Goran Dragic revisited...sort of

After last night's AWESOME game against the Jazz, my email/twitter took major hits with questions about my current feelings towards Goran Dragic. Some were more polite than others but all basically asking me to take back what I've said about him throughout the season. My response, I'm not even close to believing this guy is a $2 million/year PG in the NBA. Now, I know that this has been a touchy subject with a lot of Suns fans (due in large part to the Suns organizational mistakes dealing with young talent in the past) and I know most everyone here disagrees, but it is a stance I have chosen to take and one that I don't regret (partly because it lead me to where I'm at now on BSotS). Before you jump down my throat though, I will use this space to explain why I haven't changed my mind, what I would need to see for me to change my mind and what things I think Goran should do in the offseason to make that happen. Again, I am not rooting for this guy to fail and I have no beef with him as a person, I just don't see him being a viable NBA PG (emphasis on POINT GUARD).

Let me start by saying that Goran Dragic has been playing much better as of late. He has the confidence to shoot and knock down open shots that he didn't have earlier this season and isn't second guessing everything he does. Alvin Gentry has done a good job of masking the flaws in Dragic's game in this new system by allowing Dragic to play more off the ball and changing the offensive scheme when the second team is in. Also, I feel we've been fairly lucky that other teams are not focusing on him in their scouting. Here would be my current (condensed) scouting report on Dragic:

Can hit the open shot
Better off of the ball than running the offense
Has trouble creating shots for him or others off the dribble
Easily flustered/turnover prone when pressured defensively
Tends to get out of position on defense and plays on heels making it hard for him to defend a hard crossover dribble
Now, if I were a team planning for the Suns, I would pressure him 3/4 court with my quickest defender the moment he got on the floor. I would throw hard double teams at him after any screen and try to get him as flustered as possible as quickly as possible. You saw in last night's game, the one time the Jazz threw a hard double team at him (I believe it was either late in the 3rd or early in the 4th quarter about 30 feet out on the left side of the court) he got incredibly flustered to the point where he was staring down Ronnie Brewer (honestly, what was his plan with that?) when the play ended. Again, so far it seems teams are content to give him space and let him try and beat them with open shots - I'm just saying that I would go a different route. It should be noted, however, that as of right now I am not an official NBA team scout.

Anyway, back to the issue at hand. I have long said that if Goran Dragic were to make it in this league, it would probably be as more of a combo guard needing to be matched with the right talent around him and not a point. Now, everyone has been so impressed by his play of late, that they are just glancing over the fact that that's as much Alvin Gentry as it is anything Goran is doing. When Dragic is in, they play a style of offense that doesn't really require Goran to run the offense. Gentry is putting him out there with other players who are comfortable handling the duties of running the offense and allowing Goran to play more of a 2 guard style than the point. So technically, it would seem that my argument is valid.

Now, the Suns have won 6 straight and we should all be on cloud 9 just enjoying the stretch run here (and trust me, I am enjoying it and believe that Gentry should be given the full-time job next year and that the Suns should keep this team in tact to see what it can do with a whole season because if not, we'll have about $40 million in salary to play with the next year - but that's another post for another day), however, you all asked if my opinion of Goran Dragic has changed and since it hasn't, I have to present to you my argument as to why.

In order for Dragic to prove me wrong, I would need to see a better ability to run the offense, MUCH better ball handling - especially in pressure situations and quicker decision making (on one of Dragic's fast break assists to Lou last night, you saw a moment where he was slow to decide and it almost cost him as he got too far into the lane before making a forced low pass to Amundson). So what can he do to improve these things before next year?

Play - He already has plans to play for almost the entire summer, this should help him improve, but won't take him all the way.

Full court one-on-one - He should find somebody quick, mark off a quarter of the court and have the defender guard him extremely tight and even foul him by constantly slapping at the ball as he takes it down the court. If he turns his back and starts backing the guy down, he would have to start over. If he gets past the guy, he would have to stop, let the guy catch up and continue.

