By Joshua M. Boraz
Things in the NBA Elite (no offense to any analysts out there) are generally pretty predictable during the regular season. You should be able to pick which teams will win between 50-60 games and make the playoffs before the season begins without any true difficulty. Particularly out west, it gets trickier as you get into the lower seeds, but at the crem de'la crem, it's pretty simple.
For example, you knew before the season started that Phoenix, Dallas, San Antonio, Cleveland, and Miami were going to be good no matter what happened. Now you might have picked Detroit, but injuries hurt them (especially to Chauncey Billups), but it's not like they're not going to make the playoffs. You might have picked Chicago and while they've been inconsistent, that's not a bad pick either.
The point is that this 16 game winning streak by the Phoenix Suns is not really surprising. After all, they've got a very complete team with depth. Look at this team's talent for a second:
Steve Nash, Amare Stoudimire, Shawn Marion, Raja Bell, and Boris Diaw
5 superb starters. Nash, Stoudimire and Marion are All-Star regulars. Diaw was the league's most improved player and Bell plays great defense. And this is good enough to get to the playoffs by itself.
But what makes a team like this win 16 games in a row is the depth. The fact that Leonardo Barbosa is a superb sixth man and then if the starters get tired, you can send in Kurt Thomas at Center, Jalen Rose/Leonardo Barbosa at guard/forward, Marcus Banks at point guard (many ranked him the #1 point guard in the draft), and James Jones who no one knows but is actually a pretty good player.
Now what happens if the Suns undergo a rash of injuries to their depth, oh yeah, we've got Eric Piatkowski just in case.
The point is that these guys are LOADED. They're in no danger of losing a game unless a rash of injuries swarm through the team particularly to Nash. That means they're going to get the #1 seed to face whomever. It won't even matter until the Western Conference Finals where they'll run into the Dallas Mavericks (the only team with depth to match, no offense Spurs fans).
And I saw it coming, and you should see it coming.
Mark it down now, Suns in the Western Conference Championship Series now against the Dallas Mavericks. Don't think about it, just mark it down.
------------
Additional places to see/hear my work:
On Radio:
WIFN Macon/Warner Robins, GA 105.5 The Fan on Four Downs between 4:30-4:50 (usually first down)
On the Internet:
http://www.sportscolumn.com/user/JMBoraz
http://jmboraz.blogspot.com/index.html
Things in the NBA Elite (no offense to any analysts out there) are generally pretty predictable during the regular season. You should be able to pick which teams will win between 50-60 games and make the playoffs before the season begins without any true difficulty. Particularly out west, it gets trickier as you get into the lower seeds, but at the crem de'la crem, it's pretty simple.
For example, you knew before the season started that Phoenix, Dallas, San Antonio, Cleveland, and Miami were going to be good no matter what happened. Now you might have picked Detroit, but injuries hurt them (especially to Chauncey Billups), but it's not like they're not going to make the playoffs. You might have picked Chicago and while they've been inconsistent, that's not a bad pick either.
The point is that this 16 game winning streak by the Phoenix Suns is not really surprising. After all, they've got a very complete team with depth. Look at this team's talent for a second:
Steve Nash, Amare Stoudimire, Shawn Marion, Raja Bell, and Boris Diaw
5 superb starters. Nash, Stoudimire and Marion are All-Star regulars. Diaw was the league's most improved player and Bell plays great defense. And this is good enough to get to the playoffs by itself.
But what makes a team like this win 16 games in a row is the depth. The fact that Leonardo Barbosa is a superb sixth man and then if the starters get tired, you can send in Kurt Thomas at Center, Jalen Rose/Leonardo Barbosa at guard/forward, Marcus Banks at point guard (many ranked him the #1 point guard in the draft), and James Jones who no one knows but is actually a pretty good player.
Now what happens if the Suns undergo a rash of injuries to their depth, oh yeah, we've got Eric Piatkowski just in case.
The point is that these guys are LOADED. They're in no danger of losing a game unless a rash of injuries swarm through the team particularly to Nash. That means they're going to get the #1 seed to face whomever. It won't even matter until the Western Conference Finals where they'll run into the Dallas Mavericks (the only team with depth to match, no offense Spurs fans).
And I saw it coming, and you should see it coming.
Mark it down now, Suns in the Western Conference Championship Series now against the Dallas Mavericks. Don't think about it, just mark it down.
------------
Additional places to see/hear my work:
On Radio:
WIFN Macon/Warner Robins, GA 105.5 The Fan on Four Downs between 4:30-4:50 (usually first down)
On the Internet:
http://www.sportscolumn.com/user/JMBoraz
http://jmboraz.blogspot.com/index.html
http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/JMBoraz
