TSN Season Preview: Phoenix Suns

[bballCT]

I'm very interested to find out how the Suns will do with Shaq on board for a full season :

PG - Steve Nash
The team has already been talking about reducing his minutes significantly at times during the regular season in an attempt to keep him fresh for the Playoffs. However, that's not really as simple as it sounds. The Suns are a very pedestrian Playoff-ish team when Nash is on the bench. The ball has trouble finding players in the right spots, defenses are able to predict with far better accuracy how the play is developing, and with no proven backup behind him it's hard to see how they'll stay competitive if they reduce his playing time. Unless rookie Goran Dragic is prepared to play in the NBA right away, expect another season of big minutes from Nash. If this team exits the post-season early or - as is possible - misses them altogether, Nash could be a candidate to be traded in the off-season. Outrageous you say? Have you been watching the management decisions in the last year in Phoenix? It would almost be more unexpected to see them keep him.

C - Shaquille O'Neal
The issue isn't whether or not he can come to camp in shape or not, which he has done this year, it's whether or not his body can sustain for a full NBA season. Shaq is 36, he's averaged 63.5 games per year since the turn of the century and he's so acutely aware of his own deteriorating skill set that he's already announced his retirement from basketball at the end of his current deal. How Porter chooses to use Shaq is the biggest and most important decision he is going to have to make all October. Will he be an offensive anchor in the post? Will be used as a low-post passer and facilitator? Will he be primarily a defensive weapon, forced to get his points off of rebounds or hustle plays? It's hard to say at this point that there is a 'right' or 'wrong' way to handle him or his declining abilities but if he can find a way to coax a useful and effective season out of O'Neal it could significantly change the outlook for this team.

http://www.tsn.ca/nba/story/?id=251336&lid=headline&lpos=topStory_nba

[rsavaj]

It is very difficult to summarize the last twelve months of the Phoenix Suns saga. If the previous years read like a glorious storybook about a stylistic basketball renaissance, then these last days have been a bitter, unexpected conclusion that has ultimately satisfied no one. Whatever the outcome of this season, be it Championship or lottery, the results will certainly belong in the pages of a new book. 'Seven Seconds or Less' found its gloomy denouement on May 10th when the Suns allowed (forced?) former head coach Mike D'Antoni out the door and into the waiting arms of the New York Knicks.

Of course, the seeds were planted for such an unsatisfying conclusion a chapter before when the Suns decided to import an over-the-hill Shaquille O'Neal to juice the plot with some Championship pedigree. Of course, this character was a shadow of the player who collected four titles in six years. He was out of shape and ill-equipped to run with the high-octane Phoenix offense. What resulted was a bizarre, hybrid offense designed to keep the team in attack mode while also finding ways to involve The "Big Cactus" down in the paint. It was rarely effective, it stuck the superlative talents of Steve Nash into a box and left them on a shelf to rot and it saw the extraordinary versatility of the roster that made award winners of Boris Diaw and Leandro Barbosa wedged uncomfortably into a traditional NBA lineup. By the time this team was exorcized from the post-season by San Antonio in five games, the final words were being written about this once reverential franchise.

It's funny, too, considering this team never even made it as far as the Finals, let alone to a Championship. Even still, this team was able to inspire, and that is how they made their mark. They reminded fans what was so exciting about the game of basketball. They demonstrated an incredible semi-improvisational style that married athleticism with instinct, inspiration with teamwork. They played basketball the way fans (and players) wished every team would play it, and they won a lot of games doing it (58 per season for a .707 winning-percentage). They were unapologetic about the way they played and they were unwilling to change it for anyone; until last year.

After being dispatched from the West Finals for the third straight year, (the second time at the hands of the Spurs) the team, led by new GM Steve Kerr, wanted an increased focus on defence and a greater use of the youth on the roster. It was the first time that anyone had tried to challenge D'Antoni and his style of play from within the organization, and the fallout from that intrusion was the deportation of D'Antoni as coach. At the end of the day the two knew that they could not co-exist, and instead of hanging on to one of the most innovative coaches in modern basketball, the Suns hung on to their rookie GM, and the rest his history.

The truly lamentable part of all of this is that the Suns had the chance to establish the kind of long-term coaching solution that has been so effective in Utah and San Antonio. They possessed a truly innovative coach and they chose to replace with him Terry Porter, a perfectly normal coach. Much like the bitter divorce between Shaq and the Lakers, egos were allowed to rule the day in the desert and nobody, not Kerr, D'Antoni or the Suns, are the better for it.

