Los Soles wrote:Time for an update.
In Hollinger's power rankings, we're sitting at a very disappointing 20th. Hollinger currently has us out of the playoffs, finishing 10th in the West. I think we're better than that, and much better than the doom and gloomers think we are. Here are several reasons things aren't as bad as they may seem:
1) Of course we struggled against half-decent teams with Channing Frye as our only legitimate defensive big. The biggest shift from last year's team is not the first team's offense, or the second team's offense, or even the first team's defense. The biggest shift from last year is the second team's defense. What do you expect when Warrick plays the five and Turk plays the four? Those days are officially over with Gortat's arrival and Fropez's return. Pray for Fropez's health.
2) Wait, but Fropez has already been back for a few games, and we still suck! False. Our last four games were: @Dallas, @OK City, @San Antonio, and Miami. All four of those teams are in Hollinger's top 7. We played one of those without Nash, two without JRich, Turk or any of their replacements, and one trying to incorporate brand new pieces. None with Carter. If you still think 1-3 during that stretch is some huge disappointment, you're a fool.
3) Yes, we're 20th according to Hollinger, but the rating difference between the teams in the middle is tiny. The gap between #7 (Thunder) and #20 is smaller than the gap between Boston at #1 and L.A. at #6. A few good wins and the Suns could still easily move into the top 10.
4) We've had an incredibly tough schedule. 3rd toughest according to Hollinger. All of our losses have been to either very good teams, or decent teams with very good frontcourts (while we were incredibly thin there).
5) We have had five bad losses. Three came when Nash was missing, and the other two came against the two teams that I believe defend us the best (Miami and Portland) in transition times: the first game of the season when we had no idea what the hell we were doing, and after Fropez had just gone down.
6) I've been reading everything I can about Vince Carter and pouring over his stats. I'm starting to think he could be the best shooting guard Nash has ever played beside. As far as I can tell, he is extremely underrated, especially defensively.
We still have to work on chemistry and figure out rotations, but we just massively upgraded defensively, and, as always, we're going to be a very good offensive team with Nash. Wins are definitely on the way.
OK, I'll be a bit of a dissenter here. Why not? Someone has to do it.
You're setting yourself up for a big letdown on Vince Carter. Pour over all the stats you want but have you actually watch him play recently? He's a shadow of his former self. He's AT BEST, an average defender. He just doesn't move well enough to be a good defender. And as to being a great shooter, maybe in his early years but that was at least five years ago. Sure, he's still good but I'll take JRich any day and in the past I'd surely take Bell or Barbosa.
As to the defensive upgrade, maybe if you look at the pieces but that's not how NBA defense is played. Here's a post from over on BSOTS in yesterdays thread on defense. It was posted by suns68 so I not trying to claim it as mine but I certainly see the wisdom in it.
"But I have heard this refrain time and again from the Suns, going all the way back to the days of Truck Robinson: “We’ve brought in this great defender (or group of them) and we’re really going to shut some people down now.”
It NEVER happens.
Why?
Because offense and defense are different challenges in the NBA and need to be approached differently in a strategic sense.
You can bring in an elite scorer and immediately improve your offense and start winning some ball games. See New York Knicks for reference.
But adding more defenders to a porous defense is like a bad tennis player buying a new racket when really, he needs to work on his ground stroke.
Our defensive struggles are not rooted in the individual skills or effort of our players, but in systemic breakdowns, blown assignments and awkward switches that create mismatches and lanes to the basket for the other team.
It’s a teamwork issue and it’s the direct result of the constant roster shuffling that’s been going on for most of this decade.
If you look at really great defensive teams, they generally have one thing in common: They have a core group who have played together for several seasons. Even piss-poor individual defenders become pretty good when they know what to do and what their teammates are going to do in a given situation.
We can’t create that overnight. And it’s not fair to coach Gentry for us to expect that. "
To be fair I didn't cut out the part were suns68 thinks Gentry's not to blame. I disagree with this. Sure it's not all his fault. Some is the players and some has to go to the FO but he's been here long enough to have made improvements.
We'll see how this all works out. I think we're trying to improve the defense and will lose a more on the offensive end than we gain.
