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The Suns are an odd pick to me. I'd pick the Mavs before the Suns. But hey, they are the experts!
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/previe...t&lid=tab2pos2
5 pick us and 5 pick the Suns to win the championship on ESPN.
The Suns are an odd pick to me. I'd pick the Mavs before the Suns. But hey, they are the experts!
I agree, I think 3 picked the Mavs and 2 picked the Heat.
I am a little surprised that Barry would go against his own blood.
Picking the Suns means people are assuming Amare is OK. If only.
I don't understand it. Mavs before Suns. What have the Mavs shown that means they can get it done? Besides, Amare is down.
The Suns couldn't win even when Amare was healthy. Puzzling pick to me, but at least it means Nash won't be MVP.
We are a completely different team than when we played the Spurs with Amare dominating. You have to take into account the players we had last year and this year. I actually think the Spurs have taken a step back, more so than the Suns or Mavs. You have gotten older and we have a young core still and a very skilled point guard in Nash who is feeling the best he ever has. Amare is not doing as bad as you all seem to think. He has been throwing down dunks and elevating very close to what he did before and he has been working on his fundamentals while rehabbing very hard this summer. The media in Phoenix likes to dramatize things a bit about Amare. He will get there. It is a twelve to eighteen month recovery period for this type of surgery so I think he is doing well from the games I have seen him in. Don't under estimate him or the Sun's.
With respect to Amare's comeback, I'll believe it when I see it. Nash is getting older and can do nothing to contain Parker. The Suns don't look that impressive to me. I think it will be the same as before, the Suns were lucky that they had a cake walk to the Western Conference Finals. If they had had our lineup of SAC and Dallas I don't think they would have survived the first round.
Suns ahead of mavs and tied with spurs? I call bull .
Lots of odd picks in there. As far as the Suns go it's been shown time and time again that that run and gun BS doesn't get you championships, or even to the finals. I'm surprised that no one has the Bulls coming out of the east. I figured someone would pick them as dark horse. But I'm even more shocked at how many have pegged the Heat to repeat.
And Louis now has a new best friend in Scoop Jackson.
I picked the Suns in our predictions thread in here.
I picked Miami and Phoenix to make the Finals
Jon Barry picked the Mavs over the Spurs to win the division???
If I were Brent, I would kick his ass.
why? the only reason dallas beat the suns last year was down to the suns missing key guys due to injury
but anyway
think what we all can agree on is that dallas, spurs and the suns are the 3 contenders in the west and any of the 3 can win it all
Here are the fans results...they like Phoenix too, I see.
1) Which team will win the Atlantic Division?
73.1% New Jersey Nets
10.3% Boston Celtics
8.4% Toronto Raptors
4.6% Philadelphia 76ers
3.6% New York Knicks
2) Which team will win the Central Division?
38.2% Cleveland Cavaliers
32.5% Chicago Bulls
26.3% Detroit Pistons
1.9% Indiana Pacers
1.1% Milwaukee Bucks
3) Which team will win the Southeast Division?
85.8% Miami Heat
8.1% Orlando Magic
4.5% Washington Wizards
1.0% Charlotte Bobcats
0.6% Atlanta Hawks
4) Which team will win the Southwest Division?
54.7% Dallas Mavericks
36.4% San Antonio Spurs
7.1% Houston Rockets
1.2% New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets
0.6% Memphis Grizzlies
5) Which team will win the Northwest Division?
65.3% Denver Nuggets
12.7% Utah Jazz
12.5% Minnesota Timberwolves
5.5% Seattle SuperSonics
4.0% Portland Trail Blazers
6) Which team will win the Pacific Division?
77.5% Phoenix Suns
10.1% Los Angeles Lakers
8.9% Los Angeles Clippers
1.8% Sacramento Kings
1.7% Golden State Warriors
7) Which team will win the Eastern Conference?
35.6% Miami Heat
21.3% Cleveland Cavaliers
15.7% Chicago Bulls
11.3% Detroit Pistons
3.6% New Jersey Nets
3.3% Orlando Magic
2.3% Boston Celtics
1.3% Indiana Pacers
1.3% Toronto Raptors
1.2% Washington Wizards
1.0% New York Knicks
0.9% Philadelphia 76ers
0.6% Milwaukee Bucks
0.4% Charlotte Bobcats
0.2% Atlanta Hawks
8) Which team will win the Western Conference?
27.0% Phoenix Suns
25.0% Dallas Mavericks
22.4% San Antonio Spurs
7.3% Los Angeles Lakers
4.4% Houston Rockets
2.9% Seattle SuperSonics
2.6% Los Angeles Clippers
2.3% Portland Trail Blazers
1.9% Denver Nuggets
1.1% Minnesota Timberwolves
0.9% Utah Jazz
0.7% Sacramento Kings
0.6% Golden State Warriors
0.4% New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets
0.2% Memphis Grizzlies
9) Which team will win the NBA Championship?
