Game 60: Los Angeles Clippers (32-28) @ Phoenix Suns (32-27) l Thursday l 8:00pm l TNT

[Slim Charless]

Seven foot small forward.

Sent from my [Samsung Z4 Fold] using RealGM mobile app

Ayton played PF at UofA right?

would have been nice if we got claxton in the trade...

CP3
Booker
Durant
Ayton
Claxton

Ayton really doesnt play like a center even tho we want him too...wonder how it would work out.

Awful spacing and we would get destroyed by every team. As a general rule of thumb, if you're not 4 out, or you have two bigs who don't shoot, your team is probably bad.

The Boston Celtics absolutely RAVAGED the entire NBA last season running the Timelord and Horford combo at teams......ravaged them. It's what won Marcus Smart his DPOTY award.

Now, the Nets would never give us Claxton in a KD deal, but in this pretend world where they did. We'd do better as KD>Tatum and Booker>Brown.

[Ghost of Kleine]

This game was just another all too typical apathetic half-azzed, passive, mentally disconnected effort. The suns we're already mentally checked out and already on their break in many ways. Our rebounding was pathetic because Ayton played soft and passive like a total mitch again (very disappointing). It's almost like we could use another solid rebounder and floor spacer at the 4 out there? But who could that be though? who recently became available that could shore up our rebounding and still has the ability to space the floor too? I wonder who would be a good fit though?


Monty looked puzzled and mentally constipated again, but if he was puzzled as who should get minutes and who should get cut back or cut entirely, I'll be glad to help this mind bending enigma:

Keepers who should get extra minutes!

- Okogie.
- Ross.
- Mayyyyyybeeeee Warren?

Players who should get less minutes!

- Torrey Craig.
- Damion Lee.
- Biusmack Biyombo.

Players that should be cut and replaced with better buyout options!

- Jock Landale. (Replace with K Love or Frank Kaminsky, or Tristin Thompson perhaps)? There's also Derrick Favors, Cody Zeller, Freddie Gillespie and Pter Cornelie who could help our rebounding and physicality issues off the bench.

- Saban Lee. (Replace with Westbrick or Wall or Dragic)? There's also Facundo Campazzo, Trey Burke, Jared Butler, Quinn Cook, Shaq Harrison, PJ Dozier, RJ Nembhard, Tomas Santoransky, Michael Carter Williams?


- Ish Wainwright (Replace with Stanley Johnson or Moe Harkless or Noah Vonleh or Abdel Nader or Romeo Weems or Gabe Brown or Zylan Cheatham)?

[pj0tr]

That game meant absolutely way more to the Clippers, than the Suns, and it clearly showed.

Clippers ran a 9 man rotation, with the Suns playing everyone except Bazley, and obviously no Shamet, Payne, or Durant.

Anyone firing off hot takes or making outrageously dumb conclusions based on tonight needs to take a few Ogeez and chill.

[sunsbg]

Would be nice if we play Kings in 1st round. They don't have much playoff experience and we just beat them without KD. That's a few more games to gel before meeting Clippers, Nuggets, Grizzlies or even Warriors. Mavs, I'm not quite sure how good they are at this point.

[Saberestar]

Would be nice if we play Kings in 1st round. They don't have much playoff experience and we just beat them without KD. That's a few more games to gel before meeting Clippers, Nuggets, Grizzlies or even Warriors. Mavs, I'm not quite sure how good they are at this point.

The Kings would be the easiest matchup, but I think everyone knows that and in the final 3-4 games will try to lose or win hard to get them in the first round.

I think the Wolves are gonna be an easy matchup too, but they will not probably get to the playoffs.

[Slim Charless]

That game meant absolutely way more to the Clippers, than the Suns, and it clearly showed.

Clippers ran a 9 man rotation, with the Suns playing everyone except Bazley, and obviously no Shamet, Payne, or Durant.

Anyone firing off hot takes or making outrageously dumb conclusions based on tonight needs to take a few Ogeez and chill.

This is a great point. If we had won tonight, it would say a lot more about the Clippers than us as they really needed this and should have won. We're injured and the guys we do have don't even have any chemistry with each other. Let's see where we are come April 1st or so.

