Game 31: Phoenix Suns (15-15) @ Golden State Warriors (15-15) | Dec 28 | 6:30PM

[KLEON]

0 fg in the last 6 plus minutes SMH.

[Saberestar]

BTW...what about the defense of grabbing and pushing all the time allowed by the refs to the GSW? It was comical a few times and I am not a "excuse because of the refs' guy.

[KLEON]

This team should apologise to J.O

[KLEON]

BTW...what about the defense of grabbing and pushing all the time allowed by the refs to the GSW? It was comical a few times and I am not a "excuse because of the refs' guy.

Its been happening for years. How do you think Stef gets most of his buckets

[sunskerr]

31 games in with an aging roster under .500 lol

nice.

[sunsbg]

Damn. Scared to check box-score and standings for some time now. If this team doesn't turn it around in Jan, they can legit not make the play in. We must have one of the hardest schedules at the end like in previous season though they somehow managed to prevent the play in then by staying healthy, which is not a given.

[bullsaficianado]

Maybe we should not trade Nurkic. He was really missed this game.

[SunsRback4Good]

Damn. Scared to check box-score and standings for some time now. If this team doesn't turn it around in Jan, they can legit not make the play in. We must have one of the hardest schedules at the end like in previous season though they somehow managed to prevent the play in then by staying healthy, which is not a given.

It’s pretty sad a team has to rely on their three stars to get them a top 6 seed to avoid the play-in. Sadly, our three stars could never stay healthy so they will likely finish anywhere from 7th to 10th seed.

[sunsbg]

Damn. Scared to check box-score and standings for some time now. If this team doesn't turn it around in Jan, they can legit not make the play in. We must have one of the hardest schedules at the end like in previous season though they somehow managed to prevent the play in then by staying healthy, which is not a given.

It’s pretty sad a team has to rely on their three stars to get them a top 6 seed to avoid the play-in. Sadly, our three stars could never stay healthy so they will likely finish anywhere from 7th to 10th seed.

If the team had a good system and all players were commited to it, play hard, it shouldn't be necessary to have all three healthy to stay relevant. The problem is our stars are the system. ISO ball that just doesn't work against modern schemes. Look at other teams - Ja gets injured and Grizz remain good. Spurs with 40yo CP, 2nd year star player and random role players are still better, etc. Another coach, PGs with great A/TO ratio and this team is the exact same mess.

[handsome salary]

Damn. Scared to check box-score and standings for some time now. If this team doesn't turn it around in Jan, they can legit not make the play in. We must have one of the hardest schedules at the end like in previous season though they somehow managed to prevent the play in then by staying healthy, which is not a given.

It’s pretty sad a team has to rely on their three stars to get them a top 6 seed to avoid the play-in. Sadly, our three stars could never stay healthy so they will likely finish anywhere from 7th to 10th seed.

Three "stars" where two are redundant and none address needs for defense, rebounding, youth or leadership.

This team plays teams missing their stars (ala Dallas) but who have younger and more energetic players. Suns lose. Every season the front office goes head hunting for what ever cast off vet is out there. That's their plan for roster building.

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

Damn. Scared to check box-score and standings for some time now. If this team doesn't turn it around in Jan, they can legit not make the play in. We must have one of the hardest schedules at the end like in previous season though they somehow managed to prevent the play in then by staying healthy, which is not a given.

It’s pretty sad a team has to rely on their three stars to get them a top 6 seed to avoid the play-in. Sadly, our three stars could never stay healthy so they will likely finish anywhere from 7th to 10th seed.

Three "stars" where two are redundant and none address needs for defense, rebounding, youth or leadership.

This team plays teams missing their stars (ala Dallas) but who have younger and more energetic players. Suns lose. Every season the front office goes head hunting for what ever cast off vet is out there. That's their plan for roster building.

+2.
Energy and athleticism are required to play the worlds best basketball, and all the strongest athletes in the world are in their 20s. The best basketball players are generally in their late 20s.
Nearly everyone on this team is past their prime, so even our wins are ugly.
That's what you get when you don't invest in the draft.

[Puff]

Yeah, not sure why he didn't pull up for the 3. Tough loss. that 10-0 run killed us after being up 100-91. Outscored us like 18-5 down the stretch.

That did not happen in the 4th quarter when we had Monty as coach and CP3 at the point guard.

