The Sun is Still Shining in Phoenix

Can these reborn Suns win it all?

Just a couple of years ago, the Phoenix Suns were declared done. The fiasco of bringing in Shaq, the departure of Mike D’Antoni, and the poor coaching of Terry Porter did not yield any positive results for the Suns, who seemed to be on the decline. Things got so bad last year that the Suns failed to make the playoffs, despite a team that consisted of Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Jason Richardson, and Grant Hill.

This rollercoaster ride seemed to be one of the biggest questions prior to the 09-10 season: as most sportswriters and analysts were sure on two scenarios: GM Steve Kerr would be fired, and Amare Stoudemire would be traded.
However, Kerr has the last laugh. His Phoenix Suns, the third seed in the Western Conference, are now headed to the Western Conference Finals for the first time under Kerr’s helm.

The fact that they made it this far is pretty surprising, but the road they travelled is even more shocking. Everyone expected them to beat an injury-plagued Portland team, but no one, including myself, ever thought that sweeping the Spurs was ever possible. The Suns had never beaten the Spurs in a 7 game series in the last six tries and the Spurs also eliminated the number 2 seed Dallas Mavericks, showing that they were still a threat in the playoffs.

I am not going to go in and analyze every little detail on how the Suns swept the Spurs, but I will go and say that the Suns coaching staff and front office deserve a
whole lot of credit.

I always thought that Kerr was a legitimate basketball mind. He has plenty of big game experience and served as a basketball analyst. Although this is not a very impressive resume for a general manager, he knows basketball very well. When he acquired the Diesel, I was extremely puzzled because this move signaled an end to D’Antoni’s “7 seconds or less” offense. Maybe this move was for Kerr’s desire of the team to play defense or maybe to move Amare back to his more natural power forward position, but in every sense of the word, this plan was an epic failure.

About halfway through the 08-09 season, though, Kerr found the right man for the job: Alvin Gentry. After the firing of Terry Porter and the disposal of Shaq, the NBA witnessed an explosion of the Suns offense. Over the first 3 games of Gentry’s tenure, the Suns averaged over 120 points per game. The leading scorer? Amare Stoudemire, who stringed together two 40+ performances. However, a gruesome eye injury caused him to miss the rest of the season. Even though the sample size was extremely small, it showed everyone that the Suns still possessed some swagger from their glory days. Unfortunately, with the loss of Amare, it was too little too late, as they missed the playoffs.

This duo seems destined for great things, with Gentry preaching defense and, even more surprising getting the team to actually play some, and Kerr bringing the right players for the offense (Channing Frye, Jared Dudley, and Robin Lopez). Nobody gave this team a chance, and many are still not, with the anticipated meeting between them and the Lakers. But hey, let us backtrack a little bit: the Suns have beaten the Lakers in their last two playoff meetings (albeit without Pau Gasol, Ron Artest, and Andrew Bynum). After a convincing series win over the Spurs, yes I’ll say it, these reborn Suns can play with any team. GO SUNS!!!