Season of change

The finals are almost here. We have Celtics and the Lakers while we were expecting Celtics and the Spurs or the Suns at the beginning of the season. Suns lost to the Spurs 4-1 while the Spurs barely got past the Hornets. And then Spurs happily lost 4-1 to the Lakers. They were once again stung by the "curse of the Fish". They lost a series a few years back and probably a chance to win a championship when D-Fish shot that ridiculous 0.4 sec buzzer beater. Now in Game 4 at San Antonio, Fish fouled Brent Barry and denied the Spurs a good look at the buzzer beater. It was an obvious foul, but the refs swallowed the whistle. I was going to scream conspiracy from the roof-tops but just the possession before, Lakers recovered the rebound on a D-Fish miss, but the refs didn't reset the clock though the shot grazed the rim. I guess that was a bad call in favor of the Spurs without which the last possession may or may not have even mattered. But the refs did miss the call. In any case, the Spurs fell to 3-1 and got eliminated on the road in game 5. That game 5 was not hard to see coming.

The funny part is, this was supposed to be a drag-out, knock-down Western playoffs, but the Lakers cruised through it 12-3. Are you kidding me! The Lakers are real good. Finally they are cashing in on having the game's best player. It's all coming together around him, though having Pau Gasol and an improving supporting-cast doesn't hurt one bit! This team is probably going to make the Lakers revival official by winning a ring in the next two weeks, but lets see how the Celtics fare. The Pistons got rid of Flip Saunders and are probably going to make some big changes. The Celts should be able to contend for a year or three. God knows what's going to happen with the Cavs. The rest of the L-East is not worth talking about right now. I am sure a team or two like the Hawks or may be even the Heat with their high pick and an healthy Wade might bubble up to the top.

The West is now very interesting. The Lakers are back at the top and they look like they are there to stay. The Hornets are young and good and have a hall-of-fame type star in CP3. So they are going nowhere. Same with the Jazz. Young, talented and feature a super-star point guard. So what's going to happen to the Spurs, the Suns and the Mavs? Seems like their era is over for now. The Spurs are definitely in the picture. They got their big 3 and the championship pedigree that should keep them at the top for a few years if they add the right pieces around that Big 3. People are calling them old and slow and they did look that way at times against the Lakers, but this is always what we say about the Spurs in the years they lose and they come back with exactly the same team and win it all the next year. This has been going on for a while. I have a feeling they will be fine. Just don't expect them to repeat! The Mavs on the other hand are toast. They got a couple of young guys and Nowitzki is not old yet, but they shot themselves in the foot with the Kidd trade. They'll be a decent team, but nothing spectacular the next year or two.

That brings me to the Suns. It's basically been a season of change and transition for the Suns. Shaq is in, the coach is gone and so is the Matrix. The coach's departure closes the book on the run-and-gun for now. Steve Nash is not getting any younger. He had some tough games in the playoffs and he lost his "best point guard in the league, period" status to Chris Paul - a worthy successor I might add. Nash now has to adjust to another succession as this team slowly became Amare's even during this season and it should be all Amare's this time next year. Amare deserves it the way he played since Shaq arrived in town, but more importantly, thats the direction the new coach will probably take this team. In any case, they are not that good as constituted right now with all the aging stars, I am not sure where they go from here. Seems like the Suns window is slammed shut with all the young teams west of the mississippi. As blasphemous as it sounded to my ears at first, my friend's suggestion that the Suns should trade Nash might have some merit to it. His point is, Nash has one or two good years in him and the Suns might get something in return for him right now while the rest of the roster is not of much value to anybody. You can trade Amare, but the Suns probably are better off keeping Amare themselves. Of course there is some talk that they can trade Amare too and start over because he doesn't play good defense and they can get something big in return.

Wonder if Steve Kerr will be willing to roll the dice that wildly. Interesting question indeed! The fact that Doug Collins is more willing to take the Bulls job than the Suns job tells you all you need to know about where the Suns stand in this brutal, deep West.

NBA gets what it wants

Boston-LA, big markets in the finals, Kobe, a glorious rivalry renewed, East Coast-V-West Coast. This is exactly what the NBA wanted. I would be very interested in seeing what the ratings are for this one. I know it'll be better than usual, but how much better is the question. Kobe is a huge draw all by himself. He has clearly become the biggest name in the sport. His recovery from the Colorado rape case seems to be complete. He is clearly the next MJ and his game might even be better than MJ. I am not a Kobe fan, but I have been saying that forever because this guy can shoot the jumper and MJ never really had that. But MJ is still the best because of 2 reasons - he was unique, he was a pioneer and a trend-setter. He is the reason there are Kobes and LeBrons these days. Secondly, the intangibles. Kobe is almost there, but is still not quite MJ.

Kobe is an interesting super-star. Unlike Jordan or even Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, he is not just the most popular star in his game but is also quite widely hated as well. I wouldn't call him the most-hated, but he may be one of the more hated, popular stars, if that makes sense! Kobe may be the biggest name in all of sports despite all of his problems and all of NBA's problems the last few years. It's something about the NBA and it's star-making capabilities that makes it's stars bigger than the stars in other sports and bigger than the league itself. It is and it always will be a star driven league. Another championship, and Kobe will be the poster-boy again. This will be all his unlike the first 3 "Shaq" rings. Not too deserving to be honest with you because he has way too much talent around him actually. He is still the MVP though and hence will get all the credit.

As for the finals, I can't see how Boston wins this one. It was great for them to get this far. They took care of the Pistons fairly easily, but LA is a whole another animal. The way Kobe roasted Bowen and the Spurs alive, I can't see who from the Celtics can even slow him down. The Big 3 are doing fine. Even Ray-Ray is beginning to hit some jumpers now. But the Lakers are just too good, too potent and too deep. Plus they have Kobe to close the game. Paul Pierce needs to have a huge series for the Celts to even compete. In any case, the city of Boston should be buzzing for this one. They go from worst to best in a year and they get to see Kobe and the Lakers in the finals. Good deal. Boston's success probably has all by itself improved NBA'a popularity this season. Boston is not that big a city, but for some reason is a big, impact-full market. I think it's because of 2 reasons - it represents the entire New England region and not just the city. Secondly, it's an historic, old city with transplants all over the country and since these people are pretty parochial and passionate, they never switch their loyalties away from their beloved Boston teams.

Anyways, Lakers in 5, may be 6.

Little 3

Boston's Big 3 seem to have a habit of coming up little way too often. They shot 11/38 today as the Celtics lost today to tie up the Eastern series at 2-2. Ray Allen has basically been reduced to a flaky role player. He did not have a great season, but his playoffs have been horrible. He has had like one good game and has been unreliable for the most part. Paul Pierce had a great game 7 against the Cavs - one for the ages, but other than that, he has been up and down. Same with KG. Inconsistent to say the least. Some huge games, but inconsistent overall. Some of it is defense. Detroit we all know is a monster defensively. Cleveland is no joke defensively either and Boston themselves play a defensive style that doesn't promote good offensive flow. That explains most of the problems for the Celtics.

But how good really are the big 3? I can tell you that they are not as good as the Big 3 in the Alamo - Timmy, Tony and Manu. Allen has not settled into his role in Boston yet. He may be over-the-hill before he settles down. Pierce is very good, but not always great. As for Garnett, great player, but not an offensive monster like some people think he is. You rarely see him dominate offensively. Thats the difference between him and Tim Duncan. Timmy is a dominant offensive player who also defends and rebounds exceptionally well. Garnett can't do what Timmy can on offense though he is a better athlete and can do the other things. KG relies way too much on turnaround fade-aways in the low-post. He is great and is headed to the hall-of-fame, but if you put the right guy to defend him, you can cause him all kinds of problems.

We all know offense puts butts on the seats, but defense puts rings in the fingers. There are way to many stars in this league who get all the glory based on their offensive prowess and we always say " he is not a complete player. He doesn't rebound well or he doesn't defend well". Guys like Carmelo and even Ray Allen fall in that category as they are pretty one-dimensional. KG is probably the only guy who is the opposite of these typical stars. He plays hard, defends like a mother and rebounds extremely well. But he just doesn't have the offensive fire-power. So I don't think this Celtics team can cash it in this year. They may get lucky and beat the Pistons, but I don't think they have the weapons to beat either the Lakers or the Spurs. I am sure the league office would love another Spurs-Pistons finals instead of Lakers-Celtics :-) Lets see what happens. Game 4 in san Antonio should be fun tomorrow in the West. Speaking of KG, that Jason Maxiell's block on his break-away dunk in today's game 4 was awesome. Maxiell added to the Detroit legend of all those Tayshaun Prince blocks during the playoffs the last few years.

Bill Simmons nails it!

Bill Simmons is one of my favorite sports writers. He is not a literary genius or anything, but he doesn't try to be or pretend like one. He just writes what he thinks and he is funny. I like his writing style a lot. He is unpretentious and though he is verbose, his articles are fun to read because I like the way his brain works and he pours it all in his columns. Here's one that deserves to be reproduced in full. An detailed, accurate analysis of the Suns run the last 4 years. He is on the money and I made the same points on my 4/26 post about the Suns management. To be honest, I didn't criticize them a lot during the 4-year run except for the Joe Johnson fiasco. Like I said, when things are going good, you tend to overlook certain bad moves, but now it's pretty obvious the Suns management screwed up big time. Bill is making the same case and this article is really a tear-jerker if you are a Suns fan. It's interesting to see Bill feeling so strongly about the Suns though he is not a Suns fan. Goes to show you how this was really NBA's team and NBA's system and not just Phoenix's team. Enjoy the article ... or not if you are a Suns fans.

A requiem for the S.S.O.L. Era in Phoenix By Bill Simmons

I made my friend Chris Connelly appear on this week's B.S. Report to discuss "critically acclaimed sports teams," following up on a discussion we had right after Game 2 of the Suns-Spurs series, when things were looking bleak for Phoenix and the end of Mike D'Antoni's reign seemed imminent.

"Well, that's OK that they didn't win the title," Connelly cheerfully said at the time. "At least they were critically acclaimed!"
From there, Connelly unleashed his theory of "critically acclaimed" sports teams (check the podcast for the full details) and how these Suns teams would be cheerfully remembered some day like we remember Coryell's Chargers and the Fab Five. In other words, it didn't really matter that they never won a championship, just like it didn't matter that "Pulp Fiction" didn't win an Oscar, "The Wire" never won an Emmy and "Arrested Development" bombed in the ratings. We would always remember them fondly and feel like they were more successful than they actually were.

And I was sitting there thinking, "Why didn't I think of that?"

You couldn't come up with a better two-word eulogy for the Seven Seconds or Less Era (or S.S.O.L. Era) in Phoenix: Critically acclaimed.

Maybe the Suns didn't win a championship, but we'll remember them 100 times more fondly than the brutally efficient and hopelessly bland Spurs, who taught everyone over the years that the regular season doesn't matter, transformed the NBA playoffs into a flopathon, revived the vile and fan-unfriendly Hack-A-Shaq strategy and did everything short of sending Bruce Bowen out on the court with a chainsaw and a taser. If the Spurs were the Team of the Decade, no wonder ratings dwindled until the league's big comeback this season. The real shame is that all the mugging, acting, eye-rolling, flopping, rule-bending and hysterical shrugging obscured what should have been remembered as a throwback sports team, a shrewdly assembled roster of well-coached guys who played beautifully together, didn't care about credit and revolved around the best power forward who ever played. Instead, we'll remember them as the team that turned the NBA playoffs into the World Cup. Congratulations, fellas.

(Important note: I don't hate the Spurs nearly that much; I'm trying to work up a proper level amount of hatred for them for the inevitable Celtics-Spurs Finals that's going to happen unless Doc Rivers screws it up ... which is exceedingly possible. The Spurs are a difficult team to dislike but you can do it if you try hard enough. I've made some huge strides in the past week. Just indulge me. Thanks.)

Meanwhile, the Suns were like the John Belushi of basketball teams -- thrilling, creative, inventive and loved by all, but ultimately, they couldn't sustain what they were doing for more than a couple of years, and by the time it came to a screeching halt, we were already wishing that things could return to the way they were three years before. Like Belushi, the Suns were critically acclaimed. Like Belushi (drugs), the Suns had an Achilles' heel (Robert Sarver). Like Belushi, the Suns tried to change their style near the end and it didn't work out. Like Belushi, we will remember the Suns fondly, and every time we see one of their old classic moments popping up on TV, we'll probably watch.
Nearly everyone regards the Shaq trade as the moment when PHOENIX (capital letters to represent the fact the Suns stood out) turned into Phoenix (lower-case letters, representing the fact that they were now just like any other team), but that's not necessarily true. Already straddling the fence between "run-and-gun Phoenix" and "more-conventional-than-you-think Phoenix," last summer's Grant Hill signing pushed them over the fence and made them hopelessly normal, even if we didn't want to admit it. Great guy, great athlete, phenomenally intelligent player, steal of a signing for the price ... and you could yell "Pull!" every time Hill launches a 3. For a team that revolved around high screens with Nash and Stoudemire, perfectly executed fast breaks and high-percentage 3s, Hill subtly changed what the Suns were. You didn't have to worry about defending him or Marion 25 feet from the basket -- two of the five Suns on the court, by the way -- making it impossible for them to spread the floor on those Nash/Stoudemire high screens.

So what were they? On paper, Hill made up for his long-range shooting faults with defense, leadership and all-around skills ... but did they want to get better defensively? What's the difference between being a D-minus defensively or a plus? Does it really matter? Two years ago, Jack McCallum called his season-in-the-life Suns book "Seven Seconds or Less" because that was their mentality -- they didn't care about getting defensive stops, only about forcing a high-speed tempo and taking high-percentage shots as quickly as possible (especially 3s). One of the great basketball chess matches happened in Round 1 of the '06 playoffs, when the Lakers were determined not to get caught up with Phoenix's breakneck pace, only the Suns kept dangling their high-speed game like a carrot -- "come on, run with us, it will be fun, come on" -- and the Lakers kept fighting them off and slowing things down. Ultimately, they couldn't hold the Suns off. That was the PHOENIX we knew and loved, but that "Seven Seconds or Less" mentality had faded into Bolivian well before the Shaq trade.

Anyway, some of this territory has been covered in this space before (most recently in the "15 What Ifs?" column from March), but I couldn't resist the chance to steal Connelly's theory and give the Suns we knew and loved a proper Viking funeral. They deserve critical acclaim. They deserve their own "Seven Seconds or Less" DVD with one of those planted Hollywood blurbs on the top like ...

"A nonstop thrill ride, I was jumping out of my seat!"
--Earl Dittman, Wireless Magazine

They also deserve to be raked through the coals for screwing up what could have been a once-in-a-generation team. The D'Antoni-Nash alliance should have lasted for as long as Nash's back held up -- maybe six years, maybe eight, maybe even 10 -- and instead, D'Antoni seems like a mortal lock to either resign or get canned this summer. (In fact, I thought it was happening this week, which was the main reason I wrote the column. Whoops.) Just don't blame the Shaq trade for cutting D'Antoni's reign short. If you're playing the blame game, look at the front office/ownership mistakes from 2004 to 2007. Had the Suns made two different choices (just two!) and not been so concerned about the luxury tax, they could have given us six to eight years of wildly entertaining basketball and maybe even a dynasty. Collectively, the mistakes made by the Suns were staggering. Check out the last four years of Phoenix teams, season by season, and how they screwed up what should have been a historically good run.

(Note to the Suns fans: You might want to throw down a couple shots of tequila before you keep going. Just trust me.)

2005 SUNS

Relevant Details: 62 wins, 110.4 points per game, 103.3 points allowed, .477 FG%, .393 3FG%, 2,026 3s attempted, lost in Western finals (San Antonio, six games).

Eight-Man Rotation: Amare Stoudemire, Shawn Marion, Joe Johnson (47.8% 3FG), Nash (43.1% 3FG), Quentin Richardson (38.9% 3FG), Leandro Barbosa (36.7% 3FG), Jimmy Jackson (45.9% 3FG), Steven Hunter.

Comments: That's the perfect S.S.O.L. team -- seven athletes and/or 3-point shooters and a Hall of Fame point guard running the show. This was the most "successful" (for lack of a better word) Suns team, falling to the future champion Spurs in a particularly tight series that could have played out differently if Joe Johnson hadn't fractured his eye socket in the previous round. You'd think they would have keep that nucleus together, right?

Unfortunately ...

Mistake No. 1: Re-read Marc Stein's post-mortem from August 2005 to properly refresh your memory about the Joe Johnson fiasco. That's right -- fiasco. Phoenix's relationship with Johnson deteriorated so badly that he directly asked Sarver not to match Atlanta's $70 million offer -- which he didn't -- leading to the devastating trade of Johnson for Boris Diaw and two future first-rounders. (Note: In that aforementioned "What If's" column, I partially excused the Suns because Johnson wanted to leave, forgetting how they drove him away until a few bitter Suns fans refreshed my memory.) They had just come within two wins of the NBA Finals and built an identity; now they were dealing a 24-year-old potential All-Star, the perfect swingman for their system, a deadly shooter who could even play backup point guard for them ... and only getting back a bench player and two future picks? Maybe that deal would have made sense for some teams, but they had just come within two wins of making the Finals! And how could they botch the Johnson thing so badly that he asked to leave? (Note: I asked these same questions three summers ago.) To borrow a modern example, this would be like the 2008 Hornets coming within two games of the NBA Finals while lowballing David West for the entire year, then trading him to Charlotte this summer for Jared Dudley and two No. 1s. Would they ever do that in a million years?

Here's what kills me about the Johnson trade: With Nash, Amare, Marion and Johnson, you're set for the rest of the decade. That's it. That's your core. That's your guarantee for 57-plus wins a year and a specific style that can work. Surround them with role players and veteran buyout guys and you're contending until Nash breaks down, and even then, you can just shift the offense over to Johnson as the main creator. HOW CAN YOU GIVE THAT GUY UP???? So what if he's insulted and doesn't want to come back? He'll get over it! You're paying him $14 million a year and he gets to play with Steve Nash! Arrrrrrrrgh.

2006 SUNS

Relevant Details: 54 wins, 108.4 points per game, 102.8 points allowed, .479 FG%, .399 3FG%, 2,097 3s attempted, lost in Western finals (Dallas, six games).

Eight-Man Rotation: Nash (43.9% 3FG), Marion, Diaw, Barbosa (44.4% 3FG), Raja Bell (44.2%) 3FG, Tim Thomas (42.9% 3FG), Eddie House (38.9% 3FG), James Jones (38.6% 3FG), Kurt Thomas, Stoudemire (injured).

Comments: Probably my favorite Suns team because of their 3-point shooting (40 percent on nearly 2,100 attempts?!?!?!?), the playing-bigger-than-we-are thing (inspiring), and the gritty way they responded after losing Amare for the season. Remember, this wasn't a strong year for the league -- Dallas was good, but not that good, and Miami ended up being the weakest champ of any team this decade. Switch Diaw for Johnson, give them Bell and Thomas, make Amare healthy and you're looking at the 2006 champs.

(Uh-oh, cue up the ominous "Behind the Music" music.)

But that summer, everything changed ...

Mistake No. 1: For financial reasons, they traded the No. 21 pick (Rajon Rondo) to Boston along with Brian Grant's contract (chopping $1.9 million from their 2007 payroll) for the rights to Cleveland's 2007 first-round pick. This was a double whammy because they acquired that Rondo pick two years before by giving up the No. 7 pick in the 2004 draft (for luxury tax reasons). So if you're scoring at home, they downgraded from "Luol Deng or Andre Iguodala in 2004" to "Rondo in 2006" to "selling the No. 24 pick in 2007 for cash" (we'll get to that in a second) ... which means that, effectively, they traded a No. 7 pick in a loaded draft for $4.9 million. Phoenix fans, you may now light yourselves on fire.

(What makes that one even more painful: Instead of signing Richardson before the 2004-05 season to a six-year, $42.6 million deal, they could have drafted Deng or Igoudala that summer and paid one of them two-fifths as much as Richardson over that same time frame. One year later, they swapped Richardson and the No. 21 pick in 2005 for Kurt Thomas, who they dumped on Seattle last summer along with two more No. 1's just to get him off their cap. As astounding as this sounds, Bryan Colangelo's decision to sign Richardson instead of drafting Deng or Iguodala -- which was dumb at the time, by the way -- ended up costing them a whopping FOUR FIRST-ROUND PICKS! Would you rather have Richardson, or would you rather have the No. 7 pick in 2004, the No. 21 pick in 2005, and your first-rounders in 2008 and 2010? Hold on, this gets better. Your 2005 NBA Executive of the Year? That's right, Mr. Bryan Colangelo! I love the NBA.)

Mistake No. 2: They sold the No. 27 pick to Portland (that ended up being Sergio Rodriguez). What's confusing is that they traded/sold those No. 1s for luxury tax reasons, and yet ...

Mistake No. 3: Two weeks later, they signed Marcus Banks to a five-year, $24 million deal to back up Nash. Marcus Banks!?!?!? Can you think of a worse guy for NashBall? He can't shoot 3s, he's a career loser, he's never won in college or the pros, it's unclear whether he'd ever accept a reduced role behind a two-time MVP ... let's get him! Why not just draft Rondo at 21 (or Marcus Williams, or Kyle Lowry, or Jordan Farmar) and develop him as a backup for one-fourth the price of Banks? Why not draft Rodriguez at No. 27 and hope he pans out for one-fifth the money?

(You're lucky I'm not a Suns fan -- I would have written 15 consecutive columns complaining about this paragraph alone. For the life of me, I will never figure out the appeal of Marcus Banks for $24 million. All they had to do was hit one freaking Celtics message board from the '05-'06 season and check one of the 35 "MARCUS BANKS SUCKS" threads. My god.)

Mistake No. 4: Giving Diaw a $45 million, five-year extension before waiting to see if he could co-exist with Amare. Just senseless. He would have been a restricted free agent in the summer of '07 -- why not wait a year and make him play for the contract? (In the biggest non-surprise of the '07 season, Diaw showed up for camp woefully out of shape, proving yet again that you can't trust the French.) Also, would you rather pay $14 million a year to Diaw and Banks or just give that money right to Joe Johnson, the quintessential swingman for the S.S.O.L. Era? I'm telling you, this was a Greek tragedy.

2007 SUNS

Relevant Details: 61 wins, 110.2 points per game, 102.9 points allowed, .494 FG%, .399 3FG%, 1,967 3s attempted, lost in Western semis (San Antonio, six games).

Nine-Man Rotation: Nash (45.5% 3FG), Marion, Stoudemire, Diaw, Barbosa (43.4% 3FG), Raja Bell (41.3%) 3FG, James Jones (37.8% 3FG), K. Thomas, Banks.

Comments: Let the record show that the S.S.O.L. Era peaked in January -- I even commemorated the moment with 3,500 words of critical acclaim -- before losing steam down the stretch and eventually falling to the Spurs for three reasons: The Suns couldn't defend Duncan (no surprise); Nash and Marion had worn down from extended seasons in '05, '06 and '07 (279 games for Nash, 290 games for Marion); and they caught a bad break with the Stoudemire/Diaw suspensions for Game 5. We could argue this one to the death, but I will always believe the Spurs were better; they led five of the six games by 10-plus points in the fourth quarter and executed down the stretch whenever they wanted.

More importantly, this was the season when the Suns entered "no-man's land" stylistically -- they couldn't get stops against a really good team, but they couldn't sustain a breakneck pace for eight months anymore because Nash and Marion were getting older and they didn't have a decent backup point guard (or any young legs, for that matter). Even their one chance to acquire an elite rookie backfired: Heading into the 2007 lottery, they owned the rights to Atlanta's pick but it was top-three protected ... and Atlanta ended up drawing the No. 3 pick. Had they gotten No. 4 or No. 5, potentially, they could have packaged that pick with Marion and Thomas for Kevin Garnett or drafted a blue-chipper as bait for Pau Gasol during the season. Nope. Instead, it was a Spaulding Smails draft: they got nothing and liked it.

But hey, even with the window closing for the S.S.O.L. Era, there was still time for two more crucial mistakes.

Mistake No. 1: Selling the No. 24 pick (Rudy Fernandez) for $3 million to Portland. Of everything Sarver inflicted on the Phoenix fans since 2004, this may have been the biggest slap in the face. You can't play the luxury tax card with Fernandez because he wasn't planning on joining the NBA until 2008 or 2009 at the earliest, so actually it would have been savvy if the Suns drafted him and stashed him in Europe for a year or two. Instead, Sarver basically announced to his fans, "Screw you, I'd rather have the $3 million, I'm taking the cash." Let the record show that, by all accounts, Fernandez would be a top-5 pick in this year's draft after lighting it up in Spain. Can you quantify the damage there? I say no.

Mistake No. 2: By dealing Thomas to Seattle along with two first-round picks (2008 and 2010), they saved about $8 million (plus another $8 million in luxury tax expenses) ... which would have been fine if Seattle didn't eventually waive him so he could get picked up by San Antonio, where he helped beat the Suns in the '08 playoffs and played crunch time in all five games. Even if it was a defensible trade financially, that's what happens when you cut off your nose to spite your face.

2008 SUNS

Relevant Details: 55 wins, 110.1 points per game, 105.0 points allowed, .500 FG%, .393 3FG%, 1,764 3s attempted, lost in first round (San Antonio, five games).

Eight-Man Rotation: Nash (47.0% 3FG), Marion/Shaq, Stoudemire, Diaw, Barbosa (38.9% 3FG), Raja Bell (40.1%) 3FG, Grant Hill, Gordon Giricek's corpse.

Comments: Notice the lack of 3-point shooters? Throw in Marion's declining skills and generally sucky attitude and you could stick a fork in the Seven Seconds or Less Era. That's why I defended the spirit behind the Shaq trade; they weren't winning the title with what they had, so why not roll the dice and hope Shaq could revive his career? It turned out to be a pretty good bet: Shaq played better than anyone expected, and you can't fault Phoenix for losing a could-have-gone-either-way series to one of the best three teams in the NBA.

Why did they fall short? Because they squandered three winnable games down the stretch, all because of execution mistakes that teams tend to make when the players aren't totally comfortable with one another yet. What stood out about the Spurs in Round 1 was their infallibility in big moments -- they knew what to do and where to go, and then they did it. You don't get there by accident; you get there by picking a nucleus and building around it. Back in 2005, the Spurs had the right nucleus (Duncan, Ginobili and Parker) and so did the Suns (Nash, Stoudemire, Marion and Johnson), but only one of those teams kept it intact. And that's why the Spurs won two titles (and counting), and that's why the Suns won the title of "critically acclaimed" and that's it.

One more thing: I don't know Robert Sarver. Never met the guy, never heard anything bad about him, couldn't vouch for his financial situation. For all I know, he's the greatest guy ever. But for the life of me, I can't imagine why someone would want to own an NBA team if he cared more about breaking even than winning a championship. What's the point? Why not sell to someone who cares more about a title? Like so many other NBA fans, I have a pipe dream of stumbling into enough wealth to own an NBA team some day. It will never happen, but really, it's my ultimate pipe dream other than my daughter turning into a world-class tennis player and me turning into one of those deranged Tennis Dads who shows up for every match flashing hand signals and intimidating the judges. Anyway, if I were fortunate enough to own an NBA team, I would never, ever, EVER favor my pockets over a chance at a title. I just wouldn't. It's like going to Vegas for a guy's weekend and refusing to lose more than $100. Why even go then? Just stay home.

For instance, Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck once vowed never to pay the luxury tax like Sarver. When a potential Garnett deal started to take shape this summer, and the Celtics realized that their payroll could climb into the mid 70s (that's millions) once they filled out the roster with free agents and buyout guys, instead of just blindly saying, "Nope, sorry, we can't do this," the Celtics spent an inordinate amount of time figuring out exactly how they'd make that money back through ticket sales, merchandise revenue, corporate sponsorships, 2009 ticket hikes, playoff money, extra courtside seats and everything else. They left no stone unturned. Eventually, the decision was made that the Garnett trade was worth the risk -- they owed it to the fans, and if they couldn't figure out how to capitalize financially on a rejuvenated Celtics franchise in a sports-crazed city that absolutely loved basketball once upon a time, then they had failed as an organization. They made the trade. And if you watch any of the home Celtics playoff games, you'll see Grousbeck sitting underneath the basket next to the visitor's bench. He's the happiest guy in the building.