Reaction drills - He should run through a number of reaction drills that force him to make quick decisions and improve his reaction time.

Video - I would have him watching video of Tony Parker (ahhh, the sin of mentioning a Spur in this blog). Tony Parker has a game that I think Goran Dragic could emulate if he improves in the areas mentioned above. Dragic is not a Nash type PG, so learning strictly from Nash wouldn't be smart. Yes, he should take some things from Nash, but he also needs to learn things from other PGs who have similar game to him and I think Tony Parker is one of those guys.

Defensive drills - The dude has got to learn to play on his toes! He is playing on his heels and it just causes so many problems with him getting out of position and not being able to respond quickly.

So there you have it (for the 1 of you who actually made it through all of that), my complete rundown of a) why my opinion of Goran Dragic as our backup PG has not changed and b) what I think he needs to do in order to change my opinion. The chum is in the water, I know you are circling so have at it. Just remember, the Suns are winning, I love how Gentry is using his bench (including how he is using Dragic now that he is our only "backup PG") and I only wrote this post because you all asked.

With LB gone...

Shaq becomes The Big Blur

Slay the dragon...or better yet

Just put him out of his misery!  For about 8 months now, the Suns have been trying to push Goran Dragic on us fans.  They have been feeding us company line after company line and many fans have bought into what they were saying.  Well I haven't bought it for a second.  The flaws in his game have been glaring us in the face ever since the team posted a Goran Dragic "highlight" video on Suns.com.  The high dribble, the slow decision making and the flat-footed defense are just too much for him to overcome.  It's not like he's some raw 18 year old who just hasn't learned yet - this is a 22 (soon to be 23) year old man who was just about to break out of the Adriatic league and into the much better Euro league when he was drafted.  I mean, just look at this guy and read on. 

 

During the win over the team that should still be in Seattle, Scott Williams made a comment (remember - company line) to the effect that a lot of scouts around the league had Goran Dragic as the #2 PG behind Russell Westbrook.  First of all, most scouts around the league said that Goran Dragic didn't belong in the NBA.  Second, the SUN'S scouts said that he was their #2 PG behind Derrick Rose - not Russell Westbrook.  Either way, this just shows how rediculous this whole Dragic issue really is.  Number 2!  Rose, Mayo, Westbrook, Augustine, Chalmers, Gordon, George Hill, and Bayless are eight rookies (just off the top of my head) that I'd rather have coming off of the bench than Goran Dragic.

Even more rediculous than the previous company line, is the line they were trying to feed us as to why they were so high on him.  Remember when they told us that Dragic was a (and I quote) "defensive stopper"?  Goran Dragic was the PG of the future in Porter's defensive system.  Honestly, did the scouts even watch Dragic play?  Did they do any research?  Goran plays the most awful, flat-footed defense in the league.  Everyone gets on Nash for not being a great defender - at least Nash is able to draw the occasional charge!  Dragic is more than content to watch his man blow by him and let the big guys try and take care of it.  He doesn't fight when he's screeened and he fouls a lot for a guard playing limited minutes.  Really, what scout looks at a guy playing in Europe and thinks to himself, "geeze, I think this guy could be a lock-down defender in the NBA" because honestly, their job should be in jeopardy.

Now, upon reading this, some of you might try and tell me that he's played better lately.  To this I ask, what exactly are you basing this on?  Yes, he's scored 30 points in the last four games combined (12,12,2,4) but go back and watch.  He has hit the occasional open jumper and gotten a couple of dunks.  If they want a player who can't defend but can hit an open jumper and dunk the ball when the opportunity is there, they can hire me right now and I'll do it for a LOT less money (more on money in just a bit).  Now don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming to be an NBA talent, I'm just saying that I could provide the exact same things that Goran Dragic has provided for us scoring wise.    Then, as you move away from scoring and into the PG statistics, things get worse.  In the past four games, Dragic has averaged 2 assists and 2 turnovers per game.  Not to mention, that on the majority of the plays, he is more than willing to let somebody else initiate the offense while he goes and hides in the corner.

