well to be fair this isn't any worse than les' "greatest team ever" comment a few years back. i still think the suns will be good and win their division but he's totally fooling himself if he thinks they haven't declined significantly.
McGrady is a monster as well, and it has been shown he can't carry a team by himself. We'll see how much of a monster Amare is when team can clog the paint him. Then people will realize that guys like Barkley are on a completely different level then what Amare is right now.
Don't call me stupid, but I think you're underrating amare/marion/nash. Nash is the MVP, he'll make things happen. There will be more focus on Stoudamire for scoring, and nash showed in the playoffs that he can be a leader and a scoring MACHINE. The Suns will be fine, they just realized that all out offense doesn't work, and are trying to fix that. They probably won't do it this year, but maybe the next 2 years after that.
Nash was MVP because during the regular season he had Joe to his right and Q to his left who could either run with him and or spot up for the 3. W/O JJ and Q, I expect Nash's assist numbers to drop off a bit. Having JJ and Q made "making things happen" that much easier for him. As for his amazing scoring outburst against the Mavs, somebody had to pick up the slack of Marion and Q. Maybe I'm just being really critical of the Suns because they made such a dramatic change but if they can succeed after such changes then props to the Suns.
IF they sign Finley, they'll have a line up of KThomas, Amare, Marion,Finley and Nash -which should get them alot of wins-they'll have more rebounds and be tougher inside, and while they lost alot of 3pt shooting with JJ AND Q, finley will hit alot of open threes. Add to this Jimmy Jax, Brian Grant and whoever else off the bench-they won't be THAT bad.... I'm hoping they get the NO1 seed - this way we meet them in the Semis and make them our proverbial b****. A trip to the WCF for our boys is very possible....
the suns averaged 110 PPG. bell is replacing Q on the wing. while he won't score as many points, he will play better defense. this should be even, except for the fact that Q was able to spread the floor and open things up for amare inside. this will cost them a few points per game. I would bring them down to 106PPG. marion will replace JJ at the 3. marions quickness won't be a factor for defenses anymore. most SF's can keep up with him. this move still makes the suns bigger and better defensively. KT replaces marion. this is big. while they get bigger and better defensively again, kurt will be guarded by the other teams center on most nights making it tough on him. they will lose a few PPG here because he can't run a fast break like marion. i would bring them down to 102PPG. amare is still at center, but he will be guarded by PF's. most Pf's will be able to keep up with him off the dribble and in transition. i would say the suns will average around 100PPG. this is not that hard to beat. however they do have nice defenders in bell, and KT. marion guarding 3's should be easier for him and amare is not a bad defender at the 5. does D'antoni know how to teach defense? probably not. but at least they have a few guys who can do it themselves. they will be an average defensive team with an average offense. nash and amare will carry them but they won't surprise people like they did last year. 50-55 wins would be my best guess.
This new Suns lineup are unlikely to put up another 60wins, but count on them to go further in the post-season.
Quentin Richardsonn to me is just a horiable player, all he did was chuck threes up, you can get anybody to do that for a the minimmum. JJ now was a huge, huge loss. Kurt Thomas will be that PF that they needed so despartly. So, they have fallen off a little but not so much. They still are going to be contenders. Amare is going to get even better, maybe mvp caliber... who knows, with the rate that he's be getting better every year, its not hard to imagine. Amare Stoudamire Kurt Thomas Shawn Marion Raja Bell?? Steve Nash ain't bad, and if they can reunite Finley with Nash, I can see them being close to a 60 game team. But in noway do I think they've gotten better, not at all, atleast not at this point, they turn out bing just as good if Finley can come over.
They got a little bit tougher with Bell and Thomas, but I wouldn't say that they "improved" considering that they lost 2 pieces that contributed highly to their amazing season. And one of the biggest weaknesses they needed to address is their bench and they have yet to do that either - Padgett? Burke? What the christ?
Q-Rich I agree was no big loss. His shooting efficiency was poorest among Phx's major perimeter players. However Johnson wasn't just their best 3 point shooter, he was their best perimeter defender and their 2nd best point guard. Bell might provide comparable perimeter defense, but he won't duplicate the other things. Also they lost Hunter. Yeah offensively he sucks, but he provided a defensive spark and was a presence. A plodding broken down Brian Grant (he has been useless for years) most definetly won't replace that off the bench. Overall, Phx is not better and they have less of a chance to win a ring than if they had kept last season's roster in tact and simply hired a defensive wiz and committed to it. They are less athletic and have less defensive upside losing Johnson and Hunter--who they might have harnessed into defensive forces with the right coaching. Alternatively they could have kept Johnson and Hunter while still doing the Q-Thomas trade. That would have been much better towards keeping most of their strengths (athletic and offensive guys) while also making in roads defensively. This Phx team will have a worse record and earlier playoff exit, I am fairly sure of it.
Drink up Suns Fan ! ...and anyone else who thinks Nash and Amare alone (who are both injury risks) can carry them like last season....
If they go any further in the post season, they would have to win the west. I don't think it is gonna happen.
Not only are they not going to be better they are not going to be as fun to watch. This was an amazing offensive team last year that I enjoyed watching, so many good offensive players that spread the floor and gave everybody on the team open shots; even Casey Jacobson benefitted, he looked like Steve Kerr on some days. Finley was a critical piece to salvage the off-season moves and now they ain't getting him, you have to give Colangelo a C or less for a radical makeover that he felt compelled to defend in the press because there has been so much criticism of it.
I don't see why some think they have a better chance to win now. Sure, in the regular season they'll be fine. But, they have no center Marion is a choker Nash doesn't play d Amare doesn't play d and all of that will be exposed in the playoffs. I don't even see how their additions make them a better defensive team. Unless Amare morphs into KG, they wont be approaching anything close to lockdown d. At least with last years team, they had unpredictable, dynamic O to give them a chance.
