Suns prepare for new era of fluxball

by Phoenix Stan on Jun 10, 2008 10:44 AM MDT in Commentary Comment 8 comments

Terry Porter is in. Vinnie Del Negro is out.

Defensive intensity and deeper rotations are in. Seven seconds or less is out.

Of course, observant Suns fans saw SSOL die in game 6 of the 2007 Spurs series and watched D'Antoni try and adjust his system to the reality of playoff basketball culminating in the Shaq trade in early February.

The Suns ceded their "offense is the best defense" philosophy but failed to replace it with "defense is the best defense". Ultimately, they were never able to develop the flexibility of mind or roster to respond to Grant Hill's late season injury which is the main reason the Suns lost the first three games of this year's playoffs.

Terry Porter now takes over a team in flux. Stacked with aging stars, young talent and an incredible enigma entering his prime. He seems to recognize the team's flaws and is confident that with a few more pieces and roster tweaks the Suns will be right back in the mix. I would expect nothing less from the guy. What else can he say?

Fortunately for Porter, the bar has been lowered. The Suns will enter the next season for the first time in four seasons on no one's list of potential champions let alone picked as division winners. That provides the golden opportunity for a better then expected result and also gives Porter the freedom to fail - something D'Antoni hasn't felt in a long time.

So welcome Fluxball to Phoenix - where the organization has no choice but to double down on the Big Gamble and can realistically end the season as a 2nd seed or in the lottery.

Suns fans should be surprised by nothing and appreciate anything. In its own way it promises to be a season filled with more joy for all involved and I am starting to get excited about it already.

0 recs | Comment 8 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

No excitement can be a good thing

I was thinking last night that this may be a good thing—the uninterestedness in the Porter hire.

Why does everything have to be sexy and fast? Pop’s been in SA for how long? And has how many titles? Sloan’s done a good job. Phil Jackson …

I think Kerr mentioned it—an understated leadership. Maybe, hopefully, Porter’s got that. It’s the whole Rocky vs. Apollo thing. The Suns have been Apollo Creed and, for the last four years, the Sp*rs have been Rocky to their Apollo. Is Porter Mick?

Mmmmm ... Guinness

by JSun on Jun 10, 2008 10:52 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs

Let's just hope he's not Pauly

Actually, he’s saying all of the right stuff. I particularly like how he called out Amare’s defense. I know that saying the right stuff it is one thing, and getting it done is another. But at least he’s saying it…

Footnote: I’m not a big Mike D’Antoni fan, so I wanted to give that dead horse another kick or two. When you watch the playoffs, have you noticed the kinds of answers you get from non-D’Antoni coaches when their team is down at halftime, or the team has just lost? Inevitably, the coaches talk about specific things they need to do to get better: better spacing; quicker defensive rotations; a lot more help on the pick and roll; better shot selection; boxing out on the defensive end, etc. They’ll even call out specific players: “so and so has to start making his shots”; “so and so has to do a much better job helping from the weak side”; etc. And they’ll sit a guy when he’s ineffective (think of Ray Allen and Lamar Odom at various points in various series).

Now, back to D’Antoni. When he gets these kinds of questions, he says stuff like, “We just didn’t come out with any energy,” or, “We lacked defensive intensity,” or, “I don’t really have any answers for you. We played hard; they were just better.” He almost never calls out anybody. And he definitely will NOT sit his favorites, even when they fail to show up (that means you, LB).

I’m not saying that the emperor has no clothes. I’m saying that it’s possible he has only one outfit. It’s nice. Looks great…very fashionable, even fun. It will get you into 95 percent of the places that you might want to go. But it lacks a certain level of sophistication and detail required to get you into the very BEST places…places like the NBA finals.

by beatcal on Jun 10, 2008 11:14 AM MDT up reply actions 2 recs

D'Antoni's Knicks

If you’re right, he is going to get fried by the New York press.

