Amar’e Stoudemire believes the Cavs should have faced the Phoenix Suns in the 2007 NBA Finals

Former NBA star Amar’e Stoudemire believes the Cleveland Cavaliers should have faced the Phoenix Suns in the 2007 NBA Finals.

According to former All-Star and Rookie of the Year Amar’e Stoudemire, the Cleveland Cavaliers should have faced the Phoenix Suns in the 2007 NBA Finals. Not the San Antonio Spurs, who the Suns lost to in six games in the 2007 Western Conference semifinals.

In an interview with Basketball Society’s Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson, Stoudemire would cite “discrepancies” in the officiating as a major factor in their loss. Tim Donaghy, who was an NBA referee from 1994 to 2007, was an individual Stoudemire would mention in particular.

"“There were a lot of discrepancies with San Antonio,” he said.“Even with the officiating with Donaghy, at the time.”"

One of the major moments in that series came in Game 4, when Suns point guard Steve Nash was sent sprawling into the scorer’s table by Spurs power forward Robert Horry.

Stoudemire and Boris Diaw would leave the Suns bench immediately, which is illegal in the NBA, to come to Nash’s defense.

For their roles in the incident, Horry was suspended two games while Diaw and Stoudemire were suspended one game each. According to Stoudemire, the team was unaware of the rule that they couldn’t leave the bench but even if they did break a rule, he expected a warning in that situation rather than a flat-out suspension.

Had Stoudemire never been suspended, he believes they would have made it to the NBA Finals.

"“I think we would definitely have gotten to the Finals,” said Stoudemire."

With the Spurs defeating the Suns 88-85 in Game 5 to go up 3-2 in the series, Stoudemire has a great point. Game 5 was the first game all series that the Suns’ notoriously explosive offense had scored under 100 points.

Stoudemire, an electrifying athlete, averaged 26.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 2.0 blocks and 1.2 steals per game in the semifinals (per Basketball Reference).

You do the math.

Donaghy served 15 months in prison after pleading guilty to gambling charges in 2007, altering games to affect the point spreads in ways that he knew would benefit himself and others.

This is what he had to say about the series in his book “Personal Foul” (quote transcribed by Robinson):

"“I feel the Phoenix Suns were the best team in in the league in 2007.  And that whole series was officiated poorly, and I give the reasons in the book as to why I feel it was officiated poorly. And one of the reasons is that Tommy Nunez was the supervisor of officials in that series. And he had a dislike for the (Suns) owner Robert Sarver, and he enjoyed the lifestyle in San Antonio, and liked to get back in the next round of the playoffs and continue to go to San Antonio. So it was a situation that he was steering the series to San Antonio in tape sessions.”"

Per Bleacher Report, Donaghy had remarkably similar sentiments when asked about the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat’s  series in the 2006 NBA Finals.

"“Basically, Dallas was up in the series,” Donaghy said on the Forgotten Maverick Podcast. “With that being said, the way it was back then, was that the NBA would come in in order to extend a series, to go over plays that they felt should have went in Miami’s favor that didn’t and that went in Dallas’s favor that shouldn’t have and they started to program and training the referees to look for certain things.”"

Had Stoudemire, Nash and the Suns made it to NBA Finals (they would have had to face off against the Utah Jazz in the Western Conference Finals first), Stoudemire believes that they would have had a great chance to defeat the LeBron James-led Cavs.

"“We would have had a great chance to win against Cleveland,” Stoudemire told me.“We were playing at an extremely high level that year.”"

The Cleveland Cavaliers had a 50-32 record that season, led by James’ averages of 27.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 1.6 steals per game. Through that postseason, James averaged 25.1 points, 8.1 rebounds, 8.0 assists and 1.7 steals per game.

Unfortunately for the Cavs, whether it was the regular season or postseason, the Cavs’ second-leading scorer was averaging approximately half of the points that James averaged. It was their overreliance on James that became their Achilles heel against the Spurs in the Finals that season.

Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich challenged James to beat his team by daring him to be a jump shooter and taking away other scorers that may have been even moderately effective for the Cavs.

The result, four straight losses for the Cavs. A sweep in their first NBA Finals appearance in franchise history.

Unlike the Spurs, the Suns were known for their explosive offensive rather than defensive genius, so the Cleveland Cavaliers would have likely faced a different challenge if they faced the Suns in the 2007 Finals.

Outscoring the top-ranked offense in the league.

The Suns, who finished the season with a 61-21 record, had the league’s best scoring average (110.2) and offensive rating (113.9) that season. Using their top-five defense (the Cavs were ranked fourth in defensive rating (101.3) and fifth in opponents points per game (92.9)), the Cleveland Cavaliers would try to slow down the Suns but honestly, would likely get ran off the floor.

Zydrunas Ilgauskus, though skilled, was a lead-footed big man who Stoudemire would have feasted on in open court and Nash would have targeted in the pick-and-roll. Former Cavs forward Drew Gooden would have had to be the team’s center but that would have meant James or Sasha Pavlovic had to slide down to power forward so that there was a player quick enough to guard Shawn Marion at the position.

The Suns would have made it difficult for the Cavs to win; their 2-0 record against the Wine and Gold that season giving every indication that the Cavs would have lost in the Finals.

It’s always fun to wonder what could have been. Even if the outcomes aren’t always favorable.