Suns News: The Offseason (2015)

[Superbone]

Suns in bottom third of teams in Marc Stein's first edition of ESPN's weekly power rankings:

http://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2015/ ... ngs-of-the

Just behind Sacramento and one ahead of Orlando.

[Cap]

Vegas puts our over-under at 36.5 wins. :-/

[JCSunsfan]

Vegas puts our over-under at 36.5 wins. :-/

Opportunity to make some money. I don't gamble, but that would tempt me.

[Sunsfan4life]

Vegas puts our over-under at 36.5 wins. :-/

What was our record again last yr? I actually think this team will win more games then last yr. Better team chemistry, plus a healthy B Knight, Tyson Chandler, Another yr of devolpement for T.J. n Len.

Ofcourse we probabaly lost our best player in Dragic, but I think overall we'll win more games. Easier to get guys like Teletovic,Weems,Len,Warren to buy into the bench role then it was for Marcus and IT.

[Sunsfan4life]

I should say alot of that depends on health though. Len,Knight, and Chandler specifically.

[Mori Chu]

I think we'll be decidedly better than that. I'd say at least 41-42 wins easily barring catastrophic injury.

[Superbone]

Seems like an easy win bet to me. I'm willing to put a hundy on it.

[Cap]

I think we'll be decidedly better than that. I'd say at least 41-42 wins easily barring catastrophic injury.

You can say that about just about any team. A team that goes through a season without any major health issues is usually going to beat its preseason over-under.

[Ring_Wanted]

I like NYK and Brooklyn for the over. 31.5 and 28.5, both 200-1.

[Mori Chu]

I think we'll be decidedly better than that. I'd say at least 41-42 wins easily barring catastrophic injury.

You can say that about just about any team. A team that goes through a season without any major health issues is usually going to beat its preseason over-under.

Well I think we could still exceed that even if we lost 1-2 players. Like if Bled goes down, I think we just slide Knight over and don't lose much. So I guess I just meant that I think we should have a good probability to beat that win estimate. If I were a betting man I'd bet the over.

[carey]

https://twitter.com/paulcoro/status/650884635254255616 Former Suns C Neal Walk passed away tonight.

[Superbone]

RIP. I just got an alert on my Suns app. He was the only Sun other than Barkley to average 20 points and 12 rebounds in a season. However, he'll always be known as the consolation prize in the Lew Alcindor coin flip. It was interesting reading the article and that he was fired by the Suns in 2012. It left me wondering why.

[The Bobster]

Walk was a pretty good NBA center until drug use and a vegetarian lifestyle started to affect his game. The Suns shipped him off to New Orleans in 1974 (in the deal that brought them Curtis Perry and a first-round pick that they later dealt to get the pick to draft Ricky Sobers), and he later moved on to the Knicks and then Israel.

After a surgery to remove a mass on his spinal cord he was confined to a wheelchair (ironic for a guy named Walk) but Jerry Colangelo brought him back to the Suns with their community relations department.

Walk was certainly the Suns' best center before Alvan Adams, and averaged 14.7 points and 8.9 rebounds in his five years here.

2013 Sports Illustrated article on Walk - http://www.si.com/vault/2013/07/08/106342562/neal-walk

[Superbone]

Just finished reading the SI article. Very interesting dude.

[LazarusLong]

I had a chance to talk with Neal Walk several times during the summer before he got traded. He was working out in the same place where I had a membership. He was reserved, but he'd talk with a person if it was something other than basketball. I asked him about his weight loss and he said he was adapting a vegetarian macrobiotic diet; he said processed foods made him feel sluggish. He also expressed an interest in traveling more and seeing the world. He enjoyed the NBA to a certain extent, but said it was starting to become more of a job. He asked what I was studying in college and we had a nice chat about existential literature. He was definitely not your average jock or gym rat.

[Uncle_Gene]

Nice Azcentral article on Len working out with the leader of the evil empire,.........Tim Duncan.

Seems like Timmy really worked Alex on his game.

[Mori Chu]

I had a chance to talk with Neal Walk several times during the summer before he got traded. He was working out in the same place where I had a membership. He was reserved, but he'd talk with a person if it was something other than basketball. I asked him about his weight loss and he said he was adapting a vegetarian macrobiotic diet; he said processed foods made him feel sluggish. He also expressed an interest in traveling more and seeing the world. He enjoyed the NBA to a certain extent, but said it was starting to become more of a job. He asked what I was studying in college and we had a nice chat about existential literature. He was definitely not your average jock or gym rat.

Good stuff, Laz. Super interesting. He was before my time, and he'll always be slightly tainted by being second to Kareem. But he sounds like he was a good guy and a good player for a time. Sad to hear of his passing.

[ShelC]

Watch...TimD is secretly working as a Spurs recruiter. He'll tutor Len, then the Spurs will steal him as a FA to take Timmy's place next to Aldridge.

[JCSunsfan]

Things just start settling down and BOOM. This will stir it all up again.

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/23 ... eff-Morris

[Cap]

More detail:

I mentioned the Pistons interest in the other Morris twin earlier in the chat. They would definitely be interested in acquiring, but the Suns aren't interested currently and the asking price is high. Hearing a starter and a first to even get the Suns to listen.

http://live.freep.com/Event/Chat_with_P ... e_Ellis_36