SL Game Day: Suns (1-0) @ Mavs (1-0), Sun 7/9/17

[EDC]

We had a shot at a championship. It wasn't a great shot but who knows who else we could have added if we wouldn't have blown up that team.
We can't even sniff the playoffs now but then we blew up a very good playoff team.

New York got two really good years out of Amare.

This comes back to the fact that some people around here seriously underrate Amare. Him and Nash are the best two players we have had since Barkley and KJ. We just gave one of them away while they were still a killer duo.

Absolutely insane. We rehash this because people were so worried about our damn cap space. Like we had any chance of completely reloading after losing Amare without any down years.

[specialsauce]

Hey guys, miss me?

[Mori Chu]

We had a shot at a championship. It wasn't a great shot but who knows who else we could have added if we wouldn't have blown up that team.
We can't even sniff the playoffs now but then we blew up a very good playoff team.

New York got two really good years out of Amare.

Actually, they got exactly one good year out of him.

http://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/172 ... stoudemire

In 2010-11 he was awesome for them, averaging 25.3 points and 8.2 reb in 36.8 minutes a game. Then he got hurt.
In 2011-12 he averaged only 17.5 points and never even matched that mark again in his career. He was done.

You wanted to max him out, paying $100m and tie up our cap for 5 full seasons for a guy with shot knees who our medical staff advised us not to sign to a long-term deal? For what ended up being 1 year of great production, 1 year of mediocrity, and 3 years of bad play (the last of which they just released him and let him go to Miami)?

This comes back to the fact that some people around here seriously underrate Amare. Him and Nash are the best two players we have had since Barkley and KJ. We just gave one of them away while they were still a killer duo. Absolutely insane. We rehash this because people were so worried about our damn cap space. Like we had any chance of completely reloading after losing Amare without any down years.

I don't underrate Amare. He was an exceptional player. The Amare-Nash-Marion years were among the best in our franchise history. Amare was an amazing scorer and was an offensive player you could build a championship contender around. I still remember him almost single-handedly beating the Spurs in their prime in a first-round playoff series. I remember him being so important to us that losing him for a game swung another playoff series against those same Spurs in 2007. I remember how much I loved that 2010 team with Nash, Amare, Grant Hill, J-Rich, RoLo, Dudley, Frye, Dragic, Barbosa, and Amundson (damn what a team that was!). I miss 2005-2010 so freaking much as a Suns fan it hurts. I didn't forget Amare, not at all. Ring of Honor player and all-time great Sun.

But we were right not to max him out at that point in his career, given his injuries. I don't know how you can say otherwise when he went on to blow his legs out literally one year after he signed that max deal. How can you say we did the wrong thing when you look at how badly the rest of his career went? We made a brilliant decision to let go of him when we did. Exceptional restraint in avoiding committing long-term money to a broken, flawed asset that was about to crater in value.

[EDC]

Maybe you don't underrate him but there were many people here who rated the 05-06 teams as their favorite of the SSOL era. Which blows my mind.

You say we have to take into account his injuries when looking back but we don't have to take into account the way we spent the money we saved on him.

You can argue at the time the risk wasn't worth it but at the same time we blew up a championship contender on the chance that he would end up injured. Maybe that next year we would have avoided the Spurs till the conference finals. Who knows maybe we could have pulled it off.

How many years would you give up for a championship? I will say after watching the Suns for a good while that if you have a shot at a championship you need to take it because who knows when you will get another shot. A few years of rebuilding with a gimped Amare wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world.

I just don't think you can definitively say that it was for sure the right decision. That assumes that there was no way there could have been a positive outcome to us resigning him.

Throw in the fact that maybe Nash and Amare would have retired here. That would mean we would never have gotten those Laker picks. Which would have saved us from the likes of Archie Goodwin, Tyler Ennis, and Brandon Knight.

[Indy]

Yes, 05-06 was my favorite of that era because of how well the team played above expectations after losing Amare.

[ShelC]

The 05-06 team was closer to the current Warriors team than any of the other 7SOL teams IMO. All our guys were high IQ, offensively potent, mostly above average defenders. We just didn't have a lot of depth and lost Raja and KT in the playoffs. But Nash, Raja, Shawn, Boris, KT, LB, Tim Thomas...a lot of versatility and skill with those guys.

[Indy]

The versatility is what I loved. Seeing smart basketball being played at nearly every position, 9 guys deep... it was wonderful.

