There’s still about a month before the preseason starts, and everything basketball-related has slowed to a Piston-esque crawl. I was browsing through other WordPress blogs, and I saw a blog entry about an all-Atlantic Division team. So I figured why not take a weeks or two to look at the Pacific division and some of the Suns’ competition in the division, both this year and in the future. To kick things off, here are my picks for the 2008-2009 All-Pacific Division Team.
Starters
PG: Steve Nash. Gotta go with the hometown guy. There’s been a lot of talk about Chris Paul and Deron Williams surpassing him, but they’re in a different divisions, so I won’t even go into that. Maybe later.
SG: Kobe Bryant. The consensus best player in the league. Has done a lot to improve his image by playing in the Olympics, with an injury no less.
SF:Stephen Jackson. Now I actually have to start explaining myself a little. He plays good defense and is may have been the MVP of his team even with Baron Davis. His rep has skyrocketed since the bral in the Palace incident. Last year I don’t know he makes this list with Artest and Marion in the division.
PF: Amare Stoudemire. One of the best offensive big men in the league. Has improved his shot drastically in the last few years. Hopefully his defense will follow suit with new coach Terry Porter.
C: Andris Biedrins. Toughest choice of the starting 5 and the most controversial. A monster on the boards, runs the floor, and I haven’t heard anything horrible about his defense. There’s several solid centers in the division, including Andrew Bynum, Brad Miller, Marcus Camby, Chris Kaman, and Pau Gasol, depending on how you classify each player. Biedrins is young and uninjured, which is why he got the spot. Bynum will get this spot in my book if he returns to form this year.
Bench
Baron Davis
Monta Ellis
Kevin Martin
Corey Maggette
Al Thornton
Pau Gasol
Marcus Camby
Andrew Bynum
The plan is to go a little more in depth on the other teams and players in the division in the upcoming weeks. Don’t worry though, I’ll still be writing about the Suns a lot. Even in the previews of other teams I’ll try to discuss how the Suns match up with them. I’ll try to get player analysis in the roster section eventually to, so we shall see.
The Phoenix Suns will put out 500 more season tickets this year, beginning 10 a.m. Sept. 8, according to suns.com. There will also be half-season and 11-game plans in limited quantities, so sign up fast!!!
I won’t be rushing to the phone to sign up, but in case anybody else was interested… I’m not a season ticket holder, and I probably only go to maybe one game a year. Hopefully, watching at home doesn’t diminish my status as a fan. As a college student, I don’t really have enough money to spend on the tickets. But even if I did have some change to spare, I don’t know if I’d go. Partly because I’m a cheapskate. Partly because I’m too lazy to drive to the stadium and back. But mostly because at home I have more freedom to do what I want. Take a nap during halftime. Shoot around in between quarters. Experiment with different snacks. Check on other scores and highlights around the league. Watch “The Office”. All that good stuff.
That’s not to say that if I got free tickets, I wouldn’t go. I went to a Phoenix Mercury game last season – Game 4 of the WNBA Finals, I believe- because I got the tickets for free. It was a good game, though it’s not really the same thing in my opinion. I would be willing to shell out for playoff tickets, just to experience the atmosphere. There are some things that don’t really translate no matter how high-def TV gets. But for the regular season I’d much rather watch from the comfort of my home than pay a thousand dollars for season tickets. After all, for that kind of money I could buy a stormtrooper suit, spray paint it orange, and win the best-fan-free-ticket contests before every game for the rest of my life. (Do they still do that?) It would have the logo emblazoned on the chest of course. March in together with a whole squad of stormtroopers. The suits would have built-in air conditioning. Walkie talkies in the helmet to contact troopers spread across the arena. Falling on the opposing team’s bench when they least expect it and blasting their star players. It would be glorious… For the Empire!!
The Suns traded fan favorite and backup guard D.J. Strawberry to the Rockets for itinerant rookie point guard Sean Singletary on Monday. Apparently, second-year GM Steve Kerr wasn’t impressed with Strawberry’s play last season or in the summer league. The combo guard was supposed to work on becoming a more pure PG this summer, and averaged 18 points, 3 assists and 3.6 rebounds in 5 summer league games. However, his 38% shooting from the field and 12.5% shooting from behind the arc left a lot to be desired. Singletary is an ultra-quick, six foot nothing point guard out of the University of Virginia who is supposed to be able to drive and dish, as well as shoot from distance. However, his summer league scoring stats are even worse than Strawberry’s, shooting at the same abysmal rate from 3, going along with 26.7% from the field and 5.8 ppg. The good news is that he recorded 4.6 rpg in 5 summer games and 4.4 apg., with an assist:turnover ratio that is greater than 1!!! (unlike Strawberry)
When I first saw Singletary’s stats and profile, I immediately thought of Marcus Banks. Not a good trade. Then I realized that the Suns aren’t paying him several million dollars to be a backup PG. And the Suns saved about half a million dollars. (Hopefully that wasn’t the driving force behind the trade, though I suppose it doesn’t matter much to me if it was) Nice. This move makes a lot of sense to me. Kerr has already expressed some concerns about Nash’s health, and has already planned to bench him for 12 games this year to get him some rest. And for all the hoopla surrounding Goran Dragic, he’s still a foreign rookie PG who still has to adjust to the NBA after being a backup for his Euro team. In the long run, neither player is expected to become a starter, though Singletary probably has the best chance of landing a starting gig since the biggest knock on him is his height. Perhaps the most encouraging thing about this trade is that it shows the commitment of Kerr and new Coach Terry Porter to run a PG-central, uptempo offense. Singletary is the lightning fast PG, Suns fans have wanted to push the ball when Nash was resting. Hopefully Singletary can team with Dragic to provide a solid replacement for Nash, now and when he retires. Enjoy some of Singletary’s highlights at Virginia posted by hoostw on Youtube.
