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NBA Season Preview: Q&A with Suns blogs Valley of the Suns and Bright Side of the Sun
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AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin: The Suns prep for photos, and the season.
This is a continuation of our Q&As leading up to the start of the regular season. Check out other Season Previews on my main page. You can also check out Michael’s and Sam's work, here and here.
What are your thoughts about the Suns as the season approaches? How do you feel about their playoff/title chances?
Michael Schwartz, Valley of the Suns: I feel like the Suns will be one of the more exciting teams of recent NBA vintage, if a flawed one. They'll be terrible defensively, and they won't rebound a lick, but we're about to witness an offensive explosion like few have seen before. The second half Suns under Alvin Gentry averaged about 120 points per 100 possessions, which would be the best mark in NBA HISTORY if extrapolated out to a whole season.
And this was without a fella named Amar’e Stoudemire who I hear can score the ball a little. There also won't be a Big Shaqtus mucking things up. This team is built to run and score, and that's what they will do, possibly at historic levels. Offense wins in the regular season, so I feel like the Phoenix Suns are a bottom tier playoff team in the Western Conference. As for their title chances, you may have heard of
that old saying that defense wins championships...
Sam Henkel, Bright Side of the Sun: The Suns chances are pretty weak, as predicted. Last year, the pundits predicted at the start of the season that the Suns would be out of the playoffs, and they were right. This year, the predictions I've seen are also pretty low, about 42 wins, but the Suns are now rising in Marc Stein's power rankings. Those predictions depend heavily on Amar’e's health and his play. If he plays well, then the estimate is low. If he plays poorly or is re-injured, then 42 games might be high.
Do you feel that holes in the roster still need to be addressed, and if so, can they be addressed?
SH: Having traded Shaq for literally nothing, the Suns are weak at center. Channing Frye will start at center with Robin Lopez as backup. Lopez has more size, but lacks experience. Amar’e may slide in to do some duty at the five-spot if it gets better players onto the floor. The Suns are familiar with being undersized, so they will adapt.
The Suns are still desperately seeking a young PG on which the franchise can rest. Having come up empty, the Suns have extended Steve Nash another few years to carry the franchise while the search continues. Backup PG Goran Dragic, who seems to play off the ball most of the time, was injured in Eurobasketball. As such, Dan Dickau will be in training camp and may stay on for insurance. In all likelihood Leandro Barbosa will act as the backup PG as he has since 2004 with Grant Hill occasionally bringing the ball up or facilitating the offense.
MS: Well, yeah. They're going to be a horribly deficient rebounding team, unless Amar’e finally wakes up and becomes a beast on the boards and Robin Lopez finally learns how to rebound (don't count on either of those things). Their interior defense won't be great either, and while we're at it, neither will their perimeter defense. I don't think they can be addressed because this team is built to do one thing: score the basketball. Other teams will have just as much trouble matching up with the Suns as the Suns do matching up with their opponents.
How do you feel that they compare with the Celtics, and the rest of the NBA?
MS: Well, again, the Suns will be spectacular in one area and deficient in another. I feel like even a team like the Celtics will struggle to guard the Suns, but the Suns don't have near the toughness to really match up with a team like Boston. The Celtics are still title contenders, while the Suns are a tier or two below them.
SH: The Suns are now simply trying to tread water and stay competitive. They should make it to the playoffs, but will likely be out in the first round. In a lot of ways, the organization is now paying for the expensive title runs. Thankfully, the organization has found a way to retain Nash, Hill and Amar'e, at least for this year.
If the Celtics and Suns make the Finals, how would you think the Suns should attack Boston in a 7-game series?
SH: With a baton to their kneecaps! Seriously, should the Suns get to the Finals, it would mean that their free-wheeling offense was unstoppable and that all the team's core players were having transcendent career years. There would be no defense and the Celtics would not be able to slow the tempo.
MS: The Suns' only chance would be to play to their strengths and make every game a shootout. If they played a typical NBA playoff series, Boston would win without question. But if the Suns could take the Celts out of their comfort zone and enforce their tempo, they'd have a great shot at an upset. Could the older Celts run with the Suns? I'm not sure. But I sure as hell know it would be Phoenix's only chance.
What are your thoughts on the short-lived Shaq Era?
