Official NO-Game Thread: Hawks in Phoenix

[lethalweapon3]

“I’m getting traded to the New York area? WHY???”

 

“Baby, I’m a Starbury!” Georgia Tech’s one-and-doner couldn’t believe his fortune as he slapped on his purple-billed, white and green, exclusive NBA-issue baseball cap. Thanks to the 1996 NBA lottery and draft, Stephon Marbury was about to pair up with one of the NBA’s hottest young forwards in Glenn Robinson. What a combo!

Whoops! Scratch that, Steph. It’s Ray Allen that Milwaukee really wants. But, guess what? You’re getting an even hotter, younger talent to grow with, in Kevin Garnett!

Coming together for iconic magazine covers, “Showbiz and KG” would eventually ignite expansion Minnesota’s first multi-year playoff run. Championship glories awaited for the Teen Wolves, with The Big Ticket and The Big Star as 1A and 1B!

Welp! Scratch the record again. Marbury reportedly wanted to be the 1A, and sought the All-Star accolades granted to Timberwolf bigs Garnett and leading scorer Tom Gugliotta. He felt he was being overlooked by the mass media, left out in the cold in the Twin Cities. Coney Island’s Finest was also getting homesick.

The Wolves shoved Googs aside to make room on the payroll for Marbury’s mega-bucks contract extension. He got agent Peter Falk to refuse their offers and demand a geographically focused trade. Fine, the Wolves said. We’ll make-do with two-time All-Star Terrell Brandon.

The three-team deal sent Sam Cassell to Milwaukee and Marbury back to the NYC area. He and his homeboys would finally get to see him become an All-Star. Just as well, the 2000 Draft for New Jersey netted his team the hottest young collegiate forward in Kenyon Martin. K-Mart was raw, understandably so after the injury he suffered late in his senior season at Cincinnati. But on the road back to playoff contention, Starbury was eager to join forces in the Garden State with somebody who had a bit more ummph than Keith Van Horn.

The Nets (enjoy James, Nets fans.) would indeed return to the playoffs, and even reach The Finals, but not with The Original Steph. Marbury would watch Jason Kidd tag-team with K-Mart and build an Eastern Conference champion. Still, traded to Phoenix for Kidd, Marbury couldn’t believe luck was finally turning in his favor.

In the Valley of the Suns, Marbury found himself dishing buckets to a rookie first-rounder fresh out of high school. Unlike Big Dog, KG, and K-Mart, Amar’e Stoudemire was not a prized #1 overall or top-five draft pick. But Michael Olowokandi was, and Steph’s screen-roll bounce pass set up his rookie big with one of the defining dunks of the decade, leaving Marbury teary-eyed, and The Kandi Man reevaluating his career decision.

With exception to KG, Stoudemire was as powerful and unstoppable coming down the lane as any NBA big Marbury had ever lobbed to. Time for yet another iconic SLAM cover! Steph would grace the February ’04 edition with jack-of-all-trades Shawn Marion and the surprise, reigning Rookie of the Year winner. One problem. By the time the mag hit the newsstands, Marbury was already on his way back home, to NYC. Scratch!

The Suns, like the Wolves, were trying to quit overspending on veteran talent to make room for their aspiring forwards at contract time, and to build around them via free agency. Incoming Knicks GM Isiah Thomas wanted to replenish the point guard stock, so off went Marbury to the hometown squad he dreamed of playing with as a child. Attached with him was fellow shoot-first guard Penny Hardaway, a remnant of Phoenix’s original plan to feature Kidd and Penny together.

That scheme for the Suns failed to bear fruit due to injuries for both point guards. Later, Hardaway failed to mesh with Steph, once Kidd was sent to Jersey. Those two were Isiah’s issue now. The Suns freed up money to woo back to town a 30-year-old who had honed his passing chops while making Dallas’ wunderkind Dirk Nowitzki, and thereby himself, an All-Star. Might there be enough magic left in Steve Nash’s bottle to make STAT a top-line star, and the Suns a playoff threat?

Nash would do all of that, and much, much, more. In his first full season, Suns coach Mike D’Antoni pressed the tempo of the Suns to complement his offensively oriented bookends of Stoudemire and Nash. While STAT and The Matrix wrecked shop upfront, wearing many older frontlines out, Nash had an array of shot-takers and shot-makers to turn to, in Joe Johnson, Quentin Richardson, and Jimmy Jackson.

