Rockets @ Suns

[cly2tw]

I was at this game with my brother and brother-in-law. I took them to the game with me. It was a good game to watch in person. It was a blast. Nash got torched on defense as usual and at times seemed out of control. Then Steve does what he always does, hits a couple big shots and makes a couple good passes to help dig them out. These guys looked tired by the 4th.

Nash has a good excuse for being torched on defense. He is the only one he lets to handle the ball on offense and thus gets tired from that duty. At least, he revenges being torched by his own shots on the other end.

 

[Covert Rain]

Nash has a good excuse for being torched on defense. He is the only one he lets to handle the ball on offense and thus gets tired from that duty. At least, he revenges being torched by his own shots on the other end.

Nash was getting torched before he was tired.

 

[jbeecham]

I was at the game too... very exciting game. LB was a little off, but he hit a few shots in the 4th to redeem himself and help us get the lead. Robin Lopez was horrible in this game, had stone hands grabbing rebounds & couldn't make layups. I don't know why Lou wasn't playing, but I'd play him over FroLo any day... he rebounds strong, hustles his butt off & can score around the basket.

 

[Wonder]

they're trying to showcase robin lopez so that the Suns will pick up a better center. It'll include jason richardson, so a pretty good center with a solid backup in Frye. Barbosa will start, wanna know the the record the suns have with barbosa starting? It's an amazing record.

Nash
Barbosa
Hill
Stoudemire
Above avg center

bench

dragic
dudelays
lou
frye

think about it

 

[jbeecham]

Frye is the perfect compliment to Amare because he can hit the perimeter shot. LB has been in a funk since returning from injury & we'd have no backup SG if a deal like that went down... I guess we could play Hill at backup SG or Dragic at times. Richardson played some good D against Houston (got a few steals), rebounds well & can go for 20+ any night.

I just don't see any center fitting into the starting lineup as well as Frye. Besides, who would trade a great center for Richardson & Lopez? How many great centers are even in the league... you know Dwight Howard isn't going anywhere... neither are Pau Gasol or Bynum. I doubt Denver would trade Nene. The only guy I can think of (and he's not even a true C) would be Chris Bosh because he's talked about wanting out of Toronto.

 

[Proteus]

Whew...glad we somehow won this one. Good win for the Suns.

 

[Wonder]

Frye is the perfect compliment to Amare because he can hit the perimeter shot. LB has been in a funk since returning from injury & we'd have no backup SG if a deal like that went down... I guess we could play Hill at backup SG or Dragic at times. Richardson played some good D against Houston (got a few steals), rebounds well & can go for 20+ any night.

I just don't see any center fitting into the starting lineup as well as Frye. Besides, who would trade a great center for Richardson & Lopez? How many great centers are even in the league... you know Dwight Howard isn't going anywhere... neither are Pau Gasol or Bynum. I doubt Denver would trade Nene. The only guy I can think of (and he's not even a true C) would be Chris Bosh because he's talked about wanting out of Toronto.

There are plenty of good centers that can run. The three ball from frye is just fun and inspiring but that's just one good thing he has going, a lot of flaws however.

 

[slinslin]

Why doesn anyone think Frye is a great compliment to Amare? He is not, he is just a good fit on a soft as cake Suns team that lives and dies by the jumper and has no real offensive game plan except setting tons of screens for Nash and letting him work on offense.

From what I have seen Amare is making great strides in the post with his jump hook and other moves every game now. Plus he got his shooting touch back so he can easily step out himself anyway.

The perfect center for Amare to play with would be Dwight Howard, Greg Oden,Tyson Chandler, Marcus Camby, Nene, Bynum or maybe Joakim Noah.

I think Amare will do much better once he leaves us, becomes the focal point on offense for a defensive minded team with big bodies that has some solid spot up shooters on the wings.
Kind of like what is happening to Zach Randolph in Memphis.

 

[jbeecham]

Why doesn anyone think Frye is a great compliment to Amare? He is not, he is just a good fit on a soft as cake Suns team that lives and dies by the jumper and has no real offensive game plan except setting tons of screens for Nash and letting him work on offense.

From what I have seen Amare is making great strides in the post with his jump hook and other moves every game now. Plus he got his shooting touch back so he can easily step out himself anyway.

The perfect center for Amare to play with would be Dwight Howard, Greg Oden,Tyson Chandler, Marcus Camby, Nene, Bynum or maybe Joakim Noah.

I think Amare will do much better once he leaves us, becomes the focal point on offense for a defensive minded team with big bodies that has some solid spot up shooters on the wings.
Kind of like what is happening to Zach Randolph in Memphis.

All of those guys would clog the post just like Shaq used to & make it more difficult for Amare to score inside. It also clogs the lane for Nash to drive, draw the defense & dish.

What makes these guys a much better fit for Amare & this team? Because they play defense & have very limited offense? None of them can score well from outside of 5ft... which means the floor spacing that drives our offense gets thrown out of balance.

Also, do you honestly think any of those teams would trade any of those players for JRich & R. Lopez? (that was the original topic)

 

[slinslin]

All of those guys would clog the post just like Shaq used to & make it more difficult for Amare to score inside. It also clogs the lane for Nash to drive, draw the defense & dish.

