Suns: Favorites in the West?
I’ll be honest, this Suns team is making me a tad nervous.
Frighteningly, they seem to have exhumed the corpse of one Shaquille O’Neal just in time for the postseason, and if Amare keeps going the way he has, who knows how far they can take this thing. They’re playing so well right now (and with so much confidence), that some are beginning to think they might be the team to beat in the West.
“It poses a big problem,” Tracy McGrady said. “And add that along with the talent they have. They have some great players around him. (Amare) Stoudemire is playing at a high level, so they’re a tough team.
“To me, I think with Shaq they are probably the favorite of the West.”
I wouldn’t go as far as T-Mac went and call Phoenix the favorite in the über-competitive West, but they are certainly dangerous.
This type of praise from foes and harsh critics (yours truly included) is a testament to the tremendous job Mike D’Antoni and his staff have done since the Shaq trade.
64 Responses to “Suns: Favorites in the West?”
Apr.11 at 12:04 pm
Kevin says:
i wish they deserve to be called the favourites, but i don’t think they are there yet.. they definitely might be one of the 3 most dangerous squads though, along with LA & SA..
Apr.11 at 12:05 pm
Kevin says:
to make it clear, i want to see the Suns win it all.. i think they have a good chance to win it all, but i don’t think they are clearly better than Boston, Detroit or 2-3 other teams from the West as of right now..
Apr.11 at 12:05 pm
hursty says:
no
Apr.11 at 12:06 pm
RV says:
well they got the offense and certainly capable of the defense, the only teams who can really say that in the west are Spurs, possibly Utah…and well boston in the East
Apr.11 at 12:07 pm
hursty says:
Dantoni-pass shaq the ball and make him run occassionally steve. Otherwise he’ll start to winge as well.
Apr.11 at 12:08 pm
Bryan says:
Lakers then Suns.
Apr.11 at 12:09 pm
Khalid Salaam says:
Spurs are still better and utah is a sleeping giant but phx is right there. they are 1 back-up pg away it seems. Still i wouldn’t sleep too hard on the suns, unlike most of you who visit the site
Apr.11 at 12:10 pm
hursty says:
RV, if you cant win on the road inthe reg. how can you win 3 playoff series as a 3 seed?
Apr.11 at 12:13 pm
Khalid Salaam says:
lakers need bynum and they’re not getting him. they also could use ariza but whatever. lakers have a shot though but the way they’ve played defense in the last few wks isn’t a good sign
Apr.11 at 12:14 pm
RV says:
who are you refering to? I think the suns are like 6th or 7th
Apr.11 at 12:18 pm
TradeMarc says:
to me they are the best but everyone has their own opinion. for now im with McGrady
Apr.11 at 12:19 pm
TADOne says:
Khalid calling out heads on a Friday! Nice. This is cool since it was posted by a noted Lakers fan. I wonder if other Laker fans share your opinion, young Mutoni. Anyway, TMac is wrong. The Lakers, Hornets, and Spurs are still favored over the Suns.
Apr.11 at 12:20 pm
RV says:
its hard to even set up a favorite, denver could upset, Hornets could go deep, Rockets could upset, Dallas could go deep, Utah, Spurs, Phoenix and Lakers (with bynum) have a good chance of coming out of the west…
Apr.11 at 12:22 pm
RV says:
Tad, the lakers? If you can’t play D, you’re not getting past the suns, i dont care how many points you score, with bynum yes, but as they are now, neither their offense or defense is consistent enough to beat the suns
Apr.11 at 12:22 pm
bobby stew says:
The Lakers are very good but without Bynum I can’t consider them favorites. It’s kind of funny that Kobe spent so much time hating on Bynum and now he needs him more than ever.
Apr.11 at 12:25 pm
TADOne says:
Kobe is the x factor ya’ll. I wouldn’t go as far as ya’ll are going.
Apr.11 at 12:41 pm
Sesa says:
I think it’s time to trade Raja Bell
Apr.11 at 12:45 pm
Simone Lawy says:
Mutoni, du bist deutscher? ja oder nein…wenn sie nicht deutscher und warum schriben Sie {über}
Apr.11 at 12:54 pm
Simone Lawy says:
btw i’m not german…
Apr.11 at 12:56 pm
we dem hornets says:
no way the hornets own them at 4-0.like steve nash but the team is definetely not worthy
Apr.11 at 12:56 pm
Ryan Jones says:
I so won’t gloat if the Suns win the West. Wait, yes I will. Never mind.
