Phoenix Suns starting line-up report card.

[SUN]

Basically you grade the players and the coach on how the season went for them and the team.

Alvin Gentry - C+

Alvin this year had some of his moments, but he's a sissy. He folds under pressure, his rotations where absolutely terrible. He left Childress in the dog house for absolutely no reason at all. I was surprised to see that he made this roster somewhat work, but he did make a few key mistakes down the stretch the didn't really help us in the post season race thus far. As in, he started Robin Lopez and didn't unleash Siler.

Steve Nash - B

Steve Nash is one of the greatest players in this generation. He's one of the greatest players in the history of the league and the third best point guard of all time. He's old as dirt for an NBA player, yet he puts up his best statistics yet again. He played well throughout the season. You're probably asking yourself why I'm giving him a lowly B. Why? He wasn't as consistent. In December, he was playing amazingly - and the team was benefiting. Then he goes on a skid, still assisting but not nearly producing enough points, then he hurts his pelvis. After that pelvic injury he wasn't healthy.

Gortat - A-

Marcin Gortat is a top ten centre in the NBA. Watching him rebound is a breath of fresh air, his ability to drive to the hoop and throw the polish hammer down is absolutely entertaining to watch. He's a good defender, amazing on the glass - can hit the sporadic mid ranger, but has been at his best down low. Nash really benefited from him too, he would hit his shots, unlike Robin Fropez..

Vince Carter - C+

I'll go easy on Vince. I'm giving him a C+ because he took advantage of the opportunity he had to redeem himself here. I thought he'd strive in this type of healthy environment, and that playing with Steve Nash would gratefully benefit him as a person and a player. Sadly, he chucked. A lot. It either went in and we all where happy or he'd clunk three in a row and wouldn't pass the basketball whatsoever. He had his moments, but in general he was ass.

Grant Hill - B+

A great defensive player. A great one. His defensive molded this team into new heights, sadly no one assisted him aside from Dudley and Childress. He was hitting the looks he was given, but he was playing Bowen-esque defence, and at such an age you have to sit back and admire what he's done for this club, regardless of what people think of him. He's a leader, he's a warrior - he never gives up. Only thing I think he should do is to stop firing away corner threes.

Channing Frye - B

Earlier in the season I expressed my frustration for the guy we call Frye, but he's been impressing me lately with his development as a shooter and his improved rebounding. He's bumped up his scoring a little bit, he's hit more clutch threes. Like that dagger over Indiana(?) and his overall shooting stroke has rounded him off into a solid player. I just hate him starting though, there's no reason why he can't be a better defender and a better glass eater.

Lopez - F

lol

[DRK]

How does Nash only get a B? He was incredible all season long, and was just unlucky with injuries.

Gentry's rating is a bit low IMO- same as Vince's. I would give Gentry a solid B this season.

[DBrimstone]

B equates to above average. More teams end up in the playoff's than don't.

Nash - B+ because he was far above average for 2/3 of the season and very mediocre for the last leg. 10 and 11 after the all-star break if I remember correctly

Vince - D-. I'd take him this season (and this season only) over maybe 5 other starting 2's in the league. Thus, he almost fails. Failing would be one of those 5. Although of those 5, I'd still rather have a young Christian Eyenga, Anthony Morrow, or Landry Fields long term

Grant- B-. Better than the average small forward but not by alot. Great defense, games of brilliance, but not an all-star caliber season, which is what I consider an A.

