The Suns Should Be Better Next Year (if they don't mess it up)

[pokerface]

Great, great post. Post o' the day.

Folks can spend all summer blowing up the current team. But baring the trade of the decade, it doesn't get us past the Spurs. More maturity (including a large dose for my man Amare, I'm afraid - fouls were terrible in this last series), and a bench will do wonders.

Just convince Kerr and Sarver to eat the tax for one year - unless they can turn Banks and #29 into cap relief.

Blowing up the Suns can beat the Spurs....we can outlast them. I dont forsee us getting past the Spurs in the next couple years so why not cash in chips now and build around Amare/Barbosa/Diaw?

 

[TBaslim]

Blowing up the Suns can beat the Spurs....we can outlast them. I dont forsee us getting past the Spurs in the next couple years so why not cash in chips now and build around Amare/Barbosa/Diaw?

So what does that really mean? Trading Nash, Marion and Bell and targeting contention for a ring 4-5 years from now?

Methinks that doesn't equate in Sarver's checkbook either. You would see season ticket holders and sponsers flee in droves.

 

[pokerface]

So what does that really mean? Trading Nash, Marion and Bell and targeting contention for a ring 4-5 years from now?

Methinks that doesn't equate in Sarver's checkbook either. You would see season ticket holders and sponsers flee in droves.

The year after Jordon retired for the second time the Bulls were still selling out games. It takes a while for attendance to be affected to a large degree.

 

[azirish]

Blowing up the Suns can beat the Spurs....we can outlast them. I dont forsee us getting past the Spurs in the next couple years so why not cash in chips now and build around Amare/Barbosa/Diaw?

Because there is no reason to believe it will work. None.

The window of opportunity is usually open very briefly. 15 years ago the Suns were ever so close to having a championship. A few breaks and it might have gone another way. But it did not take long to destroy the team and send the team back to mediocrity.

RIGHT NOW, the Suns have the best point guard in the NBA and two other all stars, an all NBA defensive player, and the sixth man of the year. There is no assurance that Nash will last more than a couple of years, Bell is getting older and KT is already on borrowed time.

Waiting until Duncan is not effective kills the rest of the decade. No thank you.

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On the other hand, I think a couple of minor pieces might be enough. I'd like to add mone more physical big who can keep Duncan out of the paint for a few minutes when KT is not on the floor. In the draft thread I've suggested someone like Chris Richard who might not play much the rest of the year, but he's really long (9' 2.5" standing reach) and really strong. He is not expected to go until late 2nd round. He has no offense, but did better than most in defending Oden in the finals.

My other big hope is to get another wing who plays tough defense and shoots better than Jones. To beat the Spurs, the Suns have to hit their open shots and be able to finish strong at the basket.

 

[pokerface]

I dont know man....It almost goes beyond what the talent level is for the Suns and the Spurs. If you ask me the Suns already have more talent than the Spurs....The Spurs just know how to play us. I dont think getting another "big" to guard Duncan is all that meaningful...unless that big is Camby which MAY give us a chance.

 

[azirish]

I dont know man....It almost goes beyond what the talent level is for the Suns and the Spurs. If you ask me the Suns already have more talent than the Spurs....The Spurs just know how to play us. I dont think getting another "big" to guard Duncan is all that meaningful...unless that big is Camby which MAY give us a chance.

In game six, once KT got into foul trouble and D'Antoni tried to use Amare and double teams, it was only then that the Spurs began their barrage of threes that sank the Suns. (BTW, I'm not convinced Camby would do better than KT because he is not strong enough to keep Duncan out of the paint).

The only wings I'm looking at are guys who are pretty physical on both sides of the ball and can stand up to the beating the Spurs dish out. Unfortunately, neither Jones nor Diaw are very physical and it clearly hurts them against the San Antonio thugs.

 

[dodie53]

camby can help the suns on defending duncan..
duncan knows what camby can do, which is block shots,
so, i think duncan will be a little cautious on his shot selections..

 

[Mainstreet]

If you ask me the Suns already have more talent than the Spurs....The Spurs just know how to play us.

I can agree with this although I'm not sure the Spurs "just know how to play us" unless you mean fouling.

IMO, the Spurs cannot beat the Suns on a regular basis without fouling and getting away with it. Although you know how I feel about Horry's foul that led to the Suns demise it was Bowen's persistent fouling by grabbing, holding and use of feet that plaqued the Suns the whole series.

I sometimes think the Suns/ Spurs series are like Bill Cosby's joke about the British and the Americans troops in the Revolutionary War if there had been a coin flip before the war (and George Washington had won). In this case the Suns would be the British and the Spurs would be the Americans.

