Bright Side Of The Sun: FanPosts

Between being and becoming..

2009-11-07T08:17:49Z

There are some of us here who remember the 05-06 team with fond memories. Not because they won a championship, which they didn't, and not because they played flawless ball, which they didn't either.

But because a team consisting of maybe two legitimate NBA starters, and a collection of anonymous and otherwise underachieving players won 54 games and got to the WCF. And not smoothly either: They lost their all-star center for the whole year, before the season started, and his backup/replacement for a third of a season, just after the all-star break. And sometimes that team was beaten like a red-headed stepchild caught with cigarettes.

But that group had heart, grit, tenacity, fearlessness, self-belief and unity. Some players, like Boris and Raja, stepped up from nowhere to show how good they really were. Others like Trix, wallowed in their new found respect and status. All of them, though, played the season of their careers, because of their trust in each other and their leader. That team, ultimately failed, but not for reasons of it's own doing or control. They went down fighting and with defiance.

It's too early to make a true comparison, but this team is starting to have that kind of feel. As back then, the departure and absence of a domineering, egotistical personality, has allowed the current set of players to find their space. Just like Trix, Amare is content to subdue his considerable ego, to be a quiet Doc Holliday, to Nash's Wyatt Earp, all for the team (and a new contract), because that void isn't being filled.

It occurred to me, after this evening's game vs Boston, that we're winning games we're not supposed to win. And not by luck, but by identifying winnable opportunities, and pursuing those chances aggressively; by teamwork, communication and a willingness for each player to play with and for his teammates, and to accept his role, however big or small, with relish.

We're seeing a near 36 year old, two time MVP, roll back time and play at a level close to that of his award winning years, and show what a true playmaking point guard can do for his teammates, and what it actually means to be one (as opposed to the consensus best point guard, whose limitations as a player, despite gaudy stats, have been cruelly exposed this season).

We're seeing the self proclaimed star of this team, find some humility, and through that, transform himself into a different, more intelligent and selfless, and ultimately more dangerous player. And this time it feels like a permanent change, and not the result of misplaced self pity. We're seeing an allegedly washed up veteran small forward, heal himself, ride shotgun for his point guard and provide quiet but confident and firm leadership, and whatever the team needs on the floor.

We're seeing a young backup point guard mature, and finally fill the role on this team that has been missing these past few years; a backup PF/Center play with fire and resolute tenacity, and other bench players come in, and spark both the offense and the defense. For the first time, since Nash came back to Phoenix, we have a solid bench that's capable of maintaining and even building leads.

In short.. this is a real team, where the union of the parts exceeds the sum of each individual contribution.

I think we know what this team, as constructed, is and what it can do, right now. The real question is how good can it become? Is the current level of play simply a mirage, or an artifact of the start of a season, when all teams aren't quite there? Or is it the real thing? Is this team really that tough, mentally? Can this team become profoundly better? And do we owe Steve Kerr an apology?

Sometimes, the journey is it's own reward.

Already Dumping Dragic? A Tragic Mistake

2009-10-21T01:53:53Z

Inspired by recently intensified comments and murmurs concerning Goran Dragic's performance so far as a member of the Phoenix Suns - hear out my two cents as to why I believe jumping on the 'dump Dragic' train would be a tragic mistake.

To start off - I will concede that the front-office hype surrounding Goran Dragic was too much last year. I blame a small part of the sour taste in the mouths of a seemingly growing group of Suns supporters on that. But I feel the major source of the Dragic negativity lies within those very same Suns fans who were swayed by an over-excited and almost giddy new GM in Steve Kerr, who saw a diamond in the rough in Goran. You see - a majority of Suns have forgotten how spoiled they really are when it comes to the PGs who have graced our team's roster. For practically the entire history of the franchise we have had all-star caliber, if not hall-of-fame caliber PGs.

From Westphal to Hornacek - to Kevin Johnson to Jason Kidd - even Starbury to Nash. How long has it been since we haven't had an all-star PG commandeering our team? In fact... how long has it been since we have had to endure the development of a PG... does it go back to Hornacek? (Nash did a lot of his development in Dallas)

The truth is - as Charley Rosen succinctly put it in an article, "the point position is the most complex, and is therefore the most difficult for young players to master". Development of point guards requires A LOT of on the court minutes - feeling the game - learning the opponent - mastering and perfecting technique. In the most recent history I can only think of Christ Paul in 05' to be a starting rookie PG who drastically affected his team positively and put up big numbers. He is a freak of nature. So besides CP3 - PGs are slow developing players. Be Patient with young Goran the Dragon - give him time, it's not an 'add-water' recipe, even with Steve Nash as the supervisor.

