# GT #56: Detroit Pistons (40-15) @ Phoenix Suns (38-17) - 2/24



## Dissonance (Jul 21, 2004)

* Detroit Pistons (40-15) vs Phoenix Suns (38-17) * 

*When: Sunday, 2:30EST/11:30PST

TV: ABC*


*Suns Projected Starters:*






































*[PG] Steve Nash [SG] Raja Bell [SF] Grant Hill [PF]Amare Stoudemire [C] Shaquille O'Neal *

*Pistons Projected Starters:*






































*[PG] Chauncey Billups [SG] Rip Hamilton [SF] Tayshaun Prince [PF] Antonio McDyess [C] Rasheed Wallace * 


**NO STATS TODAY. YES. I AM THAT LAZY.**










*Suns have been placed on SEVERE*​


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## Zei_Zao_LS (Apr 1, 2005)

I'm guessing that this will be a great game. Just a hunch though.

Maybe it will be an exciting game the same way the Lakers one was. Maybe the same as the Celtics (I'm leaning more towards this one)... but I just feel like it's going to be a very good game.

But... good GOD... don't they know that I'm not normally awake at noon!? Noon! They are trying to kill me or something!


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## Hyperion (Dec 5, 2006)

I hate these noon games because the players aren't conditioned to be playing at noon! They sleep till then normally! They're conditioned to play at 7pm, that's their noon!


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## Seuss (Aug 19, 2005)

IceMan23and3 said:


> I hate these noon games because the players aren't conditioned to be playing at noon! They sleep till then normally! They're conditioned to play at 7pm, that's their noon!



I'm not conditioned to watch at noon......

Luckily I got a good nights sleep and am ready. 

We really need to watchout for Rasheed....I think Shaq will guard Antonio, because atleast he can't shoot three's like Wallace. It would make more sense.
What killed us against the Lakers was our terrible pick-n-roll defense. If we can get good rotations, and still guard the perimeter, we should be alright.


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## MeirToTheWise (Nov 9, 2005)

Lol, I'm actually happy it's at noon time for the West Coast, because here in the East Coast it's at 2:00, meaning I don't have to stay up till 1 AM in the morning this time to actually finish watching their game ^_^

Anyways, if the Suns turn the ball over as massively as they have the past two games, then they'll be in trouble this game >_>


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## MeirToTheWise (Nov 9, 2005)

Good God... What an ugly display by the Suns. Pistons up 59-41 at halftime. Suns are just so disjointed on offense


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## Dissonance (Jul 21, 2004)

Everyone but Amare is just flat. Missed quite a few easy shots. Pistons are also doing a good job.


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## Ruff Draft (Nov 21, 2004)

Keep up the good work Amir!


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## Dissonance (Jul 21, 2004)

I didn't know he was just 20. Sheesh.


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## MeirToTheWise (Nov 9, 2005)

I'm assuming the mods have a little trend going right now of having MS-Paint pictures as their avatars? Lol ^_^


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## Dissonance (Jul 21, 2004)

MeirToTheWise said:


> I'm assuming the mods have a little trend going right now of having MS-Paint pictures as their avatars? Lol ^_^


Nah. Go here and you will find out. But if you click the poster's blog, you won't have to go through the clutter of the thread if you don't want to.


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## Ruff Draft (Nov 21, 2004)

Dissonance19 said:


> I didn't know he was just 20. Sheesh.


I'm excited. :clap2:


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## Mr. Hobbes (Jul 1, 2005)

Shaq just missed a layup that would've been a dunk 2 years ago. Bell gives up a backdoor cut. Wow.


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## AZsportsDude (Feb 8, 2008)

I knew we'd lose this game. And you know the PHX fans do not deserve a championship in my book. There are 20,000 pistons fans in the house and if you werent watching the game on TV and only on the radio you would think we were playing in Detriot. PHX has the worse fan base in the NBA. I am a die hard suns fans but every game when 15,000 of the opposing fans are in the stadium cheering when they make a basket I just can't stand it anymore. You think if you go play in SA there are going to be crap loads of lakers, detroit, or celtics fans cheering? Don't think so...only in PHX. Also...why do we always drop an egg on national TV? no wonder no one thinks PHX is for real this year.


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## thaKEAF (Mar 8, 2004)

Wow.


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## Dissonance (Jul 21, 2004)

Pathetic out there. I turned it off.


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## nffl (Jun 25, 2006)

Dissonance19 said:


> Pathetic out there. I turned it off.


Me too


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## MeirToTheWise (Nov 9, 2005)

Lol... I turned it off when halftime hit... What a beatdown. To be fair, it's only Shaq's 3rd game with the Suns, so a game like this was inevitable. Definitely quite an amount of work needs to be done b4 the playoffs roll around >_>

P.S. - I'm beginning to think the Suns need to add one more pure shooter to this team a la Brent Barry.


