Dime Magazine's Power Rankings

[boutons]

"the finals were neck and neck till the last buzzer"

nope, tied after 3 in Game7, the Spurs O and D blew out and shut down the Pistons in the "NBA 12 Minute Championship".

[FreshPrince22]

It was a very close series (though full of blow outs both ways), Spurs won, and that's cool. But to think the Pistons are worse than the Suns is crazy. The Suns needed a total Duncan meltdown at the free throw line to win ONE game. Where as the Pistons had one Sheed meltdown defensively to lose the series in 7. And don't act like you weren't worried when the Pistons were up 9 in the 3rd quarter of game 7. Then LB had a brain meltdown and took Sheed and Dice out of the game, and put Tayshaun on Duncan But that's beside the point.

I still don't know how effective the Suns offense will be without 4 guys spotting up behind the arc. That opend it up for Nash and Amare to do their thing.
________
How To Roll A Joint

[exstatic]

Suns can still run, still shoot, still score, but now have the defense, depth and rebounding it takes to win in the playoffs.

run...check; shoot, uh no, they lost 400 made 3 pointers; score...we'll see without those treys raining down; defense...talk is cheap, I'm not sure you can go from intentionally allowing penetration to fuel your running game to a defensive team just like that; depth...not sure, and not sure it would matter, as D'entures doesn't use his bench much anyway; rebounding...we'll see, outside of Marion it isn't top flight.

Spurs are better, but they'd best be healthy. With Manu, Finley and Duncan, that's never a given.

Tim's the critical factor here, and he's NOT coming off the Olympics this summer. Neither is Manu. Finley is off the bench, and fewer minutes is likely to mean fewer injuries.

Face it: the Suns lost their best chance to win it all with their most potent lineup, and the Spurs staggering with injuries and exhaustion last year.

[JMarkJohns]

run...check; shoot, uh no, they lost 400 made 3 pointers; score...we'll see without those treys raining down...

The Suns system made Johnson and Richardson. Stop pretending it was the other way around.

Excluding last season:

Joe Johnson: 34% career from range, 30% in 03-04.
Quentin Richardson: 3.7 3-pointers attempted per game for career.

Last season with Nash and Amare:

Johnson: 48% from range.
Richardson: 7.98 3-pointers attempted per game.

Funny how things changed, right? Wrong...

With Houston in 04-05 Jackson shot 37%. With Phoenix, 46%.

This clearly shows that within the Suns system, 3-point shooters were made. So, when the Suns replace Johnson and Richardson with Bell and Jones, two 40% shooters, I'm not sure why it entales such drama from the media. Richardson wasn't the chucker until he got to Phoenix. Johnson wasn't the 3-point shooter until he was paired with Nash and Amare.

Jackson may be the best case, going from Houston to Phoenix and increasing his 3-point% by 9 points.

The Suns have four players on the roster that shoot 40% or better from range. Then they have Barbosa, career 37% and Marion, career 35%.

I'm still not seeing the need to panic.

...defense...talk is cheap, I'm not sure you can go from intentionally allowing penetration to fuel your running game to a defensive team just like that; rebounding...we'll see, outside of Marion it isn't top flight.

I'll give you defense. I'm curious to see how things work as well, but here's what's known. The Suns last year were a top-12 defensive FG% team. That's not too bad.

They've rid out Richardson, obviously their worst defender, being that he's the laziest defender and replaced him with Bell. Perhaps bell isn't the lock-down defender some make him out to be, but you cannot argue this isn't an improvement defensively.

They lost Johnson, which hurts, but have replaced him with a platoon of Jackson, Jones and Marion... all equal if not better.

The loss of Hunter hurts, but he played 12 minutes a game, so let's not overstate his impact.

By adding Thomas and Grant, the Suns have two players who can muscle up the post player, allowing Amare and Marion to block shots in help defense.

As for rebounding.

You're kidding, right?

Kurt Thomas is a top-5 defensive rebounder in the League. He'll be good for 8/9 rebounds with the Suns and he give them the box-out rebounder they lacked.

Brian Grant isn't going to play much more than 15 minutes per game, but he's a poor version of Thomas, boxing-out and battling for position. He'll be good for 4/5 rebounds if healthy.

