<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Amar? Stoudemire seems to have the power of a soothsayer when he foretells where Steve Nash's passes are headed. Suns fans can only hope he truly has such power, given the 2002 statement he made to Phoenix's other powerful basketball tandem - Jerry and Bryan Colangelo. "I told them when they drafted me to give me three or four years and we'll win a championship," Stoudemire said. The claim seems more appropriate with Phoenix among the elite at 36-10. Two wins from their first six-game road sweep ever, the Suns are openly talking about a championship in earnest for the first time. There had been title allusions cast in long-term goals. Ever since Nash returned from injury and the Jim Jackson trade fast-forwarded the plan, the Suns' confidence about winning a title this season has grown. "We're too good of a team to think we can't be a contender and can't win," Nash said of championship aspirations. The coaching mantra is that the jump from a losing team to a 50-win team is tough, but the bump from 50 to 60 wins is even tougher. Yet, the Suns are on pace to leap from 29 wins to 64 wins, which would be one victory off the greatest turnaround in NBA history by San Antonio seven years ago. Nash's off-season acquisition was made with the idea of assembling the Suns' first championship team. The notion then was that the Suns had a five-year window to make their move and add the necessary pieces along the way.</div> Source
They have a right to talk about it. They are playing amazing ball, in my eyes, the league MVP is Nash. He has really helped out Amare and company. Their defense isn't the greatest, but it also isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. I think they can make some noise if they get HC advantage.
We have the #2 best record in the NBA, so why shouldn't we be getting more NBA Finals love? There is one team, in most people's minds that we can't beat and people think we can't beat the Spurs, but anything can happen from now until we play them in the playoffs (ex. Duncan/Parker/Manu gets hurt). People say that we are just offence, and a fun to watch fast break team. WE HAVE DEFENCE, we have 4 very good defenders on this team in Marion, JJ, Amare, and Steven Hunter. If someone can give me a good reason why the Phoenix Suns I would be glad to hear it, besides for the fact that ?We can?t beat the Spurs? because as I said in this post that anything can happen between now, and the time we would play the Spurs in the playoffs which would probably be the conference championship. The Spurs may not even make it to the conference championship to play us (or on the flip side we not even make it to play them), and Duncan or any other player on the Spurs may get hurt. I just don?t see any reason why we can?t win the finals.
If your team is among the elite in the NBA of course your going to assume the team is a contender. But I'm not sold on the Suns being a Championship caliber team yet. I recognize how much talent they have, but in the NBA talent isn't going to win you playoff games. The thing's that make me shaky of this team's chances are, their lack of size, bench depth, and most importantly their defense overall as a team.<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">WE HAVE DEFENCE, we have 4 very good defenders on this team in Marion, JJ, Amare, and Steven Hunter. </div> What you say is true CK, but you have to keep a question in mind. Will Amare be able to guard other centers once the Suns are in the playoffs? Stoudemire will often be undersized at the center position as it is so that's going to make it harder on him, especially come playoff time. Steven Hunter is also a liability, he doesn't have much experience playing in big games and is a player that could be inconsistent a lot of the time because he is still young and raw. Marion is a solid defender, but again will he be able to handle playing down low with the bigs of the West come playoff time? Overall I'm not saying the Suns don't have a chance at Finals contention or even winning it all, but I find it very hard to believe they will be able to hold up with the dominant teams in the league.
I'm gonna break it down to the simplest terms possible. Being successful in the playoffs comes down to one thing... winning games. So far this season, the Nash-led Suns have always found a way to win games, even it is an ugly win(which most of the time it isn't). Their stats don't matter; def. rebounds, steals, opp. FG%. None of it matters as long as there's a W in the win-loss column. And so far, the only team that seems to have the Suns stumped as far as how to beat them is the Spurs, and that's only by small margins. The biggest factor in the last loss to the Spurs was the lack of bench depth, and I think that adding Jim Jackson will help them a lot against deep teams like the Spurs. I'm not saying that JJ will be the star that leads them to the championship, but he might be that little extra umpf that this team needs.
The Suns do have the right to start talking about championships. It is obvious that they can WIN against anyone in the NBA (including the spurs, they had a 17 point lead IF the suns can continue outscoring teams then it won't matter how bad their D is because almost no one can keep up with their O.
The Suns have every right to be taking championship. Them and the Spurs are the best teams in my eyes. And the Suns can keep up with the Spurs as we saw in that one amazing game. But I am pulling for Phoenix to pull it off. And I beleive Amare can take on most centers although he's slightly undersized. With Nash running the point nothing can go wrong.
