Remember Milk

I hated the appointment of Steve Kerr as the Phoenix Suns General Manager. Hated it. I freaking loved Steve Kerr as a player even if I did miss his best years, but I didn't like his writing much, thought he was a poor announcer, and he ruined my entire NBA Live 2006 experience with his insistence that Kirk Hinrich was in some way like Steve Nash. (They're both white and keep their dribble alive when circling the baseline! IDENTICAL!!!) Why would a man whose take on the NBA was limited to the games he was commentating on suddenly be qualified to run an NBA franchise, short as he seemed on experience, the CBA know-how, and the depth of knowledge base that was surely required for such a position? How much can you learn about the prognosis of thousands of potential NBA basketball players worldwide when sitting alongside Marv Albert? I hated the entire idea.

Similarly, I hated the Shaquille O'Neal trade when it happened. Hated it hated it hated it. The Phoenix Suns' style of play under Mike D'Antoni wasn't really getting anywhere, but was the answer really to trade for a player who commits your team to a life of halfcourt play, yet who isn't effective enough any more to build an offense around? And why would a team that had recently gifted away Rajon Rondo and Rudy Fernandez for immediate financial savings now be so willing to take on the huge contract of a declining player, commiting them for the foreseeable future to the salary tax that they had been so desperately trying to avoid? It was all the eggs in one basket, and the basket wasn't worth it.

However, as I am wont to do, I have since backtracked on both opinions. Acquiring Shaq has not affected the Suns's ability to acquire talent, as I feared it might. No longer are they selling first round picks, and they have made good free agency pickups, such as Matt Barnes and Grant Hill, even though they seem to be getting highly favourable discounts to do so. Despite the Jason Richardson trade seeing the Suns take on slightly less money than they gave out, and their dogged insistence on running with the NBA's bare minimum number of players at all times, the Suns haven't made drastic roster changes just to get under the luxury tax, like other teams have. They have found their payroll limit (just above the tax threshold) and kept it there. Phoenix may have about $4 million of their MLE unspent, but at least they aren't foolishly dumping Leandro Barbosa just to save a few million. In purely relative terms, this is progress.

To this end, Kerr has made some decent roster moves. Signing Hill for the Bi Annual Exception and Barnes for the minimum salary are absolute steals at their price, and Kerr did well to pick up the strangely overlooked Louis Amundson (who's always been able to do exactly what he's doing now, yet who Sacramento and Philadelphia let slip through their fingers). Kerr was also smart enough to insist upon Jared Dudley, a decent young role player who doesn't understand beards, in the Richardson trade with Charlotte. It bears repeating that the trade worked financially even with Sean Singletary in and Jared Dudley out of it, a variant which would have seen the Suns save a significant chunk of money in the process, an added bonus for a franchise always looking to save money. Yet Dudley was included anyway, seemingly at Kerr's insistence, and the trade as a whole saw one of the league's weakest starting shooting guards upgraded dramatically for little more of a cost than an expensive, replacable backup (Boris Diaw). Kerr also made what I still believe a solid draft pick with Robin Lopez at number 15, who has been some kind of shit thus far, but whom I still blindly feel will turn out all right. (Stick with Lopez, Suns fans. He can play. He just sort of.....hasn't.) Admittedly, I have absolutely no bloody idea quite what the Suns see in Goran Dragic, whose only redeemable skill so far seems to be his rebounding, something that isn't exactly vital from your point guard. But even that might pay off in time. You never know. Dragic won't shoot 29% and foul this much forever. You just have to stay ignorantly confident in the face of his special-kind-of-bad performances so far.

This doesn't mean, though, that the moves have worked. They haven't. After being roundly shat on by Boston last night, Phoenix sit with a 23-16 record, and in that same place that they had so wanted to avoid - good enough to be good, but not good enough to be good enough.

Futher still, the Suns' future prospects are not good. The younger players of Lopez, Amundson, Dudley and Alando Tucker are all decent, but there's not a starter amongst them, and there may never be. Phoenix's financial situation still shows no hope of providing flexibility any time soon, yet the team's competitive nature means they'll never get a high first round pick. Most disturbingly of all, their supposed young superstar, 26 year old Amare Stoudemire, seems to be regressing, unwilling or unable to overcome his problems with defense, rebounding, fouls or petulance. We're seven years in now, and despite all the physical tools, Amare has never learnt - or never tried - to be the defender that he could be. Without this, the Suns are treading water.

