| | Associated Press
PHOENIX -- Despite the awful way it ended, the Phoenix Suns
consider their season a success, especially with all that the team
endured.
Still, coach Scott Skiles admitted it will take a few days to
get over the 87-65 pummeling the Suns took from the Los Angeles
Lakers in the deciding Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals
Tuesday night.
"`It's still kind of bitter pill to swallow," Skiles said
after he met with each player Wednesday, "but I'm sure within the
next few days I'll look back on it and realize that it was a great
year overall."
The Suns finished the season 53-29, tied for the fourth-best
record in the West. They eliminated the defending champion San
Antonio Spurs, minus Tim Duncan, to advance past the first round of
the playoffs for the first time in five years.
|  | | Oliver Miller, who acknowledges that he has a weight problem, may not be back with the Suns next season. |
And they gave the Lakers a big scare in Los Angeles in Game 2,
played them close again in Game 3 and routed them in Game 4.
All of this despite a litany of problems in the regular season.
Among them:
The sudden, unexpected resignation of Danny Ainge on Dec. 13,
and the promotion of the 36-year-old Skiles from assistant to head
coach.
The loss of Penny Hardaway for 21 games with a foot injury.
The near-death of Tom Gugliotta from a seizure on the team bus
at Portland's Rose Garden on Dec. 17.
The loss of Shawn Marion for 31 games with a knee injury.
The loss of Gugliotta for the season March 10 with a severe
knee injury that required major reconstructive surgery.
The loss of Jason Kidd with a broken ankle for the final 15
games of the regular season and the first three of the playoffs.
"This was an unbelievably crazy year. I don't think I've ever
seen anything like it," Skiles said. "I've been on teams with a
rash of injuries before, but not combined with a coaching change
and one of the players almost dying."
Kidd and Hardaway hardly had a chance to determine just how good
they can be together.
"Early in the year, they started playing well together, and
Penny went down," Skiles said, "then Penny came back and they
started playing well together, and Jason went down. Having said
that, they both had phenomenal years. It just points to how really
good both of them are."
Kidd, who will play on the U.S. Olympic team in September, is
looking forward to working more with Hardaway.
"We've only had probably a half a season together, with all the
injuries and stuff," he said. "We've just scratched the surface
and it's just a matter of us building on that."
Hardaway's strong play after Kidd was injured helped restore his
image as one of the NBA's best. He averaged 20.3 points in the
playoffs.
"I am satisfied with what I did personally the last two months
of the season," Hardaway said, "because it kind of got the monkey
off of my back that people said I couldn't play anymore in this
league, and I didn't have it."
Suns president Bryan Colangelo was pleased with the improvement
this season.
"I'd say that significant strides were made," he said. "We
set out with two very public goals -- to get back to the 50-win
plateau and to get to the second round of the playoffs. We
accomplished both of those things, and we sent a message to the
Lakers that we weren't a pushover for them, other than Games 1 and
5.
"We put some fear in them. We had them on the ropes and this
season could have been a completely different story with a missed
jumper, a call here and a call there, a ball bouncing one way or
another."
Colangelo wouldn't rule out a major personnel move, but hinted
that only minor tinkering would be made.
"The continuity factor has not been there the past few
seasons," he said. "There's been some significant turnover. It's
been difficult for the team to get to know each other."
There will be some changes.
Kevin Johnson, coaxed out of retirement when Kidd was injured,
is expected to return to life as an ex-NBA player.
Rex Chapman, with lingering wrist and ankle injuries that could
require surgery, is considering retirement. Oliver Miller, given
another chance with Phoenix, knows the coaches were unhappy that he
failed to keep control of his weight problem.
"How many of y'all think I'll be back next season?," he joked
with reporters before his meeting with Skiles.
Afterward, Miller said he wanted to come back but knew he hadn't
lived up to expectations.
"I started out hot, but I let myself down at the end," he
said. "Everybody knows I have a weight problem. But it's kind of
hard. It's just something I have to get control of. It's going to
be another uphill battle for me. But I'm a soldier, I'm going to
fight it out and I'm going to come out on top."
Kidd promised one change for sure: The blond look will be
history.
"Next season," he said, "it will be back to normal."
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