Apr.11 at 12:56 pm
James says:
They’re a team performing at 80%. defensive breakdowns, shooting slumps, the bench disappears at times. with their roster they should be killing it like the celtics every night. this from a PHX resident who watched most of their games, I yell at the TV a lot about the lack of defense. It’s hard to watch.
Apr.11 at 12:59 pm
James says:
oh yeah and boris diaw, the other reason i think the suns still can’t beat the spurs this year.
Apr.11 at 12:59 pm
Sesa says:
The Suns will beat the Cavs in the Finals
Apr.11 at 1:03 pm
h-wag says:
The only thing that will matter in the WC play-offs are the match-ups in my opinion.
So it totally depends which road you have to go to come out of the west.
The Suns didn´t look that good against the Mavs last week, but they might match-up better with someone the Mavs can´t play for example.
Apr.11 at 1:03 pm
Khalid Salaam says:
Spurs/Celtics Finals. Accept it
Apr.11 at 1:04 pm
James says:
suns actually remind me of when i used to go against the bulls in the 90s. every may was a giant disappointment.
Apr.11 at 1:10 pm
phunkykarma says:
It would be great to see the Suns, an offensive team, win it all at last.
Apr.11 at 1:16 pm
James AKA the artist formerly known as Krayzie Bone says:
i can never figureout why the suns didn’t pick up the convicted sex offender known as the kobe stopper?
Apr.11 at 1:54 pm
TADOne says:
I won’t accept Khalid, and you can’t make me.
Apr.11 at 1:54 pm
Rasheedionics says:
Who cares who wins the West!?!?! Who ever comes out of the West will be too tired and warn out and will lose to Celtics… All these Western Conference series are going at least 6 games. There won’t be no sweeps.
Apr.11 at 1:56 pm
Tariq says:
To quote Myles: “Phoenix, we don’t believe you, you need more people”
Apr.11 at 2:08 pm
Tariq says:
Also, I remember Russ pointing out the absurdity of the following rationale: Whoever wins the West will be too tired to play the East champs (read: Boston). And yes, it is an absurd concept. (And by the by, I don’t expect the ECF to be a cakewalk).
Apr.11 at 2:15 pm
what says:
If the Lakers had Bynum healthy I’d say they could beat Phoenix, but they don’t, so I won’t. Spurs or Suns it shall be.
Apr.11 at 2:15 pm
Arvydas Sabonis says:
Favorites? Hells no.
Apr.11 at 2:25 pm
albie1kenobi says:
people wrote the suns off too early. yes shaq doesn’t quite fit in with the suns philosophy, but you are telling me that a team with 3 combined MVPs and a whole slew of all-NBAers (don’t forget grant hill) can’t figure out how to play together? if there’s only one series i must choose to watch, it’s suns/lakers. make it happen, stern!
Apr.11 at 2:49 pm
Allenp says:
I think they’re the favorites. With Shaq they can defend the Spurs better in the halfcourt, and all the other teams have bad flaws. If Bynum was healthy I would have picked the Lakers though.
Apr.11 at 3:02 pm
Slobodan Chutzpah says:
They aren’t the favorites, and I think that suits them just fine. But c’mon, they’re the Suns - they aren’t winning the title. It would be like Andy Roddick winning Federer in a final, ie. not happening. Utah is the one everyone is sleeping on. They have a realistic shot at winning it all.
Apr.11 at 3:35 pm
Tariq says:
If Phoenix win the chip, I will shave suns into my head.
Apr.11 at 3:35 pm
Tariq says:
They are dangerous though, I’ll concede that much.
Apr.11 at 4:00 pm
Ethan says:
Yeah the favorites to lose KB24 4 MVP
Apr.11 at 4:27 pm
d.Y. says:
ooooh I want to see a picture of that Tariq
Apr.11 at 4:35 pm
Tariq says:
d.Y: Then hope and wish for a Duncan/Kobe/Garnett injury bonanza.
Apr.11 at 5:44 pm
Jukai says:
I LOVE the Suns but they only play for three quarters. Really, there is always one quarter where they shoot 30% and create driving lanes for the other team that are SO BIG, a boeing 737 could land in them. I don’t know what it is, it’s not exhaustion cause recently they’ve been playing the first quarter like this. If the Suns play all four quarters, they are my number one choice to take the west (still say Boston’s going to get it).
Apr.11 at 5:47 pm
The Promise says:
Sorry Laker fans,if Bynum dont come back I just dont think they can beat Phoenix…
Apr.12 at 1:20 am
RV says:
well houston totally exposed the biggest weakness for Phoenix on D tonight, and that’s that Shaq cant defend the pick and roll, he’s never been great at it, but Tmac time after time knocked down the open jumper coming off the pick….