Channing- D+ I'd rather have Griffin, Pau, Demarcus Cousins, Lemarcus Aldridge, David West, Paul Millsap, Luis Scola, Duncan, Dirk, Z-Bo, Kevin Love, Serge Ibaka, David Lee (yes, that is every starting forward in the western conference aside from Kevin Martin), Andray Blatche, Brandon Bass, Bosh, Horford, JJ Hickson, Carlos Boozer, Brand, Stat, KG, and maybe even Kris Humphries or Tyler Hansbrough. That's 24 out of the other 29 starting PF's in the league I'd rather have starting. He was good at times. Great 3rd front court player who backs up both C and PF position, but as long as he's starting, we're gonna be in the lottery

Gortat- A-. I like him alot. If we have Amare, we'd be contending with him as the tandem

[Qwigglez]

Steve Nash- B+. He tried his best to do what he can, but his back was starting to hurt from carrying the team all season.
Grant Hill- A-. He also played very well and remained professional all season where he could have easily asked for a trade to a contender instead. His defense was superb all year.
Jared Dudley-A. If it weren't for Dudley (Frye & Gortat) I think Nash and Hill would have definitely left the team.
Vince Carter-F. I was really looking forward to seeing him play along side Nash, I thought he would come in with the right attitude and help take the burden off Nash and Hill but instead he was a complete butthole. I would be very surprised if any team picked him up next season because he is straight cancerous.
Channing Frye-C+. It's hard to give this guy a lower grade because he tried hard and gave an effort and that's all we can ask for.
Robin Lopez-D. The organization was really hoping to see him emerge and become one of the better half of the big men in the league, unfortunately there was too much pressure on the guy.
Marcin Gortat-A+. Honesty, I expected Gortat to be as good as he was with the Suns. I'm glad he is with the organization, and I hope he continues to develop.
Hakim Warrick-C-. His resume was he could dunk. He brought that. But the Suns expected him to fill the void of Amare, and that clearly was a mistake in the front office. It's hard to blame Warrick since we were asking him to become another player, but it was just a bad move to get him in the first place.
Josh Childress-C. I didn't see enough of him. To be honest, I think he'll surprise the league next year, and our bench will have some flair like it did in 09-10 season.

[Jdiddy701]

Steve Nash - B+ Assists were up, rebounds were up, defense was a lot better. IMO, still the best PG in the game. Best shooter in league history, and is a true MVP. On the other hand, I wasn't too happy with his low shot selection. I think it cost us some games. He took about 200 less FG attempts this season than seasons from the past.

Vince Carter - D- BALL HOG!!!!!!!!!, but did win us about 3 games so that's what made me not give him an F. I was very excited for him to come here, but was such a disappoint in so many levels.

Grant Hill - A+ Not one of my favorite players on the team, and do I rarely compliment him, but what he did this season was amazing. Not only did he guard the best player vs the opposing teams, but locked them down as well. I'm so happy for him to be playing at a high level like this. I don't even like the guy, but I respect talent.

Channing Frye - B Coming into the season, I really was excited for him to get BIG minutes, and he played well enough to earn his starting position. He's getting better at putting consistent numbers, but needs to keep that going. If it wasn't for the injury, he could have finished this season in a big way. His defense, and rebounds were BIG for us.

Marcin Gortat - A- This man is a man. I love him, and am so happy he's a Sun. He's the first center that can fit our system in so many different ways. Only thing he needs to patent down is his jump shot. Once that gets better, he has no flaws.

Jared Dudley - B So many things Duds did for us to help us from VC killing us. I still think he needs to work on his offensive game if he's going to start for us. Needs to learn how to post up better, and get his dribbling sharp. His defense is great!

Mikael Pietrus - C+ - You guys don't talk about this guy as much as you guys should. He played great for us and brought that toughness we need. We better keep this guy.

Robin Lopez - F- - Worst player in the league, enough said.

Aaron Brooks - D - I loved the trade for Dragic, and still do. I think Aaron was too caught up with being like Nash than rather play his game. He had a few good games for us, but I believe he will get it together for us.

Hakim Warrick C - Sucks for him because we thought he would come and help us forget about Amare's absence, and it cost us to hate on this Hakim. He dunks like Amare, but isn't Amare, and we saw that. He needs to work on his shot, and learn how to play defense.

