NBA Countdown: No. 14 Phoenix Suns

[duncan228]

NBA Countdown: No. 14 Phoenix Suns
SportingNews
By Vittorio Tafur
Sporting News Yearbooks

The Suns are a hot mess. They've changed coaches and their style of play the last couple of years, made some roster moves accordingly and have now hired another coach and gone back to the run-and-gun offense.

Phoenix owner Robert Sarver doesn't want to pay a luxury tax, so he took another wrecking ball to the foundation. He and general manager Steve Kerr gave away All-Star center Shaquille O'Neal to Cleveland for straight cap relief (and vanquished role players Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic).

But, despite the changes, the Suns are hoping for a return to the playoffs. They extended Steve Nash's deal for two years and $22 million. They signed Channing Frye and re-upped 37-year-old Grant Hill. And, they're counting on a healthy and motivated (ahem, contract year) Amare Stoudemire, who missed the end of last season with eye surgery.

One thing that gets overlooked is how good the Suns were offensively without Stoudemire last year. New coach Alvin Gentry turned the dogs loose after Terry Porter was fired and leashes were thrown away.

In 31 games under Gentry, the Suns posted a ridiculous 117.7 points per game—the most in the second half of the season by a wide margin and 13.3 more than they were averaging under Porter.

Gentry keeps the foot on the pedal like former Suns coach Mike D'Antoni did, but doesn't endorse the all-you-can-shoot 3-pointers like D'Antoni did. And the extra structure has been good, as the Suns never averaged more than 111 points in a half-season under D'Antoni.

For all the talk of Nash, 35, getting old, he averaged 18.7 points and shot 54.8 percent from the field and 47.3 percent from 3-point range in the second half. Those numbers were 0.2 points off from all being career highs.

The other old man, Hill, led all NBA guards and small forwards last year with a 52.3 shooting percentage.

Jason Richardson, acquired from Charlotte for Boris Diaw and Raja Bell when things were slowing down in Phoenix, shot 50.8 percent in the second half, much better than his career percentage of 43.9. The spotlight will be on Richardson (who spent a day in jail in the offseason following a February DUI arrest), as fans recall how good Bell and Diaw were in the old/new system.

Robin Lopez rounds out the starting lineup at center, though he'll miss the first part of the season with a foot fracture. In his place, the Suns will start Channing Frye, who has a nice midrange jumper but doesn't bang or get many rebounds.

Whether it's Lopez or Frye, the idea on the offensive end is to get out of Stoudemire's way and let him and Nash pick-and-roll teams to death.

Off the bench, Phoenix has some nice role players. But defense likely will continue to be an issue. Remember how we mentioned how good the Phoenix offense was at the end of last season? It also gave up 1.8 points per possession. Will that get better with Stoudemire back in the mix, along with Lopez, Frye and rookie Earl Clark inside? Probably not.

The Suns are going to have to wear teams down offensively, led by Stoudemire, who averaged 32.5 points in his two games with Gentry as coach.

Fast Facts

2008-09 record: 46-36
Last playoff: 2008 (lost in conference quarterfinal)
Coach: Alvin Gentry

Burning question

Is it too little, too late for the run-and-gun offense?

The Suns are attempting to recapture the magic the team had in the days before Terry Porter was coach and Shaquille O'Neal was the big man. But now, instead of Shawn Marion, Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw up front, it's Stoudemire, Channing Frye and Grant Hill. It's not quite the imposing lineup the Suns had three years ago. Still, with Stoudemire and Steve Nash on board, the Suns likely won't miss the playoffs.
— Sean Deveney

View from the other bench
(an opponent breaks down the Suns)

"They're putting all of their eggs in a Steve Nash/Amare Stoudemire basket. Nash is great, but he is 35 with a history of back problems. And Stoudemire is immature and more about his personal numbers than wins. He doesn't work hard and piles up more turnovers than assists. That, plus his eye problem, is why Phoenix hasn't locked him up to a new contract yet. That said, he can be unstoppable. He finishes fast breaks, has spin moves inside and has a nice little jumper. …

"The Suns want to run, but don't force any turnovers. They look like a No. 8 seed to me."

Rookie to watch:

F Earl Clark
Clark is 6-9 and will have to guard both small and power forwards. He played in an uptempo system at Louisville and should be able to score in the NBA.

Inside the numbers

119.0: Suns' scoring average against Pacific Division rivals last season, the highest output by any team against division foes.

146: Games in which Steve Nash has dished out at least 10 assists since the 2006-07 season, the most by any player in that span.

51.5: Phoenix's league-leading average for points scored in the paint in 2008-09—even with forward Amare Stoudemire missing 29 games because of injury.

