Time for Suns to step up

**Louie Vega** · 03-09-2008

Dan Bickley
Arizona Republic

Time for Suns to step up

About a year ago, a strange new face showed up at US Airways Center.

Remember Trophy Guy?

He looked like a cross between the Tin Man and the NBA's championship trophy. He made cameo appearances inside the arena and shot television commercials. He was the subject of the team's new marketing campaign, and a symbol of its new found arrogance.

He was a really bad idea.

Today, Trophy Guy is nowhere to be found. Owner Robert Sarver has put away the foam finger. Swagger has left the building. Many fans who fell in love with this coach and this basketball team a few years back now are foaming at the mouth, looking for someone to blame.

Sunday, the dreaded Spurs are back in town, except it doesn't feel like it should. Our eyes no longer are on the prize. They've shifted to the Denver Nuggets, the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference and missing the playoffs completely. Sadly, the Suns have too many problems to have one nemesis anymore.

Around water coolers, the sense of potential loss is staggering, and many fans want Mike D'Antoni fired as coach. It's a bloodthirsty reaction to a man who has helped build this team and this city's expectations. But if a strong playoff run isn't in the harvest, he will be the scapegoat, framed or fired for not using his bench and developing players.

By contrast, watch how many Spurs play Sunday. Note how the Lakers' Phil Jackson never stopped playing guys such as Jordan Farmar and Sasha Vujacic in the heat of last season, and how far they've come. It's damning evidence for a team that often complains about a lack of urgency.

Problem is, when D'Antoni gets stressed, his bench gets shorter. And for a guy who vowed last summer to emphasize the fun of it all, D'Antoni has been stressed out all season. In fairness, nobody had a clue that Shawn Marion would revolt emotionally before training camp even started, or that the loss of James Jones and Kurt Thomas would hurt so much.

D'Antoni correctly notes that none of his players rank in the top 50 of minutes played in the NBA. But there is no disputing a developed, functional bench helps the overall health, iden y and mental well being of a team. It also helps the future, which looks pretty bleak around here if the Suns don't snag that trophy.

Fans also are mad at Sarver, who claims he could lose up to $15 million if the Suns don't win a championship. That hardly seems possible for a team so popular and budget-conscious, yet Sarver says overall contributions from his biggest sponsors have declined while administrative and player payrolls have soared.

Meanwhile, the defense remains painfully inept. Though it's easily explained - Steve Nash still gets burned, Amaré Stoudemire still gets suckered, Raja Bell's drive to be an NBA star has lessened his bulldog qualities, and Leandro Barbosa can't play a lick of defense - it somehow is expected to change through the sheer force of determination, in a season when determination has been scarce, with Brian Skinner and D.J. Strawberry nailed to the bench.

It's easy to lose your faith in these shifting winds of fortunes when the once-dominant Suns suddenly are relying on the likes of Gordan Giricek . . . and yet:

D'Antoni always has been at his best during chaos, and he's dealt with a lot of it over the past four years. The Suns' medical staff has done wonders restoring explosiveness and fluidity to Grant Hill's game, and they seem to be doing the same for Shaquille O'Neal. Despite a painfully familiar loss, the new-look Suns showed real signs of growth and hunger against the Jazz on Friday.

And if the core of this team truly is made of late-starting adrenaline junkies, a team that wouldn't be properly stoked until its postseason fate again was on the line, well, guess what?

That time finally has arrived.

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/DanBickley/18904

If you click on the link to confirm the story be sure to read the comments after the story. Angry Suns fans vent about their team! Funny stuff!