Others will read this and say that I'm being too hard on the Slovenian.  But let's just take a second to examine the situation.  Goran Dragic was our second round pick - second round picks have more of a learning curve, right?  Normally, this would be true, but look at all we did to get Dragic into a Suns uniform this year.  In order to get Dragic over here, we had to buy out the rights from his team in Europe and pay him the salary that he and his people were looking for.  Because he was taken in the second round, the Suns were able to circumvent the normal rookie restrictions dealing with pay scale and length of rookie contracts. Basically, Dragic's second round contract (including the money he receives as part of his buyout) is paying him as much as Brook Lopez (who was taken 10th overall) for a longer period (3 years with a 4th year option).  So our second round pick is making lottery money on a contract that not even the top pick can negotiate.  So excuse me for not feeling sorry for the kid.  He's getting Brook Lopez money and he is not performing anywhere near as well as Robin's twin.  Remember when we sold the rights for Rudy Fernandez?  We got about $1.5 million (if I remember correctly) - talk about saving money, we didn't even get enough back to pay Dragic's salary! 

Now, just to be clear, I'm not blaming anything on Goran Dragic.  We didn't lose to the Celtic's because of him (although he didn't help much).  I'm just trying to point out the fact that it's time for the Suns to admit their mistake, stop feeding us this company bull and figure out a better solution.  What that may be, I'm not sure.  I have my theories just like everyone else, but one way or the other, there has to be a better option.  On a final note, lets not get too down on the Suns for losing a game they were supposed to lose yesterday.  They are in two different transitions right now and are not presently contenders for anything.  There are going to be kinks in the road, it's just a matter of learning and overcoming.  I still think that these Suns - in this system - have a playoff push in them and that once there, if we can get Amare back, we have a chance to surprise some teams.  Again, only time will tell.  Hopefully, it will be time spent away from Goran Dragic - might I suggest Iowa?

Hope

I originally titled this post "Let's GO!!!" but in light of the Amare news this morning, I have gone back and rewritten much of it as we can now only hope for the best.  Hopefully, it isn't too disjointed though - that being said, let's go!

 

(Okay, I really just wanted the first 17 seconds of the clip above, but whatever, I can only deal with what YouTube gives me)

 So the Suns are off and running once again.  Since the Suns went back to the old D'Antoni style, they have averaged 141 points (granted it's a small sample size of 2 games against the Clippers, but 141 points is 141 points) and a lot of people have gotten overly excited while others remain skeptical.  It's no coincidence (well...actually it is very much a coincidence) that this comes just a month after President Obama entered office with a lot of people being overly excited and others being very skeptical.  I choose to look at both with a cautious optimism while enjoying the new energy brought by the two events. 

As a country, there is a renewed sense of hope among citizens (no he's not going to pay your mortgage but maybe he'll do better than the last guy...we'll have to wait and see) and you could feel a change in the attitude of the Suns as they went back to running these last two games.  Of course, this was before Amare went down - just got the text this morning after the first draft was written that he's out for 8 weeks after eye surgery...what happened to wearing the goggles the rest of his career again?  Either way, we should enjoy the return to the run'n'gun and hope for the best - here's why:

We now have an exciting team to root for.

The Suns have instantaneously gone back to being one of the most exciting teams in the league.  Excitement doesn't just come with running, but with being able to win games, too.  The Suns have the talent to beat any team in the league on any given night.  We now have a system in place that maximizes that talent and makes us a wildcard the rest of the season. 

The players are having fun.