That could have been Sarver. Could the Suns have done more? Did they leave every stone unturned? Did they maximize the financial potential of those teams? Did they fail as an organization to capitalize on a potential dynasty? Looking at those moves from 2004 to 2007, you'd have to call the Seven Seconds of Less Era one of the memorably squandered opportunities in recent sports history. The thing is, "Pulp Fiction" and "The Wire" didn't need trophies to validate them -- critical acclaim and eternal affection from fans was enough. When you're critically acclaimed in sports, that means you failed in the end ... and those Suns teams did fail. As much as we hate to admit it.

(And now that we have that settled, let's spend the summer figuring out a way to get D'Antoni to Toronto. Jose Calderon, Chris Bosh and all those 3-point bombers dropping 114 points a night with the crazed Raptor Truthers cheering them on? Count me in! Maybe there's life for the S.S.O.L. Era yet.)

CHRIS CONNELLY'S TOP-12 CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED TEAMS OR ATHLETES
(in no particular order)
1. The Air Coryell Chargers
2. 1974 Holland World Cup team
3. 2004-07 Phoenix Suns
4. The Fab Five
5. Rocket Ismail Notre Dame team
6. Gathers/Kimble Loyola Marymount
7. 1975 Red Sox
8. John Misha Petkevich and Michelle Kwan (tie)
9. Late-40s Brooklyn Dodgers
10. Annie Duke
11. 1969 Oakland Raiders
12. Steve Prefontaine

The King loses but the Spurs win

Both the game 7's are in the books and it was a fun couple of days in the NBA. Yesterday's Truth-V-King match-up was well worth the hype. Lebron had 45 in a losing cause as he just could not get past Paul Pierce and the Celtics. It was amazing to watch the King dominate even when he is the only option on offense for the Cavs. The Cavs offense is a mess and it only gets worse when Ben Wallace or Anderson Verajao is on the court. The Cavs are reduced to playing 4-on-5 on offense and that only means the Celtics can triple-team instead of doubling the King. Still the guy goes out and gets 45. Thats how athletic and how strong the guy is. His strength is his biggest strength! The guy can crash into the paint, deal with 3 guys, get fouled and still finish the shot. Thats what helps him dominate.

Kenny and others often point out that LeBron is still not a finished product offensively. He has not acquired a post-up game yet and doesn't really have a mid-range shot either. He either drives hard to the hoop or takes long jumpers and threes. He is still unstoppable because he can drive to the hoop at will and can pass the ball too if stopped on his track. Unique talent, but he needs more talent around him plus a better offensive coach. Coaching is important because he needs someone who can tell him what he should be working on in his off-season as well as run a better offense around him. No wonder the Cavs fans are still pissed with Carlos Boozer. If he was playing next to LeBron (and Z), the Cavs might be championship good.

As for the Celtics, Paul Pierce carried them in game 7. I like his game a lot and I have always thought he is a little under-rated. The guy is basically a 75% LeBron James. Big, strong and a better jump-shooter than LeBron though not as athletic. He is a tough cover and he completely over-shadowed KG and Ray Allen in this game. LeBron gave him a lot of props too after the game. Now the Celts run in to the Pistons and it's going to be an awesome series. The Pistons can take care of this team if the Celtics don't stay focussed. The Celts better be careful at home in the first 2 games. Pistons are coming in for the kill.

In the other game 7 today, the Spurs won their first road game of the series and finished the Hornets off just as I had predicted. It's hard for such young teams to win game 7s. The Spurs are the real deal. They know what they are doing and it's amazing how they out-execute you in critical games. Pop is getting a lot of props finally for good coaching. In this series, he is credited with cutting off the 3-point shooters and letting Chris Paul do his thing with the ball. Peja's reputation of playing small in big games continues as he was completely shut out of this series since game 3. All in all, a great season for the Hornets and CP3, but they need to mature and they probably will. Jannero Pargo carried them late in this game and they need someone else to do the heavy-lifting if CP3 is locked down and not depend on bench guys like Pargo. But when you have CP3 at the point, your future is in good hands.

King in Game 7

Big game 7 tomorrow as the Big Market Boston Celtics host the Big superstar King James. Not sure if this game will live up to the hype, but it's a good match-up for the NBA at this stage. Boston already played a game 7 and this is their second one in 2 rounds. Their complete inability and downright refusal to win on the road is what's resulting in all these game 7s. Based on this, you have to almost say they are not going to win the championship. You can't play 7 tough games in every round and have difficulty winning on the road and hope to beat the Pistons or the Lakers or whoever emerges out of the West. As for tomorrow, I think Boston seals the deal. Cavs have a shot, but beating Boston at home in a game 7 setting after all these years of playoff drought is going to be tough.

But this is the best setting for the King to make a mark. Last year's game 5 at Detroit was amazing and you have to wonder how surreal would it be if he pulls a performance like that in this game 7 at Boston. The entire World will be watching and for him to make plays in this game with the clock running out in the fourth quarter would be another career defining moment. He is probably not going to do this tomorrow because he is having trouble scoring this series. Boston's defense is too good and they have some secret sauce to hold LeBron to 30% shooting. But then again, wasn't Detorit a great defensive team when LeBron walked in to Detroit for game 5 last year? You have to look at this as a game for the ages if you are LeBron James and seize the moment. Let's see what happens and who seizes what moment. Should be fun.

Big win Friday for the Fakers. They went in to Utah - one of the toughest road venues, in a playoffs where road teams have done nothing, and won convincingly. They ripped the hearts out of the Utah Jazz. What was that performance from the Jazz? Did they think they can win just by showing up at home? It looked like they expected the Lakers to take it easy and lose because they had a game 7 at LA. But the Zen-master made sure they came prepared and the Fakers punched the Jazz in the mouth from the start. The Jazz made it close at the end and had a great shot to send it to over-time, but both Okur and D-Will missed potential game-tieing threes. It would be interesting to see where the Jazz go from here. They are a good team, but probably they can't get much better than this in a brutal West. Just like the Suns, they checked out a round earlier than last year and thats never good. Wonder what kind of heat the Jazz faithful puts on Jerry Sloan, if any. As for the Lakers, pretty impressive. Two rounds in the bag and are waiting for the Hornets and the Spurs to sort it out in their game 7 while the mamba heals.

No Road Warriors

Where are all the road warriors in the NBA? The home teams are 20-1 in this second round of the playoffs. Thats amazing to say the least. We all know home court is important, but this important? This is weird. As a comparison, the home team records in the second round last year and the year before were 13-10 and 16-10 respectively. Those numbers are more along the lines of what you would expect. We know home teams will win more than they lose and we also expect home teams to do well in game 7's. But 20-1? Thats strange.

My theory is that this is just a symptom of this year's playoffs featuring a lot of newbies and young teams. The Hornets, Lakers and the Celtics are all new to this dance and so is Orlando, who don't really count anyways. Jazz and Cavs are semi-experienced, though still young and the only veteran teams are the Spurs and the Pistons. Pistons have won the only road game this entire round and the Spurs have not won a road game yet. But that is more because of the Hornets than the Spurs. The Hornets are just unstoppable at home and don't even show up on the road. A classic sign of an young inexperienced team. Even Chris Paul and David West look mediocre on the road and at home, they are so good we might as well give them the MVP award. This youth is the same reason that I don't like these teams in game 7s. But oddly enough, the 3 teams I find vulnerable are all at home if they ever get to game 7. San Antonio might win game 7 on Monday because of their experience or the Hornets might blow them out because they are at home. So something's gotta give.

Speaking of the Hornets, their games at home have been eye-opening in some sense. They seem to completely expose the Spurs and all their weaknesses. The Spurs have been accused of being old and un-athletic many times, but they have looked like it several times this series. It makes me wonder how far behind the Suns are. Aside from the fact that they don't have a coach and Steve Kerr is visiting Detroit to interview Terry Porter, the Suns have never really out-athleted the Spurs the last 4 years. Now the Hornets show us how they do it and you realize 3 things. The Suns don't have this kind of athleticism across the roster on both ends of the floor. Secondly, the Hornets are legit and the Suns can't beat them as constituted even if they ever beat the Spurs . Thirdly, the Hornets are going to be good for a looooong while. CP3 is the real deal and this team will be good as long as he is around. Plus they have more young, athletic and talented pieces to fit around him. The West is getting tougher by the minute folks.

Strap on your seat-belts

The NBA playoffs are finally getting VERY interesting. Almost every single series with the exception of Detroit-Orlando is all tied up at 2-2. The Detroit-Orlando series was probably the least sexy match-up to begin with anyways. The other 3 are all locked and loaded for a fun ride over the next few days. They are all a 3-game series now and anything can happen. I feel like the more experienced, more veteran teams that have been there and done that will have an edge. The short 3-game series is going to be tough on the Hornets, Lakers and even the Celtics for that reason.

