Game 7: Minnesota T-Wolves (4-3) @ Phoenix Suns (5-1) l Tuesday l 7:00pm l TNT

[Thor Buthox]

There was a team rebound strategy tonight. Was ideal with DA not playing as he's weak as piss with boxing out.

BB and JL had the job of simply preventing Frenchy and Kat from getting rebounds. Now for people who watch the game through the box score, it will appear like this didn't work, but there will be plenty of footage of the 2 C's being physical with Frenchy and Kat forcing them to fight harder than usual for position. Quite often there was a lot of double grabbing the boards.
But the stat that won't be on the box score - so sorry to all those stat watchers - is effective box outs. Jock and Bis weren't required to get rebounds; simply stop the other 2 or make it harder for them.
For the rest, it was their job to get the boards. 8 for CP3, 7 for Book, 4 for Torry and 3 for Dario in 5 mins. CP3 + Book for 3x more rebounds compared to BB and JL.


First time we saw CP3's signature move of the side-step, fadeaway mid-ranger. First time we saw Book in foul trouble. If you didn't think CP3 was holding back, then surely now you understand?

[RayLight]

The Suns are playing like a well-oiled machine!
I know that the bench unit alone is a little bit weak, but I like it as it is.
Don`t forget we have Crowder and Saric (20 mil.) to upgrade the second unit.
I am optimistic! BTW nice couple of games by Bizzy.

The bench is still a concern. Jones must turn those 20M into the best player available, preferably a PF. With Warriors and Clippers struggling and CP3 on his last legs the time is now. Some rich dude will pay the bill and be happy to take over a championship team.

I absolutely agree with you! 20M for a good PF is more than enough and Jones should explore the possibilities.
If the Suns continue playing like that and Monty learned from last year`s playoffs, maybe a repeat of the 2021 Finals is coming. I know it is way too early, but cannot see any team other than Milwaukee, playing championship basketball now.

[sunsbg]

First time we saw CP3's signature move of the side-step, fadeaway mid-ranger. First time we saw Book in foul trouble. If you didn't think CP3 was holding back, then surely now you understand?

Shouldn't have started holding back two games into the second round of the playoffs though.

[sunsbg]

The Suns are playing like a well-oiled machine!
I know that the bench unit alone is a little bit weak, but I like it as it is.
Don`t forget we have Crowder and Saric (20 mil.) to upgrade the second unit.
I am optimistic! BTW nice couple of games by Bizzy.

The bench is still a concern. Jones must turn those 20M into the best player available, preferably a PF. With Warriors and Clippers struggling and CP3 on his last legs the time is now. Some rich dude will pay the bill and be happy to take over a championship team.

I absolutely agree with you! 20M for a good PF is more than enough and Jones should explore the possibilities.
If the Suns continue playing like that and Monty learned from last year`s playoffs, maybe a repeat of the 2021 Finals is coming. I know it is way too early, but cannot see any team other than Milwaukee, playing championship basketball now.

Would be nice to take a revenge from Bucks though Celtics are up there. Checking boxscores Lopez is playing great, so it would be even harder to defend them inside with Cam J instead of Jae. I think I prefer facing Celtics in the finals. Funny we are looking so far ahead a few games into the season. I had written off our team to reach the finals this season, but if the competition in the West is weaker than initially thought, who knows.

[RayLight]

As I said, it is too early and somebody like Luka can destroy us, but the West is looking a little bit strange during the early part of the season.

[WeekapaugGroove]

Ok I'm going to preface this; I'm happy Ayton is back and he's played well to start the season. But I can see why the suns at least considered going cheap at the C position. This offense is set up where the C position does a **** ton of dirty work and then gets rewarded with some easy looks out of it. Landale is a good example of if you put a smart, active dude in that spot they can flourish.



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[Fo-Real]

Ok I'm going to preface this; I'm happy Ayton is back and he's played well to start the season. But I can see why the suns at least considered going cheap at the C position. This offense is set up where the C position does a **** ton of dirty work and then gets rewarded with some easy looks out of it. Landale is a good example of if you put a smart, active dude in that spot they can flourish.



