Don't panic SUNS fans

[trick83]

Like all of u Suns fans now i am disappointed, too. But we don't have to panic yet. The West is tough as hell and in 2 weeks u can go from 1st place to 9th place and the other way around, too.

But i have to admit that our defense stinks since the departure of Marion but i don't think that his departure is the only reason for our poor D. Besides Nash they are all capabale to play at least some D! But they aren't playing any D at all and that sucks. We have to stick together and play D and run run run, yes SHAQ has to run, too! And D'Antoni should play Skinner and DJ more.
Nash, Hill and Bell need more rest and our bench needs some minutes to be consistent and above all we have 3 good defenders on our bench with Skinner, DJ and Diaw. Hill can play D, Bell can play D and Amare can play some D if he wants to. BTW Amare is the best player on this team since the trade. so no one has to question his desire. We are rebounding better but playing worse D, that makes almost no sense to me.

I agree with some that Nash is playing poorly for his standards but i still think the reason for his poor play are the adjustments he has to make as our leader and PG and this adjustments will be finished soon! Don'T forget Nash is playing with real C for the first time in his career like all of our players, too.
And i am not too concerned with the standings because the last 3 seasons we were either 1st or 2nd place and we still didn't win anything. So i give a **** to our rank as long as we stick together and play great during the PO

As long as we play well in the PO everything is possible because with SHAQ we are made for PO and not for the reg. season. With Marion we were build for the reg. season and not for the PO because the game slows done during the PO and Marion simply sucks (sucked) during the PO. I don't care what u Marion lovers say because that was a fact!

And if we finish at a top 6 place i like our chances a lot. Just wait and see we are still in the reg. season and u cannot win a damn during the reg season other than some MVP awards and that stuff but the main thing we ALL want is the TROPHY! So calm down Suns fans and wait. We won't fall out of the PO picture only because we lost 4 out of 6 we are too talented to be out of the PO.

Real SUNS fans have to believe in our team and i do believe that we will be good maybe not in 1-2 weeks but at the latest during the PO.

GO SUNS!!!

[nashill]

Not only dissapointed but worried too BUT the team deserves another 4-6 games to adjust.

[asubennett]

I am going to bump this thread and I implore other Suns fans to keep it at the top. Maybe a mod can even make it a sticky.

It has been 6 games. Let me say that again. 6 games with a huge change to our roster. The Suns started last season 1-5 because we were trying to accomodate Amare coming back to the team.

These guys are professionals with amazing talent. They will figure it out.

Shaq needs to be on the low block. Spread the floor with shooters. Dont send Amare and Shaq out to flash on the ball handler on every pick and roll. Maybe play some zone defense with the bigs in the middle.

Let our opponents win these games with jump shooting instead of layups. We have the bigs to rebound now so zone is not so scary any longer.

How do you crack a zone you ask? By forcing it in the middle. I hope they try that with our bigs.

If we are still playing like we are right now at game 70 then we can panic.

Ashamed that so many of our fans are down on our team like this.

Again, when we added Amare back to our team last year we started 1-5. Well we are 2-4 with Shaq added to our team. Now lets turn it around.

[Phoenix1977]

Not only dissapointed but worried too BUT the team deserves another 4-6 games to adjust.

Except we could be in 10th place by the time the adjustment is complete. Any other year, fine, we can wait for adjustments to be made. Not this year.

[Arles]

I was a little "chicken little" last night too, but I think the Suns can right this ship. The key is setting the rotation at 8-10 guys. Nash and Bell can't keep playing 40+ MPG and the fact that our starters play that many minutes may be why they often "conserve" their energy on transition D.

Maybe bringing in 1-2 more bodies Mike D will play could help here. Still, I don't see why DJ gets no time when our transition D is this terrible.

I'll boil it down to this - if Mike D adjusts to Shaq, plays more guys to save Nash/Amare/Bell and starts creating a level of accountability on defense - the Suns will be fine. But, doing any of these three will be a massive change to his coaching style.

