Porter's shift towards a defensive mindset is for better or worse going to, and already has started to, change the face of this franchise. We all know that. Nuff said.
Ever since the Suns have gotten Shaq, however, I can't help but notice a shift in locker room and on-court mentality and attitude as well. This has been accentuated by the Suns-Rockets scuffle and Shaq's ejection via the flagrant 2. In the Rockets situation, we saw Barnes' temper flare up in defense of Nash, and we saw Nash and Shaq shift into instigation mode. Just yesterday, Shaq's flagrant, while it may be questionable that it was called a flagrant 2 as opposed to 1, was another example of his physical play and wreckless disregard for human lives
. But after he was called, him not leaving the court and especially him jerking away from Porter who tried to escort him (this bothered me) made me wonder about his classic and the team's newly adapted attitude. Shaq's always been very expressive, but now we have Barnes and of course Raja who get very emotionally invested and we have Nash who based on the Rockets game seems to be developing an attitude as well.Suns fans: I know its early to say , but are we getting more hard-nosed and are we, by comparison to ourselves over the last few years, looking like the Bad Boys of Phoenix (OBVIOUSLY I'm not comparing to the original Bad Boys or even to other teams)? Is this a good or bad thing? Will it distract some of our guys or is it a win-or-go home mentality FINALLY showing through?
Non-Suns fans: what do these events look like to you? If you are other teams in the league right now does this start to give you respect for the Suns in the sense that they are not just finesse anymore or in the sense that they might push in the playoffs not just with 3's but with physical play and hardnosed determination? Or am I overanalyzing?
