Game 28: Washington Wizards (15-14) @ Phoenix Suns (22-5) l Thursday l 7:00pm l BSAZ

[bwgood77]

A breezer with our bench getting max minutes. Need a few more of these games. Didn’t watch, as I had the heart broke Chargers on a teaser. Didn’t miss much.

I wish bets were finalized on regulation scores...to me it makes more sense.

You used to get 6 pts on teasers back in the day but most places I've seen in more recent times only give you 4. I imagine you got less than 6 unless you paid more juice to move the numbers you got.

[Mulhollanddrive]

Payne usage is up from 19% to 27% looks to be forcing self-creating a bit more than last year.

[WeekapaugGroove]

Payne usage is up from 19% to 27% looks to be forcing self-creating a bit more than last year.

Yeah that's a little too high of a usage rate for him. I'm not concerned with him in general, the shooting will come around and even shooting as poorly as he has so far he's been a net positive in the minutes he's on the floor.

Why I'm not worried is dude stepped up when it mattered the most in the playoffs. Suns wouldn't have made the finals without him. That earned him some patience.

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[Frank Lee]

The book is out on him… his sneaky Statue of Liberty drives haven’t been falling. As someone said, the paint is a little more crowded with McGee in there. At least those two have some good synergy. Payne does seem to be forcing it up. You can almost predict when he is going to shoot

[Saberestar]

The book is out on him… his sneaky Statue of Liberty drives haven’t been falling. As someone said, the paint is a little more crowded with McGee in there. At least those two have some good synergy. Payne does seem to be forcing it up. You can almost predict when he is going to shoot

I love Payne. I think he is putting a lot of pressure on defenses and creating opportunities for McGee's lobs, putbacks and offensive boards.

McGee and him have great chemistry and they are playing well together. He is taking more floaters this season, but he is good at those type of shots.

I think his percentages will go up in the next couple of months. He had some bad games before and after his injury and his number struggle in part for that.

[spanishninja]

The book is out on him… his sneaky Statue of Liberty drives haven’t been falling. As someone said, the paint is a little more crowded with McGee in there. At least those two have some good synergy. Payne does seem to be forcing it up. You can almost predict when he is going to shoot

I love Payne. I think he is putting a lot of pressure on defenses and creating opportunities for McGee's lobs, putbacks and offensive boards.

McGee and him have great chemistry and they are playing well together. He is taking more floaters this season, but he is good at those type of shots.

I think his percentages will go up in the next couple of months. He had some bad games before and after his injury and his number struggle in part for that.

yeah, we use Payne to keep the tempo high when Paul is on the bench. you can see the reason for this when you see Payton run the offense. Neither is shooting well but at least Payne is aggressive and makes defenses work.

[Ghost of Kleine]

The book is out on him… his sneaky Statue of Liberty drives haven’t been falling. As someone said, the paint is a little more crowded with McGee in there. At least those two have some good synergy. Payne does seem to be forcing it up. You can almost predict when he is going to shoot

The question I think then becomes how will he adapt his game to offset this predictability? We know that he does have the ability as a playmaker that IF developed further can ade a new dynamic to his game. Perhaps this could somewhat negate defenders crowding him on penetration? He's got the speed and good ballhandling to become more creative in isolation a bit. So maybe he simply needs to add a few more moves to his bag of tricks?
Hesitation dribbles to freeze defenders, more crossovers, stepbacks?

Is it that he is rushing things a bit too much that he normally wouldn't in this increased usage role? Does he feel pressured to produce more? Could this pressure be alleviated by adding another
Decent iso scorer for the bench? Or maybe he just calms down once Book returns??

[Mulhollanddrive]

Payne 10+ field goal attempts:

This regular season: 11 out of 23 games
Last regular season: 9 out of 60 games

No harm in trying to expand his game just has to find the right niches when it matters.