But then you check a couple of things. Like this, a list of centers in the last 5 seasons who have played 32 minutes per game. Look at those points/boards totals. Or this, Hakim Warrick's game log from when he was logging that sort of minutes. Apart from the blocks, looks almost as good. And then you watch yesterday's game against the Lakers, when Gortat couldn't finish on a number of Nash lollipops, and the Suns bigs couldn't stop the Lakers from hitting the offensive boards and scoring in the middle. Eventually Phoenix went back to their zone defence that worked so well in the Western Finals last year. But Gortat and Lopez were supposed to mean that wasn't necessary. A poor man's version of Orlando's twin towers defence.
I'm probably being overly pessimistic about Gortat, but it reminds me of the Southpark episode 'Cartmanland'. In it, Cartman buys an amusement park because he wants to go on all the rides without any queues. Intrigued, people gather and the park becomes wildly popular since nobody is allowed in. I get the feeling Magic GM Otis Smith kept on praising Marcin Gortat, saying he was one of the league's best centers, but at the same time refusing to trade him and refusing to let the Mavs take him. The rest of the league's GMs, who we know aren't actually that smart, couldn't resist and eventually the Suns threw Jason Richardson at them.
Just after Richardson was traded, Steve Nash tweeted this:
It made me sad to see, because like everyone with a heart, I want Nash to win. If Richardson was his best chance to do that, I'd hate it to have been thrown away for an underwhelming center. With trade rumours circling over Nash, it seems like his best chance to win might not come in Phoenix.
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