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"FacebookPinterestnashpreview.png \n\n Note: The teams that will be seeded 2 through 8 in the West are going to finish within a few games of each other, meaning three potentially deserving teams don\u2019t get the honor of a GQ.com scouting report. Denver appears that they would have trouble beating a CYO team without George Karl. Portland is currently in position to play the Lakers. And San Antonio is boring. Instead, here\u2019s Phoenix:\n\n PHOENIX SUNS\n\nSTRENGTHS: With their ill-advised experiment in the half-court offense a thing of the past, Phoenix is once again a team to be reckoned with. The Suns score more and shoot better than any team in the league, and it all starts with Canadian hero Steve Nash. He\u2019s a master of finding open spaces on the court and moving defenders as he pleases. His 50-percent FG and 42-percent 3PT don\u2019t hurt the cause, either. Amar\u2019e Stoudemire probably scores more easy points than anyone in the league because of Nash\u2019s ability as a distributor\u2014and he\u2019s another guy with a future max contract on his mind. Grant Hill is still ticking somehow, doing a little bit of everything. The roster is filled with lights-out shooters like Nash, Jason Richardson and Jared Dudley. Even the team\u2019s &amp;quot;center&amp;quot; Channing Frye spends most of his time knocking down shots behind the arc. The Suns will set a fast pace, stick to it, and dare their opponents to keep up.\n\nWEAKNESSES: Phoenix\u2019s weakness is well known, and it\u2019s a pretty important one: defense. Defense just doesn\u2019t fit in with the team philosophy. They don\u2019t want to play defense and everybody, including the Suns themselves, knows it. Phoenix opponents score almost 106 points per game. Put another way, any given team facing the Suns will play like they are the 4th best offense in the league. It\u2019s truly a testament to their offense that they manage to win so many games. Among teams that give up at least 100 ppg (half the league, sadly), the Suns are one of only two with a positive point differential. They have to find a way to maintain their up-tempo style in the playoffs, where better defenses clamp down and points and opportunities to run are harder to come by.\n\nX-FACTOR: They don\u2019t really have one. Robin Lopez is a possibility, as he\u2019s the only Sun capable of establishing a consistent presence in the paint. He\u2019s injured and his return is questionable, so that thought\u2019s on the backburner. The one thing that will make the difference between victory and defeat in the playoffs will be the Suns\u2019 opponents. It sounds obvious, and it pretty much is.\n\nFEARLESS PREDICTION: Phoenix will lose to the first team that plays some defense and slows them down. It could be San Antonio in the first round; Nash has never beaten the Spurs in the playoffs. In eight total playoff appearances, Nash\u2019s teams have been eliminated by them five times. If, however, the final standings work out in their favor, there are scenarios that could certainly find them in the Conference Finals. At the moment, playing Oklahoma City in the first and Denver (and maybe Dallas) in the second looks like a very plausible road to a WCF matchup with L.A. They just have to hope everything shakes out that way.\u2014Nick Ingalls\n\nOther previews:\n\n Oklahoma City Thunder\n\n Milwaukee Bucks\n\n Boston Celtics\n\n Utah Jazz\n\n Atlanta Hawks"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/the-nba-playoffs-the-big-sleeper-in-the-west>