Blogger Knows Best: Inside the Phoenix Suns

Team Name: Phoenix Suns
Blog Name: Bright Side of the SunSteve Nash has a player option on his contract for next season. Will he pick it up?

Blogger Name: Phoenix Stan (Seth Pollack)

1.    Based on preseason expectations, how would you grade this season?  Please list your team's top three accomplishments.

Everyone expected the Suns to be in the playoffs and while no one considered this team a top contender, no one predicted just how disastrously this season would unfold. The Suns ended last season with another painful elimination by the Spurs, which lead to the departure of D'Antoni for greener (financial) pastures in New York. The upside was a consensus from the team, players and fans that the areas of improvement needed to be defense, depth and accountability.  Enter Terry Porter, who brought those goals.  

Unfortunately, Porter and Kerr were never able to convince the team's aging veterans (mainly Nash, Hill and Bell) that the pain of the coaching change would yield the desired results. Suns second year player Alando Tucker explained it best when he told me, "That's the situation you have with Steve and Grant. These guys are all in their thirties on the back end of their years in the league so when you have that you have to cater to what they're used to and you have to know that as a coach."  This really gets to the heart of the matter. The coach and GM failed to understand how change-resistant his older guys would be.  They failed to get the veterans to buy-in during the process and the vets were old dogs that resisted new tricks. Shared blame.

The team then made a panic trade for Jason Richardson and JareUpon a healthy return from a serious eye injury, Amare will have to get used to those protective goggles.d Dudley that dealt away what little big man depth the Suns had in return for ridding itself of Raja Bell who had stopped being the fiery on-the-court defender in favor of being the main off-the-court complainer. Richardson has been a terrible fit with a Suns team that needed a defensive partner for Nash and instead predictably got a guy who's entire career was defined by the term "volume shooter". Richardson admitted to me that he struggled with the adjustment and claims that he is going to work on improving his defense but that's like asking Tim Duncan to become a three point shooter.

When Alvin Gentry took over as coach after a long couple of weeks of trade rumors that had Amare and then Shaq almost dealt, the team seemed revitalized. Three 140 point wins had everyone happy but it was more then the season ending injury to Amare that killed the team's playoff hopes. Amare is what he is, a tremendous offensive weapon who needs a lot of coddling and is not going to mature into a leader, or much of a defender or rebounder for that matter.

This group lacked whatever extra special thing teams have and need to win big games and overcome adversity. They became really good at blowing out bad teams but as demonstrated in key losses to the Mavs and Jazz, just weren't able to step up when it mattered most. Nash said the Suns didn't deserve the playoffs and might be better off having not made them since now they can't "gloss over their deficiencies".

Grade D.

On the Bright Side, three top accomplishments for the Suns were:

a.) The acquisition and development of a solid bench:  The Suns for the first time in at least ten years have a bench crew of great young role players.
Nash is still behind the wheel of this automobile.
b.) They stuck together:  Lead by Shaq and Hill in the locker room, the Suns players are proud of the way the didn't divide internally in the face of what they consider to be an adverse situation - Terry Porter.

c.) Health:  I don't think you would have found one person outside of (head trainer) Aaron Nelson who thought that Shaq, Nash and Hill would all be so healthy this season. Not only were they injury-free (with Hill playing 82 games for the first time in his career) they were revitalized. Shaq's breakout throwback season is well documented. Nash only had a few periods where he struggled which his chronic back and shoulder issues and Hill was faster and more explosive to the rim then we've seen from him in 7 or 10 years.

2.    How would you assess the competency of the team's current GM and scouting staff?

This is a tough question because there are so many examples of both great and horrible moves. I can't think of another GM that has taken more flack then Steve Kerr. From the Shaq trade, to paying Seattle to take Kurt Thomas to the previously mentioned deal with the Bobcats, Kerr has definitely made some questionable deals. The Terry Porter situation though has to be his biggest mistake. It wasn't so much choosing Porter but failing to understand and proactively addressing the resistance from his team's leaders.Finally healthy, Grant Hill played inspired basketball along side Steve Nash in 2008-2009.

Scouting-wise, it's hard to argue with Grant Hill or even Matt Barnes being signed for the veterans minimum and it's hard to evaluate a team who's only had two first round picks in the last five years.

Kerr deserves a lot of the criticism he's received and yet he did walk into a situation that was already poised to decline. If anything, my biggest fault with Kerr and Sarver has been their lack of consistency and vision. The moves they made demonstrate a team that has been flailing about in an understandable effort to try and win immediately. They rolled the dice and came up snake eyes.