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We have been arguing for years about how this system could plug in a guy like Frank Kaminski and he averaged like 15 points and 8 boards a game.

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

Ok I'm going to preface this; I'm happy Ayton is back and he's played well to start the season. But I can see why the suns at least considered going cheap at the C position. This offense is set up where the C position does a **** ton of dirty work and then gets rewarded with some easy looks out of it. Landale is a good example of if you put a smart, active dude in that spot they can flourish.

It's a real pickle. Once again, the team looks no worse - or perhaps better - with Ayton out. Happened last year, too.

The playoffs are a different story, for sure. We all remember what DA did in 2021, destroying the Lakers, Nuggets and Clippers in succession. The zebras took him out of the Bucks series. Even last year in the Pels series, he was huge for us.

Teams will gameplan to force the ball to your weakest link, and to attack your weakest defender. The Mavs played Javale off the court. I'm confident Biyombo would be similarly exploited. That's what DA gives you - versatility on both ends.

But what DA lacks - much of the time, not always - is hustle. And that's what his backups have consistently provided. And in the regular season, that's proved to matter more.

This is why I wrote in the regular thread a couple games into the season - Ayton is auditioning to keep his spot on the team this season. I think he'd veto any trade this year, but I could see him being moved this summer depending on how this season (and more importantly, these playoffs) go. With Bridges and Cam stepping up, and Booker seizing the mantle as our clear #1 guy, DA's looking like the prime candidate to be sacrificed if we want to change things up this summer.

[lilfishi22]

The Suns are playing like a well-oiled machine!
I know that the bench unit alone is a little bit weak, but I like it as it is.
Don`t forget we have Crowder and Saric (20 mil.) to upgrade the second unit.
I am optimistic! BTW nice couple of games by Bizzy.

The bench is still a concern. Jones must turn those 20M into the best player available, preferably a PF. With Warriors and Clippers struggling and CP3 on his last legs the time is now. Some rich dude will pay the bill and be happy to take over a championship team.

I absolutely agree with you! 20M for a good PF is more than enough and Jones should explore the possibilities.
If the Suns continue playing like that and Monty learned from last year`s playoffs, maybe a repeat of the 2021 Finals is coming. I know it is way too early, but cannot see any team other than Milwaukee, playing championship basketball now.

The name that keeps coming up in my mind is Barnes

[lilfishi22]

Ok I'm going to preface this; I'm happy Ayton is back and he's played well to start the season. But I can see why the suns at least considered going cheap at the C position. This offense is set up where the C position does a **** ton of dirty work and then gets rewarded with some easy looks out of it. Landale is a good example of if you put a smart, active dude in that spot they can flourish.



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Not to disagree with you but we basically had the same argument for Baynes over DA, Frank over DA, Dario over DA, Biz over D and now Landale over DA at some point. Is there an argument you *could* theoretically go cheap and get about 80% of the impact that DA had for literally 5% of the cost? Probably and it's certainly easy to see why cheap ass Sarver considered it.

But you just don't become a contender by going this cheap and I'm glad we didn't go down that route

[bwgood77]

Ok I'm going to preface this; I'm happy Ayton is back and he's played well to start the season. But I can see why the suns at least considered going cheap at the C position. This offense is set up where the C position does a **** ton of dirty work and then gets rewarded with some easy looks out of it. Landale is a good example of if you put a smart, active dude in that spot they can flourish.



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Not to disagree with you but we basically had the same argument for Baynes over DA, Frank over DA, Dario over DA, Biz over D and now Landale over DA at some point. Is there an argument you *could* theoretically go cheap and get about 80% of the impact that DA had for literally 5% of the cost? Probably and it's certainly easy to see why cheap ass Sarver considered it.

