Panic Attack

[W]here are all the people who said 'It’s OK if you lose some games early? Don’t work them too hard, don’t turn the screws too hard early.’ Where did those people go?

- Mike D'Antoni

Where, indeed.

They are on message boards and blogs, in living rooms and bar rooms, watching from afar - their words muted by the much louder (hence more influential) voices of the valley's B and C reporters' (Bickley, Bordow, Boivin, and Brown; Coro) perception that there is panic in the streets of Sunsland.

Do these people really represent the beliefs of Suns fans? Sure, there are fans wandering through the season in a haze of a 40-year title drought, and their nerves stand on the thinnest of precipices with the lingering memory of three straight playoff disappointments. There are also those out there who have written off the season long before it even started, wondering how the Suns can win it all in a league so oblivious to its own shortcomings (see: Donaghy, Tim; Stern, David; justice, in). These are the fans who see any sign of failure as justification of their beliefs that the Suns cannot and will not win a title, even in a hypothetical two-team league.

The purpose of the media is two-fold.

1. Question and critique the status quo that precipitates from powers standing on high cliffs overlooking the valley throngs. It is meant to challenge any person or conglomeration who attempts to usurp the freedom of the people for the benefit of personal gain. Unfortunately, the media itself is equipped with the same flaws and weaknesses as any human being on Clockwork earth, and tend to be open to manipulation (see: Iraq, War in; News, Fox).

2. Document history and tie historical events to modern times. The media serves as a recording device that prevents our past from washing away with the passage of time. It is imperfect, to be sure, as the documentarians are human beings who bring their own biases and points of view to these events, but the general idea is that not all of them share the same views with each other. The assumption is that biases balance themselves into something close to objective fact (see: history, revisionist).

Now, the very act of writing and posting my thoughts publicly places me in the pantheon of social, political, and cultural critics and historical human TiVos that have been largely responsible for shaping the attitudes and beliefs of our society as a whole, however small a part I may play. I speak not as loudly as the voices that Mike D'Antoni and his players most often hear, but certainly louder than anyone in a bar room, living room, or break room (by virtue of a larger potential audience). It's a strange place to find oneself, both speaking to and representing two sides at once.

So who's panicking?

Although some members of the media will take the slightest ripple in the tidal pool as evidence of an approaching tsunami (Dan Bickley and Paola Boivin), at least one (Paul Coro) has actually begun taking the time to step back and listen to concerns of the fans who haven't been loud enough for D'Antoni and Marion's ears. I guess that's the difference between a columnist and a beat writer - one's job is to relate the ongoing story line of failure and disappointment, the other's is to put it into a more current perspective. Both are valuable, and both are valid.

Someone is listening to the wrong story.

Taking a more critical look at D'Antoni's question, I would say that he was questioning the media as much as he was the fans. After all, those people didn't drop off the face of the earth, nor did every single one of them do an about-face and join the bandwagon of freak-outs and cliff-jumpers. There have been no reports of mass spontaneous combustion.

We are right here, Coach. We are with you all the way. We understand that losses and losing streaks will happen. We still don't care about the team's record through 23 games of the season. Our concerns have either not been represented adequately, or they have been completely misrepresented in the name of sales and marketing.

How do I know?

I talk to them every day on message boards, in their living rooms, in bar rooms and break rooms. I am one of them.

Here is what we, the shielded masses, care about:

1. Defensive energy.

As far as I know, no one cares about consecutive losses. Games like the one in Minnesota happen, and we understand tired legs, aching backs, and flu-like symptoms. It was just the loss at home against Miami that bothered us. The guys had a day off, they got to sleep in their own beds and spend time with their families. They got to play in front of the home crowd - even though most of the lower bowl is empty at the start of EVERY third quarter. Yes, Shaq and Zo are huge. But they were on the second half of a back-to-back at the end of a long Western road trip. Our boys let us down by not putting forth the necessary energy on the defensive end to take the Heat out quickly and soundly.

It wasn't "just another loss" to us. It was an inexcusable loss, and one that points to an historical pattern of early season malaise that seems to show up throughout the season. We don't want to see that after three playoff disappointments, simple as that. It's not so much about looking ahead. It's about looking back.

2. Boris Diaw.

Seriously...what gives? One day he's right there with us, and then he's gone for two weeks. We don't like hearing the coach say that "he's fine" and that "he'll come around." We don't want to hear D'Antoni blame himself for not playing him enough or for shuffling him around. That's his own fault, not the coach's.

Boris proved to us against the Jazz that he is more than capable of finding his way in the Suns offense with Amare Stoudemire and Grant Hill in the lineup. He played well next to Amare against the Jazz in the fourth quarter, picking his spots to score and dish to near perfection. Like you, Coach, we don't care about his numbers. We care about his performance beyond the numbers. When Diaw chooses his spots like he did in that game, this team (in our completely unbiased and objective opinion, of course) is unbeatable, plain and simple.

(In all fairness, I must say that I was thoroughly impressed with every minute of Diaw's performance against the Jazz...if I hadn't made that clear already. One was quite pleased.)

3. Where's the bench?

I've given up on even caring about the bench anymore. In all honesty, I prefer seeing the top seven or eight players on the court an entire game. I don't like seeing constant stops-in-play and rotation shuffles. I'm in complete agreement with D'Antoni's philosophy here.

I would, however, like to see these guys get a chance when others are struggling. In baseball, position players get a day off every once in a while to keep themselves fresh later in the season. Their substitutes come in and do an adequate job of filling in, then it's back to normal the next day. The baseball season is almost twice as long as the NBA season, so that is not a practical practice.

But if Leandro is under the weather or his shooting elbow is hurting him, or if Raja has a bad tendinitis flare-up, what's the harm in bringing in DJ Strawberry or Marcus Banks for an eight to ten minute stretch? As we saw against the Jazz, Steve Nash and Shawn Marion are capable of carrying the team offensively so long as the defense does its job. I can't see how DJ would be a liability here, especially when the team was 4-17 from the three point arc anyway. And wouldn't a Sean Marks sighting do a number on Diaw if he decides to revert to his passive ways for a two week stretch? None could have been worse in the showing against the Heat, that's for sure.

I don't know. I'm just sayin'.

We understand that the team is going to lose games. It is not impossible to win all 82, but it has never been done before, and there is no expectation that it ever will happen. No reasonable fan is panicking at this point of the season. Really, is there ever an appropriate time to panic? Probably not, but December hardly would qualify if there were. All that any fan of this team wants to see is consistent effort to try and win, and consistent (read: HIGH) energy on defense. Sure, the season is a grind, but that is no reason to take a night off.

Mike, Shawn, Steve - please stop reading the paper. If you get curious and feel an insatiable desire to commit an exercise of self-torture, try to remember this one thing: What you read is not the whole story.

Update: Nash reflects these feelings perfectly when discussing Marion's energy in the Jazz game.

We've got to play with that energy and intensity we played with against everybody. It made the game fun. It made us feel like a team. It made us feel like we could do some things, and we have a future, so it was nice.

Win or lose, that is all we ask. Win or lose, that was fun. Win or lose, just play.