Why the 2010 Phoenix Suns are Different

Significant print space has gone into discussing how the Spurs represent a long-standing scar in the Suns' psyche, borne out of repeated send-offs in the playoffs in recent years, four of the last six seasons, in fact.

While not expounding on the stained history too much, I do want to state one fact—this team is different.

Why? Well, lets look at the basic reason—the roster of the Suns team over the past four occasions when the Spurs have derailed the Suns. The validation will be more than evident.

Suns, 2002-2003: The Essence of Mundane
PG: Stephon Marbury
SG: Penny Hardaway
SF: Shawn Marion
PF: Amare Stoudemire
C: Scott Williams
Key Bench Players: Joe Johnson, Jake Voskuhl, Casey Jacobsen

A point guard who wanted to shoot all the time; a shooting guard well past his prime and working on two droopy knees; a forward-combo that was yet to reach its potential (this was Amare's rookie year, if I am not mistaken); and Scott Williams at Center! Need I say more? Wel, yes, the list of bench contributors would not be on a respectable NBDL roster today, to be honest.

This was, in my mind, the weakest Suns team of the last 15 years to have made the playoffs, which is both a credit to the fact that the team battled hard and was coached well, as well as a blunt explanation of why San Antonio was able to nonchalantly dispatch the Suns with minimum fuss.

Suns, 2004-2005: Running on Empty
PG: Steve Nash
SG: Quentin Richardson
SF: Joe Johnson
PF: Shawn Marion
C: Amare Stoudemire
Key Bench Contributors: Jim Jackson, Leandro Barbosa, Steven Hunter
Scrubs Galore: Walter McCarty, Maciej Lampe, Paul Shirley, Jake Voskuhl

To start off, this team worked wonders and did three things super-solidly:

1. Revitalized basketball in the Valley of the Sun in much the same way as Barkley's arrival had done.

2. Transformed the game itself by re-engaging in a free-flowing, no holds barred style that broke through the shackles of 'physical' muggery and isolation b'ball led by the Rileys and Tomjanovichs.

3. Proved that you can score 110 points in a playoff games and still win.

On the flip side, the team typically played with three 'smalls'—Nash, Richardson, JJ—and Amare predominantly playing Center was a severe mismatch on defense, particularly against a physical Spurs offense, with Duncan at his pivotal peak.

The Suns got outrebounded by six boards/game, and D'Antoni played no more than seven players in any game. So by the time the Suns got to the Conference finals, the team was completely gassed out.

Plus, of course, there was JJ missing the first two games with a broken face. All in all, this was a Suns team that was supremely-loaded on offense, yet was significantly flawed on defense and in bench strength.

Suns, 2006-2007: Screwed by the League
PG: Steve Nash
SG: Raja Bell
SF: Shawn Marion
PF: Amare Stoudemire
C: Kurt Thomas
Key Bench Contributors: Leandro Barbosa, Boris Diaw

This was possibly the best Suns team of the decade, at least in terms of being playoff-seasoned.

In Bell, they had their version of Bruce Bowen—gritty defender with a couple of threes in his kitty; Marion and Amare were able to play their natural positions due to the presence of Kurt Thomas at C. Thomas was as good of a defensive answer as the Suns could hope for against Duncan, and he answered the bell pretty consistently. Off the pine, Diaw and Barbosa were crucial value-adders, both in scoring, as well as in spelling Nash at PG.

So what went wrong? The obviously overwhelming answer is the suspensions that were handed out to Diaw and Amare for their ‘roles’ in the Game Four Thuggery architected by Robert Horry.

In Game Five, without Boris and Amare, the Suns fielded a lineup of Nash, Bell, Thomas, Shawn Marion and James Jones with Barbosa and Pat Burke representing the bench ‘strength.’ No wonder that the Suns lost the game, and did not have the gumption to beat SA in SA in Game 6.

All in all, this was a team that, at full strength, would have beaten the Spurs in that series, but was deprived of the win by the draconian bullcrap of the league.

Suns, 2007-2008: V8 Engine with No Wheels
PG: Steve Nash
SG: Raja Bell
SF: Grant Hill
PF: Amare Stoudemire
C: Shaq O'Neal
Key Bench Contributors: Leandro Barbosa, Boris Diaw

Shaq just did not gel with the Suns, especially in his first semi-season with the team in 2007-08. D’Antoni had no idea how to use him, and without Marion, the Suns had no one to do garbage duty under the boards.

Amare and Shaq frequently sat on one another, and collectively road-blocked Nash’s movements and creativity as well. Bell’s physical limitations were starting to overtake his mental gumption, and as had become a D’Antoni tradition, the bench—Giricek, Skinner, Piatkowski, Sean Marks—would have been a shoo-in to star in an Eddie sequel.

So it was to no one’s surprise that they got walloped by the Spurs in five. And for all of Shaq’s bravado about how he was brought in as the Suns’ savior against Duncan, the latter went for 25 and 14 boards in the five-game series.

This was the least-talented team in the Nash era, and was exposed mightily in clinical fashion by the Spurs.


Suns, 2009-2010: Superman & Batman, plus Robin, Spiderman, & the X-Men!
The current Suns team has three significant pieces to what makes them considerably better than the previous editions:

1) A true No. 2 Scorer as a No. 3 option. In JRich, the Suns have a player who has the talent to be the 2nd-best player on a good team, and is the third option on this team.

In times past, the Suns had a pre-peak level Joe, a great hustler-with severely-limited-offensive-skills in Marion, and an AARP-eligible Shaq as their third options. Richardson is a huge upgrade over them, and is proving every bit of that statement with a 24-point average in the post-season thus far.

2) Grant Hill, the Defensive Transformer. If Hill is not the Defensive player of the 2010 Playoffs thus far, I am not sure who is. He was absolutely electric against the Blazers, and was instrumental in bothering Manu yesterday (Manu got his, but did not go crazy as he usually does against PHX).

3) Da Bench: Dudley, Frye, Dragic, Lou are all true contributors to the team, and LB and Jarron have a say as well. Not to mention that Robin Lopez might soon be on the court. Undoubtedly the biggest difference in this year's Suns is the strength of their supporting cast.