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what are you talking about?
I still feel the Suns will shoot lights out except now they can rebound and now they can matchup with Duncan. Kurt Thomas is way better on defense than Amare Stoudemire and now Amare doesn't have to guard any superstar.
what are you talking about?
Just exposing that fraud who calls himself a spurs fan that's all. As for Amare not having to guard Duncan, he never did in the first place, Marion did.
Marion is too small to guard Duncan and Amare is just a bad defender from some reason.
Excellent analysis. And to add to it, the Suns will now be doubling players like Timmeh and Yao with Amare and KT. That's a much better double team than Amare and Marion, and Amare still has the quickness to jump out when the ball is dished. This team isn't going to have to worry about scoring; Marion, JoJo, Nash, and the soon to be newest addition...... RAJA BELL.... can all shot the 3.
Phoenix Suns- Utah Jazz: The team struck the first deal of the free-agency period on Friday, coming to an agreement in principle with free agent Raja Bell.
"Raja Bell intends to sign a contract with the Suns when the moratorium ends," his agent, Herb Rudoy, told ESPN Insider Chad Ford. "Raja really wanted to play with Steve Nash and saw a great opportunity to do just that."
The Suns will sign Bell with part of their mid-level exception. Last year the exception was for $4.9 million and is expected to go up slightly this year.
Suns GM Bryan Colangelo declined comment on the story, citing league policy that prohibits NBA teams from commenting on free-agent negotiations during the moratorium.
Bell and the Suns can make things official on July 22, when the moratorium is lifted.
I don't like the amount of $$ they're spending on him though. Oh, and for those of you who swear D'Antoni won't coach defense? That's their primary goal this offseason is to build a better defense. They don't need to play it for 48min, but they will be able to tighten up the D and get stops when they need next season.
If you're a spurs fan you would know that in the playoffs marion guarded duncan.
this guy's posts are classic
You're saying Suns would rather have Thomas shooting than Amare dunking??
You couldn't figure out I was talking about the spurs.this guy's posts are classic
You're saying Suns would rather have Thomas shooting than Amare dunking??
I think he's referring to the opponents, not the Suns. The odds of KT missing a mid range are much higher than Amare missing a dunk.this guy's posts are classic
You're saying Suns would rather have Thomas shooting than Amare dunking??
There's a difference between coaching defense and signing defenders. The Suns could get Bruce Bowen and still botch that one because _'Antoni would tell him to not guard guys so much so that he doesn't foul and slow the game down and to make sure that he's leading the break.
sorry I stopped reading 6th grade essays a long time ago.You couldn't figure out I was talking about the spurs.
The biggest weakness of defense for Phoenix was their defensive rebounding and not matching up with big men. Now Kurt will take away both weaknesses.
The Suns have talked a lot about getting a better defensive scheme in place. D'Antoni can and will coach defense next year. It won't be Spurs quality for 48min, but like i said, they will be much better at getting stops when they need.
Well, when I see it I'll believe it, but I'm not holding my breath.
i'll be pretty dissappointed if the suns sign raja.
and i'm glad they didn't get malik to be honest....
Thomas for Q was a no-brainer for the Suns, because they gave up a guy who was useless and gave them nothing for a semi-decent center in the East. I think Thomas will look a lot worse now that he'll be playing in the West, but he's still an upgrade from Steven Hunter, and will free up Amare more. I'm not sure this will be good enough to get them over hte "mountain that is the Spurs" (a quote I read a couple days ago from D'Antoni) but it is an upgrade.
Raja Bell would make them much deeper and give them a 2nd player who can be a defensive stopper. Bell and Johnson together would be tough cover for Parker and Manu.
I'm still not sure the Suns will be able to learn defense well enough - that kind of thing isn't learned top-down. You can't just decide to learn defense in the off-season. Nash is never going to play defense. I think there is a good chance that the Suns will peak, and drop, and never make it to the Finals, much like the Mavs and the Kings before them.
(the Mavs, of course, are rebuilding, and with AJ at the helm they may have a chance again - my money would be on them rather than the Suns at this point, but hey. We'll have to see)
Once you have the trophy, everyone's gunning for you...
The mavs are soft and don't attack the rim like the suns and adding K. Thomas and Bell would be at worst 2nd best. They have so many different lineups they can do now and Barbosa will continue to get better. The spurs got to find a way now to counter Phoenix.
Trust me there are a lot more weaknesses than you think. Yes Kurt Thomas' stats might show that he's a good rebounder but let us check his height, shall we? He's 6'7. Point is he offers no shot blocking. Suns need size. Hunter gave them virtually nothing. With the suns' defenders getting out of the way of drivers like tp and manu, do u expect little Kurt to get in their way. Detroit had a hard time doing this on occasion.The biggest weakness of defense for Phoenix was their defensive rebounding and not matching up with big men. Now Kurt will take away both weaknesses.
His type of game is suited for the reg season. Here's a stat for everyone. Kurt has averaged 6.5 points and 5.8 rebounds in his playoff career (48 games).
Doubling Tim Duncan with two big men is the wrong strategy. The Suns had it right doubling with Joe Johnson. If you double Tim with two bigs, Nazr/Horry gets a putback.
The Suns have given up a little scoring. No big deal. They're tuning their scheme to beat the Spurs, such as it is. But do not expect Kurt Thomas to be the Duncan Stoppah.
Raja Bell may or may not pan out. He's a very good perimeter defender, but his offensive game is pretty limited, even though he's an OK 3-point shooter, and scored 12 ppg on a bad team, sort of a poor man's Bruce Bowen. Well, OK, he has more offense than Bruce.
Can these new additions run the floor the way the Suns did in 2004-05, or are the Suns going to look more to pick their spots to run like a conventional team?
Well, you hope as much. They weren't a bad defensive team this season, but they had horrible matchup problems against the Spurs. We'll see how things pan out with the more conventional lineup in 2005-06.Oh, and for those of you who swear D'Antoni won't coach defense? That's their primary goal this offseason is to build a better defense. They don't need to play it for 48min, but they will be able to tighten up the D and get stops when they need next season.
First of all, what site has him listed at 6'7", or did you measure him yourself.
Second. Way to include his entire playoff career. What about his last two playoffs, when he was getting major minutes and starting. 13.7ppg and 11.3rpg. Don't just randomly throw out stats please.
There is no way that in just getting Kurt Thomas that they will win a Championship or even get to the Western Conference Finals. Q kept them in many games with his 3 in the regular season. They don't have that outside shot anymore.
Joe Johnson, Jim Jackson, Shawn Marion, and Raja Bell. What people don't seem to realize is how effective Phoenix is in the half court. They are even better running but Kurt Thomas will be hitting midrange shots instead of Q. Richardson bricking 3 pointers. Kurt Thomas averages over 8 defensive rebounds per game at 6'9. That was by far Phoenix's weakest area and should improve their running game due to improvement in rebounding.
It creates some new holes, however. Thomas is not a runner, having him in the game neutralizes some of the offensive matchup advantages the Suns had with their Marion/Stoudemire frontline, and he's not much of a help defender and is like Shaq on the pick-and-roll. You know what happens when a big man leaves Tony Parker alone on the pick-and-roll.
Q was overrated. 39% from the field doesn't get it done in this day and age. And, it's not likehe was giving that team anything else.
When tim dunks on him, the first thing that will pop in his head is "I wish I was two inches taller, I would have blocked that shot.
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