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Kurt Thomas.isn't needed?

by David Pincus
2006-05-31

Last season Phoenix made several drastic changes. They traded Joe Johnson for Boris Diaw and brought in Kurt Thomas for Quentin Richardson in the hope to make the NBA's highest scoring team more polished. However the Suns no longer think that Thomas is necessary, and had benched him up until last night's blowout.

This new light on Thomas makes absolutely no sense. The Suns made the Quentin Richardson trade to bring in Thomas for his defense. Now they say they're trying to play offensively in spite of Thomas, which is ridiculous.

Phoenix has gotten outrebounded in each game this series, and has been undersized throughout the playoffs. 6'8 Boris Diaw plays at Center and James Jones, who is also 6'8, is the tallest player to come off the bench. So why wouldn't Phoenix go to Thomas?

The main reason Dallas is even favored in this series is the drastic defensive overhaul Avery Johnson has implemented. Take rebounding, where the Mavs have won the battle of the boards in all 15 games, including the first four against the Suns. Last year Kurt averaged a double double in 35.7 MPG for the Knicks. This year his minutes dropped nearly 10, which is telling for a team like Phoenix that has been shorthanded all season.

D'Antoni's reluctance to add him to the rotation may be due to Phoenix's resilient success without Thomas. However Phoenix played even better with Thomas at the Center. In the 53 regular season games he played with Phoenix, the Suns went 36-17 (68% winning percentage), while going 18-11 without him (62%).

As for why, Suns coach Mike D'Antoni defends himself: "I like our team right now. I like the way we're going. I don't know what kind of shape he's in. Plus, he's not really a Dirk guarder. So he'd be guarding a guy that we really don't need to be guarding, Erick Dampier or DeSagana Diop. The best thing Kurt does is shut somebody down. Who's he going to shut down?"

No matter what he says, the main reason is that they score better without Thomas in the lineup. In the 29 games without him the Suns averaged 110.9 PPG. This is a losing proposition in basketball. The team that's MO is defense nearly always wins against the team that plays offense. If the Suns not only have him and Brian Grant to play Center, why wouldn't they at least try to play them?

Plus, D'Antoni contradicted himself. If they brought in Thomas to be a defensive stopper, and he isn't going to stop big name players, then why did they bring him in to begin with? Phoenix might wind up moving Thomas in the offseason, like how they moved Steven Hunter, to further improve their offense.

He also stated that he didn't want to rush back Thomas from an injury. But from all accounts, Thomas has been healthy for weeks to play. Raja Bell played last night despite an injury, and Amare Stoudemire's season ended when he was rushed back in March. So it's hard to understand his reasoning.