Guess who's back? Whole team's back!
That's right fans for the first time in what feels like forever. Your Phoenix Suns are returning their entire starting lineup back. What does this mean? Any starting player's jersey you purchased last year is still valid this year! It also means more continuity. We like to think that last year's team was really good. So what did we do to help that core group? Well we made a trade for Ross Finch, and we think he is a stud. He's going to give us a legitimate 3 man big rotation. The shot blocking and offensive pressure inside he will create will make us that much more difficult on the inside.
Looking back, on our 4-1 loss to the Spurs in the division round of the playoffs. We have to take a step back and kind of determine what was our Achilles heel? I think that was probably defense and depth. We gave up a lot of points. We scored a lot of points but we gave up a lot and Ross is going to help us defend the interior. Tony is going to help us defend the interior. We also grabbed a couple guys who we feel like are going to help us on the perimeter with defense. We brought back He Hor, a fan favorite from you know years ago and our previous playoff runs so he's going to facilitate and direct that second team offense. He's going to give Garland some very much needed spells running the point guard position for us. I think we're going to play a little slower this year to limit possessions in the game. We’re a great shooting team. We stay in the top 3-5% in shooting percentages. I think we can still score efficiently without pushing the pace so much. We have great individual scorers and an amazing point guard. Let's get into some sets and take our time. We're still going to run but not as much.
We like our depth this time around versus a very loaded conference. It's very top heavy. The spurs are going to be right there. The Mavericks we think are much improved. The Trailblazers are much improved and then we have the defending champs in our conference, right? The rockets are reloaded there. You know they're bringing back everyone and got a couple off season pick ups to help with some of their depth but at the end of the day they are the champs and championship goes through them. When you look at the league as a whole we feel like a lot of teams have improved. The Lakers are approved. The bulls have improved. The Celtics have improved. I think the Pistons you know. Looking back at our own conference again, the Pistons have improved. The Nuggets are going to be there. The Timberwolves are bringing their squad back, the Bucks are bringing their squad back. It starts with winning our division and we feel like you know it's our job to defend our division crown and that's the first step. Let's try to get the one seed this time around and secure home court throughout the playoffs and let's have fun when we're doing it. You know we've brought these guys back, cohesion is there. They're having fun. We had a very good training camp. Guys enjoy each other. We're not coming into the season with any expectations beyond what the expectations are every year right? Which is to first win your division. Secondly, it's it's have the best record in your conference, secure that home court and then go out and play complementary playoff basketball. Are we doing the things on the offense and defensive side of the ball to put us in a position to win a seven game series on our court and I think we will find that out. We've made a lot of strides and improvements. We're going to run it back with the core guys with some added pieces that we feel like are going to help. These guys are ballers, that's why we brought them in. You know they're looking to buy into the way that we do things down here in the desert and we're ready. Let's go, we're ready to make a run at this. Autobots rollout
Desert out,