In the 45 games Penny Hardaway and Jason Kidd were together in the starting lineup the Suns won just over 73% (33 - 12) of their games. We can envision how many games they would have won if they were available for all 82 games and I project it would've been over 60 games.
That Suns offense was FIRE. Aside from JKidd & Penny, that roster had a young Shawn Marion AND Antonio McDyess in his prime... Later adding Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire and a consistently exciting rotation of high-flyers. One of the most explosive and energetic teams to watch in NBA history and heavily influenced this current era's emphasis on the "run-and-gun" style basketball.
They hadn't Antonio, he came back to Nuggets during 1998 free agency. He was a Sun the year before with sophomore Nash, who played as backup of J Kidd after Suns got him during 1996-97 trading Micheal Finley.
PENNY my fav NBA player when i was a kid, traded my MJs for penny cards, got all his kicks, remembered one of my rookie cards that if penny scored more than 25pts vs the bulls the value would add 10 more dollars. Was very excited when he did and won the game.
The 1992-2000 jerseys they wore from the Barkley era thru most of the kidd years were one of the better jersey sets in NBA history imo. Its a shame they replaced these beauties after just 8 years with such a boring and bland design starting with the 2000-2001 season.
Switching from these beauties to such an ugly bland set like those purple and grays were might possibly be the biggest jersey downgrade in the history of pro sports.
Annamal House lost in 6? Problems? One of Phoenix issues with that backcourt was similar to Kidd being with the nets. If they weren’t running, they weren’t scoring. The 2000 Lakers easiest path to the title was against Phoenix. Phoenix had a tough time scoring and Lakers were up 3-0 eventually ending the series in 5 games blowing them out in 3 of the 4 wins.
Games 1 and 5 were blowouts. Games 2 and 3 were both close games the suns could've ended up winning. The suns did have a blowout victory of their own in game 4. Series honestly should've gone at least 6. Lakers would've lost game 2 if not for a miracle shot by Kobe in the final seconds.
Funny thing is penny played in Orlando (my birth town ) and played for the suns ( fave NBA team for over 20 years) ...he was a truly special player who just never reached his peak due to injuries...he was truly special enough to be top 10 of all time
Yes. I am disgusted with that organization. We lost Shaq at first. Even though I was really young and not into basketball, in hindsight I realize that we could've had a dynasty with a very young, new franchize. We get T-Mac, then the GM didn't want to build around him, so he leaves. The summer he leaves, we get Dwight Howard. We were doing good and even built an elite team around him. Summer of 2009 we let Hedo go because they didn't want to pay him. We pickup Vince Carter. Stop right there and think: If we paid Turk, our starting lineup would've been: Jameer Nelson, Vince Carter, Hedo Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis, Dwight Howard. On top of that, we had a bench. Dec.18th, 2010 marks my official end of supporting the Orlando Magic; on that day we traded Vince Carter, Mickael Pietrus, Rashard Lewis and Marcin Gortat. Ever since that day I hated that organization. Too many chances.
In the 45 games they were together the Suns won 73% of the games (33-12). I think we can envision what it would've been like for 82 games. That label of "Backcourt 2000" was well deserved.
At the time it was quite inevitable willing to take a risk and sign a player like Penny, even though the contract was huge and potential killer of any cap space. Yes, he already had a tough two years, but during the lockout season of 1998-99, despite looking quite diminished on athetical terms compared to his 1993-94, 94-95 and 95-96 years, he had no injuries and looked a borderline all-star again. He was like a 75% Penny that still means something, since at 100% he was a top 5 player in the league and you have to remember that his game was before anything else about reading, finding spots, having a versatile impact with his IQ, handles, vision, pass first and post-up game, so you could somehow handle a minor version. Betting on some physical improvement to reach some previous standard, based on environment change, better diligence by medical staff, a dose of good luck and some progress by science in treating that kind of injuries, could be a good bet. It would mean having who knows a 90% Penny, if everything had followed an ideal script and remember the guy had the chance to be lighter than ever on himself sharing the back-court with Jason and playing more off the ball. But things didn't go the way most fans wished and it's a big pity even to this day.
The problem of those Suns, even if an around 85% Penny (like we saw during the series against SA) had survived and lasted, the roster wouldn't be able to face Shaq if they playing the basketball NBA teams used to play at the time. They had Googs as power forward who already was some kind of modern big man with mobility and dishing game (and he too started to have health issues) on paper fitting the modern game we have seen since '10s, but certainly unable to have a physical presence inside the paint compared to Shaq. And the (false) center was Luc Longley who honestly built a name and took that big contract only thanks to MJ, Da Pip and the Worm during the second three-peat. They likely would have been forced to send Oliver Miller to spend as many fouls as he could and then play uptempo with Kidd, Penny, Marion (supposed to take Kobe on the defensive end), Cliff and Googs as much as it was possible. With Chapman and Day coming off the bench as spot up shooters. Who knows how things would go in that kind of scenario, but we really talking about some stretch definitely not happening those days. Being said that, Penny is in my heart and those Suns are iconic with their load of what ifs.
Penny was way ahread of his time & would tailor made for this hyper-hyrid-rent-a-HOFer-superteam-manufacture-load-managing era of NBA. Would say he be super great for the Grizz but idk how iForgot he got shot his sophomore year. So, its safe to say Ja's presensce in the lockerroom could be triggering. its just a shame that someone's game was echoing Magic but his rosters rivalled more straight to redbox instead of showtime. Then ShaQ leaves and actually builds that very same dream waited your whole life for , as a the Lakers. With Kobe.
Hardaway was damaged goods and Colangelo took the bait to keep the Kidd-era going. Really this move came from McDyess leaving and Gugliotta only being a decent compliment to Kidd.
Penny was completely finished when he went to sun's!! It was like watching a cripple playing compared to his former injury free self in his first 4+ years in Orlando!!
Penny and Grant Hill were two brightest stars of the 90's - both careers were derailed by serious injuries. Remember when Jordan got hurt in 2nd year? Just imagine if he never recovered. Not saying Penny and Hill were going to be next Michael Jordan, but they were on track to be one of all time bests. It's unfortunate.
Go check out the Suns record as brief as it was when Jason Kidd and Penny Hardaway were playing together. Having a .733 win percentage when those two play ain’t too bad. It’s no secret that Penny’s microfracture surgery in ‘01 altered his NBA career.
Suns were 33-12 in games where both Kidd and penny were in the lineup for 1999-2000. The experiment seemed to work the first year when both guys played. Penny was still pretty good his first year in phoenix and Kidd was starting to enter his prime. The off-season knee surgeries penny had between 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 pretty much ended his days of being a difference making stat caliber player. Backcourt 2000 officially died when the suns traded him after 2000-2001 following his domestic violence incident.
