Random, Gut Reactions to the Celtics' Win

I’ll admit though, this might show how twisted I am, I would love to have seen the Lakers actually lead this one, only to lose it (again) in the 4th quarter.

I’m not bitter at all.

Talking about the paper dynasty and next year:

They need more than Bynum. They need toughness in the middle. They needed maturity everywhere.

Also, is the East rising? After the draft, we may have a better clue but look at the bad teams getting better (Atlanta), the mid-pack (Orlando) and the falling West (Suns, Mavs). This regular season may have been the high-water mark for the West for some time to come.

The Spurs are certainly going to reload around their main 3, and while aging, I have to think they’re not done yet. Portland looks to be much improved, Yao will be back for an already formidable team, the Jazz arguably underachieved for most of this year, Golden State just missed the playoffs with a better record than most of the East, and even the Clippers are poised to be (somewhat) better as Elton Brand returns. Meanwhile, most of the east continues to be in turmoil—the Bucks are awful, Chicago, #1 pick or no is in shambles, Miami will be bad again, Indiana is a mess, New Jersey will be weaker without Kidd, the New York D’antoni’s are no guarantee, the Bobcats are still mighty weak, Detroit appears to be ready to make a major move or two, and we know how that can go…

Let’s not forget the Suns, while certainly not title favorites like last year, are probably still legitimate contenders, or perhaps still the upper crust of the 2nd tier. I’m still not quite sure how the Lakers made it all the way to the finals, but I never really did buy them, and the Celtics have exposed their many flaws. I’m looking forward to Shaq/Amare v Bynum/Gasol, I’ll tell you that.

Eddie House, NBA Champion…. ?

I have three observations, two observations on the poster’s observation, another an amplification .

6 – Danny Ainge – Who woulda thunk it? I really thought we should have done more to keep him, maybe making him the assistant GM when coaching took up too much of his time. Then he could have taken over when BC left. We really screwed our franchise over by having MikeD do both jobs for a while, I maintain that never works (give me an example of a coach/GM that works). 10 – WORD on this one. That team was NOT a great team. Kobe proved he was just as much an MVP disappointment as Dirk. Remember Amare tore Gasol apart in the 05 playoffs? Defensively, Pau hasn’t improved. Odom is still maddeningly inconsistent, and you have nothing but a mishmash of talented but limited parts in Farmar, Walton, Fisher, and VRad. the only thing that makes this a great team is PJ. If Phil knows what is good for him, he will rub the Buddha for good luck in Bynum’s rehabilitation, because the only way this team gets better is if Andrew becomes a beast.

Item #3 is a combination of point #3 and ZF’s point #14. Former Suns had 28 points in the final game. ‘Nuff said. I hear you, JSun, in your opinion that Rondo would have not played under D’Antoni, and if that is true, that should be the final argument for MikeD’s demise as Suns coach. We should not have a coach who is that stubborn, pure and simple. And that may have been Kerr’s behind closed doors position.

My brother is always fond of pointing out how many ex-Cardinals have left Arizona and gone on to play or win in Super Bowls (Simeon Rice, Michael Pittman, thomas Jones, Aeneas Williams, etc.). How about ex-Suns that have gone on to win championships? In addition to House and Rondo (technically an ex-Sun), we have

Paul Silas
Charlie Scott
Dennis Johnson

This threesome represents a comedy of errors. First, Jerry Colangelo lusted after Scott so much that Red was able to pry Silas away. Paul went on to help the C’s win the 1974 championship. Then we traded Scott for Westphal, and Scott played on the ‘76 championship team with Silas. Finally, we traded Westphal to Seattle for DJ, and DJ on to Boston for the immortal Rick Robey, in still another foolish attempt to get a big man. DJ proceeded to add two more chips to his resme to go along with the one he won before coming to Phoenix. So we directly contributed to 4 Celtic championships, 5 if you count the Rondo/House contribution this year. For this contribution, we received Charlie Scott for two uninspired years, Paul Westphal for some entaertainment value, DJ for a few years of rancor if I remember, Rick Robey, and the Hall of Famer Three Million Dollar Cash Consideration (for Rondo). I think TMDCC is a power forward, I’m not sure.

And so you see, those of you Suns fans who came aboard in the Barkley years, or with 7SOL, the front office foolishness you so bitterly gripe about is nothing new.

(list continues)

Sam Cassell – for various scrubs – of course Sam took a roundabout journey, but he joins DJ and Horry as the only former Suns player sto win championships BEFORE and AFTER their Suns tenure.

(boy, are we generous to the Celts!!)

James Edwards – for a 2nd round choice? I’m not sure (Pistons)
Michael Finley – for the pick that became Marion (San Antone via Dallas)
Gail Goodrich – for Mel Counts

(a lot of people don’t remember Stumpy. In another of our memorable failures at getting a big man, we traded him tback o the Lakers for Mel Counts, and Stumpy led the 69-13 Larer team in scoring)

Robert Horry – I think to get Ceballos back from LA (Lakers, Spurs) – BTW, anyone have a picture of him in a Suns uni?
Stephen Jackson – let go for nothing (Spurs)
Steve Kerr – can’t remember who we got for him (Bulls, Spurs)

Feel free to add any more if you can think of them.

Didn’t the Sam Cassell trade yield Jason Kidd, and wasn’t Finley was part of that deal, too?—Dallas later traded him (Cassell) and most of their roster to New Jersey for Shawn Bradley and most of their roster, as I recall.

Stephen Jackson spent several years bumping around the minors and getting cut in training camps prior to picking up with the Spurs—when the Suns cut him loose, the impact was similar losing Paul Shirley.

Horry had to go after throwing the towel at Ainge, just as Club Ced’s Laker career was doomed after he took off to Lake Havasu for 2 weeks as the Lakers made a late season push in Magic’s comeback season. As an aside, I still have several years worth of issues of “Fastbreak”, the Suns old monthly magazine, I’m quite certain I’ve got the one with Horry on the cover, i’ll see if I can dig that up and post it.

Probably the worst moves aside from losing JJ, was whiffing on McDyess and Pippin after the lockout, and settling for Googs and Luc Longley. The Suns were sitting pretty with McDyess good to go on a Bird exception, plus enough cap room to get Pippin. Picture Kidd, Rex, Pip, and McDyess as most of your starting line-up….

I still remember his early statements after coming to the Suns from Houston about how he was looking forward to playing in an offense that didn’t involve throwing the ball into Hakeem in the post, and then standing around on the 3-point line waiting for it to come back out, so that he could showcase his skills. 4 months later, after he was traded to LA, he started talking about how his game was much more suited to throwing the ball into Shaq, and then waiting around on the 3-point line…tool. Thankfully, it looks like he is done for good.