Well, well, well Phoenix-area professional basketball team – look what you’ve done. If you’d asked me exactly a week ago if I thought there was any hope whatsoever for the 26-21 Suns as they played Dallas before heading off on a 4 game road trip (featuring 3 Western Conference contenders no less) I would have laughed. Hell, the highlight of the Dallas game for me up until the 4th quarter was winning a Flip video camera during that Qwest “figure out who the hell the blurry guy is” contest. Yet here we sit one week later with the Suns having pulled off three gritty wins against Dallas, Houston, and New Orleans before capping it off with a rout of Denver (AT DENVER) last night. All that stands between the Suns and a perfect road trip is a win over a Kings team that is 1-9 in their last 10 games (I fully realize the jinxing potential of that last sentence).
Discount the New Orleans and Denver wins all you want due to their respective stars Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony being out with injury, but I should remind you that the CP3-less Hornets beat the Suns when they were at their best in November while the Nuggets without Melo managed to beat up on the Spurs in San Antonio on Sunday afternoon. Fact of the matter is, with a combination of a pissed off Amar’e Stoudemire (averaging 13.3 RPG on the road trip), better rebounding, and the ability to actually get a few stops when needed, the Suns have moved to 30-21 and back into the Western Conference playoff conversation (currently tied for 5th). In case you’re curious I don’t consider a ritual execution at the hands of the Lakers the 8 seed “in the conversation.”
So what does it all mean? Your guess is as good as this less than amateur bloggers. In spite of his recent jibber jabber about not opting out of his deal this summer, Amar’e is probably still headed out of town and depending on the package recieved, the Suns are likely going to end up starting over a bit when he does. In that sense I suppose that would mean these wins are effectively meaningless or maybe just something to tide the Suns over while they transition to a new type of team…but that’s a little dark for me. I think I’ll just concentrate on the fact that the Suns have pulled off some nice wins and are finally starting to look like a good team again for the first time since November.
Other Notes:
- I’d just like to get myself on the record right now as not being a fan of these Andre Iguodala to the Suns rumors. The way I see it, most of the people who are in love with him (including fellow bloggers) are U of A fans/grads. When I see his numbers – 17.3 PPG, 6.9 RPG, 5.7 assists, 31.4 3P%, and 42.7 FG% – I see someone who is basically J-Rich on a shitty team with better assist numbers and worse shooting numbers (for reference sake J-Rich is 14.5, 5.1, 1.9, 35.5%, 45.1%). Combine that with the fact that he’s locked up until 2013 – with a player option for 2014 – and I’ll pass.
- The Suns hit the 30 win mark yesterday. Obviously this is not a big deal but it was of interest to me due to one of my favorite preseason predictions on the Suns – TheBigLead picking the Suns for 30 wins. I think the 31 game season ending losing streak is going to be really tough on the city.
