Suns and the Grizz played the second game of their round 1 playoff series. This was very different from game 1 except for the result. Memphis pretty much did everything it wanted to (except win at the end). They slowed the game down by making it more physical. The Suns were never allowed to play at their pace. It was interesting to see how coach Fratello actually encouraged his players to foul the Suns. This stops the game, slows down the pace and disrupts the Suns flow. Interesting strategy, considering the fact that teams usually should be in trouble if they commit too many fouls. But in this case, they wanted to foul more going in. The strategy worked all right for them, though I think the whole thing is a compliment to how good the Suns are in running their free-flowing offense. There was virtually no fouls in the first quarter of game 1 and the Grizzlies felt that such a free-flowing game helped the Suns jump to a big lead.
So the Grizzlies made sure the game was slowed down. They also did a great job of involving Pau Gasol. Pau was great. He scored a bunch and also got Amare in foul trouble. I wanted the Suns to have Marion guard Gasol. Marion is their best defender and he can handle Gasol considering the fact that Marion usually draws tougher assignments. Mike D'Antoni put Marion on him late in the second quarter and Gasol had some trouble immediately. At the least, this protects Amare from foul trouble. Gasol was going to get his anyways, but Marion at least bothered him a little more than Amare. Also J-Will got off. I mean he was hitting everything. This guy is a great shooter. I never understood why coaches don't let him play and shoot like that. The only guy who could stop him on this day was coach Czar, and he did it as I had expected:. He played him only 30 mins and Earl Watson didn't do much backing him up.
The game never picked up pace in the second half. Pau was still going off, Amare had trouble with him. But Amare was awesome on offense where Memphis kept fouling him and putting him on the line. Again, the Suns had to put Marion on Pau late in the game and I thought he did a decent job. Down the stretch, the game was real close and Nash missed a couple of threes. The crowd was ready to explode on those shots, but it didn't happen. But ultimately the Suns pulled it out. As in game 1, I was really impressed with the timely plays made by Q. Q was great and he came up with the pivotal play of the game. Gasol was on the low post and he backed his way up to the basket on Marion when Q jumped up from the weak side and swatted his shot. This was a huge stop and the Suns went on to win 108-103. At the end of the day, the Suns played a tough game at playoff pace, they hit only 5 threes as opposed to 15 in game 1 and still scored 108 and won the game. So they really could not be stopped despite all the things Memphis did.
Another interesting story of the game for me as a Suns fan was, how both coach John Thompson during the game and Charles and Kenny in the studio felt that this was some kind of a scare for the Suns and how they should have blown out the Grizzlies and sent them a message. According to them, this Suns win was more of a "success" for the Grizzlies than the Suns. I thought this was a bunch of baloney. The bottom-line is that all these experts are doubters of the Suns. They don't think their style, their tempo, their personnel or anything they do makes them a real contender. And sub-consciously they try to rationalize whatever happens with the Suns from that standpoint. So in my opinion, there was nothing the Suns could have done today that would have impressed the experts beyond a certain point. They could have won by 50 points or won on a buzzer beater by Nash, they still wouldn't think the Suns are in the same class as the Pistons, Spurs or the Heat. They may be right with that opinion. I am not arguing with that assessment or the conventional wisdom about defense winning championships and all that. What I have a problem with is that, this particular game showed nothing except that the Suns can win a playoff style game even if it's close in the 4-th quarter. I think it's all positive. The expert's opinion on how this game was some kind of a bad news for the Suns is wrong and it's based on their assumption that this is all going to end bad for the Suns. Like I said, they have made up their minds and are working backwards from their assumptions and are looking for reasons to explain why and how the Suns are in trouble. That's all I am saying. It's pretty ridiculous to expect playoff games to be blowouts even if it's a 1-8 match up. It seems to be happening a lot this season with the Heat, Pistons etc. But that's Eastern Conference where the bad teams are real bad. Even then, I would say this is an exception and not the rule. Typically some playoffs series are blow-outs but individual games are almost always pretty close. I think the Suns-Memphis series fall in this category. Nothing more, nothing less.
