Leandro Barbosa

Last year we debuted the “Highs and Lows” system — previewing the NBA season by predicting the respective ceiling and basement for each team. Same theme, different season… Added: Earl Clark , Channing Frye, Taylor Griffin Lost: Shaquille O’Neal, Matt Barnes, Stromile Swift Ceiling: Conference semifinals Two things we do know: Phoenix will have one of the two or three highest-scoring offenses in the League, and they will have one of the three or four worst defenses . Last season — playing just about half the schedule in their preferred give-plenty/get-plenty system — the Suns were 1st in scoring and 27th in getting scored ... Read Full Story

I realize that the NBA season is not even ten games old, yet the Memphis Grizzlies are night-and-day different as opposed to last season; in Monday’s game against the Phoenix Suns , rookie guard O.J. Mayo pressed his case as being the real deal when he scored 19 of his 33 points in the final period. More often than not, that’s usually enough to get the win for your team, but the Suns’ Leandro Barbosa had something to say about that as he scored 16 points of his own in the final period. The offensive outburst by Barbosa was enough to help Phoenix get ... Read Full Story

OK, so the Shaq and Terry Porter experiment failed and now the Phoenix Suns are back to runnin’ and gunnin’ full time. Over the summer, Steve Kerr re-signed the quarterback behind the seven-seconds-or-less offense Steve Nash , re-upped with Grant Hill and acquired two slim and athletic big men in Channing Frye and lottery-pick Earl Clark . Under coach Alvin Gentry (who was one of D’Antoni’s assistants in Phoenix), the team will try to trying to rewind time back to the 2004-’05 season and attempt to put up 115 or more points per game. The problem is, this isn’t the same Suns squad from ... Read Full Story

Barbosa for Team Brazil Similar to the Vegas/Orlando summer leagues, you don’t want to read too much into the FIBA Americas tournament as far as projecting how its standouts will do in the upcoming NBA season, especially when Team USA sat this one out. But it’s hard not to be impressed by Leandro Barbosa ’s recent work and predict big things for him this season. In leading Brazil to the tournament gold medal yesterday, as well as a spot in the 2010 World Championships, Barbosa averaged 21.1 points on 55% shooting from the field. It was a down year for Barbosa in ‘08-09. On ... Read Full Story

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