Dunks are Neat
A few days ago a co-worker of mine in the salt mines asked me why I hadn’t yet posted anything about the Suns so far this preseason – my answer was because I hadn’t yet seen them either live or on TV. Now that I finally got to see a game I find it only fitting that I post the first in what promises to be a series of NBA Nightcaps over the next several months. For those of you who didn’t read SoD way back in June (all of you), I made a habit of posting a daily recap of playoff games throughout the postseason. I’ll dig it out here and there but in honor of said co-worker having his 4th child and first girl here come some hard-hitting Suns-76ers preseason thoughts:
Suns 115 Sixers 113 -there’s going to be some serious overlap with my pals Michael Schwartz at VotS and Phoenix Stan at BSotS but we can all deal with that. I look forward to your lawsuits.
- Does anything else really matter besides the fact that the starters played well? Steve Nash recorded a +30 and no other starter was less than +14 as the first team staked the Suns to an 18 point fourth quarter lead. What happened with that lead you ask? Well future South Korean league all-stars Dan Dickau and Carlos Powell helped to blow that as the Suns even trailed at one point in the fourth until Dickau saved it with his magical six free throw run. I think all of us in attendance will never forget the bravery he showed in hitting those free throws.
- Amar’e Stoudemire pulled down 10 rebounds. I’d like for that sentence to stand alone in order to honor it’s significance. The Suns were again out-rebounded (55-43) – a sentence you can get used to reading a lot this year – so anytime Sun Tzu can pull down double digit rebounds I’ll take it.
- It was my first look at Channing Frye and I obviously liked what I saw as he scored (all of his) 17 points in the first half. I’m not sure what it is about Frye but I love the guy – even though it is awfully strange to see your starting center pull down a grand total of one rebound in 25 minutes of action. If he can make jump shots and run the floor well it might not matter.
- How can you not love Jared Dudley? The twitter king played 20 minutes, scored 11 points (including a pair of threes) and came up with 5 of the Suns’ 8 steals. He’s the type of bench player I wish the Suns had on the roster during the contender years (but Mike D probably wouldn’t have played him).
- Goran Dragic missed all seven of his shot attempts but had 5 assists to just one turnover in his 20 minutes. Just to attempt to offset everything provided by Nash he also recorded a impressive -28. I’ve become accustomed to such bipolar play from Dragic – and don’t expect anything less this season – but it would be nice if he could provide slightly less drop-off. Thanks in advance Goran.
- You know what wasn’t fun? Watching Sixers power forward Marresse Speights in person. If you can remember all the way back to the 2008 NBA Draft the Suns had a group that included Robin Lopez and Speights in for a workout. The Suns picked Lopez at 15 while Speights dropped to the Sixers one pick later. Here is the stat comparison for their respective rookie years:
- Robin Lopez – 10.2 MPG, 3.2 PPG, 2 RPG, .68 blocks per game (per 36 – 11.1 PPG, 6.9 RPG, 2.4 BPG)
- Marresse Speights - 16.0 MPG, 7.7 PPG, 3.3 RPG, .71 blocks per game (per 36 – 17.3 PPG, 8.4 RPG, 1.6 BPG)
- I wanted Speights then and I still want Speights now after he scored 32 points in his 32 minutes. I don’t think the ceilings of the two players are even comparable.
- Barring some sort of explosion from Speights I feel pretty confident in my August prediction that the Sixers will miss the playoffs. They lost Andre Miller to Portland and even for preseason looked genuinely unimpressive.
- New Sixer Jason Kapono is wearing number 72 this year. For those of you not used to seeing a weird number that isn’t on the back of someone who is batshit crazy (see Artest, Ron and Rodman, Dennis) - here is the explanation. It’s math.
- Not to get all fashion week on you, but the Sixers new uniforms are terrible. I love the switch back to the classic Sixer logo (and love this move in general) but the new jerseys are a big ol’ epic failure in an attempt to “improve” on the classics. (Doing my best Paul Lukas impression) – You can see here that the old jerseys actually had outlines on the word “Sixers” and the number while the new ones (as seen here) don’t have outlines and basically look like high school jerseys. Might want to fix that fellas.
- I think there were roughly 4 people in my entire section. Made for an intimate little atmosphere. One of my favorite moments was when a Mercury highlight montage was shown and one of the guys next to me said rather loudly “who cares” – the women in front of us flipped around and yelled at him. The highest of high comedy. Take that random guy.
Bottom line – the starters looked good and the bench needs to improve. I don’t care whether they won or lost and neither should you.
and her name shall be Amar’e (or Goran Dragic).
The Sixers will win more games then the Suns this year. The Sixers are breaking in a new starting point guard, offense, and coach whats the Suns excuse for looking so poor? A strong argument can be made over the two games that the Sixers were the better team over-all.
As for Speights his upside is Amare Stoudemire with a better attitude. Robin Lopez upside is one of the Collins brothers. Usually, I dont get so feisty but when I see a fan of one mediocre team getting on another medicore team like there crap doesn’t stink that’ll do it. Suns are in for a long year.
I’m definitely in for a gentlemen’s agreement on wins between the Sixers and Suns. I suppose I’ll leave it at that.
Oh and trust me I’m aware that the Suns shit stinks pretty loudly in several areas of the game – see rebounding, defense- I didn’t really have enough time to get into full detail.
As for Speights…I agreed with you man. Maybe I wasn’t clear enough in the comment but when I said their ceilings weren’t comparable it is because Speights is FAR AND AWAY a better player with a big time upside. I love him as a player.