Expectations and Questions for 03-04

[JCSunsfan]

I'm curious to hear yours.

Expectations:

Same old Stephon. I don't expect his game to change much, but I am expecting him to continue to develop as a team leader, holding other players accountable and encouraging as well.

Shawn Marion. With some added strength and more outside shooters, I expect to see Shawn slash a little more. I also expect an injury. I can't tell you how often I've seen guys bulk up and then get injured. Hopefully it will be minor.

Penny. I expect Penny will want to compete for the starting 2. He won't just want to hand it to JJ. I expect he will keep it.

C-Jakes shooting will improve.

Big Jake will get 5 and 5 in limited minutes.

Little Jake will be our starting center by Christmas.

Amare will average 18 and 9.

Questions:

Will JJ be content as a 6th or 7th man? Will he develop any consistency?

Is Zarko for real? If so, this team will dramatically improve.

Will Big Jake have continued back problems or motivation problems? He seemed to fade some with the Greek team this summer. Not a good sign.

Will Googs contribute? I think he will if can get some minutes. He might be the surprise of the year.

 

[scotsman13]

I'm curious to hear yours.

Expectations:

Same old Stephon. I don't expect his game to change much, but I am expecting him to continue to develop as a team leader, holding other players accountable and encouraging as well.

-one thing that i think that you will see a lot more this year, is that steph will do the pick and roll right. i cant tell you how many times i saw steph start on the roll last year before the pick was set. and end up getting a foul on amare or one of the other big guys.

Shawn Marion. With some added strength and more outside shooters, I expect to see Shawn slash a little more. I also expect an injury. I can't tell you how often I've seen guys bulk up and then get injured. Hopefully it will be minor.

-i dont think that marion will be hurt for any real time maybe a couple games. i think that marions scoring is going to drop this year. due to amare getting more touchs. i thimk you will see marion being more active then we have ever seen him.

Penny. I expect Penny will want to compete for the starting 2. He won't just want to hand it to JJ. I expect he will keep it.

-jj will start. people are going to be changing their mind about him. hardaway will be the sixth man of the year for the suns. able to back at shooting and point.

C-Jakes shooting will improve.

-yea but he still wont get any time.

Big Jake will get 5 and 5 in limited minutes.

-sounds about right.

Little Jake will be our starting center by Christmas.

-little jake will start some and big jake will start some. i dont think this spot is going to be set in stone any time soon.

Amare will average 18 and 9.

-no, he will get around 35 mins a night and bring in 17, 9.3 and 1.5 blocks


Questions:

Will JJ be content as a 6th or 7th man? Will he develop any consistency?

-jj will be the starter and be a major part of our offense. we have 3 main scorers on this team in marion, marbury and amare. but jj will understand his role and make the tema better all the way around.

Is Zarko for real? If so, this team will dramatically improve.

-zarko, wow by the end of the year teams are going to be asking how the suns are doing it? we keep getting great players out of the draft that others didnt think were that good. by the end of the year zarko will get some starts and teams are going to hate to see him on the floor because of the match up problems that he is creating.

Will Big Jake have continued back problems or motivation problems? He seemed to fade some with the Greek team this summer. Not a good sign.

-big jake will be what he has always been a very big guy who can play defense on the bigs and has hands of stone.

Will Googs contribute? I think he will if can get some minutes. He might be the surprise of the year.

-earlier in the year i think you might see him playing more but as the year goes along he will get less and less playing time as zarko develops.

 

[JJ Slim]

Originally posted by scotsman13
-one thing that i think that you will see a lot more this year, is that steph will do the pick and roll right. i cant tell you how many times i saw steph start on the roll last year before the pick was set. and end up getting a foul on amare or one of the other big guys.

Agreed except that Big Jake was the one player that very rarely got those calls. The other bigs, especially Amare and Little Jake, seemed like they got it called on them all the time.

I don't know if it was that Big Jake knew how to set the pick properly and quickly or if Stephon was able to tell better with him when the pick was set and didn't make his move too soon.

Don't count Jake out this year. He knows this is a make or break season for him. His back injury really hampered him last year. He is in great shape now and ready to go.

 

[scotsman13]

marbury and big jake had worked on the pick and roll before last season. remember at the start of last season the suns werent going to be doing the pick and roll. they were going to be doing the motion. so all of the sudden the suns start doing the pick and roll and marbury isnt waiting for the big guys to get set before he starts to drive.

 

[slinslin]

9 rebounds would be terrible for Amare. That would hardly be an improvement while he should definately get more playing time and should be better at positioning himself for rebounds.

If he gets 18 points I expect at least 11 rebounds.

 

[dyle_ph1]

While I expect amare's rebounding numbers to go up next year, I think his points average would still be around 15-16. Since he did not get a lot of practice time this summer because of his injuries, his offensive moves won't be as improved as it would have been without the surgery/injury. Teams should also scout him very well next season and could frustrate him.

Amare is a very talented kid and has shown time and time again that he could pick up things very quickly. He is also a freak in terms of athleticism. However, his limited post moves could hinder his play at least at the first half of the season.

 

[Joe Mama]

Marbury & Co. run the pick and roll like that on purpose. It's not just poor execution. I heard Cotton Fitzsimmons explaining at one night. I guess it's a ploy to get Marbury open.

Joe

 

[JJ Slim]

Originally posted by Joe Mama
Marbury & Co. run the pick and roll like that on purpose. It's not just poor execution. I heard Cotton Fitzsimmons explaining at one night. I guess it's a ploy to get Marbury open.

Joe

Are you talking about when they get the moving pick violation? It would seem to me to be self defeating if it causes a turnover.

 

[Errntknght]

You're right in a sense Joe, but it's only a 'fake' pick and roll where Marbury doesn't use the pick but changes direction as soon as the defender starts adjusting to the pick setter moving into position - if Marbs went ahead and used the pick it would be illegal because the setter wouldn't be motionless in time. The move does work pretty well but I'd sure like to see Marbs taking his time and using the pick in the traditional fashion more often so the 'roll' could be a part of the play. Off the full pick they can also use the variation where Marbs doubles back for another pick the other direction, which worked fairly well the few times they used it.

To me, this weak utilization of the pick and roll is symptomatic of the whole offense - it's way too disorganized which results in the Suns having to score on more difficult shots than our opponents. We have terrific one-on-one players who keep us close and do win some games when there's enough 'hot hands'. But I don't see us as strong contenders until FJ sorts out the offense some more. One way we'll know when he does that is that the offense won't automatically stagnate whenever Penny sits down. I don't expect FJ to do it and then we have to hope the team stays together long enough for the players to self organize. Oh, I suppose if Frank doesn't pay too much attention one of the assistant coaches might sneak in some organization...