Mountain Out of a Grant Hill

OK...so I'm tooling around suns.com half expecting a breaking story about Steve Nash signing with the Suns as a free agent. That's how slow it is, despite Summer League play going on an hour's flight and lap dance away. It's gotten to the point where the part of my brain that processes Suns information is in hibernation, so I don't know what to make of the little information I am getting. So much so, that this stupid little poll caught my eye.


Poll courtesy suns.com screwcopyrightinfringementbullshitit'sjustadamnpicture.

The results of the poll (so far, of course), as unscientific and substantially invalid as they may be, leave me squirming in my seat a bit.

Now, I understand that Grant Hill has been around forever and used to be a perennial MVP candidate. I also understand that he's a great guy and that everybody loves him, as well he is an intelligent and respectable leader. Fine.

But we have a perennial MVP candidate (and one on the rise), we have a clubhouse full of great attitudes (rumors of internal discontent notwithstanding), and we've never really been short on that nebulous quality of "leadership".

I'll be forthright and tell you that I chose "Mid-range game" because that's really the only thing he brings that the Suns were lacking. He isn't the big, athletic shot-blocker we need, and he's not really Steve's back-up. He simply brings the element of the game that the team really needs from Shawn.

Mostly my beef is with the 827 people who believe that Hill brings experience more than anything else on the list.

Seriously? Experience?

Would that be the experience of watching 60% of his games the last 6 years in street clothes? We already have plenty of that in Sean Marks and Marcus Banks.

Maybe it's that playoff experience that will help get us past San Antonio. Well, except for the fact only Tracy McGrady has suffered more playoff futility than Grant Hill (6 first round exits to 5, neither player making it beyond).

Someone tell me what experience Grant Hill brings to the table that a) the Suns need and b) they don't have in droves already. Please. I need to know that not all fans are snowed by basketball ignorance, preventing them from holding realistic expectations as we head into another season.

As I said, my Suns circuitry is pretty much fried at this point. I saw a glimpse of FSN's Suns season retrospective, and the commissioner's vacant stare as he tries to convince himself that he made the right decision still burns my gut to the point that I simply want to punch him square in his smug, self-involved smirk. (I'm sure I'm not the only one.)

So I really don't know what to think of what the Suns have done so far, and I really have no expectations for next season, yet.

I believe that the Suns are still a title contender as currently composed (assuming the rookies make the regular season roster and contribute even 15 good minutes combined), so I don't really see what I need to get worked up about (bad grammar is a summer thing).

Yay Steve Kerr.

Yay Grant Hill.

Yay staying the course.

Someone wake me when the season starts. Better yet, let me sleep in until January. That's the first time any of us are really going to know what the team has going for it this season. Until then, I'll just talk in my sleep every once in a while, or maybe toddle off to the toilet for a late night whiz. Stay tuned...