April 29, 2008 Total Eclipse of the Sun. Is the sky falling?

by Hawk42 on Jun 10, 2008 11:20 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

If Porter is smart, he will still retain some elements of 7SOL, but it should be an option, not the whole enchilada. Looking back on it, pegging all your hopes and dreams on a system that relies on beating the other team doen the court leaves no option for when they beat you down the court. 7SOL did not last four years. It suffered a mortal would when we lost JJ and Q – we were foolish to think it could recover. The second blow was Amare’s injury, and the death knell was the loss of the Matrix. We were dreaming when we thought that the current roster could sustain it.

Which is why I have little patience with those who still lament the loss of D’Antoni, and refuse to derive encouragement from the hiring of Porter. If PS signs off, Porter/Silas is better than D’Antoni/Gentry/Weber, if only that it represents an admission that we were on the wrong track, and the truth of my first paragraph has hit home.

SoI agree with JSun – if we were all excited and hailed TP as the savior, there would be all this pressure on him, and he would feel the need to make a big splash. As it is, I don’t think anyone expects more than a 50 win season and a 7 or 8 seed. And that can be a good thing. As PhoenixStan indicated earlier, how Amare responds to the challenge can still get us a championship. Do we get the Amare that battled KG in the first Boston game for 75 games next year? If so, we can win it. If he makes strides but can’t get there, and we have improvement from Diaw and a rookie works out, who knows?

For the first time in three years, we can dream. The last three years were fool’s gold based on the 2005 success that could not continue. The dream is now based on hope, not foolish designs.

Let’s see what happens.

April 29, 2008 Total Eclipse of the Sun. Is the sky falling?

by Hawk42 on Jun 10, 2008 11:18 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs

What can I say...

I’m excited and very nervous at the same time. I feel Kerr made a good choice in hiring TP. I hope he really brings the balance between offense and defense that everyone is talking about. I’m fine with the fact that the Suns are going to be considered underdogs.

I have a couple of doubts that concern me a little:
If the practices are going to take longer, how will this affect Shaq, Grant and Steve?
If he is going to reduce their minutes, someone will have to step up big time, especially in in PG position. If he is planning to hold players accountable for their mistakes…what is he going to do with Nash on the defensive end? Sit him the whole game? We all know that Nash is a liability on one end of the floor and a genious on the other. On his worst games, he is STILL better than most PGs in the league.

As Hawk said… Let’s see what happens.

"Basketball doesn't build character. It reveals it"

by PanamaSun on Jun 10, 2008 11:59 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs

Fluxball

I love this term. Haven’t the Suns been playing that since that Shaq trade?

by Mike Lisboa on Jun 13, 2008 10:09 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs

I don't know if suns' fans know this

but I believe that outside of the spurs/suns fanbases, the majority of the rest of NBA fans were probably rooting for the suns in last year’s wc semis. I thought you guys had your best chance to win a title with the nash/stoudemire/marion trio last year, but unfortunately, things didn’t work out. I realize that regardless of whether you like it or not, the team is in a semi/complete rebuilding mode, especially with shaq at the end of his tether and tp being the new leader. If you picture a classic half court set type of team for the suns, what current players could realistically work in that kind of system, where a defensive mentality is emphasized? The way I see it, the team will never win a championship now as long as nash is at the helm, simply because he can’t play defense. Although Raja Bell is a phenomenal defensive player, you are perpetually going to have problems against teams like the spurs, who field two all-star level guards at the 1 and 2. SSOL didn’t really work out mainly because opponents (again the spurs) that were characterized as defensive-minded were able to adjust to the SSOL mentality by relying on their guards, and your perimeter wasn’t able to hold its own. So, the big question becomes, what is your team going to do this offseason. Are you going to try to buy another piece and work that into this rotation, hoping that the championship window still has a crack? Or are you going to commit hardcore to rebuilding, dumping/trading aging veterans ala shaq, hill, nash, etc? Although I am a blazer fan, I really enjoyed suns basketball for the past few years, and I feel bad/angry that the spurs have dented your hopes two years in a row. There is no easy fix in the draft, but perhaps if you move a couple of pieces, you can get high enough to draft a top flight sg or a pg, to groom behind nash/bell.

by premthegrem on Jun 13, 2008 8:41 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs