Suns News: Week 14 1/26-2/1

[Indy]

I have always wanted to have a court inside my house. Haven't got there yet.

That Kingdom of the Crystall Skull nonsense sure didn't help.

I know not of what you speak.

[JCSunsfan]

I have always wanted to have a court inside my house. Haven't got there yet.

Massive, massive house on 5 acres at the northern foot of Camelback mountain. Google it.

[The Bobster]

When you are a Suns fan in 92-93 and you hear Charles is taking practices off, and taking Oliver Miller and Majerle out at night to party until the wee hours of the morning before a big game, and gets into altercations at clubs, but we are winning, it doesn't bother you nearly as much as when you would hear about mildly talented players doing that and we are losing. I don't like that it is true, but it is.

No, it may have bothered me even more. You see a player with a tremendous amount of talent who will never realize his full potential because he never applies himself. That sets the tone for the whole team. Is it any wonder that team underachieved the years after reaching the finals? They were depending on players like Richard Dumas and Oliver Miller, who were a couple of high talent/low character guys. Barkley had a long list of bad habits - gambling, public altercations, poor defensive effort, bad practice habits, etc. and that was the main difference between him and players like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas and Larry Bird, who got the most out of their ability. To them, they had to win to have fun. For Barkley having fun was the main thing and winning games was nice, but he never had the desire they did.

By indulging his behavior the Suns sent the wrong message to the rest of the team, and it wound up biting them in the ass.

[Shabazz]

The truth is we will probably never know what is going on in there.

And the reality is these reports are probably garbage.

Yup. Or much ado about nothing.

[SDC]

I think we're kind of at a crossroads as a team. We have to determine who we are and who we're rolling with. Even though Tucker and the Morris Bros got contracts, you get the feeling they're more tradeable assets than part of a future core. Maybe they sense that too.

There's also a different dynamic from last year at play. I feel like last year, you knew Goran, Channing and Tucker were the lockerroom leaders, pros who led the way. Bledsoe was trying to prove himself as a talented starter and worthy of a contract, the Morri Bros were looking to take that next step and secure contracts, Plumlee was a young big looking to break out, and Green was looking to re-establish himself playing in an uptempo system.

This year, things are off. Bledsoe got his extension and Goran is the one whose future is in question, so maybe there's a leadership void there. The Morris Bros got their extensions, are a year older and maybe don't feel like they need to follow or be kept in line. Green is a FA so he probably gunning for his next deal. And his name's come up in trade talk as well.

The team feels splintered.

here's how i see it: if the suns dont make the playoffs this year, things will quickly fall apart next season.

if the suns do make it, everything will be fine and there is hope for this team.

[SDC]

The team feels splintered.

And plays that way a lot of the time. There is just not enough sharing of the basketball and making the right basketball plays. When they do, they can be formidable. Unforunately, it seems to be the exception rather than the rule.

I also do not like the growing divide between the players and coach. Last year, they all said to a man that they'd run through a brick wall for Hornacek. This year, that seems to eroding. If the Morris Bros are behind that, ship their asses out of here. I don't care if it was in the heat of the moment. Getting in your coach's face during a game is inexcusable. I don't care how good either one is, it's not palatable to me as a fan.

trading the twins wont solve the suns problems because it doesnt address the STUPID 3 starting PG problem the suns currently has. trading away kieff will probably make it even worse since he's the only inside scorer the team has.

btw, did the team get better with wright trade? #McdoOUT

[SDC]

it is amazing that up to this point we blame this or that player, we question the coaches tactics (sometimes), but the guy who constructed this roster gets off blame free. some even say he's a genius ie not stupid.

[OE32]

We don't really have a 3 PG system since Dragic is pretty clearly just playing the 2. And I don't see a problem with having a killer PG off the bench. If you've been watching, you'll know how critical he's been to so many of our comebacks this season.

The fact that we can't get over the hump has nothing to do with IT being on the team and everything to do with (a) our lazy starts, (b) our inability to stop penetration, and (c) our reliance on outside shooting. As to (c), I don't think it's an IT issue as much as it's a Gerald Green, Marcus Morris, Miles Plumlee, and Alex Len issue. The former two are shooters, the latter two don't get the ball (not that I'm arguing that Miles needs more touches).