Coach Gentry - B+ - It wasn't his fault we had a different team through the WHOLE season.

Suns Fans - D - Aside from Mr. ORNG, our crowd was weak. I'm not putting the blame on that for us having a horrible record at home, but let's get that place rocking and win some games next season!

[JasonDaPsycho]

Alvin Gentry - C-
Inconsistent bench rotations. Steve Nash playing too many minutes (and we're still losing). Not playing JChill or Earl Clark. Vince Carter in rotation.

Steve Nash - A
Carried the team's offense. Period.

Vince Carter - lol
Self explanatory.

Jared Dudley - A
Showed some improvement. Gives 100% every game. 10 dunks as well.

Marcin Gortat - B+
As good as advertised. Did the things we needed him to.

Channing Frye - B
Tried harder, but still soft. Still way too soft. Not as soft as Gasoft but still, could play tougher.

Grant Hill - B+
Just leadership in general.

Aaron Brooks - nil
Not given enough opportunities.

Hakim Warrick - C
At least he tries on offense. Still dumb as a rock.

Josh Childress - B
Didn't bring the impact we anticipated him to. Partially Gentry's fault. Kind of delivered I guess.

Peaches - C
Not going to be happy with his minutes. Likely team cancer.

Robin Lopez - D
Kind of gave up. Still can't grab a rebound to save his life.

Robert Sarver - FU
**** you.

Management - F-
The only thing worse than having Vince on the team is the management. Dumb as rocks, signed players we don't play to long ass contract. Traded for Hedo without asking for a first round pick. Traded a first rounder and Dragic for Brooks. Failed to save money nor build a legit playoff team. Leaves fans with sour taste.

Fans - D+
They were actually more enthusiastic than I anticipated. Some chants are incredibly sickening ("Let's Go Celtics" and Kobe "MVP", no boos for Heatles) but I anticipated much worse. Suns fans are bandwagoner fans indeed.

[JohnVancouver]

Vince Carter - C+

I'll go easy on Vince. I'm giving him a C+ because he took advantage of the opportunity he had to redeem himself here. I thought he'd strive in this type of healthy environment, and that playing with Steve Nash would gratefully benefit him as a person and a player. Sadly, he chucked. A lot. It either went in and we all where happy or he'd clunk three in a row and wouldn't pass the basketball whatsoever. He had his moments, but in general he was ass.

He took advantage of the opportunity to redeem himself, how? He chucked and he was ass, yet he redeemed himself? Here - they're looking for writers

http://bleacherreport.com/

[DBrimstone]

I think you guys are being way too nice here. If everyone had A and B+ seasons, how are we out of the playoff's? I get that they did the best that they could have, but compared to the rest of the league, it wasn't all that great. I'm not excited to be a Suns fan anymore, cause I just don't really have any hope for greatness out of any of our players. No unknown to hope for. Pretty much everyone is what they are, and we're bound to suck again next year unless something drastic happens

[Qwigglez]

Their individual performances were good, but we were outmatched for 48 minutes against many teams in the league.

[MarJJMar]

The truth is:

We don't have a single player left that is a legitimate starter on a good team except Steve Nash.

Sorry not even Gortat, I know most fans love him because he has been a bright spot but it's all relative. His biggest skill is toughness followed by above average rebounding. He has zero post-moves, stone hands, not a shot blocker and is 27 so it is not like we can expect him to make a jump. On a good team with legitimate offensive players he is lucky if he can average 8ppg.

[MrMiyagi]

The truth is:

We don't have a single player left that is a legitimate starter on a good team except Steve Nash.

Sorry not even Gortat, I know most fans love him because he has been a bright spot but it's all relative. His biggest skill is toughness followed by above average rebounding. He has zero post-moves, stone hands, not a shot blocker and is 27 so it is not like we can expect him to make a jump. On a good team with legitimate offensive players he is lucky if he can average 8ppg.

