Western Conference
1. Phoenix Suns
2. San Antonio Spurs
3. Houston Rockets
4. Dallas Mavericks
5. Denver Nuggets
6. Utah Jazz
7. Golden State Warriors
8. New Orleans Hornets
Eastern Conference
1. Boston Celtics
2. Chicago Bulls
3. Detroit Pistons
4. Washington Wizards
5. Cleveland Cavaliers
6. New Jersey Nets
7. Miami Heat
8. Orlando Magic
I think one major change that the Suns must make this year is the distribution of playing time. The graph on the right is of total minutes played during the regular season. After the first six players, playing time drops of drastically. This may seem normal as coaches want their best players to play the most minutes. But if you look at other top-tier teams in the NBA, the Suns seem to work thier top players harder than anybody else. As a comparison, look also at the
same graph for the team that knocked the suns out of the playoffs - The San Antonio Spurs. The Suns have four players at 500 minutes or less (I know, I know....Sean Marks rarely even dressed out), the Spurs have two. The Suns have five players above the 2500 minute mark. The Spurs have only one. It doesn't take a genius to see the correlation between the players with very few minutes and the players with way too many minutes. In terms of skill level, the Suns seemingly downgraded from Kurt Thomas to Brian Skinner, and upgraded from James Jones to Grant Hill. However, Jones was always very durable. Grant Hill's injury history speaks for itself. The Suns off-season moves do not seem to have put them in a position to change the distribution of minutes for the upcoming season. Hill could probably take the minutes that Jones played, and slightly reduce the minutes of Marion, Bell, and Nash. Skinner will probably play the same amount of minutes that Kurt Thomas did last year. However, with Hill being especially susceptible to injury, one can't help but wonder if the Suns are actually worse off than they were last year. There are a few variables in this discussion. The first, and most important, is Marcus Banks. When the Suns signed him to a $21 million dollar contract, they thought they were getting a capable backup point guard to reduce the minutes played by Steve Nash. Banks certainly did not prove his competency last year. Everything we have heard from the Suns so far this year indicates that Banks has been one of the hardest workers in the off-season, putting in lots of extra time and being one of the first to arrive for voluntary workouts. If Banks has improved his outside jump shot, I look for him to get about 15 minutes a game this year and play about 1200 total minutes. Assuming Banks can earn these minutes, it will significantly reduce the amount of minutes Steve Nash and Raja Bell have to play. This is because it will allow Barbosa to play more time at the 2, which is a more natural position for him. The other variables in this discussion is the rookies DJ Strawberry and Alando Tucker. Both need serious work on their offensive game, as both are weak shooters. Both are great athletes, especially Strawberry, who was rated as the best athlete at the pre-draft camp in Orlando. But for anybody who saw Strawberry's dunk attempt get rejected by Sean Marks (Seriously, Sean Marks) in the end of training camp scrimmage, its obvious that his offensive game needs lots of work. The key to playing time for both of these players will be their defense. Suns coach Mike D'Antoni has already said that Strawberry's defense is at an NBA level. Unfortunately for both of these rookies, I don't see them cracking to rotation for anything other than mop-up minutes.
