Game 67: Phoenix Suns (15-51) @ Portland Trail Blazers (39-26) - 10:00 PM ET

[Kerrsed]

Seriously, in about 2 years Ayton will be one of the best passing Bigs in the league. I know people love to hate that he passes it out when he has the ball close to the paint, but he has excellent court vision in those instances and seems to always find the open man and unlike others doesnt pass it to a defended player causing a turnover.

Hmm... I see only 1 assist in 32 minutes. But Okay, sounds promising anyway.

Yup, he got the passes to them, too bad we cant shoot for s**t. He is on pretty much the leagues worst team with horrible shooters and who was starting 3 rookies, yet is ranked 7th in assists from Centers. He gets the ball to the right guy damn near most of the time, but its not his fault that player can convert on it.

But i guess you wouldnt know that as a boxscore checker, so im more than happy to inform you on whats up.

So yeah, continue to roll your eyes, so nice of you to stop by.

[sunsbg]

Seriously, in about 2 years Ayton will be one of the best passing Bigs in the league. I know people love to hate that he passes it out when he has the ball close to the paint, but he has excellent court vision in those instances and seems to always find the open man and unlike others doesnt pass it to a defended player causing a turnover.

Hmm... I see only 1 assist in 32 minutes. But Okay, sounds promising anyway.

Yup, he got the passes to them, too bad we cant shoot for s**t. He is on pretty much the leagues worst team with horrible shooters and who was starting 3 rookies, yet is ranked 7th in assists from Centers. He gets the ball to the right guy damn near most of the time, but its not his fault that player can convert on it.

But i guess you wouldnt know that as a boxscore checker, so im more than happy to inform you on whats up.

So yeah, continue to roll your eyes, so nice of you to stop by.

I check the stats once I wake up(being a euro) and watch the game later. I agree stats don't tell everything, expecially based on a single game.

Today I saw Ayton's 0s for blocks and steals and one will come to the conclusion that he didn't try much on D. Now after watching the 1st quarter he was impressive - great intensity defending both inside/outside, changed like 6-7 shots in the span of a few minutes. PnR defense was not good, but as pointed out by the commentators Booker should have rotated on one occasion instead of standing there watching.

Speaking of Devin, he was chucking like there is no tomorrow in 1st quarter. I thought 4th quarter was his time. Just find the PG of the future already and take the ball out of his hands.

As for Ayton's assists, they will come, what is obvious is he's a high IQ player in this regard - not rushing anything and not turning the ball over are very good signs.

[Saberestar]

Hmm... I see only 1 assist in 32 minutes. But Okay, sounds promising anyway.

Yup, he got the passes to them, too bad we cant shoot for s**t. He is on pretty much the leagues worst team with horrible shooters and who was starting 3 rookies, yet is ranked 7th in assists from Centers. He gets the ball to the right guy damn near most of the time, but its not his fault that player can convert on it.

But i guess you wouldnt know that as a boxscore checker, so im more than happy to inform you on whats up.

So yeah, continue to roll your eyes, so nice of you to stop by.

I check the stats once I wake up(being a euro) and watch the game later. I agree stats don't tell everything, expecially based on a single game.

Today I saw Ayton's 0s for blocks and steals and one will come to the conclusion that he didn't try much on D. Now after watching the 1st quarter he was impressive - great intensity defending both inside/outside, changed like 6-7 shots in the span of a few minutes. PnR defense was not good, but as pointed out by the commentators Booker should have rotated on one occasion instead of standing there watching.

Speaking of Devin, he was chucking like there is no tomorrow in 1st quarter. I thought 4th quarter was his time. Just find the PG of the future already and take the ball out of his hands.

As for Ayton's assists, they will come, what is obvious is he's a high IQ player in this regard - not rushing anything and not turning the ball over are very good signs.

That's true. His defense in the first quarter was outstanding, bothering shots and not fouling.
He played pretty well but the rest of the team was a bit off.

Booker took too many shots, and Oubre too. They need to try to shoot always GOOD shots, not just be happy trying to get points with defenders in their face. Kokoskov needs to reinforce that...better shot selection.

Oubre got a technical because he just doesn't understand his limitations. He wanted a foul on Nurkic when he was trying to finish around the rim, and it was not a foul IMO...just pass the ball outside.

And Josh Jackson with another bad game. No news here.

Hopefully we can play a decent game tonight against the Warriors.

