How do you think they should go about their team? I say they should blow them up, keep Amare, Barbosa, Barnes, and build around them.
I think the main issue is the coach. The team isn't built to play a defensive oriented style of play, at all. If you want to get better immediately, just fire Porter and bring in Sam Mitchell, a coach who will take the reigns off and let them run more. If that's not going to happen, I say keep Stoudemire, Barbosa and JRich and go from there. They could look in to resigning Nash, but he's getting up there in age and hasn't performed nearly as well under Porter's system.
Agreed with your choice of the keepers. They can deal Nash to a playoff thinking team who needs PG for a run now....someone like Portland with youngsters to spare...a package revolving around Bayless and LaFrentz expiring contract is a good starting point. Work towards getting cap space to put another big next to Amare like Bosh next year or Boozer this off season. then get a draft picks to help build cheaply
This team is having a major identity crisis right now, and I think Kerr is to blame for this. As was mentioned, Terry Porter doesn't seem to be the right fit for this team. The Suns are a slightly better defensive team because of the coaching, but they just don't have the personnel for it. Nash has always been a bad defender and Amare has always underachieved defensively. And trading for Shaq only slows down the tempo, which is the #1 thing the Suns used to their advantage in previous years. Instead of over focusing on aspects which the Suns didn't do well in, D'Antoni maximized what they could do well. That was their recipe to success. People also forget the Suns were pretty close to beating the Spurs in the playoffs before those crucial suspensions.
i think they are still a good team, too bad sarver started spending money a little too late. all those picks he could have had would make them much easier to rebuild. they should/will deal nash this offseason for likely marginal talent.
They can get more out of Nash if they trade him at the trade dead line to a team in desperate need of a PG for the playoffs. I'd deal him before the this offseason.
Amar'e is not a keeper because he is a cancer. Maybe a top 5 individual player now but damn can he break up a teams chemistry.
It amazes me how many people trash what the Suns are doing right now. I'm no Suns fan (I'm been a DEVOUT Bulls fan since the early 80's), but although the style of ball they played for the last 4 years or so was not going to win them a championship. It was VERY entertaining, but they couldn't have beat any of the last couple NBA Champions and last I checked, the name of the game was to WIN IT ALL. Hell, they couldn't even get out of the West let alone win a Championship. Two reasons: 1) They played too little defense. We saw the Lakers outscore teams last season but were beaten pretty handily in 6 games by a superior defensive team and that Boston defense has gotten Better....and you can add Cleveland to the mix because they look great defensively as well. 2) They were nowhere near as effective in the half court game as they needed to be. Shaq slows Phoenix down, but I think what we'll see as the season winds down and when we get into the playoffs is a more effective Amare Stoudamire as a result of Shaq being there. Phoenix will be able to win those games where the score is 90-85 since they now have a true post player in Shaq (however old he may be he is still dangerous) who will command a double team. Frees Stoudamire up to murder the other teams "4" and he'll do just that in a 7 game series. Again though, Phoenix was NOT going to win a championship with what they were doing before. All those 60 win seasons and nothing to show for it. They won't win 60 this year (probably in the 48-52 win area) but they'll be far more imposing in the post season that they've been in the past.
He does have a bit of that though. I recall him saying that he wanted to be mentioned in the same class as Garnett and Duncan. Nothing at all wrong with wanting that. But he may want to try averaging at least 10 rebounds for once in his career. He is too talented to not average a double-double every year....like Garnett and Duncan did for 10 yrs in a row!!! Add some great defense to that scoring and rebounding when you're talking about KG and Duncan...and it's no secret why those guys have championships. Now when Amare decides to defend, rebound and lead by example on the court, then he can be mentioned with those guys. Until then, cool out Amare.
I dunno if it was the style of play that was the problem Lexi. They seemed to me that they progressively got worse. Imagine if they'd simply kept Joe Johnson?
He just wanted the max, not necessarily out of Phoenix. Phoenix though, wasn't willing to give him that kind of money.
Well, I don't know if they're "done". They would have won the San Antonio game had it not been for that last second trey by Mason. Though, I would still like to know how he got so open. He's #3 in the NBA in 3PT%, I don't know if he's a guy I'd want to leave open. As I mentioned, if Terry Porter grew a brain and realized that his team isn't built for grind it out, defensive oriented games, they'd be better off. If he let them open up the offense and run, they'd be better off. As it is though, they're not done. They may be #9 in the West right now, but they're on pace for 47 wins and could still easily make the playoffs. I just don't know that they will as long as Terry Porter continues to push defense and half court offense on them instead of letting them get out and run, which is what they're built for.
