Boris Returns

[jbeecham]

Suns Notebook: Suns Go For Sweep of East Teams on Road

By Jerry Brown
East Valley Tribune
Feb. 27, 2007

There was the double-overtime scoring fest in New Jersey. Leandro Barbosa’s dagger 3-pointer in Chicago preceded another rally in Toronto the next night. The Suns avenged home losses to Washington and Atlanta and were the beneficiary when they ran into injury-depleted teams in Detroit, Miami and Milwaukee.

But with only two road games against the Eastern Conference remaining – tonight against the Pacers and Wednesday against the lottery-bound Philadelphia 76ers – the Suns have a chance to become the first team in NBA history to sweep an interconference road schedule.

The 72-win Bulls – or any of their six championship teams – couldn’t do it. The “Showtime” Lakers or “Bad Boy” Pistons of the ‘80s couldn’t either. But in a season defined by Suns winning streaks, a fifth- and sixth- consecutive victory by Phoenix would erase the 11-1 record set by the 1982-83 Philadelphia 76ers, who had current Suns assistant Marc Iavaroni as a starting forward.

“I don’t know if we take any more pride in that than any other road win,” said coach Mike D’Antoni, whose team is 22-7 on the road this season (22-3 since an 0-4 start) and within striking distance of the 31-10 franchise record set in 2004-05. “We’ve not talked about it much because we have two tough games to get through first. But to be the first to do anything is pretty cool.”

BORIS RETURNS

The Suns will be at full strength for the first time in six weeks tonight. Boris Diaw practiced Monday and will return after missing the past six games with back problems. “I don’t think he’ll play a whole lot of minutes, but the key thing is to get him back on the floor because he’s missed more than two weeks,” D’Antoni said.

Kurt Thomas will remain the starter with Diaw coming off the bench for only the third time this season. D’Antoni said Thomas will definitely play more than the five minutes he saw Sunday in Atlanta – when the veteran started, came out and never returned.

Thomas also played only 12 minutes in Minnesota Friday. Thomas and Pat Burke played just under 10 minutes combined Sunday, leaving 230 minutes for the other six Suns players against the 22-34 Hawks.

“I (messed) it up. I’ll get him back in there,” D’Antoni said. “I just had it in my mind that they were athletic and running and I left the little guys in. But when you look at the tape, that was just me panicking and getting scared.

“He’s probably upset, and he’s right. I should have come back to him. But it’s not something that you’ll see a lot.”

BONUS SHOTS

The Suns continue to lead the league in point differential (7.8 points a game), an important statistic since 33 of the last 60 NBA champions led the league in that category. …

Leandro Barbosa is shooting 59 percent from 3-point range in the month of February (37 for 63) and is even better (16 for 25, 64 percent) the past three games.

http://www.nba.com/suns/news/tribune_notes_070227.html

 

[JS22]

Sounds good. Hopefully he can start putting up numbers worth at least the MLE.

 

[Louis]

In the last 2 games KT has logged a total of 17 minutes played. Hopefully that changes.

Glad to see Diaw returning.

Will that put Pat Burke back into the splintered side of the roster? Not that he's been playing a heckuva a lot but that 7/10 games versus the Clips was promising.

 

[azirish]

KT is still rounding into condition, but the key is that teams like the Hawks don't have serious low post threats. His value is primarily for the playoffs.

 

[mribnik]

Boris hasn't performed up to expectations, but he is still very valuable. I would argue that his presence helps the Suns in ways that we can't see by looking at the stats. That being said, I don't get to watch as many games as the rest of you do.

 

[green machine]

The Suns are third in point differential right now. Their recent losing skid put them behind both Dallas and San Antonio (+8.0)

 

[boisesuns]

If he can get back to where he was last playoffs, we will be in good shape.

 

[Gaddabout]

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[azirish]

I agree that the Suns need Boris during the playoffs. The Suns are fine right now, but during the playoffs they'll need every weapon they have.

 

[JS22]

I really expect the Suns to shop Boris this summer. Sarver is probably not happy paying star money to someone who is, unfortunately, barely worth the MLE at this point. I know that many of you will disagree with me, and that's fine. I know that Sarver has said that he doesn't mind going over the luxury tax as long as the team is winning / selling out. (IE: Turning a nice profit.)

But it's most likely going to come down to Marion or Diaw. At this point, I'd rather have Marion despite his occasional disappearances in the playoffs.

The Suns have shown that they are more than capable of winning without Boris in the lineup. And besides, he came into the season completely out of shape and looks totally lost with Amare back. What happened to the dominant 20/9/6 guy we saw in the playoffs?

 

[The Commish]

The Suns have shown that they are more than capable of winning without Boris in the lineup. And besides, he came into the season completely out of shape and looks totally lost with Amare back. What happened to the dominant 20/9/6 guy we saw in the playoffs?

I agree that Boris is probably the odd man out but I can't really fault him for that. With Amare back, he simply isn't getting the playing time nor is expected to shoulder the load like he did in the playoffs. We all knew that his stats would suffer once Amare returned to form. Furthermore he came to camp out of shape because he needed a break after the World Championships.

I will be interested to see if a Boris +ATL pick will allow us to move up in the draft.

 

[sunsfn]

I think the suns will be moving KT and Banks. Boris is important to the running of this team, especially when Nash is on the bench. And he can play defense even though some of you do not think so.

KT is just to slow to play with this group, and I would think the suns are going to draft a big on the Atlanta pick and go with him. (Or trade it for a veteran big) I really like KT as a player, but he has one more year on his contract and teams will like that expiring contract.

I realize that hopefully the suns can sign a veteran point or draft one, but I think Boris & Marion stay.

 

[Covert Rain]

KT anchors this team defensively most nights. If you need defensive stops you can bring in Kurt. If you need defensive stops would you ever think bring in Boris?!?!? Unless the Suns can bring in another mobile big who is defensive oriented, I don't see them moving Kurt.

Boris might be the odd man out to rid themselves of Banks contract. If the Suns do manage to bring in a big throught draft, FA or trade, then all bets are off. Then I could see them moving either along with Banks.

However, for now, I am glad to see Boris back.

 

[mathbzh]

The only way to have Boris back to 20/9/6 would be to have Amare down...
I hope we will not see that

 

[Skkorpion]

So, Boris still can't go. Back problems for a big man can be career killers.

 

[azirish]

There is also the base year contract problem that seems to get ignored when trading recently extended guys.

In any case, I think Boris will stay and will be a lot better next season. I'm not saying he'll have super stats, but I think his value will increase as he becomes more comfortable with his role.

If I was to set up an off season program for Boris, it would include:

1. Strength training. Not bulk, but wiry strength like Marion. Boris gets pushed around a lot and does not handle contact well when going to the basket. More strength should help him become a better rebounder.

2. Keep working on his shooting. His free throw shooting has regressed and he needs more range on his jump shot.

3. Improve his handle when dribbling in traffic. Boris is very good posting up smaller guys, but loses the ball too often in traffic. I'm not sure what the answer is except to have him practice against good ball hawks.

From a strategy standpoint, I'd like to see more use of the high post with Boris. The Suns tend to overuse the pick and roll, but Amare has shown he can be force on the low block. Putting Boris at the high post should make him more effective when Amare is in the lineup. Right now they don't work together that well.

I'm not sure this will make him a superstar, but I'd be reluctant to give up on him too quickly.