Having fun while playing basketball is very underrated in the NBA.  People say that because this is a job that they get paid millions to do, the players should perform regardless of what's going on.  But think about your own job...personally, if I get a project that I have no interest in, am I really going to put forth the same effort that I would for a project that is fun and allows me to showcase my full abilities?  NO FREAKING WAY.  Watching the Suns destroy the Clippers, you saw everybody smiling and having fun.  Remember the highlight of Amundson leading the break, giving it up to Nash and then being rewarded with the alley-oop toss?  The camera panned over to an elated bench led by none other than Amare Stoudemire.  As with anything, when the players are enjoying themselves out on the court, they tend to perform better.  There has never been a better example of this than Amare - who is known to lose interest rapidly if he isn't enjoying himself out on the court. 

Were we really going anywhere with Shaq and the slow it down offense?

Look at the body of work, could anyone honestly say that we were a contender this year?  NO.  Can anyone deny that we were a contender the past four years?  NO.  The truth is, you have to give your players the best chance to succeed and for the Suns, that means running.  We have one of the best PGs in the league and a lot of dynamic scorers.   If the Suns can survive the remainder of the season and get into the playoffs (an extremely difficult task playing without Amare and given the current situation out West), they could surprise a lot of teams if Amare can recover and get back on the court.  We'll still have Shaq there to anchor us if it becomes necessary to slow it down and go into the post, but we don't rely on him as much in the run'n'gun.  Remember last year, the Spurs exploited the fact that Shaq was even on the court with the hack-a-Shaq technique and it completely threw them off.  Imagine if we get in this year and then have a healthy, hungry (there's always hope, right?), and rested Amare Stoudemire...Might we see the same type of playoff performance that we saw before the microfracture surgery?

As with everything this season, there are a lot of questions surrounding this Suns squad - even more so now that Amare is out.  But personally, I am looking forward to watching these Suns try and run their way into the playoffs.  Remember, when Amare was out after his knee surgery, everyone thought the Suns would be dead in the water but they played their way to the Western Conference Finals.  Might we see a similar run in these Suns?  You have to think that the Suns are going to be forced to go smaller which means they are going to have to play even faster to make up for it.  So again, I am going to hope for the best and root for this strange looking/playing squad to get back into the playoffs and be excited for the opportunity I have to watch one of the most exciting teams in the league.  Will the Suns play their way back to contention?  Will the team be able to handle the loss of Amare?  Can we hang with the better teams in this league?  I don't know - nobody does - but until it is proven otherwise, I can always hope.

Victory

At the beginning of this season, while watching the Suns struggle trying to find their identity, I decided to venture into the world of "blogging."  I basically wanted to make some friends laugh and to get out my frustrations about the play of Goran Dragic so I started a little blog titled "Cut Goran Dragic."  Throughout the season I have written several posts about things I think the Suns should do to improve.  As with everything, a lot of people agreed with the things I wrote and a lot of people disagreed.  Didn't matter to me, like I said, my main goal was to make some friends laugh and throw my two cents out to the world (or the 5 people that might read it who weren't called mom).

Then, a funny thing happened during the Pistons game last night.  As I was watching, I noticed that one-by-one, the things I had written throughout the season were all being verified.  I made a quick comment to that effect to my pregnant wife who was sitting right next to me but as expected, she didn't even look up from her pregnancy book.  So, since I can't get my wife (who is, with good reason, preoccupied with more important things) to give me a pat on the back, I'm going to pat myself on the back in this space right here.  Below I have included my top four suggestions for improvement (with my thoughts on the whole "what do we do with Amare" question added as a bonus)  from the first half of this season.

1) Goran Dragic:  I've said it since the start of this season - Goran Dragic is not good at basketball!  Last night, for some inexplicable reason, Dragic got into the game.  During his 4 minutes of playing time,  Dragic refused to initiate the offense on any possession, went 0 - 2 from the field and posted the only negative +/- on the team (-3).  The guy is not an NBA caliber talent and I really don't see him ever becoming one either.  However, if the Suns are serious about using this guy in the future, they need to send him down to the D-League to see if his skills can improve when playing consistent minutes of American style ball.  See my previous posts about him here, here and here.

