Being Raja Bell
If there is one player who wants another shot at the Finals, it's Raja Bell. Raja got a chance as a rookie to run with the Sixers and ended up guarding Kobe Bryant in their 2001 NBA Finals loss. He's come a long way as a player . Raja turned his buzz-worthy '06 postseason into a great '07 season that came with First team All Defense honors.
Raja's competitive fire makes one of the more hated Suns and makes him the heart and soul of the team as well. While Amare and Boris wandered away from the bench to do whatever they were doing, Raja caught an elbow in the face going after Robert Horry. Raja is the player a lot of fans would like to be on the court. The guy who doesn't take a possesion off. He makes a player like Kobe Bryant work on both ends of the court. Fighting a scorer for position, reaching, flopping, jawing- while his shot total increases and his percentage drops. Raja then runs the floor hard and doesn't miss when he's wide open.
Some of the best theater in the NBA is when Raja is called for a foul. He picks himself up. He gets in the ref's ear with smiling complaints. He walks over the scorers' table wipes his feet for more stickum. Then he returns to battle. Raja is a pro. He's the player every title team needs. The guy who gets dirty and fights for the extra inch. He calls himself the poor man's Bruce Bowen.
There's not much Raja needs to work on this offseason other than healing from a recent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. Raja was banged up at times last season and hopefully this procedure will help out. Raja logs major minutes for this team due to his defense and shooting. It'd be nice to see his minutes scaled back a bit in the regular season now that it looks like DJ Strawberry will make the roster. Having two guards (possibly three if Banks gets more minutes) to sic on opposiing wing scorers would be nice. The development of the young wing players will help depth and give veterans like Raja more in the tank for the grueling Western Conference playoffs.
Revenge for Raja would be another chance to perform on the highest level. The Suns' season slipped away due to stuff that had nothing to with actual basketball. Those things eat at veterans and fuel their fire. Raja will have plenty of fire for 07-08.
Labels: Phoenix Suns, Raja Bell
posted by Hersey @ 8:11 PM
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35 Comments:
It should be noted that Raja needs to work on finishing his lay-ups this offseason, though that's a recurring theme on the Suns it seems.
If I see one more blown lay-up that I personally could make 19/20 times I go to the hole, I'm going to cry. These guys get paid to do this, I don't. ;)
LB was the worst at that last year, hopefully they can all learn to finish a little better...
I agree it was far more of an issue with LB but Raja could improve his slashing and finishing. His sweet jumper does present the opportunity to get more drives to the rack.
Raja is pure piss and vinegar. You hate him on the opposition, but love him when he's on your side. He showed his true warrior armor back in 2006 when he elbowed Kobe, hit the Game 5 winner, and came back despite being injured in the Dallas series. And to play spectacularly even after his wife gave birth this year and BEING there for her.
I always found it funny how L.B. would make some of the most ridiculous lay-ups at the weirdest angles possible, and the next possession he would blow an easy one off the glass after burning his man.
The Suns have had fire for years, and it wasn't enough. They need a bench and a tall post defender, and have prevented themselves from having either now.
Here's hoping Bell's tutoring makes D.J. Strawberry a clone of him.
By the way, could someone explain what Alando Tucker is supposed to be good at or what he does?
And Raja's insulting himself by calling himself a poor man's Bruce Bowen. We all know Bowen (a)is offensively worthless compared with Bell, (b)poses a serious danger to other people on the court even if he's not a deliberate thug (maybe adrenaline made him go for Amare's heel?).
Alando Tucker is an ultra athletic scorer from the wing who can play very solid man-defense and finishes extremely well on the break. Unlike a few other people I could mention, Alando is actually a very good finisher at the basket and is a legit scorer off the dribble. The main problem is that his jump shot is inconsistent. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not.
I personally feel that Phil Weber is the best shooting coach in the league, if anyone's going to get his shot right, it'll be him.
Anyone notice the Celtics are turning into the Suns of the East? Nice core, no depth. Fortunately for them, Garnett can play a little defense in the paint. Let's hope Amare's working on that this summer.
If the Suns don't sign a center who can contribute, I predict Amare will lead the league in fouls - by at least 20%. And maybe technicals too.
Russell, you are sort of being a crank; you make me sound like a new and idealistic fan.
And I hereby pledge to quit complaining about Kurt Thomas. I forgot that you're supposed to be able to win by leaving the superstar (Duncan) alone but shutting down his supporting cast (Parker, Ginobili, Barry). If the Suns had guarded Parker and Ginobili better, they might have won the series. It would have meant putting Marcus Banks in for Nash and letting him shut Parker down (hey, he shut Baron Davis down, and I thought Marion wasn't so great guarding Parker) while Boris Diaw distributed and Bell guarded Ginobili (hell, that's what he was signed for). That just didn't happen because Coach D'Antoni is a moron. But the Suns will have even more wings who play good defense this time around (Strawberry, and possibly Tucker). If only D'Antoni coached another team. It's okay to be obsessed with beating the Spurs at this point, because they're the only team in the Suns' way--sorry, Dallas.