MS: You really can't call it anything other than an unmitigated disaster. The Suns were at the top of the West contending for a title when he arrived, and now after his reign of mediocrity many pundits don't even expect them to make the playoffs. Shaquille O'Neal won one more playoff game in a Phoenix Suns uniform than you and I did. Really, it was a misfit marriage to begin with. I always felt like Shaq playing for the Suns was a walking contradiction. We're talking about a team trying to play the fastest pace in the NBA, yet they have a behemoth trudging up court every play. They tried to push a "Seven Seconds or Shaq" system, but really that just made it so they were not great at anything, and last year as a whole they just never found their identity. All in all, it was a disaster that might have cost the Nash Suns their last crack at a title.
SH: Most fans are relieved to see Shaq and his self-aggrandizing proclamations gone, and they are eager to get back to an enjoyable, wide-open running game. The Shaq experiment failed, but not in the way expected. Last year, the offense was more potent and efficient than ever, even with Amar’e injured. What killed the Suns was that the MVP tandem of Nash and Shaq resulted in the most epic fail pick-and-roll defense in the history of the NBA.
What is the identity of this team at this point?
MS: Speed and scoring. When Channing Frye is on the floor, they will have five players proficient at shooting the basketball. Do you know of any other team in the NBA that can say that? This will be a dynamic offensive team that will run weaker opponents off the floor. The only question is if they can impose their style on the upper crust.
SH: This team is an older, lesser version of the team we all knew and loved. The team this year is nostalgia personified. Expect a version of 7SOL, but even wilder. On the bench, the team features far more players on rookie contracts rather than seasoned vets that were on the contender Phoenix teams from a few years ago.
If you could take one player from the Celtics' roster, including that player's contract and all baggage that may or may not come with him, who would you take?
SH: We really think about the players that we could of, should of, had. We don't fantasize at all about Paul Pierce or Ray Allen. Instead we often talk about Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett.
It's hard not to wonder if we would have found our backup and future PG in Rajon Rondo, but so much matters on the environment in which the player develops. We can look back now and admire Rondo's accomplishments, but it is unlikely he would have been given the same opportunities and the confidence here in Phoenix as he got in Boston. We're very happy for him and saddened that a similar opportunity was not possible in Phoenix.
Rondo aside, the one player that would have made all the difference was if we could have had Kevin Garnett for Shawn Marion, we obviously would have been far happier with that than with Shaq. The deal was nixed by Shawn Marion, telling the Timberwolves that under no circumstances would he be happy there and the rest is history. At the time, there was some skepticism about how Amar'e and KG would fit together, but Kevin's intensity would have been a huge intangible. The Suns/Lakers series would have been insta-classics with Bynum/Gasol/Odom vs. KG/Amar'e.
MS: If you let me make a trade to balance it out, I'm taking KG (while getting rid of J-Rich to keep their cap number in range). If the Suns had dealt Amar’e for KG back when that was a hot rumor, we might be talking about a championship in Phoenix instead of Boston. I know he's aging and has bad knees, but his defensive intensity could push this Suns team into the realm of contenders. If I can't make a fantasy J-Rich trade along with it (because the Suns would NEVER just add that kind of salary for nothing even if the rules allowed it), I'd have to take Rondo, just like the Suns did at No. 21 overall in the 2006 draft. This time they'd keep him to be their point guard of the future and a hell of a complement to Steve Nash.
Overall, what do you feel are the fan expectations are for the Suns for the 2009/2010 season?
MS: I think Suns fans understand this is not a title team. However, expectations are that this will be a ridiculously fun team to watch and one that ultimately makes the playoffs and puts on quite a show in the process.
SH: Fans are fans, so they're pretty optimistic that the Suns will surprise. We presume Amar'e will be healthy and focused, that the old guys haven't aged at all and that going back to running and spacing will lead to good results. We know the team has fallen behind the elite, but not so far that we will idly take insults from Golden State Warriors fans.
Player Votes
KG: 11
Rondo: 5
Pierce: 4
Perk: 1
Ray: 1
Big Baby: 1
Bill Walker: 1
Team Votes
Detroit: Pierce
Milwaukee: KG
OKC: Perk
Golden State: Rondo
Charlotte: Pierce
Sacramento: KG
New Jersey: Pierce
LA Clippers: KG
Memphis (Kenneth): Ray
Memphis (John): Big Baby
Washington (Michael): KG
Washington (George): Rondo
Portland: KG
Indy: KG
Houston: KG
Toronto (Adam): Bill Walker
Toronto (Scott): Rondo
Chicago: KG
Utah: Pierce
Atlanta (Fred): KG
Atlanta (Mike): Rondo
Dallas: Rondo
Phoenix (Sam): KG
Phoenix (Michael): KG
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