Nets scorch Suns, road trip looms

So the Suns started well and then turned into the D'Antoni Suns in the fourth quarter. They gave up 43 points in the fourth.

Once again a quick guard dropped 40 on the Suns. Devin Harris had 47 points and 8 assists.

The Suns got nothing from their bench and Boris Diaw singlehandedly got the Nets back into the game. Boris, if you have an open layup don't fire a pass to the Nets coach. According to the nba.com boxscore Boris was -28 when he was on the court.

The Suns revamped defense couldn't get a stop when it mattered in a game they needed to win.

Amare got ejected at the worst possible time. If you want to be the featured guy, you can't help from the locker room.

The officiating was bad but the Suns lack of ball control did them in again. 21 turnovers.

With New Orleans, Dallas and Utah looming, the Suns are about to be seriously tested. Terry Porter will have to do some serious coaching. The team came out with energy and toughness only to wilt when it mattered. The bench did nothing and were forced to hold a lead after the starters played the entire third quarter.

Suns head out on the road now. They dropped five of their first nine home games. Not sure which direction the team is heading regardless of how early in the season it is.

A few thoughts...

Much like the Suns, I've been forced to curtail my high-speed ways. AT&T didn't feel I needed internet so I've been unable to post much.

So 17 games into the season, the Suns (11-6) have shown us quite a bit. The off-season changes have changed the identity of the team. At times we see a team that can be successful in the playoffs. Other times we see a team that could use an infusion of youth via trades and the lottery.

Steve Nash is struggling in his new role. He's being encouraged to run the break but also run the half court offense through Shaquille O'Neal. Nash is averaging 8 assists a game and 3.8 turnovers. He just doesn't look like the same player.

He has shown flashes of being his MVP self. When he took over the game against the Thunder and refused to let the Suns lose, it made me wonder why doesn't Porter just let him just run the team. Then I remembered Shaq wasn't playing that night.

Shaquille O'Neal has been good. He's been good around the basket, passes really well out of double teams and has brought a tangible toughness to the team.

Focusing so much on O'Neal has rendered portions of the regular season useless. Shaq needs rest, so the team is resting him during back-to-back sets.

Suspensions, injuries, bereavement and poor play have changed the rotation on a nightly basis.

The lack of continuity has been a major issue for this team given the concrete rotation and rhythm play of previous years.

Amare Stoudemire (excuse me Amar'e) is a hard player to figure out. He has one of the best games I've seen from any player in Indiana. Then has three disappearing acts against the Grizzlies, Rockets and Kings. Do you remember the last time he had a double double? It was against Detroit November 16.

Amar'e's inconsistent rebounding is part of a larger problem of late. Good defense, poor rebounding. The Thunder and T-Wolves grabbed 15 and 21 OFFENSIVE rebounds respectively. Two of the worst teams in the league hung around with the Suns because they were given multiple chances to score.

More chances are also a result of turnovers. The Suns lead (trail?) the league in turnovers. Until Friday's mess versus Miami, it was Boston. Since Boston is 5th best in forcing turnovers and the Suns are second worst- I think it is safe to say the Suns are the worst ball control team in the league at this point.

ESPN turned the annoying focus of the Summer of 2010 toward Phoenix this week with Stephen A. Smith's article about Stoudemire's potential departure from the Suns.

While it's rather ridiculous to speculate about TWO years from now, it is interesting because cash will likely change the balance of power in the league. Phoenix will have a ton of cash to spend but could potentially turn into the Clippers- a team in a warm city with money to spend that nobody wants to play for.

The next two years will be interesting because not only are teams weary of the Lakers dominating the league but also weary of losing their star players to big bidders. The current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires after the 2010-11 season so the cash grab that summer will be the last under the current system. We'll hear for more about business than simple wins and losses.

The fact remains Shaquille O'Neal is the only max free agent signee to lead his new team to a title. Teams will be looking for combos in 2010 and stars like Amar'e, Chris Bosh and Dirk will be hearing about forming new dynamic duos along with players like LeBron or D-Wade. The talk won't go away. So let's hope for the best now. Hopefully the Phoenix Suns can be a destination rather than a victim of mass exodus.