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## AZsportsDude (Feb 8, 2008)

OH i turned it off way before halftime, once detroit went up over 10 I knew this one was gone. Suns always..ALWAYS lay an egg on national TV. I also couldnt stand the 20,000 detriot fans there either..sounded like a detriot home game.


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## Seuss (Aug 19, 2005)

Biggest reason I was afraid of the trade, was because of D'Antoni. He is a proven, reluctant coach at changing his views for the betterment of his team. If the Suns have any chance with O'Neal, they will realize they need to try the post game a lot more, rather then the screen and shoot game. 

It also bugs the hell out of me when the Suns continue to chuck up stupid jumpshots, when they should go to the post game or drive the lanes. It's so irritating.


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## AZsportsDude (Feb 8, 2008)

another problem is we don't have a point that takes it to the whole you know? like KJ used to do and how tony parker kills us. we need to concentrate on the post game more and driving to the hoop.


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## Jammin (Jul 3, 2005)

This is embarassing. We don't deserve to even make the playoffs with this kind of play.


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## 604flat_line (May 26, 2006)

Seuss said:


> Biggest reason I was afraid of the trade, was because of D'Antoni. He is a proven, reluctant coach at changing his views for the betterment of his team. If the Suns have any chance with O'Neal, they will realize they need to try the post game a lot more, rather then the screen and shoot game.
> 
> It also bugs the hell out of me when the Suns continue to chuck up stupid jumpshots, when they should go to the post game or drive the lanes. It's so irritating.


QFT

If you're such a great FT shooting team and have so much speed as well as athleticism, why wouldn't you drive more often? I don't get it. Work the screens and picks without Shaq, when he's in the game post up.


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## KillWill (Jul 1, 2003)

chin up. it's just one game guys. all teams are due one of these every once in a while, and the suns still need to work out the kinks. i want to see a phx/l.a. rematch, w/ both teams at their best. i think any real fan of competition would want this. and how can someone complain about suns fans in the arena, when the ones here are throwing in the towel? this is not sarcasm: have faith. when your guys go out there and win, it feels that much better. and even if they don't, in your heart you know what being a TRUE fan means.


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## All Net (Nov 28, 2007)

Lets get real, Shaq has old knees, and never worked on his jumpshot, he lived by his power, now that he is not the youngster, he has to sweat a lot for every point, he is also a tragedy from the free throw line(1-8 today lol). And like some people said, other teams are abusing on the pickn rolls over nash/shaq.

On the other hand, now we have someone imposing respect in the paint defensively that is. Now Im wondering if it werent better to keep Marion, and wait for a better deal, because right now we are stuck with Shaqs contract...


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## KillWill (Jul 1, 2003)

All Net; said:


> Lets get real, Shaq has old knees, and never worked on his jumpshot, he lived by his power, now that he is not the youngster, he has to sweat a lot for every point, he is also a tragedy from the free throw line(1-8 today lol). And like some people said, other teams are abusing on the pickn rolls over nash/shaq.
> 
> On the other hand, now we have someone imposing respect in the paint defensively that is. Now Im wondering if it werent better to keep Marion, and wait for a better deal, because right now we are stuck with Shaqs contract...


what really jumps out at me here, is the shaq contract. if the franchise didn't want to deal w/ the lux tax, why take on that fat contract (no pun intended)? and since they went over anyway to win, which great teams should do, they could have kept kurt thomas, who fit the system better, and still have marion on the wing. then after this season, win or lose, they could have dealt with financial flexibility and the unhappy-marion situation with clearer heads. i'm sure this view is old hat to phx fans though by now.


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## All Net (Nov 28, 2007)

KillWill said:


> what really jumps out at me here, is the shaq contract. if the franchise didn't want to deal w/ the lux tax, why take on that fat contract (no pun intended)? and since they went over anyway to win, which great teams should do, they could have kept kurt thomas, who fit the system better, and still have marion on the wing. then after this season, win or lose, they could have dealt with financial flexibility and the unhappy-marion situation with clearer heads. i'm sure this view is old hat to phx fans though by now.


exactly, Im sure many more fans wondered at the time if it wasnt a good bet to keep thomas even if it meant going over the lux tax, because wether we like it or not, the team was looking better at the end of last season...


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## Dissonance (Jul 21, 2004)

Suns are paying some luxary tax.

It's not a back breaking deal financially. Marion and Banks is more than what Shaq makes this yr. Actually saved em 1.4M. Plus, Marion wanted an extension that they couldn't give him. They also get out of paying Banks for the rest of his deal. 