We won 51 times in a row when we had the lead going into the 4th quarter with Monty and CP3.

Will you ever realize that the trade we made for Beal was the worst trade in the history of this franchise? I called it at the time of the trade. We only have one freaking player still on the team that went to the finals and set a franchise record in wins. Ish just sucks balls.

I did not even like the trade of Ayton for Nurkic. Even though I thought Ayton sucked. When Ish fired Monty I thought we would give Vogel a chance to work with him.

Quite frankly I think Bud is a downgrade from both Monty and Vogel. He has two point guards and their mission in life is to get the ball across mid court and pass the ball to one of the big three so they can pass it to each other or go ISO. It is horrible to watch. No wonder the Bucks fired him.

Who will be our head coach next year. After all it is just money.

Obviously, the problem cannot be the roster that Ish and Isiah created.

[bwgood77]

Yeah, not sure why he didn't pull up for the 3. Tough loss. that 10-0 run killed us after being up 100-91. Outscored us like 18-5 down the stretch.

That did not happen in the 4th quarter when we had Monty as coach and CP3 at the point guard.

We won 51 times in a row when we had the lead going into the 4th quarter with Monty and CP3.

Will you ever realize that the trade we made for Beal was the worst trade in the history of this franchise? I called it at the time of the trade. We only have one freaking player still on the team that went to the finals and set a franchise record in wins. Ish just sucks balls.

I did not even like the trade of Ayton for Nurkic. Even though I thought Ayton sucked. When Ish fired Monty I thought we would give Vogel a chance to work with him.

Quite frankly I think Bud is a downgrade from both Monty and Vogel. He has two point guards and their mission in life is to get the ball across mid court and pass the ball to one of the big three so they can pass it to each other or go ISO. It is horrible to watch. No wonder the Bucks fired him.

Who will be our head coach next year. After all it is just money.

Obviously, the problem cannot be the roster that Ish and Isiah created.

I am accepting where our team is when I discuss games. We had a nice effort given 4 of our top 7 players in mpg were out.

I hated the move we made when we traded for KD. We basically blew up a finals team that had broke a franchise record for wins, the very next year when everyone was out with injuries. Once that was made though, we got Beal for nothing. We would not be better right now with Shamet and CP3 or had we let them expire. Paul was my favorite player aside from Bridges when he was here but he was the main reason we lost against Dallas and was washed. In his last year here, we were 21-24 at one point.

We went from a young team to an old team. I know we are screwed for the future but I can still try and root for the players now. I like Beal. He's not a flopper or a whiner about calls and is not full of himself. Sure he makes too much but I'm not gonna blame him for that. He's a premier scorer. We knew what we were getting. I know some would rather simply not have him or have CP3/Shamet or maybe someone like Poole who we could have gotten with CP3. But Book was tired of CP3. Him and KD called Beal and told him they wanted him. Nothing we can do about any of that, so I will root for them even though I'm not happy about the direction our team has taken.

[Puff]

Yeah, not sure why he didn't pull up for the 3. Tough loss. that 10-0 run killed us after being up 100-91. Outscored us like 18-5 down the stretch.

That did not happen in the 4th quarter when we had Monty as coach and CP3 at the point guard.

We won 51 times in a row when we had the lead going into the 4th quarter with Monty and CP3.

Will you ever realize that the trade we made for Beal was the worst trade in the history of this franchise? I called it at the time of the trade. We only have one freaking player still on the team that went to the finals and set a franchise record in wins. Ish just sucks balls.

I did not even like the trade of Ayton for Nurkic. Even though I thought Ayton sucked. When Ish fired Monty I thought we would give Vogel a chance to work with him.

Quite frankly I think Bud is a downgrade from both Monty and Vogel. He has two point guards and their mission in life is to get the ball across mid court and pass the ball to one of the big three so they can pass it to each other or go ISO. It is horrible to watch. No wonder the Bucks fired him.

Who will be our head coach next year. After all it is just money.

Obviously, the problem cannot be the roster that Ish and Isiah created.

I am accepting where our team is when I discuss games. We had a nice effort given 4 of our top 7 players in mpg were out.

I hated the move we made when we traded for KD. We basically blew up a finals team that had broke a franchise record for wins, the very next year when everyone was out with injuries. Once that was made though, we got Beal for nothing. We would not be better right now with Shamet and CP3 or had we let them expire. Paul was my favorite player aside from Bridges when he was here but he was the main reason we lost against Dallas and was washed. In his last year here, we were 21-24 at one point.