[sunsbg]

Yup, he got the passes to them, too bad we cant shoot for s**t. He is on pretty much the leagues worst team with horrible shooters and who was starting 3 rookies, yet is ranked 7th in assists from Centers. He gets the ball to the right guy damn near most of the time, but its not his fault that player can convert on it.

But i guess you wouldnt know that as a boxscore checker, so im more than happy to inform you on whats up.

So yeah, continue to roll your eyes, so nice of you to stop by.

I check the stats once I wake up(being a euro) and watch the game later. I agree stats don't tell everything, expecially based on a single game.

Today I saw Ayton's 0s for blocks and steals and one will come to the conclusion that he didn't try much on D. Now after watching the 1st quarter he was impressive - great intensity defending both inside/outside, changed like 6-7 shots in the span of a few minutes. PnR defense was not good, but as pointed out by the commentators Booker should have rotated on one occasion instead of standing there watching.

Speaking of Devin, he was chucking like there is no tomorrow in 1st quarter. I thought 4th quarter was his time. Just find the PG of the future already and take the ball out of his hands.

As for Ayton's assists, they will come, what is obvious is he's a high IQ player in this regard - not rushing anything and not turning the ball over are very good signs.

That's true. His defense in the first quarter was outstanding, bothering shots and not fouling.
He played pretty well but the rest of the team was a bit off.

Booker took too many shots, and Oubre too. They need to try to shoot always GOOD shots, not just be happy trying to get points with defenders in their face. Kokoskov needs to reinforce that...better shot selection.

Oubre got a technical because he just doesn't understand his limitations. He wanted a foul on Nurkic when he was trying to finish around the rim, and it was not a foul IMO...just pass the ball outside.

And Josh Jackson with another bad game. No news here.

Hopefully we can play a decent game tonight against the Warriors.

This, but I don't see it happening under Kokoskov, who looks like a puppet of a coach. In his system Booker turned into a low efficient chucker. Ayton is underutilised. Those two still can't run a PnR, but supposedly this season is all about working on fundamentals.

[LukasBMW]

The Blazers play like we should play. They run all these screens to get their knockdown shooters open looks yet when they really need points, they pound it inside to Kanter or Nurkic. Everytime we'd make a small run and the Blazers started missing outside shots, they would pound it inside and get easy points.

We're not on their level yet, but if we snag a solid PG and develop Ayton and our wings the right way...we can hang with them very soon.

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

The Blazers play like we should play. They run all these screens to get their knockdown shooters open looks yet when they really need points, they pound it inside to Kanter or Nurkic. Everytime we'd make a small run and the Blazers started missing outside shots, they would pound it inside and get easy points.

We're not on their level yet, but if we snag a solid PG and develop Ayton and our wings the right way...we can hang with them very soon.

Ayton was feasting on offense.

Problem was our guards couldn't shoot, while theirs could.

[dremill24]

I check the stats once I wake up(being a euro) and watch the game later. I agree stats don't tell everything, expecially based on a single game.

Today I saw Ayton's 0s for blocks and steals and one will come to the conclusion that he didn't try much on D. Now after watching the 1st quarter he was impressive - great intensity defending both inside/outside, changed like 6-7 shots in the span of a few minutes. PnR defense was not good, but as pointed out by the commentators Booker should have rotated on one occasion instead of standing there watching.

Speaking of Devin, he was chucking like there is no tomorrow in 1st quarter. I thought 4th quarter was his time. Just find the PG of the future already and take the ball out of his hands.

As for Ayton's assists, they will come, what is obvious is he's a high IQ player in this regard - not rushing anything and not turning the ball over are very good signs.

That's true. His defense in the first quarter was outstanding, bothering shots and not fouling.
He played pretty well but the rest of the team was a bit off.

Booker took too many shots, and Oubre too. They need to try to shoot always GOOD shots, not just be happy trying to get points with defenders in their face. Kokoskov needs to reinforce that...better shot selection.

Oubre got a technical because he just doesn't understand his limitations. He wanted a foul on Nurkic when he was trying to finish around the rim, and it was not a foul IMO...just pass the ball outside.

And Josh Jackson with another bad game. No news here.

Hopefully we can play a decent game tonight against the Warriors.

This, but I don't see it happening under Kokoskov, who looks like a puppet of a coach. In his system Booker turned into a low efficient chucker. Ayton is underutilised. Those two still can't run a PnR, but supposedly this season is all about working on fundamentals.

Booker and Igor are both imperfect but Booker is putting up career highs in FG%, eFG%, and TS%, so saying the system turned Book into an inefficient chucker isn’t really the most accurate way to describe it.