What makes these guys a much better fit for Amare & this team? Because they play defense & have very limited offense? None of them can score well from outside of 5ft... which means the floor spacing that drives our offense gets thrown out of balance.

Also, do you honestly think any of those teams would trade any of those players for JRich & R. Lopez? (that was the original topic)

Of course not, I never said they would be better fits for the Suns either just better for Amare.

Shaq clogged the lane for Amare? Not really Terry Porter just gave Shaq a lot of touches offensive that normally Amare got.

Also I haven't exactly seen much space for Amare inside regardless of Frye. No team is going to leave Amare open anyway.

 

[mojorizen7]

All of those guys would clog the post just like Shaq used to & make it more difficult for Amare to score inside. It also clogs the lane for Nash to drive, draw the defense & dish.

What makes these guys a much better fit for Amare & this team? Because they play defense & have very limited offense? None of them can score well from outside of 5ft... which means the floor spacing that drives our offense gets thrown out of balance.

Also, do you honestly think any of those teams would trade any of those players for JRich & R. Lopez? (that was the original topic)

I disagree.
There was nothing wrong with the offense last year.They finished 2nd overall IIRC. It was the same ole same ole bugaboo,a lack of defense,where they finished near the bottom(26th IIRC).

Camby can score,he isn't a post up threat but he can step out. He gets his points from hitting the 10-15 ft jumper. A center rotation of Camby/Frye would compliment Amare perfectly.

Clog shmog. Funny how that perception exists,probably because it wasn't much fun to witness as a fan. We missed the post season bcuz our defense was as poor as always, and bcuz we lost Amare to injury....leaving 50yr old Shaq to become our frontcourt scorer(not good).

I doubt that the SUNS are looking to throw anyone(who isn't a capable scorer)into the mix this year. Kerr has taken alot of heat(unjustifiably so IMO) for pulling the trigger on the Shaq trade when we were already sitting in 1st place before. I think this team stands pat.

 

[Covert Rain]

I disagree.
There was nothing wrong with the offense last year.They finished 2nd overall IIRC. It was the same ole same ole bugaboo,a lack of defense,where they finished near the bottom(26th IIRC).

Camby can score,he isn't a post up threat but he can step out. He gets his points from hitting the 10-15 ft jumper. A center rotation of Camby/Frye would compliment Amare perfectly.

Clog shmog. Funny how that perception exists,probably because it wasn't much fun to witness as a fan. We missed the post season bcuz our defense was as poor as always, and bcuz we lost Amare to injury....leaving 50yr old Shaq to become our frontcourt scorer(not good).

I doubt that the SUNS are looking to throw anyone(who isn't a capable scorer)into the mix this year. Kerr has taken alot of heat(unjustifiably so IMO) for pulling the trigger on the Shaq trade when we were already sitting in 1st place before. I think this team stands pat.

You nailed it. There was nothing wrong with this teams offense last year. In fact, I prefer it. No it was not as pretty. No it didn't have that finesse flow like before. No, it was not as much fun. However, we didn't have to live and die by the 3 like this year. It was a good move IMO by Kerr. The problem is that Shaq is old with a huge contract. It was worth the 1 year experiment. Our problems had nothing to do with Shaq.

Look at the defensive #'s. Everybody claimed our problem was the pick and roll defense which I thought was hilarious. That notion has been shot to hell. We are still horrible at defense and worse in the middle. The only difference now is that we have managed to eek games out with big shots.

This team record is almost identical to what it was at this point in the season last year. We just are now a live by the 3 die by the 3 team with no post up game. Let's also not forget that before Amare got hurt he was starting to learn to play with Shaq and went off for some big games. Also for a team that "Shaq clogged the middle" we sure as hell ranked pretty damn high with points in the paint.

 

[95pro]

remember though that this year, up to this point our schedule has been a lot harder than last year.
for the remainder of the season, games are coming up that we should win.

 

[jbeecham]

Last year our offense was still effective, but it definitely didn't flow as smoothly as it has in the past. Our offense was either a quick shot or throw it in the post to Shaq. Amare became primarily a jump shooter. We had little success with the pick & roll because Shaq clogged the middle and defenders wouldn't follow him out to the free throw line. We had very little dribble penetration into the lane. It was effective, but boring & ugly to watch a lot of the time with Shaq as the focal point of the offense. It stifled Nash, Amare, LB & obviously guys like Raja & Diaw (since they were traded). Then again, Amare only played 3 games under Gentry so Porter was a factor in our offense being boring too.

I'm not saying our offense looks amazing this year, but it has looked that way at times. It's definitely a lot more free flowing & creative and there's more ball movement & better spacing. If this team could actually learn to be more consistent and play a full 48 minutes then we can be a title contender... with all the injuries the top teams are having (Lakers, Boston, Denver, etc) we still have a pretty good chance in the playoffs and that's something I really didn't expect to be able to say this season.

 

[95pro]

this year's offense is way greater than last years offense. no question about it.
i remember at times when Stat would just stand out of bounds - baseline - he wasnt part of the offense at all sometimes.