15.2% Phoenix Suns
14.7% Dallas Mavericks
12.9% San Antonio Spurs
10.5% Miami Heat
8.4% Cleveland Cavaliers
6.5% Los Angeles Lakers
5.9% Chicago Bulls
4.5% Detroit Pistons
3.1% Houston Rockets
2.9% Seattle SuperSonics
2.2% Portland Trail Blazers
2.0% Boston Celtics
1.2% New Jersey Nets
1.1% Los Angeles Clippers
0.9% Toronto Raptors
0.9% Denver Nuggets
0.9% New York Knicks
0.7% Washington Wizards
0.7% Indiana Pacers
0.7% Minnesota Timberwolves
0.7% Philadelphia 76ers
0.7% Utah Jazz
0.6% Orlando Magic
0.5% Golden State Warriors
0.4% Milwaukee Bucks
0.4% Sacramento Kings
0.3% Charlotte Bobcats
0.2% New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets
0.2% Atlanta Hawks
0.1% Memphis Grizzlies
10) Which of these players will win the Rookie of the Year award?
31.9% Brandon Roy, Trail Blazers
24.3% Adam Morrison, Bobcats
17.4% Randy Foye, Timberwolves
13.9% Rudy Gay, Grizzlies
12.6% Tyrus Thomas, Bulls
11) Which of these players will win the Defensive Player of the Year award?
38.4% Ben Wallace, Bulls
21.3% Ron Artest, Kings
16.4% Andrei Kirilenko, Jazz
16.2% Dwight Howard, Magic
7.7% Bruce Bowen, Spurs
12) Which of these players will win the scoring le?
51.1% Kobe Bryant, Lakers
23.4% LeBron James, Cavaliers
12.5% Allen Iverson, 76ers
9.4% Gilbert Arenas, Wizards
3.6% Dwyane Wade, Heat
13) Which of these players will win the MVP award?
46.0% LeBron James, Cavaliers
15.2% Kobe Bryant, Lakers
14.3% Dwyane Wade, Heat
12.2% Dirk Nowitzki, Mavericks
6.4% Tim Duncan, Spurs
5.9% Steve Nash, Suns
Total Votes: 7,237
Parker 06-07 >>>> Parker 04-05
Older but not old:
Tim = Tim
Manu = Manu
Bruce=Bruce (until proven otherwise, he is ageless)
All the older you talk about were bit pieces AND Finley is better than any other player the Spurs had when they took the Suns out in '05. Nash could be both "older" and "old", now - age is, IMO, going to be a bigger issue for the Suns this year than the Spurs.
I fail to see how age would be a bigger problem for the suns considering only nash and thomas are really oldish.
spurs are more easily to struggle through a long season and playoffs due to the age factor and lack of depth.
of course it all depends on duncan's health. He could bounce back really well or continue to decline.
will be an interesting season.
the mavs should not look that impressive for you.
dont overestimate the ponies.
These people have to be assuming that Amare is coming back just as strong. if he doesn't come back hard, the west is left to the Spurs or Mavs.
It continues to amaze me how many so-called expert commentators do not understand regular season vs. playoff basketball. The Suns are greatly advantaged in the regular season, when a team sees them once a month maybe, and maybe in the middle of a bunch of other games, or on a back-to-back. Their run-and-gun style can overpower another team on a given night in the regular season.
Not so in the playoffs... a totally different beast. No back-to-backs. Intense focus on the details of how to stop the other team. Seeing them multiple times in a row and getting used to the pace.
The Suns, with or without Amare, have been handled in the playoffs during the Nash regime pretty well -- first by the Spurs in 2005, then by the Mavs in 2006. For crying out loud, the Lakers came that close to knocking them out in 2006. Until they get a new coach and a new approach to tooling the team for the playoffs, it's not gonna change.
Good post.
Age is a bigger factor for the Suns because the Spurs have shown they can limit Duncan and Ginobili's minutes and still find ways to win. The Suns have shown that without Nash on the floor they're a lottery team.
to the suns defence they went deep into the playoffs last year without two starters. Not many.. no other team could likely do that with key guys missing. The Suns were actually playing good defence before kurt thomas got hurt, the suns can certainly win a le as yes they aren't the best defensive team but they play it well enough to get stops. They were very unlucky last season. Had they been heathly they could of taken the chance with the spurs slipping up and winning the le..i don't think dallas would of beaten them had it not been for the injures.
who knows what may of happened had they got to the finals.
i don't see why they need to change their coach, Mike D'Antoni has helped turn them around. There's no point, there isn't a better coach out there available.
suns also re-tooled this year by bringing in some pretty good defenders so all in all i think they will be quite a decent defensive team this year which is what they need to be.
Good to know they counted my vote.0.2% Atlanta Hawks
Good post.
i always wish someone had kept the predications from last year at this time just to see how right they turned out. but hollinger picked all the playoffs right last year, if i remember correctly.
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