The end of the deluge of posts. Leandro Barbosa isn’t at training camp since he left to visit his sick mother. Amare Stoudemire is also expected to be very limited in camp because of an ankle sprain. I haven’t even read all of these articles yet, but here’s some material from the Arizona Republic, East Valley Tribune and suns.com.
The plan is to go into all this good stuff moire in depth at a yet to be determined time in the future, but if you’ve followed this blog at all, you may have seen that postings are frequently late and inconsistent. Which isn’t to say you should stop checking it out. Let me know if any of the links don’t work…
Also a long time coming… The Suns have been having informal workouts for several weeks, and Dragic showed up after he signed his contract. More on this later (hopefully before the season starts), but for now here’s another video:
Should have had this up a long time ago… Amare Stoudemire is on Nickolodeon’s Yo Gabba Gabba! to talk about how to dribble and stuff. Here’s Paul Coro’s article on Stoudemire’s latest work. And here’s the video:
So a little late, but single game tickets went on sale yesterday morning. I haven’t checked, but I’m guessing this means that those $10 seats you were trying to score to the Lakers game are gone. According to azcentral.com, fans are being asked to purchase their tickets on suns.com. Hopefully the team isn’t double posting sales so that it looks like the new website is working…(Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television, North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe, Ryan started the fire!)
Slightly more recent, tickets to the intrasquad game Oct. 3 in Tucson have been made available today.BREAKING NEWS!!! For those who wish to donate the suggested $6 for adults and $3 for children, purchase them online or at the McKale Memorial Center ticket office. For those scum who don’t wish to support university programs (actually, it’s a U of A fundraiser, so I take that back), go to the ticket office or call 520-621-CATS. I assume you’ll get them for free if you do it this way.
Speaking of preseason games and such, I’m planning on going to the NBA’s first modern outdoor game next weekend in Indian Wells, Calif. Hopefully the Suns beat the Nugs, but hey, its the preseason…
The Suns replaced Jiri Hubalek with 6′9″ 240-pound Coleman Collins, according to the Arizona Republic’s Paul Coro.. The former Virgina Tech player is listed as a center, though his height and width suggest he may have a hard time banging with the big boys down low. He did show a little bit of a shooting touch at camp, according to draftexpress.com. Draftexpress says his game is similar to Mikki Moore’s but he may have to work his way up from the D-League as Moore did. Scout.com writer Chris Monter thinks Collins was the Orlando pre-draft camp MVP. Whatever that means.
The Suns needed someone to replace Hubalek, who signed a contract in Europe. Collins has played with a German team, the Raptors and the Nuggets in various stints over the summer in the past few years.
Here’s one from Bleacher Report’s Andrew Ungvari. Seems solid. Though I do think the Warriors will be a little better barring several injuries. And while the Lakers will be good, 60 wins seems like a lot to me, especially with Kobe’s pinkie the way it is. If he plays like he did in the Olympics, the Lakers will have a tough time making 50 wins.
That’s what she said. The above line is actually from Star Wars: A New Hope, in case you were wondering. “But what does this have to do with the Phoenix Suns?” you ask.
Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy reported to a prison camp today. Just sayin’, not hatin’. Donaghy will be in jail for 15 months after arguably causing a lifetime’s worth of damage to Suns fans. Donaghy was sentenced after pleading guilty to several gambling-related charges this summer. NOTE: There’s a good chance the Spurs would have beaten the Suns anyway, but the Suns faithful are always going to think “What if…?”
I was going to post a video, but searching just brought up too many bad memories…
The Suns relationship with Goran Dragic has officially begun. How do I know? Because it’s on their Facebook page. Also, the illustrious Paul Coro posted it on azcentral.com. Dragic has signed his contract with the Suns and all that’s left is for him to get a work visa. Specifics of the contract haven’t been released (as far as I’m aware of), but the salary should be comparable to that of a lottery pick over the course of three years, with a team option for a fourth. So even if he’s a complete bust we shouldn’t need to trade away Amare Stoudemire and take on Stephon Marbury’s contract to get rid of him.
The honeymoon will begin next week, when he is expected to go to training camp with the team. My hope is that Suns fans don’t ruin the honeymoon. We shouldn’t expect him to be great right off the bat. The fact of the matter is, he’s a second round pick. Fans shouldn’t expect him to be the next Steve Nash, because he won’t be. Certainly not in his first season, and probably not ever. He has the potential to be a top 10 point guard in the league, but I doubt he’ll ever be considered top 5. Chris Paul, Deron William, Derrick Rose, Tony Parker and Gilbert Arenas when he returns from surgery should all be better than him for the next few years, not to mention various other point guards I may have forgotten or are not yet in the NBA.
I suppose the question of the season for the Lakers is if they can successfully add Andrew Bynum to the rotation. Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum are a formidable post tandem on paper, and are good enough passers to make it work. It could similar to how Amare and Shaq had to learn to work together, although Amare spread the floor more with his shooting, and the Lakers pair have more advanced post moves. The second biggest question then concerns the health of Kobe Bryant’s pinkie. As much as I liked the fact that he played for Team USA this summer, his shooting seemed off in the games I watched. The departure of Ronny Turiaf could be a bigger loss than most think, since his hustle and heart (no pun intended) were good for team chemistry. If Kobe had to pick one player to be by his side while he jumped over a car, it would be Turiaf.
Lamar Odom, Derek Fisher, and Sasha Vujacic are all solid players. (Who would have thought I would be saying that about Sasha two years ago? Most annoying player ever) Maybe Farmar improves into a legit starting PG. However, I think the pinkie injury nags Kobe all season, so despite a successful blend of Pau and Bynum, I think the Lakers’ record slips a bit to 54-28.
How the Suns Match Up
I really don’t know if Shaq and Amare can stop the Lakers down low. I haven’t gotten the chance to see Robin Lopez play much, but I don’t see a rookie center making a huge difference defensively against those two, especially in the playoffs. The Suns’ Bash Brothers, Barnes and Bell, will get under Kobe’s skin defensively, though I don’t know if that’s good or bad. I think the Suns go 1-3 against the Lakers, especially since they play Kobe’s crew twice early on when they’re still workig the kinks out under Terry Porter.
