sterlingnashtydavis

Dragic-Barbosa-Dudley-Amundson-Lopez outplays Nash-JRich-Hill-Barnes-Shaq on the defensive end. Our starters aren't hustling like the bench does, and don't play with much urgency most of the time.

binkar

I agree. The energy is taken to another level. It is so refreshing to see effort on the defensive end when that group comes in. We are really starting to have a solid bench just as the season comes to a close. It's a shame that these guys weren't given a chance earlier in the year so that we could have a solid bench for longer than the last few weeks of the year.

leclerc

I think it's great to finally see some real bench play. We haven't had that in quite a while. I love how they've been bringing energy and intensity and that guys like Dragic and Dudley get playing time and more experience and confidence.

Ideally the starters should take it as a challenge and elevate their play but that's not always been the case. Oh well, it's summer holiday now so let's hope next years starting unit does something about it.

DarenG

It's still in spurts though. For instance the other night the bench came in and played some quality minutes then gave up a 20 to something run.

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dreamcastrocks

You have to remember that our bench usually plays against the opponent's bench.

Do you think that Dragic-Barbosa-Dudley-Amundson-Lopez can outplay the starters against opponent's starters? I'm not so sure.

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'Just to reiterate, Derek Anderson isn't hurt.... he has just been benched.'
-Sam Rosen

ASUCHRIS

His only point seems to be that the bench plays better defense and hustles more than the starters, which seems to be true.

dreamcastrocks

They do seem to hustle more, I'll give him that. However, they aren't playing against the same level of competition. If/when they do, I might agree.

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'Just to reiterate, Derek Anderson isn't hurt.... he has just been benched.'
-Sam Rosen

ASUCHRIS

Agreed, but regardless I think position by position the bench is better defensively.

Dragic > Nash
Barbosa > Richardson
Dudley = Grant Hill
Lou > Barnes
Robin = Shaq

Our starting unit is just atrocious defensively, at least some of the bench guys show some promise on defense.

Mainstreet

I agree. The Suns bench is usually matched up with other team's bench players. However, I do like their effort on defense. It's a move in the right direction. The Suns need this kind of effort from their starters as well.

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You have to live life like you don't know any better.

Maligzar

At this point in the season I have a hard time giving out hustle points.

Starters know that no matter how hard they hustle it's not going to change anything next season. Nothing that the starters do now is going to have an impact on off season moves.

The bench on the other hand sees this as their time to shine. This gets them on film. Of course they are going to hustle.

sterlingnashtydavis

this is the problem, the starters NEVER hustled all season long and never played with urgency. you think i'm only talking about right now? this entire season the suns starters have been extremely lazy and not playing to their full potential on both ends of the floor. this team doesn't want to win a title, as i can see from their effort

Maligzar

Well then your simply making inaccurate statements. Shaq did a good deal of hustling this year; so did Grant Hill, Steve Nash, and the rest of the starters. Where the Suns failed the most in the "hustle" game was on back to back nights, where their age was preventing them from hustling.

There isn't a single team in the league that could lose a guy like Amare and hope to win the title.

Critical analysis of this team and the season is certainly warrented and necessary; but let's not be ridiculous.