SUNS recent PR is making me feel Barfy

by ZonaFlash on Mar 18, 2008 4:43 AM MDT

Recent local SUNS press has been "storying" Amare Stoudemire and Gordon Giricek, attempting to put these wonderful players in the most positive light, as they should.

However, the articles have had the opposite effect on me.

Amare - To be fair, Amare did say all the right things in his interviews. He has a goal, he's not trying to get his outside the team concept, he's waiting and working hard for the recognition but not pushing for it. Further, the press clips' MVP talk follows justifiably from his second Player of the Week honor in the past month or so.

However, as good as Amare's recent play has been since Marion's departure, one good month an MVP does not make. Perhaps next year.

More importantly, I don't like the individual focus. Perhaps, it is simply because our team has already won all of the individual accolades people can win - COY, MVPx2, 6th man, beaucoup All-Stars, All-NBA, All-Defense, etc, etc. All this for a team that's never even been to the Finals! I'm sick of it. Absolutely sick of it and sick of individual award talk. There's plenty of other teams and players that are deserving of the spotlight.

Giricek - I wish I didn't know about his temper tantrums and refusals to go into a game. Certainly, GG refusing to go back into a blowout game is not the same as Scottie Pippen refusing to help his team win on the last play of game, but it is in the same ballpark.

Interestingly, I'm beginning to see that Sloan really doesn't work well with Euros. Perhaps he sees Euros as psychologically soft, knowing that he can destroy them and make them all cry.

Well, back to GG. Of course GG is saying all the right things now. Of course GG is really happy. The guy has been beat down all year and was practically out of the NBA while on Philly's roster.

He's happy now, two weeks in, but what about when things don't go his way? What about when his ass gets parked on the bench with no hope of playing during the POs when the rotation tightens to the SCORCHING SUNS SEVEN?

I'm glad we have him right now, and I'm glad he can play. If anyone can get a Euro to play, its D'Antoni. However, I don't like his internal weaknesses. I'm afraid he's tempermental and that this will lead to very streaky shooting and play. I'm afraid of him souring the locker room when he gets squeezed from the playoff rotation.

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Inspiring eye rolls

Figures, that just about the time I put a tippy toe on the Amare for Suns MVP bandwagon, that we'd get an article like this that reminds me why I previously hoped the Suns would stay "Nash's team" forever...

"I don't know what it is," Stoudemire said. "I hear everybody's name mentioned as far as the top players in the league. My name is never up there. It definitely hurts because I put in the work and the time and the effort to be an elite player. But my thing is just to keep improving. Whether they notice it or not, my teammates notice it, my coaching staff notices it, and we're winning ballgames."

Ugh. Hey, Amare, we just got rid of one guy with that attitude.

And Shaq, you're not helping:

"I've been telling him that he needs to take it as a sign of disrespect when you, the media people, don't mention his name like you do the Garnetts and the Dwight Howards," O'Neal said. "In any basic karate movie or any Mafia movie, in order for you to get to the top, you have to take out the top guy. You have to go after what they do. . . . He has to let the world know who Amaré Stoudemire is."

Oh, I guess maybe Amare does want to be The Matrix Reloaded:

On Monday, he talked about improving his ball handling and blossoming into a defender so versatile he could defend point guards as well as centers.

Thanks, ZonaFlash for helping me exceed my daily eye roll quota before breakfast. LOL.

by TexSUN on Mar 18, 2008 6:53 AM MDT reply actions

A little more context to the quotes...

...in this EVT article. Maybe I'm being too tough on Amare. It's not like he hasn't worked his butt off and earned it. On any team but this one, he'd probably would be on that MVP list right up there with Kobe and LeBron (and CP3 :) ). Stuff like this just rankles me, though. Call it a pet peeve.

by TexSUN on Mar 18, 2008 7:08 AM MDT up reply actions

many things here

I think it's obvious both amare and marion have me first issues, but take one away, the team can deal with the other. It was simply a matter of choosing one. Amare does have the potential to be the best player in the league, he's already there in a few ways and it's shocking that he isn't in the top 5 for mvp talk. Guess, as mentioned above it has everything to do with the fact, it's only bee a great month, not a great season by amare. Being stuck in center for the first half made sure his chances were gone.

You have to be happy with how happy the team is, and amare is. You can see he is really, really enjoying this team right now.

On giri, I also felt the same at first, I didn't want to hear those things about him, but, then again we're talking about sloan, mr. zero cool himself (hacker reference). Yes, Giri is a streak shooter, but I'm still glad we got him. He can create on his own, Marion for 5 billion more a year couldn't. Plus, I really thought we needed another good to great shooter after losing joe johnson, and finally we got one. I was surprised by how many minutes the coach was giving him. He must either be well thought of as a player/shooter or doing stuff in practice that makes it pretty clear he needs to be playing.

by jasonsuns1 on Mar 18, 2008 7:32 AM MDT reply actions

GG

This is like I said on someone's diary a while back. They were complaining that if we had Rondo, D'Antoni would never play him because he never plays rookies and free agents. But my argument was that if they play well in practice, they are going to get time. for instance, if Rondo locked down Nash in practice and hit his jump shots, he would get floor time.

