Definitive Obstructions

Photo by Barry Gossage via Getty Images

Everyone knows they're favorite players strong points. They know how D-Wade loves to pull up for the mid-range jumper when guys are playing them too loose, just to keep them honest. They know all about how any time Dwight Howard catches a ball near the hoop there's the distinct possibility that the ball will be hitting the ground before he lets go of the rim. They know that regardless of how many people are on Kobe and how highly contested that turnaround-fall-away with three people on him is, he can still make it, and quite often does. It's those things that people pay attention to, the smooth offensive plays and unstoppable power jams that garner the most attention from the fans.

Most people don't realize, however, the limitations of the players they love so dearly. Oh sure, they know all about how Kobe has a tendency to shoot instead of pass, and they know plenty about how Dwight Howard has no business shooting outside of six feet from the basket. Who hasn't heard about how Dirk tends to shy away from contact? Anybody? Most people do realize these things. The not-so-subtle reminders from the players that they are flawed and that, a lot of the time, they don't fully recognize their limitations. For the die hard fans of a certain team, however, one finds out exactly what certain players can and can not do. The plays that the kind of fan who watches all 3936 minutes of the season, plus whatever overtime sessions happen to take place, starts groaning about as soon as they see it developing. The pet peeves that national broadcasters never mention and local broadcasters never bother to mention, for the most part. Considering the fact that I'm that type of fan for the Phoenix Suns, and the whole point of coming to this place is some sort of insight into the game that one wouldn't normally find elsewhere... let's make a list for some of the major players for the Suns.

Steve Nash
It's really hard to pick apart anything that Nash does that is so egregiously wrong from a basketball standpoint that one rips out hair from the roots... except for one nagging problem Nash displays. You won't catch it unless you tend to watch the game off-the-ball a lot, but it just so happens that the most annoying thing that Nash does happens exclusively off the ball. Sometimes you might watch the game and notice, "Hey, Nash doesn't play absolutely awful man to man defense like everyone says. Matter of fact, considering the fact that he's not actually very athletic, that's about as well as you could hope for him to play [insert point guard here]." But then you look at the box score and notice that Francisco Garcia had 31 points or Sasha Vujacic had 12 points in 14 minutes. If you watch those games, it's like "Hey, it doesn't look like Nash is playing bad defense!" until you watch him when those players don't have the ball in their hand. When the ball is on the opposite side of the court, Nash just kind of wanders off into the lane and sometimes, even worse, towards the perimeter in the middle. Now I know what you're thinking... "But Nash needs to be in the lane, he's our shot blocker, our intimidator!"

... Oh wait, he's not? Then why in the world does he wander off his man and let them get wide open shots? Not sure. He draws the occasional charge but, generally speaking, it's not in situations like that. It's on the break, or when the guy he's defending isn't a good shooter. So next time you watch a Suns game, agonize with me in unison as Nash plays eight seconds of excellent defense and then wanders away aimlessly like a 4th grader with ADD in a recreation league.

Raja Bell
What? Our beloved Raja has flaws? Sounds like nonsense, right? Okay... maybe not. But this is the one that sticks out in my mind the most, and every time it happens I nearly crumple into a heap and cry myself to sleep. (Okay, once again, maybe not. It's more of a "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" shouting sort of ordeal.) Raja Bell, bless his heart, thinks he can dribble. I'm not sure what gave him this idea, but he well and truly thinks he's an adept dribbler and will often careen several feet towards the lane for no apparent reason and with no plan in mind. Never mind that he's an outright poor finisher at the hoop and that he's not a good passer (minus entry passes), he's going to pump fake and dribble around for a little while. This is most evident in the open court because, if he gets a rebound, he's taking it all the way up court. Dribbling around his back and through defenders, commonly ending with a turnover as those adept at this "defense" thing I keep hearing about realize that he has no business doing so. Fearless as always, Raja remains undaunted as he dribbles to fifteen feet after a pump fake, goes to the opposite side of the court, backs up a little bit and gives the ball to Steve or Leandro. It gives me indigestion just thinking about it.

Grant Hill
We're still in the honeymoon phase of this free agency signing aren't we? Not quite? Allowed to start nagging? Well, oddly enough, Grant Hill is probably the hardest guy to see any amazing and outstandingly annoying things about, thus far. Maybe it's because he's only been playing for my team for less than 15 games, that's a distinct possibility, but the only thing about Grant's game that I'm really having a hard time dealing with is that he's on the floor almost as much as Manu Ginobili. (But for different reasons usually.) If he attached one of the mop things to the back of his jersey he could help out the kids on both sides of the court quite a bit, they would barely have to go out there to clean up wet spots. I mean, I love that he goes to the basket fearlessly, that's really the best thing about his game... but I think 19 is a bit too young to be developing heart problems because every time you hit the floor my chest stops working for a second. As a key acquisition with serious injury problems, I have a hard time dealing with the fact that no less than nine times a game I think you may have gotten injured, based on the fact that you just fell down at rather accelerated speeds.

