Waiting for Amare: The Phoenix Suns thread

honestly it speaks incredibly highly of steve nash that he has taken a second straight collection of bits & pieces and made them win. i mean james jones? diaw? who were these dudes? it's like the shaq effect (ie mark madsen would be an accountant now if it weren't for the daddy...oh and his dancing skillz)

admittedly nash has one of the most flexible players in the L with him in marion, but who else could lose a near-mvp-type-dude and keep on truckin?

nash's d is honestly not that bad. he doesn't get beat off the dribble very easily but he's not very good at fighting through picks. usually he cuts under them and picks his man back up on the other side. i still wouldn't want to bring the ball up against him because he looks like he could steal the ball at any second.

what stands out seeing him in person is his quickness generally- both hands and foot speed- and the old saw court vision. he just seems to play the game like he's watching from the stands- the second he gets his hand on a rebound he's hitting someone 3/4 of the way downcourt with a pass. his drives into and under the basket are astonishing too, he's almost as fearless as AI. different skills, AI just hammers his way in and doesn't care if he gets thrashed to the court, nash slithers in and out before the big guys know what happened.

the mavs are so freakin deep though...if they are healthy, their second unit is marquis daniels/stackhouse/devin harris/keith v.h./chicken fries, which could be plopped down in atlanta or toronto and be a reasonable starting five.

same deal for marion, i think the only reason he doesn't score 30+ a night is that they don't bother running any plays for him.

And Amare may be back as early as tomorrow. So does this completely screw up the teams chemistry or does this launch them to the top of the pack?

i think he'll work in just fine- his presence obviously fires them up, nash and marion love playing with him, and for everyone else he can just slot in as a more-mobile-and-meaner version of kurt thomas, who they were used to playing with anyway. the guy i'd be worried about would be diaw- but frankly they probalby will just bump him over and play a sort-of-three-PF line (amare, marion, diaw)...and diaw's passing seems like it would lead to a lot of quick passes in the post leading to big amare dunks.

27 pts on 11-14
14 assists

dang

http://assets.espn.go.com/photo/2008/0404/nba_g_oneal_268.jpg

close game @ half vs lakers. come on shaq

omg, WHEN DID NASH CUT HIS HAIR?

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, January 16, 2007 11:16 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

LOOL

lol

amundson giving shaq a run for his money in ugly-ass free throws

Phoenix traded Boris Diaw, Raja Bell, and Sean Singletary to
Charlotte for Jason Richardson, Jared Dudley, and a 2010 2nd round draft
pick.

I haven't watched much ball yet this year, but this seems like a bad deal for the suns....?

er, Charlotte, rather?

troo

J-Rich is one of my favorite dudes. He would've been even better in D'Antoni's system, but he can play half-court slog pretty well also.

one hopes the suns will return at least somewhat to their speedy ways as they have a bunch of dudes nash amare jrich barbosa who are better in that environment

Diaw's is quoted as saying "It definitely wasn't as fun," It wasn't as exciting for the fans. It's not as fun for everybody [on the team]. I'll always remember Phoenix with Mike [D'Antoni]. We went from a winning team that was the most exciting team in the league to a half-winning team that wasn't exciting at all."

unvarnished diaw otm

^^^ this

i like picking up richardson though, even in GS he seemed a little underutilized, but are they kind of admitting that picking up shaq played to no one's strengths? and basically annoying amare and nash in one move was probably not the way to go

i think nash will like playing with jrich though

When you buy yourself a Shaq, your team will play Shaq's game, I am very sorry to say. However, one less contending team to worry about in the Western Conference clears some extra room for the Blazers to elbow their way into a decent seed in the playoffs.

u can still run when u hav the opportunity - the_real_shaq doesnt hav to be in on every play

or every game, apparently.

that too

Forget the past and live the now, right now 2:02 PM Dec 10th from txt

It's tough," Nash said after a big exhale. "While I'll welcome my new teammates with open arms, it's tough when you lose your best friend. It's tough when you lose two of your best buddies. It's tough and it hurts. It's tough...It's a tough business."

damn

where's morbs to console him

yelling at a cloud

rip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhUvJElZ_QY

Okay, so the new rumors involve Amare Stoudemire to the Heat, with the Heat losing Michael Beasley (to either the Suns or Sixers, if the blog post's theory plays out). The Miami Herald's beat writers are also discussing viable scenarios for Stoudemire.

If he gets to Miami, he and Wade can be resigned in the offseason, with even more money available to sign another maximum contract.

Ugh. Via Twitter:

I play very well w/Shaq. I averaged more pts last year WITH him & played better D. You guys can stop saying we don't play well together

Do not want Stoudemire in Cleveland.

having to mesh amare stoudemire with lebron and shaq would be a great problem to have

i'd rather mesh amare and wade. then add lebron in the offseason.