Does The Suns' Depth Make Up For The Lack Of Star Power?

I agree they are an extremely versatile team and extremely deep. Gentry will have alot of options to work with. I’m holding all hope that Lopez is going to become a mad rebounding shot blocking machine. Playing on team USA will Be HUGE for him.

Unless Lawal can establish his game quickly, we still need a more traditional PF on our roster.

Bring Josh Smith to PHX campaign.

but trying to figure out how to use it is way more important than having it. The cavs had like 5 PF/C’s but failed to use them properly; relying on Shaq to guard KG when Hickson gave them trouble during the regular season.

I think some combination of J-Rich’s expiring and either Earl Clark or Jared Dudley will be used by the Suns to find a more legit power forward. Solves the log-jam at the 3, allows Childress to move in as a starting 2 instead of paying $7m/year for a backup, and gives us the best option for the most talent in return.

Not sure if I said this on BSOTS, but if I were Gentry, my starting line-up would be Nash, Richardson, Turkoglu, Warrick, and Lopez. Yeah, Grant’s not great off the bench, but Turk’s gonna give more production as a starter than Hill will.

Here a few of my opininions:

Lack of Superstars: I think we’ve dealt with this issue respectably before. In fact – even with Amare here he wasn’t considered a ‘Superstar’ as much as he was considered an ‘All-star’. There’s a difference… and if you really look at our team – we DO have Steve Nash (Superstar), Jason Richardson (borderline All-Star), and Taylor Griffin. I think the Suns have always known that the lack the star-power necessary and thus they have always tried to burn the ‘teamwork>selfish star’ oil. Their focus on teamwork and chemistry compensates greatly for a lack of talent.

To me -deeper is better. This year is different from any year in PHX history – we have the talent and depth to have 10 players legitimately and regularly score double-digits. We never expected that from Lou – Jarron Collins – or even Dragic or Lopez. But now the story is different, RoLo and Dragic can and should do it regularly and Warrick & Childress will produce 100% more offensively and possibly defensively as Collins and Lou. Combine that ish with chemistry and it’s a potent concoction.

Defensive Liabilities Team: One thing I heard and that I’m sure can and will work for us defensively this year is implementing ‘the girly zone’ as an actual defensive scheme instead of just as a last resort – that has proven to be effective for us against superior size, and now we have some better perimeter defenders to rotate and close out better on shooters. This for me is something to watch for.

I’ll stop now so I don’t get TL;DR’ed

The concerns about our defense come a long way now. We had Amare, a beast, who never rebounded well or defended well. Our concern to replace him should be on the offense, and we’ve shown that we are capable of doing that and winning without him.

I am truly excited about Childress, but I’m really waiting on Turk’s attitude to get a opinion. I believe we’ll be fine.

the Suns have a few unique things going for them:

1. Steve Nash. even at 36 he’s still the best pg in the league at doing the things pg’s are supposed to do. Borderline top 25 all-time player, and the prototype/role model for a new generation of point guards.
2. A fully functional second unit. This is what will allow us to win games, and will propel us deep into the playoffs
3. Grant Hill.. NBA co-ROY, and the guy who should have been the next Jordan, but whose wheels fell off. Still capable.

what we lack is size, defense and rebounding, especially the latter. you just can’t win a title unless you deny the opposition second chances, and maximize your own.

However, the key is going to be our second unit, which imho could be the starting 5, or close to it, for a number of the more lowly teams in the NBA. At the risk of repeating myself, it’s the ability of this second unit to turn up the intensity, or give the opposition a completely different look that will allow us to overcome many good teams.

We already know how good our starting 5 is, even with Warrick in place, but if the 2nd unit can raise it’s average level of play, and become more consistent from last year (and, imho, if the 2nd unit had played just a little better during the Laker series, we’d have won the title this year.. It was that close), then we can hang with anyone including the new Miami Heat.

Any time I start to nitpick the Suns for maybe not being tall enough or lacking a 10 rpg player or any of that crap, I stop and think about all the Pacers, T-Wolves and Warriors fans.
Then I hug myself and sigh.

The team picked up extra wing talent…(childress/dudley/j-rich/hill/clark) in order to facilitate a smooth transition when they dump Jason Richardson’s contract before the deadline. Mark my words: They will pick up a semi-talented big man from a team looking to rebuild (a la N.O. Hornets-David West).

so peace -

Good work Wil!

If everyting clicks.

I thought the important factor about depth was that players playing shorter time can concentrate more, and play with energy. That’s what happened especially for the second unit.

But usually It’s hard to click when you have so many different players coming in. However defense was simple and playmakers( well, mostly Nash) did adjust well on the offensive end, and Nash will continue to do so. Also credit Gentry for sticking the second unit together for that matter.

Our defense wasn’t so bad as most people said so,was it? What if Artest couldn’t get that rebound? We were close. Gentry continues to speak improvement in defense, and with an addition of Childress who can guard multiple positions, I believe we have a defensive stopper and another wing_rebounder which will probably improve our defense as well.

I thank Amare for all these years, but I don’t miss him because he didn’t live up to his words(only championship matters). I will miss Lou though…it’s good for him to have better contract, but he was “the energy”

But overall, much happier to have new teammates.

Obviously we don’t have the best finisher in the game now, but we are more versatile with more playmakers and a reliable 3 point shooter in every position.
 
When you have Nash, Hill & Gentry,
It’s worth getting on that bandwagon.

Just as long as we don’t trade Dudley.

Is he a double, or an appendage?
The closest of them all.
And if the captain were left-handed?
He says “Less paradigmatic,”
more so, more so.

(Mónica de la Torre)

Totally Suns.

is set up like the SSOL Suns of the past. Here is the kicker no one remembers about that team, WE HAD NO DEPTH. We were playing seven guys, eight if we were lucky. Who knows what the SSOL Suns of the past could’ve done with a 10 man rotation….

Maybe we’ll figure that out this season. Either way, it’s going to be fun and I look forward to seeing two dynamic play makers in TURK and Nash to elevate each other’s games.

I also am anxious to see if Childress changed anything about his game from his team in Europe. We know he is athletic, we know he can defend. I want to see what else he picked up.

taken since Turk was picked up

http://blogs.hoopshype.com/blogs/barrigon/2010/07/15/goran-dragic-nash-saw-i-could-play-against-anybody/

I love this kid.

Everyone has a place, and it isn’t just 2 or 3 people trying to do everything…