Thank you for mentioning that DJ could mean less minutes for Raja. All this talk about needing a big and needing a back-up for Nash and it seems to me that people forget that Raja is a) no spring chicken himself b) averaged more minutes on the team last year than anyone except for I think Shawn Marion and c) is an absolutely crucial defensive player for us. Having a player that might be able to spell Raja gives me a sense of relief.
If Strawberry pans out as a defender, Tucker shows good defense, *and* they and Banks all get minutes next season, the Suns could possibly become a little more like Dallas, having no good center but chucking defender after defender at the opposing guards and small forwards.
Would someone remind me why that Otis George player might make the team? Is he a big man?
OK. OK. I'll try to be a little less pessimistic. I just feel like the Suns have a great collection of talent, but they are still flawed right now. So it's frustrating. I'm sure Kerr is doing all that he can to change that.
Let's hope D'Antoni gives some legit minutes to Banks, Tucker, and maybe Strawberry. He can not continue to drain the tank of the top 6 and expect them to be 100% for the playoffs.
I'd rather see Strawberry get minutes than Tucker, because it seems easier to find athleticism and rebounding than it is to find a defensive specialist. Someone actually compared Strawberry to Raja Bell in that regard.
I think Tucker has a chance to be a real player in the L. The guy was an All American in a system not built around his strengths. He could really break out with this team.
Strawberry will need to develop his offensive game to go with his defense to really earn minutes on this team. That's the main reason Banks got no time last year.
Having guys who get after it on defense will help this team but Raja is the player he is because you can't leave him open. This Suns' offense is a major part of their defense. They won't be changing their approach with what might end up being a smaller team.
As a note, while DJ is a bit better defensively than Tucker, Tucker is a hell of a defender, and his offensive game is considerably better than DJ's. He's the all-time leader in scoring in Wisconsin for a reason.
That's nice, but scoring doesn't impress *me* that much anymore, because the Suns have so much of it anyway; because so many NBA players score but can't or won't play as much defense; and most of all, because we have seen repeatedly that you can't beat the San Antonio Squirts by outscoring them. Back in 2002-03, when Frank Johnson coached the Suns, I remember being amazed to hear someone (might have been Al McCoy or his partner) say the Suns were one of the best defensive teams in the league. Too bad they went to the other extreme and had poor offense--I remember the 91 PPG, too.
I know you're right that Strawberry is not good offensively, but shooting seems easier to learn than defending.
Isn't Tucker a forward? If so, I think he'll be stuck on the bench, not because Coach D'Antoni won't play him, but because Marion plays entire games and would Tucker really back up the much bigger Stoudemire? Strawberry might break through as a wing, because he would compete only with Bell and Barbosa for minutes, wouldn't he?
Poor Amare. He will be stuck out of position again, having to pretend he's a "point center."
They don't play him as a point center, they play him as a high post center, which he can pass off as. (He's much better on the block though.)
Alando Tucker is a SG/SF, DJ is a PG/SG (Really not even a PG, but that seems to be what they are grooming him to play.)
I don't figure either one will be getting an entirely large amount of minutes, but I would much rather have Alando Tucker play. He's more mature (Played through all of college), plays great defense, and has a chance to be a legit starter in the NBA with a bit of time. DJ Strawberry is, at this point in time, a defensive specialist in the Dahntay Jones or Trevor Ariza mold. (Which is to say, ultra-athletic and get put in the game for stretches of the game to shut someone down, but really don't do anything on offense besides the occasional dunk.)
Thanks, Zei...that explained everything. Well, I have no idea what a point center is, and question whether there is such a thing or whether it's just some garbage D'Antoni made up after the 2005 playoff defeat to sell Amare on playing center instead of forward. (It briefly got some newspaper attention.) I'm not an expert (it took me years to figure out what a pick-and-roll was), but Amare does look like a forward to me.
Is it that bad that a lockdown defender doesn't carry his weight on offense? If an opposing player is torching you, I'd at least consider trading some offense for having that player shut down the way someone here told me Banks shut down Baron Davis.
Yes, in a lot of cases, especially with an offense as powerful as the Suns, it is a fair trade off to have a defensive specialist come in and cool down the star player on the opposing team. As of right now, however, DJ's defense isn't *that* much better than Tuckers, the difference isn't even close to as much as people have made it sound.
