Ouch.  Ouch.  Ouch.  Ouch.  Ouch.

That was a really good game.  As much as the loss left me feeling a bit gut shot, I liked a lot of what I saw.  And for the record, I sadly called this in my Christmas poem with the line, "J-Rich needs to find his man on rotation."  I do not like being prescient.

What I liked:

Energy - The 9-0 start was nice and featured some excellent ball movement.  And, to mixed effect, there were lots of bodies flying around on defense.  The guys came to play.

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Paul Coro in the AZ Republic is reporting today that Matt Barnes will get the starting nod at small forward with Grant Hill coming off the bench.

I like this move a lot. In fact I like pretty much every move I have seen from Porter's team so far from holding out Nash with a mild sprain to getting his team ready to play defense before focusing on the offense.

With regard to starting Barnes over Hill, here's ten reasons why its a great move:

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Audio from after today's practice. You can hear the following tidbits...

• Barnes talks about fitting in with the Suns
  
• Porter talks about Barnes fitting in and how things are going and about  Tucker's strained calf which might keep him benched for the next game but isn't serious
  
• Shaq calls the Spurs cowards for employing the hack-a-Shaq while leading by 10 and claims that the tactic didn't work since the Spurs didn't get past the Lakers. Huh?
• Shaq takes credit for Posey's and Capono's contracts and how guys just need to play off him and he will make them rich
  
• Shaq talks about how his guards don't stay in front of their man which makes him have to cover guys like Tony Parker and that he makes Tony take a tough shot but his team mates then have to box out Duncan so he doesn't get the board
• Shaq talks about how poor the Suns rotations were against the Spurs leading to Duncan hitting a "fucking three" (Amare - he might be talking to you)
  
• Shaq explains how being a great team mate and leader means always supporting his guys and how he never gets down on those around him and how he wouldn't ever hand out blame to his fellas and how he's going to shoot 80% from the line...or not

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This is part two of a five part series previewing the Phoenix Suns' 08-09 season. Part 1 can be found here.

Since the dawn of the Sarver era, Suns fans have been treated to some of the weakest offseasons since the days of television before reality TV, when re-runs spelled primetime boredom for couch potatoes countrywide.  The Suns off-seasons were similarly predictable. They could be counted on to make one "splash" free agent signing (Raja Bell, Grant Hill, Marcus Banks) and then to sell their draft picks like trading cards (Sarver's seller rating on eBay is AWESOME).

The knock on Sarver has been that he's a cheap@$$ who only cares about the bottom line.  Not so, as the Suns roster has been among the most expensive -- and winningest -- since he assumed ownership of the team.  More accurate is that he's penny wise (selling draft picks, which is arguable the cheapest way to acquire and develop talent) and pound foolish ($45 mil to Boris Diaw, $25 mil to Marcus Banks, $40 mil to the Shaquille O'Neal Restraining Order Defense Fund).

This offseason, though, with the aid of new consigliere Steve Kerr, the Suns sought value, value and more value.  Lacking money to throw at their problems, the Suns hit the draft and the NBA's bargain bin alike to rejuvenate their aging bench and replace Coach D'Antoni.   Let's take a look at what they found.

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