2) Suns offense:  A couple of weeks ago I created a post giving my thoughts on the Suns offense.  At the time, the Suns had been going into Shaq on the majority of their possessions throughout each game.  The Suns looked stagnant, there was little ball (or body) movement and everyone looked unhappy (except for Shaq, of course).  I stated that if the Suns were to be successful, they'd have to figure out better ways to utilize Shaq while keeping the other players interested in what was happening.  I said that they needed to bring some creativity and motion back into their offense and let Steve Nash be Steve Nash.  Last night, Steve Nash was freed!  The Suns stopped trying to feed Shaq on every possession (they have been building up to this and figuring it out for the last little bit) and let Nash make use of ALL of the Suns weapons.  Nash finished with 21 assists, Amare got 18 points, JRich got a beautiful 21 (yes the man-crush continues), Barbosa got 17 and Shaq was still able to get his 20 and 10.  The Suns have as much talent as any team - look at their starting five of Nash, Richardson, Hill, Stoudemire and O'Neal.  That is a whole heap of talent.  If the Suns let Nash use these different weapons, that is going to lead to a lot of success - much like it did last night.

 

3) Shaq's attack:  I have made several posts where I have talked about how Shaq's resurgence has been awesome.  However, I have also stated that with this resurgence has come confidence and that confidence has been both good and bad (you can see one post here).  The good is when he gets good position close to the basket where he can finish or get fouled.  The bad comes when he moves out further from the hoop but still tries to force up the shot.  Last night, Shaq shot about 44% from the field on 7 - 16 shooting.  Not bad, right?  Well, looking at the shot chart, he went 1 - 6 from 8 feet and out (17%).  Had he not taken any shots from that far, he would have gone a MUCH more efficient 6 - 9 and shot 67% on the night.  This, in turn, would have given the Suns 7 more tries to come up with better shot for a score and probably would have resulted in Shaq getting a repost closer to the hope and taking a much higher percentage shot.  Shaq needs to realize this - it would not only improve his numbers and efficiency, but help the team find some better scoring situations each game.  That being said, I'm not volunteering myself to talk to the big man about it.

Amare:  In December, I created a post about what Amare needs to do if he ever wants to be taken seriously as an MVP type of player.  Without going too much into it, I basically said that big men MVPs are much different than little guy MVPs.  If a big man wants to be the MVP of the league, he needs to dominate the glass, make a difference on the defensive end and be able to score when the team needs them to.  Look at KG when he won it with the TWolves.   Amare, every once in a while, shows flashes that he is capable of doing all three of these.  However, for some reason he never takes the next step.  Last night, his numbers weren't eye popping (18 and 7) but what I did notice was that he was having fun and smiling the whole game.  I believe this is in large part because of the way the offense was working (see #2 above).  I think that that is a good sign for him.  If Amare is having fun and interested in the game, his effort is there.  If he feels slighted (like when the Suns were running EVERY possession through Shaq), he tends to stop trying.  Last night, I thought his effort was there and enjoyed watching him play.

Now, as for the question about whether or not we should get rid of Amare, I say...maybe.  Really, I would like to see the Suns ride this out and see if we can continue to improve and compete in the West (and I have been back and forth A LOT on this).  I think Amare is too good of a talent to just let him go for money or draft picks and I have only seen a few scenarios being talked about that would give us the return we should get for Amare's talent.  However, if (and only if) a deal comes along that we just cannot under any circumstance say no to, well...then we shouldn't say no!  Amare may be the new Marbury (player with incredible numbers who just doesn't have the champion mentality), but even if this is the case, there is no way we should just get rid of him for the sake of getting rid of him.  Knowing Sarver and Kerr, you never know what they might do.  They may just give him up for an expiring and some money - however, I think this would be incredibly unfair to the team and to Steve Nash in particular seeing as he doesn't have a whole lot of time left due to the proverbial window.  We'll just have to sit back and hope for the best as we head into the All-Star break and the trading deadline.

