The Suns have now played in 3 full pre-season games, which I consider long enough at least to make some basic observations about this team. First and foremost, Amare Stoudemire seems to be healthy. Despite all the clamoring to trade him away last season, he remains the most important part of the current Suns roster. To put it simply enough, without Amare Stoudemire, the Suns would be a 30-35 win team this season. To that particular point, Amare simply has to be the superstar he claims that he is. Last night against the Thunder Amare was able to amass 20 points and  6 rebounds. The statistic that is disheartening however is zero blocks. In fact, in 74 total minutes this pre-season Amare only has 1 block. The 1 block came against Partizan-Belgrade who no offense to them would not beat Arizona State in a game much less the Phoenix Suns.

With the departure of Shaquille O’Neal coupled with the injury to Robin Lopez (out 6-8 weeks) the Suns are going to be extremely undersized to begin the season. Channing Frye who was acquired via free-agency will be listed as Center, however he does not provide a sufficient threat to penetrating guards in the Wesy (Tony Parker, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, Aaron Brooks, Brandon Roy, Andre Miller) just to name a few. As much as we all love Steve Nash in the valley, we are resigned to the fact that just like a matador he will say ¡Olay! as defenders blow past him. This is going to be extremely  problematic for the Suns if no one can contest a layup. The answer to this problem is simple, 1. Grant Hill needs to help on opposing point guards and 2. Amare needs to use his jumping ability and block some shots to send a message to opposing teams.

Last night, Oklahoma basically had their way with the Suns starting roster despite the final score. The Suns fell behind in the 1st quarter by 16 and simply could not match the Thunder’s athleticism falling 110-105.  However, the Suns did show quite a bit of resolve by twice coming back from double digit leads. Jared Dudley continues to cement himself into the Suns rotation by scoring 12 points last night on 5-8 shooting from the floor. Earl Clark showed some of his potential on defense by blocking 2 shots in 25 minutes.  Of course as one would expect from such a raw talent, for every flash of brilliance there was 3 turnovers and 3-8 shooting.

The Suns next match up is inPortland on Wednesday 10/14/2009. This should be yet another oppurtunity to see how the Suns defense can match up with a younger more athletic team.