It's funny to look at the Suns roster without the specter of D'Antoni on the sidelines. All of a sudden the entire perspective of the team changes, the unbridled optimism that used to surround his Suns have been replaced cautious pessimism - rooted deeply in the 'ifs' and the 'maybes' of NBA speculation. However it would be hard to imagine a coach as traditional as Porter being able to harness the effectiveness of Diaw and Barbosa in the same way, or being able to coax such life out of Grant Hill, or being able to keep Raja Bell playing such a colossally important role in the starting five, or even keeping a 34-year-old Steve Nash as effectual without the free-for-all system employed by D'Antoni. Several teams have tried to replicate what he did in Phoenix and failed, so the odds are stacked against Porter before he even gets a chance to try.

Even if he can approximate the kind of regular season success this team enjoyed under D'Antoni, the Suns will have a hard time getting out of the first round. It's highly unlikely that this team could secure a top-four slot for next spring's dance, and if their dance card features a meeting with San Antonio, New Orleans, Utah, Houston or the Lakers then this team will be hard pressed to even push their opponents to six or seven games. It's a new era in Phoenix basketball all right; too bad it's one that nobody asked for.

Major effing word on EVERYTHING

[Frank Lee]

Blah Blah Blah tell me something I dont know.

Nuetralize father time and this is a better team sans D'Ant and Swannie.




has anyone seen my glasses ?

[JohnVancouver]

geeziz - that really sums it up nicely. i still love this team but reading that makes me mourn all over agoan for what could have been

[tsherkin]

There's a minor error ("After being dispatched from the West Finals for the third straight year,") that pretty much sets the tone for this article: well-intentioned but ultimately wrong.

The Suns made CONSECUTIVE WCFs, then were beaten in the semis and then in the first round.

He talks about Mike D being "truly innovative," which he wasn't. He was adept and contrarian, committed to playing a style of ball that has historically been very effective until the playoffs without some kind of significant post presence. I'm reminded of the 80s Bucks, the 00s Mavs, the recent Warriors, the Nuggets for most of the last 20 years... And I'm reminded of the fact that even the most iconic transition team (the Showtime Lakers) made extensive use of post-up offense (from Kareem, Magic and, later, Worthy) and slowed down effectively when they had to. This is in contrast to the uninventive "iso Amare" sets the Suns mostly ran in the playoffs.

Mike D's offensive schemes have mostly been transition lanes and an emphasis on the most obvious thing in the world, taking Nash (who had just finished being a key player in a dominant Dirk/Nash pick-and-roll) and Amare (who was basically Shawn Kemp) into a dirty new-age version of Stockton/Malone, Payton/Kemp, etc.

That doesn't require great critical thought and innovation. Then he comments on Sloan-like longevity, or the potential for Phoenix to have enjoyed that with Mike D, when it was clear that there were disputes of various types over Mike D's coaching.

I don't want to impugn Mike D, or hang him out to dry, because he's not the sole reason for the Suns' various failures. It's worth pointing out, though, that Steve Nash is a LOT more responsible for the Suns' success than is D'Antoni.

It's mostly pessimism and bitterness, this article, and I don't think Chisolm is anything special as an analyst of the sport, just a bitter fan who misses the run-and-gun, :07 or Less days.

[Nash2Stoudemire]

It's highly unlikely that this team could secure a top-four slot for next spring's dance

I honestly can't see why we can't be top 3 behind LA and NO...

[PHXfan85]

It's highly unlikely that this team could secure a top-four slot for next spring's dance

I honestly can't see why we can't be top 3 behind LA and NO...

Because the Rockets and Jazz exist.

[tsherkin]

I think that there's no sense projecting Phoenix top-3 but that it is within the realm of possibility that they actually FINISH 3rd in the league if they mesh well and Porter does a good job wtih the team, etc.

[Nash2Stoudemire]

I said I can't see why we can't be a top three team. Not that we are there already.

The writer said we have no chance of being up there in the West... I think we can prove him wrong.

[tsherkin]

I know, I wasn't responding directly to you, just in a general sense.

[rsavaj]

I know, I wasn't responding directly to you, just in a general sense.

Hey tsherkin, I was just wondering if you had any thoughts on the scrimmage(if you watched it)