Spurs look so old!

[Reality]

One thing that really bothered me was the announcers continually mentioning that Phx was missing Grant Hill because they would have him cover Tony Parker.  What?!?  I would have thought someone mis-spoke, but they reiterated it about 25 times.  Are they serious?  Who in their right mind believes that Grant Hill has a chance in hell of staying in front of TP?  Am I missing something?  Did Grant shut down TP in game 1? 

And he looked hobbled also.  Pregame DAntoni was saying if Hill was 80% or even 90% he would not go with him.  Yet he did.  Diaw also got several iso's and failed to deliver.  The Sesame Street Pharasee Bunch is hoping to pile on Shaq on his **only 19/14** and making some FTs, but it's these rolies and D'Ant who are hurting the Suns more.

[Lurker]

Sesame Street Pharasee Bunch

The following is from my attorney & good friend, Voice in the Wilderness:

Until you can use it in a reasonably thought out post you are hereby ordered to cease and desist using the "Sesame Street" term in referring to Laker fans.  My client, the esteemed Mr. Lurker, coined that phrase in the midst of a battle of wits with the aforementioned fan base.  And after reviewing a substantial body of evidence we have found that you being owned by multiple parties restricts your usage of original phrases coined by free and independent thinkers.

[Reality]

Ah, but you're related to them Kentucky mountains style.

I'll treat it like i treat most lawyer babble.

[msc]

And he looked hobbled also.  Pregame DAntoni was saying if Hill was 80% or even 90% he would not go with him.  Yet he did.  Diaw also got several iso's and failed to deliver.  The Sesame Street Pharasee Bunch is hoping to pile on Shaq on his **only 19/14** and making some FTs, but it's these rolies and D'Ant who are hurting the Suns more.

Honestly, I can hardly decipher any meaning from your posts. 

Regarding Shaq, he had a good game, not great, but good.  He did look tired as the game went on and clearly couldn't maintain his level of play in the second half.  In my opinion, the Suns would be better off in this series had they kept Kurt Thomas and Shawn Marion.  They look slow out there and Raja is their only decent defender now.  While Shaq adds some interior toughness, I think Kurt could served a similar role and the Suns would have a good, athletic defender on the court with Marion.  The net resulit would be better for the Suns; i.e., Kurt Thomas + Shawn Marion > Shaq.  This isn't about stupid, childish, hater-this or hater-that nonsense.  This is my genuine opinion and I'm open for intelligent debate about the topic.

[Reality]

No brainer the Suns should have kept Kurt Thomas.

Okay you can hardly decipher.  Rewrite.
Prior to the Game, DAntoni said if Hill was not 100% he would not play him.  From what i saw, while Hill was not limping or anything, he did not look like he was going balls out 100% which is what they needed vs Parker, SuperManu and the Spurs.  Plus even if Hill was not hurt, i concur with you, why put him on Parker.  Crazy.

Diaw, while he did not play horribly, DAntoni ran a couple obvious isolation plays to him in the 2nd half in cruch time.  He just flat either missed the shot or turned it over, a couple times i think he turned it.  Thus here is two vital "role" positions, being played by Hill and Diaw and to the Spurs advantage.  A large part of that has to go on DAntoni.

Thus all in all Snaq has played pretty well.  A double OT game and now a 19/14 game where he provided some interior D.  Not enough as Tony sped around him but Tony does that to a lot of centers.  I think Marion might have been way more of a prima donna pain then we know.  Wonder what other, if any, offers Phx got for Marion?

[msc]

Hey, I understood every word, nice post! 

You raise a valid point regarding Marion's attitude and the locker room chemistry.  That is a factor that is impossible to quantify, but it's clear it was an issue.  It's hard to speculate, so one has to focus on stats and physical play witnessed by watching the games.  One could argue that the Suns were 1st in the Western Conference when they traded Marion and they finished 6th indicating that his attitude problems might not have outweighed his physical contribution to the team. 

[Reality]

True and also the negators will point out that with Shaq they went out in the 1st Round (no bird in hand yet, but i doubt they can pull off 4-5 against the Spurs) and with Marion they advanced further.

