What the Suns need to do to get back to the WCF and win it....

[TheMatrix31]

Re: What the Suns need to do to get back to the WCF and win it....

Thank you, Tenth.....for backing me up.

Oh, and run and gun DOES work in the playoffs. You know why? We made the Spurs beat us at OUR own game. We controlled the tempo, we controlled the scores, we controlled everything. There were no 80-77 wins, no defensive slobberknockers, nothing that the Spurs are "known" for. Most every game's score was above 100, and I'd say to push a "defensive specialist" team into that situation pretty much means that the run and gun works.

Also, it's LAUGHABLE that people think Duncan wasnt healthy in this series. C'mon. There was NO INDICATION that Duncan was hurt at ALL in the series. The best player in the game peformed like the best player, no injury at all!

[dieselboy]

Re: What the Suns need to do to get back to the WCF and win it....

Well, Joe Johnson is a FA. So maybe the Suns can work a deal for a sign and trade with another team? Maybe land a center? Or some solid bench/role players?

And what about Shawn Marion? Was he hurt too, I didn't see him in the playoffs.

[TheMatrix31]

Re: What the Suns need to do to get back to the WCF and win it....

You mean you didnt see him in the WCF. He showed up BIG in the first two series' against Memphis and Dallas. I don't know what was up with him, but I'd have to say something wasnt right. Marion doesnt play that bad, defense or not. Even when he got his shots, he couldnt sink them at ALL, which shouldn't be credited to the Spurs defense but rather an injury of some sort. Maybe his wrist was acting up. The guy blew layups left and right, I couldnt believe it.

Thats the worst stretch of basketball I've ever seen Shawn Marion play.

[dieselboy]

Re: What the Suns need to do to get back to the WCF and win it....

You mean you didnt see him in the WCF. He showed up BIG in the first two series' against Memphis and Dallas. I don't know what was up with him, but I'd have to say something wasnt right. Marion doesnt play that bad, defense or not. Even when he got his shots, he couldnt sink them at ALL, which shouldn't be credited to the Spurs defense but rather an injury of some sort. Maybe his wrist was acting up. The guy blew layups left and right, I couldnt believe it.

Thats the worst stretch of basketball I've ever seen Shawn Marion play.

For your sake, I hope its not a sign of things to come.

As young as a team that the Suns are, the window of oppurtunity is not going to be open forever. Remember how much the past two years people have talked about how Jason Kidd's chances of winning an NBA champion ship is closing by the day? How he needs to go to San Antonio to win the big one? And how if they Nets don't add top talent, he will bolt. Well Steve Nash is only one year younger than Kidd. Sure, Nash has shown a little worse health the past few seasons, but still. Chances don't come often, especially for an aging PG. Just ask Gary Payton what happened after his big run at a championship.

Now I'm not saying that if the Suns don't add a top Center and a defensive stopper this off-season, they have no shot at winning a championship in the next few years. I'm just saying, as much young talent as this team has, they will not be able to keep it all together for too many more seasons. Plus, Joe Johnson is a FA, and who knows what changes will be made in the off-season.

[TheMatrix31]

Re: What the Suns need to do to get back to the WCF and win it....

See, I'm hoping we resign Joe Johnson so that if something might happen to Nash or whatever, he can take over as the PG. Unless we find a PG better than Barbosa, then that's the transition that needs to be made. Joe Johnson runs the point VERY well, and can score like no other also. We NEED to resign Joe Johnson at ANY cost.

[nkhera1]

Re: What the Suns need to do to get back to the WCF and win it....

For your sake, I hope its not a sign of things to come.

As young as a team that the Suns are, the window of oppurtunity is not going to be open forever. Remember how much the past two years people have talked about how Jason Kidd's chances of winning an NBA champion ship is closing by the day? How he needs to go to San Antonio to win the big one? And how if they Nets don't add top talent, he will bolt. Well Steve Nash is only one year younger than Kidd. Sure, Nash has shown a little worse health the past few seasons, but still. Chances don't come often, especially for an aging PG. Just ask Gary Payton what happened after his big run at a championship.

Now I'm not saying that if the Suns don't add a top Center and a defensive stopper this off-season, they have no shot at winning a championship in the next few years. I'm just saying, as much young talent as this team has, they will not be able to keep it all together for too many more seasons. Plus, Joe Johnson is a FA, and who knows what changes will be made in the off-season.

Good thing we had the 3rd lowest payroll in the NBA but that is about to change.

[dieselboy]

Re: What the Suns need to do to get back to the WCF and win it....

See, I'm hoping we resign Joe Johnson so that if something might happen to Nash or whatever, he can take over as the PG. Unless we find a PG better than Barbosa, then that's the transition that needs to be made. Joe Johnson runs the point VERY well, and can score like no other also. We NEED to resign Joe Johnson at ANY cost.

Joe Johnson is a great talent. So versatile for hte Suns, didn't he play both guards and both foward sports for you? Wow.

If the Sonics fail to re-sign Allen, Johnson is the guy I want us to go after.

[NINJAK2]

Re: What the Suns need to do to get back to the WCF and win it....

Thank you, Tenth.....for backing me up.

Oh, and run and gun DOES work in the playoffs. You know why? We made the Spurs beat us at OUR own game. We controlled the tempo, we controlled the scores, we controlled everything. There were no 80-77 wins, no defensive slobberknockers, nothing that the Spurs are "known" for. Most every game's score was above 100, and I'd say to push a "defensive specialist" team into that situation pretty much means that the run and gun works.

Also, it's LAUGHABLE that people think Duncan wasnt healthy in this series. C'mon. There was NO INDICATION that Duncan was hurt at ALL in the series. The best player in the game peformed like the best player, no injury at all!