MEMPHIS (103) AT PHOENIX (108)
MEMPHIS
REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-FGA FTM-FTA OFF-DEF-TOT AST PF ST TO PTS
====== === === ======= ======= =========== === == == == ===
S BATTIER F 28 4-9 0-0 1 4 5 1 3 0 1 9
P GASOL F 39 13-26 2-6 9 7 16 5 5 1 2 28
L WRIGHT C 25 6-9 0-0 3 2 5 3 3 0 1 12
J WILLIAMS G 29 9-15 0-0 0 0 0 2 0 2 2 21
M MILLER G 19 1-5 0-0 0 3 3 0 4 0 1 3
D JONES 29 3-8 2-2 0 4 4 1 4 0 0 8
B CARDINAL 33 4-12 5-7 1 5 6 1 4 3 0 13
E WATSON 18 0-4 0-0 0 1 1 3 3 1 0 0
J POSEY 20 3-6 2-4 1 4 5 1 2 0 0 9
B WELLS DNP - COACH'S DECISION
S SWIFT DNP - COACH'S DECISION
A BURKS DNP - COACH'S DECISION
TOTALS 240 43-94 11-19 15 30 45 17 28 7 7 103
(.457) (.579) TEAM REBS: 8 TOTAL TO: 8 (6 PTS)
PHOENIX
REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-FGA FTM-FTA OFF-DEF-TOT AST PF ST TO PTS
====== === === ======= ======= =========== === == == == ===
Q RICHARDSON F 35 5-9 3-4 2 3 5 0 3 0 2 15
S MARION F 39 10-18 1-2 4 9 13 2 4 1 1 22
A STOUDEMIRE C 41 8-16 18-22 2 8 10 1 4 1 2 34
S NASH G 41 5-16 2-2 1 1 2 15 3 1 4 12
J JOHNSON G 45 7-14 4-6 4 4 8 0 0 1 0 20
J JACKSON 16 0-3 0-0 0 3 3 1 0 0 0 0
L BARBOSA 7 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0
S HUNTER 16 1-2 3-4 0 6 6 0 3 0 1 5
B OUTLAW DNP - COACH'S DECISION
W MCCARTY DNP - COACH'S DECISION
J VOSKUHL DNP - COACH'S DECISION
P SHIRLEY DNP - COACH'S DECISION
TOTALS 240 36-78 31-40 13 36 49 19 17 4 10 108
(.462) (.775) TEAM REBS: 8 TOTAL TO: 10 (12 PTS)
MEMPHIS 31 23 23 26 - 103
PHOENIX 29 31 22 26 - 108
BLOCKED SHOTS: MEMPHIS - S BATTIER, P GASOL. PHOENIX - S MARION 4,
Q RICHARDSON, J JOHNSON, S HUNTER, A STOUDEMIRE.
3-PT. FIELD GOALS: MEMPHIS 6-18 (.333), S BATTIER 1-4, J WILLIAMS 3-
5, M MILLER 1-3, D JONES 0-1, B CARDINAL 0-2, E WATSON 0-1, J POSEY 1-
2. PHOENIX 5-17 (.294), Q RICHARDSON 2-5, S MARION 1-3, S NASH 0-4,
J JOHNSON 2-4, J JACKSON 0-1.
TECHNICAL FOULS: NONE.
FLAGRANT FOULS: PHOENIX 1 (A STOUDEMIRE, 6:55 4TH).
OFFICIALS: BLANE REICHELT, EDDIE F. RUSH, JOE DEROSA.
A - 18,422. T - 2:34.
Friday, April 29, 2005
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Suns playoff BLOG
Suns win game 1 against the Memphis Grizzlies pretty easily. I was pleasantly surprised by the effectiveness of the Suns attack. Nothing has changed since the regular season. The Suns made 15 threes. Nash and Amare had average games, but the Suns still didn't miss a beat. Marion and Q played very well. I was really impressed with Q's game. I thought he made great plays at both ends of the floor and stepped up his game for the playoffs. The most scary moment was when Marion was fouled hard by Shane Battier and Marion lay on the floor holding his wrist. My heart stopped for a moment ! Marion might be the most under-rated player on the Suns roster and they are not going anywhere in these playoffs without him. In fact, Suns might be the one team in the playoffs that can't afford an injury to anybody on their roster given their lack of depth. But luckily for the Suns nation, Marion got up and continued to play.
On the Memphis side, I thought Mike Miller was hitiing every shot he took and I was surprised the Czar didn't play him more. Other than that, they did their best, but on this day, that was not enough to upset the top-seeded Suns. Here's the box score from game 1
MEMPHIS (103) AT PHOENIX (114)
MEMPHIS
REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-FGA FTM-FTA OFF-DEF-TOT AST PF ST TO PTS
====== === === ======= ======= =========== === ==
S BATTIER F 36 4-9 0-1 4 5 9 1 3 0 0 8
P GASOL F 26 8-19 0-1 4 3 7 2 1 0 2 16
L WRIGHT C 20 2-7 1-2 1 6 7 3 1 0 0 5
J WILLIAMS G 31 7-13 1-1 0 4 4 5 2 2 2 17
M MILLER G 32 7-10 0-0 0 3 3 4 1 0 1 19
J POSEY 27 3-7 3-3 0 4 4 0 5 0 3 11
S SWIFT 16 3-6 0-0 1 2 3 1 0 0 1 6
B WELLS 16 2-5 4-4 0 2 2 3 0 2 0 8
E WATSON 17 3-7 0-0 0 4 4 4 1 1 1 6
B CARDINAL 19 2-5 3-3 1 2 3 0 3 0 1 7
A BURKS DNP - COACH'S DECISION
D JONES DNP - COACH'S DECISION
TOTALS 240 41-88 12-15 11 35 46 23 17 5 11 103
(.466) (.800) TEAM REBS: 4 TOTAL TO: 13 (13 PTS)
PHOENIX
REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-FGA FTM-FTA OFF-DEF-TOT AST PF ST TO PTS
====== === === ======= ======= =========== === ==
Q RICHARDSON F 34 7-20 4-4 2 3 5 3 2 2 0 22
S MARION F 43 11-19 1-2 5 8 13 1 4 1 4 26
A STOUDEMIRE C 30 3-9 3-4 2 8 10 2 5 1 1 9
S NASH G 36 3-11 4-4 0 5 5 13 0 0 3 11
J JOHNSON G 43 6-13 1-2 0 7 7 6 3 1 0 16
J JACKSON 19 3-7 0-0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 8
S HUNTER 20 7-11 2-2 4 1 5 1 0 0 1 16
L BARBOSA 12 1-2 0-0 1 1 2 1 1 0 0 3
W MCCARTY 3 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 3
B OUTLAW DNP - COACH'S DECISION
J VOSKUHL DNP - COACH'S DECISION
P SHIRLEY DNP - COACH'S DECISION
TOTALS 240 42-93 15-18 14 34 48 28 17 5 9 114
(.452) (.833) TEAM REBS: 6 TOTAL TO: 9 (6 PTS)
MEMPHIS 28 22 28 25 - 103
PHOENIX 39 20 28 27 - 114
BLOCKED SHOTS: MEMPHIS - S BATTIER 2, P GASOL 2, B WELLS, M MILLER.