Amare almost averaged 11 rebounds per game in the playoffs. He really started to turn the corner and did so against very good compe ion. Vs. the Spurs his rebounding was near 12 per game.

Marion is always good for 9/10.

That's close to 32/35 likely rebounds from the four frontcourt players.

That's really good. Especially when put in this perspective. Last year's frontcourt, about 24.

[NashtoAmare]

Wow. Really good post. I agree with everything. Your right in saying this "The Suns system made Johnson and Richardson. Stop pretending it was the other way around."


Go Suns!

[SoupIsGood]

Normally a team lives and dies by how good their PG and main big man PF or C are in the playoffs, for those people who put the Heat and Pacers ahead of the Pistons check this out:

Playoffs:

Jamaal Tinsley: 9 games 27.4 mpg .360 FG% .111 3PT% .571 FT% 3.3 RPG 5.7 APG 8.7 PPG never been to the finals

Tony Parker: 23 games 37.3 mpg .454 FG% .188 3PT% .632 FT% 2.9 RPG 4.3 APG 17.2 PPG 3 rings

Chauncey Billups: 25 games 39.4 mpg .428 FG% .349 3PT% .893 FT% 4.3 RPG 6.5 APG 18.7 PPG 1 ring finals MVP

I was comparing Tinsley, Parker, and Billups' playoff numbers, I didn't know Chauncey was better in also every category, figured I also throw in Jason Williams little playoff experience

Jason Williams: 4 games 28.5 mpg .528 FG% .476 3PT% .000 FT% 2.3 RPG 5.3 APG 17.0 PPG

True, but I think it's fair to say a healthy Tinsley would have done much better than that. That's what I'm hoping for next year anyway.

[THE X-FACTOR]

True, but I think it's fair to say a healthy Tinsley would have done much better than that. That's what I'm hoping for next year anyway.

Healthy Tinsley vs healthy Billups over their careers.

Jamaal Tinsley 30.0 MPG .399 FG% .317 3PT% .722 FT% 3.5 RPG 7.2 APG 9.7 PPG

Chauncey Billups 30.4 MPG .409 FG% .380 3PT% .878 FT% 2.9 RPG 4.6 APG 13.6 PPG

okay Tinsley is a slightly rebounder and gives out a couple more assists per game but Chauncey is the better scorer and is more multifaceted. I rest my point.

[SoupIsGood]

Healthy Tinsley vs healthy Billups over their careers.

Jamaal Tinsley 30.0 MPG .399 FG% .317 3PT% .722 FT% 3.5 RPG 7.2 APG 9.7 PPG

Chauncey Billups 30.4 MPG .409 FG% .380 3PT% .878 FT% 2.9 RPG 4.6 APG 13.6 PPG

okay Tinsley is a slightly rebounder and gives out a couple more assists per game but Chauncey is the better scorer and is more multifaceted. I rest my point.

The stats look pretty even to me.

[ABDENOUR POWER]

I would rank them:
1. Spurs
2. Pistons
3. Pacers
4. Heat - could drop to 7/8
5. Suns - Amare Stoudemire will be a monster, Raja Bell and Kurt Thomas will make them better defensively
6. Rockets - Stromile Swift will be an upgrade over Scott Padgett
7. Kings
8. Cavaliers
9. Mavericks
10. Nuggets

That looks much better.

[THE X-FACTOR]

The stats look pretty even to me.

They are, bad thing for Pacers and JT fans is that the playoffs is where great players are judged, Billups dominates Tins in the post season. I don't care that much about regular season stats, I like to see them make it to the finals.

[SoupIsGood]

They are, bad thing for Pacers and JT fans is that the playoffs is where great players are judged, Billups dominates Tins in the post season. I don't care that much about regular season stats, I like to see them make it to the finals.

Billups has clearly been better than Tins the past two years, but I'm not sure I'd say he dominates him. Chancey doesn't keep Jamaal in front of him very well. (I know, Jamaal hardly keeps anyone in front of him.)

I just want to see a Billups Tinlsey matchup where both guys were healthy, I think it'd be pretty fun. I'm hoping for it next year.