In fact - coming into your rookie year as back-up PG is even tougher than coming in as a starter because of the lack of minutes given to the back up PG. Though I think being a back-up of a future hall-of-famer as a new player in league can only accelerate future progress (see Steve Nash). It will just take a little more time. Be patient with Dragic. Before I prove this with some sweet charts I spent a grip of time making - consider this:

We know what kind of a roller-coaster year it was for our Phoenix Suns - I won't bore you - but it is interesting to see the major improvements Goran Dragic made after the coaching switch was made from Terry Porter to Alvin Gentry and a more up-tempo style was unleashed once again. Take a look at some of his important statistics before and after the coaching change.

The difference is pretty drastic. While improving practically all of his stats, the most notable improvement was in his PPG and his 3P% where they basically were doubled. I think it's safe to say we can expect more of that kind of improvement and production as Goran gets more playing time and as he gets more comfortable in the league in a more stable environment this year compared to that of his rookie year. All signs so far (with the exception of his poor pre-season shooting numbers) this offseason point in this direction. Again - be patient.

Now to the good stuff. I've taken the rookie year 'per game' stats of the current top 6 point guards in the league and placed them next to Dragic's season average numbers... (keep in mind the minutes played - and the vast difference in Goran's numbers from the beginning of the year under T.P. to the end of the year with A.G.)

The biggest discrepancy accross the board is in the minutes played - out of the 7 point guards examined - 5 were basically starters their rookie year and logged major minutes learning, acclimating and feeling out the PG position - yet compared to the 2 other players who weren't starters right away (Nash and Davis), Goran's numbers aren't as bad the naysayers and Dragic haters would like you to believe.

So in order to really see how well our young Slovenian stand-out did his rookie year compared to these top point guards we need to adjust the numbers according to a constant variable. Luckily for me - most stat sites already do that by providing the average stats a player puts up 'per 36 minutes played'. (What would I do without www.basketball-reference.com?) So take a look at this next graphic and see where Goran stands. It doesn't look bad AT ALL. In fact - according to these numbers he is performing extremely well and in some cases has out-performed some of these superstar's rookie numbers. (Note that CP3 was already averaging 36 minutes a game - so his numbers stay the same).

To finish up - I am not trying to convince anyone that Goran Dragic is the next Steve Nash or the next Deron Williams. But what I am suggesting is that we take the blinders off and lend some patience to this young talented player. We have seen flashes of brilliance and exhibitions of dominance and style from Dragic already - the consistency and confidence will come with time.

Be patient, he'll make mistakes and make you pull some hair, but give the hating a rest... - and enjoy the fact that we are able to witness first hand the development of PG - that's something that hasn't happened here in Phoenix for a long time.

Poll

What do these numbers tell you?

Do you guys even realize

2009-11-02T18:54:53Z

what you had?

Knick fan here... just wondering if it is eating at you guys that you traded our first round pick away to Utah... It kills us that it was sent away in the first place... Possibly one of the worst moves of all time was Thomas not even top 5 protecting it.

Isiah Thomas sent it to Phoenix, who then sent it to Utah. In a hilarious chain of events, the Jazz will have acquired a potential top-five pick for Keon Clark and Ben Handlogten.

My experience at the filming of "Nothing but Net"

2009-10-30T18:46:57Z

Yesterday I had the amazing experience of being a member of a small studio audience made up of Suns and Amare Tweeps for the filming of the season's first episode of "Nothing but Net".

It was a fun and exciting experience to hang out with Amare Stoudemire, Tim Kempton, Jamie Morris, Scott Williams, and the stellar Suns production crew. Just watching them work and listening to all of the other responsibilities and projects the Suns crew has going I really gained a better understanding of how hard they work. I also sat and felt grateful for how fortunate we are here in Phoenix to have a Suns Organization that is so open and candid with its fans, from all the Twitter conversation from the organization and the constant contact they keep with fans - to the fan-connection our players like Jared Dudley, Amare Stoudemire, JRich, and Steve Nash cultivate through their use of social media.

