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last year was their best team and it's not even close.
05, 07 or 08?
I would lean towards this being the best of the 3, actually.
While the trade had down sides (obviously), I understand the move.
However, they could have written off the loss as primarily due to the suspensions.
The series are actually closer than the games won lost would indicate.
last year was their best team and it's not even close.
No. The year with Joe Johnson was their best team without question.
yeah. If Joe Johnson hadn't been hurt, they probably would've beaten the Spurs in the playoffs. The one game he did come back and play with a broken face he was the high scorer and that was the only game the Suns won. Amare was still raw as , just dunking on everyone, Nash was Nash, Marion was Marion, even Steven Hunter played pretty well on that team. That 05 team ran the craziest fast breaks I'v ever seen. I hated Quentin Richardson though. He's about as worthless as they come.
I thought last year's team was much better than the 04-05 team. They were beaten easily by the Spurs in 05, whereas they were right there with the Spurs last season, which was the best Duncan team.
04-05 team.... i know it was all offense but guys like Q-Rich and Jim Jackson played out of their minds.. Joe Johnson was just coming into his own. I remember on that team Barbosa looked like a deer in the headlights when he came into the game. They were really only 6 deep but they were a scary ass team bc everyone on the floor could light it up
No, the greatest Suns team was the 93 Suns with Barkley Kevin Johson, Majerle and the rest. They almost pushed the Bulls to a game 7 which they could have probably won. The last couple of suns teams didn't make it to the finals, Barkley's Suns did.
1992-93 not an option?
I assumed he's talking in the NASH era
1992-1993 Phoenix Suns
Sir Charles
Kevin Jonson
Cedric Ceballos
Dan Majerle
Danny Ainge
That was a pretty good team.
Barkley and Majerle were great that year.
Spurs would've beaten the 04-05 Suns even with a healthy Joe Johnson.
It just would've taken 6 games instead of 5.
And I actually think it's a tough call between this year and last year for best Suns team.
Plus Richard Dumas' coked up ass, Oliver "Fats" Miller, and Tom "Danger" Chambers
Wow, Richard Dumas... that's a blast from the past. I think that team had Mark West coming off the bench too. Good team, but they were almost knocked out in the first round by a 39-win Lakers team (lost the first two in America West but came back to win the last three), and they got 64 FT attempts in Game 7 of the WC Finals against Seattle. Meh coach in Westphal too.
The one with Charles Barkley, KJ, ETC...........
05' was a great offensive team, but if they had beaten us in '05 by some weird aberration, they would have gotten their asses handed to them by Detroit. They just didn't seem like they'd go all the way.
'07 was a Championship contender, because after two years they played a KIND OF DEFENSE. Especially with KT, Marion, and Bell. I liked how they swarmed around guys and rotated on other team players.
We still had an edge over them, but without the controversy mucking it up, Suns could have pushed it to a seven game series. We still would have beaten them, because Tony was crazy, and Manu would have closed it. Us beating them in game 6 proved we were better, because Suns didn't have it mentally over us. They tried to use the suspensions as a crutch and did themselves in that series, it even got into Nash's head.
Suns '08 is a great team on paper, but mentally, Shaq kinda ed things up. If you weren't aware, the Suns bench were demoralized during the hack-a-shacks and D'Antoni had to calm them down at one point. Plus, Nash seems to be in a fog. He must have had a vision or something during one of his sleepless nights...he looks like he's having a mid-life crisis out there.After game 1, he's just not the same Nash of the other teams.
I don't want to say too much about them, though, because Spurs haven't eliminated them yet, but if they do tonight, then it's obvious the '08 team took one step back, from the '07 team.
05-06 would've been if Amare was healthy. I would go with 04-05.
The 2005 team.
Yeah that. The '92-'93 team was even better(obviously).
The '93 Suns are the biggest frauds in NBA history. They should have been eliminated by the Lakers in the first round that year.
The '03 Suns were the scariest of the bunch.
1976
2004-05 was the most individually talented. They weren't deep at all, but it had four legit All-NBA type players (Nash, Amare - 1st, Marion - 2nd, Johnson - eventual 3rd), had a fifth starter who broke NBA records, had a sixth man in Jim Jackson that was still capable of scoring 15 a night and shoot a high percentage, a seventh man in Steven Hunter who always had talent, and an ill-used Barbosa, 2007's NBA Sixth man of the Year, and 2008's runner up.
BUT... 06-07 was their best team. It was also their deepest, but that depth wasn't fully utilized. Players ill used include former double-digit scorer, Jumaine Jones, who barely got off the bench, Jalen Rose, who had averaged 14 ppg the year prior, James Jones, another player who averaged double-digit points, shot well and played defense who barely made it off the bench. Had each been worked into a rotation that already included Nash, Bell, Barbosa, Marion, Diaw, Amare and Thomas then the Suns would have had a better shot to win the le. More players would have been experienced within the system and better qualified to step up for the suspended players.
Oh well...
But they weren't. The woulda-coulda-shoulda game plays both ways. All that matters is what happened.
92-93 was the best collection of talent to not win a le in the time I've watched.
Charles Barkley: 26 ppg, 12 rpg, 5 apg, 1+ spg, almost 1 bpg.
Dan Majerle: 17 ppg, 5 rpg, 4 apg, 1.5 spg... 167 threes made (38%)
Kevin Johnson: 16 ppg, 8 apg, 2 spg... (only 49 games played)
Richard Dumas: 16 ppg, 5 rpg, 2 spg, 1+ bpg (only 48 games played)
Cedric Ceballos: 13 ppg, 6 rpg...
Tom Chambers: 12 ppg, 5 rpg...
Danny Ainge: 11 ppg, 3 rpg, 3apg... 150 made threes (40%)
Negele Knight: 6 ppg, 3 apg...
Oliver Miller: 6 ppg, 5 rpg, 2 bpg... (only 56 games played)
Mark West: 5 ppg, 6 rpg, 1.5 bpg
You had an MVP, two other All-NBAers in KJ and Chambers, another multiple-time All-Star in Majerle, two instant offense wings in Dumas and Ceballos, a veteran 3-point gunner and a collection of quality backups and big men.
I can't believe the bad luck with health this team had. KJ needing his first knee surgery, Dumas missing time, Miller missing time, Ceballos severely spraining his ankle in the Western Conference Finals...
Just bad luck all around.
Of the teams the Spurs faced, I'd have to say the team with Marbury.
Maybe, until Malik Rose separated Marbury's shoulder and Starbury went from dominating at 25+ ppg, 8 apg on 45% shooting to each of those being halved.
The Marbury team was scary for the Spurs, but not so much vs. most every other team. There's a reason they were the eighth overall seed.
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