Steve Nash sprained his right ankle during Wedesday’s preseason contest against the Atlanta Hawks. Not good news. Imagine if he was out for the season…The Emperor is a Sith lord! The Death Star is orbiting the planet! The sky is falling!!! The good news is the new poll app that  wordpress is featuring. So, without further adieu…

This year the Suns have generally been predicted to finish around 6th in the Western Conference, and I have no problem with that. This seems a little too far though. Jennifer Hudson?!?!? (I think that’s her name…) Overrated? Really??!?!? Reaaaalllly?!?? Sure, we’re no Megan Fox, Jessica Alba, Stacy Keibler, Paris Hilton, Eva Longoria, Jennifer Garner, Erica Durance, Kim Kardashian. And at least we’re not compared to Rosie O’Donnell or Phyllis from the Office. But at least make us a contender…

Is this a shameless ploy to get more people to click on my blog by tagging the names of various divas in it? Without a doubt. But at least I have enough honor to post something worthwhile. Here’s some links to  season previews for the Suns by SI’s Marty Burns and by ESPN’S Marc Stein. Stoudemire gets some love in the Hollinger rankings, but Nash is lower than Jose Calderon… The experts bring up some valid questions though; ones I hope will be answered positively over the course of the season. And yes, I know these are old, but at least it’s something, right? (I’ll let you know if my little experiment worked after a week or so…) I really like ellipses…

So, I drove up to the Suns’ preseason game at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden this weekend – the first modern NBA outdoor game. It was a Suns home game, so the Ced Ceballos, the Gorilla, the Suns dance team and the Adio Sol Patrol were out in full force. Suns fans were spread across the arena with very few Nuggets fans dotted in. (The Nuggets fans I saw all seemed to be fairly happy about their team’s win. Congrats.)

The offense was stagnant. There were times when the team would push the ball, mostly after a defensive stop. There were probably less than five times the team ran. Which is no necessarily a bad thing, as long as the halfcourt offense is strong. But its not right now. Far from it. Instead of scoring in seven seconds or less, it would sometime take that long to swing the ball around the perimeter. At the beginning of the game especially, there was an effort to get the ball into the post. I’m not sure the Suns scored on any of these plays. I do remember Shaq throwing the ball away trying to deliver the ball to a cutter. The offense looked a lot like something you might see in a high school game. The base set is very spread out, with four players on the perimeter, who then cut through the lane. Several screens are set, including a double screen to free up a corner three for a wing player. Generally, it seemed pretty one dimensional. No drives baseline. No drives into the paint. Not many pick and rolls, but that’s a lot harder without Amare.

What made the Suns’ offense special wasn’t pushing the ball after every made basket. Any team with speed can do that, and many have tried unsuccessfully. The key was Nash. (I’m already referring to D’Antoni’s offense as dead.) Any point guard can push the ball up the court with success. It was his impact on the half court game that was unique, though most have criticized the Suns “slow-down” game in the past.

It’s not a horrible thing that Nash is being restrained. The time is fast approaching when he will no longer be with the Suns. The Suns need to prepare for that day, hopefully without sacrificing winning now. If Porter can instill a more structured offense, it may help some of the younger players who will have to adjust to the post-Nash era in a few years.

Nash’s heir apparent played about as well as I expected him too. He was a bit timid with the ball, but I believe Dahntay Jones and Anthony Carter were pressuring him most of the game, and they’re both pretty pesky. After seeing him play, I can say that he does a pretty good job of staying in front of his man, and he’ll hustle. His shot doesn’t look too bad mechanically, but it doesn’t go in very often. He had a few nice plays where he penetrated and found an open man. The year will be a learning process with him, so anyone who expects him to play like the #2 point guard in the draft or someone earning as much as a lottery pick will be disappointed. He won’t be any worse than Marcus Banks, so that’s a plus. Over the next few years he should develop into a solid starting point guard.

The one good thing on offense is that we have energetic post players. Robin Lopez and Louis Amundson crashed the boards frequently, though it doesn’t show up in RoLo’s rebounding stats.

Defensively, it would seem that the Suns have made great strides since the last few seasons, but I’m not sure that’s true. Sure, the points allowed stat may have gone down, but when has a Suns fan ever taken much stock in that deceptive stat. If my math is correct, and it always is, through the first three preseason games (one of the best indicators of post-season success), the Suns have allowed a 42% opponent FG%. Which is only about a 3% drop from their average over the past four years. First, let me say that those 3% points are the difference between an average defensive team and a team that is lauded for their defense. The kind of defense that wins champioships. That said, two of the team’s three worst defenders haven’t been playing. Their best defensive efforts thus far have come against teams missing Carlos Boozer, Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson. So no, I’m not ready to say the Suns will be a top 7 team on defense this season.