All in all the taping took about 3 1/2 hours - but with the humor of Tim Kempton and Scott Williams keeping things lively it was a quick 3 1/2 hours. For lunch Dan Hilton was kind enough to order us all pizza and while we ate I spoke with both Williams and Kempton. Tim Kempton was very happy to talk all about his oldest boy who just started High School at Brophy - and I spoke with Scott WIlliams about his amazing ability to spontaneously manufacture impressive metaphors for game play during the Suns broadcasts!

(FYI - all of those who participated in the Clippers game-day thread will appreciate that! I told him his 'like lions after a steak' line was kind of corny!! haha - but I did ask if he thought of those funny lines during the break or if they were off the top of his head and he said, "Nah man, that's just what comes out my mouth! I'll work a little harder on those for you!" - It was all in good fun)

The first Suns guest for the first episode of Nothing But Net was none other than #1 - Amare Stoudemire. While we filmed the segments with just Tim, Jamie, and Scott, Amare was at practice with his teammates - we were told he would arrive at a certain time to film his segment, but he didn't show... they sent someone down to look for him and we didn't hear back from them for about 30 minutes. When we finally received word about STAT's whereabouts we learned that he was in the shower. Someone made a joke that he'd be in there for 45 minutes because of how tall he his - "that's a lot of man to wash!" they said. While we waited - Tim Kempton gave away a pair of lower bowl seats to a member of the audience via a trivia question, and I took a walk to take a look at the arena (see picture above).

About an hour after the original ETA, Amare finally came up the elevator so fresh and so clean and we filmed his segment - Afterward he thanked us all for coming out and took pictures and signed autographs for us.

It wasn't until this morning that Phoenix Stan informed me that STAT was late because not only had the team practice time been bumped to an hour later (no doubt because of their win the night before against the Clippers) but that Stoudemire had stayed after practice to work on his game some more! "Ball before show" - said Stan. Amare is a class act - he kind and amiable with his fans, and he really does work hard on his game.

It was a fun opportunity for me - I thought I would share!

Hope you enjoyed!

Steve Nash moments

2009-10-30T13:19:16Z

After reading wattdoggs great piece about the first time he truly relised just how unbelievable our mighty leader Steve Nash is, I felt now would be as good a time as any to ask all of you - What's been your favourite Steve Nash moment? What was it that made it so special? What happened?

Be as descriptive as possible people - we all want to bathe in the Nash-love that we all know we have.

Maybe the NBA did have it in for the Phoenix Suns

2009-10-29T16:38:27Z

http://phoenix.fanster.com/2009/10/28/the-sports-retorter-maybe-the-nba-did-have-it-in-for-the-phoenix-suns/

Stampchez posted an excerpt from Deadspin's copy of the Donaghy book yesterday. Today we've got another tantalizing little quote as well as some interesting commentary.

As was stated in Stampchez's thread, it's Tim Donaghy, so all of this should be taken with a grain of salt. But still, they are allegations that should at least be considered by Suns fans.

We're way beyond this at this point. We're a semi-rebuilding team just looking for the playoffs now. But what would/could have happened if we had actually won the title in 2007? How different would this team look today both on-court and in management?

An exceprt from Tim Donaghy's book.

2009-10-28T22:28:16Z

My favorite Tommy Nunez story is from the 2007 playoffs when the San Antonio Spurs were able to get past the Phoenix Suns in the second round. Of course, what many fans didn't know was that Phoenix had someone working against them behind the scenes. Nunez was the group supervisor for that playoff series, and he definitely had a rooting interest.

Nunez loved the Hispanic community in San Antonio and had a lot of friends there. He had been a referee for 30 years and loved being on the road; in fact, he said that the whole reason he had become a group supervisor was to keep getting out of the house. So Nunez wanted to come back to San Antonio for the conference finals. Plus, he, like many other referees, disliked Suns owner Robert Sarver for the way he treated officials. Both of these things came into play when he prepared the referees for the games in the staff meetings. I remember laughing with him and saying, "You would love to keep coming back here." He was pointing out everything that Phoenix was able to get away with and never once told us to look for anything in regard to San Antonio. Nunez should have a championship ring on his finger.

http://deadspin.com/5392067/excerpts-from-the-book-the-nba-doesnt-want-you-to-read

Wild suggestion #2: Barkley for GM

2009-10-27T15:02:26Z

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Alyp4aIO5dhuVPT0ykzpzhW8vLYF?slug=ap-barkley-gm&prov=ap&type=lgns

I'm not too thrilled with Steve Kerr, truth be told. Anybody agree? It might not be the smartest move, but it sure would be a wild ride! The man took us to the Finals and we shipped him to Houston. I think he deserves better than that.