They held them to 12 points below their postseason average prior to this series Matrix? You can't claim that the Run and Gun system works for the Suns in achieving the ultimate goal of a championship when you get beat at your own game can you? That is LAUGHABLE . It works against inferior ball clubs that try to play that style but can't play any D (memphis, dallas-it barely worked against Big D.) When they go up against a team that can play that way and get stops when they need them (SA,Det) they will be in for a tough night. SA can switch up their style and be effective playing any way. They rebound. They get stops. They execute down the stretch. These 3 things were not done by the Suns throughout the series and that's why they will be watching the Finals like me-from the comforts of their living room. If they did all 3 then.............................

Suns will be among the best(probably the best) in the West for awhile as soon as they address their needs(pg and c) and re-up JJ and Amare. No question.

[Vince]

Re: What the Suns need to do to get back to the WCF and win it....

The Suns must sing Joe Johnson. I'm sure they can find takers for Q.

[cdubdiggity]

Re: What the Suns need to do to get back to the WCF and win it....

You mean you didnt see him in the WCF. He showed up BIG in the first two series' against Memphis and Dallas. I don't know what was up with him, but I'd have to say something wasnt right. Marion doesnt play that bad, defense or not. Even when he got his shots, he couldnt sink them at ALL, which shouldn't be credited to the Spurs defense but rather an injury of some sort. Maybe his wrist was acting up. The guy blew layups left and right, I couldnt believe it.

Thats the worst stretch of basketball I've ever seen Shawn Marion play.

Marion was injured...iono her name Michelle Tofoya I think...was talkin about how Marion told her about how his wrist was in so much pain...yadayada But yea he was playing injured.

[dbdynsty25]

Re: What the Suns need to do to get back to the WCF and win it....

Yeah, you could see that Marion was in pain...every time he dunked the ball he'd go back shaking his wrist (his shooting wrist of course)...and when he was slapping fives with guys, he always used his left hand. I think it hurt him a lot more than people were led to believe...and he didn't want to make excuses.

[cima]

Re: What the Suns need to do to get back to the WCF and win it....

2) Get a Defensive point...Steve Nash is brutal on D. Cause of this, bigs have to rotate all the time and consequently, they are in horrible position to get defensive rebounds. Which is why SA dominated the offensive glass so badly

Oh please, like that is ever going to happen. Steve Nash was the MVP, you think they're just going to replace him with someone who can play defense? HA!

[Vince]

Re: What the Suns need to do to get back to the WCF and win it....

I never said replace him you fool. I said to get a defensive point to back him up. Even have them play together at once.

[Dynasty4Kobe]

Re: What the Suns need to do to get back to the WCF and win it....

They got to get a player down low on defense that will intimidate the other team. Just to give them a tough look. Sort of like what Fortson does for the Sonics.

[Pointguard]

Re: What the Suns need to do to get back to the WCF and win it....

The first post. I think everything is basically true. All those things listed would improve the team.

A few things....

The thing that kills Phoneix the most is THEIR PHILOSOPHY. They say "if you have a layup, then we are gonna let you get the layup, then we'll get it back on the other end. That doesn't work and this basically tells teams that "If I go inside, I'm gonna get a good look". Add to the fact they are small inside and then you've got a problem.

As a Mavs fan, I saw even Erick Dampier, an average interior post guy on offense, abuse Amare anything Dallas went to him (after Game 1 that is ). If Dampier can do that, and we saw what Duncan did, then you team has got a problem (and I'm a huge Dampier homer but come'on).

They're one of, if not the most, talented team in the league. I dont think playing small will get them all the way but they're very effective at it and it obviously worked to the tone of 62 wins. Yet in the end defense is needed/

You dont have to be the best but you have to be above average IMO, and with PHX'S offense they only need to be above average.

Another thing I noticed is that they are actually not a bad defensive team, in terms of man-to-man. Joe Johnson is a good defender and Shawn marion is a very good to great defender. Que and Nash are both below average and Stoudemire is average (good shot block, average rebound, porr man2man defender), so they are not bad. But again what kills them is 2nd chance oppurtunites which is because they play "small ball" and allowing easy inside looks.

Que is not aguy you can rely on. Yea he had a bad series but do you expect him to dominate? The guy had a freaking PF/C guarding him in Duncan and he rarely looked to drive on him or take him to the hole. He's strictly a spot up shooter. A good post guy but PHX doesn't use that so he's limited to spot up shooting.

Marion's injury played a factor in him not being effective, but I belive Bruce Bowen was the guy guarding him most of the time. Very bad matchup for Marion so I dont know if you can expect much from Marion.

As far as injuries go, Duncan and Ginobli were no where near 100% so saying JJ and Marion were hurt as well seems pointless to me. Argue all you want but everyone has their share of injuries in the playoff. You gotta learn to play through it.

San Antonio deserved to win.

What shoudl PHX do? First and foremost they need JJ back. After that I dont know if they really will go after any big FAs. If they sign Amare and JJ to extensions (and both will be relatively big) then management will be hesistent to go out and give a 4-5 year contract for the full MLE to a big FA. They prob. try to re-sign Hunter and add a backup PG capable of backing Nash up (for cheap). They'll draft BPA likely.

Unfortunately, D'Antoni, the great "coach of the year" likely wont chance his style. You can run and win, but you have to play defense to win championships. I dont think they want to shake up their starting 5 and that will remian the same.

If management has a problme with the contracts, Que or Maion might be shipped out wont JJ is re-sign since those are the other two big contracts.

I'm not sure what BIG man they can get that fits with them? Dalembert? Dont know what it takes to get PHI to let him go though.