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Does the Warriors Championship make anyone angry as much as me? They had much better defense, depth, and shooters than our SSOL era, but I feel we deserved a ring or two... Sigh. When will the suns ever win? Please share your frustrations below.

ChillitzPhil wrote:Does the Warriors Championship make anyone angry as much as me? They had much better defense, depth, and shooters than our SSOL era, but I feel we deserved a ring or two... Sigh. When will the suns ever win? Please share your frustrations below.

You just said it yourself. They won because of defense. That was not part of the SSOL blueprint.

Well GS has the best player, the better coach and a more balanced roster. Even when we went small Amare could never protect the rim either. At 6'7" Draymond Green was rejecting Lebron at the rim and getting a trip-dub in the Finals.

Victorious Gentry: "Tell Mike D'Antoni he's vindicated! We just kicked everyone's ass playing the way everybody complained about!"


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SSOL was more like a eternally revolving door/musical chair of perimeter spot up shooters(QRich, Joe) and complimentary role players(Diaw,Bell, Tim Thomas,etc) that never formed a permanent glue to compliment the Big 3 nucleus of Marion, Amare, Nash, Marion. Our supporting cast paled in comparison with the Dubs especially considering the clutch MVP performance by Iggy and we really never had a capable rim protector like Bogut(Shaq was the closest thing but that marked the demise of SSOL).So ultimately we looked like a juggernaut in the regular season but an easily exploitable paper tiger in the playoffs

Happy LB representing the SSOL Suns on the Warriors.

Looks like Steve Kerr finally learned from his mistake of the Shaq trade, now finally going with a young and mobile Draymond Green/H. Barnes frontcourt.

Better late than never

Had we kept Joe Johnson we probably would have won at least 1 ring. Imagine if we still got Grant Hill in 07, kept LB, didn't trade Kurt Thomas, resigned Tim Thomas.
Nash/JJ/Hill/Marion/Amare
Kurt/LB/TT

1 small difference.

Being 1st in defensive rating vs not practicing defense before the Spurs series.

We definitely were out-coached.

People also need to realize that Cleveland might have lost, but it might have been a different story had they not lost their All-Star PG Irving and All-Star PF Love. Add in the fact that Varejao was also injured. I think Cleveland would have won had it not been for major injuries to their major players. Hard for Lebron to play GM/Coach/ALL-5-POSITIONS.

Qwigglez wrote:Had we kept Joe Johnson we probably would have won at least 1 ring. Imagine if we still got Grant Hill in 07, kept LB, didn't trade Kurt Thomas, resigned Tim Thomas.
Nash/JJ/Hill/Marion/Amare
Kurt/LB/TT

A lot of people defend the our handling of the JJ situation but I think one thing was heavily underestimated about his departure and the effect it had on our team.

HE COULD PLAY BACKUP PG

He ran the point effectively the year Steph was traded and racked up 5-6 apg with Atlanta. Granted he was a score-first player but he had an excellent handle and was a better decision maker than Barbosa.

Granted we probably never would've signed Raja and there would've been no Diaw but there were some other factors. Would he have been unhappy with his role and would we still have blown our draft picks?

Kerrsed wrote:People also need to realize that Cleveland might have lost, but it might have been a different story had they not lost their All-Star PG Irving and All-Star PF Love. Add in the fact that Varejao was also injured. I think Cleveland would have won had it not been for major injuries to their major players. Hard for Lebron to play GM/Coach/ALL-5-POSITIONS.

True that. It also shows Lebron can lead any team in the Eastern Conference to the NBA Finals, it's that easy for him. It's crazy to think the Bulls or Hawks couldn't beat a one man team.

The difference was they got breaks by playing depleted rosters and we had injuries/suspensions/Donaghy issues.

You've got to be lucky to win the championship. Mainly by staying injury free. That just hasn't happened for the Suns ... KJ, Barkley, Ceballos, Manning, Joe Johnson, Amare, Frye all got hurt during Suns playoff runs.