Suns European Wild Cards

[George O'Brien]

The Suns will have pretty good team this year. They will have much more potent offense and a lot more depth on the outside. They have a lot of young players who look like they should be substantially improved over last year.

However, the difference between the Suns barely getting into the playoffs and being a seriously competative team is likely to be the play of their two European big men: Lampe and Carbakapa.

Lampe has been spending the summer working with Suns trainers and played during the summer league. His early play was rather poor, but it is reported that his play improved latter on. Right now, no one knows how much will be able to contribute, but his weight training should at least make him a lot stronger. When added to his size and mobility, this could make him a real player. But he has a long way to go, so no one knows how ready he will be by the time season starts.

It appears the Suns are gambling that he WILL be ready. The free agent centers the Suns are considering are not likely to be more than bangers. If Lampe does not develop, the Suns will end up playing too much small ball.

Zarko is even more of a mystery. It appears he will be on the Serbian Olympic team, but no one knows how this preparation will effect his development for the Suns. My guess is that on the Suns, Zarko will end up either playing on the inside or being on IR for the season. The problem is that there are no minutes for him at small forward. (Shawn, Q, JJ, and Casey are all quite capable of playing the #3 slot). If he wants to play, he will have to learn to defend on the inside.

Zarko is typical of many European big men. He is more confortable handling the ball on the outside than in fighting for position on the inside. He is stronger than a year ago (supposedly), but not nearly strong enough to play inside.

Obviously he will not get minutes against really strong opponents, but not every big man is a power player. If Zarko embraced being C/F rather than fighting it, he might do some good. Dirk is hardly a great defender, but besides scoring he is great rebounder. Zarko would have to become a lot more aggressive on the boards to justify being in in the lineup, but I believe it is mostly a matter of desire than anything else.

It's frustrating seeing a potentially very good team so dependent on guys who could easily be total flops. But if they succeed even partly, this could be a very good team indeed.

 

[The Commish]

I disagree with the assessment of Zarko's minutes. I think he will play more and contribute more as the season goes on. We all saw how talented he was before he injured his wrist, and I believe the Suns will try to work him in to the rotation as much as possible.

 

[sunsfn]

I disagree with the assessment of Zarko's minutes. I think he will play more and contribute more as the season goes on. We all saw how talented he was before he injured his wrist, and I believe the Suns will try to work him in to the rotation as much as possible.

I certainly agree with your assesement!
Zarko will be a big part of the team this year. He is not a young 19 year old and he really knows how to play the game of basketball. He has to get stronger and hopefully he has since last year. Remember, that at the beginning of the year he had an operation just before training camp and that set him back and he lost weight and muscles and could never regain that. He still played real well and was on his way to contributing a lot until he broke his wrist.

When this team brings in Zarko, Richardson, CJ, Jake, and Barbs late in the first quarter or early 2nd quarter we will certainly outplay most teams in the NBA.

 

[The Commish]

Not to mention he runs the floor very well for someone of his height, something that has to be taken into account considering the Suns style of offense.

 

[George O'Brien]

I still maintain that his minutes will come playing "inside" rather than as an SF. It will be a version of "small ball", but he needs to practice at playing on the inside because minutes will be scarce at SF.

The brutal truth is that the Suns are going to give the bulk of the outside minutes to five guys: Nash, Johnson, Marion, Richardson, and Barbosa. Richardson will get a lot of minutes because he will deserve them. But last year Marion averaged 40.7 minutes a game and Johnson averaged 40.6 minutes a game - both were much higher after Hardaway was traded away. Assuming their minutes are reduced to 32 (the absolute mininum a serious wing starter would get), that would leave 32 minutes for Richardson, Carbakapa, and Jacobsen to compete for. I'm guessing Richardson gets close to 30, so there will be two minutes available other than "small ball time".

On the other hand, Amare will get 34 minutes and Voskuhl will get 24 (before he gets into foul trouble). This will leave 40 minutes of playing time available on the inside.

You can tinker with the math, but if Zarko wants to play (and everyone is healthy), he will have to play inside.

 

[Buseinspectrum]

IMO, Jacobson's minutes are gone. Zarko will play whereever they can get him in. The Colangeli are extremely high on Z and pressured the coaching staff last year to make sure he got minutes. He played tenatively after the Fortson incident, but hopefully he's beyond that now.

 

[scoutmasterdave]

Thanks to TiVo and NBA-TV, I was able to catch the Serbia/Montenegro vs. China game in the FIBA pre-Olympic tourney. Sasha Pavlovic & Z rode the bench all game, but when Zarko came in with 6 minutes left in the game (with a 20-point lead), he definitely made an impact on both sides of the floor. He made a nice block, a couple steals, and was the recipient of a VERY nice alley-oop. Dude has such huge hands - he's the perfect alley-oop guy. He was very aggresive driving the ball, and made a couple nifty passes. It looks like he's definitely improved, or at the very least has his confidence back.

 

[George O'Brien]

Thanks to TiVo and NBA-TV, I was able to catch the Serbia/Montenegro vs. China game in the FIBA pre-Olympic tourney. Sasha Pavlovic & Z rode the bench all game, but when Zarko came in with 6 minutes left in the game (with a 20-point lead), he definitely made an impact on both sides of the floor. He made a nice block, a couple steals, and was the recipient of a VERY nice alley-oop. Dude has such huge hands - he's the perfect alley-oop guy. He was very aggresive driving the ball, and made a couple nifty passes. It looks like he's definitely improved, or at the very least has his confidence back.

Thanks for the update.

Any thoughts on the Chinese guy we've been reading about - Yi?

