Game 31: Charlotte Hornets (14-16) @ Phoenix Suns (20-10) l Wednesday l 7:00pm l FSNAZ

[King4Day]

Yup Diddy.... the dude goes Copperfield for stretches. Bismack was in his fragile head and he got out hustled by Zeller.

But this game is on everyone tonight

Sloppy play, low intensity, FTs missed, poor execution/shooting in timely moments.

I agree! This game is not on Ayton by no means but you would think he has the clear advantage over Zeller and Biyombo. He’s just not ready and it sucks because the rest of the team is. I still would not be surprised if James Jones trades him if a trade is available. Nikola Vucevic is someone I would strongly look at. Suns have to go all in now IMO when factoring CP3’s age.

Well said. I think we're gonna ride this season out but I wouldn't be shocked if some moves are made this summer to fix whatever issues we feel we have.

[darealjuice]

Actually I meant DRTG for Booker, not Net RTG. I know he has a good enough ORtg to make his Net Rtg good.

Yeah, I expect more from Ayton though I knew he had big plays. And although he isn't as good on defense as many think, he's still better than I expected coming out. His offense is not as good, but I never felt he was a super aggressive player on that side, though he seems to have regressed.

I still think (maybe it's moreso hope) that the long layoffs last year (two stints of 4 1/2 months in isolation) with that couple of week bubble play where he wasn't quite as good, probably hurt his conditioning without a training camp or ability to work out in a basketball sense with trainers and stuff for so long.

That could be wishful thinking though...but he won't have that long of layoff again, so I expect the conditioning and attention to detail/skills since he should work more with trainers and in team setting in future off seasons should be much better.

I hope that’s the case, but everyone’s been in the same boat for the last year. Hell, being in Arizona probably made it easier for him to find a place to workout during the pandemic than most.

I’m pretty indifferent to him at this point. Unless his at least 2 of his skill set, motor, and physicality make surprise significant improvements, I’m confident he’ll be a fringe All Star at best. He doesn’t bring enough to the table to separate him from guys like Jarrett Allen and Clint Capela unless you’re into jab step fade aways. Tons of raw potential and there’s still time to develop it, but dreams of someone like Embiid and AD are long gone lol.

I agree he isn't much different than those guys except perimeter defense. I would think about trading him for Allen but I think the Cavs really like him. If he doesn't significantly improve, I think he will only make something like Capela makes...maybe a tad more around $20. I will be happy if he is a fringe all star. Booker has been impressive as a fringe all star the last two years...actually even the year before that. There are a lot of really good fringe all stars.

I see Booker becoming an actual consistent all star though, I personally wouldn't be surprised if Ayton never made an appearance, I don't think he'll ever be Booker's current level.

[Frank Lee]

As they should
(Tagging onto King’s comment)

[Slim Charless]

Only player is KAT. If he didn't just say he wants to build a culture with the Wolves, and possibly said he'd prefer to play elsewhere. I think we could have potentially offered DA, one of Dario or Crowder (salary matching purposes), Jalen Smith and Jevon Carter, plus 5 1st round picks for KAT. Though the Wolves may push for Cam or Bridges, however seeing how they just drafted Anthony Edwards and Vanderbilt the year prior, maybe they wouldn't want them. But yeah, that would be my offer.

I was thinking about KAT too but there's no way they just take Ayton and our bench guys and a few late round 1sts. If we made that trade, I'm guessing the conversation starts at Ayton AND Bridges. There's no way Minny would except less. Half the league would be blowing up their phone. We'd have to give up Ayton, Bridges, cpl 1sts and matching salary to pull it off.

We aren't getting him for Carter, Stix and various dudes we don't play. It would help if him and Booker worked some under the table stuff, but still Wolves wouldn't take a random package for their franchise player.

To me it makes sense. Ayton and Smith fits their timeline better with Anthony Edwards and Culver being 19 and 22. Jevon Carter is a throw-in but I imagine they could flip Saric for an expiring plus a second round pick. Other teams who would put a package together wouldn't likely have young pieces to make a trade work that doesn't blow up their team. I mean, maybe the Celtics could offer Jaylen Brown, but Brown is 24, by the time Edwards is 24 Brown is 29. Hawks could offer a package around John Collins, and maybe the Heat offer a package around Bam and Tyler Herro, but if I were the Heat I'd prefer to keep those two.
Wolves could then trade DLo to the Knicks for expirings plus picks, and boom they got themselves a treasure chest that would make Ainge and Hinkey proud.

I agree with your thought process on Ayton but Stix is in the G-League and can't be considered anything of value to get an all NBA guy. Theyd still take him though. Carter can't find any mins and they'd tell us to keep. We would have to throw in Bridges. They need a SF anyway.

We'd still have Cam, so it wouldn't be as bad, but I don't think there's anyway we can get KAT w/o giving up another of our young keys.

[Mulhollanddrive]

We did enough on offense.

But caught out on switches and rotations and pick n roll coverages, very poor defense when they were were on a roll.

Could sense early it was a casual up and down game which is always a danger.

[Frank Lee]

And we got jobbed out of an OT ... providing Book makes his 3 free throws

[grumpysaddle]

From last two minutes report.

Q4 00:00.6 Foul: Shooting Gordon Hayward Devin Booker INC Video
Comment: Hayward (CHA) makes contact to Booker's (PHX) wrist and affects his jump shot attempt.

[Keith_myath]

How many times do I have to say it; refs won't ever call last second soft, ticky-touch fouls.

No use complaining about something that'll never happen for any team.

[grumpysaddle]

How many times do I have to say it; refs won't ever call last second soft, ticky-touch fouls.

No use complaining about something that'll never happen for any team.

It clearly wasn't a ticky-tack foul though. Booker airballed the shot by like 5 feet. He doesn't airball that badly unless he was obviously fouled. They've called it before, but the randomness of the decision to call it or not call it is the problem. Why should defenses be allowed different rule sets for the last possession of a game than all the rest of the possessions?

[lilfishi22]

From last two minutes report.

Q4 00:00.6 Foul: Shooting Gordon Hayward Devin Booker INC Video
Comment: Hayward (CHA) makes contact to Booker's (PHX) wrist and affects his jump shot attempt.

That's tough....

To be fair as well, even though it was challenged and it was called correctly according to the L2M report, I thought that 3pt foul Booker drew on Hayward was super sketch.

[suns12345]

From last two minutes report.

Q4 00:00.6 Foul: Shooting Gordon Hayward Devin Booker INC Video
Comment: Hayward (CHA) makes contact to Booker's (PHX) wrist and affects his jump shot attempt.

That's tough....

To be fair as well, even though it was challenged and it was called correctly according to the L2M report, I thought that 3pt foul Booker drew on Hayward was super sketch.

Funny that foul on the last shot is almost exactly the same as the call they missed when he hit that bubble buzzer beater on PG13.

The hornets play felt like on of those calls they might make late once they see the shot result (which I hate when they do normally)