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Why can the Suns beat the Lakers...

Matthew Thomas Castleton

Matthew Thomas Castleton

Well-Known Member
but we can't? I have one answer: ROBIN FREAKING LOPEZ. He gives the Suns interior defense and he guards Pau Gasol. We would beat L.A. too if we simply had a player that can match up against Gasol. Phoenix drafted Lopez with like the 15th pick in the draft. If they can get a player of that quality, so can we. We need to find this player in the draft. Even though some would disagree with me, I really think that Aldrich maybe the answer. He may not be the best offensive player, but he plays GREAT defense and he has LENGTH. He is also a really good shot blocker. The Jazz don't really need any more offense. If the Jazz were to draft him, I would probably start him at Center. I have seen a lot of drafts where he is gone before we draft. If the Jazz like him, I would try to trade up to get him. Include the future 1st Round Pick from Memphis and Kosta Koufos.
 
Using assets to trade up so few spots is a bad idea. Value between picks six through eleven are too similar to waste assets moving up.
 
Darkwing Duck said:
Using assets to trade up so few spots is a bad idea. Value between picks six through eleven are too similar to waste assets moving up.
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Unless you have a specific player in mind that you want to draft and you think that a team ahead of you might draft him before you have the chance. This is what happened in 2005. The Jazz were expecting a top 4 pick to get one of the draft's better point guards. After their workouts, it became clear to the front office that Deron Williams was the player they wanted. Because two teams behind them moved up into the top 3, the Jazz fell back to 6th. This would have prevented them from getting Deron Williams had they not made the trade with the Trailblazers to get the 3rd pick for the 6th pick, the 27th pick, and a future pick. Trading an additional draft pick to move up for a player does not hurt you very much in the long run. The additional Memphis 1st rounder that the Jazz acquired in the Ronnie Brewer trade should be one of these. Who knows what the draft is going to look like next year? Also, if the Jazz are planning on drafting a PF/C, you would think that they want to trade one of their current PF/C's to make space for him.
 
Matthew Thomas Castleton said:
Unless you have a specific player in mind that you want to draft and you think that a team ahead of you might draft him before you have the chance. This is what happened in 2005. The Jazz were expecting a top 4 pick to get one of the draft's better point guards. After their workouts, it became clear to the front office that Deron Williams was the player they wanted. Because two teams behind them moved up into the top 3, the Jazz fell back to 6th. This would have prevented them from getting Deron Williams had they not made the trade with the Trailblazers to get the 3rd pick for the 6th pick, the 27th pick, and a future pick. Trading an additional draft pick to move up for a player does not hurt you very much in the long run. The additional Memphis 1st rounder that the Jazz acquired in the Ronnie Brewer trade should be one of these. Who knows what the draft is going to look like next year? Also, if the Jazz are planning on drafting a PF/C, you would think that they want to trade one of their current PF/C's to make space for him.
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That draft was a four man draft. Bogut was consensus one, M. Williams two and Paul and Williams dangling around at three and four. After that, the consensus was the quality went down.

In this draft, the top five are pretty consensus, with Aminu likely at six. After that, it's a crapshoot. You trade up if you KNOW the guy you want is not going to be there when you draft. You don't do it if there's a good chance the guy you want will fall to your draft slot. Deron Williams would never have slid past 4. No chance. Aldrich has a great chance to fall to nine. The newest nbadraft.net mock has him going number 13. It's a waste to trade up for Aldrich.
 
Thats why it would take very little to move up. I agree Aldrich is great. He is one of the only prospects that could help sooner than later. I also see him being a much better player than most predict. Smart defensive bigs are very hard to come by. Do it KOC.

Here is some help to get it done. Maggette and 6th pick for Okur, 9th pick and Memphis future pick. (Okur is hurt but has 1 less year on contract, Maggs gets to the line and scores to make up for Korver and Booz leaving)

We then compete this next year and have options with AK's exp contract. Here is what we look like if it happened. DWill would love some help and this solves problems.

DWill, Price
C Maggette, Matthews
Miles, AK
Millsap, AK
Aldrich
 
Aldrich is tall and has length? The guy is 6'10, and in my opinion way below the game of Robin Lopez. Atleast Lo has an O-Game to go along with his tremendous on ball defense. With Aldrich going against a 7 footer in Gasol he not only gives up the height, but the conditioning. You can't tell me that Big Ole Cole can keep up with the speed, tenacity, and athleticism of Pau. Nah, the cuisine at Fat Burger will be too much for the man.