Heating up the pace to levels rarely seen in the league, the Suns went from 29-53 in 2003-04 to the titans of the Pacific Division, tying a team record at 62-20 in 2004-05. Nash would earn his first MVP trophy as a tricenarian, then accomplish the feat again the next season.

With Nash and Stoudemire carrying the banner, and with D’Antoni and Steve Kerr taking over the front office, Phoenix’s stars never quite reached the Finals pantheon, like predecessors KJ and Charles Barkley, and the late, great Paul Westphal. But despite being thwarted at turns by the Lakers, Mavericks and Spurs, Nash and STAT created not a gimmick, but an indelible brand, one that many upstart teams of today would like to copy.

Comparisons abound whenever wizardly, high-scoring guards team up with studly, bucket-crushing bigs. Will Trae Young and John Collins one day be that dynamic duo by which future legends will be measured? Fans in both Phoenix and Atlanta have reason to hope, unlike the plights of poor Mr. Marbury, these teammates might get to stick together for a while.

It borders on blasphemy, but I could argue the mythos of Nash-and-STAT being a sure thing from the jump didn’t meet up with reality. At what is momentarily known at PHX Arena, these two played together for the first time against the lowly Atlanta Hawks during 2004-05’s season debut. Antoine Walker, Kenny Anderson, and a bust of a rookie in his second year named Boris Diaw provided little resistance to Steve, Joe, and the emerging Amar’e.

But the connection wasn’t quite there in their debut, Nash finishing the game with just four assists, only one of which made its way into Stoudemire’s hands for a short jumper. But by the time they could master their pick-and-roll magic, in mere months, Phoenix became something like a phenomenon. Tim Duncan was too tough to eclipse in the Western Finals, but don’t blame Amar’e after averaging 37 PPG in the brief series with San Antonio.

All was looking bright, until Stoudemire came to know the word “microfracture” all too well. Following preseason surgery, Amar’e tried to rush back by mid-season, but to no avail, shelved again with stiff knees after just a few games. Perhaps more worrisome for him, D’Antoni had discovered a workaround – (CLOSE YOUR EYES, BELKIN!) – Boris Diaw, arriving from the Joe Johnson sign ‘n trade, who could hit jumpshots well outside the paint. Oh, and the Frenchman could pass, too! Ooh, la la!

Nash would earn his second and final MVP award without Stoudemire in tow. With the Suns back in the conference finals in the rough-and-tumble West, Nash pushed his old buddy Dirk nearly to the brink with Boris, who bookended the Mavs series with games of 34 and 30 points. Maybe it’s already time, fans pondered, to move on from dunk-dependent Amar’e and those ticking time bombs in his knees?

Not so fast, said Stoudemire. He returned to All-Star form in 2006-07, leading his team in scoring. When MVP Dirk’s top-seeded Mavs got upended in the first round, the coast was clear for the stacked, second-seeded Suns squad, having made quick work of the leftover Lakers, to finally break through to the title round.

That was, until the Discount Hip Check by the Spurs’ Robert Horry on Nash caused Amar’e to leave the bench and take umbrage with Horry, a decided no-no to the league’s officials in the afterglow of the Palace Malice. Stoudemire was suspended for Game 5 of those conference semis, the Suns never won again, and the Spurs went back to earn yet another ring in The Finals.

That 2007 series proved to be Phoenix’s best chance at ditching the title of the winningest franchise without an NBA title from any era on its shelf. Kerr took over as lead executive, he dealt Marion away in midseason for a bloated, aging Shaq, a move which brought inertia to D’Antoni’s run-and-gun style and no longer gave Stoudemire defensive cover.

Nash was still dropping dimes, but the increasingly geriatric teammates like Shaq, Raja Bell and Grant Hill were having a harder time picking them up. D’Antoni would wind his way in the offseason to New York in hopes of salvaging the Knicks, who by that time had given up on both Marbury and GM Isiah.

The Nash-and-STAT Suns would have one last hurrah under coach Alvin Gentry, by then a noted D’Antoni disciple, in 2009-10, after Stoudemire missed much of the prior season with an eye injury (ushering in the protective goggles era) and Kerr moved on from Shaq and, excepting Hill, some of the slowpokes. Finally sweeping the dastardly Spurs in the playoffs, the Suns would come up short versus Kobe and his new running buddy, Pau Gasol, in the Western Finals.