I disagree. Even though he is 27, he'll continue to improve with more time as a starter. Now I'm not saying he is going to become an allstar, but I could see him become a double-double kind of guy. 13 and 9 and a block for us this season, I could see him slightly increasing those numbers. Considering that Bogut averaged 13/11/2 and Bynum 11/9/2. And yes I know Gortat is being spoon fed, but still I think he could develop a few post moves. Channing Frye has shown improvements, being able to take it in a few possessions a game instead of only camping out on the 3 point line(not a threat down low, but nice change-up every now and then). There is hope for Gortat yet.

[lilfishi22]

Gentry: B
He wasn't great and at times, he was downright awful with his rotations. But he did pretty well considering the roster we had and the big changes we made to that roster during the season. He isn't the best coach but he's far from the worst. We've seen what he can do with a good roster and now we've seen what he can do with a bad one.

Nash: A
He looked great for much of the season and putting up some of his best assists stats in the last few season. We may have made playoffs if he didn't get that groin injury which bothered him the rest of the season. We're a bottom 5 team without Nash.

VC: E
Aside from the 2-3 good games he's had with us, he's been inconsistent, lazy and didn't really seem to care for the majority of the games. We gave him the minutes, plenty of offensive freedom and the player's confidence yet he failed to bring anything to this team.

Dudley: A
Showed what he can do as a starter, putting up 16/6/2 while shooting .518/.464 in 34mpg. That is superb production for a guy making a flat $4.25m for the next 5 seasons. If we don't sign a starting quality SG by the start of next season, Dudley gets my nod to start at the 2.

Marcin Gortat: B
Pretty much did everything that was asked for him. Played defense, rebound and score a little. Him and Nash started to sync up real well towards the end of the season. Played with a ton of heart and took responsibility when he was lacking defensively.

Channing Frye: B
To think, that this is the guy I blasted for being an overpaid one-trick pony last season, he certainly proved me wrong. He somehow got tougher over the summer and played good defense while rebounding better.

Grant Hill: A
Absolute warrior. At his age and being asked to guard the best player on the other team, regardless of position, while still contributing on the offensive end, is nothing short of amazing. His leadership on and off the court is irreplaceable.

Aaron Brooks: D
I'll admit that I've always had a thing against scoring PG's (until D.Rose) but that bias was compounded by the fact that Brooks can't defend either. I thought he got enough time to show us something but maybe it's the ankle still bothering him or maybe he just wasn't used to the system, but he really disappointed me. What's worse is that we gave up Dragic, who really only had a down season and a 1st round pick (not a great draft position but still an asset) for a guy who was suppose to come in off the bench and do what he does best, score. He didn't give us that spark we needed and he didn't really run the team all that well either. His attitude on the court doesn't impress me either.

Hakim Warrick: D
Wasn't bad at the start of the season. He was amazingly inconsistent however. One night he would get us 15/8 while getting to the line 7-8 times in limited minutes and in the next, he would give us wild dunk attempts, poor defense and a rebound. I'm not sure who the FO was trying to kid, but I didn't even like him coming off the bench for us a the 4.

JChill: C+
I was extremely disappointed we couldn't find more minutes for JChill. He plays great defense, rebounds well for his position and shoots a high percentage. Unlike Warrick, he really wasn't given an opportunity to prove himself and that really isn't any fault of his as he worked hard off the court and kept himself ready.

Mickael Pietrus: C
Played above average defense, but chucked a bit offensively. Started off getting some decent minutes but just sort of got lost in the rotation.

Robin Lopez: E+
I haven't seen this kind of regression in a long time. Just got nothing to say about it. Hope he gets better.

Front office and Sarver: E-
FO got us Gortat, which saved them from getting an F

[SUN]

Vince Carter - C+

I'll go easy on Vince. I'm giving him a C+ because he took advantage of the opportunity he had to redeem himself here. I thought he'd strive in this type of healthy environment, and that playing with Steve Nash would gratefully benefit him as a person and a player. Sadly, he chucked. A lot. It either went in and we all where happy or he'd clunk three in a row and wouldn't pass the basketball whatsoever. He had his moments, but in general he was ass.

