Season Preview: Phoenix Suns

On with the show!

Starting 5:
PG- Steve Nash
SG- Raja Bell
SF- Grant Hill
PF- Amare Stoudemire
C- Shaquille O'Neal

Off the bench
Guards: Leandro Barbosa, Goran Dragic, Sean Singletary
Forwards: Boris Diaw, Matt Barnes, Alando Tucker, Louis Amundson
Centers: Robin Lopez

There are a couple numbers that are going to be pretty important this year for Phoenix. Those numbers are 35 and 37. Why? Those are the respective ages of Steve Nash and Shaquille O'Neal (and Grant Hill). As time progresses Nash looks like another one of those players that are awesome, but never won a ring. That being said, the addition of coach Terry Porter will indeed be something of a change. The idea is that he does hopefully what Rick Adleman did in Houston, which was leave the defense in place and implement a more efficient offense. In this case, Porter would be wise to retain the effective D'Antoni offense that works so well centered around Nash and Stoudemire, but to add a little more defensive tenacity.

Grant Hill's health is another major unknown, but mitigated somewhat by the addition of Matt Barnes. While Barnes won't necessarily be a defensive solution, should Hill be injured, Barnes would fill in nicely, and perhaps even take the starting spot from Hill eventually. Having played run-and-gun with the Warriors, Barnes shouldn't have much of a problem fitting into the system, and should he do as well as he did two seasons ago, I can see him cracking the rotation very frequently. Nash, Bell, Barbosa, Diaw, and Stoudemire constitute the core of the team since their D'Antoni days, and I look for them to contribute as they always have. Despite Stoudemire having a sprained ankle, I see him to produce even better this season, having a lot of the low-post load taken off him by Shaq, and reportedly in the best shape ever. The biggest question-mark of that core will once again be Diaw, who showed flashes of his former potential during one game against the Spurs in the previous post-season. However, his lack of consistency and effort continually bothers me. Barbosa continues to be the monster scorer off the bench and Nash a countinual source of offensive efficiency in scoring and assists, while also continuing to have a large number of turnovers. Bell will once again be the defensive stopper and 3 pt specialist. I look for Shaq to once again do better in rebounding, and hopefully come into camp in better shape.

The remaining players are somewhat unknown. Goran Dragic is supposed to be the Nash backup and eventual replacement. The Slovenian guard is quick and a good penetrator, don't see much of him passing, his game is similar I think to that of Leandro Barbosa, but he says he's modelling it after Tony Parker. Robin Lopez is a high energy and supposedly defensive specialist of the Stanford twins, which right now to me, makes him a poor man's Anderson Varejao, hair and all.

They'll be competitive, I think they'll get 50 wins maybe, but they won't get very far, the West has just become too competitive.