Which Way Phoenix?

Image courtesy The Arizona Republic/Getty Images.

This summer, Phoenix let its coach at the time, Mike D'Antoni, leave to coach the New York Knicks after D'Antoni and Suns GM Steve Kerr disagreed over the direction of the team. Kerr wanted more defense from the club, but D'Antoni ushered in the Suns' trademark "run-n-gun" style. D'Antoni built a system known as "7 Seconds or Less", an offense designed to take a shot at the basket within 7 seconds. This season, with new coach Terry Porter, shown above, and an emphasis on defense, the Suns aren't the same team and aren't nearly as fun to watch. This isn't to say I don't like to watch them, but rather defense-minded clubs are less fun to watch than offensive powers like Boston and, to an extent, the Lakers.


Image courtesy of the East Valley Tribune.

Recently, the Suns traded Raja Bell, a good defender and three-point shooter shown above, along with Boris Diaw to Charlotte for Jason Richardson and Jared Dudley. Will this move make the team better? Perhaps, but this season is a transition year for the Suns and it's making a lot of fans in Planet Orange (the Suns' equivalent to Red Sox Nation) upset. With all the talent the Suns have (Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Shaq, and now Richardson), one wonders why they're only 15-10.

On a side note, I added a few links to the blog page recently. First up, I replaced Sean McAdam with Tony Massarotti (aka Mazz) of the Boston Globe. McAdam has since moved from Providence to the Boston Herald, but the Herald's website isn't the greatest to track columnists. Tony's a great baseball writer, a winner of multiple sports journalism awards and offers insight, especially with the Boston Red Sox. His columns are listed here. Next up is Ken Rosenthal, senior baseball writer for FOX Sports. Rosenthal is like Mazz, but on a wider, national scale. Ken's columns are here. Two other columnists were added as well: Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Tribune and Art Thiel of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Both have received awards for their columns, especially Thiel, and are respected within their respective cities. Thiel's columns are here while Morrissey's are here. In addition to these, links to columns in Detroit, Dallas, Los Angeles, Cleveland, and Washington D.C. are available on the main blog page.