Yeah, I mentioned how we should've made changes this past offseason (hint: KG) BUT Kerr just took the job and didn't want to break it up I guess. 6 months later, it's OK. I also thought they'd give it a go one more time, and if they failed, they'd trade Marion for something. Probably could've gotten 2-3 bodies to help with depth. Suns have proven they can get through the playoffs. Adding a few more capable bodies and maybe avoid the Spurs, they could've broke through. But record against top teams this yr probably pushed it. Even though they didn't have a good record against them last yr either.


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## KillWill (Jul 1, 2003)

Dissonance19; said:


> Suns are paying some luxary tax.
> 
> It's not a back breaking deal financially. Marion and Banks is more than what Shaq makes this yr. Actually saved em 1.4M. Plus, Marion wanted an extension that they couldn't give him. They also get out of paying Banks for the rest of his deal.
> 
> Yeah, I mentioned how we should've made changes this past offseason (hint: KG) BUT Kerr just took the job and didn't want to break it up I guess. 6 months later, it's OK. I also thought they'd give it a go and if they failed, they'd trade Marion something. Probably could've gotten 2-3 bodies to help with depth. Suns have proven they can get through the playoffs. Adding a few more capable bodies and maybe avoid the Spurs, they could've broke through. But record against top teams this yr probably pushed it. Even though they didn't have a good record against them last yr either.


i just think they would have been better off waiting until the off season.


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## Dissonance (Jul 21, 2004)

I thought so too. But then I started to come around after thinking about it when it happened. Now, I don't know anymore.


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## MeirToTheWise (Nov 9, 2005)

Dissonance19 said:


> I thought so too. But then I started to come around after thinking about it when it happened. Now, I don't know anymore.


Co-signed. I'd say that's what most of us rational Suns fans are thinking right now.


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## All Net (Nov 28, 2007)

I wonder if it wouldnt be better to get ben wallace instead of shaq... as sad as this might sound.


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## Hyperion (Dec 5, 2006)

The biggest problem with the Suns now is that we have ZERO 3 point intimidation anymore! Last year Bell and Barbosa were money from outside if left open, now they're a BIG MAYBE if they shoot from outside. If other teams respected our outside shot (we usually only have 2 guys on the court that can hit a 3pt shot at a time) then we'd be able to open up the inside more for Shaq and Amare


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## All Net (Nov 28, 2007)

yeah, the reason why the 05/06 team made it to the conference finals was because we had plenty of 3 point shooters even though we didnt have an inside presence. Nash, Bell, House, Barbosa, Tim Thomas, James Jones. After that season our 3 point shooters started to go away, to the point where now we have only nash, bell, and LB, and the only one being consistent at the 3s is our pg... brent barry would help us...


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## bircan (Jul 17, 2005)

If things turn out ugly at the end of the season with a quick exit from playoffs, what do you guys think will happen? Do we expect Kerr to make a trade again? We don't want this team bogged down by 20 million per yr due to shaq, so would trading Shaq, IF ever it is a possibility again, be on your agenda as GM?

I'm not sure where this team will within the next 2 years. I mean with Nash, Hill and Shaq being old, Diaw and 9 mill per yr for a somewhat underachieving game.

If we did do ugly this post season, will you guys want Shaq to retire if it means freeing up 20mill?


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## All Net (Nov 28, 2007)

we cant trade shaq, no one will take him, so we have to be optimistics about him, lol.


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## Dissonance (Jul 21, 2004)

I was gonna be all in favor of blowing it up if we failed this yr before the deal. But I don't know if they would do it until at least Nash retires. 

And Shaq said while in Miami he was gonna play out his deal. But we'd probably have to buy him out or something if they insisted they didn't want him. Cuz yeah, no one's going want to trade for him.


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## bircan (Jul 17, 2005)

Ok, Shaq does has something left to offer us, but at this stage we needed to be wise with Nash soon to be declining. 

I guess we have to see how we play the powerhouses of the NBA from now on in. Detroit we needed to beat and show that if we did make it to the Finals, that Celtics or the Pistons would not run over us. Because it doesn't end with being able to beat the Spurs, we have to play extremely competitive team ball against the Top tier teams. 

We have not shown enough of that, but hopefully Shaq and the rest of the Suns continue to integrate better and come playoffs we hope to be clicking at our highest level. No doubt Kerr would be praying for this as well, because he put so much on the line for the Suns organisation and fans. 