And yes, a point center is a real term, it's meant for passing bigs like Vlade Divac, Chris Webber, Kevin Garnett, basically bigs that can play the high post and make good passes. Amare isn't a point center, Boris is a point center (Kinda. He's really more like a distributing small forward, but in the Suns system he's a point center.)
I've really never heard anyone call Amare a point center, so I'm not sure where you're getting it from. Amare is a center the same way Dwight Howard is a center. He's touted as a power forward, but really, he's just far too strong and dominant in the paint to just be cornered into the power forward spot. Dwight can play PF and C the same way Amare can play PF and C. The fact that Amare is also ridiculously quick is the reason that he's considered a PF primarily, but the only people who he's not considered a real center against are the huge, plodding type of centers. (Yao, Shaq, basically anyone over 275 pounds.)
Think about it this way: Amare is 6'10 with shoes on. Greg Oden is 7'0 with shoes on. No one doubts that Greg Oden is an NBA center, yet Oden only weighs 10 pounds more than Amare. Dwight only weighs 15-20 pounds more than Amare. The fact remains that Amare is more than strong enough in the upper and lower body to contain most 'true' centers.
That explains a lot. Well, the "point center" term came up in connection with Amare very soon after 2005. There was a little story in at least one of the media sources, saying D'Antoni told Amare he could be a point center, and that Amare seemed to like the idea.
So Amare is accurately a center? Hmm... Well, I guess I have the same concern as everybody: great centers play great defense. Three-point shooting?! Why in the world is Amare reportedly polishing a skill that's not his primary concern?
The “point center” term came out when D’Antoni needed to convince Amare to play center instead of PF. Amare was reaching superstar status and didn’t like the idea that he would have to play center because he was the biggest guy in their best starting line-up. D’Antoni did a nice job distracting Amare with the point center concept (which really means shut up and play the post).
Amare may be big enough and strong enough to defend the post, but he doesn’t do it well at all. Let’s hope that changes over the course of his career. I know I’m beating a dead horse, but the Suns have to follow the San Antonio style of line-up. Duncan is a great defender, but a lot of pressure is taken off of him because he starts at PF. There is usually another big on the floor (Oberto, Mohammed, Nesterovic, Tiago Splitter will be next) to defend the post. That keeps Duncan out of foul trouble so he can play center at the end of a game. We all know Duncan’s offensive strength is back to the basket post play, i.e. a center. But it’s not a coincidence that he starts at the 4. Popovich is a brilliant tactician.
That's exactly what I meant, Russell. Moreover, what you said about San Antonio is also what I've been thinking on and off since at least 2005. I have especially avoided saying it since May because, in light of the behavior of Bruce Bowen (dangerous), Robert Horry (punk) and Nanu Ginobili (coward) during this last series, I thought I could be labeled a jerk. But they've met up with the Spurs twice during the run-and-gun era and gotten spanked the first time and edged the second time, so I'm open to the Suns imitating them. I know they won't do that, though. They insist on winning only the run-and-gun way.
Oh, and I withdraw my suggestion of making the theme for next season "Standing Pat"--I have a much better idea. Isn't next season the Suns' anniversary? Call it "Forty Years in the Desert," not because it's cute but because what happened to the Israelites after forty years?
I don't have a problem with the run-and-gun style of offense. I just think the Suns need to imitate the Spurs line-up strategy. Amare can not play all of his minutes at center. If he does, he won't be playing at the end of a lot of games due to foul trouble. And he's the best finisher the team has.
Is anyone curious to know what Shawn Marion is going to do next summer? Will he opt out? Why isn't he lobbying for an extension right now? Will the Suns just let him walk? It seems they need to be thinking about that or else they might lose him for nothing in return.
rofl. Pj brown to phoenix. any thoughts?
It would have to help the Suns snag P.J. Brown if Steve Kerr could promise him he won't be a benchwarmer.
Can't say that's a realistic possibility. The only thing PJ is better at than Kurt is blocking shots, and Kurt is better at most everything else that we need. (Midrange jumper, post defense, rebounding. Though, PJ Brown is good at all of said things.)
Yup, we can't say it often enough, can we: the Kurt Thomas trade was ridiculous. It suggests that the team will not commit to any defense that uses big and slow players. The only reason to even consider losing him was that he's pushing 35, and the only good aspect of the trade was that even if Kevin Durant's team is good, it's probably too inexperienced to pose a playoff threat next year with or without Thomas, and by the time it's ready to contend (if it ever is), Thomas should be retired.
If Pops Mensah-Bonsu gets cut, he might be a good fit. Long, athletic and cheap big man who can run . . .
Wonder if Pops is his real name or a nickname.
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