GioBlog

Phoenix Suns not as good as people think they are

It should be pretty clear after Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals that the Phoenix Suns are just not up to the job of winning the conference. And this is probably quite a letdown to Phoenix fans.

But Suns fans need to remember that they shouldn't even be here. Only stupid seeding by the NBA arranged the playoffs so that the Suns could reach the finals without having to play either the Spurs or the Mavericks at an earlier round, where the Suns would have been eliminated. So it's only a quirk that has allowed Suns fans to think they can compete for the conference championship.

The Suns are simply not deep enough, personnel-wise, to compete. And that is their fault. Designing a team that can compete for a championship is part of your job as an NBA team. Why do you think the Mavericks let Nash go? Two main reasons: First, Nash is fragile. He tires, and he breaks down.

The second reason is that the Mavericks got about half of their team with the money they didn't spend on Nash. They got deeper. Imagine the courage it took to let a guy like Nash go. But they did it because they knew that in order to compete for a championship, they needed to be deep and tough, and they were never going to be deep and tough with Nash on the payroll.

And if you're going to design a team to play like Phoenix wants to play, you have to give even greater consideration to depth, because that style of play tires out your players. Phoenix has made a stupid move. They have a shallow team that wants to run. They can't old up.

Today Nash wondered out loud in the media whether fatigue was a factor. Jeez. It's only Game 3. If you're already wondering if you're fatigued, you are in SERIOUS trouble.

So Phoenix fans should admire their team for having gotten as far as they have with the injuries, but should criticize their team for poor strategy. You will never, never win a championship when you don't even bother to try for rebounds, and don't even bother to try to play defense, and then understaff your team. It's not exactly a recipe for success.

And to those Phoenix fans who are angry about what they think was a bad call toward the end of the game on a shotclock violation, give me a break. First, if you look closely, it's clear that the ball was deflected horizontally by something. If not the rim, what? Second, just because the ref said that he made a bad call doesn't mean that he made a bad call. He made a good call, and thought he had screwed up.

But more importantly, that call isn't what lost the game. If you want to know why you lost the game, you got outrebounded twice in the last 90 seconds of the game by Jerry Stackhouse, for Pete's sake. Jerry Stackhouse!

If you can't be bothered to get rebounds, get used to being disappointed.

Oh, and one more thing: Check out the scoring differential from the moment Tim Thomas did his bonehead thing of busting through the Mavericks' huddle. It can be argued that Tim Thomas lost the game not by his stupid turnover at the end of the game, but by his needlessly provoking the Mavericks by elbowing his way through them. He got their attention, all right.