We went from a young team to an old team. I know we are screwed for the future but I can still try and root for the players now. I like Beal. He's not a flopper or a whiner about calls and is not full of himself. Sure he makes too much but I'm not gonna blame him for that. He's a premier scorer. We knew what we were getting. I know some would rather simply not have him or have CP3/Shamet or maybe someone like Poole who we could have gotten with CP3. But Book was tired of CP3. Him and KD called Beal and told him they wanted him. Nothing we can do about any of that, so I will root for them even though I'm not happy about the direction our team has taken.

You just will never admit that you were wrong.

We did not get Beal for nothing. When are you going to stop saying that we did. We got him for $200,000,000. That has us screwed until at least the 27/28 season. He not only has a no trade clause he has a 15% trade kicker in his contract. No one is dumb enough to trade for this useless player that seems to be hurt every other week. We were the suckers that pulled the trigger. I imagine they had a big celebration in Washington DC.

Surely the start of this disaster was the move to go after KD which I hated almost as much as the Ayton pick rather than Doncic.

Trade all three of these guys. Unfortunately, no one is going to trade for the great bargain we got in the CP3 trade. We are stuck watching this crap until 27/28 and then we will be watching more crap that Ish and Isiah decide to bring in.

[bwgood77]

That did not happen in the 4th quarter when we had Monty as coach and CP3 at the point guard.

We won 51 times in a row when we had the lead going into the 4th quarter with Monty and CP3.

Will you ever realize that the trade we made for Beal was the worst trade in the history of this franchise? I called it at the time of the trade. We only have one freaking player still on the team that went to the finals and set a franchise record in wins. Ish just sucks balls.

I did not even like the trade of Ayton for Nurkic. Even though I thought Ayton sucked. When Ish fired Monty I thought we would give Vogel a chance to work with him.

Quite frankly I think Bud is a downgrade from both Monty and Vogel. He has two point guards and their mission in life is to get the ball across mid court and pass the ball to one of the big three so they can pass it to each other or go ISO. It is horrible to watch. No wonder the Bucks fired him.

Who will be our head coach next year. After all it is just money.

Obviously, the problem cannot be the roster that Ish and Isiah created.

I am accepting where our team is when I discuss games. We had a nice effort given 4 of our top 7 players in mpg were out.

I hated the move we made when we traded for KD. We basically blew up a finals team that had broke a franchise record for wins, the very next year when everyone was out with injuries. Once that was made though, we got Beal for nothing. We would not be better right now with Shamet and CP3 or had we let them expire. Paul was my favorite player aside from Bridges when he was here but he was the main reason we lost against Dallas and was washed. In his last year here, we were 21-24 at one point.

We went from a young team to an old team. I know we are screwed for the future but I can still try and root for the players now. I like Beal. He's not a flopper or a whiner about calls and is not full of himself. Sure he makes too much but I'm not gonna blame him for that. He's a premier scorer. We knew what we were getting. I know some would rather simply not have him or have CP3/Shamet or maybe someone like Poole who we could have gotten with CP3. But Book was tired of CP3. Him and KD called Beal and told him they wanted him. Nothing we can do about any of that, so I will root for them even though I'm not happy about the direction our team has taken.

You just will never admit that you were wrong.

We did not get Beal for nothing. When are you going to stop saying that we did. We got him for $200,000,000. That has us screwed until at least the 27/28 season. He not only has a no trade clause he has a 15% trade kicker in his contract. No one is dumb enough to trade for this useless player that seems to be hurt every other week. We were the suckers that pulled the trigger. I imagine they had a big celebration in Washington DC.

Surely the start of this disaster was the move to go after KD which I hated almost as much as the Ayton pick rather than Doncic.

Trade all three of these guys. Unfortunately, no one is going to trade for the great bargain we got in the CP3 trade. We are stuck watching this crap until 27/28 and then we will be watching more crap that Ish and Isiah decide to bring in.

Beal is a talented player. It's not your money or my money. He isn't worth as much as his contract, but that goes for a lot of players. We were in a worse position after we traded KD and had Shamet and a useless Chris Paul. Had we let them expire we would have nothing. We were unlikely to be able to trade them for anything better. Paul later got traded for Jordan Poole. I would not rather have Jordan Poole than Beal.