Until then, I'll enjoy last night's win and hope for more tonight against the Sixers.  After all, this season is all about building on small victories and hoping they lead to bigger ones - both for the Suns and for this blogger. 

Look beyond Amare...

Lately, a lot of blame has been put on Amare Stoudemire as to why the Suns aren't playing as well as everyone believes they should play. Granted, when someone comes out claiming they're going to bring the "gorilla game," one should expect more than 3 rebounds. However, it's gotten to the point where people are using Amare like a piece of duct tape covering a hole in a dam. You can cover up the real issue all you want, but sooner or later you're going to be in deep water.

So the question becomes, what is the real issue with the Phoenix Suns? Now, I'm going to skip the obvious answers (lack of a backup PG, inability to get stops, etc.) and try and point at the heart of the problem. What I am going to proceed to present to you, my fellow Suns fans, is my informed opinion as to what is really going on.

Basketball is a relatively simple game. You have five players trying to work together to put a round ball in a round hole. However, when played at its highest form, basketball becomes beautiful. The game requires a perfect balance of athletic ability, power and creativity. When all of these elements come together just right, the game becomes something more. NIKE was able to portray this better than most with this memorable ad:



Over these last 4 seasons, the Suns have been the poster child for how the game should be played - mixing perpetual motion with grace, finesse and power all at once. There is little wonder as to why the Suns have been one of the most popular teams over this span. They brought beauty and rhythm back to a game that had gotten lost in a monotone and ugly game. No, it never produced the championship everyone had hoped for, but many agree that were it not for some bad breaks or David Stern, the Suns were poised to win it all. The memorable mosaic was only one perfect piece short of becoming a masterpiece.

However, it was not meant to be. They started moving pieces and trying to recreate the same carbon-copy game that most other teams used and swore by. First, the Matrix was shipped out followed shortly by D'Antoni. This season, the Suns set out to be a defensive team under the direction of coach Terry Porter and just like that, the beauty that existed in the SSoL system died. The Suns went from being Steve Nash's team to being Shaq's team. We went from run-and-gun to give the ball to Shaq and stand around to see what he does with it. We became Rocky before he befriended Apollo - all power with no grace.

It seems as though Steve Kerr traded away this team's soul for the CHANCE to be like his beloved Spurs - well, it appears as if the devil (as he tends to do) got the best of the two. I think my brother put it best when he told me that he'd rather watch a fun team that was a contender every year than a boring team that could be good or could be bad, nobody really knows. Yes, the Suns have some nice pieces right now, but last I checked they were jumping between the 7th and 9th seeds. It is no longer a foregone conclusion that we'll even make the playoffs and anyone who has followed this team can see just how stale our offense has become.

This, I believe, is the root of all our problems. Our offense is now almost completely void of creativity. We come down, we throw the ball to Shaq, we watch what Shaq does, and we try to react. Yes, Shaquille O'Neal is having the best season he's had in years, yes, he has a chance to make the All-Star team this year (if the coaches find that he deserves it more than Al Jefferson) and yes, it is very fun to see him hit a left handed baby hook and run back staring at his own hand in what I can only call disbelief. However, when he gets the ball our offense shuts down. There may be one cut into the lane by Amare or J-Rich, but other than that, everyone stands around waiting to see what's going to happen next and what happens, more often than not, is a shot goes up. Shaq did surprise me last night against the Wizards with quite a few kick outs for open looks in the fourth, but I don't trust that his ego will allow him to do this on a consistent basis.

Wow, I just read that last paragraph and realize that their offense is as boring to read about as it is to watch. I can only imagine how boring it is to run on the court. This stale offense has made it so that Nash is no longer an All-Star (although I am hoping that when he doesn't make the team he takes it personal and goes on a tear the second half of the season), Amare loses interest (we all know that he just sort of gives up if he feels he is not involved in the offense) and a lot of our other offensive weapons are rendered useless. Not only that but we're forced to watch Shaq attempt these stupid 8-foot hook shots and fallaways that he has no business even taking!