Perhaps trading Amare is the answer. Getting a highly talented defensive player for the power forward position (someone in the role of Emeka Okafor) completely redefines the Suns interior defense, their biggest weakness, and even though it leaves the team with a starting frontcourt featuring two players with absolutely no offense to respect outside of the lane (thereby making it even harder than it's already become for Steve Nash to get to the rim), the Suns have the makings of a potentially good defensive system. But maybe the scapegoat shoudn't be placed on the shoulders of one of the league's best offensive big men, or onto the General Manager who put together one of the stronger 8 man rotations in the league today. Perhaps it should go on the man who can't get much out of them.

The current Suns are a slower and less efficient version of their former selves, on both ends. The 2008 Phoenix Suns were 2nd in the league in offensive efficiency and 16th in defensive efficiency, transformed now into a team with the 4th best offense and the 26th best defense. And it's not all due to the loss of Raja Bell. Terry Porter, a supposedly defensive minded coach, can't seem to coach defense.

As Brent Barry once said, you can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit. Two of the best defensive teams in the league - Cleveland and Boston - boast former Defensive Player Of The Years in Ben Wallace and Kevin Garnett, respectively. The two also host between them a variety of other decent defensive players, such as Anderson Varejao, Kendrick Perkins, LeBron James and Rajon Rondo, all of whom combine to create a system that can both mask and enhance the defensive (li-)abilities of some of their team mates.

Phoenix don't have this. They don't have any of it, really. Steve Nash takes a ton of charges, but can't keep anyone in front of him. Jason Richardson often has a distinct strength advantage, but he struggles with the quicker guards. Grant Hill can't run backwards as well as he used to. Amare Stoudemire doesn't try as hard on that end of the floor, and watches the ball almost as much as he does on offense. Shaquille O'Neal is still a reasonably feared interior defensive player, but only if he doesn't have to move. You can't make much out of these ingredients. These aren't the makings of a decent defensive unit. There's no lockdown perimeter defender, no anchor in the middle, or enough disruption of the passing lanes. There's not even enough rebounding, as the Suns have only the league's 12th best rebounding differential. Distinctly average. As was their defense.

Maybe Barry is right. The Suns are in no way chicken shit, but they haven't the personel with either the players or the coaches to put together the defensive unit needed to get the team over the hump, one that they still can't see the top of. Trading for Shaquille O'Neal helped, as have many of the recent pickups, but it hasn't been enough. And what certainly hasn't helped the defense is changing coaches.

Perhaps they should change up the personel again. Perhaps the Nash era is reaching a logical conclusion. Perhaps trading Amare really is the answer. Perhaps they could put together a package for Andrei Kirilenko, or someone of that nature, giving them someone who can vastly improve their defense, while also not preventing a return to their running game. Perhaps they could replace Terry Porter, or all of the coaching staff, and find a team of coaches committed yet able to create a defensive scheme that will compliment and support the roster's natural offensive talent. Perhaps they'll just stop playing Goran Tragic.

In the mean time, they could start pushing the ball again and play to their strengths.

Summer signings, round 18

- Adam Haluska signed with Hapoel Jerusalem. I'm putting this one first, because originally I had it last, and the jarringly obvious lack of a bad joke was not a good way to end the post. I have failed you.

- Miami waived Bobby Jones before his contract became guaranteed, thus leaving Jones free to roam the land and add another scalp to his "I can totally play for every NBA team before 2010" campaign. (A campaign which may only exist in my head.) I'd recommend him to Memphis, but unfortunately, he's already been there once. So....Oklahoma City, anyone?

- Some things happen really quietly in the NBA. So quietly, in fact, tha they aren't actually announced at all. In the last six weeks or so, the Bulls have signed two players without telling anyone: restricted free agent Demetris Nichols accepted his unguaranteed qualifying offer, obviously aware that it's for more than he will get elsewhere, and number 1 overall pick Derrick Rose signed his rookie contract back in early July. For some reason, there was no press conference on this - one can only assume that they held off deliberately in order to do the damn thing so that they can announce his signing at a later date in conjunction with the signings of, say, Luol Deng and Ben Gordon. That way, they can do one of those "Meet The Next Generation" type of press conferences, and maybe even get Jonathan Frakes as a guest speaker. However, as Ben Gordon has decided to be a right wazzock about his contract situation (more on this later), that plan hasn't really worked out. Nevertheless, Rose has signed, so all you conspiracy theorists....disperse.