PHOENIX - S HUNTER 2, Q RICHARDSON, A STOUDEMIRE, J JOHNSON.
3-PT. FIELD GOALS: MEMPHIS 9-21 (.429), J WILLIAMS 2-5, M MILLER 5-
7, J POSEY 2-4, E WATSON 0-3, B CARDINAL 0-2. PHOENIX 15-32 (.469),
Q RICHARDSON 4-11, S MARION 3-5, S NASH 1-3, J JOHNSON 3-5, J JACKSON 2-
5, L BARBOSA 1-2, W MCCARTY 1-1.
TECHNICAL FOULS: NONE.
FLAGRANT FOULS: MEMPHIS 1 (S BATTIER, 8:29 3RD).
OFFICIALS: BENNETT SALVATORE, BOB DELANEY, SEAN CORBIN.
A - 18,422. T - 2:24.
On the Memphis side, I thought Mike Miller was hitiing every shot he took and I was surprised the Czar didn't play him more. Other than that, they did their best, but on this day, that was not enough to upset the top-seeded Suns. Here's the box score from game 1
MEMPHIS (103) AT PHOENIX (114)
MEMPHIS
REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-FGA FTM-FTA OFF-DEF-TOT AST PF ST TO PTS
====== === === ======= ======= =========== === ==
S BATTIER F 36 4-9 0-1 4 5 9 1 3 0 0 8
P GASOL F 26 8-19 0-1 4 3 7 2 1 0 2 16
L WRIGHT C 20 2-7 1-2 1 6 7 3 1 0 0 5
J WILLIAMS G 31 7-13 1-1 0 4 4 5 2 2 2 17
M MILLER G 32 7-10 0-0 0 3 3 4 1 0 1 19
J POSEY 27 3-7 3-3 0 4 4 0 5 0 3 11
S SWIFT 16 3-6 0-0 1 2 3 1 0 0 1 6
B WELLS 16 2-5 4-4 0 2 2 3 0 2 0 8
E WATSON 17 3-7 0-0 0 4 4 4 1 1 1 6
B CARDINAL 19 2-5 3-3 1 2 3 0 3 0 1 7
A BURKS DNP - COACH'S DECISION
D JONES DNP - COACH'S DECISION
TOTALS 240 41-88 12-15 11 35 46 23 17 5 11 103
(.466) (.800) TEAM REBS: 4 TOTAL TO: 13 (13 PTS)
PHOENIX
REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-FGA FTM-FTA OFF-DEF-TOT AST PF ST TO PTS
====== === === ======= ======= =========== === ==
Q RICHARDSON F 34 7-20 4-4 2 3 5 3 2 2 0 22
S MARION F 43 11-19 1-2 5 8 13 1 4 1 4 26
A STOUDEMIRE C 30 3-9 3-4 2 8 10 2 5 1 1 9
S NASH G 36 3-11 4-4 0 5 5 13 0 0 3 11
J JOHNSON G 43 6-13 1-2 0 7 7 6 3 1 0 16
J JACKSON 19 3-7 0-0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 8
S HUNTER 20 7-11 2-2 4 1 5 1 0 0 1 16
L BARBOSA 12 1-2 0-0 1 1 2 1 1 0 0 3
W MCCARTY 3 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 3
B OUTLAW DNP - COACH'S DECISION
J VOSKUHL DNP - COACH'S DECISION
P SHIRLEY DNP - COACH'S DECISION
TOTALS 240 42-93 15-18 14 34 48 28 17 5 9 114
(.452) (.833) TEAM REBS: 6 TOTAL TO: 9 (6 PTS)
MEMPHIS 28 22 28 25 - 103
PHOENIX 39 20 28 27 - 114
BLOCKED SHOTS: MEMPHIS - S BATTIER 2, P GASOL 2, B WELLS, M MILLER.
PHOENIX - S HUNTER 2, Q RICHARDSON, A STOUDEMIRE, J JOHNSON.
