I was ready to turn off the TV last night; after all, I was expecting the young Hornets to lose in San Antonio. And then Horry set the screen, West fell on the floor in pain and was taken to the locker room as the crowd in the AT&T Center chanted Horry, Horry, Horry!!

 

This is playoff basketball, I get that, but is this a coincidence? In another second round, in another potentially series-changing moment, Horry had bumped into another guy with a bad back. Again, the guy with the bad back was an All Star on the opposite team.

 

I was watching the game on ESPN Deportes and Carlos Morales said the following:

 

“Somewhere in the World, Steve Nash is watching this game and he’s shaking his head. I’ve seen enough basketball in my life to tell that this is a dirty play. Robert Horry knows that David West has back problems, it has been well documented by the media, and there was no reason for him to set that screen in that specific situation. He leaned forward hitting West in the back, with his head and forearms. I can bet my job that the league will not do anything about this”

 

 

And my question is…What if they do? It will not mean anything, Horry is done. This is the only way he can have an impact in the game, he is useless on the defensive and offensive end. If they suspend him, it will not make a difference.

 

Horry said last year that he is an Old School player, he takes pride in that, he said that in the playoffs, there will be hard fouls and people shouldn’t complain about this. I agree with him, but what happened last year and what happened last night were not hard fouls…they were dirty.

We have three new blogs in the SBN NBA family. Welcome in:

At The Hive - New Orleans Hornets

SLC Dunk - Utah Jazz

Ridiculous Upside

The first two obviously cover the Hornets and Jazz and the Ridiculous Upside blog is devoted to D Leauge, Euro Leauge and other NBA prospects and is brought to you by the same goof balls that run Hardwood Paroxysm.

Have fun with these new members of the SBN family and stop by and wish the Jazz and Hornets luck as they try and take care of the Suns business...

Now that Mike D is going to the Knicks, I'm wondering if perhaps we should just start from scratch. The current team was built to beat the Spurs, and to do so primarily with offense. Unfortunately, the team STILL couldn't beat the Spurs, and the Spurs (right now, anyway) aren't looking like the team of the future in any case.

So I'm wondering...out loud; I don't have any answers...whether fans believe that the Suns with a new coach and some minor personnel changes can be a contender in the next two years...or whether it's time to start over, to start building a much younger team, stockpiling draft picks, and so on.

NOTE: I know that some will say, "Well, there's no way we're getting rid of Shaq or Nash...the former because of his contract, the latter because he's beloved, and because he's the straw that stirs the drink on this team."

Okay, but that doesn't mean you can't start rebuilding anyway. Start assembling the core of the team that you want three years from now, when both Nash and Shaq will almost certainly be gone.

[Note by Phoenix Stan, 05/15/08 8:01 AM PDT ]

Over the last few days of coaching conundrums, this is the question I keep coming back to so I am "stealing" Beatcal's post to have some more conversation on the topic.

We've heard Sarver and Kerr both claim that the Sun's window is still open and that the plan is to win now. One would assume that means Nash, Amare, Shaq, Diaw, Bell, LB and Hill are all coming back.

I am still on the fence. I can definitely see the appeal of moving our movable pieces while they are most movable. That means Nash who's trade value depreciates each year; LB who's production / salary is fantastic; and maybe Diaw who despite his higher salary and inconsistency is a very talented player. Bell would also be a movable piece. Amare is untouchable and Shaq is unmovable.

I just don't see what you can get back that's going to move the team from what will likely be a 50 win, 3 to 6 seed team next year to a top number 1 contender - unless you can pry LeBron out of Cleveland's cold dead hands.

One move I don't like is the idea of Barbosa and the Suns' 15th pick for a 3 - 7 pick. If you look at LB's current production value, there's NO WAY a rookie beyond the top 2 or 3 is going to come in and match what he brings sooner then two or three years.

I still think that LB's value alone is enough to get back a legit backup PG or a backup Center which are our two biggest needs. A move like that is big but not a "blow it up" trade.

 

 

Poll

Do you think the Sun's should "blow it up" now and start the rebuilding process?