While I'm on the subject: Grant Hill is a very good defender, better than advertised for sure. I didn't realize it in the Orlando days, because... well... he was gimpy. Not so gimpy any more though! Gotta love the Phoenix training staff.

Shawn Marion
Shawn is the one that spawned the idea to write this article. Shawn's game is, as always, unique... The one facet of his game that you can always be sure of is that you will never have any idea what in the world he is doing. In fact, you may not always know where he even is while he's in the game. (Which is how he scores quite a few of his points, I'll note.) The one thing that you can always rely on with Shawn? The two dribble rule. Shawn gets two dribbles. If Shawn dribbles more than twice in any half court play, it's not going to end well. Pay close attention, any time he doesn't dribble or dribbles once, it's a high percentage shot. Any time he dribbles twice, there's a good chance that he's going to throw up a 15 foot floater of some sort. Any time he dribbles three times or more, the play ends in a bad shot. A good example would be when Shawn Marion got posted up against the Warriors, I believe it was against Kelenna Azubuike. He got the entry pass, dribbled, tried to create space, dribbled, tried to create space, dribbled... dribbled... threw up a jump hook which had literally zero chance of going in. Or perhaps Shawn will give a fake, get his man in the air... two dribbles, someone steps in front of him, so instead of taking off and going for the foul, he'll cross over a couple times and either take a semi-fade-away from 16-18 feet out or pass the ball out to one of the guards (for aforementioned reasons, hopefully not Raja) and the entire possession's momentum is killed.

That's why I'm hoping D'Antoni reads this and forces Shawn to abide by the two dribble rule. Make it the Two Dribble Law, Mike!

Amare Stoudemire
Foul trouble. That's it. Stop hitting people, Amare. Especially when the Suns have the ball. This isn't really a little known fact or anything, but it's the most frustrating thing about watching the Suns. Watching Amare invariably get a foul or two in the first three minutes is almost enough to reduce the entire city of Phoenix to tears.

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That's it for the starting line up. I'll probably end up doing the key contributors off the bench in the future (Namely, Leandro and Boris. Haven't seen enough of Brian Skinner or whoever else is rotting on the bench to really be able to develop pet peeves for them... but I can always make assumptions based on small sample size. Might be the best way to get a job for ESPN or something, come to think of it...

Agree with me? Disagree with me? Thinking of things that I missed? Inebriated and seeking something to do with your time that is generally unproductive? Shoot me an email or leave a comment!

Suns stay hot, doubters get fuel

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.

So if you read NBA previews, a lot of people picked the Suns to nab the number one seed in the West and picked the Spurs to repeat. A lot of people knocked the Suns for letting Kurt Thomas go and poo-pooed the Grant Hill signing. A lot of people think this team is entertaining but ultimately won't win in the playoffs. So the whole 82 game regular season is waste and no matter what we should bank on watching someone else raise the trophy.

Meanwhile the Suns are hot right now. They took a back to back set from the Kings. In the first game, they built a built a big lead only to let it melt away in the fourth. Amare Stoudemire (26 pts, 13 reb, 4 blk, 1 stl) was killing the Kings and I had a feeling he would make a decisive play. After clanging two crucial free throws, he blocked a jumper at the buzzer to ice the 100-98 win.

The next night was classic Suns basketball. The Suns came out gunning and put up 47 in the first quarter and 80 in the first half. Nash (20 pts) was aggressive with his shot and dished 15 assists in the 127-111 blowout win.

The short-handed LA Clippers rolled into town on Black Friday and Sam Cassell (26 pts, 18 in 1st half) had it going early. The Suns took control in the second half with better defense and better play from the frontline. Shawn Marion (21 pts, 17 reb, 5 stl, 2 blk) dominated the game, Amare (29 pts, 11 reb, 2 stl) had the offensive touch and Grant Hill (19 pts, 5 reb, 3 ast) made some nice plays including a big follow dunk. The Clippers couldn't hang and lost 113-94.

Thoughts
As far as injuries and playing time, there were a few minute developments this week. Raja Bell did return to the lineup in the Clippers game and while the shot wasn't there, he did make plays in the fourth to help the Suns pull away. Marcus Banks got some good minutes in the second Kings game and played with a lot of confidence. Nash's minutes are down a bit but Marion and Hill are playing big minutes. Nash has become the league leader in assists with 10+ in seven straight games and 15 in three of the last six.