3-PT. FIELD GOALS: MEMPHIS 9-21 (.429), J WILLIAMS 2-5, M MILLER 5-
7, J POSEY 2-4, E WATSON 0-3, B CARDINAL 0-2. PHOENIX 15-32 (.469),
Q RICHARDSON 4-11, S MARION 3-5, S NASH 1-3, J JOHNSON 3-5, J JACKSON 2-
5, L BARBOSA 1-2, W MCCARTY 1-1.
TECHNICAL FOULS: NONE.
FLAGRANT FOULS: MEMPHIS 1 (S BATTIER, 8:29 3RD).
OFFICIALS: BENNETT SALVATORE, BOB DELANEY, SEAN CORBIN.
A - 18,422. T - 2:24.
Suns 2005 season
I am totally excited for the 2004-2005 NBA playoffs. My Phoenix Suns have the best record in the league and are rolling into the playoffs at full strength. I still can't believe they went 62-20 in the regular season. Though at one point in the season I was hoping they'll win 70+ games :-). ESPN's Marc Stein sold me on that idea. Of course soon thereafter Steve Nash got injured and missed a few games and the Suns lost all those games including the last game before and the first game after his injury "break". Stevie Wonder was great this season and I hope the league doesn't rob him of his MVP trophy. But that break established him as a legitimate MVP candidate. Nobody (including myself) really understood his true impact until he missed a few games. During that time, the Suns looked totally lost. Their scoring average per game dropped to ridiculous depths and they kept setting the record for season-low points almost every game. Leandro Barbosa is cool and all, but he's no Nash and I was shocked when he went an entire game without an assist. This after Nash has routinely dished out 12 or 14 dimes every game. It was shocking to see the contrast and it felt like a year and half though I am sure Nash didn't miss more than a week and a half.
He got back and everybody knew the first game back was going to be tough since it was at home against Timmy and the Spurs on national TV. Nash and the Suns were back to their usual self in that game, but they clearly ran out of gas in the fourth quarter. The Spurs tied it up and won in overtime behind a ridiculous performance by Manu Ginobli. He took over the game with Timmy just watching and Tony Parker actually in the bench. Even though the Suns lost, from my perspective, they were back playing Suns basketball and Nash was back in form. The rest of the season was mostly good. Nash and the boys kept rollin' though some doubters were throwing all sorts of theories. We heard it all from, "oh their bench is not good enough" to, "Nash will breakdown towards the end of the season" to, "the whole team can't keep up this pace" to, "the rest of the league will figure it out and adjust in the second half". None of this happened. The rest of the league probably figured it all out in week 1, but they just do not have a way to stop it! When you have talented athletes flying at full speed like that with the ball in the hands of a decision maker likeStevie Wonder, there's nothing that can be done to effectively stop them.
Mike D'Antoni just made sure they ran all the time. Not surprising, considering the fact that he ran last season with much inferior talent even when he had 50+ losses. This season he made sure they ran off of turnovers, off blocked shots, off defensive rebounds and off of made baskets! The last thing is something this league has not seen in a long time. They just ran and ran and when the opponent got tired, they ran some more. Nash plays the most controlled, organized, skillful NBA ball, but all at street-ball pace. This unique talent is a treat to watch and he is the MVP of this regular season without a doubt.
The experts are looking at what Shaq has done in Miami and what has happened to the Lakers and are comparing it to the Dallas Mavericks without Nash. Their argument is that, while the addition of Shaq and Nash has completely transformed their respective teams, their subtraction from their old teams has had very different results. The Lakers are struggling without Shaq, but the Mavs are doing just fine without Nash. I think this argument is deeply flawed to say the least. So now we are not only comparing apples to oranges but apples to eggplants and the blue sky! The Mavericks are a loaded team. They have always had 7 or 8 guys who can score 20 or more points. That's Don Nelson's style and Mark Cuban has opened his checkbook to pay all those players. So removing one important piece from it didn't destroy the whole thing. Actually I have to agree that even I was a little surprised that they were doing this well without Nash, but not shocked. Mavs also made more trades with some of their 7 guys who can score 20+ and ended up with a team where 9 guys can now do the same! Nash was a free agent and he moved to Phoenix. This probably gave Cuban even more financial flexibility to acquire some contracts like Jason Terry and Jerry Stackhouse.
The Lakers are completely different. They had a team that was completely built around Shaq and Kobe. They had nothing else. Shaq was taking up a huge percentage of their salary cap and he forced a trade. They had to take up some garbage like Brian Grant in return just to make sure they got some talent in return and also make the deal work from a cap perspective. They lost Payton and Malone on top of that and they lost Phil Jackson's coaching. The Mavs had thesame coaching staff and system in place. This was clearly a rebuilding year for the Lakers and they entered the season with Shaq-sized question marks. Granted, they did have Rudy T and a superstar in Kobe, but Rudy T quit midway through the season, Kobe was injured and things turned real bad real fast after a decent start in LA. Don Nelson quit too, but that was an "upgrade" in his own words since he felt the team played better under Avery Johnson. Simply put, the Mavs improved their team in every way they can, except in losing Nash. The Lakers on the other hand lost Shaq, and compounded that with a lot of other negative events. So this comparison is absurd and the experts should just shut up and hand over the MVP trophy to Steve Nash.
