I enjoyed your article, agree with most of it. The parts I don't agree with are:
I've rarely seen a team in any aspect of any sport who plays 100% all the time. Yet this team is doing it.
I feel like I'm being obvious, but look at the leads they've lost. They don't consistently maintain focus and edge, and that pattern, if it is a habit, could kill them (with bad luck) in the playoffs.
The last two seasons, the Suns have had key players out for the playoffs. Joe Johnson, Amare Stoudemire, Kurt Thomas, Raja Bell, you name it. Yes, injuries will happen. But this team works so well with their top 8, losing one of those components could hurt. But regardless of all that, I still think this is the Suns' year.
I'm more worried than you are. With KT out, everyone plays longer minutes, and on older players, the wear and tear increases the odds of injury, so that it's a slippery slope. I WISH D'Antoni would play Rose, so he can get in shape, so we'd have a seventh man in sync if two go down. But I suppose you have to take the bad with the good--D'Antoni's great at planning for top-7/8 skills, and lousy at choosing/developing/integrating players 9 thru 13 or whatever. I'll take the package with thanks, but I wish he'd learn from the last 2 years.
I do believe that, happily, control of their destiny is internal to the team. With all their top players playing close to their top game, no other team has even near the talent to take us--even Dallas, and we score in ways that even poor officiating has trouble undermining. But injury, or loss of focus, or excruciatingly bad officiating, could do us in, and sadly none of those are exactly rare in the NBA.