Additions: Channing Frye, C (Portland)
Subtractions: Matt Barnes, F (Orlando), Shaquille O'Neal, C (trade, Cleveland), Ben Wallace, C (Detroit)

[duncan228]

The Baseline Sees All: Phoenix Suns
SportingNews

Elsewhere in our web of basketball knowledge, you'll find comprehensive team previews by experts intimately acquainted with what makes these NBA teams tick, where they've been, and what might be next for them. So why another set of previews? Because sometimes, it's worth listening to your crazy uncle about that broken leg before you take a second trip to the doctor's office.

Short and sweet here: D'Antoni is gone, Marion is gone but might have aged out anyway, Nash can't live forever, Amare is fractious and has contract on his mind. And Alvin Gentry, admired assistant under Mike D but not much of a head coach in the past, is looking to bring back the old magic. With Grant Hill and a resuscitated Channing Frye as key components? All I've got to say is, thank God for Jason Richardson. That man can board

Most Likely Breakout: It pains me to say this about what once was my favorite team, but the answer is no one. The Suns have reliably sold off or traded draft picks over the years to avoid luxury tax . As a result, their youngsters are all hardworking afterthoughts like Robin Lopez, Jared Dudley and honorary youth Louis Amundson. Goran Dragic as Nash's heir is laughable. Earl Clark could end up being very good, but he's hardly on the verge of anything. So if you want to hope for some future, how about one in which Leandro Barbosa picks up where he left off before the Shaq era.

Most Likely Letdown: The Return of Seven Seconds or Less. Older, wiser, more self-conscious and with only 1.5 real aggressive players (that would be Amare and Richardson), I just don't see this renewed commitment to the running game building any buzz. Or, for that matter, working as a sustained means of blowing opponents off of the floor. There is no shock and awe here, no reckless "what will they do next" edge. Nothing here but veterans pushing the tempo and spreading the floor. That's almost regressive, considering how much the rest of the league has absorbed the Suns' original lessons.

Blog superstar: This may be a little cruel, and who knows, dude might be saving it all for a screenplay (Soderbergh, holla back!). But if Taylor Griffin ends up making the team, his life and times would be like Paul Shirley but with a reason to exist and the added twist of being able to play abject or roll with the winners.

Signature game: The Mavs now have Marion and are supposedly planning to go crazy and throw out all positions, like the Suns used to. (and they're nearly as old). If Phoenix wins, I guess this proves they're better, even if they've lost the war. If they lose, they get stripped of whatever honorary status they still hold in our hearts.

Why else you should care: Because if you're as petty as me, you will never tire of seeing the Suns suffer for having made that Shaq deal.

[Dex]

Why else you should care: Because if you're as petty as me, you will never tire of seeing the Suns suffer for having made that Shaq deal.

Amen. Dumbasses.

But Sun Fan will still point to how productive Shaq was in his time here.

[Xylus]

Amen. Dumbasses.

But Sun Fan will still point to how productive Shaq was in his time here.

Shaq was very productive here.

[Dex]

Shaq was very productive here.

See?

I'm not saying he wasn't. Shaq is a good player; he'll probably be productive until he leaves the league. He was also the wrong player for the wrong system.

Was he not the beginning of the end for that era of the Suns franchise?

[BlackBellamy]

Was he not the beginning of the end for that era of the Suns franchise?

The earlier Spurs series were the beginning of the end, Shaq was the definitive end.

[da_suns_fan]

The Baseline Sees All: Phoenix Suns
SportingNews

Elsewhere in our web of basketball knowledge, you'll find comprehensive team previews by experts intimately acquainted with what makes these NBA teams tick, where they've been, and what might be next for them. So why another set of previews? Because sometimes, it's worth listening to your crazy uncle about that broken leg before you take a second trip to the doctor's office.

Short and sweet here: D'Antoni is gone, Marion is gone but might have aged out anyway, Nash can't live forever, Amare is fractious and has contract on his mind. And Alvin Gentry, admired assistant under Mike D but not much of a head coach in the past, is looking to bring back the old magic. With Grant Hill and a resuscitated Channing Frye as key components? All I've got to say is, thank God for Jason Richardson. That man can board

Most Likely Breakout: It pains me to say this about what once was my favorite team, but the answer is no one. The Suns have reliably sold off or traded draft picks over the years to avoid luxury tax . As a result, their youngsters are all hardworking afterthoughts like Robin Lopez, Jared Dudley and honorary youth Louis Amundson. Goran Dragic as Nash's heir is laughable. Earl Clark could end up being very good, but he's hardly on the verge of anything. So if you want to hope for some future, how about one in which Leandro Barbosa picks up where he left off before the Shaq era.