[Indy]

When you are a Suns fan in 92-93 and you hear Charles is taking practices off, and taking Oliver Miller and Majerle out at night to party until the wee hours of the morning before a big game, and gets into altercations at clubs, but we are winning, it doesn't bother you nearly as much as when you would hear about mildly talented players doing that and we are losing. I don't like that it is true, but it is.

No, it may have bothered me even more. You see a player with a tremendous amount of talent who will never realize his full potential because he never applies himself. That sets the tone for the whole team. Is it any wonder that team underachieved the years after reaching the finals? They were depending on players like Richard Dumas and Oliver Miller, who were a couple of high talent/low character guys. Barkley had a long list of bad habits - gambling, public altercations, poor defensive effort, bad practice habits, etc. and that was the main difference between him and players like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas and Larry Bird, who got the most out of their ability. To them, they had to win to have fun. For Barkley having fun was the main thing and winning games was nice, but he never had the desire they did.

By indulging his behavior the Suns sent the wrong message to the rest of the team, and it wound up biting them in the ass.

I'm with you there. But the average fan isn't.

[iLLmatic]

it is amazing that up to this point we blame this or that player, we question the coaches tactics (sometimes), but the guy who constructed this roster gets off blame free. some even say he's a genius ie not stupid.

There are plenty of folks here who have questioned Ryan's moves of late. For example resigning Bledsoe and extending the twins, and drafting Ennis.

[Indy]

Don't indulge him by quoting him in your posts. It ruins the ignore feature.

[SDC]

We don't really have a 3 PG system since Dragic is pretty clearly just playing the 2. And I don't see a problem with having a killer PG off the bench. If you've been watching, you'll know how critical he's been to so many of our comebacks this season.

The fact that we can't get over the hump has nothing to do with IT being on the team and everything to do with (a) our lazy starts, (b) our inability to stop penetration, and (c) our reliance on outside shooting. As to (c), I don't think it's an IT issue as much as it's a Gerald Green, Marcus Morris, Miles Plumlee, and Alex Len issue. The former two are shooters, the latter two don't get the ball (not that I'm arguing that Miles needs more touches).

i also predicted the suns would be 6 games worse that last season after frye's departure (that was even before the suns fans knew the team was resigning bledsoe). but the 3 starting pg, only exacerbated the situation.

i've said it before and i'll say it again. IT may be better than frye, but the suns are better with frye on this team than IT. frye's a better fit than IT (obvious?)

[SDC]

Don't indulge him by quoting him in your posts. It ruins the ignore feature.

AS IF you have me on ignore.

[Indy]

I saw this and didn't get the same impression they wanted me to get.

[TOO]

Don't indulge him by quoting him in your posts. It ruins the ignore feature.

+1

[da_suns_fan]

Full disclosure: DSF was at both Friday and Sunday's losses. I havent seen them win in my last six trips to US Airways. Im bad luck.

Sorry.

[da_suns_fan]

Make that SEVEN:

1) Loss last year to BKN when Joe Johnson hit a game winner in OT (great game).

2) Loss to Houston last year in that bizarre "clear path to the basket" F up.

3) Loss to Minnesota last year. Pretty boring

4) Loss to Memphis last year. Pretty boring.

5) Loss to Orlando this year. That game was for my birthday. Pretty boring.

6) Loss to Houston on Friday. Ugly game till fourth quarter but the ending was phenomenal. I thought my head was gonna explode when PJ threw down the first dunk of his career.

7) Loss to clippers. Yuck.

[Superbone]

That's a crazy losing streak you've got going there, dsf! Wow.

[carey]

I miss posting this yesterday, but Hornacek is apparently already softening the benching after technicals thing: LINK

"We talked about it," Hornacek said to the media at practice. "We've tried both ways and we're just going to try to do a better job as a team, as teammates, to corral each other when they start to argue. The guys came up with that.

"They have been better, it hasn't been - you know both Goran and Keef's technical, it wasn't constant yelling, it was just a couple of times. So I told them, ‘Hey, if you guys do that, and kind of help each other out there on the court, we'll kind of look at it and it might be my discretion whether we do it for the rest of the game so we don't have that necessarily hard rule.' But I may still sit them for the end of the game if I feel like it and they know that."

[Indy]

Sounds way to wishy washy.