Phoenix Suns:
Nash and Richardson won’t let winning drought go on in Phoenix

The Phoenix Suns have been one of the many good things that have happened to the Phoenix area to keep their mind off of the fact that they live in the desert. The Suns are as much a part of the city as the sun or the sand or the heat. The Suns first broke into the National Basketball Association in the 1968-’69 season. They shocked the world and made it into the playoffs in their second season of playing and took the Los Angeles Lakers to the brink of elimination and lost the series 4-3. The Suns have seen a great deal of regular season success and have made it into the playoffs 24 times in their 35 year history.

Phoenix has made it to the NBA Finals on two different occasions, the last coming during the 1992-’93 season. That year the team had a number of new things in the franchise. They had just gotten a new stadium, the America West Arena, a new head coach, former Suns player Paul Westphal, and a new superstar, Hall of Famer Charles Barkley. These three things played a very integral part in the Suns finishing the season with a 62-20 record and the number one seed in the NBA Western Conference Playoffs. Barkley won the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award and America West Arena proved to be one of the noisiest arenas in the NBA, which turned into a number of home wins. The team went into the playoffs and squared up with the Lakers. In dramatic fashion, the Suns dismissed the Lakers 3-2. In the next rounds they eliminated the David Robinson led San Antonio Spurs and Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp led Seattle Supersonics on their way to the Suns second appearance in the NBA Finals in franchise history. They met up with the dynasty of the ‘90s, the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls had won the last two Finals and most of it was because of the greatest player in basketball history Michael Jordan. The Bulls went up 2-0 after the first two games in Phoenix. The Suns then won two of the next three games in Chicago to send the series back to Phoenix. In game six the game was close and Chicago point guard John Paxson drained a wide open three with 3.9 seconds left in the game and gave them a 99-98 lead. The Suns couldn’t put the ball in the hoop in the last 3.9 seconds and the series finished. During that series Charles Barkley averaged 27.3 points, 13 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game but those numbers were overshadowed by Michael Jordan’s 41 points, 8.5 rebounds, 6.3 assists, and 1.67 steals per game.

Last season wasn’t quite as successful as many Suns fans and writers hoped it would be. The team finished with a 29-53 record a year after pushing the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs to six games in the first round of the playoffs. After starting off the season at 8-13 the Suns fired head coach Frank Johnson and brought in Mike D’Antoni to finish out the season. The team went through a radical facelift when they moved Stephon Marbury, Cezary Trebanski and Anfernee Hardaway to the Knicks, after 34 games, in return for Antonio McDyess, Howard Eisley, Charlie Ward, Maciej Lampe, the rights to Milos Vujanic and two first-round draft picks.

In the off-season the Suns were looking to add a bunch of new parts, like in 1992, and for them to blow up the rest of the NBA the next year. They were the first team to get the guy they wanted and slightly overpaid for him when they signed point guard Steve Nash to a five year $65 million contract. They also went out and signed Clipper shooting guard Quentin Richardson. The Suns had only one draft pick, the seventh overall pick, and they traded it away to the Chicago Bulls, who drafted Duke forward Luol Dang with that pick, in return for second round pick Jackson Vroman, $3 million and a future number one pick.
The Suns are one of the more physically talented teams in all of the NBA. The team can get up and down and run and with the addition of Steve Nash can stroke the three with the best of them. Most of the players in the lineup are hard to match up with because they are so versatile. At point guard will be Nash, at shooting guard will be Quentin Richardson, at small forward will be Shawn Marion, at power forward will be the man-child Amare Stoudemire, and at center will be “Big” Jake Voskuhl.

In addition to having one of the more athletic starting lineups in the league the Suns will have one of the more athletic benches in the league. Backing up the guards will be Leandro Barbosa, Joe Johnson and Casey Jacobson. Backing up the big men will be Maciej Lampe and Steven Hunter. The Suns have the making of a great team with this plethora of talented ball players on their team.

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