was that everyone had a defined role that complimented one another.

Nash - Be Nash
Dragic - Lead 2nd unit and rest Nash
JRich - Off-ball scoring, 2nd offensive option
LB - Offense off the bench
Hill - Defend, board
Duds - Energy/hustle, perimeter-D, 3's, and rest Hill
Amare - PnR w/ Nash, primary offensive option
Lou - Energy/hustle, board, and blocks
Robin - Blocks, clean up offensive glass, cover for Amare on D
Frye - PnP w/ Nash, spread the floor for Amare on offense

The chemistry with that team was great and there were only a few minor problems:
Lack of PT for Lou and LB
Tension between Dragic and LB over handling the ball for the 2nd unit

This year the roles aren't as defined, there's little chemistry with the 2nd unit, and the team is struggling to find an identity. Even if this 10-11' team played with the common goal of proving everyone wrong, I think they would still struggle because it's an incomplete team with players who are either redundant or do not compliment one another.

Beautifully stated -

Losing lou off the bench is the main reason why this bench has been underachieving. Goran is still goran but he doesnt play with as much hustle cuz guys like Warrick do not hustle. they just stand around and watch things happen.

sunfire0112 wrote:What made the team gel so well last year was that everyone had a defined role that complimented one another.

Nash - Be Nash
Dragic - Lead 2nd unit and rest Nash
JRich - Off-ball scoring, 2nd offensive option
LB - Offense off the bench
Hill - Defend, board
Duds - Energy/hustle, perimeter-D, 3's, and rest Hill
Amare - PnR w/ Nash, primary offensive option
Lou - Energy/hustle, board, and blocks
Robin - Blocks, clean up offensive glass, cover for Amare on D
Frye - PnP w/ Nash, spread the floor for Amare on offense

The chemistry with that team was great and there were only a few minor problems:
Lack of PT for Lou and LB
Tension between Dragic and LB over handling the ball for the 2nd unit

This year the roles aren't as defined, there's little chemistry with the 2nd unit, and the team is struggling to find an identity. Even if this 10-11' team played with the common goal of proving everyone wrong, I think they would still struggle because it's an incomplete team with players who are either redundant or do not compliment one another.

You're very right. A defined role did play a huge part as well.

As for my claim of Lou being not athletic, I'll still stick with that.
I just kind of see him jumping high and running fast as part of his hustle rather than his athleticism. You look at Javale McGee. Dude has an amazing vertical leap and sprints faster than anyone on the team because he's athletic, whereas LOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU shares the same assets because he's giving his 200% on the court. That is what I saw from him.

Lou is a triumph of desire and effort over natural ability - the only thing 'natural' about his talent is his height - the rest is hard work

he does have some athletic ability - lot sof 6'10" guys who aren't in the nba and could never be, no matter how hard they work. It's fair to say Lou has minimal natural athletic ability compared to, say, McGee or Speights