The Suns have found a way to win games but they are far from a finished product. There are complaints about Porter's approach from his players that he defuses with pretty decent logic. He wants the Suns to run after stops instead of makes. He points out players get great touches in the offense but often miss shots or turn it over.

For all the moaning and analysis, the Suns are in the thick of the Western race. They don't have many quality wins but there are positives to build on. 82 games is a long time.

Whatever the Suns are supposed to be, they aren't very good at it at this point.

The Suns don't seem to fully trust one another and only more games and strong performances can remedy that.

Unlocking The Fire

I'd like to take a moment to take a step back and take a good look at Amare Stoudemire right now. It's sometimes difficult to look at him as a player in an objective light... a lot of people have been predispositioned to dislike him based on the common belief system regarding his defense, (Which isn't as bad as you think) whereas most people have a hard time giving him a lot of credit for what he does on the offensive end. (Trust me, it's not like he gets 12 dunks a game that are spoon fed to him by Nash, though that notion has faded some over time.) Take a quick jump back to middle ground, that includes you Suns homers too, and take a quick, yet objective, look at what Amare Stoudemire has done through the first seven games of the season...

Through the first 6 games he averaged 25.8 PPG, 9.3 RPG, 2.7 APG, 1.5 SPG, 1 BPG in 38.2 minutes a game. He did this on an absolutely unreal 67.1 FG%, also shooting 86% from the free throw line. Now that, in and of itself, is a hell of a statline, but if you start looking at putting his scoring numbers into perspective, he is averaging 25.8 points a game on 13.2 shots a game. That is 1.95~ points per shot. Looking at it another way, Amare is #6 in points per game behind Tony Parker (27.4), Danny Granger (27.2), Chris Bosh, Tim Duncan and LeBron James (26.0). Let's make a little visual representation of the efficiency of the people ahead of him as compared to Amare...

Player	PPG	FGA/G	Points Per Shot
Tony Parker	27.4	19.8	1.38383838383838
Danny Granger	27.2	17.8	1.52808988764045
Chris Bosh	26	17.8	1.46067415730337
Tim Duncan	26	19.4	1.34020618556701
LeBron James	26	19.7	1.31979695431472
Amare Stoudemire	25.8	13.2	1.95454545454545

Take a good long look at that. The closest person to Amare in there is 4.6 shots per game higher than Amare. The closest person to him in points per shot is just shy of .43 per attempt lower than him. Not only is Amare scoring in rather astonishing volumes, he's doing it at historic level efficiency. (And once the game from tonight against the Bucks registers, it will be even crazier, as he had a somewhat surreal 24 points on 8 shots.) Oh yeah, and he's leading the league in True Shooting %. Go figure.

However, Amare's scoring prowess is well documented, and while it's even more ridiculous than normal, it still doesn't shock and awe Suns fans and skeptical critics. What is interesting is his apparent willingness to be unselfish and make good passes. While his turnovers to assist ratio is nothing to be proud of, he has significantly increased his assist totals this year and is visibly making better decisions on the offensive end. He's not just being a finisher or scorer, he's rounding into a more complete offensive player.

Perhaps the most exciting part of the season, however, is Amare's focus on the defensive end. Terry Porter must have got a hold of him and shook him or something, because he is clearly playing better off ball defense this year. He's playing passing lanes, contesting shots and, perhaps most importantly, not picking up stupid fouls that take him out of the offensive end of the game. You combine this with the fact that he's doing a better job boxing his man out (instead of flying around trying to snatch the rebound), and pulling down the contested rebounds that we really need on the defensive end. His 9.3 RPG isn't a particularly impressive number, but you watch him play and you can see the difference in his attitude on the defensive end. it's refreshing, and frankly, about damn time.

Beast Mode Activated

Amare's line vs Indiana: 49 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists, 5 steals, 2 blocks, 17-21 FG, 15-15 FT

I'll post more later...