But you just don't become a contender by going this cheap and I'm glad we didn't go down that route

I can understand going cheaper in theory, but there are slim margins in the playoffs and getting 80% (though I don't think either backup is quite that and I really like Jock) for a lot less cost could be the difference. Playoffs come down to the slimmest of margins at times.

Ayton has shown he can take over or be a main guy in multiple playoff series. I am not sure Jock or Biz could do that, or if we beat the Pels with Book out without Ayton.

Now, if you replace Ayton with a slightly worse C and are able to utilize that extra money for another key contributor, that's one thing, but that's not something that is easy to come by when you are over the cap.

Plus, most decent starting Cs make at least $20 million anyway. There was a GB thread on Poeltl not accepting $14 million and thinking he's worth $20 million and most seemed to think he was. I think he's a solid C, but a guy like Ayton has a lot more versatility and is like 4 years younger with more upside.

Capela just got extended for $23 million a year, Vucevic makes $25. The only really good value ones are guys that signed for nice contracts and broke out more after (RW3, Jarrett Allen) who won't be moved.

I think they will be open for trade. I just think it will be hard to find a deal that makes sense. If we could get a solid PGoTF and a fairly solid cheap C, that would be good, but that might be tough. I probably wouldn't trade him for Rozier and Plumlee or something like that...which is the type of deal they'd probably look at.

[Qwigglez]

I'm not concerned at all with the Suns playing well without Ayton. It's Monty William's offensive scheme. I don't think we look as good in this game if Cam wasn't draining threes.

On another note, if I were the Wolves I'd be secretly shopping Gobert (or maybe Towns). The twin towers thing just isn't going to work out, I'd see about trading for Siakam or Anunoby if I were them. That would give both teams a more balanced system, plus it would allow Edwards (and Barnes) to flourish.

[sunsbg]

Suns can play well in stretches without any given player - CP3 (month+ last season), Booker (playoff games), etc., but the team still needs all of them to be a serious contender.

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

I'm not concerned at all with the Suns playing well without Ayton. It's Monty William's offensive scheme. I don't think we look as good in this game if Cam wasn't draining threes.

On another note, if I were the Wolves I'd be secretly shopping Gobert (or maybe Towns). The twin towers thing just isn't going to work out, I'd see about trading for Siakam or Anunoby if I were them. That would give both teams a more balanced system, plus it would allow Edwards (and Barnes) to flourish.

My god, could you imagine the fallout? Trading 4 FRPs (and a swap), Vanderbilt, Kessler, Beasley, Beverley and Bolmaro for... OG Anunboy?!?

I agree they'd be a better team. But yeesh that's such a massive screw up. Crazy.

No doubt they'll try to make this work for at least a season and a half, if for no reason other than to save face.

[bwgood77]

I'm not concerned at all with the Suns playing well without Ayton. It's Monty William's offensive scheme. I don't think we look as good in this game if Cam wasn't draining threes.

On another note, if I were the Wolves I'd be secretly shopping Gobert (or maybe Towns). The twin towers thing just isn't going to work out, I'd see about trading for Siakam or Anunoby if I were them. That would give both teams a more balanced system, plus it would allow Edwards (and Barnes) to flourish.

My god, could you imagine the fallout? Trading 4 FRPs (and a swap), Vanderbilt, Kessler, Beasley, Beverley and Bolmaro for... OG Anunboy?!?

I agree they'd be a better team. But yeesh that's such a massive screw up. Crazy.

No doubt they'll try to make this work for at least a season and a half, if for no reason other than to save face.

I think it needs time. We needed a big Cam game (7 3s) to win. I did think he'd do well with Towns on him and he delivered And Bridges shooting 70% on 10 shots. But they won't always be able to shoot like that.

But Book had trouble because mid range is very tough against Gobert and shot 33% and 28% from 3.

It's not like we blew them out and Cam had one of his best games ever, a similar one to what he had last year.

I don't think beating them by 9 (if we think we are a good team) means their experiment is an absolute failure.