I remember the Suns drafted Walter Davis in the 70s, and he lit it up from the moment he hit the court in preseason. Usually a rookie would play his way into the lineup, and start by preseason, but Sweet D made the coach's decision easy. It is possible GG did the same thing. I am happy for him. Isn't it nice to have players that want to be in Phoenix? Hill, LB, STAT, and GG have been outspoken about their happiness to be here. And now Shaq. Matrix was never like that. That's why he is gone.

'07-'08 Suns: It's clobberin' time!

by Hawk42 on Mar 18, 2008 8:16 AM MDT up reply actions

Not a rookie

This guy is 30 y/o and a legit vet w/ a lot of talent.

I am also worried about his character. You could get that after hearing his first few radio interviews as well. I have to say he is so typically Croat. Kind of a victim complex.

We will just have to wait and see how he does once the honeymoon ends. Coach D is of course much better suited to deal w/ him and his fagile ego after all those years in Italy.

In the mean time, he deserves 20-25 min and especially now while Grants wrist is healing.

Phx - where Player of the Week happens

by Seth Pollack on Mar 18, 2008 8:53 AM MDT up reply actions

srp

if you come across that audio interview, any one, with giri, please throw it up here, I'm curious to catch what your seeing.

thanks

by jasonsuns1 on Mar 18, 2008 10:02 AM MDT up reply actions

Note I said rookies and free agents

Astute observation about the Croats. Wasn't Toni Kukoc Croatian? And he was a little moody also. I guess I might be a little moody when my country has been occupied dozens of times by foreign military.

Whereas Serbs have a devil-may-care attitude, because they're the ones doing the pushing around.

'07-'08 Suns: It's clobberin' time!

by Hawk42 on Mar 18, 2008 10:15 AM MDT up reply actions

don't get me started

I spent a lot of time around Croats, Serbs and Bosnians in the early to mid 90's and was in Tuzla and Sarejavo in 1995.

They actually IMHO all have the same victim complex which goes back to being invaded and "owned" by both Turkey and/or Hungary and the only real difference in that war was which side had the most resources.

Listening to GG talk - and I couldn't find a link b/c it was once on a post-game local broadcast and the other on the "other" local sports station - he sounded so familiar to me.

"In Utah, I would play OK and then not play for like five games in a row and you start to doubt yourself ... maybe I am doing something wrong?" he said. "When I was traded to there Utah I had a great time (in the beginning), but the last three years was different.

"I was used to being a bigger part. Then I wasn't, and I couldn't deal with it because I knew I could help and I wasn't being used properly.

I am sure he will do better here b/c this system isn't like Utah's and this Coach understands him better. I am just saying - he's not a guy that you want around when things are going bad. He will be quick to blame everything else instead of figuring out what he needs to do to help.

Phx - where Player of the Week happens

by Seth Pollack on Mar 19, 2008 9:21 AM MDT up reply actions

Yup - I agree.

What's really helped him is something D'Antoni said in his weekly address (talk to the coach).

Apparently, D'Antoni is familiar with his play against D'Anotni's team in Europe some years ago. It really sounds like D'Antoni was predisposed to thinking highly of GG already.

In fact, reading between the lines, I suspect that D'Antoni, if given the choice, would have taken GG over Lue and over Barry. That's just wild speculation of course, but Barry seemed like Kerr's pick and Lue was Shaq's pick.

by ZonaFlash on Mar 19, 2008 10:04 AM MDT up reply actions

Locker room problems

I get the feeling that if anyone tries any of that crap, Shaq will set them straight. He really wants a fifth ring.

'07-'08 Suns: It's clobberin' time!

by Hawk42 on Mar 19, 2008 12:33 PM MDT up reply actions

Yeah, he'll threaten to

sumo dance in his tightie whities again!

by ZonaFlash on Mar 19, 2008 1:28 PM MDT up reply actions

Not so Barfy!

Henry Abbott at TrueHoop found someone touting Amare for MVP.

The article is pretty good arguing that defensive chops shouldn't matter and that offensively, Amare is in the same breath as the top guys.

In the end, Section F pretty much discounts Amare anyway, saying:

And while I don't actually think Amare deserves the MVP award in a year like this - with LeBron, Paul, and Kobe playing at ridiculous levels - doesn't he deserve to be thrown into the conversation once in a while?

It's interesting that the hard stats of offensive production gets you in the discussion, but because defensive stats are hard to come by, players that are very good offensively and great defensively don't get much love, meanwhile the MVP includes a parade of outstanding offensive players with suspect, yet hard to quantify defensive skills.

It's been said before, but no wonder players are all about the points!

The SUNS - NOW THE HOTTEST TEAM IN THE NBA!

by ZonaFlash on Mar 20, 2008 5:21 AM MDT reply actions