The bottom-line is that Steve Nash led the Suns to 62-20. They had nothing to play for on the last day of the season and they rested Nash and Marion for most of the game. Otherwise, they would have won a Suns franchise record 63 games. That's amazing for a team that went 27-55 last year! In fact, I could argue that Shaq just improved a team that was already in the second round of the playoffs last year, but lets not go there. Suns lost so few games, I am going to list them all here. It's time to focus on the playoffs now.
Houston (twice)
San Antonio (twice)
Sacramento (twice - early and the last game of the season)
Memphis (twice)
Golden State (twice - whats up with that)
Dallas
Cleveland (OT - huge comback for the Cavs early in the season)
Minnesota (at home early in the season)
Detroit
Washington
Indiana
Boston (at home - OT)
Utah
Seattle
Miami
He got back and everybody knew the first game back was going to be tough since it was at home against Timmy and the Spurs on national TV. Nash and the Suns were back to their usual self in that game, but they clearly ran out of gas in the fourth quarter. The Spurs tied it up and won in overtime behind a ridiculous performance by Manu Ginobli. He took over the game with Timmy just watching and Tony Parker actually in the bench. Even though the Suns lost, from my perspective, they were back playing Suns basketball and Nash was back in form. The rest of the season was mostly good. Nash and the boys kept rollin' though some doubters were throwing all sorts of theories. We heard it all from, "oh their bench is not good enough" to, "Nash will breakdown towards the end of the season" to, "the whole team can't keep up this pace" to, "the rest of the league will figure it out and adjust in the second half". None of this happened. The rest of the league probably figured it all out in week 1, but they just do not have a way to stop it! When you have talented athletes flying at full speed like that with the ball in the hands of a decision maker likeStevie Wonder, there's nothing that can be done to effectively stop them.
Mike D'Antoni just made sure they ran all the time. Not surprising, considering the fact that he ran last season with much inferior talent even when he had 50+ losses. This season he made sure they ran off of turnovers, off blocked shots, off defensive rebounds and off of made baskets! The last thing is something this league has not seen in a long time. They just ran and ran and when the opponent got tired, they ran some more. Nash plays the most controlled, organized, skillful NBA ball, but all at street-ball pace. This unique talent is a treat to watch and he is the MVP of this regular season without a doubt.
The experts are looking at what Shaq has done in Miami and what has happened to the Lakers and are comparing it to the Dallas Mavericks without Nash. Their argument is that, while the addition of Shaq and Nash has completely transformed their respective teams, their subtraction from their old teams has had very different results. The Lakers are struggling without Shaq, but the Mavs are doing just fine without Nash. I think this argument is deeply flawed to say the least. So now we are not only comparing apples to oranges but apples to eggplants and the blue sky! The Mavericks are a loaded team. They have always had 7 or 8 guys who can score 20 or more points. That's Don Nelson's style and Mark Cuban has opened his checkbook to pay all those players. So removing one important piece from it didn't destroy the whole thing. Actually I have to agree that even I was a little surprised that they were doing this well without Nash, but not shocked. Mavs also made more trades with some of their 7 guys who can score 20+ and ended up with a team where 9 guys can now do the same! Nash was a free agent and he moved to Phoenix. This probably gave Cuban even more financial flexibility to acquire some contracts like Jason Terry and Jerry Stackhouse.
The Lakers are completely different. They had a team that was completely built around Shaq and Kobe. They had nothing else. Shaq was taking up a huge percentage of their salary cap and he forced a trade. They had to take up some garbage like Brian Grant in return just to make sure they got some talent in return and also make the deal work from a cap perspective. They lost Payton and Malone on top of that and they lost Phil Jackson's coaching. The Mavs had thesame coaching staff and system in place. This was clearly a rebuilding year for the Lakers and they entered the season with Shaq-sized question marks. Granted, they did have Rudy T and a superstar in Kobe, but Rudy T quit midway through the season, Kobe was injured and things turned real bad real fast after a decent start in LA. Don Nelson quit too, but that was an "upgrade" in his own words since he felt the team played better under Avery Johnson. Simply put, the Mavs improved their team in every way they can, except in losing Nash. The Lakers on the other hand lost Shaq, and compounded that with a lot of other negative events. So this comparison is absurd and the experts should just shut up and hand over the MVP trophy to Steve Nash.
The bottom-line is that Steve Nash led the Suns to 62-20. They had nothing to play for on the last day of the season and they rested Nash and Marion for most of the game. Otherwise, they would have won a Suns franchise record 63 games. That's amazing for a team that went 27-55 last year! In fact, I could argue that Shaq just improved a team that was already in the second round of the playoffs last year, but lets not go there. Suns lost so few games, I am going to list them all here. It's time to focus on the playoffs now.
