Preseason Game1: Suns host Sacramento

[NavLDO]

I'm being perfectly serious here, but understand I'm talking about the next game or two ONLY. Why not build our rotation based upon this 1st preseason game, and see how a rotation like this below works:

Bledsoe / Price
Booker / Knight
Warren / PJ
Leuer / Morris
Chandler / Len

Then sub in Teletovic, Weems, Goodwin, and Sims for a few minutes here and there.

As was mentioned, Bledsoe and Knight didn't look fantastic together, so why not limit their time together on the court to 8-10 minutes a game. Leuer has shown he can rebound, and we already know where Morris is in that part of his game--below avg for a PF. Leuer looked 'solid'--meaning having enough bulk to bang around with the big boys down low. And he actually has some pretty decent handles for a bigger dude. But at the same time, I think he can provide better spacing with Chandler than Morris can. Morris would be better suited with Len, who has more range than Chandler.

I'm not suggesting we role with this as our starting line-up in the regular season; I'm simply stating why not look at this type of rotation during pre-season; that would give McD and Horny at least a decent idea of whether it could work well enough so that when we trade Kieff, we know whether we NEED to push for a starter-level PF, or if we can get by with the best offe on the table regardless of position.

Now, as far as regular season goes, PJ needs to go to the bench. Absolutely no reason to not allow Warren to take that starter role now. He's certainly not any worse than PJ. And if we keep Kieff, I expect our rotation to look like:

Bledsoe / Goodwin / Price (apparently, PG is what they are grooming Goodwin as regardless of what makes sense)
Knight / Booker / Weems (split a little minutes at the 2 and 3 for Weems)
Warren / PJ / Weems
Morris / Teletovic / Leuer
Chandler / Len / Sims

[bwgood77]

Goodwin will prove his worth in practice and for what ever minutes he gets.
In any case, Goodwin is likely being groomed to be Bledsoe's backup, the slasher type whilst Booker is being groomed to be the spot up shooter.

People here need to realize that both are different enough players to have roles on the team.

Goodwin slashing, then finding Booker for the open shot... thats what I'm looking forward to see... not one or the other getting traded.

I don't know if Goodwin would get traded. He doesn't have trade value. He might be salary filler or something. Someone may sign him on the cheap when he is a FA, but he won't net positive value in a trade. We also have Bogdan coming over who is better.

But he is still young, so maybe he could turn into something, but I don't expect much. He will probably get some kind of contract eventually overseas though.

[bwgood77]

I'm being perfectly serious here, but understand I'm talking about the next game or two ONLY. Why not build our rotation based upon this 1st preseason game, and see how a rotation like this below works:

Bledsoe / Price
Booker / Knight
Warren / PJ
Leuer / Morris
Chandler / Len

Then sub in Teletovic, Weems, Goodwin, and Sims for a few minutes here and there.

As was mentioned, Bledsoe and Knight didn't look fantastic together, so why not limit their time together on the court to 8-10 minutes a game. Leuer has shown he can rebound, and we already know where Morris is in that part of his game--below avg for a PF. Leuer looked 'solid'--meaning having enough bulk to bang around with the big boys down low. And he actually has some pretty decent handles for a bigger dude. But at the same time, I think he can provide better spacing with Chandler than Morris can. Morris would be better suited with Len, who has more range than Chandler.

I'm not suggesting we role with this as our starting line-up in the regular season; I'm simply stating why not look at this type of rotation during pre-season; that would give McD and Horny at least a decent idea of whether it could work well enough so that when we trade Kieff, we know whether we NEED to push for a starter-level PF, or if we can get by with the best offe on the table regardless of position.

Now, as far as regular season goes, PJ needs to go to the bench. Absolutely no reason to not allow Warren to take that starter role now. He's certainly not any worse than PJ. And if we keep Kieff, I expect our rotation to look like:

Bledsoe / Goodwin / Price (apparently, PG is what they are grooming Goodwin as regardless of what makes sense)
Knight / Booker / Weems (split a little minutes at the 2 and 3 for Weems)
Warren / PJ / Weems
Morris / Teletovic / Leuer
Chandler / Len / Sims

Something like that might make more sense for spacing purposes, but I don't expect it. I wouldn't have Price on the second unit though. I'd put Knight at 1 and Weems at 2.

[MathiasPW]

On post game interviews Knight and Hornacek mentioned that they didn't even practice the high Pick and Roll yet, and that is the main play in which the Bledsoe and Knight combo will thrive.
It's too early to say they don't look well together. WAY too early

[LukasBMW]

Jon Leur:
18 minutes
17 points
13 rebounds

Kevin Love:
DNP

Leur > Love???????

(I'm obviously kidding.)
(But seriously, he did look like Kevin Love lite for a bit out there even though he played like trash in the last 3 minutes).