Most Likely Letdown: The Return of Seven Seconds or Less. Older, wiser, more self-conscious and with only 1.5 real aggressive players (that would be Amare and Richardson), I just don't see this renewed commitment to the running game building any buzz. Or, for that matter, working as a sustained means of blowing opponents off of the floor. There is no shock and awe here, no reckless "what will they do next" edge. Nothing here but veterans pushing the tempo and spreading the floor. That's almost regressive, considering how much the rest of the league has absorbed the Suns' original lessons.

Blog superstar: This may be a little cruel, and who knows, dude might be saving it all for a screenplay (Soderbergh, holla back!). But if Taylor Griffin ends up making the team, his life and times would be like Paul Shirley but with a reason to exist and the added twist of being able to play abject or roll with the winners.

Signature game: The Mavs now have Marion and are supposedly planning to go crazy and throw out all positions, like the Suns used to. (and they're nearly as old). If Phoenix wins, I guess this proves they're better, even if they've lost the war. If they lose, they get stripped of whatever honorary status they still hold in our hearts.

Why else you should care: Because if you're as petty as me, you will never tire of seeing the Suns suffer for having made that Shaq deal.

Does this guy watch the Suns? Does he have the internet? Jason Richardson can "board"? He cant possibly mean "rebound". Jason Richardson is a volume shooter with a bad contract and dunk le. Nothing more. He cant create, defend, rebound etc.

Im not sure WHICH Shaq deal he's talking about. Trading for him or trading him away. Trading for him was stupid, trading him away for NOTHING was pretty dumb too.

Also, people who think Shaq was "productive" for the Suns are LAZY. Thats the only word to describe it. I can look at the stat sheet as well as the next guy and tell you that Shaq had some good number last year. Anyone who watched a game would tell you he gave virtually no effort on defense or even offense unless he had the ball. And we STILL got killed in the rebounding department, the one area he was suppose to really help.

The people who think Shaq was productive in Phoenix are the same who say Terry Porter was fired because he wanted the Suns to play defense. As if a guy could be fired halfway through his first season for asking guys to play defense. Im still just clueless as to why Steve Kerr thought he was capable of being a coach in this league. That guy couldnt put two coherent sentences together.

[JMarkJohns]

He thinks Phoenix is going to finish fourteenth? That's insanity. Despite their flaws, which are mainly magnified vs. only six or seven teams, the team still has the talent on offense to win almost any given night. Sure, there's a guaranteed 30 losses from teams like the Spurs, Lakers, Nuggets, Celtics, Cavs, Magic, etc... but I'd be shocked of they win less than 40 games, and I figure them to be around 45 with a chance at the eighth spot in the West. There are a ton of absolutely ty teams in the West, of whom, only Minnesota has the requisite size and skill to routinely beat Phoenix.

Maximum 7th, minimum 10th, most likely 8th.

EDIT: However, with the Suns luck/karma, they'll finish one game out of the 8th spot, and somehow wind up getting the #1 overall pick in the draft, which belongs to the Thunder. My hope is this happens, there is complete shock and outrage amongst the fanbase and Sarver is beheaded at centercourt of next season's first game. Or something like it, anyways...

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

Was he not the beginning of the end for that era of the Suns franchise?

No, he wasn't. The beginning of the end was losing to the Spurs in 2007, the series that effectively showed run and gun basketball was never going to win a championship.

[Culburn369]

O & 42.

[Xylus]

No, he wasn't. The beginning of the end was losing to the Spurs in 2007, the series that effectively showed run and gun basketball was never going to win a championship.

I completely disagree. The 2007 Spurs series was the beginning of the end, but it wasn't because run and gun basketball is destined to fail. If anything, that series was an indictment of our mentally fragile players/coach.

[duncan228]

Gentry: 'There's a method to the madness'
SportingNews

Suns coach Alvin Gentry has brought back an uptempo style of basketball to the desert, which had been the team's hallmark before the arrival of Shaquille O'Neal—who was traded to Cleveland in the offseason. Gentry talked with Sporting News' Benson Taylor about the process of re-establishing that iden y, the Suns' past success and the progress of star forward Amare Stoudemire.

SN: So how are things shaping up heading into the season?

Gentry: I think it's a process. We're trying to go back to the old system that we ran before. That requires to be in great physical shape, and I think our guys are working extremely hard. It's still going to be a process—you know, now we're learning to play without Shaq. We'll see how it all pans out, but I've been really pleased with the effort that's been given in training camp, the attention to detail. More so than anything I've been happy with the effort that we've put in on the defensive end

SN: Can you talk a little bit about the old style? It's easy to say "halfcourt vs. run and gun," but is there a lot more to it than that?

Gentry: Oh, there is a lot more to it. There's a method to the madness, and I think that's where the biggest misunderstanding about the way we play is. We have led the league in field goal percentage the last (four) years, and we've done that because we've taken good shots. We just don't come down there and fire away.