So the winning streak is at eight. Optimists will say the team has played few games at full strength, they are winning ugly games and Hill and Brian Skinner have been very good additions. The doubters aren't impressed by winning streaks, they'll point out that we've played teams missing players and they'll point to Amare's knee surgeries as evidence he's the second coming of Bill Walton.

The question for me is- are these people really Suns fans? I'm questioning their fanhood. EIther you like the team or you don't. Fans root for the guys on the floor and hope for the best. We don't know what'll happen in the regular season nor the playoffs. Injuries, suspensions and clutch performances are dramatic and heart breaking because they are unexpected. Why focus on that now? Just enjoy the process of getting there. This Suns team has exciting players, interesting personalities, and a legit chance to win every time they play. To me this is something to get behind. I could be wrong, maybe people just chase championship teams or sure things and real fanhood is dead.

Suns warming up

Sorry for the lack of updates Suns fans. I've been a little busy and some games I'm catching on radio (free NBA Audio League Pass FTW) or other means. This past week brought some dysfunctional Eastern conference teams to PHX.

The Knicks came to town with Stephon Marbury. Apparently Isiah Thomas told him he was getting yanked from the starting lineup. Then according to varying accounts, Marbury threatened to blackmail Thomas and possibly tried to fight him. After the summer the Knicks had, kinda makes sense.

Grant Hill had a terrific game, scoring 21 on 8 shots only missing once. Four starters scored over 20 points in the 113-102 win.

I had to listen to this game on internet radio and it was great to hear Al McCoy calling the action. Another strange note after this game. The Suns lead by as many as 21 in the fourth and Knicks bench rallied to cut the lead to 10. Apparently the crowd wasn't too into the game and Coach D'Antoni called out the team's effort and the weak crowd support as well.

The floundering Chicago Bulls limped into PHX to start their annual circus road trip. The only thing interesting about the team has been off the court. The Kobe Bryant trade rumors, Deng and Gordon rejected low ball contract offers and scrubs are calling team meetings about their awful play.

The Suns kept them reeling with a 112-102 win. Grant had another solid game with 24 points, 17 in the first half. The Bulls rallied late behind some hot shooting and a slew of fouls called on Amare Stoudemire. When Amare left the game, Boris Diaw took over.

After an awful start, Boris (10 pts, 7 reb, 5 TO) scored on three straight possessions including a nice AND1 on a give n go with Steve Nash. The team showed a lot of poise as Chicago tightened their defense and started to hit some jumpers. The Suns defense picked up and Phoenix had too many scoring options for Chicago to deal with. Nash (10 pts, 15 ast) found Hill and Marion (21 pts, 9 reb, 2 stl, 2 blk) going to the rim and Barbosa (25 pts, 5-7 3FG) was on fire yet again.

The Suns then went to Houston to face the suddenly cooling Rockets. Tracy McGrady (elbow) is hurt again and the team had dropped 3 straight heading into the matchup. The Rockets improved their bench in the offseason and brought in Rick Adelman to reshape the team into an offensive power to go with their strong defense.

The defense was missing for the Rockets in this one. The Suns came out scorching and dropped 69 in the first half on over 70% shooting. The Suns held off a late Houston rally to win 115-105.

All five starters hit double figure led by Amare and LB with 21 apiece. Amare (8-8 FG, 13 reb, 2 blk) and Shawn Marion (18 pts, 11 reb, 4 blk, 1 stl) combined to shut down Yao Ming (12 pts, 4-17 FG). The Suns shot 62% for the game but wasn't all pretty. The team had 25 turnovers and went 19-29 from the free-throw line to continue the poor early season shooting. The team was missing Raja Bell (ankle). Coach D'Antoni went 8 deep on the bench, getting a couple of threes from the Polish Rifle in a brief stint.

Thoughts
The team is winning despite not playing all that well for long stretches during games. The good record is nothing to complain about though because the West is too strong to fall off the pace. Consider the prospect of being a 3 seed and having to play a six seed like Houston or Denver, a two seed like Dallas and then face the one seed San Antonio. That's just to get to the Finals where Detroit or Boston could be waiting.

I'm surprised by the vast amount of complaining about the team. D'Antoni's comment about the crowd is rather bold to me because I've felt for years the Suns have no homecourt advantage. The crowd is only fired up when the team is front running and popular road teams still draw large contigents in the USAC. The crowd may feed off the team but it seems like whenever the team doesn't play well or even wins ugly, it's a travesty. TIcket prices are expensive though, maybe it is a travesty when you drop a couple grand and the team looks sluggish.