He took advantage of the opportunity to redeem himself, how? He chucked and he was ass, yet he redeemed himself? Here - they're looking for writers

http://bleacherreport.com/

I'm entitled to my opinion. Don't be so rude to me, you arrogant fool.

[mybloodisorange]

The truth is:

We don't have a single player left that is a legitimate starter on a good team except Steve Nash.

Sorry not even Gortat, I know most fans love him because he has been a bright spot but it's all relative. His biggest skill is toughness followed by above average rebounding. He has zero post-moves, stone hands, not a shot blocker and is 27 so it is not like we can expect him to make a jump. On a good team with legitimate offensive players he is lucky if he can average 8ppg.

This is way off imo. Grant Hill played lock down defense night in night out while maintaining one of the most reliable pull up mid range jumpers in the league. Gortat put up starting center numbers off the bench benhind Lopez (not sure why Lopez wasnt benched earlier) & he brought alot of energy while playing well on both sides of the court. It's possible that this is the big man we've been waiting for for 30 years.

[JohnVancouver]

Vince Carter - C+

I'll go easy on Vince. I'm giving him a C+ because he took advantage of the opportunity he had to redeem himself here. I thought he'd strive in this type of healthy environment, and that playing with Steve Nash would gratefully benefit him as a person and a player. Sadly, he chucked. A lot. It either went in and we all where happy or he'd clunk three in a row and wouldn't pass the basketball whatsoever. He had his moments, but in general he was ass.

He took advantage of the opportunity to redeem himself, how? He chucked and he was ass, yet he redeemed himself? Here - they're looking for writers

http://bleacherreport.com/

I'm entitled to my opinion. Don't be so rude to me, you arrogant fool.

You didn't answer my question, which was prompted by the contradictory nature of your evaluation. However, I apologize foro the Bleacher Report crack - your grammar is too good for them.

[DarenG]

The truth is:

We don't have a single player left that is a legitimate starter on a good team except Steve Nash.

Sorry not even Gortat, I know most fans love him because he has been a bright spot but it's all relative. His biggest skill is toughness followed by above average rebounding. He has zero post-moves, stone hands, not a shot blocker and is 27 so it is not like we can expect him to make a jump. On a good team with legitimate offensive players he is lucky if he can average 8ppg.

I disagree. Even though he is 27, he'll continue to improve with more time as a starter. Now I'm not saying he is going to become an allstar, but I could see him become a double-double kind of guy. 13 and 9 and a block for us this season, I could see him slightly increasing those numbers. Considering that Bogut averaged 13/11/2 and Bynum 11/9/2. And yes I know Gortat is being spoon fed, but still I think he could develop a few post moves. Channing Frye has shown improvements, being able to take it in a few possessions a game instead of only camping out on the 3 point line(not a threat down low, but nice change-up every now and then). There is hope for Gortat yet.

Truth:

MarJJMar is a Gortat hater.

Gortat might get spoon fed but his rebounding and defense alone says he is a starter in this league. Just because your "spoon fed" by Nash doesn't mean you can't play on a good team. Nash didn't help Gortat defend and didn't help Gortat rebound.

If Gortat couldn't play on a good team, then why were playoff bound teams trying to get Gortat at the trade deadline from the Suns even though they just traded from him themselves?

[JohnVancouver]

Earl Barron was spoonfed by Nash and did nothing, RLopez is still being spoonfed and not doing enough with it, and Gortat is good enough that he can take advantage of it. and he also has a nice litte jumper/set shot and a few actual post moves. We lucked out, big-time. He bpards, he defends , he cares and he calls out the slackers when they .... slack
The Gortat - big part of this team's psyche going forward.