Suns to try out Porter’s philosophy Wednesday night

[Irish]

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/127621

Suns to try out Porter’s philosophy Wednesday night

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Jerry Brown, Tribune

Amaré Stoudemire hasn’t been on the floor for Terry Porter’s new offensive and defensive schemes. Leandro Barbosa has barely seen them.


As for the rest of the Suns, one week isn’t enough to turn them into the San Antonio Spurs from a defensive perspective, but they will show the new points of emphasis tonight when they open the preseason against Atlanta at US Airways Center.

Ex-Sun Joe Johnson will see some familiar faces tonight — but the style of play his old team will unveil might be unrecognizable. The Suns are now a team that will lean on set plays and half-court execution.

“We’re working hard to be better defensively and we have a vision of what we want to accomplish,” Suns guard Steve Nash said. “On offense, we’re slowing everything down just so we can learn to play at this pace.”

Nash is relying on general manager Steve Kerr’s edict that the Suns will still do what they’ve done best and Porter’s offensive teachings are an add-on to help them paint with a broader brush.

“We need to have more structure and more options, but we’re obviously still a team that’s going to get out and run in transition. Hopefully, the truth will lie somewhere in the middle.”

Porter said he will use the first three games and the strange scheduling quirk (“What is this, January already?” he asked) to look at different combinations and units before settling into a rotation next week. The starters tonight are expected to be Nash and Raja Bell at guard, Grant Hill and Boris Diaw at forward and Shaquille O’Neal at center, with Matt Barnes, Goran Dragic and Robin Lopez the first subs off the bench.

I'd look for Tucker and Amundsen to play a lbit over the next few games.

 

[arwillan]

with amare and barbosa not playing, i almost don't want to watch. maybe i will just to see dragic and lopez, but that's about it.

 

[Irish]

I won't see it (alas), but I wish I could. I'm really curious about how this half court offense will look and if they are actually going to play serious defense.

 

[arwillan]

I won't see it (alas), but I wish I could. I'm really curious about how this half court offense will look and if they are actually going to play serious defense.

i'm curious about the same things, but i think amare is going to be the key to both the offense and defense so without him playing we probably won't get to see what this team is really going to be like this year.

 

[AceP]

Without Amare this team is not going to get deep in playoff... I'm very worried about his form in early season adjusting to the goggles, but hopefully he'll get used to it soon. The old Grant of Bulls was also wearing goggles, Hamilton is wearing mask. So, should be fine.

I'm very curious about what Tucker can do. All the preseason games and probably some early regular season games. This is a golden opportunity for him and he'd better surprise us. He'll get 20m at SG, and if we reserve Hill in pre-season games, might be 30m. If he can really defend and make 3p with a good percentage. Barbosa will face serious challenge.

 

[Yuma]

Anyone know if it will be on DirecTV?

 

[Superbone]

Anyone know if it will be on DirecTV?

I'm pretty sure it won't be.