VanZeppelin1984

The Phoenix Suns are coming off a championship season, so this season Suns fans expect only one thing... another championship. With key additions such as Zaza Pachulia, Brevin Knight and Andres Nocioni, those expectations don't seem like such a long shot.

Point Guards
Steve Nash is the name that automatically jumps out at you. With 21.3 PPG, 10.3 APG, and 6.5 RPG during the pre-season, Nash will have to be the leader of the Suns this season as he was last year. During the middle of the season last year the Suns had injuries to Shawn Marion, Amare Stoudemire and Leandro Barbosa, Nash was the one constant last season. With the loss of Leandro Barbosa to free agency, the Suns hoped to pick up a back up point guard in free agency. There task was completed when Brevin Knight signed with the team on the first day of free agency. At the press confrence announcing the signing Brevin told the media "I hope to take some of the load off Steve, and be able to be play a key in, what I hope is another championship run." The Suns also picked up Sean Dockery in the draft, look for him to play extremely little minutes, if any.

Shooting Guards
Going into this years off-season, one of the big questions was regarding the shooting guard position and who would be the starter at the beginning of this season. After not being able to sign or trade for any upgrades over what they had already, Raja Bell was the one that proved to the Suns coaching staff that he deserved to be the starter. The Suns have no other shooting guards on there roster, but there were rumors that they were thinking about moving Andres Nocioni to the guard slot.

Small Forwards
Entering this season Shawn Marion has said that he will be playing with a chip on his shoulder because he feels that he was not recognized for how he played in the season awards. Marion was in the top 3 for scoring last season, and also was in the top 10 for rebounding. Marion has said numerous times this off season that he has worked on both his scoring and his handling of the ball. This off season the Suns were able to sign Andres Nocioni. Nocioni was "extremely excited" to recieve an offer from the defending champions, he said to the media.

Power Forwards
The Suns strongest position depth wise is the power forward slot. Amare Stoudemire is known to be one of the premier power forwards in the league. On the bench the Suns have returning '6th Man of the Year', Boris Diaw. If the Suns want to succeed Boris will have to be a big weapon coming of the bench. The Suns also have free agent signing, Reggie Evans, who is known for his rebounding ability. Though he will not get much playing time, he will make an impact when he is on the court.

Center
This off season has been centered around the signings of Andres Nocioni and Brevin Knight. One of the key acquisitions of the off season was the trade for Zaza Pachulia. Zaza hopes to become the center of the future for the Suns. Throughout the years, Suns center Kurt Thomas has been under the radar. This off season he has said he is going to be much stonger than he was last year. Kurt hopes that he will be able to make enough of an impression for the Suns to re-sign him this upcoming off season.

Season Prediction
With teams like the Spurs, Sonics and Jazz in there conference it will be a challenge to make it to the finals. If the make it to the finals, the Orlando Magic will probably be waiting for them. Look for the Suns to win over 50 games, and make it to at least the conference finals. Don't be surprised if we have a rematch of last years finals.

DTP

Very nice article, and I agree with just about everything in it. It will be a dog fight in the west and the east for that matter and Phoenix I believe is one team that won't choke under the pressure. They were a little under the radar last season but this year teams know who they are and will bring their A game against them so Phoenix will have to bring their A game every single night. Their bench will make a big impact this season also. I feel they have the best bench in the west with Nocioni, Knight, Zaza, and Boris and that will play a huge part of their success. Great job of going out and getting some depth, that way starters like Nash won't have to play so many minutes.

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HT San Antonio Spurs (0-0)

9 Parker
12 Wilkins
13 Palacios
21 Duncan
3 Wallace

Year 1- 47-35 Loss in WCF 1-4 to Phx
Year 2- 40-42 Loss in 1st Round 1-4 to Phx

Aim-YoungDtop