So before pointing the finger at Amare, we need to look at the system in which he plays. While I'm sure Shaq loves it, you can tell that there are times when the players look like they're just going through the motions out there. Need proof? Just look at the Celtics game. In basketball, when you take the creativity away, you're left with a power game. The Suns cannot win a championship based entirely on a power type of game - it just won't happen. If the Suns truly want to make a run at the title with this team, they need to mix a little beauty and creativity into their power game.

Enter Apollo Creed.

The Matrix Reloaded

Those of you familiar with my writing know that I do not try and hide how much I enjoy watching Jason Richardson play basketball (my man-crush has not reached unhealthy or abnormal levels as of yet). For those who are less familiar, fear not I'll get to it shortly.



This weekend, while watching the Suns tear apart the Mavericks (they looked good, didn't they?), I began to ask myself why it was I was so enamored with J-Rich's play. The answer - he brings back a lot of what we lost when we traded away Shawn Marion and our run-n-gun offense. Shawn Marion was and continues to be one of my favorite Suns players of all time. When the time came for me to choose who's jersey to buy (the choice was between Marion, Nash and Stoudemire), I purchased a Shawn Marion throwback. It seemed fitting seeing as he was the longest tenured Sun and one of the most exciting players in the league. In hindsight, I should have known that when the shake down inevitably happened it would be he who would be shipped out. Oh well, 20/20.

Marion was underrated and even under-appreciated as a Sun. He was consistently near the top of the league in rebounding and steals. He was a double-double machine and people forget that he is listed as being 6'7"! When we lost Marion, we lost our best and most versatile defender. People can talk about Bell all they want but Marion was the guy called upon to guard every position on the floor. He would guard Tony Parker one night (while getting time on Tim Duncan, too) and then be asked to guard Lebron James or Dirk Nowitzki the next. He was also the most exciting player on the team. Yes, Nash had the passes and Amare the power, but nothing was as exciting as seeing the Matrix get a steal on one end, sprinting to the other end and either finishing an alley-oop or driving in and gliding in the air (a la Clyde Drexler) for the finish. Granted, I'm 6'3", 170 lbs. and power has never been used to describe my game so I may be a bit biased, but I loved watching Shawn Marion play.

Then came the trade that brought the fun and high speeds to a screeching hault. 300+ lb. anchors tend to do that, you know. The Suns suffered another disappointing loss at the hands of the Spurs and dropped off of everyone's radars as a legitimate contender. At the beginning of the season, the Suns looked heavy. Kerr was trying to make Goran Dragic happen (honestly, why is he still taking up space on the Suns' bench?), Porter was trying to make Shaq happen and we were struggling to find an identity. Suns players came out on more than one occasion to say that they were not happy. Amare and Shaq wanted more touches, Bell, much like Jack from LOST wanted to go back once he realized how good he had it on the island known as SSoL.

December 10. 2008 - Redemption. The Suns traded Boris Diaw and Raja Bell for Jason Richardson. The impact on the court was seen almost immediately. It appeared that the Suns were having more fun and playing a lot lighter than they had all season. The Suns were running with one of the best finishers in the history of the game. They were gunning with the NBA's best 3-point shooter. Matt Barnes began to seem a lot more comfortable after his buddy from an incredibly fun Warriors squad arrived. The transformation was complete - now the only thing left to do was to sit back and watch everything come together. When the Phoenix Suns brought in J-Rich, they brought in a spark that had been missing ever since Shawn Marion was shipped away.

With Richardson, we once again have a quick perimeter defender who likes to go after rebounds. We brought in a slasher who knows how and when to get to the rim for easy buckets. We also added another player who has the ability to create his own shot whether in the post or out on the perimeter (which is something Marion struggled with). Most importantly, we brought in an exciting player that can get the energy going when the Suns get sluggish.

So, why do I like J-Rich's game so much? Maybe it's not as much of a mystery as I thought.