[Da Grinch]

But I have a strong belief that the Suns are pretenders for the same reason the mavs under steve nash were .

they dont play enough defense.

when times get hard and you need stops does anyone seriously believe they will be able to get them against the spurs and mavericks , 2 teams who have shown themselves quite capable to be near unstoppable at times on offense , but both are among the better defensive teams in the league.

[Mateo]

Probably just you. I have never heard anyone make that point before.

[Ron Mexico]

Originally Posted by Mateo

Probably just you. I have never heard anyone make that point before.

[Dre™]

If you were a Mavs fan you'd be a hater, but it's true.

[Spriggan]

True, but the Mavs w/ Nash never had anything close to Amare as an inside presence.

[Brandname]

The Suns play good defense. They're not the best in the league, but they don't need to be with their offense.

[Da Grinch]

actually they at ranked 15th in defensive efficiency.

thats middle of the pack , for comparison's sake the nets are 14th and the 76ers are 16th i dont think of them as defensive jugganaughts , just teams with a couple of good defensive , some that appear not to really care and some avg. defenders ....like most avg. teams in most years .

in the slow down playoffs i find it hard to believe amare is going to stop any1 since he never really has done it before , even in his breakout playoff performance against the spurs a couple of years ago , he never came close to even slowing down Tim duncan who was on a bum leg got 27 points 14 boards on 53% shooting which is significantly better than he did against any other team.

[DuMa]

colts didnt play defense

[Dre™]

Originally Posted by DuMa

colts didnt play defense

lol

Anyway, the Suns aren't good. They're fair defenders. They do a good job of working their zone and trying to switch over for doubles etc., and Marion makes them that much better by his maniacal presense alone. That said, I wouldn't put them too far above average.

[hroz]

You know alot of the time winning a championship ring is about how you match up against other sides.

For example Hakeem's ROckets never made it a finals series because they always seemed to get beaten by Seatle. In their two championship years they did not face Seatle in the playoffs. It was only when they traded for Barkley that they beat the Sonics and that was in a 7 game series. But then they started losing to the Jazz consistently.

If the Suns have the right teams on their run to the finals they can go all the way, as can any other side.

[Da Grinch]

Originally Posted by hroz

You know alot of the time winning a championship ring is about how you match up against other sides.

For example Hakeem's ROckets never made it a finals series because they always seemed to get beaten by Seatle. In their two championship years they did not face Seatle in the playoffs. It was only when they traded for Barkley that they beat the Sonics and that was in a 7 game series. But then they started losing to the Jazz consistently.

If the Suns have the right teams on their run to the finals they can go all the way, as can any other side.

there is almost no way they can avoid the spurs or mavs on the way to a title .