Then there's Steve Kerr. His moves are understandable, as I've said, but not really ideal. One minute we're the Spurs, the next minute we're the Bobcats, tomorrow we'll be the Hornets? We've got to go in one direction.

You know, it would probably be a terrible move, but for Charles Barkley to be the Suns GM would be one of the greatest, most hilarious moments in NBA history.

Who else can we added to the "Team of Lesser Brothers"?

2009-10-27T01:52:54Z

I got a couple:

Toney Durant
Brother: Kevin Durant (Younger)
Summer League Stats

Date	Opponent	Result	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OFF	DEF	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
Jul 18	vs. DAL	L 54-73	5	0-4	0-1	0-0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Jul 12	@ MEM	L 86-57	5	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	2	2	0	0	0	1	3	0

Stephen Graham
Brother: Joey Graham (Twin)
Preseason Stats (Bobcats)

Date	Opponent	Result	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OFF	DEF	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
Preseason
Oct 23	vs. MEM	L 92 - 95	16	1 - 6	1 - 3	0 - 0	1	3	4	1	0	0	1	2	3
Oct 20	vs. MIL	W 94 - 87	16	2 - 4	1 - 2	1 - 1	1	3	4	0	1	2	1	5	6
Oct 18	vs. UTA	L 103 - 110	21	0 - 7	0 - 2	11 - 12	1	2	3	4	1	0	1	4	11

Seth Curry (Maybe Better?)
Brother: Stephen Curry (Older)
College Stats (Duke)

SEASON	MIN	PTS	REB	AST	TO	A/T	STL	BLK	PF	FG%	FT%	3P%	PPS
2008-2009	36.5	20.2	4.4	2.3	2.3	1.00	1.4	.3	1.5	.417	.832	.347	1.2

Ben Hansbrough

Brother: Tyler Hansbrough (Younger)
College Stats (ND)

SEASON	MIN	PTS	REB	AST	TO	A/T	STL	BLK	PF	FG%	FT%	3P%	PPS
2006-2007	23.6	7.3	2.8	3.2	1.9	1.72	1.0	.0	1.7	.429	.784	.412	1.46
2007-2008	33.5	10.5	3.8	2.6	1.6	1.60	1.0	.1	2.3	.415	.789	.358	1.33

anybody got anymore?

Jarron Collins is not the answer

2009-10-26T09:11:17Z

With all the articles around Jarron Collins that he can be signed as a free agent to answer the lack of rebounding, can we not just continue the trade in which Amare was supposed to go to Goldenstate for Biedrins, Azubuike and (supposedly Curry). I don't really care much about Azubuike or Curry, but Biedrins alone can help us with rebounding and front court defense. I know he lacks the scoring instinct Amare has, but our current front court is consisted of 6'10 & 6'11 guys not known for rebounding and defense. The front office should revive trade talks with Goldenstate that has Biedrins in it with or without Curry.

Poll

Who do we need right now and possibly for future plans?

BSotS Reader Poll: Highly Meta Feedback Time

2009-10-24T16:45:14Z

Hey guys and gals. Heading into the season I am curious what aspects of our ~~coverage~~ blather you appreciate the most.

The poll below only allows one answer which I know will be hard since there's so much to love about Bright Side of the Sun but go ahead pick your "top" feature.

Any feedback in the comments is most appreciated as well and THIS IS NOT a blatant attempt as self-congratulatory pats on the back.

We want to hear what you think. What you like. What you don't. What you want more of. What you want less of.

Poll

What parts of Bright Side of the Sun do you like MOST?

Back on TV: Leonard Nimoy's In Search of... the Rebound.

2009-10-23T19:22:12Z

Television producers report that Leonard Nimoy will host an exciting updated television series based on wildly popular "In Search Of..." documentaries originally broadcast from 1976-1982.

