alphadog

and I still can't get a handle on this team. They have got to be my all-time Dr. Jekyl/ Mr. Hyde team. When they move the ball and play with defensive intensity, they can play with anyone. When they don't, they can get beat by anyone. Here are some of my thoughts, fwiw...

When Marbury and JC play like Marbury did against the 'cats, they won't lose. JC must stop settling for jumpers. He is far too hard to keep away from the basket. He would be wise to take a cue from MJ...hit the weights and make the officials call it. Marbury is a star when he drives and scores. He needs to do it more. He is not Kidd..he is Stephon. Both need to up the defensive effort. H2O is great off the bench...what a weapon. Maybe the best place for him.

TT and Ariza? Who knows? Both are physically gifted and inconsistent. I do love TA's defensive intensity, though.

Sweetney needs more time to develop but KT is playing very well. There is much more to get from Sweets but withouot time, we won't see it. Nazr is playing very well but his D is attrocious. Rashidi has that one right. If he learns to defend he will be very, very good. JYD is a great role player..2 thumbs up.

Moochie?....ugh
I love Wally but I think this team would benefit much more from an Artest as he is a lock down defender and scorer. He and Ariza on the court at the same time to stop other teams runs would be worth the ticket.

Food for thought..Could we have had both Camby and Amare? Possible to make the Marbury trade without McDyess? I bet so. Wow....who knew?

son of oakley

Nice overview alpha.

Not sure what you are asking here. If we had not gone for McDyess we could have certainly had Camby and Amare, as we had Camby and the #7 pick, and Nene, Wilcox and Amare went something like 7, 8, 9, or thereabouts.

Whether we could have had Marbury without McDyess is less certain. We would have had Camby's expiring contract and Ward, of course, and then the guys we gave the Bulls who expire this year. Perhaps if the Suns didn't think moving Hardaway was an option they'd have given us Marbury alone for Camby, Ward, Lampe, Vujanic and draft picks. I'd have to calculate if that would have put them under the cap sufficiently to allow them to get Nash.

In that scenario we'd still have Eisley and Amare but not Hardaway. Clearly the better deal for us, but A) that's with 20/20 hindsight, and B) still less than certain it were possible.

FWIW, There is a part of me that thinks the Suns knew thru back channels that Nash would sign with them. The whole thing just seems to perfect to have been an accident.

The other thing to consider is, that as great at Amare is and is playing, I don't think he'd be as good with Marbury. He's thriving in the open court and Marbury is almost exclusively a half court PG.

inapparent

as usual i agree wth charles's son entirely, but, in the spirit of hypotheticals, want to point out that Amare was plenty good for a 20yr old when the Suns didn't yet have Nash, so I'd take him on our team even in a half-court set type offense, lol

truth

Of course,dog...

Dont make the Dyss trade and you have Camby and Amare...Assuming Layden had a frontal labatomy...

And the Dyss Marbury trade was in no way related to Mcdyss.Dyss was merely a large expiring contract...I think the player "value" of that trade was lampe,vaporKnick and the conditional first rounder..

So,had any one of us coached the team with the exception of "Poetry in Motion",we could have had Amare,Sweets,Camby,Marbury,TT and H20 as our 5

SKiP

You probably wouldn't get Sweets if you already had Amare though.

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son of oakley

Agreed.

But then how do we still have Camby? If not Camby or McDyess then what large expiring contract would we have had for them?

And iapparent, I wholly agree Amare would still be a winner with Marbury (guess I was just trying to dull the pain) , as would Nene or Wilcox. Just not sure how we'd get to have both.