But this years seedings are indeed a rarity.  I don't know that this years Suns play the Spurs any better with Marion while without Kurt Thomas (same thing Shaq faces, no Kurt Thomas).

Could it be in retrospect the real screw up was not Shaq/Marion but letting Kurt Thomas get away.  Meanwhile the Spurs get Thomas and Barry back for Elson.

[msc]

True and also the negators will point out that with Shaq they went out in the 1st Round (no bird in hand yet, but i doubt they can pull off 4-5 against the Spurs) and with Marion they advanced further.

But this years seedings are indeed a rarity.  I don't know that this years Suns play the Spurs any better with Marion while without Kurt Thomas (same thing Shaq faces, no Kurt Thomas).

Could it be in retrospect the real screw up was not Shaq/Marion but letting Kurt Thomas get away.  Meanwhile the Spurs get Thomas and Barry back for Elson.

Hey, I like this, I'm finally understanding what you're writing. 

I think everyone would agree that letting Thomas go was a mistake by the Suns.  Their reasoning was they didn't want to exceed the luxury tax, but Thomas clearly would have been worth whatever salary he makes (not sure what it is but if it's 5mil, I'd say he'd be worth it to the soft Suns). 

Time will tell if they play the Spurs better with Shaq sans Marion.  I doubt the Suns can win 4 of 5.  If the Spurs end up sweeping or winning 4-1, then you'd have to say the Shaq experiment was a failure. 

[SPURSX3]

Let me just state this, "whoooohoooo! Spurs are up 2 games on the Suns!!"

 


That's all I care about right now.....

Ok, you can go back to your reality convo now....

[westkoast]

True and also the negators will point out that with Shaq they went out in the 1st Round (no bird in hand yet, but i doubt they can pull off 4-5 against the Spurs) and with Marion they advanced further.

But this years seedings are indeed a rarity.  I don't know that this years Suns play the Spurs any better with Marion while without Kurt Thomas (same thing Shaq faces, no Kurt Thomas).

Could it be in retrospect the real screw up was not Shaq/Marion but letting Kurt Thomas get away.  Meanwhile the Spurs get Thomas and Barry back for Elson.

Had they not slipped so far in the standings they wouldn't have seen the Spurs in the first round most likely.

The Suns do play the Spurs better with Marion because he actually could stop Tony Parker at least a couple of times a night.  With Nash on him, not at all.

Btw..Raja Bell hasn't played a lick of defense this entire series thus far.  Manu is abusing him like no other.

[msc]

Btw..Raja Bell hasn't played a lick of defense this entire series thus far.  Manu is abusing him like no other.

True.  Come to think of it, the times I've watched him play this year he's been sub par on both ends of the floor.  I'd have to go check on his stats, but I have to think they're down this year. 

[rickortreat]

The Suns just cannot stop the Spurs from scoring.  The Spurs, however, have been effective at stopping the Suns.  That's the whole difference in the series. 

The Spurs interior defense is giving them the edge, even though the Suns have better scorers.  I think they should have gone into Shaq even more than they did, in order to get Thomas and Fabs into foul trouble. Nash cannot stay in front of Parker, the Suns need another guard to try and pester Tony.

[Lurker]

I have been reading on some of the Suns boards (lurking really) and there are some interesting thoughts among the rubbish.  One says that the Suns should start Barbosa for Hill.  Then move Nash to cover Bowen.

Barbosa guards Parker
Bell - Finley
Nash - Bowen
Shaq - Duncan
Amare - Fabs/Thomas*

* - wouldn't be surprised to see Pop pull a switch starting Thomas.  He did a decent job on Amare when he wasn't being called for offensive fouls.  Then bring Fabs in with Manu on the second unit.

Another common complaint is the D'Antoni never develops a bench.  He goes with the same 7-8 players all year.  And right now with Hill hurting the Suns are getting no production from Diaw & Barbosa.  Thier 8th man is Giricek...enough said.

[SPURSX3]

Well, I will need to take a peak at some of those boards myself then.  Atleast when we beat them this year they won't be able to cry all year that the NBA took something away from them.

[SPURSX3]

LOl, I took a peak at the az central comments board and read through some of the comments.  The funniest one I read was a poster that said, "God hates the Phoenix Suns.."