Suns can make some headlines

[johnson]

They play Golden State on Friday. A win against them would be huge for obvious reasons.

The Lakers came out and said they could beat the Warriors and promptly got pasted by 40 points. Pathetic.

 

[The Derski]

Maybe you heard something different but I heard Kobe basically say they needed a miracle to beat them.


I think the Warriors will beat us but I also think our system has a better chance of beating them than most of the league.

 

[GMATCa]

I am going to predict a Phoenix victory over Golden State. The Warriors have to lose sometime, and the Suns—more so than anyone else in the West—possess the defensive quickness in the back-court to pressure and contain the Golden State guards.

I was thinking the other day about when the Suns' starting back-court was last this good defensively. The nearest possibility might be Jason Kidd and Mario Elie in '00-'01, but Elie was thirty-seven. So one then needs to go back to Kidd and Kevin Johnson in the late nineties.

The Suns may need to play Markieff Morris at center for much of the game, though. I do not see how Tyson Chandler and Alex Len would match up with Draymond Green.

 

[tuffydahog]

I am not sure about you guys, but this might be the most disappointing Suns team I have ever seen. Last year's team was incredibly unlikable. This year's team is still unlikable but they also claimed in the offseason how great they were gonna be. Bledsoe went on record saying they are going for a top 5 seed in the Western Conference. They look like one of the worst teams in basketball to me. Third year in a row McDonough and Hornacek want two point guards. Why? Ahh whatever, the team is going nowhere. No stars want to play for them. All they do is overpay mediocre players. I would trade anyone on the team besides Warren and Booker.

 

[GMATCa]

Well, so much for my prediction. I thought that the team would come out with more enthusiasm and excitement—playing at home, on national television on Friday night with a chance to tag the defending champions with their first loss of the year. But the defense just was not intense enough and tight enough, and the Suns are never going to go where they want to go with Markieff Morris and P.J. Tucker as their starting forwards. He may be hurting or fatigued, but Morris already seems to have lost athleticism, and he fails to excel in any area of the game. The Suns need a more athletic, more explosive, more consistent power forward. Tucker plays with desire, but he is too short (6'7" going on 6'4", if you catch my drift) and too lacking in speed, skills with the ball, and shooting ability. Of course, Warren will supplant him eventually, but the Suns require a huge upgrade at power forward in order to become truly relevant.

 

[GMATCa]

I am not sure about you guys, but this might be the most disappointing Suns team I have ever seen. Last year's team was incredibly unlikable. This year's team is still unlikable but they also claimed in the offseason how great they were gonna be. Bledsoe went on record saying they are going for a top 5 seed in the Western Conference. They look like one of the worst teams in basketball to me. Third year in a row McDonough and Hornacek want two point guards. Why? Ahh whatever, the team is going nowhere. No stars want to play for them. All they do is overpay mediocre players. I would trade anyone on the team besides Warren and Booker.

The problem is not two point guards; in fact, the Suns need both Bledsoe and Knight because neither is good enough as a floor leader or a playmaker to keep a team competitive in the West without another dynamic ball-handler beside him. In the old days, people would have just considered Bledsoe a "guard" more than anything, and Knight is more of a shooting guard than a point guard. Indeed, I felt that way even when he was in Milwaukee. Yes, neither offers much size, but hardly anyone posts up in today's NBA—especially guards—and their quickness can be a virtue defensively. Unfortunately, they did not seem to bring that defensive intensity tonight, although Stephen Curry can make anyone appear foolish.

The Suns are not one of the worst teams in basketball, but they are mediocre. Before the season, I predicted a 41-win season and an eighth seed, which is still possible, although an improving New Orleans squad could again drop Phoenix from the playoff picture. I do not see how anyone could have realistically imagined that this team would be great or a top-five seeds. Players—especially inexperienced players—are rarely objective about themselves and their own situations and their words should usually be taken with a grain of salt.

 

[johnson]

Suns are pathetic. Just another team I won't be watching. I'd be silly to be shocked they lost to Golden State (or anyone for that matter), but that "effort" was a joke. Thank God for the Cardinals.