Sure the playoffs left a bad taste in everyone's mouth but getting back there is a six month process. The team has injuries and new personnel to absorb into the Suns culture. So far the results are mixed but they are finding ways to win games. The regular season does matter. Chicago dropped their last game of the season last year and gave Cleveland an easy road to the Eastern Conference Finals and got Miami and Detroit in the first two rounds. We want to see this team peaking in April but they will have to win at a consistent clip to get the 1 or 2 seed in the West.

I'm liking Grant Hill more as he finds his niche with the team. He's taking fewer threes and he's taking them in the corners. He's been putting up good scoring nights on few shots. He's playing big minutes though and D'Antoni needs to cut them back for the long haul. Sidenote on Grant. I watched the Oprah episode he shot between the games with New York and Chicago. He said some stuff about being a father to daughters that I felt was really powerful. It's to see our favorite team has real character guys on the roster.

The scoring outputs are increasing and efforts have been promising given that the team has played few games at full strength. I personally would like to see more bench minutes but the team has to do a better job of stretching leads. The schedule is light on elite teams and the team has 4 out of 6 at home before the next big Eastern swing. There's a good chance to stretch this win streak as guys continue to get healthy.

Suns' Week in Pictures

* The pics that mention scores link to box scores.

A Season In Review

How far are we into the season? Three games? It's practically over, right? Okay. Then it's time to review the performance of our players, clearly.

Thus far, in 2/3rds of our games (That's 67%!) the Suns have beat a team that they should have no problem beating. So far, in 3/3rds of our games (That's 100%!) we have failed to show up to play through the first 30 minutes of the game. In 1/3rd of the games (That's 33%!), the Suns flat out failed to come alive for those last 18 minutes and continued to play like garbage until garbage time, when, oddly enough, they played quite well.

Now, I'm not overly concerned, the season just started, after all. Everyone knows the Suns have talent, a good system, and enough firepower to win 60 games. The problem in all this? The Suns themselves don't seem overly concerned. That's a big problem. We as fans know this, but the players, the coaching staff... they have to work as hard as possible to keep that status as an elite team. If they don't wake up and start playing in the first half, it could cause problems. We are talented enough to beat teams with middling-to-low levels of talent. (Like Cleveland or Seattle, and honestly, we still could have won in L.A. if they didn't play like crap in the 3rd quarter.) We can't let elite teams blow us out in the first half and then just go ahead and come back though, against elite teams we would have thrown all three games away.

It's clear that the Suns aren't completely healthy. Amare's knee seemed to bug him in L.A, Raja might as well not be playing (And yet, he's barely leaving the game. Odd), Leandro's elbow is clearly still bugging him, along with the rib thing.

In other news, D'Antoni is still overplaying his starters. Against Cleveland, Grant Hill (the guy who's minutes need to be limited) played 40 minutes and 8 seconds. Shawn played 45 minutes and 42 seconds. Raja played an agonizing 40 minutes and 29 seconds of poor offense and mediocre defense. (First part is fine, he'll get his rhythm, the defense part is absolutely awful though. That's why he's on the team. He's got tendonitis right now, for Christ's sakes. That doesn't mean play him for the majority of the game, that means take it easy.) All in all, my biggest criticism is that here, early in the season, the time to give bench guys chances to prove what they can do, D'Antoni is running his starters straight into the ground. It seems unnecessary, especially considering how banged up some of the major rotation guys are.

Will these problems be solved shortly? Will the team wake up in the first half? Will the Suns go on a team hunting trip and develop an eternal sense of conviviality that lasts through the years, then accidentally shoot Sean Marks with a crossbow?

Only time will tell.

Win for the Godfather

Sunday's night game is definitely one I would have loved to have been at. While the Suns play was uneven, the halftime festivities were special as Jerry Colangelo was added to the Ring of Honor. The Suns responded by making a run and put away the Cavaliers in the second half 103-92

I was happy the NBATV feed showed the ceremony because KJ and Thunder Dan gave emotional speeches and it was cool to see all the Suns legends (except the seriously ill Connie Hawkins) all together to honor Colangelo. The man is one of the fixtures in the American basketball and he helped turn Phoenix into the sports hub it is today. While some fans may balk at that idea, Phoenix has all four major sports, spring training, two college bowls, another Superbowl next year, major NASCAR and PGA tour stops and Colangelo had a direct or residual influence on a lot of it.