The Suns did swarm the ball well whenever it came into the paint. The help defense looked like it had only rarely during Dantoni’s reign. The man-to-man defense looked essentially the same. Nash was slightly better in forcing his man to help. Robin Lopez did a solid job defending his man in the post, though I wouldn’t call him a defensive “stopper” by any mean, at least not the way Kurt Thomas was. But man defense really wasn’t the problem. With Bell, Marion and  Kurt Thomas on the floor, the Suns had three superior defenders. That’s pretty good. Look at the Spurs. Bruce Bowen is a fantastic defender. Tim Duncan is solid. Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and whoever else are solid, but not spectacular. Their team defense concept was beter than the Suns’. I know Nash and Stoudemire’s individual defensive liabilities played a major role in this as well, but it’s not as if Parker was able to stop Nash or and Spur was able to contain Amare during the playoffs. The biggest difference is in the defensive schemes, where the Spurs were worlds better than the Suns.

No, he doesn’t support George W. in office for a third term. I don’t think. But he is following in teammate Shaquille O’Neal’s size 23 footsteps by setting a tentative retirement date. Nash told the East Valley Tribune that he wanted to sign another two-year contract after his current one run out.
I don’t know if this is good news or bad news. Nash will still be a solid player in a few years. Not all-star caliber most likely, but he could form a strong PG rotation with Goran Dragic if everythig works out. Bad news is that he could sign somewhere else. You know D’Antoni will sign him if he’s still in New York at that time. Nash may decide that Terry Porter’s relatively grueling practices are too much for him. Maybe the Suns will lowball him. Maybe he’ll decide that he just needs a change of scenery. Who knows? But I think it would be a shame if Steve Nash doesn’t end his career with the same team he began it with.

So I’m browsing azcentral today, and I read this article about how Amare Stoudemire got poked in the eye. No biggie right? Turns out he tore his iris. How is that even possible? It sounds like some sort of unrealistic plot twist in a Ben Stiller movie. Boris Diaw needs to splurge on a nail clipper for the safety of the team. I’m sure if he asks nicely the Suns will pay for half. Not a good day for Suns fans, but definitely not horrible yet. After all, Amare’s knees are doing fine.

But then I learn that The Office won’t be on NBC because of the VP debates. Really??!?!!? NBC thinks the VP debate is more important and/or entertaining than the office? Ludicrous! I jest slightly, but I can always read about the debate in the papers or TiVo it to watch later. If they don’t air The Office, I’m screwed. You expect to get screwed by your company, but you never expect to get screwed by your girlfriend.

Leave your spam on the presidential debates below.

That’s what the headline reads for Paul Coro’s article in the Arizona Republic. It freaked me out. Then I went on to read the article to see if it wasn’t just a slightly sensational headline designed for me to click on the article. But it’s not. “From what I’ve seen so far it’s very different, but he’s not going to throw everything at us at once,” forward Grant Hill told the Republic in the article. “It’ll be interesting to see if we totally get away from some of the old stuff.”

That sounds like a pretty big change. Especially since over the past month all Porter and Kerr have been talking about is how the team will still light up the scoreboard. But then, how much more do the Suns fastbreak than other teams? When I think of the “essence” of the Suns’ offense in the D’Antoni years, Marion and Barbosa streaking ahead of the pack isn’t what comes to mind. It’s Steve Nash driving baseline and passing the ball out to the three-point line.

Let’s take a quick look at the stats. In an article by Roland Beech from 82games.com, statistics show the Suns scored about 17 points off fast breaks in the ‘06-’07 season, with a 6.5 point net fastbreak average. That doesn’t take into account for points drawn on fouls, and the definition of fast break can be somewhat nebulous when tallying stats, but it will suffice for our purposes. The net fastbreak average shows that the Suns only had about three more buckets each game from the fastbreak. Not that impressive.

The real issue here is the motion offense Porter is installing. I think it’s a good idea in the long run, since it will help prepare the team for the post-Nash era somewhat. I don’t know how much good it will do this season though. The reason that the Suns’ offense has been so anemic with Nash on the bench over the past few years is that Nash is the offense. It’ll be interesting to see just how much Porter lets Nash freelance when he’s on the floor. Restrain Nash, and the offense becomes relatively mediocre. And if there’s not a significant change in a mediocre defense, the Suns could be in some trouble.

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.

Arizona Republic

“Suns Hope Full Year with Shaq Pays” by Paul Coro

“Low Expectations Don’t Bother Suns” by Paul Coro

“Porter Must Overcome 3 Challenges for Success” by Paola Boivin

“More Defense at Porter’s 1st Workout” by Paul Coro

“Lopez Adding Dimensions to Suns” by Paul Coro

East Valley Tribune

Suns Notebook

Shaq’s Rested and Ready” by Jerry Brown

“Nash Provides Best Line of Media Day” by Jerry Brown

Suns.com

“Suns Leaders Still Burning With Desire” by Stefan Swiat

Pictures from Suns Media Day

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…