Houston (twice)
San Antonio (twice)
Sacramento (twice - early and the last game of the season)
Memphis (twice)
Golden State (twice - whats up with that)
Dallas
Cleveland (OT - huge comback for the Cavs early in the season)
Minnesota (at home early in the season)
Detroit
Washington
Indiana
Boston (at home - OT)
Utah
Seattle
Miami
In Billy we Trust
After all the off-season trades that Billy Beane orchestrated, it’s been an interesting season so for the Oakland Athletics. Very few experts (including myself :-)) had rightly predicted that Billy’s long-term plan was to replace the A’s big-3 pitching stars with a new big-3 that would be younger and cheaper. As Huddy, Zito and Mulder were growing up and becoming super-stars, it should have been obvious to even casual A’s fans that Billy can’t keep all of them. Given their payroll constraints, the A’s would have been lucky to retain even one let alone 2 of the 3. So when Tim Hudson was entering the last year of his contract, people were expecting Billy to trade him But I guess what surprised most was the trade of Mark Mulder just a few days later. Billy traded both of them for an assortment of assets. He got some big-league ready pitching, pitching prospects, hitting prospects and big-league ready hitters.
While I am a BIG fan of Huddy, and I was hoping and praying that Billy would keep him even if he lets the other two go, the fact is, the A’s pitching is doing just fine. It’s their horrendous hitting that’s killing them. This only proves Billy’s point that the A’s would have had to gut his roster to keep Huddy and Mulder even at their current salaries, not to talk about extending their contracts. Even with the “cheap” pitching, the lineup is pretty impotent and you take a salary or two away from this lineup, they might actually score in the negative!
With all that said, the story of this young season has been A’s pitching. Billy might very well be ahead of schedule as far as building the next big 3. Rich Harden is virtually untouchable and Joe Blanton is not bad either with his 1.75 ERA. Both these guys are home-grown successors to the big 3. Danny Haren, who was acquired in the Mulder trade, has been up and down, but has looked good overall and has lot of potential. The bullpen, which was a major headache last year, is vastly improved because of the trades. Overall, the A’s pitching is solid in-spite of Zito struggling just like last year. So Billy is essentially putting together a stellar pitching staff even without any help from Barry Zito. The only question we should be asking Billy about the trade is not “why did you trade Huddy and Mulder?”, but “why didn’t you trade Barry Zito?”! That’s saying something. To be fair to Zito, he has pitched better lately and yesterday he was working on a scoreless game when he got shelled in the 7-th inning. The pitching could be even better if they were not making every pitch under great pressure because the A’s lineup can’t put up even a single run. Joe Blanton does not even have a win yet!
The A’s lost the division last year by a game. They then traded away 2 of their best players while the rest of their division rivals, namely the Angels and the Mariners, got better. A’s did get a lot of young talent, but 22 and 23 year olds don’t win you the division in the big leagues. So it’s crazy to expect the A’s to win the division this season. But this is sports and anything can happen. But seriously, who would be shocked if they do stay in the race all season given Billy Beane’s track record. So far, their pitching has definitely been on the right track. It’s early and I know Harden’s 0.44 ERA and Blanton’s 1.75 ERA is going to go up, but still what’s happening here on Apr 26-th is pretty impressive. If the hitting turns around, they might actually stay in this race deep into September.
I know some people are waiting for an opportunity to criticize Billy. Even they have to accept that Billy knew exactly what he was doing with these trades. If you still feel the need to rap Billy, here’s the one complaint I have that I think is valid. That’s his decision to let Miguel Tejada go and sign Eric Chavez. Billy will tell you that they loved Tejada, that he was too expensive for them, that they had no shot at signing him and that Crosby was waiting in the wings while they had nobody to replace Chavvy. While there’s some truth to all of that, especially the fact that Crosby is real good and cheap, the reality is that the Oakland front-office was never as high on Tejada as they were on Chavez. They liked Chavvy’s upside much more. Now that we have seen both for a couple of years, even they have to accept that while Chavez is a nice player, he is no Tejada. Tejada is an absolute stud. He is a centerpiece guy in a lineup much like a Manny or a Bonds or a Pujols or a Chipper Jones. Chavez on the other hand seems to me like one of the guys who should be protecting a Tejada or a Manny or a Chipper Jones in the lineup. Kind of like a Andrew Jones or a Scott Rolen or a David Ortiz. Chavvy is a typical Pippen while Tejada is your Jordon of an everyday big-league lineup. Tejada would have been more expensive than Chavez even with any potential “home-town discounts”. But he might have been well worth it, given all the hitting troubles the A’s are going through the last couple of years.
I’ll always wonder if Billy could have signed Tejada if he wanted to. Remember, the A’s did not even try to offer him a deal. As for the trade of the big-2, I can’t wait for Billy to trade Zito away and load up on some young hitting. Are the Yankees listening?
While I am a BIG fan of Huddy, and I was hoping and praying that Billy would keep him even if he lets the other two go, the fact is, the A’s pitching is doing just fine. It’s their horrendous hitting that’s killing them. This only proves Billy’s point that the A’s would have had to gut his roster to keep Huddy and Mulder even at their current salaries, not to talk about extending their contracts. Even with the “cheap” pitching, the lineup is pretty impotent and you take a salary or two away from this lineup, they might actually score in the negative!