I know if you do not understand the cap it's easy to whine and complain, but we were screwed prior to that when we traded 4 firsts and 3 of our top 6 rotation players for an old injury prone KD. That left us with nothing to make any more moves. We have been lucky to be able to get other players for the minimum. The 2030 swap could be bad, and maybe the 2028 one, but Washington is unlikely to be very good very soon so they will likely keep their pick. The seconds we gave up our the worst part of it.

But I don't know why people worry about the contract so much when we wouldn't have cap space even if we could just cut him and his salary. It's not like we have great assets to bundle in a trade where the difference in return is better than whatever we send out + Beal.

It's probably just a difference of opinion. There isn't a wrong or right, but had we kept Paul and Shamet, and tried to do something else with them or just let them expire, I seriously doubt we'd be in a better position. Sure, Ishbia would be spending less money, if that's your concern. It's just not mine.

[dremill24]

Just getting to watch this. What on God's green earth was the point of challenging an out of bounds call in the 1st quarter after KD blocked a shot?!

[sunsbg]

I am accepting where our team is when I discuss games. We had a nice effort given 4 of our top 7 players in mpg were out.

I hated the move we made when we traded for KD. We basically blew up a finals team that had broke a franchise record for wins, the very next year when everyone was out with injuries. Once that was made though, we got Beal for nothing. We would not be better right now with Shamet and CP3 or had we let them expire. Paul was my favorite player aside from Bridges when he was here but he was the main reason we lost against Dallas and was washed. In his last year here, we were 21-24 at one point.

We went from a young team to an old team. I know we are screwed for the future but I can still try and root for the players now. I like Beal. He's not a flopper or a whiner about calls and is not full of himself. Sure he makes too much but I'm not gonna blame him for that. He's a premier scorer. We knew what we were getting. I know some would rather simply not have him or have CP3/Shamet or maybe someone like Poole who we could have gotten with CP3. But Book was tired of CP3. Him and KD called Beal and told him they wanted him. Nothing we can do about any of that, so I will root for them even though I'm not happy about the direction our team has taken.

You just will never admit that you were wrong.

We did not get Beal for nothing. When are you going to stop saying that we did. We got him for $200,000,000. That has us screwed until at least the 27/28 season. He not only has a no trade clause he has a 15% trade kicker in his contract. No one is dumb enough to trade for this useless player that seems to be hurt every other week. We were the suckers that pulled the trigger. I imagine they had a big celebration in Washington DC.

Surely the start of this disaster was the move to go after KD which I hated almost as much as the Ayton pick rather than Doncic.

Trade all three of these guys. Unfortunately, no one is going to trade for the great bargain we got in the CP3 trade. We are stuck watching this crap until 27/28 and then we will be watching more crap that Ish and Isiah decide to bring in.

Beal is a talented player. It's not your money or my money. He isn't worth as much as his contract, but that goes for a lot of players. We were in a worse position after we traded KD and had Shamet and a useless Chris Paul. Had we let them expire we would have nothing. We were unlikely to be able to trade them for anything better. Paul later got traded for Jordan Poole. I would not rather have Jordan Poole than Beal.

I know if you do not understand the cap it's easy to whine and complain, but we were screwed prior to that when we traded 4 firsts and 3 of our top 6 rotation players for an old injury prone KD. That left us with nothing to make any more moves. We have been lucky to be able to get other players for the minimum. The 2030 swap could be bad, and maybe the 2028 one, but Washington is unlikely to be very good very soon so they will likely keep their pick. The seconds we gave up our the worst part of it.

But I don't know why people worry about the contract so much when we wouldn't have cap space even if we could just cut him and his salary. It's not like we have great assets to bundle in a trade where the difference in return is better than whatever we send out + Beal.

It's probably just a difference of opinion. There isn't a wrong or right, but had we kept Paul and Shamet, and tried to do something else with them or just let them expire, I seriously doubt we'd be in a better position. Sure, Ishbia would be spending less money, if that's your concern. It's just not mine.

Interestingly this useless player looks like ironman compared to Beal and beats him in a lot of advanced metrics this season while costing 5 times less. Not that comparing player to player is all that matters. A reminder it's a team sport and Booker/KD combo looked great in a series with CP3 running the team and the concerns that Booker and Beal are more or less the same player so they won't work well together has a lot of evidence by now.