It went something like this:

"Washington wins and he says that the British have to wear red coats and march in straight lines while his forces would hide behind rocks and trees and shoot at them."

This so sounds like the Suns disadvantage when the they play the Spurs and the Suns have to play the role as British.

 

[azirish]

Other than fouling, the other problem the Suns have is that the Suns need to learn to go much harder to the basket to avoid having shots blocked.

Soft layups don't work when Duncan is around. The refs will never call him when there is contact and the Suns players have to stop expecting to get calls. The refs only call fouls on incidental contact after made baskets (or so it seems). Finish hard with two handed jams is the only way to get the ball in the basket. Boris is the worst. He CAN jam, but tends to mkae these pretty litle roll ins that is like raw meat for Duncan.

Another thing the Suns need to learn is how to make dump off passes. The Spurs get a lot of charging calls when on defense even when not really in position. At some point you have to just accept that this is going to happen and have a plan B. The reality is that when someone comes over from the weak side to take a charge, someone is being left open. That player should go to the basket behind the defender to be in position for dump off.

Unfortunately, the Suns tend to take three pointers on kick outs rather than dump offs to guys right under the basket. IMHO, dump offs are more valuable because they are very high percentage and often result in the defender getting called for fouls. More importantly, it diisrupts the psychology of the defense.

I'm not really sure there is a way to win against a quality team that is allowed to foul indiscriminately, but the Suns will have to change their mind set to deal with it.

 

[Rab]

Other than fouling, the other problem the Suns have is that the Suns need to learn to go much harder to the basket to avoid having shots blocked.

Soft layups don't work when Duncan is around. The refs will never call him when there is contact and the Suns players have to stop expecting to get calls. The refs only call fouls on incidental contact after made baskets (or so it seems). Finish hard with two handed jams is the only way to get the ball in the basket. Boris is the worst. He CAN jam, but tends to mkae these pretty litle roll ins that is like raw meat for Duncan.

Another thing the Suns need to learn is how to make dump off passes. The Spurs get a lot of charging calls when on defense even when not really in position. At some point you have to just accept that this is going to happen and have a plan B. The reality is that when someone comes over from the weak side to take a charge, someone is being left open. That player should go to the basket behind the defender to be in position for dump off.

Unfortunately, the Suns tend to take three pointers on kick outs rather than dump offs to guys right under the basket. IMHO, dump offs are more valuable because they are very high percentage and often result in the defender getting called for fouls. More importantly, it diisrupts the psychology of the defense.

I'm not really sure there is a way to win against a quality team that is allowed to foul indiscriminately, but the Suns will have to change their mind set to deal with it.

A simple pump fake wouldn't hurt against Duncan either. Get him in the air and draw some contact. Amare especially.

 

[arwillan]

A simple pump fake wouldn't hurt against Duncan either. Get him in the air and draw some contact. Amare especially.

ive only had a really good chance to watch him this post season, but duncans d really was more impressive than i thought. he didnt go for many of the fakes amare threw at him, and if he didnt that gave time for a weakside defender to give duncan help which would lead to either one of them fouling amare (rarely) or drawing a turnover/badshot (more commonly).

 

[azirish]

Amare needs a wider range of low post moves to beat Duncan. But the other factor was that the Spurs did not leave Duncan isolated as much as they did two years ago.

On the flip side, Amare did average 26.4 ppg on 50% shooting and scored 38 points in game 6.

 

[cly2tw]

Another thing the Suns need to learn is how to make dump off passes. The Spurs get a lot of charging calls when on defense even when not really in position. At some point you have to just accept that this is going to happen and have a plan B. The reality is that when someone comes over from the weak side to take a charge, someone is being left open. That player should go to the basket behind the defender to be in position for dump off.

Unfortunately, the Suns tend to take three pointers on kick outs rather than dump offs to guys right under the basket. IMHO, dump offs are more valuable because they are very high percentage and often result in the defender getting called for fouls. More importantly, it diisrupts the psychology of the defense.

So true! The Suns were to used to having an easy offensive game with Nash circling around dribbling, that they didn't, and didn't have to, prepare/work-on alternatives when the first options were taken away by defense. So, in some sense, Nash's regular season MVP like dominance turns out a curse in disguise for playoffs. They gotta work on offensive variations in the regular season by letting Amare/Diaw/LB handle the ball more and Nash play off the ball even on the court. Our record might suffer, but we'll be better prepared for the post season.