Of course the Spurs are a wily, veteran team that has seen all kinds of playoff scenarios and game sixes and game sevens. So I would have to give them the edge over the Hornets. The Jazz and the Cavs are not quite the seasoned champs the Spurs are, but they were exactly at this same situation last year. They went deep into the playoffs and they know how to get to the next round from here. The Lakers and Celtics on the other hand are probably better teams, but they don't look comfortable when the pressure is on. The "other" Lakers are too quick to throw the ball into Kobe and crawl back into their shells. Thats not going to work especially if Kobe's back continues to act up. AK 47 probably can't guard Kobe at 100% (who can?), but he sure can bother him at 75%. Again, it's the young guys like Jordan Farmar and the new guys like Pau Gasol not being comfortable with these situations or with each other yet thats going to hurt the Lakers.

Similar story with the Celtics. The big-3 are not that young, but they are inexperienced playing with each other and with this group of players. They look like they are still figuring out how to play in the clutch. They are horrible on the road and it's inexplicable. The Cavs may be one-dimensional, but they have ridden this LeBron horse all the way to the finals last year and they definitely plan on doing the same this year. Thats why it's not a big deal that they have a new set of players since the trade deadline. Unlike the Lakers and Pau Gasol, all of the new Cavs are just role players. Mike Brown's only offense is still the same - throw the ball to LeBron 30 feet away from the basket and watch what unfolds along with the rest of us watching in the stands and on TV. Horrible to watch unless the King throws it down with authority like he did tonight in the waning minutes to seal the game. What a dunk that was! Anyways, the Cavs will go as far as LeBron takes them on offense and they at least play good defense. Mike Brown seems to have learnt something from coach Pop in San antonio. Boston on the other hand looks lost right now. Lets see if Boston can seal the deal.

Thats my analysis, but they play the actual games for a reason. Anything can happen and strange things probably will happen. Lets strap on the seat-belt and enjoy this ride. The playoffs are finally interesting after a disappointing first round in the West where the match-ups were not quite as good as advertised. Suns gave us all the drama in game 1 against the Spurs, but had nothing left the rest of the way. Now things are heating up for real. Nobody can win on the road and does that mean all the 3 series will go to 7 games? That would be fun to say the least.

350 for Maddux

Greg Maddux finally won his 350-Th game after 4 failed tries and he won it in typical Maddux fashion. He threw just 68 pitches for 6 near-shutout innings and Trevor Hoffman saved the game unlike in the past when he blew a save or 2. I like this milestone for my man Greg because it puts him close to that cheat Roidger Clemens. I always wanted Maddux to retire with more career wins that Clemans and now he is very close. He is just 4 behind Clemens and should get there this season. Congrats Maddux. Great pitcher and a class act. The "professor" is the best.

Clemens on the other hand is being exposed on all fronts. To quote Colin Cowherd from ESPN, "the drywall is off of Clemens house of morality and we see mice and sewage all over the house". Between the roids and his alleged extra-marital affair with 15-year old girls, Clemens is done. He has always been a bully and a thug pretending to be an icon and I never understood why the media kept hyping up this guy. Chris Berman and ESPN need to get a life. Instead of ignoring the NBA and it's stars just because they are black, Chris Berman would do well to start ignoring and stop sucking such phonies like Roger Clemens.

Back to the field. The DBacks are rocking and rolling and doing their best to fill in the void in Phoenix created by the early exit of the Suns. They are 23-15 and leading the division by 3.5. They are widely considered to be one of the best, young teams in the league and some experts have already given them the division. It's way too early for that, but they are looking very good. Danny Haren and Brandon Webb are an amazing 1-2 punch and Micah Owings might be worth the price of admission just as a hitter. My AL team - the As, are not too shabby either once again proving that there is Bily Beane and then there is rest of the league. He can't lose even when he is ready to accept losing. This year was supposed to be a complete re-building year, but here they are leading the division.

Apparently all the talent Billy got from the DBacks for Haren are contributing big-time already. Lets see how long this lasts with these new kids. To be fair, Billy didn't do too well with the Tim Hudson trade - at least not yet, but he has done well with the Mulder trade where he got Danny Haren and now with the Haren trade. Of course his best move might have been letting Barry Zito walk. How stupid do the Giants look for paying him 126 mill over 6 years for bullpen duty! I always thought Tim Hudson was the best pitcher of the Big-3 and that still holds true. The other 2 guys have shockingly disappeared. Moral of the story - never overpay pitchers unless you are loaded with cash like the Yanks or the Bo-Sox.

Gone!

I called it an end of an era after the Suns lost game 3 at home against the Spurs. That notion was formalized today as Mike D'Antoni accepted a 24 mill/4 year deal with the NY Knicks. Interesting hire. The Knicks badly need some excitement and a drastic change and this hire has the potential to do both. D'Antoni will bring excitement and a fun style immediately. The players will play hard initially because the run-and-gun is fun and any NBA player will sign up for it. Now the problem is, they don't have a good team. They do have pieces like Nate Robinson, Quentin Richardson and even Marbury who can play that style, but there are quite a few guys who can't. D'Antoni can't fix this roster or make them winners overnight, but he sure will make things exciting in the Big Apple. Finally we can also get an answer to the question "did Nash make D'Antoni's system or did the system make Nash a 2-time MVP". As for the Suns, not sure where they go now. Wonder if they can get Doug Collins out of his cozy job. I am not so sold on Avery Johnson. Dallas has hired Rick Carlisle and Larry Brown is gone to Charlotte. So it's slim pickings for the Suns. Lets see what Kerr does. This is an important hire.

The playoffs are going on great. You look at how Chris Paul and the Hornets killed San Antonio at home, you realize how far behind the Suns are. The Hornets are no joke. I am a big CP3 fan, but his meteoric ascension to superstardom has been a big surprise to everybody including myself. We knew he would be good, but he is quickly becoming a top-5 talent in the league. He is playing the all-important point guard position and is unstoppable. He can go 30 points and 15 assists at the drop of the hat. He has taken the baton from Steve Nash as the best PG in league. No doubt about that. The PG lineage over the last 10, 12 years is now Stockton-Kidd-Nash-Paul. CP3 reminds people of many great PGs, but the best comparison is actually our own KJ - Kevin Johnson, possible the most under-rated all-star PG of all time. KJ was unstoppable and CP3 looks the same these days. The scary part is, CP3 can't shoot yet. When his jumper improves, you can kiss it goodbye. This Paul-Parker match-up in this series is must-see TV if you like to see laser quick PGs go at each other. The series is at 2-1 and New Orleans would love to steal one in San antonio this Sunday. CP3 has been playing like a MVP all through this post-season and he was my pick for the regular season MVP as well.

Speaking of the MVP, Kobe won it and I can't complain a whole lot. After all, he is THE best player in the league and is playing like a MVP this playoffs too. It feels like he is becoming harder and harder to defend everyday. The Lakers made the Jazz look pedestrian in LA. Luckily for the Jazz, they had a bounce back win in game 3 as Boozer finally woke up and had a 20-20 game. It was about time. Boozer should be able to dominate this series. If the Jazz win game 4, they should be in a good position to steal this series. The Lakers are still a young team and the longer these playoffs prolong, the tougher I think it's going to be for them to finish. I can see them becoming too Kobe-centric and good teams can learn to defend that. The Lakers are hard to beat when they are firing on all cylinders like they have been all season long. So the all-important game 4 is tomorrow. In the East, the Pistons took control of their series and are going back home leading 3-1. In the other, more hyped series, The King has been disappointing as the Celts have bottled him up. The Cavs went back home and won game 3, but the King was still shut down. But the other Cavs stepped up as you always expect at home. Home is friendly to the role players. Plus the Celtics suck on the road for some reason. Until they fix it, they may not be able to truly contend this playoffs. Lets see how they react in game 4.

Avery For D'Antoni ?

The season is over for the Suns. For all the hype about the Western conference playoffs, it's all done in 6 games or less. One sweep, 2 series ending 4-1 and only one going 4-2. Who would have thought both the Suns and the Mavs would be eliminated 4-1 in the first round. Neither team could really win game 5 on the road and force a game 6 at home. The Suns had a great shot, but couldn't close out much like every other Spurs game they play. Surprisingly, Nash screwed up big-time in this one. He turned the ball over thrice with Boris Diaw throwing the ball into the crowd for one more, all in the last 2 minutes. Essentially the Suns threw away both the games at San Antonio. Thats a tough way to win a playoffs series.

The interesting part of game 5 and 6 was the resurgence of Diaw. He started for Hill and did a decent job of defending Tony Parker. I had no idea he could hang with a speedster like Tony. The ball also went repeatedly to him on offense because he was always mismatched with a small guy. Now people are saying he should play at small forward next season and do this every game. In game 6, the ball went repeatedly to him and it was weird to see Diaw being the goto guy on a team with Shaq, Nash and Amare. Nash even suggested that they improvised too much in this game and that why they lost. Nash didn't shoot too well either and that could be because he was not in rhythm all-night since he didn't control the ball as much as he usually does. He had just 7 assists in game 4 and 5 combined. Thats a bad game for the MP3, much less a 2-game stretch. That tells you the Ball went through Diaw a lot more and he surprised everybody with his play. But the Suns still lost and now the question is, what can they do to improve?

