Biff wrote:While I agree, it's frustrating when people say our style of play can't win a championship. Had we not suffered those injuries and suspensions, do we win at least 1? I think we had a fairly good chance.
In '05, I think it's possible that the Suns would have beaten the Pistons. Detroit was a nasty defensive squad with good offensive balance, but the transition attack would have been a lot more interesting than Spurs vs. Pistons, that's for sure. They were 1-1 against Detroit that year, winning the game where they scored 100 points and losing the one where they scored less.
The Suns are perceived as a run-and-gun team, but people frequently forget that they only score about 25% of their points on the fast break and that MOST of their damage is done in a manner not dissimilar to the Stockton/Malone Jazz... endless screen-and-rolls from the wing, with a big lug thundering into the paint to cram it on his opponent (though Amare trades a lot of Malone's muscle for raw speed and leaping ability and Nash is considerably better as a shooter than was Stockton).
I think the big thing that people see is that the Suns are frequently below-average on defense and that they are a weak rebounding team vulnerable to low post players. They would not, for example, have had a chance against Shaq/Kobe.
But in 05, they had Marion, Bell and Joe Johnson, Q wasn't that bad, Barbosa was OK and even Steven Hunter wasn't totally useless (he was worth nearly 3 wins that year, actually, in about 14 mpg, blocking nearly 1.5 shots per game). He was even the 7th man in the playoff rotation that year.
That team had the nuts and bolts to cover up Amare and Nash at least to some extent, as they did the year after while KT was healthy.
What the Suns really need is basically DeAndre Jordan. They need a non-star center who's 6'11 or 7'0 tall and loves to rebound, block a few shots, play decent post D, can score efficiently around the basket when he's set up (we're talking lobs and dunks here, maybe a hook shot or two, nothing outside of 8 feet), can throw a decent outlet pass and runs the floor like a deer.
Tyson Chandler comes to mind, but DeAndre Jordan was just WAITING to be taken, and the Suns failed and instead took RoLo. Lopez is a nice guy, but that was a senseless oversight.
That's what has killed them lately. But in 05 and 06, they definitely had a real shot at winning a title.
In 06, they lost not to the Spurs (who the Mavs defeated) but to Dallas, a team that did not dominate them inside but picked them apart with their own game: perimeter shooting and screen-and-rolls.
In that series, Dirk was consistently dominant, but they had a rotating cast of Sun-killers. In game one it was Devin Harris (of course, Phoenix won that game). Then it was Josh Howard in games two and three. The Suns won game 4 without a single Mav scoring 20 points, which was big. Then the next game, Dirk dropped 50 on them and Josh Howard burned them again. Then Howard and Dirk dominated them again to close out the series.
Through it all, the Mavs had superior bench production and their defense destroyed the Suns, who scored under 90 points once and were held to under 100 points three times.
That season, they were just beaten. I don't think Kurt Thomas would have made the difference there. Had they REACHED the Finals, they would have had a real shot, but Shaq would have torn them up in a way that he couldn't manage against Dampier.
I maintain 05 was the best shot.
Having KT healthy would have been nice too.