Suns Chemistry Now

[AsUdUdE]

Anyone else notice in last nights game how HARD everyone played...

For really the first time this year I saw emotion, REAL emotion. It was like "ok now we don't have Marion EVERYONE has to step up, play their part, play hard, and know their role"

Diaw- Diaw (except for the last 4-7 minutes of the game when he became old Boris), for a stretch there he was the Boris of old, he was aggressive, and took his man to the hole, with MArion gone and a sense of purpose now, I hope to see Diaw return to 13/6/6.. Although I have noticed a trend with Boris, when he catches the ball to far out more than likely unless he catches it in rhythm, he will hesitate and miss... but this is old news

Nash- He show much more emotion than normal... Jack MacCellen brought this up yesterday on the Dan Patrick show, he said Shaq may do for Nash, what Magic did for Kareem, giving them that moxy, and personality, I think we will see more emotion from Nash as the season goes on

Barbosa- did anyone see the way he reacted when he hit that last three... He went Ballistic with Bell.. It was SOO GOOD TO SEE the excitement, and heart worn on his sleeve....

Amare played with heart.. He single handedly kept us in the game with his Rebounding... any time Amare gets 20/20, its exciting, and I think there will be many more to come, with Shaq being able to actually Box out, a concept Marion had never heard of.

Hell even DJ Strawberry came out and hit a HUGE 3, played hard, and tough

Overall, obviously it was an exciting game... but WOW, the Suns looked like they were having fun again... Yes ended up losing the game... but they should hold their heads up high because, FINALLY, the Suns Season has began.

 

[nashman]

They definately looked like they were having fun again, and that in itself will be fun to watch.

 

[nashman]

The league will pay attention quickly if this team gets motivated because they have the talent to be dominant. The motivation to play hard seems to be one of the things besides fun that had been missing. The Shaq trade seems to have sparked something I hope it continues as we could destroy teams if we play motivated.

 

[Louis]

It's probably cool to have fun again and not have to worry about upsetting the highest paid player on your team.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

I'm more interested in the minutes played by each player coming down the stretch. Assuming Shaq misses 8 games between now and the playoffs and averages around 25 when he does suit up compared to MArion's 36 minutes every night, that's a lot of burn to fill. In an ideal world in the regular season, I think D'Antoni would work things out like this...

PG - Nash 34, Barbosa 14
SG - Raja 28, Barbosa 20
SF - Hill 34, Strawberry 8, Raja 6
PF - Amare 20, Diaw 28
C - Shaq 25, Amare 15, Skinner 8

Take out Shaq's 25 and things get more difficult as we saw last night. That's a lot of PT for some of our older guys to be getting even with Shaq in the lineup. In other words, this team desperately needs another backcourt player that can give us 10-15 per game during the regular season and can help out on defense. We looked very slow last night against NO's backcourt, I'm not sure I trust Grant Hill being the lockdown fourth quarter defender come playoff time if he averages 35 minutes a game for the next three months.

 

[jbeecham]

We won't always have to play 2 OT's though. I think most of the guys will average 35-38 minutes per game until Shaq is healthy enough to play. D'Antoni continued to play 8 guys by giving DJ quality minutes in the 2nd & 4th qtrs and he responded well. Brian Skinner needs to play better to take some time & pressure off of Amare & Diaw. Skinner needs to play within himself and stop trying to drive past his defender or make a difficult pass. If he can do that and get back to solid rebounding & defense and maybe 2+ shot blocks per game then we'll be in good shape.

 

[mribnik]

I echo the OP's sentiments. It almost seemed like the Suns eliminated the big elephant in the room (kinda ironic as they just gained another one). I never really believed it was a huge deal, but perhaps Marion was causing lots of chemistry issues. Too bad they lost last night, but I seriously can't get down at that loss. They looked like they were having fun out there.

 

[Bufalay]

I echo the OP's sentiments. It almost seemed like the Suns eliminated the big elephant in the room (kinda ironic as they just gained another one). I never really believed it was a huge deal, but perhaps Marion was causing lots of chemistry issues. Too bad they lost last night, but I seriously can't get down at that loss. They looked like they were having fun out there.

Seriously, that interview Marion gave at halftime of the Spurs game was pretty bad. He looked like he was about to cry when he said "In my mind I'm an all star every year."

 

[Louis]

Seriously, that interview Marion gave at halftime of the Spurs game was pretty bad. He looked like he was about to cry when he said "In my mind I'm an all star every year."

And then he laid a goose egg in the 2nd half.

 

[Bufalay]

And then he laid a goose egg in the 2nd half.

In his defense, so did every other player on the court--on both teams.

 

[BillsCarnage]

They definately looked like they were having fun again, and that in itself will be fun to watch.

Yes! The hustle and energy seemed to be back, which has sorely been lacking the vast majority of the season. I could care less that they lost. I wanted to see how they played with the trade news and w/o Marion and Banks.

I won't be surprised to see the Suns go .500 for Feb and maybe into march as they work to integrate Shaq in. It's all about the PO's now.

 

[Mainstreet]

I always liked Marion as a player and as a person (and I still do), however, once he said he wanted to be traded the chemistry has never been the same in Phoenix. It was always like waiting for the hammer to fall with Marion and Banks this year.

 

[bigfoot]

Barbosa- did anyone see the way he reacted when he hit that last three... He went Ballistic with Bell.. It was SOO GOOD TO SEE the excitement, and heart worn on his sleeve....

My fave part of that game! Love that about Raja.
And Amare when Steve hit that 3 came running out to him pointing like you're the man, you're the man! Great to watch after all those low-energy games of late.

 

[Stargazer]

I saw this, too -- a totally different, better attitude from everybody. A small part of it, in my mind, relates to Banks being gone. Not because he was a cancer or anything, but just because so much mental energy seems to have been wasted this year by everybody worrying and wondering whether Banks or DJ are getting a fair shot, etc. Now that's over, and I'm happy to see DJ getting the extra minutes.

But the big difference is Shaq. Seeing him in the stands, pointing to his ring, made me realize for the first time that having a little swagger on the team really might make a difference. I don't want it to become a sideshow, but maybe there's something good in it.