Among the many myths, urban legends, pseudo-scientific and paranormal phenomena to be addressed in the new series, Nimoy says he will join the Suns in search of the Rebound. Like the Loch Ness Monster and UFOs, the Rebound is notoriously hard to document.

In fact, this scarcity leads many Suns fans to believe that rebounds are actually a hoax or another devilish Stern conspiracy. If the Rebound existed, they should be easily observed by the naked eye or on film. However, little evidence of the existence of rebounds could be intuited from the Suns recent games.

However, it's possible that the Rebound may be undetectable by the naked eye or by conventional cameras. X-ray, infrared and other ghost-hunting technologies may be required.

The shaky scientific basis for the existence of rebounds derives from the logic that missed shots, like the souls of the dead, must go somewhere.

"If the ball doesn't go in the hole, we know that the ball must go somewhere." says Amar'e Stoudemire.

However, we followed up on the question of the existence of the Rebound with acclaimed astrophysicist genius Stephen Hawking. In reply to my email requests, wrote the following in pinkie speak:

01001101011000010111001101110011001000000110100101110011001000000110111001101111011101000010000001100011011011110110111001110011011001010111001001110110011001010110010000101110001000000010000001001111011011100110110001111001001000000110010101101110011001010111001001100111011110010010000001101001011100110010000001100011011011110110111001110011011001010111001001110110011001010110010000101110001000000010000001000001011100110010000001100110011011110111001000100000011100100110010101100010011011110111010101101110011001000111001100101100001000000100100100100000011010110110111001101111011101110010000001110100011010000110010101111001001000000110010101111000011010010111001101110100001000000110001001100101011000110110000101110101011100110110010100100000010010010010011101110110011001010010000001100111011011110111010001110100011001010110111000100000011011110110111001100101001011100010000000100000010011100110111101110111001000000110110001100101011000010111011001100101001000000110110101100101001000000110000101101100011011110110111001100101001011000010000001001001001001110110110100100000011000010111010000100000011101000110100001101001011100110010000001110011011101110110100101101110011001110110100101101110011001110010000001110100011010000110100101110011001000000111000001100001011100100111010001111001001000000110000101110100001000000111010001101000011001010010000001110000011011000110000101111001011000100110111101111001001000000110110101100001011011100111001101101001011011110110111000101110

In other words,translated he says,

Mass is not conserved. Only energy is conserved. As for rebounds, I know they exist because I've gotten one. Now leave me alone, I'm at this swinging this party at the playboy mansion.

Suns PG Steve Nash put the scientific debate in more accessible terms. "We think rebounds exist, because other teams report having them. We just don't know how they get them or where they get them."

We look forward to Leonard Nimoy's new series and the upcoming episode, which may uncover the existence and nature of the Rebound.

Fantasy League Created- Sign up Info!

2009-10-23T15:50:42Z

Ok guys, I went ahead and created an ESPN fantasy league. I know someone prefers Yahoo, but I have always gotten the impression that ESPN gives you additional free features.

As someone mentioned, as Arizonans, we are not eligible for prizes. So it's just a league for bragging rights. But hey, maybe we could get something together to make the league a bit more interesting ;)

The draft is this Monday at 8pm eastern. Hopefully that works...

League name: BSoS

Password: ssol

There are 9 spots left! Sign up!!!!!

Time for a new nickname?

2009-10-21T23:56:23Z

How about the "Unwanted Sons"?

With the news that Jarron Collins is headed to PHX via POR the Phoenix Suns now employ three of the less-heralded brothers of better, more skilled NBA players Blake Griffin, Brooke Lopez, and Jason Collins (Taylor, Robin, and now Jarron).

Is this savvy positioning from Steve Kerr to position the Sun's to make Phoenix a more attractive place for their future-free agent superstar brother's (excluding Jason, of course).

Steve Kerr was reported as saying "Hey, at least some of the more casual fans might get confused. We're looking at a 0.025% increase in ticket sales here right off the bat. Beat THAT Memphis!!"

Fantasy League?

2009-10-21T19:48:53Z

Hey BSoS members-

I was wondering if anyone wanted to get together for an ESPN fantasy bball league. I would be cool with either a free league, or one with prizes.

It would be neat to have a league with like-minded Suns fans that are actually willing to make trades, and set daily lineups, rather than the usual fantasy players who draft and ditch.

