Daily Poll: Who's your Suns MVP?

by Seth Pollack on Apr 15, 2009 1:24 PM MST in Phoenix Suns: Game Coverage

Time to hand out the hardware, so let's jump right in.

Nominee's for Suns MVP in alphabetical order are:

Grant Hill - Grant Hill will play in his 82nd game tonight for the first time in his career. He's been lively on both ends of the floor attacking the rim with renewed vigor and serving as the Suns best perimeter defender.

He's done everything the team has ask and then some. He also has been consistent in the face of change and is without question a model NBA professional.

Steve Nash - The two-time MVP struggled under Terry Porter but with the change in coaches and the injury to Amare has stepped up his aggression. Kerr called him a top point guard in the game and defense aside, he is certainly that.

Steve is on track to put up an amazing 50% FG, 44% 3P% and 93% FT%. His assists per game are "down" to 9.7 per game but that's still good enough for 3rd behind only Paul and Williams.

Shaquille O'Neal - Shaq's on the court resurgence this season has been simply amazing. He's played at a higher level then anyone thought possible putting up 18 points and 9 rebounds on almost 60% shooting. Even his FT% is up to 7 ticks to 59%.

Off the court, Shaq has been a leader in the locker room and despite all the up's and down's of the season has been as consistent as any Suns player.

Amare Stoudemire - Before his untimely injury Amare had and impressive 21 points and 8 rebound season. His shooting percentage dropped as did most of his numbers but that can easily be attributed to the slower pace and an offensive system that had him shooting more jump shoots.

Honorable Mention - Aaron Nelson, the Suns head trainer has kept Nash, Shaq and Hill on the court. None of them has missed extended time due to injury with Nash's ankle sprain being the only notable exception.

Poll

Who is your Suns MVP for this season?

Grant Hill

200 votes

Steve Nash

90 votes

Shaquille O'Neal

101 votes

Amare Stoudemire

10 votes

401 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

Voted Grant...

Consistent, mature, won or put us close in quite a few games. Been everything we’ve asked and more.

I lump the rest in with the fortunes of the team of this season.

PSN ID- presbot

by presbot on Apr 15, 2009 1:40 PM MST reply actions

Grant freaking Hill!

Grandpa still dunks, rebounds, defends, hits clutch shots. What else can we ask for?
oh, and he drinks Sprite!

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

by PanamaSun on Apr 15, 2009 1:50 PM MST reply actions

Absolutely Grant with Shaq in a close 2nd..

by brian13 on Apr 15, 2009 2:13 PM MST reply actions

How can you not vote Grant Hill?

He’s totally the next MJ!!

Seriously though, he isn’t our best player this season. But I just have a hard time voting against him, especially when all 3 other choices have obvious (and fatal, and damning) shortcomings

With the 14th pick of the 2009 NBA draft, the Pheonix Suns select... 3 million dollars!

by gadogry on Apr 15, 2009 4:11 PM MST reply actions

Imagine what Hill would have accomplished had he remained healthy..

by Gorilla Game on Apr 15, 2009 4:36 PM MST reply actions

I understand all the Grant Hill love...

I even wrote a post about how freaking amazing this season has been for him (http://tinyurl.com/dzuo3u). But, in the true sense of the term “Most VALUABLE Player” I have to vote for Nash.

1) The Suns are LOADED with wing players who can step into Hill’s role without the Suns missing too much of a beat.

2) The Suns don’t have anyone to take Nash’s place if he were out (and if somebody tries to argue that Dragic could step up and be the starting PG if we didn’t have Nash I’m going to reach through my monitor and punch you right in the nose!). Yes, Barbosa did an amazing job against the Lakers but he had to play way more minutes than we should rightfully expect from him every game of an 82 game season for the Suns to be successful.

3) We all know Nash’s shortcoming (however, I feel his D is a little underrated as he is able to slide and draw a lot of charges) but what he provides for this team that…lets face it…is clearly an offensive minded team is irreplacable by anybody else on the roster.

4) Yes, Shaq had a good season statistically but did he really add that much? We had scoring before Shaq w/ Amare, Shaq was no Duncan stopper vs the Spurs and he is just awful at guarding the pick and roll and quicker centers.

So there you have it – that’s how I can’t vote for Grant Hill. However if the award were most fun to watch or my favorite Suns player this year, Hill would win hands down.

by watdogg10 on Apr 15, 2009 4:40 PM MST reply actions

You are completely wrong on points 3 and 4

Nash’s gambling for charges usually result in blocking fouls, even though the refs often like him enough to give him the call. The other 80% of the time guys just drive past him without any resistance whatsoever.

In case you didn’t watch the games, Shaq destroyed Duncan on interior defense. Remember Duncan scoring like 8 of 9 against Doris/Amare down in the block? Shaq’s size and strength make it hell for Duncan in the low post. Duncan nv shot close to 35% “IN THE PAINT” when matched up against Shaq.

However, Duncan exploited Shaq with his face-up game, and of course, the pick and roll/pick and pop. That’s where all Duncan’s points came from. It’s not like Duncan was using the pivot-fake-layup 6 times in a row against Shaq. Oh wait, that was Amare.

by felixthm on Apr 16, 2009 9:07 PM MST up reply actions