Game 41: Phoenix Suns (13-27) @ Boston Celtics (20-19)

[bwgood77]

http://www.sportingnews.com/nba-news/4691398-phoenix-suns-markieff-morris-trade-eric-bledsoe-injury-devin-booker-brandon-knight?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

“I have the ball in my hands a little bit more,” he said. “But like I have been saying continuously, I have been doing that my entire career. It’s a position I am used to playing, what I normally do. My role now is having the ball more than I have this season, but I have done it before.”

That was a quote from an article written today. Maybe somebody needs to explain to Brandon Knight what the "point guard" position is because he obviously has no idea. And if anybody says he is a shooting guard, they are kidding themselves. He is 6'3" and an atrocious defender. It is probably not possible to be a competitive team if he is your shooting guard. He is a back up guard at best. Unfortunately McDonough traded a great asset for him and then signed him to a 5 year, 70 million dollar contract. Somebody call up Doc Brown. We need a Delorean. Who is willing to go back in time and tell McDonough to not make the trade.

This team, without Knight, and with a healthy Bledsoe, would probably be fun to watch and be competing well. Knight has a great game once every 5 games or so, but the rest of them suck.

I still retain hope he gets better, because I don't think McD is going to trade him. I'm guessing if we get a front office/coach overhaul this summer, they might want to trade him, but I have no idea what kind of value he has. Luckily the cap is going to jump up so high that his contract might not look that bad at the end of the summer or next trade deadline. Or hopefully he learns his limitations and plays to maximize his strengths. I DO think he is a skilled player playing with a low bbiq.....he may have been Kobe in hs and college, but now, he needs to realize there are better shooters, who are taller and can shoot over him...there are better ball handlers, so he should not have the ball in his hands as much.....and that if he maximizes his teammates' abilities, he will likely get better shots himself and perform better. I don't understand why he is not a team guy.

[Mr Puddles]

TJ Warren: 3rd in scoring this game - 9th in minutes.

He does seem to do better in spurts. He was slumping some as a starter. Hopefully he can perform well as a starter soon.

In his most recent stint as a starter (two games) TJ averaged 24 ppg/7 rebounds on 56% shooting. The local conclusion that Hornacek drew was that this clearly wasn't working and he subsequently put TJ back on the bench. After all, playing Warren heavy minutes would have stunted the growth of Jon Leuer and PJ Tucker.

[AtheJ415]

TJ Warren: 3rd in scoring this game - 9th in minutes.

He does seem to do better in spurts. He was slumping some as a starter. Hopefully he can perform well as a starter soon.

In his most recent stint as a starter (two games) TJ averaged 24 ppg/7 rebounds on 56% shooting. The local conclusion that Hornacek drew was that this clearly wasn't working and he subsequently put TJ back on the bench. After all, playing Warren heavy minutes would have stunted the growth of Jon Leuer and PJ Tucker.

Yup. I still don't understand how TJ isn't starting. And then the stint where Booker sat for Price. There's no justification for some of his decisions this year. It's not a win now thing because Warren and Booker are 2 of our top 5 players easily according to the advanced numbers, and it's not really that close. Hornacek is a smart guy, but this year he's been really, really awful.

[bwgood77]

He does seem to do better in spurts. He was slumping some as a starter. Hopefully he can perform well as a starter soon.

In his most recent stint as a starter (two games) TJ averaged 24 ppg/7 rebounds on 56% shooting. The local conclusion that Hornacek drew was that this clearly wasn't working and he subsequently put TJ back on the bench. After all, playing Warren heavy minutes would have stunted the growth of Jon Leuer and PJ Tucker.

Yup. I still don't understand how TJ isn't starting. And then the stint where Booker sat for Price. There's no justification for some of his decisions this year. It's not a win now thing because Warren and Booker are 2 of our top 5 players easily according to the advanced numbers, and it's not really that close. Hornacek is a smart guy, but this year he's been really, really awful.

Well don't you think we are going for the tank now and trying to trade our vets? Hornacek knows he is gone and McD is trying to get value for the vets. It's unfortunate that if we are showcasing them to trade them, that they often play terribly, but benching them isn't going to help trade value either. I think they want the high pick, and playing vets helps us tank and perhaps sometimes they might look good enough for someone to give something up for them.

[PackSuns]

We need to play well together to lure high level free agents. This tanking **** is Bush league.

[RaisingArizona]

http://www.sportingnews.com/nba-news/4691398-phoenix-suns-markieff-morris-trade-eric-bledsoe-injury-devin-booker-brandon-knight?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

“I have the ball in my hands a little bit more,” he said. “But like I have been saying continuously, I have been doing that my entire career. It’s a position I am used to playing, what I normally do. My role now is having the ball more than I have this season, but I have done it before.”

That was a quote from an article written today. Maybe somebody needs to explain to Brandon Knight what the "point guard" position is because he obviously has no idea. And if anybody says he is a shooting guard, they are kidding themselves. He is 6'3" and an atrocious defender. It is probably not possible to be a competitive team if he is your shooting guard. He is a back up guard at best. Unfortunately McDonough traded a great asset for him and then signed him to a 5 year, 70 million dollar contract. Somebody call up Doc Brown. We need a Delorean. Who is willing to go back in time and tell McDonough to not make the trade.