• Yes - window is closed and its time to start over
• No - this team with tweaks can still win a ring in the next two years

  101 votes | Results

Interesting, sounds like it was all a Kerr-D'Antoni conflict and that everything was fine until that first game loss to the spurs. Here's an az republic article http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/articles/2008/05/13/20080513dantonibox0514.html I know its a small article, but the thing that I found most interesting...was everything was fine until that game... And I thought that game was hard for me to take.... I think we, as bloggers can only comment accurately on so much of this stuff, but, from what I see, I like Kerr more than D'Antoni. I honestly felt months ago that D'Antoni was too big for his own good, So hard to take, if Shaq could actually shoot free throws...(I know, it'll never happen), but if he could, we would've won that series. If Duncan hadn't made that three....If Nash didn't have such a horrible shooting night....and on and on.... But on the preparation side of it, I think the suns players have gotten away with 'LAZY' practices regarding defense and it showed. The Spurs and Celtics, and other teams knew, as a team, just what they wanted to do on defense. We had no clue and can't even rotate on pick and rolls....granted having nash, amare, and shaq hurt us on defense....and yet they still could've pulled off a victory I think. I honestly feel if popovich was the suns coach, and anyone else was the spurs coach, for the entire year, we'd have won, or amare would've demanded a trade because someone actually wasn't going to let him run his mouth and accept it just because he has so much potential.

He said this about Coach D

"I'm disappointed in him, I don't know what else we could've done. He chose to go to New York knowing there was a good chance we would make him an offer. If he had really wanted to be in Chicago, he would've waited. Instead, he misled us. It's not the end of the world, but it is somewhat rude."

"He said nothing had to be done over the weekend. I also said if this proceeds to where we want to make an offer, we don't deal with coach's agents. He said that's not a problem and that money wasn't the most important thing anyway. He said he wanted a job where he was going to be happiest. He said he didn't want to coach the Knicks."

I guess the Bulls really wanted him, I thought he chose the Knicks because The Bulls were not in the mix anymore. This is a business, Mike was not going to sit around and wait for their offer. The Knicks stepped up to the plate first and that's it.

If you think about it, roster-wise, Chicago seemed more appealing, but you never know what happens behind closed doors.

I still think he is going to have a hard time in NY.

Would Mike D'Antoni like to see Boris Diaw or Leandro Barboas in New York?

Continue reading this post »

He's 29 and talking about opting-out of his contract after next season.

The Suns have a team option on Steve Nash that year.

He is a bigger guard that can help on D, he is an All-Star caliber player, his health issues have declined since he lost that weight.  He's proven to be a thoroughbred and has a less frail body.

Maybe the MVP won't get traded after all.  Just let go?

The link below has some rational thoughts about how to fix this team.  I don't think a new guy as a coach of a veteran team is a good idea, but  there are worse ideas, like hiring Eddie Johnson or Dan Majerle.

Other thoughts....Who has trade value on the team? Do you trade Diaw or Barbosa? Lose versatility or lose three point shooting and speed? I think Diaw is more valuable, but if we need three point shooting, then getting rid of Barbosa won't help. Should we keep Giricek. I'm really just filling in space to meet the minimum word requirement.

http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/dking97/151032

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3389987

 

Reports: D'Antoni accepts offer to coach Knicks.

 

To the Knicks??  Really??  I hope, for D'Antoni's sake, that he isn't tryin to go over there and play savior of one of the most dysfunctional franchises in all the land.  I wonder what this means for Steve Nash who seems to really really want Mike to stay.  I never really expected Mike to accept the Knicks position though.  Good lock coaching Marbury and Zach Randolph.  They'll make Amare seem like the easiest player to coach in the NBA.  I wonder if he can teach them to be unselfish.  If he can, it'll be a true miracle.

 think it's safe to say that the Utah Jazz have the worst fans. Yes, they may be loud, but to boo Derek Fisher, that's just classless.  They booed him in the regular season, and they booed him again tonight.

Now, I hate the Lakers with a passion as much as any Suns fan, but to boo Derek Fisher is just senseless.  He did what any sane parent would do for their child. I guess in the land of polygamy, with big families, losing a kid or two won't hurt, since you have so many offsprings anyways. I hope this is not the thinking of the people there. I'm sure it's just the Laker jersey, but in this case you gotta be respectful.

Regardless, I hope the Jazz get swept, the people there deserve it. Now, if only we could have them lose in similar fashion as the Suns did the past two years.

P.S. I would also love to see the Spurs and Lakers find lose like that too.