Suns' Lopez May Take Over Frye's Spot

[JMac1]

http://www.hoopsworld.com/HeadlineStori ... TORY_23687 and on AZCentral.com


At the halfway point of the Suns' regular season, it feels like preseason all over again.

The Suns appeared to reach a new low for a second consecutive year at Time Warner Cable Arena - Saturday night's 125-99 rout followed a 98-76 thrashing last season.

It almost feels as if the Suns' 14-3 start never happened, because the preseason questions about them have resurfaced since then. The Suns, who are 10-14 since their strong start, have lost three games in a row for the first time this season.

Saturday's game and the Suns' recent struggles bring up the same preseason questions about defense, rebounding and their starting center. The Suns could be close to moving Robin Lopez into Channing Frye's slot now that teams have adjusted to take away Frye's 3-point shot and are attacking his post defense.

Bout time. Frye was susposed to be a temporary fill-in for Frye in my eyes, but the Suns became enamored with his 3pt shooting and forgot about defense. I guess they reall think Amare should be guarding guys like Hibbert .

I hope he starts. He proved that he is capable and

earned

this opportunity in the Atlanta game. Tastic (my dog) knows that there is one Lopez lover and believer (maybe foolishly) in here, and that is me. I say lets see if he is better more often than he is horrible and then make the necessary assessments concerning his worth. Please start him!

One other thing, I am still on the Clark bandwagon as well. Hill is running out of gas and Dudley is playing like the second stringer he is. If the Suns want to get "Young, Athletic and Big" then they should start, as I have said many moons ago, BEFORE WE STARTED SUCKING, Clark Amare and Lopez. Nash, Stat and whoever is more than enoguh offensiveley.

I would rather lose and watch the developement of Clark and Lopez, then lose and watch our old player F'in QUIT all the time, thoughts?

[tigerblood]

Agreed, I'd rather garner some hope for the future in developing our young players rather than watching Nash, Jrich, Hill and Amare lose interest after the first quarter. It is really time for some changes. Time for Kerr to earn his paycheck.

[Qwigglez]

Yeah Lopez deserves to start a few games after his last two game performances. And it seems the Suns play pretty well with him in the lineup, so I'm all for having him start right now, try anything to get the Suns out of this funk.
Would also like to see Clark get some playing time because Hill looks like he aged 10 years since the beginning of the season.

[lilfishi22]

About time actually. I have never liked Frye as our starting C ever since the beginning. We get a hot start when his 3's are dropping but next to that he contributes nothing else.

Rolo or even Collins would give us that defensive big we need.

[Gorilla Warfare]

If Robin wasn't injured at the beginning of the season he would have been our starting C. Frye got it instead and started off hot, now that he isn't doing good anymore we should be going back to our original plan of starting Robin.

[DBrimstone]

Don't worry Jmac, after the Lakers game and Lopez actually guarded Gasol well on many different occasions, I got just a little bit of hope. He kicked butt against Atlanta. Not only his 6 blocked shots but him jumping out on the pick and roll is WAY more effective than when Amare does, and he even stuck with Crawford and denied him the basket. Not to mention all the changed shots that weren't considered blocks. If he can get a more consistent 10-15 foot jumper and a reliable hook shot, both of which he's used decently lately, he could be like Joakim Noah, excpet that sadly enough, he shows more offensive promise.

Clark looked brilliant last night. If he can do that consistently, I'm all up for keeping him. I like watching blow out games because then I get to see our young guys more

[MaryvalesFinest]

Good move if it happens, both are poor rebounders but at least Lopez can block/alter shots and can score in the low post.

[sunfire0112]

Hallelujah!!!

Whether Rolo starts or not, he should be getting more of Frye's minutes. Rolo may have trouble with consistency/fouling but he's the young defensive post-presence we need. Gotta improve his defensive rebounding but his ability to crash the offensive glass really helps. I'm still holding out hope he develops into our center of the future in the mold of Camby/Biedrins/Noah-type player. Plus, the guy is only 21 and, I believe, has more offensive potential than most of us think.

Also, I agree we should play EC. His detractors will say he sucks and, for a while they'll be right. Like most rookies, he'll make mistakes, miss rotations, and do boneheaded plays. I can live with it because it'll help his development as he learns from these experiences. Hopefully we can develop him to hold down the SF spot, with the ability to play some PF. That would give us a big front-court line-up.

[Miklo]

Start RoLo a couple games. If he can keep up looking like he actually knows where he is on D, keep him in the starting spot. If not, go with Collins and still give Lopez minutes to build his confidence up until he is confident enough to start. Put Frye on the freakin bench already. Oddly his +/- is pretty good but I guess anyone's is who usually is on the court with Nash - other than that he is a more-3pt attempts-than rebounds piece of crap.

[Qwigglez]

I think Frye would be good off the bench for the Suns too. Gives the Suns another weapon off the bench, I'm sure Dragic can create Frye some three point opportunities like Nash. This would also balance the Suns starting lineup and second unit.

[Miklo]

I think Frye would be good off the bench for the Suns too. Gives the Suns another weapon off the bench, I'm sure Dragic can create Frye some three point opportunities like Nash. This would also balance the Suns starting lineup and second unit.

This is a good point. Sometimes our 2nd unit ends up being a bunch of goofs who can hardly score the ball (I'm not saying anything against those players - just that its always nice to have a couple of offensive weapons), and Frye pisses us off cause he's one too many 3 point jackers in the starting lineup so the switch makes a lot of sense from that standpoint as well.

[JMac1]

Too bad we had to go into a losing funk before this becam a possibility.

[hunterxaz]

Not sure Lopez is responsible enough to be a starter. Guy racks up fouls like he gets paid per foul.

[justinb80]

Not sure Lopez is responsible enough to be a starter. Guy racks up fouls like he gets paid per foul.

He's been pretty good at keeping his fouls down lately.

[Flying Colors]

not as much as he used too, getting fouled out in the first four mintues

i for one support this, i actually like Rolo, although hes never gave me much to believe in, i'm glad he shaping up, now we need to give earl some time to develop, we can still start hill, but take him out in 5 minutes and bring clark in

[tigerblood]

Not sure Lopez is responsible enough to be a starter. Guy racks up fouls like he gets paid per foul.

when he was only playing 10 minutes who gives a crap if he gets 5 fouls, it doesn't matter. When he is in the game for an extended period he has been good at controlling his fouls as evidenced by the ATL, CHA, LA and BOS games.

[Calvin Klein]

I hope it happens. Frye has proven he can't do anything but shoot threes.

[hunterxaz]

If I see Frye stand around in the paint and watch the ball bounce and have the other team get it before he even tries to get a rebound I don't know what I will do.

[Mr. Sun]

Frye needs to grow some.

[tigerblood]

Frye needs to grow some.

that picture never gets old