Great Scott!

[AtheJ415]

http://www.sportingnews.com/nba-news/4691398-phoenix-suns-markieff-morris-trade-eric-bledsoe-injury-devin-booker-brandon-knight?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

“I have the ball in my hands a little bit more,” he said. “But like I have been saying continuously, I have been doing that my entire career. It’s a position I am used to playing, what I normally do. My role now is having the ball more than I have this season, but I have done it before.”

That was a quote from an article written today. Maybe somebody needs to explain to Brandon Knight what the "point guard" position is because he obviously has no idea. And if anybody says he is a shooting guard, they are kidding themselves. He is 6'3" and an atrocious defender. It is probably not possible to be a competitive team if he is your shooting guard. He is a back up guard at best. Unfortunately McDonough traded a great asset for him and then signed him to a 5 year, 70 million dollar contract. Somebody call up Doc Brown. We need a Delorean. Who is willing to go back in time and tell McDonough to not make the trade.

Great Scott!

Dragic is only 6'4", played the 2 quite well for us, despite not being a good defender, and had a lower assist % than Knight at the same age. Just saying. I'm not opposed to trading Knight, but some of this is just ridiculous. Say we get the 4th pick, that may give us a better player than Knight, but it's no guarantee. 5th and later by basic statistics is likely to lead us to a player worse than Knight. We're good at drafting so who knows, but people are overvaluing that pick.

[silverstyne]

http://www.sportingnews.com/nba-news/4691398-phoenix-suns-markieff-morris-trade-eric-bledsoe-injury-devin-booker-brandon-knight?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

“I have the ball in my hands a little bit more,” he said. “But like I have been saying continuously, I have been doing that my entire career. It’s a position I am used to playing, what I normally do. My role now is having the ball more than I have this season, but I have done it before.”

That was a quote from an article written today. Maybe somebody needs to explain to Brandon Knight what the "point guard" position is because he obviously has no idea. And if anybody says he is a shooting guard, they are kidding themselves. He is 6'3" and an atrocious defender. It is probably not possible to be a competitive team if he is your shooting guard. He is a back up guard at best. Unfortunately McDonough traded a great asset for him and then signed him to a 5 year, 70 million dollar contract. Somebody call up Doc Brown. We need a Delorean. Who is willing to go back in time and tell McDonough to not make the trade.

Great Scott!

Dragic is only 6'4", played the 2 quite well for us, despite not being a good defender, and had a lower assist % than Knight at the same age. Just saying. I'm not opposed to trading Knight, but some of this is just ridiculous. Say we get the 4th pick, that may give us a better player than Knight, but it's no guarantee. 5th and later by basic statistics is likely to lead us to a player worse than Knight. We're good at drafting so who knows, but people are overvaluing that pick.

That BK trade was a disaster all around and i cant believe that anyone would sugarcoat it by saying that lower lottery picks would be worse off for our team compared to BK. TJ, Booker and Bogdanovic already show far more promise for the team even if they were late picks. Since McD mostly drafts well, then he shouldve just rolled the dice with the LA pick no matter where it fell. Looking at hindsight, the BK trade keeps on getting worse and worse. I cant believe that im now rueing the day we traded away IT2.. lol

[AtheJ415]

Great Scott!

Dragic is only 6'4", played the 2 quite well for us, despite not being a good defender, and had a lower assist % than Knight at the same age. Just saying. I'm not opposed to trading Knight, but some of this is just ridiculous. Say we get the 4th pick, that may give us a better player than Knight, but it's no guarantee. 5th and later by basic statistics is likely to lead us to a player worse than Knight. We're good at drafting so who knows, but people are overvaluing that pick.

That BK trade was a disaster all around and i cant believe that anyone would sugarcoat it by saying that lower lottery picks would be worse off for our team compared to BK. TJ, Booker and Bogdanovic already show far more promise for the team even if they were late picks. Since McD mostly drafts well, then he shouldve just rolled the dice with the LA pick no matter where it fell. Looking at hindsight, the BK trade keeps on getting worse and worse. I cant believe that im now rueing the day we traded away IT2.. lol

I can't believe there are people out there who watch basketball and think Bogdan shows more promise than Brandon Knight when Bogdan has not played a single game in the NBA. Hell, Brandon averages more everything across the board in the NBA than Bogdan does overseas, and I say that as a huge Bogdan fan. As you can see from the below link, the odds of a player getting 20 total PPG, APG and RPG by pick COMBINED is not that high, and Knight gets way more than that. This fan base drastically underrates Knight. I get it--you hate how he plays. You don't think he'll be a great fit long term. You want him moved. All of that is perfectly fine, but what we gave up for him is not the substantial package it's made out to be. Plumlee and Ennis are 0 value players right now. The Laker pick we have no idea what it will become by the time it gets transferred.

People rushing to claim any trade whose primary value is a protected draft pick, when the other team is currently in position to keep the pick, are jumping the gun quite a bit. Warren was in the deepest draft ever. Booker slid to us, and was at a pick that the Lakers could be at by the time they transfer it to Philly.

Also, if you believe in McD's drafting so much, then having the high pick shouldn't matter. It's kind of funny, because you're saying you unequivocally trust his scouting for the draft, but somehow not with regards to Knight, who is easier to scout since he had played in the NBA for years.


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