Anyone interested just please comment below or email me at will.hawkins@duke.edu

Thanks!

You Remember That One Trade?

2009-10-21T07:43:35Z

Regardless of whether you agreed with the trade at the time or not, I'm starting to think that those who were quick to take brownie points away from Steve Kerr and feed them to their dog, should probably get started baking him a new batch.

Here are some headlines that made me smile.

First it was:

"Bobcats waiting for Bell to break out of it." - CharlotteObserver.com

Then it was:

"Cats' "Bell may need wrist surgery." - ESPN.com

and

First it was:

"Same old,same old for the Bobcats." - Lexington Dispatch
"Will Boris Diaw continue his run of form that nearly resulted in postseason play? Or will he go back to obscurity?"

Then it was:

"Bobcats itching for Chandler after another bruising loss." - CharlotteObserver.com
"Power forward Boris Diaw also missed most of the preseason, after suffering an ankle sprain while playing for the French national team. Diaw played 20 minutes Sunday, totaling seven points, three rebounds and three assists. "Obviously Boris is way out of shape,'' Brown said."

While on over here in Phoenix there is this:

"Suns show positives in narrow win." -AZ Central.com
"Suns coach Alvin Gentry consistently has praised Jason Richardson's defensive effort"

And:

"Dudley becoming a Suns' 'Bowen'." -AZ Central.com
Any offense Dudley can provide is a plus for a scoring-lean second unit but he earns his time on defense. He entered Friday leading the NBA preseason in steals and increased his average to 3.4 with five steals."

Not that anyone cares - but I jumped for joy when we traded Diaw, and especially when I saw who we would get in return. Like many - I didn't know what a steal Dudley was then, but I'm loving it now. I don't think there has ever been a Suns player more frustrating to watch than Boris, I almost threw up a little in my mouth everytime Eddie Johnson or Dan Majerle would ask out loud while commentating, "why did he pass that?" or "why didn't he take that shot?".

Plus - to have his huge D'Antoni sized 9Mil+ contract that was rotting the bench away gobbled up by some unsuspecting sucker was great as well... I think I know who got the short end of this stick.

Poll

How did you react last year when you first heard about the trade?

I cried like a baby

6 votes

I cursed at Steve Kerr and shot imaginary finger guns at him every time I saw him either on TV or in a picture...

28 votes

I threw a fiesta, and then I Youtubed Jared Dud.. who?

35 votes

That's what I had been saying all along!

21 votes

90 votes | Poll has closed

A Tale of Two GMs or a Tale of Two O'Neal

2009-10-20T14:17:24Z

A tale of Two GMs or a Tale of Two O'Neal

This retrospective has nothing to do with current events, but carries on with my morbid fascination about might-have-beens regarding the pieces of the magical 7SOL era. While I constantly follow Mike D'Antoni and Shawn Marion, this post is about former Suns GM Bryan Colangelo, who I actually harbor much internal appreciation for.

By comparison, to some fans, GM Steve Kerr will always be the moron that blew up 7SOL in favor of championship calibre uber phail. Kerr came sweeping into the Suns and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, single-handedly crippling the magic of the Phoenix Suns masterpiece put in place by none other than two-time executive of the year and former GM Bryan Colangelo. Some people wish BC was still running the Phoenix Suns.

Here's a tale of two GMs. Or two O'Neal. Who's the bigger moron?

Details	GM Steve Kerr	GM #2
Traded For	S. O'Neal	J. O'Neal
Salary	$20,000,000	$21,372,000
Traded away	Shawn Marion, Marcus Banks (MB addition by subtraction)	TJ Ford, first round #17 2008 NBA Draft (Roy Hibbert), 11 million in expiring contracts
Player performance (2008-09)	17.8ppg, 61.1% eFG, 8.4 rpg, 30mpg, +4 +/-	13.5ppg, 47.3% eFG, 7.0rpg, 30mpg, -2 +/-
Honors (2008-09)	All-star	-
Team Performance	57%, 63-47 (110 games)	36%, 15-26 (41 games)
Past Performance	70%, 38-16 (first 54 games 2008-09)	50%, 41-41 (2008-09)
Traded for	Luxury tax savings ($11MMx2)	Shawn Marion, Marcus Banks (Marion converted into $$$, MB subtraction by addition), $3 million cash
Traded away	Poor pick'n'roll defense, personality, high percentage offense	J. O'Neal, Jamario Moon, lottery-protected first-rounder, $4.2 million trade exception

To summarize, although the Suns topped the division at the time of the trade, the balance of power in the Western Conference changed radically with "The Gift of Gasol". There was no way the Suns, as comprised in March 2008 was going to make a title run against the new Lakers. Shaq was a big gamble for glory. Although it failed, we were going to lose Marion anyway, so it cost us some playoff series and some luxury tax money, but it did not cost us much more long-term.

