Around the NBA

[RunDogGun]

Man, I haven't followed many players that leave the Suns, but was the second Goran trade the best trade we have made? 10/4 for how much money? And we get two firsts?

[SunsRback4Good]

It's looking that way now. Never in a million years would I think Goran would struggle this badly. He's still fairly young, wanted out from a team with 2 other pg's and was saying how happy and excited he's being in Miami and having a close relationship with organization, blah blah blah. He played about half a season last year and now a lil over 16 games and yet can't find his game. I'm trying to think what players I regret leaving in the past 5 years and can't think of one. Gortat, nope? Green, nope? Dragic, nope, Thomas, Maybe just a bit? I guess if I had to choose one It'd be Barbosa because he knows his roll coming off the bench.

[bwgood77]

I can't get enough of looking at the wiretap ticker up above and seeing "Byron Scott Unlikely To Be Fired, Viewed As 'Innocent Bystander"

[RaisingArizona]

Man, I haven't followed many players that leave the Suns, but was the second Goran trade the best trade we have made? 10/4 for how much money? And we get two firsts?

McD has mostly made great deals. It's a head scratcher why we're still bad.

[Gorilla Warfare]

Hassan Whiteside just got his 76th block of the season in this OKC vs MIA game. The second most in the NBA is DeAndre Jordan with 49. The Suns as a team have 75 blocks this season. Hassan Whiteside has more blocks than we do...

[RunDogGun]

Man, I haven't followed many players that leave the Suns, but was the second Goran trade the best trade we have made? 10/4 for how much money? And we get two firsts?

McD has mostly made great deals. It's a head scratcher why we're still bad.

Because our closers are not consistent, and Markieff seems to be purposely sucking. Len has trouble in games and Tele had a horrible start to the season, as did Weems. Price hasn't been the same since he ran into Smith, and we have been without our anchor on the defensive end.

[jcsunsfan]

Man, I haven't followed many players that leave the Suns, but was the second Goran trade the best trade we have made? 10/4 for how much money? And we get two firsts?

McD has mostly made great deals. It's a head scratcher why we're still bad.

Because our closers are not consistent, and Markieff seems to be purposely sucking. Len has trouble in games and Tele had a horrible start to the season, as did Weems. Price hasn't been the same since he ran into Smith, and we have been without our anchor on the defensive end.

Markieff was our most consistent crunch time player last year. He is playing like he doesnt care now. PJ has dropped off the face of the earth in effectiveness. Its so sudden that I think Suns coaching and mgmt is in disbelief.

[bwgood77]

McD has mostly made great deals. It's a head scratcher why we're still bad.

Because our closers are not consistent, and Markieff seems to be purposely sucking. Len has trouble in games and Tele had a horrible start to the season, as did Weems. Price hasn't been the same since he ran into Smith, and we have been without our anchor on the defensive end.

Markieff was our most consistent crunch time player last year. He is playing like he doesnt care now. PJ has dropped off the face of the earth in effectiveness. Its so sudden that I think Suns coaching and mgmt is in disbelief.

It is weird. I mean neither were ever great players but they were solid good players. When they get this bad, along with Chandler being out, it's tough. The plus side is that it is getting Warren so many more minutes and even Booker is getting a fair share. I don't see many other non top 10 picks getting very many minutes this year. Only three rookies taken out of the top 10 have gotten more minutes than him (Jerian Grant, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Larry Nance Jr, who plays for the Lakers). But those guys are not behind guys like Bledsoe/Knight either. So fans that wanted to see our rookie play quite a bit must be happy.

[garrick]

http://www.nba.com/pistons/features/morris-exudes-sheed-aura-resonates-pistons-teammates

How long until Marcus wears out his welcome in Detroit?

Seems his teammates love him right now though.

There’s a lot more to Marcus Morris that resembles Rasheed Wallace than their Philadelphia roots, their beards and their scowls. Maybe all those things aren’t coincidental, either.

Morris gravitated toward Wallace, surely in part because of their hometown connection, admired his game and got to know him. They’re now occasional workout partners. He even adopted ’Sheed’s hard outer shell deliberately, wanting everyone to know he’s not one to mess with when he steps on a basketball court.