All of this brings us to Mike D'Antoni. I thought he'll be gone and Amare talks like he is already gone. But Kerr is still trying to keep him. They had a 2-hour conversation today and apparently they are going to meet again next week for more. Mark Cuban has already fired Avery and apparently he would love to have D'Antoni though Nowitzki has come out and said he doesn't want another Don Nelson type system. Interesting. But Chicago and Toronto are also in the mix and they say D'Antoni likes the Chicago situation a lot. So he is really not under a lot of pressure. If D'Antoni gets fired, the Suns might be interested in Avery making this a unique situation where we have the coaches swapped. It will be wild, though I don't think it'll actually happen. Anyways, I wouldn't mind if Kerr changes the coach. I don't mind if Mike D'Antoni returns either. But he definitely has to develop and use a bench. I know there will be a lot of talk about defense, but bench to me is number 1 and defensive intensity, strategy and effort comes next.

I am sick of the Suns starters getting worked to their bones all season and hence declining in the playoffs with fatigue and sore body parts. Seems to happen to Nash every year. Not using the bench is a double-whammy. You end up not developing a good bench to replace your starters if they get injured or suspended or whatever and you weaken your starters physically to the point you need to use the bench (which you didn't develop). You also need a bench to give a different look once in a while. D'Antoni has to solve this issue for sure. Lets see what happens with Kerr and him. In the East, Boston of all the teams is playing a game 7 on Sunday. Atlanta has managed to win all their home games and the Celtics don't look all that invincible right now. The Pistons looked shaky, but woke up and wrapped up the series eventually. Orlando won and Cleveland wrapped up the series at Washington after losing game 5 at home. "Over-rated" LeBron had a triple double while I guess DeShawn Stevenson, who called him over-rated, had a good time at the post-game buffet table. Lakers start their series against the Jazz on Sunday and should be a great series. Hopefully it may even go to 6 games! There are reports leaking that Kobe has won the MVP award. Good for him.

CP3 for MVP

The NBA playoffs are in full swing and the Western first rounds are all actually at the brink of elimination while Boston and Detroit are tanged up at 2-2 in both their series. Orlando eliminated Toronto and Lakers took care of Denver. But surprisingly the other 3 western series are all at 3-1 with San Antonio and New Orleans going back home. The marquee match-ups have not lived up to the hype. The only thing that can spice things up is if the Suns take this series back to Phoenix. They are playing game 5 in the Alamo tomorrow night after crushing them at home yesterday. Dallas has had problems against the Hornets and I would be surprised if this series goes back to Dallas. That foul by J-Kidd yesterday on Jannero Pargo was really bad. I am surprised Kidd wasn't suspended. That would have sealed the Mavs fate who are having all kinds of problem defending Chris Paul even with Kidd.

Speaking of CP3, the hottest debate in the NBA is about who's going to win the MVP - Kobe or CP3. My vote is for CP3. Kobe is the best player in the league. But he has an awesome team. Kobe has been in the midst of the prime of his career for the last 2 or 3 years and I don't think he has been any better this year than the last 2 if not 3 or 4 years. He just has a much better record than in the past because Andrew Bynum exploded this season. The other Lakers youngsters improved dramatically this season as well. Plus they added Pau Gasol, an all-star caliber player. You shouldn't even call Pau, Lamar and Bynum as Kobe's "supporting cast". They are much, much more than that. Chris Paul has quite a bit of talent (Peja, Chandler, David West) around him as well but it's not Laker good. Plus he makes his teammates go much more than Kobe. Kobe is getting a lot of credit for making his teammates better, but the teammates have gotten better all by themselves. All Kobe has done this season is that he has given up a few shots and not hogged the ball like he usually does.

Again, Kobe is the best player in the league, but to me there are 2 criterion for the MVP award. One, is your team an elite team? If your team can't win enough games with you, how can you be the MVP of the entire league? You are barely contributing to your team. Secondly, can your team win without you? in other words, how indispensable are you for your team? This is why I supported Nash winning 2 back-to-back MVPs and wouldn't have minded him winning another one last year and even be in the running for this year's MVP if only the Suns were ranked in the top 4in the West. Kobe actually scores high on both accounts, but so does CP3. I would rank CP3 just a little higher in the "indispensable" scale. Plus Kobe has much better talent around him like I said earlier. So CP3 is my MVP. Lot of journalists are openly saying they voted for Kobe more as a "lifetime achievement" award. Kobe, for all his talents, has never won the MVP and this is bothering some people. He probably could have won a MVP or two in the past if only the talent around him was any better, but he never made them any better until this year and this year, the talent is just way too good for me to give Kobe all the credit.

So I vote for CP3.

End of an Era

Suns' embarrassing, blow-out loss at home against the Spurs on Friday when the Spurs led start-to-finsh was more than just a loss. It could be an end of an era - a glorious era at that. The last 4 years have been the best Suns basketball, may be even the best basketball I have ever seen. Mike D'Antoni and Nash brought an unique and refreshing new style to town that captured everybody's imagination. It was run and gun and all fun. But the Spurs ruined it for all of us. They just played better defense and time and again proved that their style is better than the Suns as far as winning championships go. The Suns just could not solve the Spurs riddle. They realized they couldn't do it this year either and thats why they got Shaq. It looked good for a while as the Suns dominated the Spurs in both the games they played since the trade. The playoffs looked good for the Suns as well until very late in to game 1. But after that ridiculous ending to the first game of this series, the Spurs have resurrected and are handling the Suns and Shaq pretty easily.

So clearly nothing is working against the Spurs. D'Antoni is not working. Nash and the run-and-gun is not working. Amare and Barbosa and Diaw and Shaq aren't working either. They could actually get swept. How shocking is that! They are still second to the Spurs but the problem is, you can't even say they are second only to the Spurs. The Spurs have always been the best team in the league and the Suns were right behind. The Suns are still behind, but a few teams might have over-taken the Spurs, with "might" being the operative word. Lakers, Boston and even the Hornets and the Jazz could potentially beat the Spurs. Some people are saying the Suns may miss the playoffs next season. Thats how ugly things are right now.

So the Suns have to rebuild and reload and retool. It starts with the coach in this case. I am not one of those guys who wants the coach fired after every loss. We live in an era of instant gratification these days where fans want results immediately. You can't blame them because they are paying a tonne of money for their tickets and why should they put up with mediocrity? They also have 100 different channels to watch if their team is losing on TV. There is way too much money involved in sports and with the GMs and coaches making millions, they just can't hold on to their jobs for 4 or 5 years without improving and moving in the right direction towards a championship. So Mike D'Antoni has to go. This firing won't even be one of those "this is the culture in the NBA (and our society) these days. We are impatient and coaches get fired too soon" thing. This firing would actually be fair in some sense because Mike is a very special coach who runs a very unique system and this system has been shown to be in-effective against the Spurs 3 out of 4 years (including this one). So you got to change. I would be very surprised if D'Antoni comes back as the Suns coach next year. I am one of the biggest D'Antoni fan. I am sure he will have a job-offer within hours because he can build a fun team like no other. Chicago and Toronto are probably already waiting for the Suns to fire him. He is an excellent asset to an organization that doesn't have championship expectations unlike the 07 Suns. Thats exactly why he did so well with the 04 and 05 Suns.This team is not getting any younger and the Suns don't have a lot of cap-room. This roster can be tweaked, but not changed a whole lot. So I can't see how the Suns can go into next season with the same set of players and the same coach. That dog aint gonna hunt. Steve Kerr has to make a move and I think he will.

It'll be a sad day for me and the Suns and the NBA when that happens because Mike-D re-invented a style of play in the NBA that was 100 times more watch-able than the style that was in vogue the previous 15 years. Along with Steve Nash, he created poetry in motion and many teams copied parts of it to speed up the game. NBA was looking good again. Unfortunately defense wins championship and this Suns team with real bad defenders in Nash, Barbosa and Diaw and a semi-decent Amare was never going to get it done in the playoffs against the Spurs. The Spurs on the other hand consistently shut the Suns down by making sure their defenders stayed with the 3-point shooters and with Bowen locking up Nash. No meaningful adjustments from the Suns and if Nash is cut off, this offense is done. They probably can't even beat a San Antonio high school team without Nash. Thats the other problem with this system - there is none. It's basically Nash running and dishing or probing and figuring out what to do in half-court. When Bowen cuts him off, it's game over for the Suns. Plus Nash is also getting exposed defensively as Parker is killing him. Good young athletes like Shawn Marion and Joe Johnson are no longer with the Suns and hence Nash is getting exposed on defense even more.

Speaking of Joe Johnson, one has to wonder how much of this is Robert Sarver's fault? While we were all happy to see how good Diaw was when he was new in town and excited about the high draft pick that Atlanta gave us, it's clear now Diaw is no Joe Johnson. Plus Atlanta has won one more game than the Suns this off-season as of today and that means that high pick the Suns get next year, is not that high after all. That sucks big-time. All this because Robert Sarver didn't make the right financial decision on Joe Johnson. You think Suns can use Joe Johnson in this series? Do you think Bowen guards Nash if Joe was on the roster? Do you think Nash gets exposed so much on D if either Joe or Matrix is in this roster? How about Sarver also trading all his top picks the last few years to cut salary? You telling me these Suns can't use Luol Deng, Nate Robinson, Rajon Rando and Sergio Rodriguez? When things go fine like it did the last few years, we tend to forget these bad decisions. But when we get (almost) swept in the first-round, they all come back to haunt us. I am beginning to think this may be one of the worst managed franchises the last few years which has had one of the best records in the NBA not because of it's front-office and ownership, but inspite of them! These fools have shot this team for the next few years. They have taken a young, championship caliber team and made it a old, over-the-hill team in 3 years.

Congrats Sarver. You deserve to be swept. But the Suns should win one for the fans on Sunday and I am pretty sure they will.

