Republic: Win worsens odds for No. 1 pick

[George O'Brien]

Republic: Win worsens odds for No. 1 pick

Paul Coro
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 15, 2004 12:00 AM

SALT LAKE CITY - Start rubbing the beads and sleeping with your purple and orange rabbits' feet, because any hope that Connecticut's Emeka Okafor or Atlanta prep star Dwight Howard is on his way to the Valley is slim.

The Suns finished at 29-53, the NBA's sixth-worst record, after their 89-84 win at Utah on Wednesday night. That leaves the Suns with a 4.4 percent chance of getting the draft's No. 1 pick, via a four-digit number combination that comes out of the pingpong ball hopper at the May 26 draft lottery.

Phoenix will have a 5.06 percent chance at the No. 2 pick. Okafor and Howard are widely considered to be the two most desired players in the draft.

If the most likely odds play out, Phoenix would have the seventh pick in the draft because Charlotte automatically gets the fourth pick as an expansion team.

Googs gets close

Former Suns player Tom Gugliotta nearly got it all out of his February trade from Phoenix to Utah. He got the chance to play, even start. He nearly got back to the playoffs, with the Jazz being eliminated on Monday.

But some of the pain can be soothed by a tidy vacation bonus of sorts. As part of Gugliotta's contract, he was entitled to a trade kicker that amounted to 15 percent of his remaining salary at the time of the trade.

It was expected to be just over $500,000, paid by Utah, but Gugliotta said he had to sacrifice some of that as a condition of the trade.

"It was fun playing with this team," Gugliotta said. "It took me a while to get in good shape. I don't think I got in great shape, but it was something I want to build on."

Free throws

Phoenix finished with a better record without Stephon Marbury (17-31, .354) than with him (12-22, .353).

• Joe Johnson played 40 minutes or more for the 35th straight game, tying Bill Russell for the ninth-longest streak in NBA history.

• Shawn Marion finished with the most steals in the league at 167.

• Johnson led the league in total minutes (3,331) and minutes per game (40.6).

• The Suns plan to hire another assistant coach this summer after losing one man from the staff when Frank Johnson was fired and Mike D'Antoni was promoted.

 

[Skkorpion]

Too bad.

You play to win every game and the Suns played well at the end of the year. Draft position? Time enough to worry about that AFTER the games are played.

I never, ever want a team I follow to tank a game for any reason.

That Utah game was entertaining. I'm glad we played to win.

 

[Joe Mama]

Too bad.

You play to win every game and the Suns played well at the end of the year. Draft position? Time enough to worry about that AFTER the games are played.

I never, ever want a team I follow to tank a game for any reason.

That Utah game was entertaining. I'm glad we played to win.

I feel the same way, but I also feel that the end of the season when they are clearly not going to make the playoffs should be used to give some of the younger players experience. I'm not talking about keeping guys like Cabarkapa starters minutes. It just doesn't make sense to me to play the starters 45 minutes per game over the last two weeks while a guy like Cabarkapa gets only 5-10 minutes per game if that.

Joe Mama

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

I feel the same way, but I also feel that the end of the season when they are clearly not going to make the playoffs should be used to give some of the younger players experience. I'm not talking about keeping guys like Cabarkapa starters minutes. It just doesn't make sense to me to play the starters 45 minutes per game over the last two weeks while a guy like Cabarkapa gets only 5-10 minutes per game if that.

Joe Mama

i have mixed feelings. while i agree with joe mama - the youngsters, and the team in general, are in developmental mode, and i, for one, think tanking the last game in a throw-away-82-game-season is not so bad for draft positioning, i think our young team needs the w's. winning is a learned thing. the more a young team wins, the more inclined they are to continue to crave winning. i liked them gutting out the wins at the end of the season, thereby giving the youngsters some feeling of accomplishment and a nice springboard for next year, even if it came at the expense of a higher pick. but talk to me again about it come draft day and i may be singing a different tune.

 

[elindholm]

I do wonder why Harvey got 19 minutes, since there is virtually no chance he will be on the team next season, and it's not like they have anything to gain by showcasing him.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

I do wonder why Harvey got 19 minutes, since there is virtually no chance he will be on the team next season, and it's not like they have anything to gain by showcasing him.

Lampe was hurt
Dice had 4 fouls
Marion had 4 fouls
Zarko sucked


Thats my guess at least.

 

[Chaz]

Yea by the end of the game the Suns only had 5 players left. The guys they played the last few weeks were the guys the Suns had.

Zarko is the only exception. He is just not strong enough to be effective out there. He gets pushed around a lot and has to use his hands and arms to create space for rebounds so he get called for fouls.


I was really proud of how hard the team played at the end of the sesaon. I think the Suns can make some huge strides next season.

 

[George O'Brien]

It was really disappointing that Lampe had that ankle injury. With the team being short handed, he would have received a lot of minutes.