Positives
Steve Nash (30 pts, 10 ast) took over the game in the second half. He killed Cleveland's bigs on switches. The defensive rotations were also much sharper in the second half as the team trapped and doubled to force tough shots.

Concerns
Big starters minutes even though the team was a man down. (The +/- bears out the starters were very effective). The shooting from the field and the line is pretty bad so far.

Thoughts
This is a game you gotta win. It's almost like homecoming. While the Cavaliers are no pushover, you can't lose in front of all the legends (or a 2nd straight at home for that matter). Perhaps this motivation and a few coaching adjustments sparked the second half run.

Since it's still so early, I'm looking for things to pick out of every game. The more I watch Grant Hill, the more I like him as a Sun. I think he's still thinking on the offensive end but he makes a lot of smart plays. If he commits a turnover, he immediately looks for a way to get it back- be it a steal or catching a big not looking and taking a charge. I really love how he slashes to the rim and creates contact.

Eastern road swing this week. The Bobcats and Hawks have looked decent early so the competition will be good and we'll see if Amare is ready to go after sitting out Sunday. All the teams they'll face have good young big men (and of course Shaq) so this small lineup will need a defensive effort like the second half of this game to avoid getting pounded inside.

Time to get in shape

Here's ten things I thought about during last night's loss.

1. Even people who don't watch basketball want to know if Kobe is getting traded. Some dude at the gas station asked me about it. I think he was a terrorist.

2. Tons of people complimented me on my KJ jersey yesterday. One Spurs fan at work yelled Phoenix sucks! F-cking guys on the Back Office team. KJ will be in Phoenix when Jerry Colangelo gets added to the ring of honor Sunday.

3. Raja is off. Doesn't have his legs yet.

4. The team got in at 4 am from Seattle. The early season can be tough for good teams because they play lot of TV games and they have home/road back-to-backs.

5. The defense was awful. Once the Laker bench got hot, there was no way PHX was coming back.

6. Kobe hates playing against PHX despite his big scoring nights. When his teammates play well, he's told to be a distributor and he goes cold. As he misses shots trying to heat up and stretch a lead, the Suns comeback. Didn't happen last night because his teammates were so ridiculously hot they didn't need his offense.

7. DJ Strawberry does look like an NBA player. He moves really well and he has a ton of energy. If he can learn from Grant and Marion, he could be a real steal.

8. Sasha Vujacic needs to be bitch slapped.

9. Coach D'Antoni talking shit to Phil Jackson is awesome. People forget dude was a legend in Italy. He's probably fought a guy or two in the discotheques of Milan.

10. It'll be a good 15-20 games before we know what kind of team this is. I look forward to seeing how they gel over the 1st quarter of the season.

Suns beat Sonics in season opener

Suns take the season opener 106-99 over the Seattle Supersonics.

Not gonna write much of a recap because it's kinda late and I watched the game on DVR. We've got the Lakers tonight though so that should be fun. Feel free to talk it out in the comments. Just as a heads up, I usually write about every game and write a quarterly recap every 20 games or so.

Positives
Amare Stoudemire (23 pts, 11 reb, 1 blk) looked very good offensively and avoided foul trouble in the second half. Marcus Banks' personal 9-0 run snatched momentum away from the Sonics late in the third quarter.

Concerns
Shawn Marion had a decent night but had stretches were he was seemingly going through the motions. Grant Hill (4-5 twos, 1-7 threes) is finding his way in the offense but should stick with the slashing and midrange game for now. Boris!!! He had the best +/- of the night but still was too passive.

Thoughts
It was so nice to actually watch this team play. I wasn't able to catch any of the preseason stuff and while opening week is always pretty sketchy quality wise, I like the win. Marcus Banks played with confidence and after hitting a three to answer an open shot he gave up to Wally World- he waved off D'Antoni who was on his case. He was key off the bench and it's good to see him play well with LB and Raja a little banged up.

I don't think Grant really needs to add the three from all angles to his game. I do like him shooting in the corner because the Suns have set plays designed to get corner threes. The corner three is the shortest three but it is also a fastbreak starter for the opposing team. Bad corner threes are coach killers, good ones are the Suns' bread and butter. Even when Boris added the shot to his arsenal last year, it was always in the corner. I think there is a chapter in one of Phil Jackson's books about corner threes.

It was sloppy but it's nice to take the opener for the first time in three years. I think as the team gets healthy and Grant finds his game within the system- it'll be pretty basketball to watch. The early season slate is pretty light on good teams so it'd be nice to see the team get off to a good start and keep 9-10 guys in the rotation and even get the rookies some blowout minutes. I'm curious to see the lineups that will play best together and develop that chemistry we're looking for.