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…
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.
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.
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.
So, the Phoenix Suns announced Thursday that they, along with APS and the City of Phoenix, will be installing solar panels on the U.S. Airways Center parking garage to power the stadium. The Arizona Republic reports that the 1,100 or so panels will cost $1.5 million to install, but will cut the Suns’ power usage by about 26 games each season. Not surprisingly, it seems Steve Nash played a major part in the effort, and Suns fans will likely see him in several public service announcements this season. We can only hope they’ll be as funny as the fake PSAs delivered by members of The Office (US):
I don’t know that it gets any easier this for someone in marketing working on this project. At the press conference, City of Phoenix councilman Michael Johnson introduced the project. Mayor Phil Gordon was unable to attend, probably because he fell out of a tree earlier in the week. No, really he did. Steves Nash and Kerr then spoke for a little bit about how great the project was and how important it is to help the environment.
Perhaps, the part of the press conference most relevant to Suns fans, besides saving energy and all that good stuff, came when the Gorilla unveiled a ridiculously humongous power orange power cord hanging from the ceiling. This is a potentially dangerous marketing stratagem. Imagine for a second that you’re a crazy Los Angeles Lakers fan. Not fun, I know, but bear with me. Let’s say the Lakers beat the Suns in the 2009 NBA playoffs. (Not saying it’s gonna happen, knock on wood, touch a cross, kill a chicken in the locker room.) If I’m a Lakers fan, after the game I round up a few 24s from the crowd and then charge the model power cord, pull it out of the socket, and yell, “Lights out, suckas!” Now, this may be a moot point if the Suns were smart enough to super glue the cord into the ceiling, but I feel it’s important to mention this because it could shape the psyche of Suns fans for years. Everyone remembers when Terrell Owens danced on the Cowboys’ star. Dallas had to sign T.O. a few years later to fix things. If you can’t beat’em, join’em. Suns fans won’t have that luxury with obnoxious Lakers fans. There’s no orange-robed priest to convert the heathens, and it’s highly unlikely that the Suns are able to pry the Kobester from the Lakers. For this reason, I propose that 10 Suns fans receive free season tickets to guard the power cord during games. We can’t trust the security team – they can be bribed, compromised, what have you. That leaves it up to us. I will be the first to put my name on the list. Who’s with me??!!?!?!? Hey, its free season tickets, I had to give it a shot.