[iLLmatic]

That was a great year, feels like it was so long ago though. Didn't Eddie House score 50 that year?

[Ring_Wanted]

Nah, you must be confused with Tony Delk. House's career best is 35.

[iLLmatic]

Nah, you must be confused with Tony Delk. House's career best is 35.

I remember that game against Sacramento, it went into OT iirc.

[AmareIsGod]

Maybe you don't underrate him but there were many people here who rated the 05-06 teams as their favorite of the SSOL era. Which blows my mind.

You say we have to take into account his injuries when looking back but we don't have to take into account the way we spent the money we saved on him.

You can argue at the time the risk wasn't worth it but at the same time we blew up a championship contender on the chance that he would end up injured. Maybe that next year we would have avoided the Spurs till the conference finals. Who knows maybe we could have pulled it off.

How many years would you give up for a championship? I will say after watching the Suns for a good while that if you have a shot at a championship you need to take it because who knows when you will get another shot. A few years of rebuilding with a gimped Amare wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world.

I just don't think you can definitively say that it was for sure the right decision. That assumes that there was no way there could have been a positive outcome to us resigning him.

Throw in the fact that maybe Nash and Amare would have retired here. That would mean we would never have gotten those Laker picks. Which would have saved us from the likes of Archie Goodwin, Tyler Ennis, and Brandon Knight.

100 million dollars for one more great year before he blew his knees again? Are you kidding me? Did you read Mori's post? How can you be okay with that after seeing his health decline immediately after signing that max contract?

[iLLmatic]

Maybe I'm thinking of his jersey number, I don't know.

[Superbone]

Nah, you must be confused with Tony Delk. House's career best is 35.

I remember that game against Sacramento, it went into OT iirc.

I just remember that we lost.

[ShelC]

Delk had 53 one game I remember. Eddie House was our "closer" the first month or so of the season. He was literally winning us games in the 4, then cooled off and really became a non-factor unfortunately. Man, he could shoot it tho. Quickest release I've ever seen.

[Big Jake Little Jake]

Since apparently we're going down memory lane now in this thread, does anyone else think we win a championship in 04-05 if Q could hit a three pointer against the Spurs? In my memory, he was bricking every open look he had. Brent Barry completely outproduced him.

[Indy]

Since apparently we're going down memory lane now in this thread, does anyone else think we win a championship in 04-05 if Q could hit a three pointer against the Spurs? In my memory, he was bricking every open look he had. Brent Barry completely outproduced him.

I don't think we were ever as close as it felt.

[ShelC]

I think we were. If JJ is healthy, if Raja and KT are healthy, if Amar'e and Boris aren't suspended we're getting at least one. Hell if we grab a defensive rebound against Lakers maybe we go to the Finals in 2010.

[Indy]

I think we were. If JJ is healthy, if Raja and KT are healthy, if Amar'e and Boris aren't suspended we're getting at least one. Hell if we grab a defensive rebound against Lakers maybe we go to the Finals in 2010.

There is no way we beat the Spurs the year JJ was hurt. We weren't close. I do agree that we might have made the finals in 2010, but not sure we would have beat Boston. I think the closest was 2006. If we get out of the west, we would have killed Miami.

[Big Jake Little Jake]

I think we were. If JJ is healthy, if Raja and KT are healthy, if Amar'e and Boris aren't suspended we're getting at least one. Hell if we grab a defensive rebound against Lakers maybe we go to the Finals in 2010.

There is no way we beat the Spurs the year JJ was hurt. We weren't close. I do agree that we might have made the finals in 2010, but not sure we would have beat Boston. I think the closest was 2006. If we get out of the west, we would have killed Miami.

Yeah, you're probably right we're not winning that series. The first two games were close though. Came down to the last minute or so in each, if I remember correctly. The Spurs just kept hitting timely shots.

And also re: 2010 Lakers' series...I'll never forget Channing Frye missing like his first 16 or so threes. I swear they were just about all wide open too. I guess the old saying, "live by the jumper, die by the jumper" applied heavily to us.

[ShelC]

We lost Game 1 against the Spurs by 7 with less that 36 hours rest coming off a Game 6 win vs the Mavs that went to OT and lost Game 2 by 3pts. Game 3 we ran out of gas but Game 4 JJ came back and we won. JJ, broken face wearing a mask, was making Bowen fall down on D. I think we'd have taken them.