[Vertical Limit]

As a Heat fan who has watched Shaq the past 2 years, all I have to say is, PANIC.

Yeah, I hate seeing the Suns go down like this, as they are my favorite team in the West, but I'm afraid it's over.

Shaq has been THAT BAD since Jermaine O'neal struck his knee against Shaq's thigh before the NBA playoffs on our championship year; it is not just being on a bad team like Miami.

Not saying that it's still lingering, but that's when we started to see his decline. His Finals performance was 13 points/12 rebounds averaged. It wasn't very impressive, as Alonzo had a much better impact against Dallas the entire series, and Wade was just in a amazing high level of play-- he just went all out.

I hope for your team's sake, you all figure it out, remember, the 8th seed is not all that far away from you, you all can very well drop down there, the West is a very close race. But, if the losses keep piling up, then that's where you guys will see what I have seen from Shaq the past 2 years-- his laziness. It happens, when the looses keep piling up, Shaq has no interest anymore and he becomes lazy again.

IMO, your team was still performing well without Marion and Shaq when the trade was in process. Put Shaq back on the bench, don't let him start, give him bench minutes in releif. I know, that's not what you invested for, and I know it's not going to be easy to tell him he has to be benched, but it may be your only chance to save the season and get back in the race for the Top seeds.

I never in my mind thought he would be a perfect fit, it just wasn't a fit at all.

Good luck Phoenix.

[omegatronic3]

OMFG Kerr messed up big time!!!!!!!!!!!

2 years ago if you pulled a Shaq for Marion trade I'd say good deal but man Shaq is done. Obviously Kerr is trying to mold the team into a playoff type team but last year you were a heartbeat from going to the finals...so why change?

Now you got an over the hill Grant hill and Shaq as starters so pretty much with the exception of amare you're nowhere near as athletic.

Solution:

I say you're better off bringing Shaq off the bench. Use him in the playoffs to bang with Duncan and/or Gasol. But I say start Diaw in his place and move Amare back to Center. That way you stay up tempo but you can slow it down if needed.

I think Kerr though Amare can fill in for what Marion did but. Marion alowed you to cover up on D for Nash. What makes owners think guys like Kerr can come in and be a GM? Just like

[b-ball forever]

IMO, your team was still performing well without Marion and Shaq when the trade was in process. Put Shaq back on the bench, don't let him start, give him bench minutes in releif. I know, that's not what you invested for, and I know it's not going to be easy to tell him he has to be benched, but it may be your only chance to save the season and get back in the race for the Top seeds.

I actually think that bringin Shaq off the bench wud be a very good idea, depending on the matchup (Don't bench him vs LA for example).

He's used to being teamed up with a scoring guard and cud make Barbosa his next Kobe/Wade/Penny! (sorta...)

Let the offense run thru him and Barbs while they come in, and u got a great inside/outside power/speed combo that cud be deadly playin against the opponments' bench players.

It'd also bring down foul trouble concerns, since both him and Amare are foul prone as hell.

Gettin benched for the first time in his career wud prolly piss Shaq off, but it'd def be an interesting option 2 try out

[b-ball forever]

-= original quote snipped =-


I actually think that bringin Shaq off the bench wud be a very good idea, depending on the matchup (Don't bench him vs LA for example).

He's used to being teamed up with a scoring guard and cud make Barbosa his next Kobe/Wade/Penny! (sorta...)

Let the offense run thru him and Barbs while they come in, and u got a great inside/outside power/speed combo that cud be deadly playin against the opponments' bench players.

It'd also bring down foul trouble concerns, since both him and Amare are foul prone as hell.

Gettin benched for the first time in his career wud prolly piss Shaq off, but it'd def be an interesting option 2 try out

Oh Ya, and yankin Shaq from the starting lineup wud also let us play him more in the low-post instead of the high-post

[trick83]

I am going to bump this thread and I implore other Suns fans to keep it at the top. Maybe a mod can even make it a sticky.