Hopefully our guys just take their time getting healthy and getting used to running sets with each other during this off time. It's not like there's a lot to be miss in Utah anyways.

[Qwigglez]

- Jock Landale. (Replace with K Love or Frank Kaminsky, or Tristin Thompson perhaps)? There's also Derrick Favors, Cody Zeller, Freddie Gillespie and Pter Cornelie who could help our rebounding and physicality issues off the bench.

- Saban Lee. (Replace with Westbrick or Wall or Dragic)? There's also Facundo Campazzo, Trey Burke, Jared Butler, Quinn Cook, Shaq Harrison, PJ Dozier, RJ Nembhard, Tomas Santoransky, Michael Carter Williams?


- Ish Wainwright (Replace with Stanley Johnson or Moe Harkless or Noah Vonleh or Abdel Nader or Romeo Weems or Gabe Brown or Zylan Cheatham)?

We cannot utilize another two way contract since we maximized the amount of games Ish has already played with it. I do agree that Jock could be cut to get a better player. He has his moments where he plays well, but he simply is a liability on the court. If we could cut him and get Love that would be solid. I do think even getting Frank would be an upgrade over Jock. Opposing teams know if Jock is setting a pick just sag, and allow him to shoot wide open 3s. I would take those odds as the Suns opponent and would be more than happy to lose games because Jock hit 3s.

Lee, he's played well sure, but another 2 way contract and I don't think we are going to replace a 2-way with more established players like Wall, Dragic, or Westbrook. I also don't think Wall is the answer, or Westbrook. Actually looking at the list of available free agent guards that are left I don' think anyone is that much better than Saben Lee. We got Kemba Walker, , Kris Dunn, Eflrid Payton.

We also have Patrick Beverley. And hear me out, I think we should give the guy a call...

Spoiler:

Hello Patrick, this is the Phoenix Suns. Would you be interested in playing for our team?

-Oh hey what's up, yeah I'm looking for any opportunity, especially for a playoff team.

That is good to hear. But listen, we know there is some beef between you and CP3, you seem to say a lot of negative things about him whenever you get the opportunity, whether on podcasts or the media.

-Yeah, you know it's just a thing I do, ultimately we are both just competitors and we bring out the best in each other.

Right on, that is what we thought. Here is the thing though... Chris wants an apology. And if you can tweet about it too.

-Um... yeah you know what, we gonna be teammates that is fine then. *starts tweeting* .... and done. Look at my tweet, I even called him the PointGod.

-....................Hello.... guys..?

[Saberestar]

We can't win every game. We were right there until the last few minutes, so I am OK with it.

We are giving to some guys every opportunity, Wainright and Saben Lee are getting minutes but I don't expect them to play at all with KD in the lineup.

[Ghost of Kleine]

That game meant absolutely way more to the Clippers, than the Suns, and it clearly showed.

Clippers ran a 9 man rotation, with the Suns playing everyone except Bazley, and obviously no Shamet, Payne, or Durant.

Anyone firing off hot takes or making outrageously dumb conclusions based on tonight needs to take a few Ogeez and chill.

LOL! You're confidence is awesome and encouraging too. And of course you could be right here man that in the grand scheme of things losing one game is not all that much of a big deal! UNLESS you also consider a few things around the underlying concerns of this loss though:

1- This game carried "tie breaker" implications towards playoff seating against a conference rival ( whom we may end up facing at some point in our path to getting back to the finals.

2- No game is ever guaranteed us as a win, getting Durant is incredible. But even so, We haven't really proven anything yet! And we're simply not elite enough yet to throw away games so flippantly. Especially not considering our injury/durability concerns for key players. We need all the cushions we can get towards the final stretch of the season.

3- Momentum matters! As does confidence towards potential future matchup implications. Again, momentum, confidence, rhythm and dominant play is not just something you can turn off or on at will! Durant or not! If we can't find the motivation to beat good teams that'll be postseason rivals in key games, we simply don't yet have the proper mentality to win a championship! And as great as Durant is, He can't single handedly carry us to a championship if the rest of our team doesn't choose to show up because they simply didn't want it as much! Legitimate championship teams maintain that hunger and sense of urgency! What have we actually proven so far that warrants us having such misplaced hubris?

