Pick and Roll: Expectations for the 31 game season

The Suns handed Terry Porter his walking papers and Alvin Gentry the reins to the team with 31 games remaining in the season.  Now, with 29 games left and two emphatic wins under their belt, the Suns are looking good and feeling good.

What should we expect from the Suns going forward in this 2008-09 season?

Steve Fan

Now that Alvin Gentry is in charge the Suns are having fun again.  As Nash said, it’s now a 31-game season.  What to expect now?  I don’t care, I have all I need.

No expectations, none. It’s time for a collective Ben’s Shuffle.

After being witness to the worst Suns basketball of the last five years, a part of me would be happy to just have fun again. For now I think I would settle for an endless streak of scoring 140 points on the useless Clippers on any given night.

Nash is running the floor with joy in his eyes, making plays I couldn’t even dream about while playing NBA 2K on my xbox.  A happy Stoudemire is throwing down dunks and Leandrinho Barbosa is running the floor at ludicrous speed.  Even Goran Dragic looks somewhat like an NBA player all of a sudden.  Nobody is talking defense or trades anymore, it’s back to basketball.

Now we’re the Phoenix Suns again. That’s all I need to know. Don’t expect anything, just have fun and see what happens.

The Suns are not going to win the championship this year, but we can always dream that nothing is impossible.

We could finally be able to attain what the D’Antoni’s Suns always failed to:  enjoy the journey, while playing without pressure that comes from heavy expectations.

Of course I would be very disappointed if the Suns failed to make the playoffs, but we could always have next year…I know what I’m talking about, I have been a Cubs fan all my life.

Don’t wake me up, please. I am happy now, at least until the Suns lose another first round series to the Spurs, when the past will come back to haunt our collective souls yet again.

Mark

Expectations going into this season weren’t exactly high, as common sense dictated the transition from Coach D to Coach Porter would be difficult and take time.  What none of us could predict was just how rocky the road would be.

After hanging 140 on the hapless Clippers the last couple of nights, the Suns are feeling good about themselves.  Tough to blame them, that sort of scoring output doesn’t occur every night, or even every season.  But, well, yeah.

No matter, the Suns seem to have new life, a bounce in their step we haven’t seen since  Coach D packed his bags for the bright lights and big city, and that’s the important thing.  It’s fantastic, it’s fun, it’s whatever superlative you can think of, but when it comes down to it, does this change expectations?

I’m not one for predictions, but I felt going into this season the Suns were the second best team in the Pacific Division behind the hated Lakers, but would miss out on home court advantage in the playoffs.

My opinion hasn’t changed.

Wins and losses, and how a team does in the playoffs are all that matters.  I don’t expect the Suns to go all the way, and I don’t expect the Suns to gain home court advantage when it’s time for the NBA and the networks to drag the playoffs out seemingly forever.

I do expect them however, to play competitively on the road from here out, make US Airways Center a place teams won’t look forward to visiting, and to play freely and without a hint of misery the rest of this season.

Come playoff time, if they’re the team no one wants to play, they’ll have blown my expectations out of the water.

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