And that was about it. Kerr abdicated his executive post to become a television game analyst on TNT (who does that?), and his second-in-command, David Griffin, wanted out, too. A trade target all that season due to his expiring deal, Stoudemire ditched Phoenix to reunite with D’Antoni, declaring, as Marbury once errantly thought, “The Knicks are back!” With no more playoff appearances in Phoenix, the sun set on Nash’s All-Star years by 2012, after which he was dispatched to the Lakers Retirement Home.

With Nash-and-STAT, the Suns were a veritable double-supernova. But over the better part of their six seasons together, through all the MVP and All-Star honors, they were never quite able to string together, due to injuries, formidable foes and an untimely suspension, enough to outshine established super-teams and get over the hump into the Finals zone.

Inaugurated in Arizona the same season the Hawks emigrated from Missouri, the Suns join the Hawks and what was then the Cincinnati Royals as the only clubs since 1968-69 to never touch the championship gold. As a small consolation, neither of the first two organizations, in their present day, have to stress over whether they can ever make something out of Marvin Bagley.

Another advantage Atlanta and Phoenix’s top backcourt-frontcourt duos have, over Nash-and-STAT, is that their developmental stages as pros are quite coincidental.

Now in his fifth straight season scoring over 20 PPG, 24-year-old Booker is a scoring assassin who shone most brightly in 2020’s Bubble, the biggest gameday stage he has enjoyed to date. Ayton is coming along nicely as a steady rebounder in his third NBA season, although both players are sacrificing scoring in coach Monty Williams’ more egalitarian and decidedly un-D’Antonian (29^th in Pace) offense.

Young and Collins face similar challenges, working through the bumps and bruises of elevated expectations under coach Lloyd Pierce’s watch, but with a vastly less healthy roster than the Suns (7-4) in the early going. On their ever-evolving, ever-revolving injury report, rookie lotto pick Onyeka Okongwu (foot) was listed as probable for today’s game, while starting pivot Clint Capela (hand) was listed as questionable.

What both these couplings need to excel, though, is a similarly young but steady third-wheel, à la The Matrix. And it sure is shaping up as if each club already has one.

Brett Brown, the 76ers head coach and Interim GM at the time of 2018’s NBA Draft, is no longer with the Sixers largely because Philly native Mikal Bridges is in the NBA, and Zhaire Smith is very much not. The Biggest Mistake of the 2018 Draft (that’s right, Dallas. Deal with it.), Philly acquired Miami’s 2021 first-rounder and Smith (3.7 PPG in a whopping 13 career appearances), and now feel like they’ve burnt their bridges. Mikal enjoyed a career-best 34-point outing on Sunday (6-for-8 3FGs) as the Suns toppled the Pacers in Indy.

A full-time starter in his third season, Bridges carries a sterling reputation as a young on-ball defender, joining Chris Paul, the veteran point guard star and protégé of Williams back in the New Orleans Hornets’ days, as players putting intense pressure on opposing offenses while simultaneously alleviating D-Book and D-Ayt to play to their strengths. Mikal’s jumper has come around, too (45.3 3FG% on nearly six attempts per game), and his unwillingness to put the ball on the floor (2.1 TOs/100 plays, 2^nd-best among NBA’ers w/ 20+ MPG) helps Phoenix maintain useful possessions.

Howls that Atlanta and Phoenix fumbled away their chances at certain glory by not drafting or keeping Luka in 2018 have quieted, at least for now. Also, nary a soul is chirping critically about the top-five draft pick Atlanta took the following year. De’Andre Hunter (16.3 PPG) has improved across the board, as a crafty defender and rebounder, and especially as a confident shot-taker (45.3 3FG%, 57.8 2FG%) and decision-maker at the other end of the floor.

Minnesota got got by Phoenix in the 2019 Draft, too. The Wolves wanted to trade up, for Jarrett Culver, and they wanted to rid themselves of Dario Saric. Done and done, But in so doing, the player they drafted, Cameron Johnson, is helping Phoenix put out a pair of prodigious Pennsylvania-prep products that closely rivals Hawks lotto-prizes Hunter and Cam Reddish.