Apr.12 at 9:00 am
Kobe24Bryant says:
Lakers for finals
Apr.12 at 3:12 pm
The Promise says:
Anybody but the Spurs
Apr.12 at 7:21 pm
Tim Duncan says:
I can’t really see any of these run run run teams winning the west. It will be a team like the Spurs or even Houston against Detroit.. Boston or the Cavs. Also, for some reason I see the Jazz winning.
Apr.12 at 8:25 pm
tealish says:
Hah! You don’t want the Spurs, but they don’t care. They’ll be there again, playing their textbook basketball, killing the network ratings in the process.
I don’t know, if I were an NBA player, I wouldn’t mind being called boring as I’m trying to figure out which finger my next ring should go on.
Apr.12 at 8:34 pm
Dominic Prude east st louis says:
I think with this team shaq and nash its over for all the other nba teams but you will see the dallas take it back home dallas will win it all
Apr.13 at 2:43 am
DMC14 says:
come on suns you can do it!!!
Apr.13 at 4:08 am
Joe says:
Im a huge suns fan, but I dont think thier the favorites. However, if your talking about the hungriest, or most deserving, then pheonix is definetly the one. Spurs have thier rings, lakers have thier rings, dallas got to the finals 2 years ago, hornets are inexpierenced, denver/golden state are good for one round, utah and houston are big ??????????, so Pheonix has earned thier shot to win a title, and hopefully with a little luck that will happen this year.
Apr.13 at 5:38 pm
PistonsRuleTheCourt says:
No way the Suns are favorite. And that was a gutsy trade by Steve Kerr, giving up the most versatile player in the league, Shawn Marion, AND Marcus Banks, for SHAQ?!?! I respect the Diesel alot, but he’s long out of his prime. I think this is Shaq’s last chance. We’ll see what happens. But the top 10 NBA teams are:
BOSTON, DETROIT, SAN ANTONIO, LOS ANGELES, NEW ORLEANS, PHOENIX, DALLAS, UTAH, CLEVELAND, and HOUSTON. worst team HEAT or KNICKS
Apr.13 at 5:39 pm
PistonsRuleTheCourt says:
the suns have no chance especially with teams like boston detroit and los angeles
Apr.13 at 5:51 pm
Mark Z says:
I doubt they can beat the Jazz or Spurs in a 7 game series. 2 out of 3 maybe.
Apr.13 at 10:14 pm
hursty says:
lakers beat san an. nice. good D.
Apr.14 at 12:44 am
Deuce21 says:
I’ve been saying since last october that it would be a Suns-Celtics finals; and when they traded for Shaq it seemed more and more likely. This is the Suns last chance for a while, the window is now!
Apr.14 at 6:18 pm
Tim Duncan says:
The window is now? I don’t buy it. Say that they don’t keep Nash around ’til he’s 40, and Shaq retires, they still got Amare (who’s learning from Shaq) and Barbosa (learning from Nash). Throw in a Boris Diaw and a lottery draft pick, maybe a nice free agent (they will have the money no doubt, and the cap is non-existant) and I think this team could be back in it. And maybe in 5-6 years the west won’t be stacked. Maybe.
Apr.14 at 7:22 pm
AC says:
Whoa… The Suns did beat the Spurs a couple of times… but they have to prove it in a series. The Lakers will be tough and the Jazz will be up there too. Personally, I’d love to see a Lakers/Celtics final… and again, the Suns are NOT the West’s best team… yet.
Apr.14 at 8:25 pm
The Promise says:
The title will got through Detroit… i dont care about the spurs being boring…they get way 2 many calls… thats what drives me crazy…
Apr.14 at 10:41 pm
AC says:
Detroit is freaking crazy right now… their reserves are hitting low and hard, leaving the starters with some serious confidence. Detroit and the Celt’s will be a great series.
Apr.14 at 10:55 pm
Dacre says:
I’ll be gloating like a dirty dirty man when SUNS win it all. ^_^
Apr.15 at 1:46 am
andrew says:
x factor for the playoffs will be chris paul who knows what the kids gonna do in the playoffs and as far as match ups.. the hornets dont wanna meet the jazz cuz deron seems to always beat paul and the lakers suns will end in a fist fight.. hopefully its seeded so they meet 
im a lakers fan and i too feel scared of shaq.. lets juss hope he fouls out of most games..although i would LOVE to see the spurs bounced in the first round