Suns sign Matt Barnes

Matt Barnes signs a 1 year contract with Suns

Today, Matt Barnes is signed with the Suns, bringing some energy to the team. He is a flexible player that can play 3 positions and can run up and down the court with the best of them. The Warriors play a similar style of run and gun basketball that the Suns play, so this should be a good fit for them. Since Grant Hill will be playing mostly off the bench, this will enable Barnes to maybe start a few games and contribute more than he was able to do with the Warriors. His minutes should increase from the meager 19 or so a game that he is used to. So that means more points and rebounds for him as well. This is a good pick up in my opinion, because of how he would fit in this offense. Being able to play 3 positions may create problems and mismatches for other teams. He does not always need the ball, but is a good contributor when he does get it. Last year for the Warriors he averaged 6.7 points a game, 4.5 rebounds in only 19 minutes.

Suns draft Robin Lopez

Robin Lopez picked 15th overall

The 2008 draft was a very highly anticipated draft with the amount of talent that was coming out. So the Suns went with a big man with their first round pick and drafted Robin Lopez from Stanford University. He stands 7'0" tall and 255 pounds and lots of hair go around. This was a defensive move for the Suns as they really need help in this area seeing what happened to them in the playoffs and during the regular season for that matter last year. He averaged 10 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks a game last year for Stanford. He is a young talent that could learn a lot from Shaq coming off the bench. The last time the Suns tried their luck with a big man was big Jake Tsakalidis who did not live up to the little bit of hype he got. Whats different this time, is that Robin Lopez has one of the best centers in the history of the game to learn from. Hopefully this will have the David Robinson, Tim Duncan effect that will bring the Suns some real toughness inside and make teams think twice about taking it to the hole. The 2nd pick the Suns aqcuired was Oregon University Alum Malik Hairston who in my opinion is a good player that can be molded into a really good NBA player. I personally watched quite a few Duck games and he showed a lot of skills and smarts for the game. I was pretty dissapointed to tell you the truth when the Suns shipped him to the Spurs for their draft pick Goran Dragic of Slovania. The Suns are clearly getting ready for Steve Nash to retire and get another point guard in there to take his place and learn from him. Also again this is a defensive move being that Goran is known for his defense and all around good play.

The Suns have a new coach

The new face of the Suns

Today, the Suns are about to sign if not already, Terry Porter. Steve Kerr has made his decision on the former Portland Trailblazer player, but recently was the assistant coach in Detroit. I really don't know how this is going to work out for the Suns, but out of the choices the Suns had, this was the best. It remains to be seen what kind of offense they will run and if the he can influence the team enough to play a little defense every now and then, but so far this pick in my opinion is not a bad one. He was a good player when he played, still holding a record in the NBA Finals with 15 free throws made and none missed in a single game and also still holds the Trail Blazers record for assists with 5,319. After playing briefly with a few teams after he left Portland, Porter retired and started coaching. He started with being an assistant coach in Sacramento before becoming the head coach for Milwaukee. After he was let go of the Bucks, he then become the assistant coach of the Pistons. Now that the Suns have signed him, there might still be hope for a great season next year with a Suns team poised and ready for a championship run.

to New York just like that?

Money talks

Mike D'Antoni the Suns now former head coach has decided to go with the horrible horrible New York Knicks. Apparently a possible championship was not enough to keep him in Phoenix, but more money to coach a team that has probably about another 5 years of rebuilding to do. When this was first reported, I blew it off thinking that Mike would be an idiot to go anywhere else right now. Sure enough, when it was all said and done, D'Antoni jumped ship and was eastern bound. There has been some speculation of the relationship between Kerr and D'Antoni not seeing eye to eye on what style of basketball the Suns should be playing, which I am sure had something to do with his departure. Now the Suns have a vacancy that many coaches would love to get into. Its not all the time that a coach can be set up with a team that is already championship ready. In the meantime all the Suns and fans will just have to sit back enjoy the summer and be ready for whats to come.

Time to go home

Free throws Free throws loss 87-92 series 1-4 Spurs win

The Suns played good defense this game and held the Spurs to 39 percent shooting from the field. Only this time the Suns shot themselves in the foot not making their free throws. The Suns shot a horrible 54 percent from the free throw line, due mainly to Shaq only making 9-20. On the other side of the floor, Parker lived at the free throw line making 13-16 with the team overall shooting 80 percent from the line. This was a game the Suns could have won, everyone in the starting lineup contributed decent numbers and it just came down to who made more free throws in the end. The Suns end the season with a lot of up and downs, but they remained consistent until the end of the season. This first round playoff exit hurts, its only a matter of time until the Suns get to those finals that have eluded them since the Barkley era.

Back on track

Finally! win 86-105 series 1-3 Spurs lead

This is the Suns team that should have been out there from game one. It was mainly the play of Raja bell and Boris Diaw that lifted the Suns this game. Bell had 27 points, 5 assists and 6 rebounds. While Diaw had 20 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists. The Suns mixed it up and stopped the pick and roll many times and just overall played good defense holding the Spurs to 39 percent shooting. The Suns came to play today and it showed even though Amare didn't have to contribute much for this victory only scoring 7 points. Grant Hill sat out this game most likely due to his groin injury. Hill being out didn't hurt the Suns this game but he is much needed for the next one. The Suns need contribution from everyone the next game and to play with the same defensive intensity in order to win the next game and be on the right path to make NBA history and be the only team to come back from a 0-3 deficit to win the series. Next game is Tuesday 6:30pm pst.

Out of Gas

Suns show no heart loss 115-99 series 0-3 Spurs lead

It seemed to me the Suns were playing this game like it was an exhibition. They simply could not stop Tony Parker or even seemed to care to try. The Suns gave up too many points in the first three quarters of the game. The defense was no where to be found, and you can see the frustration on the Suns players faces as the Spurs continued to take the ball into the hole whenever they wanted. Amare had a great game with 28 points and 11 rebounds, but Steve Nash didn't have a Nash kind of game with only 7 points and 9 assists. The thing I am sure that frustrated the Suns and Suns fans the most was the "Hack a Shaq" that was going on. Fouling somebody on purpose that does not have the ball should be outlawed. Don't get me wrong, for a guy that has been in the league for as long as he has, he should be able to put down some free throws. I guess thats the curse you have when you have a Shaquille O'Neal on your team and they know how to expose your weakness. Now the Suns will fight in the next game to avoid getting swept by the team that has had their number the last few years. The next game will be Sunday at 12:30pm pst.