What the Pistons have learned since trading for Morris over the summer is that he, like Wallace, is universally regarded as a fantastic teammate. Stan Van Gundy said the team’s expectation was that Morris would thrive given greater opportunity – that nothing he’s done for them this season, really, should count as a surprise – but until you put a player in your locker room there’s no way to really know how he’ll fit into the mix.

On that score, lights out.

“He’s a no-nonsense guy,” said Anthony Tolliver, who spent the first one-third of last season with Morris and his twin brother, Markieff, in Phoenix before the Pistons traded for him on Christmas eve. “He’s a guy that goes to work, does his thing. And he speaks his mind. He doesn’t say much, but when he says something, you know it’s real. He does not speak as often, but he does a good job of chewing some guys out when it needs to be done.”

Van Gundy talks about leadership as more about deeds than words. The stuff he sees from Morris goes to leadership. Case in point: During the first half of Monday’s win over Houston, Morris was unintentionally clobbered by teammate Andre Drummond, collapsing to the court with stabbing back pain. He gingerly walked to the bench, took some heat treatment and stretching therapy, then re-entered the game before halftime so as not to stiffen beyond his capacity to return.

He played again Wednesday, a whopping 42 minutes, and logged perhaps his best game, putting up 24 points on just 10 shots to go with 14 rebounds. His teammates knew he was hurting. Don’t think that doesn’t resonate.

“He’s a team guy,” Drummond said. “He’s going to leave it all on the floor whenever he’s out there. For somebody with a sore back, you couldn’t really tell.”

“He just never quit,” Reggie Jackson said. “Tough guy. He got hit hard by Andre last game, but he finds a way to compete. He loves to play this game. He loves to compete.”

Toughness is one of those qualities, like effort, that rubs off and raises a team’s collective competitiveness.

“A lot of it comes from within each guy, but certainly I think you can create an environment where if there’s toughness around you, you want to rise to that level,” Van Gundy said. “Nobody wants to be the guy who’s soft. So when the overall level rises, when other people create that kind of culture, others want to follow suit.”

And Van Gundy knew he was getting a tough customer in Morris. That was detailed in the substantive dossier the Pistons had on Morris – and every NBA player – as a result of the beefed-up scouting staff Van Gundy and Pistons general manager Jeff Bower hired when they took over. Their four dedicated NBA scouts file weekly reports on all players. Their book on Morris: tough, tough guy.

“He plays hard all the time,” Van Gundy said. “He’s a physical guy, not afraid to mix it up in traffic. He’ll set screens. All the physical aspects of the game, he’s willing to do. And he backs down from no one. At that position in the league, you have to go up against a lot of great players. Marcus never backs down, never shows any fear. That’s a great thing for him and a great model for the rest of our guys.”

It’s Van Gundy’s idea of the best type of leadership, but Morris exercises it in other ways, too. When the Pistons had a practice during their 11-day West Coast swing last month, rookie Stanley Johnson was having a rough go, making a series of mental mistakes. After every one of them, Morris offered constructive tips to the lottery pick who happens to play the same position. That’s the type of thing that made Wallace such a revered figure in every locker room he graced as an NBA veteran.

“Not only has his play been good, but just in terms of his professionalism, he’s a guy who’s in early, does his work, rarely has a lot to say,” Van Gundy said. “He’s a guy you can count on.”

And the Pistons, indeed, do count on Marcus Morris. Just like they figured they would.

[RunDogGun]

McD has mostly made great deals. It's a head scratcher why we're still bad.

Because our closers are not consistent, and Markieff seems to be purposely sucking. Len has trouble in games and Tele had a horrible start to the season, as did Weems. Price hasn't been the same since he ran into Smith, and we have been without our anchor on the defensive end.

Markieff was our most consistent crunch time player last year. He is playing like he doesnt care now. PJ has dropped off the face of the earth in effectiveness. Its so sudden that I think Suns coaching and mgmt is in disbelief.

I really don't know what people expect from Tucker. He is taking less and less shots, he is still rebounding, and he is starting to pass better, or find open guys. His shot is not falling...true, but people saying we are playing four on five on offense is just silly. He is a good complement to our heavy volume shooting guards.

[Sunsss]

Dudley the big man

Jared Dudley is almost exclusively a “big man” for Washington as an undersized power forward and even spot-duty center but he used to be a big man for a different reason. He was on the heavy side during his Suns years before Steve Nash and Grant Hill influenced him to eat healthier.