3.    Which young players (if any) can step to the forefront in the future?

For a team that has been star-studded for so many years its ironic that only now as those guys enter the final years of their careers (and contracts) the Suns have young quality role players. None of the five young players have all-star potential and at best a few might be serviceable starters at some point in their careers. That is certainly not a bad thing. Young cheap role players are a vital part of championship teams and over the next few years a few of them will play a major role.

Lou Amundson came out of nowhere to win the hearts of the fans with his hustle play. Jared Dudley has been by far the best part of the Charlotte trade with his energy and incredibly high basketball IQ. He understands exactly what he needs to do to improve and make himself valuable at the NBA level.  Dragic has had tremendous improvement from a deer in the headlights rookie to showing sigYou know Goran Dragic is putting Slovenia on the map...ns of being a highly athletic and talented point guard with vision and potential. Only Robin Lopez remains a mystery for me. He has all the physical gifts of size, balance, quickness and timing but I question his fire and desire to improve. This summer will be telling for him.

The player with the most upside is Goran Dragic. Goran admittedly had a slow start to his rookie year. He took some time adjusting to being in the states and to playing NBA style ball which he says is much different then what he was used to in Europe. Playing those first few months for a hard-ass coach like Porter certainly didn't help him get out of the blocks strong either but that is typical with young players.  

Under Gentry, he's been given confidence and the tempo he likes. He brings a lot to the potential table with his 6'7" wingspan, quickness, and 37" vertical. His outside shooting has improved with his confidence as he shot 45% from three after the all-star break. He has above average court vision and passing skills, but he really needs to get stronger and work on understanding NBA defense.  He wore a T-shirt in the locker room on the last day of the season that had an image of him dunking the ball in a game. It read, "I have 3 more dunks this year then Steve Nash".

It remains to be seen if he can put it all together, but Dragic is going to play with the Suns in the summer league as well as with his Slovenian National Team in August and September. That combined with his plans to work on his body should make for a good summer.

4.    Time to play fantasy GM: what move that was made the past few years would you undo and what move would you currently make for the team to assess immediate or long term needs?

This team has made so many bad deals it is hard to know where to start. From not extending Joe Johnson, to selling all those draft picks to the poorly executed unloading of Kurt Thomas. I have to go with the Shaq trade though as having the most impact both short and long term.

There's no question that Shaq has improved the Suns interior defense and rebounding and his rejuvenated health has made him once again the league leader in FG%. He's brought a lot to the Suns off the court as well. At the time and still today, I felt that the Suns would have been better off trading Marion for younger players or for the active big man that can defend the pick and roll that they are still looking for. To trade for Shaq in the middle of the season last year was too big a bolder to throw in the pond and the loss of Marion exposed a lot of other players’ defensive liabilities.
Both of these guys were almost traded at the midseason deadline this year. Will they still be in Arizona next year?
Looking forward, the Suns face a decline in ticket sales, a bad economy and a lottery team that will pay $10 or $12m in luxury tax if nothing is done. Something must be done.  Trading Jason Richardson to a team far enough under the cap that the Sun only have to take back a small contract would be smart. At this point, with how poorly he's fit in with this team and with Barbosa able to start in his spot this is my favorite option. I wouldn't ask for much back either. If we could package him and the Suns 14th pick and move into the top 5 that would be perfect. If not, then the best deal possible that moves him and saves money is what I would do.

I would listen to offers for Nash and Shaq but someone would really have to blow the doors off for me not to bring them back. At the end of next season Amare can opt out of his final year and so the decision is to extend him for another big contract or move him now. I lean strongly towards moving him but the deal has to be a good one and that will be difficult since no one has seen him play since his eye injury. There is some time to wait and see what options might be available at the deadline or even roll the dice in the theory that he won't want to opt out in such a depressed market. No one is going to want to give up too much for a guy that could walk at the end of next year unless you do a sign and trade. This is possible but then you have to get his buy-in which greatly complicated matters.  At the end of the day, what to do with Amare Staudamire is what will be keeping me up at night.

5.    Best case scenario:  where would you realistically like to see your team at this time next year?Suns Bloggers Know Best.

I would like to see the Suns with two of their three aging vets (Hill, Nash and Shaq) along with solid replacements for Amare and Richardson. I want a full year without any trades or coaching changes. That would likely put the Suns back in the playoff hunt and on the road to transitioning from an aging team to a young team.

I don’t want my Suns wandering the desert for forty years waiting for LeBron or some other messiah to appear via lottery.

Hard work. Improved defense. No drama.

I hope that's not too much to expect here in Phoenix.

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