You take a gamble on Whiteside if you're looking for a Center. I'm sorry, but I am not buying into taking Aldrich for safety. I feel people are thinking he'll pan out like Love, but I just don't see Kansas boy getting anywhere above the game of Theo Ratliff in his career.

And no disrespect to Theo, but a career being lived upon under taking advantage of other undersized centers is just disappointing. That's what Cole is going to be doing, and when the real contenders come around he'll get ate up.
 
Phoenix has more length all across the board. I mean, when they go to their bench they've got Amundson and Frye-one a good scrappy type player who rebounds and plays D, the other a center who shoots 3's. Also, their backup PG spot is far stronger than ours. Stoudamire is also longer than Booz, and he's got Lopez to help make up for his deficiences on the defensive end...we don't have that presence, like the OP said.
 
Having a guy like Lopez would be a big help to defeat the Lakers. So would having a coach like A Gentry, who adjusts to what he needs to do to beat a specific opponent. Ole Jer does the same ole things time and again. Note how in game 4 last night in the 4th, the suns were great at gettting certain guys to take the shots, ie, not Kobe or Pau. Cannot ever remember seeing Sloan do that. I do remember being killed at the end of the 4th repeatedly by Kobe, Dwade, Lebron, etc etc. with Sloan saying something like "Well, if we double those guys that leaves someone else open." Yup, and let Odom and Artest take the 3s.
 
zman1527 said:
Having a guy like Lopez would be a big help to defeat the Lakers. So would having a coach like A Gentry, who adjusts to what he needs to do to beat a specific opponent. Ole Jer does the same ole things time and again. Note how in game 4 last night in the 4th, the suns were great at gettting certain guys to take the shots, ie, not Kobe or Pau. Cannot ever remember seeing Sloan do that. I do remember being killed at the end of the 4th repeatedly by Kobe, Dwade, Lebron, etc etc. with Sloan saying something like "Well, if we double those guys that leaves someone else open." Yup, and let Odom and Artest take the 3s.
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Actually, that's what happened in Game 3.
 
Perhaps because the Suns can actually shoot?

Outside of an inconsistent Deron, who on the Jazz could put up a reliable jumper? Miles rushes his shots under pressure. Boozer has performance anxiety; he simply can't get it up against the longer Lakers. AK? Matthews? Well, Wesley is o.k. as a 3rd/4th option.

Formula remains the same for Jazz opponents: double on Deron's penetration and let the Jazz SF or SG have the outside shot. Pretty simple.
 
The Suns are in no different situation than Utah in 2008. Or Utah in 2009. Or Utah in 2010.

Let's not fool ourselves here and believe that Phoenix is any closer to beating the Lakers than Utah. They're not. No team out west is capable of beating L.A. and that isn't going to change until Kobe is on the downslope of his career or Gasol somehow goes down with a career ending injury.

Sure, Phoenix did look better against the Lakers in two games than Utah did. But it's apples and oranges and the end result isn't much different from the 2008 series when Utah lost 4-2 after a string of painfully close contests.

It is what it is. The Lakers are a true dynasty and those types of teams are hard to knock off. The Suns can't beat the Lakers.

So this post is moot now.
 
Suns beat the lakers? How'd that work out again? It's irrelevant that they beat the Lakers twice...if you can't take the series it doesn't really matter. The truth is that LA is going to be a pain in our asses until we get quite a bit of help. It doesn't get any easier next year as they are the front runners for Bosh at this point. All we can hope for is that DWill keeps getting better... MVP-esque and that we get a couple of awesome players through the draft and something that's worth a damn and isn't in a foreign country for years with still nothing to show for it. Also hopefully KOC can show us fans he cares by going after someone to make us true contenders. Being in Utah is tough but I believe some guys really care about winning which can make us attractive if KOC doesn't eff up. I'm optimistic that we'll beat LA in the playoffs in the next couple of years but a lot has to happen. Beating LA a couple times isn't an accomplishment. Beating them 4 times and sending them home IS.
 
Interesting that Amare struggled against the the Lakers front line despite having the size advantage over Boozer. Maybe the Lakers are just really tough to score against inside which may explain why they have been in the Finals the past 3 years.
 
Yep, there you have it. Sean nailed it on the head. No one out west can or will beat the Lackers for the next few seasons unless they have some sort of chaotic injury bug strike. The rest of us just have to get as good as we possibly can and hope that they somehow falter in the next few years.

Its like the late 80's early 90's all over again. God how I celebrated the day Magic retired. And god how I shall celebrate when The Rapist is gone as well.
 
David Stern is surely ecstatic over this as well. He can go *bleep* himself.

I haven't watched a single game since the Jazz were eliminated and I don't plan to.
 
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