 

[SpartyNash13]

Fuck this team, how do you blow a 16 point fourth quarter lead to a mediocre Pistons team? One disgraceful display of coaching by Hornacek, I can't wait until he loses his job at season end. Bledsoe is so unclutch down the stretch it makes me sick.

Also, Why does PJ Tucker play? The guy does nothing. TJ Warren is the freaking man yet jackass Hornacek insists on Tucker getting way more minutes.

Wake me up when the season ends, this is a shitshow right now.

 

[johnson]

Suns Front Office continues to look clueless.

So they trade Marcus Morris, who has already smoked them twice and led the Pistons to two wins over the Suns. They piss off Markieff by doing this, so they've ostracized both Morris twins. While, sure, Markieff is a man child that gets some of the blame...the FO is tasked with making wising decisions in light of the personalities on the team.

Don't watching the Suns this year. Was a while ago. Saw enough.

 

[BPNAZ]

where are all the clueless stupid homers to us all how this team is on the rise

LOLOLOLOL

I told everyone nothing has changed, and yet I'm still right as always. They will occasionally look amazing and win some games in bunches, but when its all said and done, its a 40 win team.........AT BEST

and that is if they don't dump off Bledsoe, or Chandler, or Knight by the deadline, I'm predicting more like 37-45

 

[johnson]

BPNAZ: I'm on record as saying the same. There was no reason to think this team was going to be better than they were last year and last year they weren't good. The performance we've seen so far this year has been exactly what I expected.

 

[GMATCa]

As I wrote prior to free agency, I felt that the Suns should explore a sign-and-trade with Detroit that exchanged the Morris twins for Greg Monroe. By the end of last season, I certainly felt that Phoenix needed an upgrade at power forward, especially in terms of greater athleticism and rebounding and a better post-up game. Monroe also could have played center in smaller lineups.

Phoenix instead engaged in a long-shot pursuit of LaMarcus Aldridge that obviously (and predictably) failed. In retrospect, one can certainly question if the pursuit of Aldridge justified overlooking more realistic alternatives. LaMarcus Aldridge has amounted to a very good player and a deserving All-Star, but he is not the quasi-MVP level player that members of the media have occasionally and fallaciously proclaimed. He is a good rebounder, a solid passer, and an excellent free throw shooting big man who represents a reliable mid-post and pick-and-pop option in half-court settings. Certainly, he burned the Suns often enough in that role. But Aldridge's career True Shooting Percentage is just a modest .531—and only an unimpressive .519 since the start of the '12-'13 season. Since the beginning of the '13-'14 season, his two-point field goal percentage is .466—quite low for an All-Star big man. In other words, he is not a very efficient scorer, with the reason being that he shoots a ton of two-point jump-shots from mid-range and further out. He does not dominate inside or on the low blocks, and although he excels at shooting free throws, he fails to reach the charity stripe all that often. LaMarcus Aldridge constitutes a classic contemporary example of a very talented yet overly inefficient player who is mistaken by fans and media as a superstar. Sure, he could help San Antonio win another championship as part of a deep and versatile roster, but he is unlikely to elevate a club to major playoff success as its best player—after all, he never did so in ten years with the Blazers. Aldridge would have have fit nicely with Bledsoe and Knight, as he did with Damian Lillard in Portland, but he probably would not have turned Phoenix into a legitimate championship contender.

The idea was not a bad one, but the payoff may not have been as high as some folks—including the Suns themselves—imagined. And returning with Markieff Morris this season represented a mistake. With or without his brother, he was not going to be sufficient in terms of Phoenix taking a major step forward.

Ironically, last season when the Suns never found a "closer," I felt that Marcus Morris actually showed some of the best potential, especially in situations where Phoenix would run a "Morris-Morris" pick-and-roll, which would give Marcus a switch against a bigger forward whom he could exploit to create space for his off-the-dribble jump-shot. When Phoenix fell at home to Aldridge and the Blazers late last season, the only occasional success that the Suns seemed to find down the stretch, as I recall, came on the "Morris-Morris."

