The Sun is Rising

By: Kufere "McBloggin" Laing

Since the firing of Terry Porter and resorting back to their previous "7 seconds or less" offensive philosophy, the Phoenix Suns have averaged 141 points per game and are 2-0 in the time span. Although, both wins came at the expense of the Clippers (now known as LA JV) who probably couldn't hold Central Catholic's JV to 90 points, the Suns seem to be rejuvenated. Amar'e Stoudemire has been playing like a "flat out stud" (copyright: Steven A. Smith), Steve Nash now looks like the all-star he once was, and the addition of Jason Richardson make the Suns' offensive attack even more forbidable. Secondly, changing back to the 7 seconds or less system (7SL) allows the Suns to get the most out of their personnel. In the 7SL, Leandro Barbosa was among one of the best 6th men in the league, this year his minutes have dropped and unsurprisingly, so has his production. Barbosa was a match-up nightmare for opposing teams in the 7SL due to his speed, however Terry Porter's slow down system didn't allow for Barbosa to get in the open floor and attack defenses while they were retreating. Barbosa was forced to attack defenses off the dribble in an offensive set. This limited the space Barbosa had to operate and also allowed the defense to help on drives in which he beat the primary defender. In fact, only Shaq benefited from Terry Porter's change in strategy. Porter's "slow down, grind it out" system did not fit the Suns at all considering they do not have one "lock down" defender and a team full of athletes who thrived in the 7SL which allowed for fast breaks and created more offensive possesions in case key players were not knocking down shots. The system also allowed Steve Nash to use his immense court vision to find cutters, holes in the defense to penetrate, and to make a play through improvisation. Porter's system allowed for little of this and had the offense run through an aging past his prime, yet still effictive, Shaquille O'neal.

Nevertheless, the Suns are still not a contender in the Western Conference, yet. This is almost the same team (with the addition of Richardson and subtraction of Boris Diaw and Raja Bell) that lost in the first round of the playoffs last year and as of now would not make the playoffs in the Western Conference. Also, Nash's inferior defensive ability hurts the Suns often forcing them in help defense early in the shot clock allowing for open shots for shooters or holes in the defensive rotation for either a cut or easy uncontested drive to the basket. Next, due to the hole the Suns dug themselves into (and by Suns, I mean Terry Porter, I'm going to rant a little here; could there have been a worse hire for this team? He didn't even last one full season and wanted to run his offense through a 37 year old with bad knees and cut off all his teams drives to the basket) during the 1st half of the season, they will likely end up matched up against the Lakers, Spurs, or Nuggets in the 1st round. These three teams would all be favored to beat the Suns and to be honest, the Suns do not match up well with any of these teams. Their history with the Lakers and Spurs is well documented and although they have beaten the Lakers in the past, I doubt they would do the same this season. The Lakers (assuming Bynum returns--and you know what they say when you assume) will be able to put out a front court in the playoffs with the smallest player being 6-11! This would basically end all Nash drives to the hoop while making life difficult for Amar'e and Shaq if they choose to double team and more importantly it would allow the Lakers (aka The Varsity) to control the boards and dictate the pace of the game. The Nuggets also present match up problems for the Suns due to their athleticsm of their front court and Chauncey Billups's ability to physically defend Nash and wear him down in the post over the course of the series. Lastly, with all the Spurs have done to the Suns in recent years, could anyone really see them beating them when it mattered? This Christmas it seemed like the Suns would finally get a quality win against the Spurs, but Roger Mason drilled the game winner (Nash got beat by Parker forcing Richardson to help, leaving Mason open in the corner). Then last season, after an epic Game 1 to start the playoff series, some questioned would this be the greatest 1st round series ever, only for the Spurs to make quick work of the Suns in only 5 games. And who could forget Robert Horry's hip check sending Nash into the 123 row of the stands (or at least after Nash made a quick run to the bathroom to dry his tears, all in all, a great flop job...he is an international player after all) and inducing Amar'e and Diaw's one game suspension which gave the Spurs all the help they needed to get to the Finals and win another NBA title.

But don't get too down Suns' fans, your team is now back to playing fun basketball and who knows, they might just shock the world, get to the Finals, thank god, and become set up a battle to see who really is The Team of Destiny (Yes, the Suns have an opportunity to play the Team of Destiny card, along with every other NBA team; hate to spoil the surprise)