[Calvin Klein]

I'd much rather have Chris Paul's old ass leading this team and putting some structure on the offensive end than whatever Beal does. He is certainly helping the Spurs now.
You need clear roles in the team. Beal is redundant with Booker, and his huge salary makes it more difficult to just bench him. He's not just another guy, he's supposed to be featured.

[garrick]

This reminds me of the Hakeem, Barkley and Pippen super team all over again.

At the end of the day all three stars were well past their prime and an assortment of injuries just derailed their chances although they were a John Stockton jumper away from going to the finals that one year but we are arguably worse than that Rockets team.

[bwgood77]

You just will never admit that you were wrong.

We did not get Beal for nothing. When are you going to stop saying that we did. We got him for $200,000,000. That has us screwed until at least the 27/28 season. He not only has a no trade clause he has a 15% trade kicker in his contract. No one is dumb enough to trade for this useless player that seems to be hurt every other week. We were the suckers that pulled the trigger. I imagine they had a big celebration in Washington DC.

Surely the start of this disaster was the move to go after KD which I hated almost as much as the Ayton pick rather than Doncic.

Trade all three of these guys. Unfortunately, no one is going to trade for the great bargain we got in the CP3 trade. We are stuck watching this crap until 27/28 and then we will be watching more crap that Ish and Isiah decide to bring in.

Beal is a talented player. It's not your money or my money. He isn't worth as much as his contract, but that goes for a lot of players. We were in a worse position after we traded KD and had Shamet and a useless Chris Paul. Had we let them expire we would have nothing. We were unlikely to be able to trade them for anything better. Paul later got traded for Jordan Poole. I would not rather have Jordan Poole than Beal.

I know if you do not understand the cap it's easy to whine and complain, but we were screwed prior to that when we traded 4 firsts and 3 of our top 6 rotation players for an old injury prone KD. That left us with nothing to make any more moves. We have been lucky to be able to get other players for the minimum. The 2030 swap could be bad, and maybe the 2028 one, but Washington is unlikely to be very good very soon so they will likely keep their pick. The seconds we gave up our the worst part of it.

But I don't know why people worry about the contract so much when we wouldn't have cap space even if we could just cut him and his salary. It's not like we have great assets to bundle in a trade where the difference in return is better than whatever we send out + Beal.

It's probably just a difference of opinion. There isn't a wrong or right, but had we kept Paul and Shamet, and tried to do something else with them or just let them expire, I seriously doubt we'd be in a better position. Sure, Ishbia would be spending less money, if that's your concern. It's just not mine.

Interestingly this useless player looks like ironman compared to Beal and beats him in a lot of advanced metrics this season while costing 5 times less. Not that comparing player to player is all that matters. A reminder it's a team sport and Booker/KD combo looked great in a series with CP3 running the team and the concerns that Booker and Beal are more or less the same player so they won't work well together has a lot of evidence by now.

Paul is not that good. Tyus Jones provides what he does for much cheaper and has the better ast/to ratio and is a far better shooter. Paul has some nice leadership, but like Ayton, KD and Book didn't want to play with him anymore. His defense is non existent.

Pointless argument. Beal can play great, people will still hate him though.

Paul had a great run with Phx. He was clutch. Beal is the superior player now and we need guys who can take over games.

The only complaint I have with Beal, is I don't know why he doesn't get to the line more. He doesn't flop as much, but he drives to the rim and has averaged up to 8 FTA per game in the past (more than Book ever has), and is usually a lot higher. His assists are down with Jones and Book doing the ballhandling, but they stick him in the corner often.

A game like last night is not a bad loss at all. Missing Book, Grayson, Nurk and Royce (who went 0-3 from 3 when he was in the game) for much of the game against GS IN GS with their young guys playing well, and losing by 4, is not bad at all.

When Book returns will we look better, in large part because we have a fairly easy Jan schedule with Washington and Charlotte each twice, along with some other easier teams, and then Portland twice in early Feb. We need our 3 pt shooters healthy though. Between those guys being out and our C player, those are what are hurting us.

Not Beal. He's been one of the guys keeping us in games. Heck, if KD only had 4 turnovers in this game instead of 8, we win. Beal had zero.