4- Our team has had this same exact issue (as oft referenced by Monty himself) of not showing up, Not playing with a level of urgency, Not showing our opponents the level of respect it takes to win the game (or series) and we've repeatedly come up short/ choked, or got historically embarrassed as a result! It's not like championship/ finals opportunities come along everyday either! So again, what have we proven for us to actually deserve not caring about wins/ losses? Or too be so unmotivated and careless or show such unwarranted hubris?

5- Our team just came off two days off and post game will have around 9 additional days off before they play again! We had key players back healthy in Book, Paul, Ayton, etc and were playing on our homecourt right after getting one of the top 3 players in the entire NBA and we couldn't find the energy or motivation to win one key game with seating implications in front of our own fans on our homecourt and in front of key MVP level championship player, and you don't find that the least bit concerning man??? Especially considering this team's history of not showing up, choking situationally, and generally playing soft and being considered mentally weak!

I get the undue irrational confidence customarily associated with acquiring a talent the level of KD, I really do! But the simple truth remains that regardless of the outlier parity this season, The western conference is an absolute blood bath!! A few wins or losses can change things on a massive scale for teams with postseason aspirations! Especially in this upcoming final stretch of the season as teams compete even harder to secure wins towards strategic seating and matchup implications too. We're not guaranteed any wins on a given night! Even with Durant playing. One key injury or more (again) and we could easily fall in the seating again. And if that happens we'll be left reflecting on these unimportant/ insignificant games we chose to give away because we didn't want the win as much as the other team! Championship teams possess that sense of urgency, professionalism, and killer instinct to put teams away and get the job done! If we don't have that same mentality, urgency, professionalism, then we're simply not legitimate title contenders regardless of adding Durant or not! So people can choose to downplay or minimize these concerns, but they're still legitimate issues that can affect our outcome towards winning a championship if whether we choose to take them seriously or not!

[Crives]

Hard to beat clippers when Ayton isn’t best center on the floor…

But loss doesn’t matter… Ross/Okogie playing so well, going to be a nice team once this all comes together.

I would drop Landale for love if love can get healthy soon

[sunskerr]

The Boston Celtics absolutely RAVAGED the entire NBA last season running the Timelord and Horford combo at teams......ravaged them. It's what won Marcus Smart his DPOTY award.

Now, the Nets would never give us Claxton in a KD deal, but in this pretend world where they did. We'd do better as KD>Tatum and Booker>Brown.

But you look closer and in reality Horford can hit 3s (Ayton cannot) to preserve spacing. So there's a difference between us being idiots running Ayton at PF with another center who can't shoot. Another example would be the Kessler/Olynyk/Markannen lineup, or Allen/Mobley/Markannen, or Adams/Jaren Jackson. You need someone in there to shoot 3s.

[Slim Charless]

The Boston Celtics absolutely RAVAGED the entire NBA last season running the Timelord and Horford combo at teams......ravaged them. It's what won Marcus Smart his DPOTY award.

Now, the Nets would never give us Claxton in a KD deal, but in this pretend world where they did. We'd do better as KD>Tatum and Booker>Brown.

But you look closer and in reality Horford can hit 3s (Ayton cannot) to preserve spacing. So there's a difference between us being idiots running Ayton at PF with another center who can't shoot. Another example would be the Kessler/Olynyk/Markannen lineup, or Allen/Mobley/Markannen, or Adams/Jaren Jackson. You need someone in there to shoot 3s.

We don't let Ayton shoot threes. We barely let him shoot at all. We know he has range and we know his FT form and percentage both look good. I think Ayton if he were under a different coach could hit from there. He's also much more athletic than Horford. Giving us another look and an incredibly quick and devastating twin tower look.

The only time I remember this happening was when the Pels tried to pair Boogie and AD, unfortunately that failed since Boogie tore his Achilles. I, for one was really looking forward to seeing what happened there as they were pretty good for their brief pairing I always thought.

[TOO]

Ayton is athletic in testing, that dude sure doesnt play that way.