Must-Win

Steve Nash put it best. Game 1 was a kick in the groin, game 2 was a punch in the mouth. That 3-Rd quarter in game 2 was terrible for the Suns. It was deja vu all over again with a strong dose of history repeating itself. It looked awfully familiar to Suns fans who have seen the Suns play and mostly lose to the Spurs 3 of the last 4 playoffs including the current series. The more things change with Shaq and stuff, the more things stay the same. The Spurs turned on the defensive heat. Bruce Bowen harassed Nash and neutralized him. The Suns were lost without Nash dominating. Spurs also managed to shut off Amare, which is something nobody has done for a couple of months including these Spurs in the first half of this very game. Suns were sloppy, ineffective and looked over-matched as they scored just 11 points in that 3-Rd quarter.

How do you score 35 in the first and just 11 in the 3-Rd? Thats exactly the problem with this team - inconsistency at both end of the floor. Especially against good teams like the Spurs, the Suns rarely play well at both ends of the floor at the same time. They are defensively bad most of the time, but if they suck offensively, they at least try harder on defense. But then when the offense is flowing, they just slack off on defense and let Parker and Ginobli drive to the hoop all day. Nash's 23-10 doesn't look that impressive if you consider the fact he gave up 32-7 to Tony Parker. Nash gets killed on the defensive end. It's sad, but it's true. Now on to game 3 on Friday. This is the definition of a must-win game. Lets see if the Suns pull it off.

As for the other series, West is not turning out to be as good as expected because the Hornets are killing the Mavs and Lakers are killing the Nuggets. Mavs and Nuggets may play better at home, but they are not looking too good right now. Of course both these teams are dealing with potential MVP candidates in Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul. Kobe had 49 and 10 dimes the other day and CP3 had a 32-5-17 game 2. Ridiculous numbers from both these guys and they are killing their opponents. After all, looks like the top 3 teams in the West are the top-3 for a reason. Though they were not too many games ahead of the lower ranked teams, they are handling them well in the playoffs. Of course, none of this matters if you don't win on the road. The top teams are going on the road and the real fun starts now. Houston went on the road and won 94-42 after losing 2 at home. Thats a weird one where the home team has lost all 3 games. Utah still should win game 4 and wrap this series up sooner than later. In the L-East, LeBron and the Cavs were crushed in Washington today. Game 4 is now very important for the King and the Cavs. Same with Orlando against Toronto. Boston and Detroit should win game 3 on the road.

Tragic ending to a great drama.

Game 1 of the Suns-Spurs was much better than advertised. Thats saying something considering the Western playoffs this year has been hyped by everybody including your truly in this blog. Still, this game surpassed all expectations. It was played at such a high-level, it was gripping drama start-to-finish. Tim Duncan said it felt like a Finals game. Even Chris Paul talked about this game in his post-game presser. Jon Barry says this is the best playoff game he has ever seen. Thats all well and good and I enjoyed it every bit of the way except for the ending. My Suns lost!

The Suns lost after leading by 16 in the first half, 9 in the 4-Th quarter and by 5 in the first OT. Suns lost despite taking the last shot in both regulation and OT. Barbosa and Diaw missed those, and unfortunately, Ginobli wouldn't miss his last shot in the 2-Nd OT after Nashty tied it for the Suns with a ridiculous fade-away 3! Suns lost because the Spurs tied it in regulation and then in OT with 3 pointers from Michael Finley and then by Tim Duncan. Are you kidding me? Tim Duncan hits his first 3 of the season to tie a playoff game against the Suns in OT. Mike D'Antoni's reaction was classic, but you can't leave him that open whether or not you think he can hit a 3.

Speaking of Mike D'Antoni, I think he was a big part of this loss. I am not one of those fans who blames the coach after every loss, but D'Antoni needs to get his act together. I am done with this guy's "man-love" for Barbosa and Diaw. As a Suns fan, I like these guys as much as anybody, especially Barbosa who is a great guy and a terrific player. Diaw has not been the same player he was 2 years back and he has been inconsistent to say the least, but he actually played a great game against the Spurs. But D'Antoni should stop putting the ball in these guys hands at the buzzer like Barbosa is Dwayne Wade and Diaw is freakin LeBron James. When you have Nash, Amare (in regulation) and Shaq why is the ball going to anybody else? Why put the ball in Diaw's hands with 3 seconds to go when this guy is known to pass up open lay-ups and kick the ball out to a team-mate in the corner. What's he gonna manufacture in 3 seconds? Draw up some freakin play for Nash, your lunch ticket.

Also the Suns defense sucked like it always has under D'Antoni. Tony Parker and Ginoble got to the rim at will. Parker single-handedly brought them back in the second quarter when they fell behind 16 as Nash or Barbosa couldn't stay in front of him. Later in the OT, when Shaq was in foul trouble and Amare was already fouled out, Ginobli just had a red-carpet to the rim as he kept driving left. I hate to admit it, defense wins such games and the Spurs got the stops they needed while the Suns couldn't. The Suns make so many mistakes on defense, Popovich will probably shoot somebody during the game if he was coaching this team. Coaching is a huge factor in such games and Pop once again showed why he is so good. When Nash hit the 3 late to tie the game in second OT, the Spurs had just a few seconds to setup a game winning play. But Pop put the ball in Manu's hands and let him run because he knew Shaq was on the bench for offense and if he took a timeout, D'Antoni would put Shaq back in. So Pop wanted his offense to go against the midgets that were on the floor for the Suns at that time and it worked perfectly as Ginobli got a game-winning layup with nobody protecting the paint.

Sad ending to a great game. I am not sure if the Suns can come back and win game 2. They are a resilient team and they need all of their resiliency in game 2. Nash and Amare will come back with a vengence, but will the role players do anything to help? Nash played a great game. The 3 at the end was unbelievable, but he was good the entire second half and the OTs. Bowen didn't play extended minutes in this game for whatever reason and I think Nash was the beneficiary. Apart from that one possession late in the game when the suns had a shot-clock violation, Nash was on-point. But in a game like this, these mistakes stick out as Suns just could not close out the leads they had at various points. Amare was awesome, but he fouled out. Shaq was in foul trouble too. Thats one complaint I had with this game. The refs have to let these guys play. One of the early offensive foul called on Shaq was garbage and it probably changed the complexion of this game, at least for Shaq. There are way too many floppers in the Spurs lineup and the refs just keep giving them what they want.

In any case, I can't wait for game 2.This is exactly the kind of excitement we expected from this year's West.

Playoff Preview

The NBA playoffs are here and the Western lineup is looking awesome right now. The only problem I see is that the projected Western Finals match-up - Suns-V-Spurs is now a first round match-up instead. This is both a sign of how tough the West is a well as how these 2 teams may not be the best in the West to deserve a finals match-up. It kinda sucks for me to admit that teams like the Lakers and may be even the Hornets and Jazz are as good, if not better than the Suns and the Champion Spurs. This means the potential path to the Finals for the Suns is Spurs-Hornets-Lakers. Thats brutal, but it could easily be Spurs-Dallas-Utah as well. I can definitely see Utah beating the Lakers if they meet each other. Same with any other Western match-up. West is just that crazy.

Here are my predictions for the first round. I'll start with the top match-up of the first round - Suns-Spurs. I think with Shaq the Suns are clearly a load to handle for the Spurs. The Suns are 3-1 against the Spurs this season and they are one of the few top teams that the Suns have a winning record against. Clearly this is an important match-up for the Suns and the Shaq move helps them more against the Spurs than any other team in the league. So I pick them to win 4-3. This won't be a cake-walk for sure, especially without home-court, but I really think the Suns can pull this out if they play smart. Nash should play smart. Bowen will make it hard for him on offense and he should make the right decisions. He is the head of the snake and he needs to guide us through this. Amare should stay out of foul trouble. The rest of it will fall in place if Nash and Amare take care of business. I am picking the Suns in 7.

Kobe is back on top as the first seed and it's an amazing rise for the Lakers. They run into AI, Melo and the Nuggets. This is a very sexy match-up on paper and it'll be a prime-time affair, but the Lakers should take it easily. I say 4-1. Dallas-New Orleans is another fascinating match-up. A little bit of an "has-been" versus "wannabe" here as the Mavs used to be where the Hornets are this season. I think the Hornets can handle Dallas though the experience of the Mavs could be a huge factor here. Also Nowitzki has been ballin like a mad-man since he came back from injury. But CP3 is too good and Chris Paul takes his team home in 6 games - 4-2. Utah and Houston will renew there rivalry from last season again when this was an interesting, 7 game first round series. Houston started hot, but T-Mac got bumped out of the first round at the end. Same story here. It should even be easier this year for the Jazz because there is no Yao and the Jazz have been untouchable at home recently. Jazz win 4-1. At least they should, but they might take 6 games. I am not under-estimating the Rockets, but I can't see them beating the Jazz especially with Rafer Alston banged up.

Do I even have to talk about the L-Eastern playoffs? Can't we just cancel the first 2 rounds and start with the Celtics-Pistons finals? We can't because then we will miss watching the King. LeBron James is the wild-card like none other in these playoffs. This guy will single-handedly decide whether or not the Cavs get eliminated in the first round, or go all the way to the finals. Talent-wise, the trash-talking Gilbert Arenas and the rest of the Wizards are probably better. They sure can beat the Cavs, but who can stop LeBron if he has one of those nights? And the way he has been playing this season, he can have 3 of those nights in a seven game stretch and then you got no hope. The Wizards have a lot of talent in Gil, Butler and Twan, but can the sum of these parts exceed the total package that is King James! I say no. Cleveland takes it 4-3. Toronto-Orlando is also an interesting series, but Toronto will fail again in it's quest to go past the first round. D12 and Hedo are too much for Bosh and gang to handle. Magic takes it 4-2. Detroit and Boston should sweep Philly and Atlanta respectively, but Detroit has this habit of sleep-walking for a game or 2 in the playoffs. So I say 4-1 Detroit. But Boston is too focussed and hungry. They get the only sweep of this playoffs.