[bigfoot]

Excited to see how Leuer does in the next game. Teletovic looked slow and out of shape to me ... could be because he didn't have much practice time in Flagstaff when he had the flu. Markieff was just blah ... had the team worst plus/minus at -15 in just 18 minutes of play ... 2-13 shooting, 2 turnovers, and had four of his shots blocked ... looked out of control too ... like he was trying to do to much to up his trade value.

[rsavaj]

That Kieff for Rudy Gay idea actually looks appealing right about now...

[phnart]

Goodwin is a nice story and let's face it, we Suns fans like to root for the underdog. We've had a lot of nice stories over the years we liked to root for. We've had guys who overachieved, going back to Dennis Awtrey, Alvin Scott, Ronnie Lee, Elliot Perry...Rich Kelley was a fan favorite who busted his tail every play, but probably couldn't get off the bench now.Archie hustles, takes it to the hole without any sense of trepidation, and is fun to watch and root for, but the reality is this: he's nothing special. He's a late first round draft pick you see occasional glimpses of greatness, no, really good-ness, with but most of the time, he's just not as good as the other guys on the floor.

[JMac1]

I'm being perfectly serious here, but understand I'm talking about the next game or two ONLY. Why not build our rotation based upon this 1st preseason game, and see how a rotation like this below works:

Bledsoe / Price
Booker / Knight
Warren / PJ
Leuer / Morris
Chandler / Len

Then sub in Teletovic, Weems, Goodwin, and Sims for a few minutes here and there.

As was mentioned, Bledsoe and Knight didn't look fantastic together, so why not limit their time together on the court to 8-10 minutes a game. Leuer has shown he can rebound, and we already know where Morris is in that part of his game--below avg for a PF. Leuer looked 'solid'--meaning having enough bulk to bang around with the big boys down low. And he actually has some pretty decent handles for a bigger dude. But at the same time, I think he can provide better spacing with Chandler than Morris can. Morris would be better suited with Len, who has more range than Chandler.

I'm not suggesting we role with this as our starting line-up in the regular season; I'm simply stating why not look at this type of rotation during pre-season; that would give McD and Horny at least a decent idea of whether it could work well enough so that when we trade Kieff, we know whether we NEED to push for a starter-level PF, or if we can get by with the best offe on the table regardless of position.

Now, as far as regular season goes, PJ needs to go to the bench. Absolutely no reason to not allow Warren to take that starter role now. He's certainly not any worse than PJ. And if we keep Kieff, I expect our rotation to look like:

Bledsoe / Goodwin / Price (apparently, PG is what they are grooming Goodwin as regardless of what makes sense)
Knight / Booker / Weems (split a little minutes at the 2 and 3 for Weems)
Warren / PJ / Weems
Morris / Teletovic / Leuer
Chandler / Len / Sims

I actually think that lineup is best. It is about cohesiveness. Booker and Bledsoe is better than Knight and Bled. Booker is the perfect SG for Bled. Warren shot isn't good enough; I'd might prefer playing Booker as a small 3 over Warren and PJ to keep the spacing. Booker shot is butter!!

Morris is soft and can't shoot. Leuer was better than he and Telly.

[JMac1]

That Kieff for Rudy Gay idea actually looks appealing right about now...

It always have.

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

I second the motion to promote TJ and one of the stretch 4s to the starting lineup - preferably Leuer. I know it's been one game, but it looks like his per-minute stats should hold up given additional minutes.

In any case, the first team's spacing is trash. And Markieff is the trash king. I really hope we move him before the start of the year. Gimme dat space.

[lilfishi22]

I don't think we should tinker with the Knight/EB starting backcourt just yet. Great players learn to adapt and make things work. It's only been one game and while they didn't look to have gelled as well as EB and Dragic did almost right away, there were definitely times early in their first season together when even EB/Dragic looked like a jumbled mess. Also before jumping to conclusions, let's not forget that this is not just a two-man game, it's the other 3 guys on the court as well that contribute to how well the two can play. The Dragic/EB combo may not have been as good as they were if they didn't have a stretch 4 in Frye that opened up the floor. What was evident is that while we did have decent passing last night, the spacing wasn't ideal. Maybe we need to experiment with different lineups in the other 3 spots first. Maybe start Leuer aka GOAT even.

I'm not saying we shouldn't experiment with different line ups but we did pay those two a combined $150m because they are potential all-stars and they should have everything they need to be able to play well together.

[MrMiyagi]

I don't think we should tinker with the Knight/EB starting backcourt just yet. Great players learn to adapt and make things work. It's only been one game and while they didn't look to have gelled as well as EB and Dragic did almost right away, there were definitely times early in their first season together when even EB/Dragic looked like a jumbled mess. Also before jumping to conclusions, let's not forget that this is not just a two-man game, it's the other 3 guys on the court as well that contribute to how well the two can play. The Dragic/EB combo may not have been as good as they were if they didn't have a stretch 4 in Frye that opened up the floor. What was evident is that while we did have decent passing last night, the spacing wasn't ideal. Maybe we need to experiment with different lineups in the other 3 spots first. Maybe start Leuer aka GOAT even.