- Similarly, the Warriors have signed undrafted forward Dion Dowell for training camp, doing so very early, with no announcement made. It's not unprecedented for this to happen - Utah did it with Roger Powell once, for example - but it is kind of rare. So when an announcement about Golden State signing Dion Dowell hits the streets in the first week of October, don't be surprised to hear an I told you so. (In the unlikely event that it doesn't happen, this post will self-destruct, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it.)

- Milwaukee signed Francisco Elson. Why? Don't know, really. Is Elson better than incumbent backup centre Dan Gadzuric? Yes, yes he is. Pretty much everyone is. But is it by a lot? Not exactly. So is it worth signing a slight upgrade when you're already stuck with paying Gadzuric $20 million over the next three years? (By the way, you may have noticed that sometimes I befoul the signing of good players to decent value contracts, and sometimes I applaud it. This is because I'm temperamental, partial to prejudice, and often wrong.)

- In the same day, Gordan Giricek was reported to have signed with two different teams, in a situation even more bizarre than that of serial bigamist, Jumaine Jones. Triumph Lyubertsy of Russia - the team who just spent lots of money on glamour model Nenad Krstic as a replacement for Uros Slokar - were reported to have signed Giricek for one of those elusive 1+1 deals, but agent Marc Fleischer says that Giricek signed with Fenerbache of Turkey. And you'd think that he'd know, really. So we'll pencil him in for Turkey. (You know the best part about all of this? I'm Uros Slokar's Facebook friend. True story. The guy writes on his own wall a lot, but his English is as sound as Ealing North MP Stephen Pound. I like him.)

- Boston either just have signed or soon will sign their first round draft pick, J.R. Giddens. For all first round draft pick fans at home, this now leaves only two from this year's draft unsigned - George Hill of the San Antonio Spurs (who apparently will signed and will feature heavily), and Serge Ibaka of Oklahoma City (who, as intrepidly reported back in the boom boom selection days, has signed elsewhere already). You know who has been signed? Derrick Rose. Just thought I'd remind you.

- Jamar Smith has signed for Fastweb Casale Monferrato in Italy. Note: this is not Illinois's disreputable Jamar Smith, the one who recently got kicked off of the team for some naughtiness. Instead, this is Maryland's Jamar Smith, the one hurtling towards thirty, and the former San Antonio Spurs training camp fodder. In many ways, this is the more famous of the Jamar Smithii. (Plural.)

- Jannero Pargo signed with Dynamo Moscow, a team which isn't actually in Moscow, but which can be found in a small farmer's market outside Pontefract, Wales. (Readers note: I am talking out of my arse.) The signing of Pargo isn't exactly a heartbreaker, but it does weaken the already piss poor market even further. However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. For every reasonably decent point guard signed, Kevin Ollie gets one step closer to a stay of execution, which can't be bad. Additionally, if any teams out there are upset at losing out of signing Pargo and are looking for a Pargo-like replacement, may I suggest Salim Stoudamire?

- Louis Amundson signed with the Phoenix Suns, naturally for the minimum. So clearly the Warriors looked elsewhere (namely, Dion Dowell). The Suns are now a Goran Dragic away from completing their roster, and we'll have more on that sneaky little bastard later.

- Marcus Douthit has signed with Antalya Buyuksehir Belediye. The last time I wrote something about Marcus Douthit, I asked the world if any of you knew what happened to Douthit's unique charges of embezzlement. Reader and one-time blog commenter Chris, whoever that is (God bless you sir) provided a quasi-update, but not an absolute resolution to this important question. And so, I'll ask again: does anyone know of what became of Marcus Douthit's embezzlement charges?

- Paul Davis returned to the L.A. Clippers to battle Steve Novak for the important role of gimpy looking 15th man whose very presence keeps the fans interested. Unhelpfully and unoriginally, I'm going to make the same observation that everyone else has made: boy, do they have a lot of Davii! (Plural.) Journeyman forward Dangerous Josh Davis can claim the one the Clippers as one of the few teams that he hasn't played for yet, not even in summer league (I think), and he's also currently unsigned. This union makes too much sense not to happen.

- Maintenant, et finalément, I can't speak French. Shawn Kemp did actually sign for Bread Mountain in Italy, as mentioned once before. It really happened. It really did. Expect this to be tracked closely.