2003-2004 Surprises

[PVasquez]

-If you would have told me at the begining of the season that by the end of the year we would rid ourselves of Penny and Gooogs' contract..................I would have jumped for joy. He you told me it would cost us Marbury and two first round draft picks I probably would have jumped over a bridge.

-If you would have told me at the begining of the season that we would be 19 games from .500 after 61 games I would have instantly thought......."Yes, 41-20"

-If you would have told me the Phoenix Suns win percentage would be more along the lines of the Cardinals then the Diamondbacks...............I would have accused you of being a Bidwill!

-A little irony, as we all anxiously awaited for Suns to announce who they had selected with the 17 pick in the 2003 draft, I was thinking two names......Barbosa or Lampe. "And the Phoenix Suns select Zarko Cabarkapa," What??? Who the #@*! But he was a pleasant surprise.........ironically as we close the 2004 season WE HAVE ALL THREE! Had you told me then I never would have thunk it!

Pleasant Surprises: Joe Johnson, Amare Stoudemire, Barbosa and Zarko Cabarkapa (Perhaps the only player in the nba with more 'A's' in his name than Alvan Adams).

Surprises:

Teams; Utah, Memphis, Denver and the Eastern Conference (with Orlando Magic underlined twice in a bold large font). Obvioulsy I'm surprized for different reasons.

Players; Michael Redd, Zach Randolph, Baron Davis, Carlos Boozer and Peja Stoyackivioclaieaimbaksievic.

Not so surprised:

-The departure of Fourth Quarter Frank! Who after sleeping with several prominent married women can officialy be reffered to as Fourth Quarter Stank!

-The Lakers' locker room which has had more explosives than the Gaza Strip!

-Lebron James, he's done everything but walk on water! With so much hype I figured at least an iota of substance would reveal itself!

o.k., enought for now!

 

[Chaplin]

Originally posted by PVasquez

-A little irony, as we all anxiously awaited for Suns to announce who they had selected with the 17 pick in the 2003 draft, I was thinking two names......Barbosa or Lampe. "And the Phoenix Suns select Zarko Cabarkapa," What??? Who the #@*! But he was a pleasant surprise.........ironically as we close the 2004 season WE HAVE ALL THREE! Had you told me then I never would have thunk it!

Interesting, I seem to remember that everybody pretty much knew that Z would be the guy we chose. Lampe was a possibility since he was still there and nobody really thought Barbosa would go that high, but Z was pretty much what most people projected.

 

[PVasquez]

Yeah, the commmentators made it clear Zarko was our man......but it simply wasn't who I wanted. While I knew little of Lampe (other than he was once projected a lottery pick), I knew even less of Zarko.

Barbosa slipped becuase he failed to work out with most NbA teams. But in Latin America he was an incredible talent.

 

[elindholm]

-If you would have told me at the begining of the season that we would be 19 games from .500 after 61 games I would have instantly thought......."Yes, 41-20"

That would have been a little optimistic. I would have thought maybe 35-26.

 

[PVasquez]

41-20 is very optimistic! But again, had you told me at this point in the season that we would be 19 games removed from .500 I would have assumed over, not under!

 

[Freddie]

19 games from .500 would be 39-20.

 

[devilalum]

Originally posted by PVasquez
-If you would have told me at the begining of the season that by the end of the year we would rid ourselves of Penny and Gooogs' contract..................I would have jumped for joy. He you told me it would cost us Marbury and two first round draft picks I probably would have jumped over a bridge.

It didn't really cost us 2 first round picks if you want to group it together as you've done.

It's really:

Penny, Googs, Marbury

for

Eisley, Lampe, Rights to Vomitovich and a bunch of expiring contracts.

Still pretty ugly. Don't you love the CBA.

I want a hard cap like the NFL.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

I cant wait to see this "vomitovich" fella

 

[devilalum]

Re: Re: 2003-2004 Surprises

Originally posted by devilalum

Still pretty ugly. Don't you love the CBA.

I want a hard cap like the NFL.

Now that I brought this up I think I'll indulge myself.

The economics of sports are not quite like anything else in our society.

Can you imagine a top rated TV show like Friends dumping the cast in mid season and replacing them with discards from Survivor? Who'd watch?

I've heard Colangelo refer to the Suns and the Dbacks as both an entertainment product and a business. I contend that it is not truly either one.

As an entertainment product the Suns have really let down their season ticket holders who were expecting a team that would contend for a top 5 playoff bearth.

What would happen if you bought tickets to see The Eagles(insert your own favorite music phenom) and when you showed up at the arena they'd been replaced with Hans Olsen? Can you say consumer fraud?

As a business product how many businesses can finish 25th out of a possible 30 competetors and remain in business. Especially after promising stock holders that they should expect a handsome return on their investment this quarter?

Then go to shareholders and tell them, "Sorry folks but we totally screwed up and we've decided to gut the company and start over, oh by the way you'll be expected to cough up and additional 25% to retain your initial investment."

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

I am not really sure what you are trying to say......

I do agree that the economics of professional sports is different than most other business. Although most genre's of business vary to some degree (which is why there are different types)

 

[devilalum]

I'm just sayin that Colangelo should stop refering to the Suns as a business and a product.

The reason the Suns are able to get away with what they do is because a sports team is part of a community. People take pride in the home team win or lose. Heck all you have to do is check out all the diehards on the Cards board to know that's true.

 

[devilalum]

The Suns are part of our identity.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

Is it all that different than a corner convienent store?

The only reason the family owned store next to my house is in business is because they are part of the community. Their prices are higher, and their selections are smaller than even a Circle K. However, they know people by name, and get a lot of regular customers by the way the conduct business, not because they are the best option.


The suns are still a business and a product. There are not a ton of substitues, and due to their longstanding relationship with Phoenicians, they are able to endure years where they are near the bottom of competition. This is not as unique as you make it sound.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

Also, you have to consider other factors. Yes the suns are near the bottom in terms of win/loss standings.

However, an arguement can be made that they are in the top 10 for entertaining basketball.


They are most likely in the top 5 for being a team of "good guys"

They are definitely in the top 5 for community outreach and charity, not only for the organization, but for the players as well.

There are many factors when considering a team's ranking.

To relate back to conventional business:

When purchasing a company, it is not uncommon for a company that produces a consistant net loss to be an attractive buy. A lot of times the purchaser couldn't care less about the company's net income, but they are more interested in the cash output it provides.

Even though the net income is the most identifiable marker for a company's success, there are other factors that must be looked at.

 

[George O'Brien]

Before getting too carried away, it is worth noting that part of the problem the Suns had at the start of the season was that Amare was not in shape due to his toe injury. After the season was only six weeks old, he was injured again and it took another month afterward for him to get back into the shape he was last year.

What difference does it make? If the Suns had been putting a healthy and in-condidtion Amare on the floor all season, the Suns would have 10-12 more wins than they have now. This is a team that has lot an amazing number of close games - and it is have to imagine getting 30 points a game from Amare would not have turned many of them around.

A lot of people want to give Marbury the credit for last season's success, but his performance was not that much better than the year before. This year when Amare was not at full strength or injured, Marbury was not enough to keep the team from going into a tail spin.

Is it really all that strange that losing a key player will hurt a team's ability to perform? Want someone to blame - how about Fortson?