Dudley brought back that “Nash diet” to lose 15 pounds after he had to be idle for almost five months following back surgery and added weight.

“I got that body type,” Dudley said.

He trimmed to 228 pounds for Washington, although he tried to get Phoenix to sign him. He thought he could bring the chemistry and shooting help that the Suns needed and talked to Eric Bledsoe about it during the summer.

Dudley replaced Kris Humphries as the Wizards’ starting power forward for the past four games, “I don’t even see myself as a 3 (small forward),” Dudley said. “I’m a 4 (power forward), a stretch four, because that’s where the game is. That’s for me to prolong my career.

“I’m Channing (Frye) 2.0 because I’ll put it down.”

Dudley was sorry to miss former teammate Steve Nash’s Ring of Honor night but said he thanks him whenever he sees him for the money he has made since their Suns years.

Dudley knows another guard well after playing with Brandon Knight in Milwaukee.

“Bettter scorer than I thought,” Dudley said. “We needed him to shoot because we weren’t very efficient. Very athletic and a perfectionist. He will shoot 1,000 shots until he gets it right. He’s got to work on his decision-making. He’s turnover-prone but he focuses.”

Dudley said the Suns’ guard-oriented ways can affect chemistry.

“They shoot 100 shots,” Dudley said. “That messes with chemistry because the ball has to move. Unless you are Steph Curry, you can’t shoot 10 for 25. You’ve got to be able to make the extra passes. B-Knight, you’re averaging 23? We need it down to 17 and two or three more assists.”

[AtheJ415]

Man, I haven't followed many players that leave the Suns, but was the second Goran trade the best trade we have made? 10/4 for how much money? And we get two firsts?

McD has mostly made great deals. It's a head scratcher why we're still bad.

Because we're young and in the West, and our turnovers have cost us many games we should've won. The talent is there, and it is getting better. I see the growth of the individual guys. Long-term it'll be fine. Just have to get older/mature, which will result in playing smarter. Also have to find a way to get something positive for Markieff. That's the clear elephant in the room right now. Same for Tucker imo, given his age. I don't think this team really needs a 31 year old role playing SF who doesn't lead the youngsters and is almost a non-factor on offense. Trade him to a contender who would value him more and get a youngster or pick back.

Imo:

Trade Kieff, Trade Tucker, Evaluate Hornacek, go from there. No reason to panic. Our GM is very good regardless of whether we make the playoffs this season.

[Qwigglez]

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000592814/article/cardinals-bengals-steelers-boast-ideal-passcatching-diversity
I was reading this article on NFL.com and it had this little snippit in there...

You need your guy off the bench, the sixth man in the NBA. The guy people aren't particularly focused on but can suddenly change the tenor of the game. The change-of-pace guy, like J.R. Smith for the Cleveland Cavaliers or Jon Leuer for the Phoenix Suns, can be instant offense for a team that needs a quick jump-start. In the NFL, Bengals WR Mohamed Sanu has 25 receptions (at 13.1 ypc),

[bwgood77]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/76ersBNN/status/673980312200736768[/tweet]

[Fo-Real]

Lol, Jerry is working on getting them to accept Kief back home!

[jcsunsfan]

No chance of trading Kieff to Philly now. Jerry knows better.

[jcsunsfan]

Yup. Just as I suspected. Jerry Colangelo was sent to Philly by the league to help clean up the mess Hinkie has made of the team. Owners were complaining that the 76ers are damaging revenues league wide.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/14317233/nba-owners-lobbied-league-office-philadelphia-76ers-changes

He will immediately start by trading some of those accumulated draft picks for high character veteran leadership--probably two players.

[TeamTragic]

Yup. Just as I suspected. Jerry Colangelo was sent to Philly by the league to help clean up the mess Hinkie has made of the team. Owners were complaining that the 76ers are damaging revenues league wide.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/14317233/nba-owners-lobbied-league-office-philadelphia-76ers-changes

He will immediately start by trading some of those acculated draft picks for high character veteran leadership--probably two players.

Do they want Tucker for a pick or two?

[jcsunsfan]

double

[AtheJ415]

How awesome would it be if the NBA demanded the 76ers improve, so they traded for Kieff, a veteran who they know will help them stealth tank. In return, they can give us McConnell.