I also am not as harsh on the trade even if it doesn't work out because I don't think those picks will be very good since they will have Ant for a long time, and at least one of those Cs, so they will probably be mid first round picks at best unless they barely miss he playoffs and jump big time (not sure if there are protections).

That being said, their schedule has been very easy. Their wins haven't been against anyone impressive LAL, OKC twice, SA and they lost to SA twice, to Utah and us.

But they will probably take time to get used to it.

At a minimum they can stagger all star bigs all game and play them minimally together, like 8 minutes. In that case, their bench play should be really good.

[spanishninja]

I'm not concerned at all with the Suns playing well without Ayton. It's Monty William's offensive scheme. I don't think we look as good in this game if Cam wasn't draining threes.

On another note, if I were the Wolves I'd be secretly shopping Gobert (or maybe Towns). The twin towers thing just isn't going to work out, I'd see about trading for Siakam or Anunoby if I were them. That would give both teams a more balanced system, plus it would allow Edwards (and Barnes) to flourish.

My god, could you imagine the fallout? Trading 4 FRPs (and a swap), Vanderbilt, Kessler, Beasley, Beverley and Bolmaro for... OG Anunboy?!?

I agree they'd be a better team. But yeesh that's such a massive screw up. Crazy.

No doubt they'll try to make this work for at least a season and a half, if for no reason other than to save face.

I think it needs time. We needed a big Cam game (7 3s) to win. I did think he'd do well with Towns on him and he delivered And Bridges shooting 70% on 10 shots. But they won't always be able to shoot like that.

But Book had trouble because mid range is very tough against Gobert and shot 33% and 28% from 3.

It's not like we blew them out and Cam had one of his best games ever, a similar one to what he had last year.

I don't think beating them by 9 (if we think we are a good team) means their experiment is an absolute failure.

I also am not as harsh on the trade even if it doesn't work out because I don't think those picks will be very good since they will have Ant for a long time, and at least one of those Cs, so they will probably be mid first round picks at best unless they barely miss he playoffs and jump big time (not sure if there are protections).

That being said, their schedule has been very easy. Their wins haven't been against anyone impressive LAL, OKC twice, SA and they lost to SA twice, to Utah and us.

But they will probably take time to get used to it.

At a minimum they can stagger all star bigs all game and play them minimally together, like 8 minutes. In that case, their bench play should be really good.

I don't agree with your take. Tuesday's game wouldn't have been close at all if the we didn't **** around so much on offense. This should have been a 30 point game, and the fact that it got as close as it did is less about the Wolves than it is about us. The situation up there is still definitely negative.

[bwgood77]

My god, could you imagine the fallout? Trading 4 FRPs (and a swap), Vanderbilt, Kessler, Beasley, Beverley and Bolmaro for... OG Anunboy?!?

I agree they'd be a better team. But yeesh that's such a massive screw up. Crazy.

No doubt they'll try to make this work for at least a season and a half, if for no reason other than to save face.

I think it needs time. We needed a big Cam game (7 3s) to win. I did think he'd do well with Towns on him and he delivered And Bridges shooting 70% on 10 shots. But they won't always be able to shoot like that.

But Book had trouble because mid range is very tough against Gobert and shot 33% and 28% from 3.

It's not like we blew them out and Cam had one of his best games ever, a similar one to what he had last year.

I don't think beating them by 9 (if we think we are a good team) means their experiment is an absolute failure.

I also am not as harsh on the trade even if it doesn't work out because I don't think those picks will be very good since they will have Ant for a long time, and at least one of those Cs, so they will probably be mid first round picks at best unless they barely miss he playoffs and jump big time (not sure if there are protections).

That being said, their schedule has been very easy. Their wins haven't been against anyone impressive LAL, OKC twice, SA and they lost to SA twice, to Utah and us.

But they will probably take time to get used to it.

At a minimum they can stagger all star bigs all game and play them minimally together, like 8 minutes. In that case, their bench play should be really good.