Next 5 games: Memphis, NO, Sixers Blazers and Denver = a good opportunity for us to further mesh our team with Shaq and get back on track. Though the Hornets are going to be another important tough challenge, look forward to see how it progresses along


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## Jammin (Jul 3, 2005)

LMAO @ all of you talking about trading Shaq. You know how long it takes to incorporate a big man into your offense? Everyone needs to chill. The Pistons are a superior team, everyone knows that.


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## Dissonance (Jul 21, 2004)

Huh? Only one person mentioned the possibility if it didn't work out. All anyone else said was we couldn't.


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## Jammin (Jul 3, 2005)

I read a bit deeper into the post then what they actually ment I guess lol.

When they say 'it won't work' it seems like they're meaning they would but they literally can't.


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## Kekai (Jan 12, 2005)

damn this game. we too old and need some shooters, spacing on the Offense was terrible. amare gettin his thing done, gettin them touches, and his J is pretty damn consistent. we need to get younger though, bring back the 04-05 team!! (minus steve hunter) lol


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## bircan (Jul 17, 2005)

I'm not panicking at this stage, cos like u guys said its one game, and ye Jammin it'll take time for this team to run efficiently with Shaq. I'm still optimistic though, that we can control the game with our offense and now somewhat superior rebounding and go far. Between now and the end of Shaqs tenure however, something might need to happen. Because we are capped out and will probably continue to make some signings and a trade or two. 

I guess if worst comes to worst, then we end up with 20 mill free and still one more shot with Nash being 36yrs old. If we perform exceeding poor in the playoffs, now thats what I mean by maybe Kerr further trying to tweak this team


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## Zei_Zao_LS (Apr 1, 2005)

Zei_Zao_LS said:


> I'm guessing that this will be a great game. Just a hunch though.
> 
> Maybe it will be an exciting game the same way the Lakers one was. Maybe the same as the Celtics (I'm leaning more towards this one)... but I just feel like it's going to be a very good game.


Remind me to never say this **** again.


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## KillWill (Jul 1, 2003)

i've been a fan of nash since his dallas days. i really enjoyed watching those teams, aesthetically speaking. however, nash thrives in up-tempo systems, and tends to get lost in one-on-one type scenarios in the slow down half court sets. i guess my question is, who needs to change their game more? shaq to the up tempo, or nash to the slow down? both are nearing (or in) the twilight of their careers and as they say, you can't teach an old dog new tricks.


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## Hyperion (Dec 5, 2006)

Jammin said:


> LMAO @ all of you talking about trading Shaq. *You know how long it takes to incorporate a big man into your offense?* Everyone needs to chill. The Pistons are a superior team, everyone knows that.


Tell us. We've never had one.


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## P-Rez25 (Nov 24, 2006)

IceMan23and3 said:


> The biggest problem with the Suns now is that we have ZERO 3 point intimidation anymore! Last year Bell and Barbosa were money from outside if left open, now they're a BIG MAYBE if they shoot from outside. If other teams respected our outside shot (we usually only have 2 guys on the court that can hit a 3pt shot at a time) then we'd be able to open up the inside more for Shaq and Amare


you sure about that? Barbosa has hit 114 3s while Bell has hit 113 good enough for to be 11th and 13th respectively. throw in Nashs 120 3s (7th) and i think you have no reason to be whining about 3pt shooting


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## P-Rez25 (Nov 24, 2006)

IceMan23and3 said:


> Tell us. We've never had one.


(cough Charles Barkley cough)


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## MeirToTheWise (Nov 9, 2005)

P-Rez25 said:


> (cough Charles Barkley cough)


... Charles Barkley was not your prototypical big man. He played bigger than his size, but he was not a big man... He was 6-6.

Iceman's point was that the Suns have never had a legitimate dominant center until they picked up Shaq in the last trade.


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## KillWill (Jul 1, 2003)

MeirToTheWise said:


> ... Charles Barkley was not your prototypical big man. He played bigger than his size, but he was not a big man... He was 6-6.
> 
> Iceman's point was that the *Suns have never had a legitimate dominant center until they picked up Shaq *in the last trade.


i think the jury is still out on this one.


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## Hyperion (Dec 5, 2006)

P-Rez25 said:


> (cough Charles Barkley cough)


6'4 ain't 7'1.


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## Hyperion (Dec 5, 2006)

P-Rez25 said:


> you sure about that? Barbosa has hit 114 3s while Bell has hit 113 good enough for to be 11th and 13th respectively. throw in Nashs 120 3s (7th) and i think you have no reason to be whining about 3pt shooting


I think you mean 52nd for Leandro(7th last year) and 57th for Raja (16th last year) in the league for 3pt%. So I CAN ***** about them not shooting as well. Couple that with no James Jones and no Marion (even though he wasn't a great 3pt shooter, he is still better than Hill) Only Nash has stepped it up this year.


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