FINALLY! The season is here!

Training camp is over, the preseason is over, and now, FINALLY, it’s time for the 2006-07 NBA Season to begin.
There are high expectations for the Suns this year. A number of publications, including Sports Illustrated, have picked the NBA championship to come to Phoenix this year. Much of the success will depend on the knees of Amare Stoudemire. There have been three preseason games at home (two of which I have attended) and Amare has shown flashes of his former self at times. At other times, however, he has looked tentative and scared to go up strong to crash the boards and take the ball to the basket. He seems to only go strong to the hole when there’s nobody in his way. Hopefully that will get better as the season goes on. Right now, Amare is the highest paid sixth man in the NBA, as the Suns are using a starting lineup of Nash, Bell, Diaw, Kurt Thomas, and Marion.
The Suns went 4-4 in the preseason, with losses to the Sixers, Lakers, Sonics, and Clippers. Not that any of that matters. Preseason is for trying different lineups and working out the kinks. Not to mention getting new guys used to the run run run style of Phoenix Suns basketball
Some observations of preseason: Leandro Barbosa will have an excellent season. He doesn’t have to worry about playing the point this year with the addition of Marcus Banks. This allows him to concentrate on scoring and getting to the basket and using his speed as a weapon. Barbosa probably won’t ever be a point guard, but he’s a very good shooter and an excellent scorer in the lane.
Marcus Banks has looked like he’s not quite sure what to do in the Suns system. He’s almost playing too fast for his own good. His shot hasn’t fallen and he’s had a high number of turnovers. He’s an upgrade from Eddie House, but he’ll really need to start shooting better in order to take the pressure off of Steve Nash.
The regular season starts on Halloween, as the Suns go to Los Angeles to play the Lakers. That should be fun. The next night the Clippers are in Phoenix as the Suns have their nationally televised home opener.

Back in the USA

The Suns completed their European trip yesterday, beating an Israeli team, Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv, in Cologne, Germany. They won two of the three games they played in Europe, with their lone loss coming at the hands of the only NBA team they faced, the Sixers. The most important thing that happened was the fact that Amare Stoudemire played two games on back to back days and reported no problems with the knee.
Amare played 19 minutes against the Sixers and played 25 minutes against Maccabi Tel Aviv. He looked slow on defense, and had some trouble with turnovers, but he did show some flashes of the vintage Amare, even dunking over a Maccabi player.
Boris Diaw and Leandro Barbosa, the Suns two emerging stars from last year's playoffs both played well. Diaw is in the final year of his contract and if he does not sign an extension before Oct. 31, he will become a restricted free agent after this season. This concerns the Suns because they don't want a repeat of the Joe Johnson situation. Diaw and the Suns do not appear close on a contract. This makes me wonder if Diaw and his agent may think they'll test the waters next summer. I also wonder if Diaw would be as good in another system as he is in the Suns run & gun style.
Speaking of the run & gun, the most important signing of the summer was backup guard Marcus Banks. Banks could start at PG for many NBA teams, in fact he did start most of the second half for Minnesota. The Suns success rests on the back of Steve Nash, and having a legit backup PG will help Mike D'Antoni get Nash out of the game and not worry about the team faltering, like last year when Eddie House came in the game.
The first home preseason game is next week. I can't wait to see this team play.

The beginning of things

Earlier today the Suns played their first exibition game against a team from Rome, Italy. As expected, the Suns came out on top with a 100-93 victory. The game wasn't that close as the Suns put it on cruise late in the game and got a look at some of thie bench players. Shawn Marion had 19 points to lead the Suns and Leandro Barbosa continued where he left off in last season's playoffs, scoring 18. The Suns shot the ball well, and hit their three pointers, which is how the Suns need to play to win during the regular season. The next game is in Germany vs. the Sixers, who lost their first exibition game against a European team.
The biggest concern for the Suns was not what happened on the court, but rather who wer NOT on the court for them. Yep, Amare Stoudemire missed this game, and has missed a couple of practices with knee soreness. This time he says both knees are sore. There is no swelling or structural damage in his knees, and word is that his teammates are getting sick and tired of his complaining and sitting out. I am starting to be skeptical if there is anything wrong, or just normal soreness from playing basketball. I don't think Amare has much of a pain tolerance. Everyone that plays basketball has knee soreness. Look at any post game locker room, every player ices their knees after games. I play basketball and my knees are sore and I don't play close to as hard or as often as an NBA player. It's part of the game.
The Suns started Nash, Marion, Bell, Diaw, and Kurt Thomas. I think the Suns can win with this group and their strong bench of Marcus Banks, Leandro Barbosa, James and Jumaine Jones, but not having Amare really hurts their interior depth, a department where they were in dire need of improvement last season.
It will be interesting to see what happens as the October 31 season opener against the Evil Lakers quickly approaches.