Overall, though, Marcus Morris has proved replaceable as a "stretch four" (see Leuer and Teletovic), and his subtraction from the roster has opened minutes for T.J. Warren at small forward. Unfortunately, Leuer and Teletovic also seem to be defensive liabilities, helping explain why the Suns—despite a bunch of guards and centers who can play defense—currently rank twenty-second in Defensive Rating (points allowed per possession), undermining their seventh-ranked Offensive Rating (points scored per possession).

If any club may have taken both the Morris brothers, it may well have been Detroit due to Stan Van Gundy's system.

 

[BPNAZ]

I'm hearing rumblings that unless somehow this team just magically turns into a good team, Hornacek is gone after season. His contract is up anyway i think. Keep hearing Luke Walton is possibility, not really a fan of that but anyone other than Hornacek can only be good

Best thing this team can do at this point is dump Bledsoe, Morris, and maybe Chandler? hope to get a top 10 pick

 

[johnson]

I'm hearing rumblings that unless somehow this team just magically turns into a good team, Hornacek is gone after season. His contract is up anyway i think. Keep hearing Luke Walton is possibility, not really a fan of that but anyone other than Hornacek can only be good

Best thing this team can do at this point is dump Bledsoe, Morris, and maybe Chandler? hope to get a top 10 pick

Totally disagree on dumping Bledsoe. Morris will be gone so no worries there. The Suns will just botch their draft pick like usual so they probably need to use the FA market if they want to improve.

 

[GMATCa]

Totally disagree on dumping Bledsoe. Morris will be gone so no worries there. The Suns will just botch their draft pick like usual so they probably need to use the FA market if they want to improve.

I think that the Suns have drafted well under McDonough: T.J. Warren and Devin Booker, and even Alex Len looks about as good as anyone else available in that terrible 2013 draft. But they probably will not end up with a prime pick 2016, even if they fail to reach the postseason.

Phoenix has missed the playoffs in six of the last seven seasons yet has only drafted in the top-twelve once during that span (Len) and never in the top-four. That is pathetic.

 

[johnson]

I think McDonough has been terrible. His trades have been awful (big picture). His drafts have been better, but nothing special. Where is Bogdan Bogdanovich?

 

[BPNAZ]

lol yet another loss

now 1-8 last 9 games, and will be 1-9 after they lose at Chicago

its not even a matter of if they can stay around the 8 seed, this team just flat out sucks, period

 

[GMATCa]

I think McDonough has been terrible. His trades have been awful (big picture). His drafts have been better, but nothing special. Where is Bogdan Bogdanovich?

... still in Europe. He remains in the Suns' plans:

Phoenix Suns pick Bogdan Bogdanovic makes NBA visit

The Bledsoe trade proved excellent. The Gerald Green trade was good, even if he failed to remain valuable and viable long-term. Acquiring Knight in exchange for Dragic represented a terrific salvaging of value, considering that Dragic would have left as a free agent and Knight is over five years younger. Phoenix basically gave away Isaiah Thomas, but the Suns were dealing from a surplus and cleared salary cap space for other free agents, including Tyson Chandler, by shedding him.

I will add that even if Dragic had proved willing to remain in Phoenix, Knight constitutes a better option moving forward simply because he just turned twenty-four, whereas Dragic turns thirty in May. By the time that the Suns may become a contender, Dragic may have slowed down significantly.

I still go back to the fact that Suns have landed in the lottery in six of the last seven seasons yet have picked higher than thirteenth just once during that span (and never in the top four). That stretch has to be one of the most inept in NBA history: you are missing the playoffs on a perennial basis, yet you are almost never landing the kind of draft picks that give yourself an opportunity to seriously rebuild. McDonough inherited a mess, especially considering some of the draft choices made by the previous regimes: plucking Earl Clark in 2009 instead of, say, Ty Lawson, Jeff Teague, or Taj Gibson, and then selecting Markieff Morris in 2011 when Kawhi Leonard went two picks later and Nikola Vucevic went one pick later.