I'm not saying we shouldn't experiment with different line ups but we did pay those two a combined $150m because they are potential all-stars and they should have everything they need to be able to play well together.

Yeah, I think Knight and EB need time with each other. Let them play all their preseason minutes together so they can start figuring it out.

[JMac1]

That Kieff for Rudy Gay idea actually looks appealing right about now...

It always have.

Has

[Frank Lee]

Goodwin is a nice story and let's face it, we Suns fans like to root for the underdog. We've had a lot of nice stories over the years we liked to root for. We've had guys who overachieved, going back to Dennis Awtrey, Alvin Scott, Ronnie Lee, Elliot Perry...Rich Kelley was a fan favorite who busted his tail every play, but probably couldn't get off the bench now.Archie hustles, takes it to the hole without any sense of trepidation, and is fun to watch and root for, but the reality is this: he's nothing special. He's a late first round draft pick you see occasional glimpses of greatness, no, really good-ness, with but most of the time, he's just not as good as the other guys on the floor.

Thats going to leave a mark

[sunstrooper]

I think whatever we see in the preseason would not matter come the regular season and lineups and playing time as usual will be set based on:
1. Contract value
2. Media popularity (small weight)
In other words - no way Leuer is starting or even getting significant PT and very little probability of TJ over PJ. Archie showed some good flashes at the end of the last season, but unfortunately with the existing depth at guard/wing it is just bad luck for him.

[NavLDO]

I don't think we should tinker with the Knight/EB starting backcourt just yet. Great players learn to adapt and make things work. It's only been one game and while they didn't look to have gelled as well as EB and Dragic did almost right away, there were definitely times early in their first season together when even EB/Dragic looked like a jumbled mess. Also before jumping to conclusions, let's not forget that this is not just a two-man game, it's the other 3 guys on the court as well that contribute to how well the two can play. The Dragic/EB combo may not have been as good as they were if they didn't have a stretch 4 in Frye that opened up the floor. What was evident is that while we did have decent passing last night, the spacing wasn't ideal. Maybe we need to experiment with different lineups in the other 3 spots first. Maybe start Leuer aka GOAT even.

I'm not saying we shouldn't experiment with different line ups but we did pay those two a combined $150m because they are potential all-stars and they should have everything they need to be able to play well together.

I get what you are saying and do agree--we're paying them an awful lot to NOT be able to work through some growing pains. I just thought it might be worth seeing how that line-up works for a preseason game, is all. And just because you are a starter, doesn't mean you are one of the 5 best players in the team, or that you deserve to get 30+ minutes of play.

I just think that now is the time to try out different line-ups, not when a key player gets hurt in the regular season, THEN find out that rotation isn't going to work for whatever reason, and we lose 3 games trying to figure it out. I just don't want them to be too 'vanilla' this pre-season; let's throw about 8 different starting line-ups at the league and it gives the rest of the league something to figure out, and gives Horny a good idea about who 'gels' well together, and who doesn't.

[nevetsov]

Would be great to see one of our "true" SG (Weems, Booker, Goodwin) develop into a capable starter this season. Just one. Don't even care which.

That means we could run Knight as third guard, OR downgrade in a trade from starter to backup PG, while upgrading one of the other forward spots at the same time (Markieff or Tucker).

[jcsunsfan]

Jon Leur:
18 minutes
17 points
13 rebounds

Kevin Love:
DNP

Leur > Love???????

(I'm obviously kidding.)
(But seriously, he did look like Kevin Love lite for a bit out there even though he played like trash in the last 3 minutes).

Right. He shoots, he rebounds, he's white, and he'd 6-11, Love is like 6-7 on tippy toes. Leuer >>>>>>>>>>>>>Love.

Oh, I forgot.

Right. He shoots, he rebounds, he's white, and he'd 6-11, Love is like 6-7 on tippy toes. Leuer >>>>>>>>>>>>>Love.

[jcsunsfan]

Really hope Booker gets consistent minutes. Seems like the perfect shooting guard the Suns need. He's a steal for sure. Hard not to get excited with him. We all got excited with Archie though.


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With Archie we could see potential but he had a lot of areas to improve. Its really hard to find a flaw in Booker's game except that he still has a teenagers body.

I see Europe in Archie's future. There are alot of similarities between Archie and Sonny Weems when he started in the league. Archie is probably going to have to go to Europe to get the chance to develop his game. Too bad we couldn't have sent him there right away after we drafted him. He would probably be farther along by now.