The Return Of The Phoenix Suns (Hopefully) & Junior

Joe Johnson posed an interesting question over the weekend: “Who knows how many rings we would have had (had the Suns re-signed him)?” Probably at least one. Even with Amare out for the 05-06 season, the presence of Johnson would have been enough to push Phoenix past Dallas, and they would have likely succeeded in running past Miami in the Finals. With Johnson on the payroll they wouldn’t have been able to ink a lot of free agents to fill out the bench, but some of the draft picks that they traded away for cash turned out to be solid players like Sergio Rodriguez, Nate Robinson and Rajon Rondo. With guys like those on their rookie contracts and the core still intact, they probably would have at least had a ring or two by now. Part of the blame goes to Mike D’Antoni for refusing to give minutes to any rookies not named Leandro Barbosa, but most goes to Robert Sarver for being unwilling to pay money to keep the team’s core intact, even when they probably had 4 of the top 20 players in the league on their roster. Worse still, he was largely responsible for chasing Bryan Colangelo out of town, which eventually led to the hiring of Steve Kerr. Of course, Kerr proceeded to do his best to destroy the team, and here we are today. At times I can't help but wonder if Kerr is still secretly working for the Spurs.

The good news is that it looks like the Suns have dusted off the old 7 seconds or less philosophy, but the bad news is that there’s just a shade over 30 games left in the season with the Suns sitting in 9th place. I still have faith that this team can make the postseason and do some damage, especially since it’s apparent that Alvin Gentry still remembers how to run D’Antoni’s sets. They say that defense wins championships, an adage so routinely repeated over the years that it's become banal and commonplace, but it doesn't take a genius to see that some teams are built to play defense, some are built to run. I mean, if you're going to drop 500k on a Ferrari, you'd may as well let it loose. Beating a shorthanded Clippers team twice is nothing to to celebrate about, but scoring 140 and 142 points in regulation certainly is, if only because it means that the old Suns are back, hopefully for good.



It’s gonna be cool seeing Ken Griffey Jr. in a Mariners uniform again. Now we won’t have to worry about Nike putting out the Air Griffey in Atlanta Braves colors. Hopefully he’ll still be playing when they inevitably release the classic Griffey 2.