Let the games begin.

Are you ready for some playoffs?

This is something you hear every year around this time - "I can't wait for the NBA playoffs. This year's Western playoffs should be awesome!". This has been the case for more than 5 years now, but this year's Western playoffs are gonna be off-the-hook. This set of Western teams have taken things to HNL ('hole 'nother 'level). With just 2 days to go in the regular season, the situation at the top is still as fluid as ever. Just 2 games separate teams 1-6. Teams 1-3 are separated by just 1 game and 4-6 by another game. It's wild and of course I am not too happy since the Suns are merely a 6-th seeded team though they are just 2 behind the leader.

Just today Denver clinched the 8-Th seed as the Warriors lost to the Suns and got eliminated. The Warriors will be the first team in 16 years to have won 48 games and still miss the big dance. Thats amazing if you consider that the teams in the West also have a tougher schedule and still have managed so many wins. They have beat each other up with almost every team in the top 9 beating up every other team throughout the season. Of course, these teams were all way better than the Eastern teams and hence won their share of the match-ups against the JV league to post impressive win totals.

In stark contrast, Atlanta is in the playoffs in the L-East with an impressive 37-43 record. While 7 games separate the top 8 teams in the West, Atlanta is a good 27.5 games behind the L-East leading Boston. If you are into under-dogs and upsets, you should be pulling for Atlanta big-time because rarely do such bad teams get a shot in the playoffs. Despite this situation in the L-East, I have the utmost respect for the top teams there. I consider both Boston and Detroit as legitimate contenders with LeBron being the wild-card.

Boston has 65 wins and thats something. They got the big 3 and they play incredible defense. It's amazing how winning is contagious and 70% of all of sports (may be even life) is confidence. The role players in this team play so well and with so much energy and confidence, you wonder why did the same guys suck so bad last year. Of course they didn't have a MVP candidate in KG and Ray Allen, but even individually, the fringe players are playing real well. And of course Detroit is Detroit. They are as good as ever and this time, they won't let LeBron destroy them single-handedly. A Boston-Detroit Eastern Finals should be almost as good as any Western match-up this year.

Coming back to the West, I can't even talk about match-ups yet because nothing is set. But everybody is saying that anything can happen and even if the 8-Th seed beats the 1-St, that wouldn't even be considered an upset. Thats how close things are. As for the Suns, they still are up and down. They had a bad loss to the Mavs 2 weekends back and then against Houston sand-witched around another impressive win against the Spurs. The Shaq trade is working just as planned against the Spurs. I think the Suns can actually beat the Spurs in the playoffs. The Spurs can't handle both Amare and Shaq. This is what the trade was for and it's working as intended. But the problem is, there might be a couple of teams like the Lakers who might be better than both the Suns and Spurs. The Lakers killed the Spurs last weekend and it was shocking to watch. Considering all this, the Suns with no home-court can lose either in the first-round or go all the way.

Bottom-line, nobody knows what's going to happen in the wild, wild West.

Rock-chalk Jayhawk

It's been a few days since the NCAA championship game, but I still had to blog about it. Thats because of 2 reasons. It was one of the best championship game I have ever seen and secondly, it helped me win the bracket! I am more of a pro-guy than a college guy and hence I am neither good nor lucky with the brackets usually. But this year, I went in to the final game all tied and the thrilling Kansas win put me on top.

John Calipari has been defending his team's poor free throw shooting all-season. How ironic that it came back to haunt him at the worst possible time. His team never paid for it's poor performance at the line all-season and actually did much better during the tournament making coach Cal look good with his theories about free throw shooting. But then came the crucial late stretch in the title game and they couldn't hit anything from the line. They let a 8 point lead melt away rather easily in the final minutes. This tiger just could not change it's stripes. On top of that, Cal also seemed to mismanage the last possession on D. With the Jayhawks trailing by 3, he could have just fouled them. Instead Mario Chalmers nailed the 3 and sent the game into OT.

Once it went to OT, you know it was over. Memphis had come from ahead to tie and it was only a matter of time before they lost. A crushing game for Cal and Memphis. I wouldn't be surprised if Coach Cal still has trouble sleeping after this loss. The winning coach, Bill Self, is the biggest beneficiary of this game. No more questions about him and he has done something that even Roy Williams couldn't do in Lawrence. Speaking of Roy Williams, not sure how the NC fans view him wearing a Kansas patch to the game. That was definitely weird. It would have been half-way acceptable if he had not lost to them in the semi-final game. Back to Self. Oki state was already coming hard after him with a tonne of money and he should now feel like he is on top of the World. He did say "NO" to Oki state, but he is expecting Kansas fans will embrace him completely now.

Final 2

This year's NCAA tournament has not been blessed with many close games since the sweet 16 weekend. The games are always fun and interesting because this time of the year is all about college hoops, but the nail-biters have been missing since last week. The Final 4 was no different. It's a really interesting match-up when you got all 4 number 1's lined up. You never know which number is better than which other number one. Memphis looked like they were way better than the UCLA bruins. I was surprised how ordinary UCLA looked against this team. The Tigers are a beast. Calipari had done a great job at Memphis. This guy recruits like a mother. They are loaded with great athletes and they look like a NBA team in disguise the way they run up and down the court and finish the breaks.

Derrick Rose, CDR and Joey Dorsey were too much to handle for UCLA. Dorsey was a factor even without scoring a point. They defended real well and zoned up on Kevin Love. He rarely saw the ball and when he did, had to settle for long jumpers. They locked up Love and gambled on the rest of the Bruins and won the game rather easily. CDR was all over the place and Derrick Rose is the real deal. This quote from John Calipari might be the quote of the tournament. When asked about Derrick Rose going to the NBA next year, Calipari said "if he wants to do what's right for him and his family, he'll go pro. If he wants to do what's right for me and my family, he'll stay". Thats awesome. Rose will be a huge factor in the finals on Monday and might win the MVP of the final 4 when all is said and done.

The other game had a weird start and an weird end and was even weirder in-between. Before people could settle into their seats, North Carolina was down 40-12! People were like "what in the name of Dean Smith is goin on here?" Nothing went right for the heels and Kansas took it to them with tremendous energy and effort. Kansas was all over the place and it looked like they had their hands on every one of NC's passes. Turnovers helped them race to this huge lead and then the game settled down in to a more normal flow. Suddenly Kansas was stuck at 40 as NC started a long-drawn comeback. The heels got all the way back to within 4 points from 28 down and it was an amazing sight. I think Bill Self would have been fired right there if Kansas lost this game. Finally Kansas woke up and went on another big run to win the game 84-66. I have never seem such wild fluctuations in a game quite like this.

So now we have a great championship game between Memphis and Kansas, though the TV channels might have preferred a UCLA-NC finals. We got 2 great teams with a lot of talent and athleticism, and not afraid to play up-tempo, that will go at each other at full-tilt. I think Memphis gets it done. Calipari and Derrick Rose seem too focussed and committed to let this one slip away. I expect a close game. Or who knows, the game could be 40-12 after just 8 minutes.

Jury still out on Shaq.

The jury is still out on the Shaq trade for the most part. Things are looking much better than it did during his first 2 weeks with the Suns, but they still are not quite the World-beaters they need to be to get out of the brutal West. He has gelled really well and is putting up more than decent numbers. He doesn't want the ball and ignites quite a few fast-breaks just like he said he would. There are not too many chemistry issues on the court and the Suns rarely get out-rebounded badly these days, which is a a big difference from the last 3 plus seasons. Despite all this, the Suns are not considered a favorite at this point. They still lose to real good teams. They lost to both the Pistons and the Celtics on the road recently and split the home-and-away with Denver. Those 2 Denver games were awesome, especially the first one when they came back from a 19 point half-time deficit. That win had a potential to be a season-changer much like the Spurs win a few weeks earlier if only the Suns didn't lose the very next day at Denver in another close, high-scoring contest. As of now, even I can't tell you where the Suns really stand. The pecking order in the West changes daily and you would think getting in to the top-4 would be very good for any team because of the home-court.

But if I look closely at the standings, I don't mind it the way it stands today with the Hornets, Spurs, Lakers, Jazz and the Suns at 5. The Jazz are pretty much locked in at 4 because they'll win the division. This means the Suns get in the top 4 only if the Lakers, Spurs or the Hornets drop out. They probably won't catch the Spurs or the Hornets since they are 2 games behind with just 7 games to go. They still can potentially get past the Lakers and get to 3. This means they meet Houston and then the Spurs and probably the Lakers. Thats brutal, though the Suns will beat the Rockets easily. Now if they stay at 5, playing Utah with no home-court will be hell, but the good part is, Spurs and the Lakers will take care of each other. This means the Suns will play the inexperienced Hornets in the second round and have to face either the Spurs or the Lakers in the Western Finals. Granted, the Suns are 0-4 against the Hornets, but some people like the Chuckster are saying the Hornets may even lose in the first round if they play Denver or something. It's never easy in the West, but to me a Utah-New Orleans-San Antonio route sounds better than any route that features both San Antonio and LA.