I think what we have to do is consistently keep the defense on their heels, and the only way to do that is to be dedicated to running on every possession. That's what we're trying to get back to, where we have the mentality of that we're running on every possession and that we're in better physical shape than you are, so in the fourth quarter, when your shot is falling a little bit short, we'll still have our legs to make ours. I guess that's the simplest form of what we're trying to do.

SN: There was a lot of success in the old system, but the team never got past that last hurdle to get to the Finals. Can a championship be won with this system?

Gentry: So in other words, every year, there should be 29 teams that say you can't win a championship (their) way. Because the system that they play has not been successful, either, for that season. That's where I disagree with all of that. It is extremely difficult to win a championship. There's been no been no better team in this league than the Utah Jazz, and unfortunately for them, I guy named Michael Jordan was in the league. There's been no better team in this league than the Sacramento Kings, when they had Vlade (Divac) and Chris Webber and Peja (Stojakovic) and Doug Christie and those guys. Unfortunately for them, there was a team named the Lakers. It is extremely difficult to win a championship. You know what, a lot of guys measure success by winning a championship, but I don't think you can look at John Stockton and Karl Malone and say they were failures.

We had a great run. We averaged 58 wins a year for (four) years. That's a pretty damn good run. To me, that's a pretty successful franchise. I think there are a lot of franchises out there that would be more than content to be there. Ultimately, everyone wants to win a championship, but it doesn't happen all the time.

SN: In terms of the style, do you feel like you now have the right mix of players to play that way again?

Gentry: I think we have the core of that group. We have Steve (Nash) … obviously, he's the engine that makes the car go. We have Amare, who's now trying to return to form. He's played three basketball games in the last eight months. So I think we have to give him a little leeway to get himself back into shape. … We hope that he'll play at a high level. Grant Hill is playing at a high level. So we have the core, and now we have to have the fringe players be able to step up and play great so that we can have some depth. Most of the teams in this league that are very successful have deep benches. We've got to try to develop our bench to the point where we're playing with nine, 10 guys.

SN: Have you been pleased with what you've seen so far in Amare's progress?

Gentry: I have been pleased with him. And I think more so than anything he's had the best defensive camp since I've been here, where he's really tried, he's really been good in his rotations, he's been good at trying to get down and guard his man. And I think he'll continue to get better. Come the 28th of October when we throw it up to play, I don't think he'll be anywhere close to where he'll be on the Christmas Day game when we play the Clippers.

SN: You mentioned the defensive effort … is there anything in particular you've been trying to work on or improve?

Gentry: The only thing we're trying to get done is that we have to have consistency. We've tried to simplify everything. … We have to be better in our on-ball defense, be better in our rotations, and then we have to be better at rebounding the basketball. Those are the three goals that we've set for our defense. … We don't have to become the San Antonio Spurs or the Cleveland Cavaliers or the Boston Celtics defensively. But we do have to develop a consistency where our guys trust one another.

SN: Last year, after you took over, the Suns averaged 117 points per game the rest of the season. Just how good can this offense be?

Gentry: We think that we can be very good because, as I said, as we get into better conditioning and develop easier shots … I think we can keep the pressure on defensively. That's our goal, is to always keep the pressure on the defense. If we can do that, we'll be happy. If we're playing at the level that I think we're capable of, we'll take the results.

[Culburn369]

because run and gun basketball is destined to fail.

Precisely.

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

I completely disagree. The 2007 Spurs series was the beginning of the end, but it wasn't because run and gun basketball is destined to fail. If anything, that series was an indictment of our mentally fragile players/coach.

I don't think mentally fragile as much as undisciplined, and run and gun teams generally have a lot less discipline than half court teams.

Either way, we can both agree the Shaq trade wasn't what killed the Suns.

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

But Sun Fan will still point to how productive Shaq was in his time here.

This statement is extremely inaccurate, most Suns fans hate Shaq.

[pauls931]

God I hate Shaq

[Culburn369]

Nobody said a discouraging word though when he signed. Gambo & Ash? They were for it, Gambo more than Ash, but, after Daddy did the ring finger thing that nite at the arena everybody went bozonuts for him.

Same thing in Cleveland now. He can't move anymore. He used to have at least a first response, now that is all gone. He's inert.

He'll sell some wampum, goose the gate, breath life back into the Cleveland metro area, before he sucks it all back out.

[wanggi]

Cubby = Kobe lover = Shaq hater

[Culburn369]

= 15 time NBA World Champion.

[wanggi]

0 & 54

[Culburn369]

O & 41!

[wanggi]

0 & 54

And let us proceed Cutselfbury...

[Culburn369]

0 & 54

And let us proceed Cutselfbury...

lmemulatedao!

[wanggi]

0 & 56.

Let's proceed Cutselfbury!

[Culburn369]

0 & 56.

Let's proceed Cutselfbury!

lmcontrollinao!