07-08 Suns: Year in Review

About a week removed from the date of their elimination, a proper, rational review of the Suns year is in order. This season in a nutshell? Disappointing. The feeling in the air following the 2005 playoffs was optimism. We had lost to the eventual champs while playing most of the series without Joe Johnson, our second best playmaker, and Amare Stoudemire had run absolutely amok, averaging a disgusting 37 ppg against the Spurs. At season's end, the Suns had the youngest, fastest, most exciting core in the league, and with the world's best point guard in Steve Nash running the show, the crystal ball showed nothing but promise.

Unfortunately, the offseason was a mild disaster, as Joe Johnson left for Atlanta, Quentin Richardson was traded for Kurt Thomas, and microfracture surgery knocked Amare Stoudemire off the roster. In the end, the 05-06 Suns overachieved mightily, returning to the WCF behind unexpected career seasons from Boris Diaw, Leandro Barbosa, Tim Thomas, and Raja Bell, not to mention the usual brilliance of Steve Nash and Shawn Marion. In hindsight, that season was Phoenix's best chance at the title. Had Raja Bell not gone down with a freak calf injury in game 1 against the Mavericks, the Suns could very likely have been in the Finals against Miami, a matchup nightmare for Shaq and the Heat. Despite the loss to Dallas, it was tough not to be proud of how far that undermanned, undersized team had crawled, and at season's end, the feeling was that a returning Stoudemire would be enough to push the team over the top in 2007.

As luck would have it, the infamous game 5 suspensions of Amare and Diaw meant that the Suns would again falter against their nemesis, the San Antonio Spurs. Would the Suns have won with STAT and Diaw in the lineup? Perhaps, perhaps not. But again, the fact was that the Suns were without an integral cog at the time of their elimination, inevitably bringing fans optimism heading into the 07-08 season. That optimism was warranted, but with the West in a bit of a delirious arms race in the aftermath of the Lakers winning the Pau Gasol lottery, the Suns made the decision to trade Shawn Marion for Shaquille O'Neal. The reasoning was sound: Shaq would provide the Suns with someone who could guard Tim Duncan one on one (and that he did), as well as a post presence to take some pressure off of Nash (he did - to a certain extent). So where did they go wrong? As is the annual trend, a starter - Grant Hill - was rendered a non-factor by an untimely injury, the Suns never quite recovered from a double OT game 1 loss, and quite simply, the team was outcoached.

Now, as we await the start of the 08-09 year, there's considerably less to be excited about. We've gone from being one of the youngest teams in the league to one of the oldest in a span of 4 seasons, our MVP has probably one All-Star season left, if that, and one of our centerpieces is the type of plodding powerhouse that we used to exploit with our run & gun style. In short, we're old, quite conventional, and the window is closing fast. The comparisons to the Webber era Kings are actually looking less disputable by the day. On the flip side, the Suns still have one of the most talented rosters in the league, and depending on the health of the old timers - Nash, Hill, Shaq - they certainly have a puncher's chance at next season's title...but gone are days when we could dream dynasty.

The squad:

Mike D'Antoni - Looks to be on his way out, and I gotta admit, I'm gonna miss him. I won't miss the apparent disregard for defense (not entirely true, but perception is king), the timeouts that always seemed to come two or three plays too late, or least of all, the painfully short rotations. But I certainly will miss that whole fearless gunslinger mentality. Say what you will, but D'Antoni's vision helped to make the NBA truly exciting again. Three teams averaged 110 points per game this season, and though Golden State has officially unseated us as the premier fastbreaking team in the league, it's been kind of cool to see more and more teams scoring in the hundreds over the past few years. You better believe that Q, Nate Robinson and Jamal Crawford are salivating at the chance to play for D'Antoni out in NY, and I don't doubt that Ben Gordon and Luol Deng are crossing their fingers over in Chi as well. I'll be honest here. Only one team can win it all, and if that's not going to be your team, you could do a lot worse than having a really, really exciting squad to watch and cheer for. In spite of his flaws, D'Antoni certainly provided that. I'm all for a coaching change if it'll bring the team a title, but I'm not convinced that there's a coach of that caliber available.

Steve Nash - Had an impeccable shooting season - 50% from the field, 47% from 3, and 90% from the stripe. People say he's on the decline, but not too many players can get you points/assists double-doubles on a nightly basis. Nash remains the team's most important player, and defensive shortcomings aside, it's tough to find too much flaw with Steve. He looked a little out of sync with the offense going through Boris so much late in the SA series, but that goes to show just how much Nash had been carrying this team over the years.