Free agent pickup Jae Crowder has struggled of late, and the Suns have floundered, losing the day before the Pacers game in Detroit, then getting blown out on Monday in Westbrook-less Washington. Coach Monty suggested it was already time to shake up the starting unit. “That group has not played well,” said Williams. Substituting Crowder for Cam Johnson (8-0 in the Bubble as a Suns starter) sounds like The Move. But Williams and the Suns will now have a little longer to figure it out.

Just yesterday, @AZSportsZone ran down a foreboding list of teams riddled with COVID positives, protocols and quarantines, and it seems as though most everybody has run through the Wizards along the way to having to postpone games. While it was hoped the Suns would luck out, the premonition proved true, and for now, the Hawks-Suns game scheduled for tonight is off (Scratch!), canceled one day after the scrapping of the Jazz-Wizards game. (Sorry, Rudy.)

Rookie big Jalen Smith was already under Protocols Watch, left behind as the Suns headed east last Friday. NBA top-scorer Bradley Beal was suddenly DNP’d after spending time talking to Boston’s COVID-positive Jayson Tatum, then was cleared for takeoff to face the Suns. PG County native, Williams, brushed aside concerns about Beal, and also about a selfie he took in the team hotel’s parking lot with his mom, who he had not seen in person since Thanksgiving.

While the blow-by-blow on impacted Suns players and staff has not yet been shared, there is enough to know Phoenix wouldn’t have the minimum 8 COVID-cleared contributors like Philadelphia did ahead of the Hawks game. “I think every minute and every hour and every day is going to be an adjustment,” LP said after shootaround yesterday, just as the news of the Wizards’ cancellation was trickling in. “Obviously, this has been the toughest week since we’ve started, as you’re seeing games postponed.”

Taking so much time rambling down Memory Lane isn’t always a sign that I’m not caring much about the results ahead of a game. But this week’s games are an exception.

Now that the Hawks have nipped their losing skid in the bud with their 112-94 victory over Philly on Monday, the only things I care about, as Atlanta spends its time out West this week, is that the Hawks stay healthy and get healthy, basketball-wise, and they that stay vigilant enough to avoid not just COVID-19, but the league’s ever-constricting Health ‘n Safety Protocols. Any Ws they can bring home along the way is just gravy.

After the plug was pulled on last season prematurely, following an over nine-month wait to resume regular-season play, the last things Atlanta need are unforeseen cancellations and postponements. From one week to the next, Bubble-less-ious squads like the Hawks need to see the preparation they put in paying off, in real time.

After so many close encounters, it does kinda suck that Starbury never could settle down somewhere and become the Kobe to somebody’s Shaq, or even the Penny. But all was not lost. Sure, he had to go to Beijing, but he finally earned his statue somewhere. By the way, it must be noted, the Beijing team he’s coaching now is playing its full slate of games, including a win just yesterday, without a hitch.

“I really don’t see any panic,” Coach Marbury said all the way back in March 2020 about his native land’s response to a raging pandemic that was dying down in China but percolating across the Pacific shores. According to the AP, he found the nonchalance, “a little nerve wracking, because I left China and I saw what was going on, right when it was starting.”

At the premiere of his biographical film in NYC (remember movie premieres?), Steph hoped Americans would take the threat as seriously as the Chinese government and citizens eventually would, to minimize its spread across the continent. Of course, a highly attended movie premiere was just the latest sign Starbury’s Americans had other priorities in mind.

The Suns had hoped to avoid becoming subject to disease, and the Hawks hoped to avoid disruption, too. But if they need someone to blame… hey, thanks, “Washington!”

 

Let’s Go Hawks! Just Not Tonight!

~lw3

[Thomas]

"Stranger Things" repeats tonight it is for me. Seems fitting I guess.

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[macdaddy]

So i heard LP was quarantined after exposure to a Hawks staff member?  What happened with that?

[JayBirdHawk]

17 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

So i heard LP was quarantined after exposure to a Hawks staff member?  What happened with that?

He's waiting for clearance. It's possible the rest of the team travels without him.

 

 

[macdaddy]

right on queue

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[bleachkit]

I wonder how CLP killed three days alone in his hotel room? Sounds pretty boring.

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[benhillboy]

I hate this game didn’t happen.  One, Booker is mid-range porn.  Second, there’s no education in Point Guarding like playing against CP3.