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Overall
Win/Loss Record (At Season’s End): 25-57, fifth place Pacific Division
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15
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At
Season’s End:
29
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Team
Statistics and League Rank (At Season’s End)
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Individual
Statistical Leaders (At Season’s End)
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Taking a Look Back at the Season that Once Was . . .
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SDH Player of the Year:
Jermaine O'Neal  Some may asking the question on how could I name a player who had just played 55 games in the regular season as the player of the year? And the answer is this: there was literally no one else on that Phoenix Suns team even worth mention and this season can be seen as a reemergence of sorts. After struggling through the past three years with numerous health issues, many had written off O'Neal as a washed up has-been upon his arrival in Phoenix; however, instead on living up to the rather low expectations put upon him, O'Neal stepped up to have one of his best seasons ever averaging 8.3 points, 5.3 boards and 1.4 blocks per game while shooting a rather efficient .482 from the field in just under 19 minutes per game. That may not look like much; however if once were to stretch out those numbers through 48 minutes, he would have hypothetically averaged 21.0 points, 13.6 rebounds and 3.6 blocks per game for the season. That in itself showed not only how valuable Jermaine O'Neal was to that sad excuse of a Phoenix team, but also how much a valuable commodity he still can be in the NBA. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Analysis:
With the prospect of no longer having their floor general for the past eight years, Steve Nash, in the lineup, the Phoenix Suns still came into the regular season with rather high spirits. They found what they believed to be the perfect replacement for Steve Nash--a player, who similar to Nash, originally played for the team, but left and subsequently found his way back to the team where he started his career. Goran Dragic, who Phoenix initially traded away, had come off a breakout season as he led the Houston Rockets within one game of the NBA Playoffs and was tabbed by management to be one to lead the next generations of Suns to future glory. The Suns also added two players who were high on skills, athleticism and potential, signing away forwards Michael Beasley and Wesley Johnson--two young prospects unable to realize their potential on the former teams, but had the opportunity to become breakout players with a bit of time, patience and proper guidance. To round out their shopping spree, the Suns picked up one of the leagues best post scorers in Luis Scola, whose contract had been waived by the Houston Rockets in accordance to the NBA's amnesty policy of the new collective bargaining agreement--a valuable steal in their eyes. These new additions would join an already solid roster of players which included veteran swing men Jared Dudley and Shannon Brown--two up and coming players that finished 2012 with very solid seasons and were looked upon to be more than adequete complements the team new acquisitions. Along with Brown, the Suns also boasted one of the top centers in the NBA in the 2011/2012 season in Marcin Gortat who had a breakout season and was highly considered as one of the top up and coming young big men in the league. Gortat led the Suns in scoring, rebounds, blocked shots and field goal percentage and look to build up from that monumental season. Add in solid, if not unspectacular veteran backup point guard, Sebastian Telfair, last season's first round draft pick Markieff Morris and this season's first round pick, Kendall Marshall, the Suns had quite a solid and balanced enough roster to take on any team in the league. Many expected that Phoenix with the fresh infusion of youth added along its already solid group of veterans would at least be able hold their own in the super competitive Western Conference. Some might have gone as far to predict that at best, the Suns would not only prove themselves a worthy match for the West, but also qualify for playoff spot as well--something that they had been unable to do for the past couple of seasons while under the leadership of future Hall of Fame candidate Steve Nash. Unfortunately none of what many had hoped happened as this team who supposedly had so much going for it suddenly bottomed out and came completely undone. The same players who had brought so much optimistic hope to Phoenix fans had suddenly crashed and burned coming out of the games leaving Suns fans dismayed and disgusted how a team that looked so good play so very bad. Goran Dragic, the same player who Phoenix had tabbed to be the team's floor general of the future certainly did not show the same swagger and leadership as he did while playing at Houston. Depite finishing the season leading the team in scoring, assists and steals per game, Dragic's overall play was absolutely dreadful as he focused more of getting his own shots instead of facilitating for his teammates as his predecessor once did. That surprising selfish play from Dragic severly hurt the team, especially the play of Marcin Gortat who saw his touches drop dramatically along with his scoring that went from just under 16 per game, to a little over eleven. To make matters worse, the two diamonds in the rough that Phoenix proudly tipped their hats to fell well short of expectations as Michael Beasley stumbled out of the gates struggling to play out of his more favored power forward position while Wesley Johnson, who had hoped for a fresh start, did not even get a chance to play despite being promised to the contrary. All of these sad changes of events have to be blame to former head coach Alvin Gentry who had been subsequently fired by the Suns for his horrible mishandling of the roster; however, by the time they gave him the boot, it was already too late as the Suns were unable to recover from the after effects of Gentry's poor decision making. The Suns, a team that looked as if they had so much going for it coming into the season, simply stumbled through the regular season wandering aimlessly in a daze while mercilessly getting smacked around by their opponents. They resembled a chicken who just had its head cut off flapping around wildly until the blood stopped circulating from its lifeless corpse finally laying to rest. What was supposed to be a seamless transition from the Steve Nash era turned out to be a complete debacle as a team that supposed had to tools to pull of at least one or two more playoff runs looked like a complete train wreck upon season's end. Hopefully, after to grabbing the fifth overall pick in the NBA draft, they can find someone to help right this ship that has gone woefully off course and maybe Phoenix can just chalk that poor performance as a fluke and look to move from there. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Friday, June 7, 2013
SDH Present the 2013 End of Season NBA's Worst to First: 29. Phoenix Suns
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