Raja Bell - A bunch of nagging injuries hurt his production some, but as usual, Raja was one of guys bringing it night in and night out. His grit is irreplaceable on a team often maligned for being too soft. I'd kill to have a healthy season from this guy.

Grant Hill - Played above and beyond expectations. Logged over 30 minutes a night, provided the type of playmaking from the wing not seen since JJ left, took charges (probably too many), and is STILL one of the best finishers in the league in the open court. No joke. At about $2 million a year, he remains arguably the league's biggest bargain, but his durability remains an issue. The 70 regular season games were nice, but he was bothered by a groin injury during the most important time of the year. If nothing else, he was probably the season's biggest bright spot for this team.

Amare Stoudemire - The good first: his jumper is almost automatic at this point, and when he's tuned in, he's a beast on the offensive end. The bad: he can't stay out of foul trouble, consistently gets lost on defense, and still has no discernible post game. He seemed to take issue with D'Antoni consistently going to Boris in the post during games 4 and 5, but he really needs to develop some sort of a back to the basket game if he wants to be the unstoppable offensive force that he seems to think he his. I'm going to go ahead and predict that he averages 27+ next season based on the strength of his jumper and his ability to finish alone, but he could literally be unstoppable with a jump hook. It's that simple. What's crazy is that he'd be one of the greatest ever if he learned how to play solid defense.

Shaquille O'Neal - Can't complain. He did what he was brought in to do, played hard, and minus the vertical, looked vintage in brief spurts. I don't buy into this notion that trading for Shaq was a huge disaster, because it's not so much what he did or didn't provide, it's what Shawn Marion was taking away from the team that hurt. And if you've seen the Matrix play, what he provided was a little bit of everything. Shaq's hefty contract does cast a bit of a shadow over the whole situation, but there's no reason not to be optimistic over what Shaq could potentially do once he gets an actual training camp under his belt. Having the Diesel on our side was kind of fun for a change - especially for Suns fans who remember Uncle Cliffy and Rodney Rogers trying in vain to guard him - but being on the receiving end of Hack-a-Shaq was absolutely painful.

Leandro Barbosa - A bit of a disappointing year for Barbs. His 3-point shot wasn't quite the same this year, and for whatever reason, he didn't look as comfortable as he had during the past two seasons. His flaws are well documented - tunnel vision, not a natural point guard, can be a bit of a chucker, not the highest basketball IQ - but Barbosa is arguably the team's most explosive scorer when his shot is falling. Hopefully he can bounce back next season, but rumblings are that his reasonable contract could make him trade bait.

Boris Diaw - Another mostly disappointing year, capped off by a pair of spectacular games against the Spurs, where he averaged 21 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists. His post-up game remains crisp, and in terms of raw ability, Diaw is still one of the most unique, versatile talents in the league. His problem is that he tends to disappear for long (LONG) stretches, and for better or worse, he seems to play his best ball when he has the rock in his hands. Given that Amare wants to take the bulk of the shots on offense, maximizing both talents while they're in the same lineup seems somewhat unlikely. Unfortunately, that reduces Boris to being a $9 million role player, somewhat of a shame because we've all seen what he can do when he's featured in the offense.

The rest - Brian Skinner provided the best beard in the league, and last I checked, he was second to only Marcus Camby in blocks per 48 minutes. I'd love to have him back, because he clearly deserved more playing time than he got...Gordan Giricek was a pleasant surprise. We got him for his shooting, but he provided a little somethin' off the dribble too, which was nice. Love to have him back too, but like Skinner, Gordan probably played himself into a nicer contract elsewhere...DJ Strawberry and Alando Tucker, the rookies. DJ provided a lot of intangibles and could be a real solid player once he learns how to shoot. Alando we didn't get to see much of, but he has the athletic ability and the tools to be good scorer. With D'Antoni likely gone, the young cats will get some run, which is probably what I'm most looking forward too...Sean Marks and Eric Piatkowski. Sean can really shoot for a big guy. Eric can really shoot. Neither will be impact players, but for what it's worth, I like them both as long as they stay on the bench.

Not a real great season for me, but I'll still be watching. I'm praying that we get CP3's Hornets against the Lakers, because that's a series that I could really get into. And of course, I'm pulling for Detroit out East.