Let our opponents win these games with jump shooting instead of layups. We have the bigs to rebound now so zone is not so scary any longer.

How do you crack a zone you ask? By forcing it in the middle. I hope they try that with our bigs.

If we are still playing like we are right now at game 70 then we can panic.

Ashamed that so many of our fans are down on our team like this.

Again, when we added Amare back to our team last year we started 1-5. Well we are 2-4 with Shaq added to our team. Now lets turn it around.

yes my friend absolutely agree with u! we started 1-5 last year and we we end up being the 2nd best team in the league! And now we are adding SHAQ and there are some adjustments to be made. Shaq looks healthy so need to panic if he wouldn't be healthy than i would agree with u doubters but cmon give this team at least 3 weeks! we played LAL,DET,BOS and NO these are elite teams!
SO calm down

GO SUNS!!!

[nashill]

-= original quote snipped =-



Except we could be in 10th place by the time the adjustment is complete. Any other year, fine, we can wait for adjustments to be made. Not this year.

thats the reason why im worried but i dont think we are going to miss the playoff.all these struggles will only make us better in the post season. nash, hill, shaq and bell are all veterans and i trust them to figure things out.

[nanoclarkology]

All I have to say is GO SUNS!

[asubennett]

All I have to say is GO SUNS!

Thats the spirit man. It is frustrating as hell and very scary to watch our team try and figure it out during the heat of a playoff race.

However, that part of it, is what it is. Nothing we can do about that but watch some gut wrenching bad basketball.

But have faith everyone, this team is WAY to talanted to not get it. They will get it. We will watch film of how bad transiiton defense is. We will watch film of bad pick and roll defense. We will watch film of turnover after turnover and even if Dantoni is not smart enough to coach the change, Shaq, Nash and Hill are smart enough. They will start communicating and fix this. I am confident.

[nanoclarkology]

Thanks man but I have faith in them. For some reason for how good he has been playing overall. I think Amare has more to show. I think these next few games are going to be pivotal and fun to watch.

[asubennett]

Thanks man but I have faith in them. For some reason for how good he has been playing overall. I think Amare has more to show. I think these next few games are going to be pivotal and fun to watch.

Very fun yet nerve racking. I have to admit it is maddening to watch these games while we work the kinks out. I so hope something magical happens in one of the games where we click on all cylinders and everyone can collectively breathe a sigh of relief because it appears the team has finally "figured" it out.

[NapoleonII]

I won't make another judgement until the playoffs start.


I'm calling 4th Seed. We'll be fine, we're not MISSING THE FREAKING PLAYOFFS.


Nash will figure it out. My trust in him overrides D'Antoni's retardation.

Shaq is playing himself into shape, we've seen this before. And he always turns it up in the playoffs, as does Amare, as does Nash.

[TASTIC]

To the guys who want Shaq off the bench...you want the bench being paid more than the starters?

What have we become...the KNICKS?!?!

[PHXfan85]

We would only add another scene to that lame video the Laker troll posted here.

"Where $20mil bench happens"

"Oh brother"...

[mckane]

They better right the ship quick.

I didn't have a problem with trading marion... but for Shaq and his overinflated contract? I just don't get it. You mortgage the whole future of this team for a big gamble and no flexibility at all in the coming years.

They have absolutely no flexibility next year.. they'll probably trade their draft pick from ATL for cash.

I'm still holding a bit of hope that something clicks and this team comes together... but it's getting really ugly really quick.

The suns without marion are better than the suns without marion and plus shaq. Seriously. They played better when Shaq was hurt. Go look at the numbers... they were actually playing pretty good ball up until shaq got inserted into the line-up. I want the shaquisition to work, but wow... wow... they have just looked unbelievable horrible lately.

[-SDU-]

marion for kirilenko was just a sideways move, we stayed small

i totally understand the marion for shaq move

i would have preferred a marion / banks for dalambert and andre miller move, but doubt the sixers would have

im fine with the trade still