General

Suns Marginalize Boris Diaw, Begin Playing Right Into D’Antoni’s Hands

Sep 22, 2008, 6:45 PM UTC

Somehow I missed the news that new Sun Matt Barnes willâ†µstart next season. Okay, that’s cool, if a little backward;â†µBarnes’s wacky, chaotic approach to basketball seems the exactâ†µopposite of where Phoenix is headed. But Upsideâ†µand Motor sees something more sinister in this announcement: Borisâ†µDiaw, quietly being kicked to the curb.â†µ
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â†µMaybe “quietly” isn’t the right word. More that Barnes’ starting slotâ†µsets off a chain reaction that could very well push Diaw out of theâ†µrotation:â†µâ†µâ‡¥Diaw played most of his minutes last season as a power forward, butâ†µâ‡¥with Shaq now very much a part of the picture in the PHX, I’m not sureâ†µâ‡¥of how real a possibility that is. Amare will command a vast majorityâ†µâ‡¥of minutes at the 4, meaning Diaw will have to scrounge for minutes atâ†µâ‡¥the 3 and the 5 ... The idea of Diaw playing more center shouldâ†µâ‡¥make anyone who likes defense cringe. And on top of that, Robin Lopez,â†µâ‡¥in addition to being the Suns’ number one draft target thisâ†µâ‡¥off-season, has been turning some heads with his play in the team’sâ†µâ‡¥voluntary workouts.â†µâ†µAnd let’s not forget that Hill is still around, and useful in spurts.â†µJust getting old and, because of his medical history, not to beâ†µcounted on.â†µ
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â†µMaybe I’m reading too much into this, but it does kind of feel likeâ†µKerr/Porter are going out of their way to marginalize Diaw, one ofâ†µthose signature D’Antoni players. He’s got undeniable skills; it’sâ†µjust a matter of thinking outside of the box and figuring out how toâ†µuse them, something the Suns now can’t -- or won’t -- make a priority of.â†µBefore long, he might be the same dust-gathering curiosity he was inâ†µAtlanta, before Mike D rescued him. And then at some point, peopleâ†µwill stupidly start wondering if Diaw’s actually a lazy, snooty bumâ†µwho can only thrive in a system tailor-made for him.â†µ
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â†µWhich, hopefully, is when the Knicks will swoop in, take Diaw off theâ†µSuns’ hands for an expiring contract, and just maybe, contradictâ†µeverything I wrote earlier about the Knicks getting ahead ofâ†µthemselves.â†µ

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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