 

[scoutmasterdave]

Yi looked very athletic, but raw. The announcers couldn't agree on how old he was - apparently various reports had him as 16, 18, even 20 years old. Who knows? Anyway, he appeared to have very good shotblocking instincts. He is very, very different than Yao. I'd say Yi at this point looks much more like a 4 than a 5. He has a rail-thin, Chris Bosh-type body, but of course that could change if he is, in fact, 16 years old. He runs the floor really well and is a good finisher on the break. Definitely a project, but the announcers were raving about his progress under Del Harris, who was hired to coach the Chinese National Team this year.

I also saw Milos Vujanic play. He looked MUCH better here than in the Euroleague Final Four game I saw him play in (against Siena, I believe). He did pick up two quick fouls early, but other than that, he played really well. He has a very nice long-range jumper that appears to go out to NBA 3 range (I think he went 3-for-4 or so from distance). He sees the floor really well and made some very, very nice passes. He's quick, and is a good pick-and-roll facilitator. Frankly, at times he reminded me of a (very) poor-man's John Stockton - it's too bad we'll never see him in a Suns uni (don't get me wrong, I love the Nash signing). When he was not in the game, it was obvious that Serbia's offense was missing something (this may have something to do with Marko Jaric's absence - Jaric is supposed to be the backup point). Vujanic's defense seems to me to be of the pesky, reachy, foul-prone persuasion...

The other player that somewhat impressed me was Nenad Kristic, the center that recently signed with the Nets. He is a fairly polished low-post player on offense, but his defense leaves a lot to be desired. And since he was playing against Mengke Bateer half the game, that does not bode well. Bateer looked AWFUL, BTW.

 

[scoutmasterdave]

FWIW - I went back and watched Zarko's 6 minutes again, and this time I saw all the good things I mentioned before, but he also had his shot blocked once and a pretty ugly turnover. Hopefully I'll be able to catch a few more of Serbia's games and see if he improves (if he plays, of course)...

 

[George O'Brien]

FWIW - I went back and watched Zarko's 6 minutes again, and this time I saw all the good things I mentioned before, but he also had his shot blocked once and a pretty ugly turnover. Hopefully I'll be able to catch a few more of Serbia's games and see if he improves (if he plays, of course)...

I've got to remember to set the VCR for 5:00 pm on Friday (ESPN) when the USA plays Serbia in the international Suns versus Suns championship.

 

[scoutmasterdave]

Yeah, I wonder if Matrix & Hell Boy (great nick, BTW) have been asked to do any Vujanic recruiting while they're there...

 

[Joe Mama]

I watched the game between Serbia Montenegrin & Australia this morning. Vujanic played a little bit in the first half. He was 1-4 from the field (he made one three-pointer), but I did see a couple of nice passes. Cabarkapa was not active for the game on Monday said he will be active for the next one.

Joe Mama

 

[sly fly]

Yeah, I wonder if Matrix & Hell Boy (great nick, BTW) have been asked to do any Vujanic recruiting while they're there...

I agree with your assessment of Vujanic. I've caught him a few times, and came away very impressed.

He is an absolute star on his team. He sits... the play deteriorates.

He's too good to still be playing over there. In fact, I'm sure he's quite bored with some of the short-guy Italians he's been blowing by.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

He's too good to still be playing over there. In fact, I'm sure he's quite bored with some of the short-guy Italians he's been blowing by.

Of couse, with the huge backlog in the backcourt, there is no way he wants to come here. He didn't want to go to the Knicks when they had Charlie Ward/Howard Eisley at PG for fear of no playing time.

Think he will want to come to a team where Nash, JJ, Barbosa and Eisley can all play the point?

 

[scoutmasterdave]

Of couse, with the huge backlog in the backcourt, there is no way he wants to come here. He didn't want to go to the Knicks when they had Charlie Ward/Howard Eisley at PG for fear of no playing time.

Think he will want to come to a team where Nash, JJ, Barbosa and Eisley can all play the point?

Maybe he just doesn't like Howard Eisley...

Anyway, it's really too bad we'll never get to see him here. I think he could eventually be a very passable (pardon the pun) starting point in the NBA. It's obvious, however, that Barbosa is the superior defensive player and athlete. If Barbs learns how to run an offense (and I think his summer league play showed some improvement in that area), he'll be one of the best backup PGs in the league.

 

[George O'Brien]

Maybe he just doesn't like Howard Eisley...

Anyway, it's really too bad we'll never get to see him here. I think he could eventually be a very passable (pardon the pun) starting point in the NBA. It's obvious, however, that Barbosa is the superior defensive player and athlete. If Barbs learns how to run an offense (and I think his summer league play showed some improvement in that area), he'll be one of the best backup PGs in the league.

From what I've read, he has a buyout that make him coming over this year difficult even if there were minutes available.

My guess is that next summer Eisley will get moved and Jacobsen will probably get moved as well. In that situation, Vujanic would make a nice backup for both guard positions since he is a combo guard. Until then, he is better off working on his PG skills in Europe.

 

[sly fly]

Until then, he is better off working on his PG skills in Europe.

He's not better off over there. And, you don't work on your skills against inferior players.

The only way he's going to get better, is to mix it up with NBA-caliber talent.

I do agree that PHX could kill two birds with one stone by shedding CJ and Eisley in favor of V.

 

[George O'Brien]

He's not better off over there. And, you don't work on your skills against inferior players.

The only way he's going to get better, is to mix it up with NBA-caliber talent.

Actually, a player needs to play to improve. Sitting on the bench behind Nash and Barbosa will not do Vujanic much good. The sad truth is that NBA players don't get much chance to really practice that much during the season because there are too many games back to back.