It’s becoming more and more apparent that he’s not a complete player, more of an offensive specialist who is the greatest assisted finisher in the league. If our offense involved a lot of pick and rolls and weakside cuts off of Shaq, than yeah, maybe he could be our go to guy on offense, but that’s not our offense anymore(unfortunately), and Amare still isn’t all too adept at A)creating his own shot, and B)doing anything with his back to the basket.

Add that to the fact that he apparently doesn’t give a damn about rebounding, playing defense, creating for others and being a leader on the court and in the lockerroom….I’m becoming throughly disenchanted with my favorite player.

He’s had flashes of “complete games”, like that Indiana game, but that’s it. So far(even throughout his career) he’s proven to be more of a super role-player. I know that comment is going to make a lot of people mad, but honestly, he doesn’t contribute anything but buckets, and if he can’t even do that in our new offense, than yeah, I have no problem calling him a super effective/efficient role-player, because he’s certainly not a “franchise player” on the level of Bosh, Wade, James.

Wade grabbed the bull by the horns tonight, whereas Amare just let the game sail by. He complains about this crappy system we’re running with merit, but that means he should work even harder to contribute in other areas, and he should position himself in great position to score. Just play with some passion, man. Play with some desire. Grant Hill’s out there running the floor, crashing to the ground, going after loose balls, trying valiantly to stay in front of his defender, mixing it up inside, and this super athletic 6’10 beast can’t do that?

It’s a damn shame.

And I don’t buy the argument that he can ‘improve’, because he’s in his SEVENTH SEASON! He’s not going to improve in the other areas of the game, and that’s what’s really keeping him from leaping to that next level, to the level of the true franchise players.

Nash doesn’t play defense, but the man tries; that we can all acknowledge. He’s our leader, he takes over games when he needs to, he gets everyone involved, he’s our compass in the lockerroom and on the court. HE is our franchise player, not Amare, and that’s worrisome, because he’s 400 years old. Most of all, he never takes a game off, and he never sulks on the court and vanishes. That’s all I want to see from Amare; some spark, some fire, that doesn’t directly result from force-feeding him on the offensive end. True franchise players can dominate a game without scoring a single point; Nash, Duncan, Garnett come to mind.

Help me Amare Stoudemire; you’re my only hope.

/Leia

Its simply knowing that you’re team is heading down the wrong path. When Shaq came over, we were told that it wont be his team. Shaq’s job was to just fit in where he’s needed. Instead, we’ve seen it become shaq’s team, and the whole team is suffering. Take shaq out of the picture, keep all the rest of the players and what do you have? You have a team that is built to run with the ball and shoot from anywhere on the court. We’re not a post-up team. The squad we have was never meant to play that style of basketball. Sure Shaq will get his numbers. He has to; he’s the team now. But Nash no longer has the opportunities to toss lobs to the hoop for somebody (a la amare/marion). There’s no dribble-penetration; and if there is, its too crowded and the ball ends up being turned over.

When I said it before, it was looked at as fans being in a state of panic, and its too early in the season to panic. No way! Its early enough in the season to fix a few, dare I say, mistakes tht we’ve made.

Defence should always be on evrey player/team’s mind. But Our defence hasnt gotten better, while our offence has gotten much worse. Even though it didnt win us a title, the run-and-gun suns could get a lot closer than this type of team.

Porter is a great guy/coach. But if you want to coach a team like the spurs, go to the spurs. This is the Suns. We’re historically a small-ball, up-and-down the court, fast paced team. Dont change what works! Even when the suns were at the closest we’ve been in franchise history (‘93 finals vs bulls), we were the #1 scoring team. I do believe that we could(’ve) win/won a championship with the 7SOL mentality.

If the players want to win, they know what it takes to get it done. Its not like this team never played with eachother before. Go out there, and do what you’ve done in the past. Get on that highlight reel again, only on the giving end like you used to be. I hate seeing the top 10 plays of the week, and the suns in 4 on the recieving end. You’re embarressing me!!!!

That game was pitiful. The turnovers in the first quarter were almost comical. What I thought funny was that thye Suns kept trying to do the same thing, with the same result. Everyone must share the blame. Amare gets a D not for defense, but for his foolish attempts at challenging Marion and the other Heat perimeter defenders. Raja gets an F because he was exposed by Wade to be a defensive fraud. Porter gets a D because he is probably the worst coach I’ve seen at in-game adjustment.

The record is deceiving, because you do have good players, and the schedule has been cream-puff-like. Granted, they beat Detroit, but other than that, do they have a quality victory? They lose the Pacer game unless Amare has the game of his life. They lose to OKC unless Porter inexplicably lets Nash be Nash in the 4th quarter. Can you guys point to a stretch where Porter’s coaching put us into position to win? He is not a big-time coach. I can’t believe Kerr couldn’t find anyone else.

My brother still insists Kerr is a plant from the Spurs to destroy our organization. He may have sommething there. Here’s what Kerr has done:

Let KT go, Kurt eventually joins Spurs.
Trades for Shaq, then Spurs lure Suns into believing shaq is the difference maker, then SA blows Suns out of playoffs
Kerr spends all his energy this summer going after a second round pick, spends gobs of money and eventually signs him to more money than Lopez, and now he is not even playing regularly, and when he does, he looks lost.
Draft Lopez, then put him on the bench (Speights looks good in Philly)

Two cast offs (Singletary and Amundsen) are playing ahead of Dragic and Lopez.

Some random thoughts:

I think it’s pretty simple. Singletary plays with more poise and confidence. How many rookie PG’s do you see out there playing like all stars? How many PG’s Dragic’s age from Europe do you see playing like all stars?

I didn’t watch the majority of the Heat game, but I did see Singletary play pretty good in the first quarter. I cannot tell what happened after that.

I will say it’s pretty clear Raja cannot be counted on as a lock down defender anymore.

Listen, we can’t do this makeover or whatever you want to call it without buy in from the prior regime’s players. Our guys are used to 7SOL and they they were built for it. I get the feeling we’re just playing things out until contracts expire or certain deals present themselves. I think Steve Kerr would be very happy to finish the season an 8 seed and be done in one in the playoffs. At least he has something under his belt to show the fans. “We did make the playoffs!?”

It’s typical to hear negative fan, player, and media response. I think planet orange is starting to resemble the Laker nation or whatever they are called. You’re on the bandwagon when the team is good, you criticize when the team is bad even though common sense should tell you that your product isn’t very good.

Given the offseason, the new coach and players, etc., WHAT DID WE ALL EXPECT?

Long time fans can remember many losing seasons and all different coaches. It just hurts when you look at a roster with the roster and know the talent is there but dont see it shining the way it has in the past and the way it should now.

Right on the money man..