Unfortunately, because the Suns refused to pull the plug on the Nash/Hill Era (if I can call it that) before it passed its expiration date, they may have ended up 'burning' the next 'generation' of players, because they never drafted a franchise player to pair with the good ones, such as Bledsoe, Knight, and Warren, that McDonough has acquired. Thankfully, these guys—not to mention Booker and Len—are young enough that the window could be open for years to come. But as in past years, the Suns are probably too good—sufficiently mediocre—to draft the franchise player that they badly need, namely a power forward with major athleticism and all-around game, someone like Anthony Davis or Kristaps Porzingis, the kind of player that Phoenix could have already drafted had the Suns not ridden Nash and Hill too long.

 

[johnson]

... still in Europe. He remains in the Suns' plans:

Phoenix Suns pick Bogdan Bogdanovic makes NBA visit

The Bledsoe trade proved excellent. The Gerald Green trade was good, even if he failed to remain valuable and viable long-term. Acquiring Knight in exchange for Dragic represented a terrific salvaging of value, considering that Dragic would have left as a free agent and Knight is over five years younger. Phoenix basically gave away Isaiah Thomas, but the Suns were dealing from a surplus and cleared salary cap space for other free agents, including Tyson Chandler, by shedding him.

I will add that even if Dragic had proved willing to remain in Phoenix, Knight constitutes a better option moving forward simply because he just turned twenty-four, whereas Dragic turns thirty in May. By the time that the Suns may become a contender, Dragic may have slowed down significantly.

I still go back to the fact that Suns have landed in the lottery in six of the last seven seasons yet have picked higher than thirteenth just once during that span (and never in the top four). That stretch has to be one of the most inept in NBA history: you are missing the playoffs on a perennial basis, yet you are almost never landing the kind of draft picks that give yourself an opportunity to seriously rebuild. McDonough inherited a mess, especially considering some of the draft choices made by the previous regimes: plucking Earl Clark in 2009 instead of, say, Ty Lawson, Jeff Teague, or Taj Gibson, and then selecting Markieff Morris in 2011 when Kawhi Leonard went two picks later and Nikola Vucevic went one pick later.

Unfortunately, because the Suns refused to pull the plug on the Nash/Hill Era (if I can call it that) before it passed its expiration date, they may have ended up 'burning' the next 'generation' of players, because they never drafted a franchise player to pair with the good ones, such as Bledsoe, Knight, and Warren, that McDonough has acquired. Thankfully, these guys—not to mention Booker and Len—are young enough that the window could be open for years to come. But as in past years, the Suns are probably too good—sufficiently mediocre—to draft the franchise player that they badly need, namely a power forward with major athleticism and all-around game, someone like Anthony Davis or Kristaps Porzingis, the kind of player that Phoenix could have already drafted had the Suns not ridden Nash and Hill too long.

Agree with a lot of what you said, but on a few things:

I refuse to put a positive spin on anything involving Dragic. He was a great fit here, known as a team player until PHX, and was run out of town. Saying we got Knight in a terrific salvaging of value misses the bigger point: the Suns mismanagement created a need to salvage a disaster. Hard to give them points for creating a stinking turd and polishing it a little at the end.

The Isaiah Thomas fiasco was just awful. It'd be one thing to keep him after Dragic left, but he was gone in the blink of an eye. What was his purpose? To disrupt the chemistry of the team?

I see what the FO is apparently trying to do, but it requires landing a huge FA in the off-season. They have the supporting cast to be contenders the moment that happens. They tried this year, but the big yield was Tyson Chandler, which is a joke (so far as adding that big stud). That's on the GM.

 

[SpartyNash13]

I just hate the fact that this team is always one of the first teams out of the playoffs year in year out, and thus has a shit end of the lottery picks. Granted I think Warren and Booker will be solid, and Len is ok. But if you're going to miss the playoffs you might as well suck and get a top 5 pick, otherwise you are in basketball purgatory in the doldrums.