Why They Might Be Good: Amare Stoudamire has apparently fully recovered from last year’s knee issues, although it’s been reported that his vertical leap took a hit, dropping from eight feet to 6.5 inches. And Steve Nash has vowed to play this season with a chip on his shoulder—although since he’s a super-nice Canadian chap, the chip is only the size of an Intel 64-bit microchip.
Why They Might Suck: After the Suns were knocked out of the playoffs by the eventual Western Conference champ Mavericks, Coach Mike D’Antoni told his team that they were concentrating too much on their defense. “The Mavs averaged 155.2 points against us,” D’Antoni later told reporters. “All that defense takes away from our offense, so we’d like to see that number up in the 160s.”
The Dude Other Than Nash Who I Want on My Fantasy Team: Boris Diaw. The French phenom is comfortable playing center, power forward, small forward, medium forward, two guard, point guard, right guard, right tackle, shortstop and extra crispy forward.
Bottom Line: This edition of the Phoenix Suns is the right team in the wrong era. If they were around when the Showtime Lakers were at their showiest and defense was a dirty word, they might’ve stood a chance. Sadly, their Wayback Machine won’t be available until late 2009.
