Two Fans Take on the Suns wild week

[layupdrill]

A LayupDrill.com Exclusive


The Phoenix Suns franchise has endured one of the more memorable weeks in recent NBA history. In the past seven days, their city has hosted the league’s premiere showcase of its greatest talent(All-Star Weekend), had their biggest piece of their future rumored to be heading out of town, pissed off the Big Cactus by having his name rumored to be heading out of town, fired the defensive minded head coach, and went back to the run-n-fun that Mike D’Antoni made famous. They have scored over 140 points in two straight games against the Clippers, had their reserve forward sucker punched by Zach Randolph in the first game vs. Los Angeles, and had their All-Star starting forward who was rumored to head out of town suffer a season ending eye injury in the second game. The Suns respond by scoring another 140 points against the OKC Thunder Friday night.


What a week. As Alvin Gentry tries to keep the troops together in a bid to salvage this season amidst all the adversity, the fans in Phoenix have been there through it all. Though it is obvious the bandwagon is nowhere near as full as it was during the Nash MVP seasons of earlier in the decade, the return of the run-n-fun full court offense is welcomed in the desert.



Whether or not this is a long term fix for GM Steve Kerr and Suns management is debateable, but for the franchise to survive a week like they have just had with a three game winning streak speaks volumes. Currently, the Suns sit at 31-23, which is good for 9th place in the West. The good news is they are only four games out of the number 4 seed, and only 1/2 game behind the Jazz for 8th. Speaking to two good friends of mine that are die hard Suns fans since the Barkley-KJ-Thunder Dan days, there are two schools of thought running through their heads regarding this season.


One of my friends, who I will call “The Optimistic One”, believes not only will the Suns rally behind Alvin Gentry and make the playoffs without Amare Stoudemire, but that the team will prove to their fans and management they are better off without him. For Phoenix to end up in the playoffs, Optimistic believes they need to get to 48 wins, or win 17 of their remaining 28 games. Looking at their current records, they are barely above .500 on the road, and only six games above .500 at home. They have 13 games remaining on the road, including trips to New Orleans, Dallas, Utah, Portland, San Antonio, Miami, Orlando, and Los Angeles. If they win 11 of the remaining 15 games at home, Phoenix could afford to go 6-7 on the road, and still get to the magical 48 win mark to secure a playoff spot.


My other friend, who I will say is “Wait Till Next Year”, has another theory. He believes its poetic justice that Amare went out for the season the day after the trade deadline, and had the Suns shipped him out to Chicago, Cleveland, Memphis, or elsewhere, he would not have been injured. With Amare down, he wants the Suns to not make the playoffs, because even if they are lucky enough to be the 7 or 8 seed, he does not feel they have enough to beat the Lakers or Spurs in a 7 game series. His best hope if they did make the playoffs would be to hope they meet up with Denver in Round 1, who they match up well with. But if they don’t make the playoffs, they could be in the lottery, and who knows, they could wind up like the Heat last season and get lucky.


Whichever side you agree with, one thing is certain, I for one hope that the franchise never sees a week like this week again.

[JMarkJohns]

A part of me wants them to miss the playoffs due to this bad karma in hopes of landing the #1 overall via some good Karma and having Griffin be a huge part of their future rebuild post 2010.

Realistically, however, I think the Suns are talented enough to make the playoffs even without Amare. With Dudley and Amundson, the Suns actually upgrade their frontline defensively. They'll struggle against the best teams, but they are still as talented as any team not named Celtics, Cavaliers or Lakers.

If they can pluck Mikki Moore, he could really add some offense to their frontline. He won't make anyone forget Amare, but Nash made Tim freakin' Thomas look good for a few months in 2006. Moore can have a similar impact.

I think they challenge for the 7th seed. You know, as Spurs fans, it's all-but a certainty they'll face the Spurs in the first round.

[layupdrill]

Thanks for the comment JMark. Many see it that way as well.

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

A part of me wants them to miss the playoffs due to this bad karma in hopes of landing the #1 overall via some good Karma and having Griffin be a huge part of their future rebuild post 2010.

Given their history with trying to get the #1 pick I wouldn't count on it

[Lars]

Fact of the matter is someone has to miss the playoffs. I have a feeling it is going to come down to the final game of the season. A four team tie for 6-9 would be ing sweet.

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

Fact of the matter is someone has to miss the playoffs. I have a feeling it is going to come down to the final game of the season. A four team tie for 6-9 would be ing sweet.

I predict one team out of the 9 will fall apart down the stretch and we'll know who that team is in 2-3 weeks. If I had to guess, I'd say the Hornets or Suns given the upcoming schedule.

[Ghazi]

Bottom line is it's gonna come down to hitting shots.

Who will have a nice little fluke 5-6 game stretch where they're unconscious from behind the arc?

Who will have a flukish 3-0 or 4-0 record in games decided in the final minute instead of 1-2 or 0-3/0-4?

Who will win a game on the road against a team they're "not supposed to"?

Will the older teams like Dallas/Phoenix lose their legs?

Will Portland get fatigued due to their youth like many young teams do?

Will the Hornets stop hitting fluke shots like they did last year when they went 56-26?

Further injury to any team can doom them as well.

Also, people assume since the Jazz are healthier soon they're gonna get in. I wouldn't say that just yet. We're still talking about a 9-17 road team with 15 road games left. If they played at that pace and lost 9-10 more road games, with 1-2 home slipups on the road... that's 33-35 losses. 47-35 probably will earn a team 9th.

We'll see what happens my friend, we'll see what happens.

[Rogue]

suns will player better without amar'e and go further in the playoffs, hopefully they will face the lakers in the 1st round and and replicate 8 seed miracle. O'Neal is the biggest threat to lakers without bynum, Kobe is gonna suck in front of Jason Richardson and lakers bandwagons.

[m33p0]

`amare seems like a distraction to the team.


*is that where he wants the "`"? , who cares.*

[layupdrill]

I think we could see a 50 win regular season team in the West miss the playoffs.

[JMarkJohns]

I predict one team out of the 9 will fall apart down the stretch and we'll know who that team is in 2-3 weeks. If I had to guess, I'd say the Hornets or Suns given the upcoming schedule.

It's why I feel they are due, maybe more so than any other team in lottery history.