With all that said, the story of this young season has been A’s pitching. Billy might very well be ahead of schedule as far as building the next big 3. Rich Harden is virtually untouchable and Joe Blanton is not bad either with his 1.75 ERA. Both these guys are home-grown successors to the big 3. Danny Haren, who was acquired in the Mulder trade, has been up and down, but has looked good overall and has lot of potential. The bullpen, which was a major headache last year, is vastly improved because of the trades. Overall, the A’s pitching is solid in-spite of Zito struggling just like last year. So Billy is essentially putting together a stellar pitching staff even without any help from Barry Zito. The only question we should be asking Billy about the trade is not “why did you trade Huddy and Mulder?”, but “why didn’t you trade Barry Zito?”! That’s saying something. To be fair to Zito, he has pitched better lately and yesterday he was working on a scoreless game when he got shelled in the 7-th inning. The pitching could be even better if they were not making every pitch under great pressure because the A’s lineup can’t put up even a single run. Joe Blanton does not even have a win yet!
The A’s lost the division last year by a game. They then traded away 2 of their best players while the rest of their division rivals, namely the Angels and the Mariners, got better. A’s did get a lot of young talent, but 22 and 23 year olds don’t win you the division in the big leagues. So it’s crazy to expect the A’s to win the division this season. But this is sports and anything can happen. But seriously, who would be shocked if they do stay in the race all season given Billy Beane’s track record. So far, their pitching has definitely been on the right track. It’s early and I know Harden’s 0.44 ERA and Blanton’s 1.75 ERA is going to go up, but still what’s happening here on Apr 26-th is pretty impressive. If the hitting turns around, they might actually stay in this race deep into September.
I know some people are waiting for an opportunity to criticize Billy. Even they have to accept that Billy knew exactly what he was doing with these trades. If you still feel the need to rap Billy, here’s the one complaint I have that I think is valid. That’s his decision to let Miguel Tejada go and sign Eric Chavez. Billy will tell you that they loved Tejada, that he was too expensive for them, that they had no shot at signing him and that Crosby was waiting in the wings while they had nobody to replace Chavvy. While there’s some truth to all of that, especially the fact that Crosby is real good and cheap, the reality is that the Oakland front-office was never as high on Tejada as they were on Chavez. They liked Chavvy’s upside much more. Now that we have seen both for a couple of years, even they have to accept that while Chavez is a nice player, he is no Tejada. Tejada is an absolute stud. He is a centerpiece guy in a lineup much like a Manny or a Bonds or a Pujols or a Chipper Jones. Chavez on the other hand seems to me like one of the guys who should be protecting a Tejada or a Manny or a Chipper Jones in the lineup. Kind of like a Andrew Jones or a Scott Rolen or a David Ortiz. Chavvy is a typical Pippen while Tejada is your Jordon of an everyday big-league lineup. Tejada would have been more expensive than Chavez even with any potential “home-town discounts”. But he might have been well worth it, given all the hitting troubles the A’s are going through the last couple of years.
I’ll always wonder if Billy could have signed Tejada if he wanted to. Remember, the A’s did not even try to offer him a deal. As for the trade of the big-2, I can’t wait for Billy to trade Zito away and load up on some young hitting. Are the Yankees listening?
Saturday, April 23, 2005
2004-2005 NBA Season
This has been the best NBA season for me in a while. A lof of that has to do with the fact that I am a huge Phoenix Suns fan and the Suns ended up with the best record in the league. But apart from that, the league as a whole had a great year. I think there were several reasons for it and I'll try to explain them here.
1) A whole bunch of teams led by the Suns resorted to playing an up-tempo style which is definitely fun to watch. A lot of these teams were successful as well and people got to watch their games on national TV and follow their fortunes. Apart from the Suns, the Seattle Seahawks, Washington Wizards, Denver Nuggets and even the Golden State Warriors towards the end of the season played this style. This, in addition to the usual suspects like the Dallas Mavericks and the Sacramento Kings, though the Kings have slowed down a little bit. Even the plodding Rockets coached by the defensive minded Van Gundy had to start running a little bit to start winning. I think this trend is good for the game.
2) Another reason for the great season was the ascent of some new teams in the NBA. The Suns and the Sonics come to mind immediately. Both of them missed the playoffs last year but they won their respective divisions pretty easily. These 2 teams did much better than just make the playoffs and this was a very interesting story in the early part of the season. But this really started last season. The good thing about Carmello and Lebron was not just they improved their respective teams dramatically, but they did it in 2 cities that were perennial door-mats in the NBA, Cleveland and Denver. Add Washington and Chciago to this list and the face of the NBA might be changing. It might have been fun to have Garnett and Kobe in the playoffs, but the new teams have kept this season pretty intriguing.
3) Of course breaking up Kobe and Shaq gave us 2 stories to follow. Though the Lakers story didn't end too well, it was fun watching these 2 teams in 2 opposite coasts. New teams, new situations and new results for both of them. Wouldn't it be awesome if Shaq goes all the way and wins it all? That would be an amazing story. That'll establish him as some kind of a NBA God and make it all the more tougher for Kobe to resurrect his career.
