While we're still a contender-worthy team....

The Suns are. Its VERY hard to beat them with our team. The Mavericks are a different story. We can beat them. We just need to get the max effort from all of our players and great game from Tmac and our defense will do the rest.

 

That is true right now. But when Yao returns, who knows what will happen in playoff.

 

I think we should acquire the best low post player in the game.

Oh wait, we have him.

What kind of thread is this? We are missing half of our team.

They are better regular season teams, but we can challenge them in the playoffs

 

with Yao back in then we are on par with the elite

 

Too early to tell til Yao comes back. I mean when he went out, the team started comming together. Players were finally finding their roles.

Yao on Amare is a huge mismatch in our favor.

 

nobody on the suns can stop yao ming. neither can anyone on dallas. all you gotta do is control the tempo, which is difficult, but if we can do it we can beat anyone

 

Maybe we can try putting the best center in the league into the lineup.

 

With the impending arrival of Yao, the trade for our last player on the bench for a serviceable backup center in Tsakalidis, and a possible upcoming trade for a better backup PG, the Rox will have more upside than any team in the West after the All-Star break.

As it stands now, the Rox have the deepest bench it has had in recent memory and look poised to make a deep run in the playoffs.

 

sorry to disagree but you are 100% incorrect. the suns are a paper tiger. the mavs are the real deal. the suns are far too dependent on nash and their D is not that good. the mavs are a flat out bad ass team loaded with great scorers and defenders. I am not going to break it down because I don't have time but the mavs are going to be EXTREMELY hard to beat this year because they are so talented and so hungry after last year's disappointment.

 

We can beat the suns. The mavs? That'll take a little outside help. I'm considering serving prison time for breaking Dirk and Josh Howard's ankles. Go rockets!

 

SUN is not that great, they actually have a losing record to Top west teams except us.

I would say 50/50 to both teams, at least

 

nobody on our team can stop dirk

and the suns will dictate the tempo.

 

I think, right now in this season, our focus should be more on Jason Terry, Josh Howard and Jerry Stackhouse. They've had no problems taking some of the weight off of Dirk whenever the Rockets play them. If we can contain them and even shut them down, things will be a LOT easier than shutting Dirk down and having everyone else (even Devean George) get hot.

 

Guard play is the key. Like most have mentioned, neither team can stop Yao. The key is for our guards to get the ball to Yao over and over again. Defensively, our guards need to make sure the pace of the game is slow and deliberate. Notice how we were right there with Dallas last weak and all of the sudden they run off a ton of points on fastbreaks. We can't let that happen although scoring buckets instead of missing long jumpers would cure most of that problem.

 

Your on point!I been thinking the same thing also.

 

we should have never let the "dirk stopper" go.

 

The Playoffs really come down to one thing: clutch shooting. Suns choke when it matters and so does Dallas. Case in point, last year's NBA finals.

 

Seems like the Suns have been very good at making Yao irrelevant.