In contrast, GM #2 (Bryan Colangelo) burned up two first round draft picks, traded away both TJ Ford and Jamario Moon, traded away $11 million in expiring contracts, took on the Suns declining players and the albatross of Marcus Banks all for the opportunity to have an injured, overpaid big that failed to perform. At best, this was a copycat style move that was as bad as the Shaq trade and probably much worse. The only positive commendation is that BC spared no expense in getting out of the bad trade in great haste. He only put up with Jermaine O'Neal for 41 games.

Shamsports summarizes the Colangelo regime in Toronto here best:

Do you know what the most annoying thing in the world is? It's Toronto Raptors fans when talking about Bryan Colangelo. By miles. There is nothing more annoying in the world than this. Nothing. Not a sausage. Not even scrotal crabs or Ron Artest's Twitter account are more potently insufferable than listening to Raptors fans drool on about Colangelo as being some kind of flawless freak of genius, who transcends general managerial conventions to achieve an unparalleled plateau of superlativityness. They make me advocate chemical warfare. It's intolerable.

So let's use some perspective on that, shall we? Colangelo inherited a 27 win team with Chris Bosh, Jose Calderon, max cap room and the #1 overall pick. He didn't earn those things; he already had them when he got there. Three years later, the Raptors had Chris Bosh, Jose Calderon, their balls grazed against the tax threshold.....and all of 33 wins. That is not. Good. Sure, they won the Atlantic division title the year before, but there's a reason they went so far backwards, and that reason was Colangelo's dire 2008 offseason.

All that, and in the Eastern Conference.

Why is this not being done?

2009-10-20T06:47:44Z

Starters

C - Channing Frye (plays his best statistically at the 5)

PF- Amar'e Stoudemire

SF-Jared Dudley (proven himself as a great complement and is a great steal man)

SG- Jason Richerson

PG- Steve Nash

Bench

C - Sign FA & Robin Lopez when he is back

PF- Sweet Lu & Earl Clark

SF- Grant Hill & Earl Clark

SG- Alando Tucker & Grant Hill

PG- Via trade our future PG or at least top of line back up and draft pick (explained below)

TRADE BARBOSA! his trade value just gets a lil lower each year..... teams are hyped on him still for some un-godly reason......too small and no defense for the 2 and no pg ability trade him for a real PG that is a replacement for nash...or a decent backup and a draft pick

leave your thoughts!

Poll

yes? no?

yes....great thought lets do it

11 votes

no.... our owner sucks

31 votes

42 votes | Poll has closed

Wild suggestion: Start Jared Dudley at the 3.

2009-10-20T00:20:36Z

I really like what I see in him. Our other options are essentially Taylor Griffin, Grant Hill and Earl Clark. Clark's pretty raw, so it seems, and has some pretty terrible shot selection. Griffin is a third unit, 13th roster spot man without question. Grant Hill, to me, seems like the only other alternative, and he's on the back side of his career. Dudley can play three positions, guard three positions, is currently leading the the whole league in preseason in steals per game and leads the team in FG% with 55% from the field. I think that's a tad more useful than 63 games out of Grant Hill. Anybody agree with me?

Taveling? Not traveling anymore?

2009-10-18T01:10:03Z

Traveling ESPNS article here

Are we serious? I like this line in the article...

"Whether or not this will affect play on the court remains to be seen. Referees have long been instructed to allow two steps and in interviews with NBA players last season there was some confusion about the rule."

Can we assume that this happens with other rules?

How about reaching in? (ie bruce bowen on the spurs). Based on how that article reads that is a statement out of the president of referee operations mouth. What do you guys think?

Will this affect anything for us?

I think Amare might like the rule. May make his moves to the basket more effective?