Underdogs showing up in tonite's games?

suns have lost their identity, it isn't about how shaq plays. Without Marion, they have no D. If Marion plays tonight, then he shuts down AI and the suns win.

Suns are DONE.

 

Yay suns only a 1/2 game ahead of us now

 

That would be the ultimate slap in the face, to go from 1st place in the West to 7th instantly after acquiring Shaq. And maybe even coming close to missing the playoffs!

 

exactly, its all about Defense. They are giving up too many points.

 

I've been thinking that all along as well. Suns are going to regret to hell that they traded Marion. Everyone will be saying to them "I told you so.".

 

I wouldnt judge them quite yet honestly.

In the playoffs, its a totally different atmosphere and if Shaq does get the rhytm of the offense, defense, then I think suns have the chance to win it all just because Nash cant be matched by any other point guards besides CP3 and Deron Williams... and I dont think any team except the lakers can match the two bigmen of the Suns...

 

Even so, they don't have any chemistry right now on the court. Marion was a integral part of both their offense and their defense, especially their defense. Right now, sun's lack of defense is being exposed in the games after the trade. As for shaq, who's 36, prone to injury and laziness, we'll see if he's still worth 20+ million per year. lol...

 

Lol thats hilarious.. Suns fans will always justify the trade by saying "Marion was going to leave anyway" but with Shaq making 20 mill a year for the next couple years (I think its two years), they'll never get rid of Shaqs horrible contract. Unless of coz they take back alot of garbage lol. Damn, that really sucks for them. It also sucks for Marion because his game is suited for a team like the Suns (more importantly Nash). I think his game will take a hit playing next to Wade.

 

At this rate, unless they figure out something quickly enough, the Suns could end up being on the wrong side of the playoff bubble by season's end. As several of us predicted, their perimeter defense has gone to complete crap with the departure of Marion, and guess what, Amare at the power forward position is still a horrible man-to-man defender even with his increased scoring. Their spacing on offense is shot, now that they're basically playing 4 on 5 (so far haven't figured out that they need Shaq to be a go-to option on offense), and their already precarious outside shooting situation has gotten worse. Turnovers are up. Fouls are up. Two things that are very uncharacteristic of the Phoenix Suns.

Missing the playoffs would be a worst case scenario for Phoenix. Not only are they regretting giving Kurt Thomas away (who, in a cruel twist of irony, is now with their long time nemesis in San Antonio), but it gets worse: in that trade they also sold their first round draft pick for this summer, and after all that anticipation about getting Atlanta's draft pick, it looks like Atlanta has a good chance make the playoffs this year. So in other words, they could end up with a higher draft pick than Atlanta, except ... they already sold the pick anyway.

Robert Sarver's utter cheapness has finally come back to bite him in the rear, big time.

 

To be fair, I really don't think Shaq is really hurting them with spacing as I thought before. First, he's not playing big minutes...he's basically a 6th man minutes as starter. Second, after watching this last game, Shaq is moving very well...he's setting screens, making swing passes from the 3pt line....it's really not as bad as one would think.

Ultimately their problems are

• depth - again, they have a 7 man rotation...that sucks and that's b/c their owner has been cheap. They were 9 man 3 years ago (conference finals), 9 man 2 years ago (conference finals), and 8 man last year (2nd round). Ridding Kurt Thomas was a pure salary dump.
• outside shooting - losses of James Jones, Eddie House, Tim Thomas has hurt their 3pt shooting.
• perimeter defense - they're hoping Shaq can solve their interior defense, but losing Marion's outside D is hurting them now because Hill or Diaw cannot stop the Iguadala and Willie Greens of the NBA.

I do think Shaq is going to shore up their inside defense in the playoffs, which means they improved on one front at the expense of another. And probably more b/c Marion was so huge in their fast break and turnover creating...but they're hoping Diaw and Hill can make up for that.

I honestly think if Gordon Giricek and Tyronne Lue sign with them (according to the Phoenix announcers that's what's going to happen), it would help them out tremendously. Going 7 deep the entire season makes them tired and sloppy and defensively lackadaisical.

 

Rotation depths for the good teams:

Rockets are 8 deep (sometimes 9 depending on the matchup for Hayes).
Spurs are 8 to 10 deep with a stockpile of veterans ready to step in.
Dallas is 8 deep (either EJ or George) and their 9 guy Jose Barea is legit.
Lakers are 8 to 10 deep...they are truly young and talented.
Jazz are 8 deep...I hate the Jazz.
Hornets are 8 deep...their bench used to be PG, PG, SG with Pargo, BJax and Rasual, so that's why they traded for Wells to give them and inside post scorer off the bench.
Warriors are 8 deep...if CWebb gets into their regular rotation once Biendrens returns, they'll be 9 deep.
Nuggets are 8 deep and 9 deep if Nene gets back.

The Pistons and Celtics are also 8 deep.

So yeah after reviewing all the rosters, the Suns have the shortest normal rotation of them all. Brian Skinner is their 8th man at 13.9 minutes per game (less than any other 8th man among the other top teams), and if you look closely, Skinner is not a typical 8th man. He plays mostly in blow outs, and if the game is close and tough, he ain't playing. And now that Shaq is here, he really ain't playing at all.

In the 6 games that Shaq has been there, in 4 games the 8th man has played 4:50 or less (like not at all). In the 2 other games, they were both blowouts (12 minutes in a 30pt loss to the Pistons and 20 minutes in a 17 pt loss to the Hornets)...and those minutes were to freakin Linton Johnson...someone they just signed as a free agent like a week ago.

 

Inbound, maybe?

 

They have dropped to the 6th seed, since the trade. If they have another week of losses, they will drop to the 9th seed behind the Nuggets. The playoff race is so tight that a losing streak can drop you of the playoffs.

 

Steve Kerr has done a great job for Spurs. GM of the year?

 

You guys like to write teams off way too early.

 

phi won atleast.