More Suns Thoughts

Hopefully last night was not the last time I'll see the Suns play in Seattle but most likely that will be the case. The Seattle & Washington gov'ts have bumbled any possible solution, and Stern & Bennett are dead set on taking the Sonics away. Perhaps I'll do a post about that one day but there's probably much more eloquent statements about that whole ordeal elsewhere on the web. Instead, here are just some general thoughts from watching the game last night.

- 26 turnovers is ridiculous. Amare had 9 alone? Lots of turnovers related to passing - unexpected passes, fumbled catches, passes thrown out of bounds. Give credit to the Sonics for stepping up the pressure a bit - they've got a lot of long, athletic players, probably the kind of team we don't want to face in the playoffs. Golden State comes to mind, but the difference is that Seattle's big men are athletic too, while Golden State's big men aren't even big.

- I haven't really seen Shaq play for a while, and I don't know if he was just coasting tonight, but he looks like he's lost a lot of his vertical ability. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he'll be able to turn it on in the playoffs or against other opponents, but if not, that's a big concern. He missed out on a lot of rebounds and shots, even had one blocked by Johan Petro, because he was hardly getting any lift. There was one hilarious moment where Boris got a steal & tried to feed Shaq for an alley-oop. It sailed right over Shaq's head by about 2 feet. Someone from our section yelled out "Maybe 10 years ago, Boris!" Sad, but true.

- Speaking of Boris...I'm now convinced the French just can't play tough basketball. I thought it was just Boris who had this problem but I saw it in Johan Petro too. So much passive play between these too. Every time either one had the ball, I was yelling "Dunk it!", and when they would either kick it back out, lay it in, or in Petro's case, take a jumper from 16 feet away (the dude is 7 foot 1 by the way), I'd point it out to my friend Elliot. Petro did dunk it once, but he was basically wide open, and even then, I'm surprised he didn't do some kind of reverse layup. I'm convinced that if these two played one-on-one, they'd just spend the whole time checking the ball to each other. Anyways, the logical counter-argument would be to point out Tony Parker, but he's just an anomaly. Frederic Weis? Mickale Gelabale? There's too much evidence supporting me. Instead, I think Tony Parker isn't even French. Seriously, his name is TONY PARKER. It's not even a French name. I think it's all just an act so that someone as ugly as him can hook up with Eva Longoria, which I can totally understand.

- I would love to see Nick Collison on the Suns someday. Every Sonics game I've seen, he's always playing hard & smart. He's aggressive but knows his limitations and doesn't do anything stupid. He's not a shot blocker but he's an excellent rebounder, had a decent mid-range jump shot, and can bang inside with the big bodies. He'll never be a star, but he's definitely the type of player that does nothing but help your team.

- Nash & Bell were on fire last night; Bell was 6-6 before he hurt his ankle. We pretty much had to kill it from downtown to offset all those turnovers. I think our crunch-time lineup is going to be Nash, Bell, LB, Amare & Shaq, or replace Shaq with Hill depending on the lineup. I think we have to have at least two spot-up 3 point shooters when Shaq is on the floor to give us the spacing we need. Hill isn't a consistent enough 3 point shooter to be out there at the same time. I see that being our lineup against teams like L.A., N'awlins, and San Antonio. Maybe Utah, too. Otherwise, a smaller lineup will probably be more effective against any other team. If we get our spacing, and our shooters are on, then I like our chances.