flashbone

just so you know, the expected recovery period for this type of surgery (microfracture) is definitely more than 4 months. so, it is only a wishful thinking that stoudemire will be back sometime around the all-star break. remember j.kidd, webber and mashburn? they've all been through this injury and only j.kidd can be regarded as almost fully recovered (i'd say 80%). webber and mashburn aren't what they used to be.

having said that, the good thing is that stoudemire is still young. so naturally, we presume that his comeback progress will be much better and faster. also, it is said in some news that his injury was not as severe as other players and it is expected that he would reclaim his form successfully when he comes back.

other than spurs, pacers and rockets, suns are another team that have substantially improved their roster (the departure of joe johnson is sad but please pay some respect to jim jackson, although joe is a much better playmaker). stoudemire plays an important role on the team and there is no question about it. however, the heart and soul of the team are definitely nash, marion and their small-ball style. i don't think anyone will argue about nash's importance, right?
as for marion, let's just put it this way, is there anything that he doesn't do on both ends of the floor, offensively and defensively? and what about his off-ball moves? these are all essential to the team's performance last season.

but after all, phonenix is a team that rely on open-court plays and this hasn't changed a bit for at least the past 10 years. whether they had a powerful big man inside or what, they just love to out-run and out-shoot the other team. while most teams set up their offence on their opponent's side, suns run their offence ever since the ball inbounds from their backcourt. one of the characteristics of open-court play is that offence usually doesn't run through the big men. it is mainly a guards/sf thing.  i don't see there is anything that will change their way of playing this season.

the signing of kurt thomas and brian grant are meant to back up stoudemire and make up for the loss of steven hunter. but also, thomas and grant were acquired because they play better defence than stoudemire and hunter. in a nutshell, the team's inside presence is much stronger now. but most of us have forgotten the kind of offence these two players can bring to the team. in particular, i'm talking about thomas, who has developed some good low-post plays over the years when he was with the knicks. remember the the season where most of the big guys on the knicks were injured and thomas came out and played a pretty good role that year?  that was the time he became better offensively. now he is older and slower, but his experience and mid-range shooting (which stoudemire is not doing very well) will benefit the team.

i'm not saying stoudemire's absence would have no effect at all on the team. my point is simply that as this is a team sport (which most of the subscribers here do not realise), team performance doesn't depend on only one or two individuals but the whole team.  phonenix is still playoff bound, guys.

- in regard to a post by one subscriber some days ago as to sarunas jasikevicius of the pacers, i'd like to point out that his position on the court is point guard but not a shooting guard. he was the one who led Lithuania in the Olympics last year.