I don't agree with your take. Tuesday's game wouldn't have been close at all if the we didn't **** around so much on offense. This should have been a 30 point game, and the fact that it got as close as it did is less about the Wolves than it is about us. The situation up there is still definitely negative.

Maybe. But it's always easy to say what should have happened. The fact is we were up as much as 17 but they cut it to 8 in the 3rd and 4 in the 4th.

We also won't often have Cam shoot 7-11 from 3 and Bridges 7-10 overall.

I don't think they are that good but it is still very early for their experiment. Towns has shot poorly from 3 by his standards too which likely won't continue, especially since he will likely often be guarded by a smaller player.

But just the fact they can always have an all star C on the floor is pretty huge.

I still expect them to be more a likely play in team, but that's because of how tough the west is.

[spanishninja]

I think it needs time. We needed a big Cam game (7 3s) to win. I did think he'd do well with Towns on him and he delivered And Bridges shooting 70% on 10 shots. But they won't always be able to shoot like that.

But Book had trouble because mid range is very tough against Gobert and shot 33% and 28% from 3.

It's not like we blew them out and Cam had one of his best games ever, a similar one to what he had last year.

I don't think beating them by 9 (if we think we are a good team) means their experiment is an absolute failure.

I also am not as harsh on the trade even if it doesn't work out because I don't think those picks will be very good since they will have Ant for a long time, and at least one of those Cs, so they will probably be mid first round picks at best unless they barely miss he playoffs and jump big time (not sure if there are protections).

That being said, their schedule has been very easy. Their wins haven't been against anyone impressive LAL, OKC twice, SA and they lost to SA twice, to Utah and us.

But they will probably take time to get used to it.

At a minimum they can stagger all star bigs all game and play them minimally together, like 8 minutes. In that case, their bench play should be really good.

I don't agree with your take. Tuesday's game wouldn't have been close at all if the we didn't **** around so much on offense. This should have been a 30 point game, and the fact that it got as close as it did is less about the Wolves than it is about us. The situation up there is still definitely negative.

Maybe. But it's always easy to say what should have happened. The fact is we were up as much as 17 but they cut it to 8 in the 3rd and 4 in the 4th.

We also won't often have Cam shoot 7-11 from 3 and Bridges 7-10 overall.

I don't think they are that good but it is still very early for their experiment. Towns has shot poorly from 3 by his standards too which likely won't continue, especially since he will likely often be guarded by a smaller player.

But just the fact they can always have an all star C on the floor is pretty huge.

I still expect them to be more a likely play in team, but that's because of how tough the west is.

Sure, the twins won't always combine for 48, but our superstar SG usually brings more than 6-18 shooting and would not be sitting in crunch time either. Not to mention we won't be without our starting center for long. The delta between these two teams in peak conditions is pretty significant when you get down to it.

[WeekapaugGroove]

I don't agree with your take. Tuesday's game wouldn't have been close at all if the we didn't **** around so much on offense. This should have been a 30 point game, and the fact that it got as close as it did is less about the Wolves than it is about us. The situation up there is still definitely negative.

Maybe. But it's always easy to say what should have happened. The fact is we were up as much as 17 but they cut it to 8 in the 3rd and 4 in the 4th.

We also won't often have Cam shoot 7-11 from 3 and Bridges 7-10 overall.

I don't think they are that good but it is still very early for their experiment. Towns has shot poorly from 3 by his standards too which likely won't continue, especially since he will likely often be guarded by a smaller player.

But just the fact they can always have an all star C on the floor is pretty huge.

I still expect them to be more a likely play in team, but that's because of how tough the west is.

Sure, the twins won't always combine for 48, but our superstar SG usually brings more than 6-18 shooting and would not be sitting in crunch time either. Not to mention we won't be without our starting center for long. The delta between these two teams in peak conditions is pretty significant when you get down to it.

I think the suns are a really bad matchup for MN. The wolves are a talented but at times sloppy and undisciplined team. You just can't make those mistakes against the suns and win consistently. Plus the suns love to hunt a pigeon and Towns at PF is one.

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