4) Another reason that this NBA season really featured a better brand of basketball is a theory I am proposing here. The level of play had dropped over the last 5 years primarily because of the influx of the high school kids and college under-classmen. Everybody knows this. But I think that was not the only problem. The problem was also that this was a new thing for the NBA and they couldn't handle this "transition" well. Coaches were forced to play these kids heavy minutes like they were Michael Jordan or Tim Duncan and the expectations of the fans were not adjusted to their skill level either. What has happened now is that the NBA has gotten used to having these kids come in early. NBA has kind of reached a "steady-state". Now these kids could be "hid" in the back of the bench even if they are a top pick like Darko Milicic. Fans understand this new setup better. The teams can use "veterans" who are just 24 or 25 years old, but who came out early 3 or 4 years back and keep their fan base interested without exposing them too much to the 20 year old kid who can't dribble, pass or shoot. A good example is somebody like Jason Rcihardson. His game is still getting better and is improving. But he has already been in the league 4 or 5 years and his game is at least watchable. He is still young and Warriors can still sell hope to their fans through him. So they are not forced to play the 19 year old Andris Biedrins all that much. 5 years back, the Warriors had no option but to play a J-Rich in his rookie season. Back then the teams, especially bad teams, had old, boring players or 20 year old kids coming in. Now there is a nice pipeline established of players of all skill level based on what stage of development they are in. This is what I mean by a "steady state". Any system subjected to a big change will take a while to reach a "steady state of equilibrium". I think finally the NBA has reached a steady state this year with respect to under-skilled players coming in early. Players like Eddy Curry, Tyson Chandler, Al Harrington and even Darius Miles have finally started playing NBA level basketball on a semi-consistent basis and this improved the NBA game all around. I still hope the Commissioner implements the age limit, but even without it, I think the NBA has learnt how to live with it much better than 5 years back.
All these reasons and my Suns have made this 2005 season a great one.
1) A whole bunch of teams led by the Suns resorted to playing an up-tempo style which is definitely fun to watch. A lot of these teams were successful as well and people got to watch their games on national TV and follow their fortunes. Apart from the Suns, the Seattle Seahawks, Washington Wizards, Denver Nuggets and even the Golden State Warriors towards the end of the season played this style. This, in addition to the usual suspects like the Dallas Mavericks and the Sacramento Kings, though the Kings have slowed down a little bit. Even the plodding Rockets coached by the defensive minded Van Gundy had to start running a little bit to start winning. I think this trend is good for the game.
2) Another reason for the great season was the ascent of some new teams in the NBA. The Suns and the Sonics come to mind immediately. Both of them missed the playoffs last year but they won their respective divisions pretty easily. These 2 teams did much better than just make the playoffs and this was a very interesting story in the early part of the season. But this really started last season. The good thing about Carmello and Lebron was not just they improved their respective teams dramatically, but they did it in 2 cities that were perennial door-mats in the NBA, Cleveland and Denver. Add Washington and Chciago to this list and the face of the NBA might be changing. It might have been fun to have Garnett and Kobe in the playoffs, but the new teams have kept this season pretty intriguing.
3) Of course breaking up Kobe and Shaq gave us 2 stories to follow. Though the Lakers story didn't end too well, it was fun watching these 2 teams in 2 opposite coasts. New teams, new situations and new results for both of them. Wouldn't it be awesome if Shaq goes all the way and wins it all? That would be an amazing story. That'll establish him as some kind of a NBA God and make it all the more tougher for Kobe to resurrect his career.
4) Another reason that this NBA season really featured a better brand of basketball is a theory I am proposing here. The level of play had dropped over the last 5 years primarily because of the influx of the high school kids and college under-classmen. Everybody knows this. But I think that was not the only problem. The problem was also that this was a new thing for the NBA and they couldn't handle this "transition" well. Coaches were forced to play these kids heavy minutes like they were Michael Jordan or Tim Duncan and the expectations of the fans were not adjusted to their skill level either. What has happened now is that the NBA has gotten used to having these kids come in early. NBA has kind of reached a "steady-state". Now these kids could be "hid" in the back of the bench even if they are a top pick like Darko Milicic. Fans understand this new setup better. The teams can use "veterans" who are just 24 or 25 years old, but who came out early 3 or 4 years back and keep their fan base interested without exposing them too much to the 20 year old kid who can't dribble, pass or shoot. A good example is somebody like Jason Rcihardson. His game is still getting better and is improving. But he has already been in the league 4 or 5 years and his game is at least watchable. He is still young and Warriors can still sell hope to their fans through him. So they are not forced to play the 19 year old Andris Biedrins all that much. 5 years back, the Warriors had no option but to play a J-Rich in his rookie season. Back then the teams, especially bad teams, had old, boring players or 20 year old kids coming in. Now there is a nice pipeline established of players of all skill level based on what stage of development they are in. This is what I mean by a "steady state". Any system subjected to a big change will take a while to reach a "steady state of equilibrium". I think finally the NBA has reached a steady state this year with respect to under-skilled players coming in early. Players like Eddy Curry, Tyson Chandler, Al Harrington and even Darius Miles have finally started playing NBA level basketball on a semi-consistent basis and this improved the NBA game all around. I still hope the Commissioner implements the age limit, but even without it, I think the NBA has learnt how to live with it much better than 5 years back.
All these reasons and my Suns have made this 2005 season a great one.
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