| 25 October 2009
It's less than 72 hours to B-Day for the Suns and the start of another season of joy. So - as is the wont of many in Suns fandom - the predictions of gloom and doom are already emitting from cave dwellers and valley cats throughout the land.
All hail the End of the World, for the pessimists have just begun to wail. And their cry this year is rebounding.to winning games. And we're more interested in those big Ws than just some loose RPGs.
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A case in point is the LA Clippers - you know those hot shots who took the pre-season by storm with the best record in the Western Conference. With a 6 - 2 won/loss record, they proved to be dismal rebounders grabbing just 39.12 per game. That left them ranked 23rd in the NBA - a full six spots below the Suns - with Phoenix snagging an average of 40.75 boards per game.
Sure - we get it. Having the ball is better than not having it - kind of reminds us of that old saw, "Possession is nine-tenths of the law". And, yes we want the ball too. But the stats from the eight game 2009 pre-season show that grabbing rebounds doesn't necessarily lead The Utah Jazz - are near town rivals -were even worse in the rebounding department with just 38.37 per game but they also had an impressive 6 -2 pre-season record. So grabbing nearly 2.5 rpgs less than the Suns didn't hurt them a bit when it came to getting those Ws. And the dreaded Lakers where 14th in rebounding but won 6 of 8 pre-season outings.
So when that guy on the corner tries to sell you on doomsday because the Suns aren't grabbing the boards - just tell them you'd rather have Channing Frye making 3s than the lanky center hanging by that basket.
Yes - we know it goes against conventional wisdom - but points are more important than boards when the shots are actually falling.
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