Game 74: Phoenix Suns (35-38) @ Minnesota Timberwolves (41-32) | Mar 28 | 5:00 PM

[sunsbg]

Edwards own Booker so bad.

No way Wolves trade him for Booker as it was suggested by some. Booker has really fallen off this season - no ASG, no playoffs, scoring stats are down. He's trying to play make more and improved A/T ratio but in expense of scoring. May need to let him be the primary option for a season to stat pad before getting traded, though if Suns are bad again next season his value may go down more. Also Ishbia is afraid to trade him as he probably expects this will anger the fanbase even more after the mess he's created.

[sunsbg]

Didn't watch it but Book only 10 points yikes. What happened?

He must have thought it was an elimination game.

It was. No playoffs.

[garrick]

Didn't watch it but Book only 10 points yikes. What happened?

He must have thought it was an elimination game.

Game 7 mindset... Booker has no killer instinct when the team's chances are on the line.

I know people won't want to hear this but Booker is exiting his physical prime and performances like this are all too frequent this season and it's not just the Wolves throwing hard doubles and big bodies at Book.

He has a hard time getting past defenders and his mid range game is just not the same as it used to be, just look at his performances from 2021 or prior and he looks so much more explosive and able to score even against tough defenses. If KD is gone next season we absolutely need to dump Book if we want to be a competitive team because Book is not a player that can bail you out of tough games.

[sunsbg]

Read on Twitter

Being owned by a non contender and there are still people who think we're a role player away from being a contender lol.

[sunsbg]

He must have thought it was an elimination game.

Game 7 mindset... Booker has no killer instinct when the team's chances are on the line.

I know people won't want to hear this but Booker is exiting his physical prime and performances like this are all too frequent this season and it's not just the Wolves throwing hard doubles and big bodies at Book.

He has a hard time getting past defenders and his mid range game is just not the same as it used to be, just look at his performances from 2021 or prior and he looks so much more explosive and able to score even against tough defenses. If KD is gone next season we absolutely need to dump Book if we want to be a competitive team because Book is not a player that can bail you out of tough games.

Agreed, but there is also a change of mentality with KD and Beal on the team. He's definitely trying to involve people more. Reminds of his idol Kobe refusing to score in some game. I feel he's fine for Gillespie and Dunn to take the shots now. Neither his production, nor his mentality is of a superstar, but he'll get paid like one. If his trade value is really as high as people say FO needs to take the offer and run with it. As I said above I think Ishbia is afraid to do it though with all his desire to be liked by Suns community. He's afraid to touch the franchise face.

[Sunlight]

You play with KD and Beal and the opponents double you. How can you still keep losing important games? The team is either built wrong or your level was valued wrong when you got the super max contract.

[Hitachi77]

Read on Twitter

Being owned by a non contender and there are still people who think we're a role player away from being a contender lol.

There’s a few teams that flat out own us right now. OKC, Boston, and the Wolves (after we owned them). I don’t think we are a piece away from being a contender (unless that piece is an elite center), but I expect to be blown out every time we play those 3 teams. Don’t think that’s the case with any other team though. We might lose but i don’t necessarily expect to get demolished.

[Hitachi77]

With the Mavs suddenly wanting to win we are probably dogs to make the play in at this point. Will need to steal one or two tough road games.

[Ryu]

Read on Twitter

Getting swept after getting swept in last years playoffs and Edwards mocking them badly. Do this guys have any sense of pride left? I dont think so.

[mkot]

Read on Twitter

Being owned by a non contender and there are still people who think we're a role player away from being a contender lol.

The Wolves are great, somehow they are still the 8th seed but I still think they are great, wouldn't be surprise to see them in the WCF. They are one of 2 West team to have beaten OKC twice this season (not counting Dallas because no more Luka and Kyrie now). Although the last game they played was kinda fake but a win is a win.

[sunsbg]

What is latest fluky injury of biggest flop in franchise history Bradley Beal ? He was a big reason last season the team won some games during similar tough stretch. Don't want him to start but someone playable off the bench should help.

[KdoubleDees23]

KD is trash. I don't care what any of you all say. He will get his points, he will be considered a star, but what he lacks is leadership! Dude doesn't make anyone around him better, he isn't vocal, etc. Booker and the Suns did amazing with CP3 being a vocal veteran leader! We need to find our next CP3, and get rid of KD.

[BobbieL]

KD is trash. I don't care what any of you all say. He will get his points, he will be considered a star, but what he lacks is leadership! Dude doesn't make anyone around him better, he isn't vocal, etc. Booker and the Suns did amazing with CP3 being a vocal veteran leader! We need to find our next CP3, and get rid of KD.

Agreed
but you also have to get rid of Booker too
he is the same type of player as KD - just all stats

[SunsRback4Good]

KD is trash. I don't care what any of you all say. He will get his points, he will be considered a star, but what he lacks is leadership! Dude doesn't make anyone around him better, he isn't vocal, etc. Booker and the Suns did amazing with CP3 being a vocal veteran leader! We need to find our next CP3, and get rid of KD.

Players like CP3 don’t exactly grow on trees. How many true alpha leaders are in our league besides CP3, Jimmy, Draymond, Giannis, LeBron, few others I’m missing?? There aren’t that many unless you draft one. Suns should have kept CP3 have him come off the bench and kept Mikal while losing Ayton and CamJ in the process. We’d be a much better and well organized team today. But unfortunately Ishbia had different plan for our foreseeable future.

[BobbieL]

KD is trash. I don't care what any of you all say. He will get his points, he will be considered a star, but what he lacks is leadership! Dude doesn't make anyone around him better, he isn't vocal, etc. Booker and the Suns did amazing with CP3 being a vocal veteran leader! We need to find our next CP3, and get rid of KD.

Players like CP3 don’t exactly grow on trees. How many true alpha leaders are in our league besides CP3, Jimmy, Draymond, Giannis, LeBron, few others I’m missing?? There aren’t that many unless you draft one. Suns should have kept CP3 have him come off the bench and kept Mikal while losing Ayton and CamJ in the process. We’d be a much better and well organized team today. But unfortunately Ishbia had different plan for our foreseeable future.

Mikal should have always been a non-starter in that trade. Ishbia needs to learn from his mistake and it starts with not letting what he told the media two weeks ago get in the way of trying to win

As if Ishbia truly wants to win - he knows what he has to do. I am not saying it will be easy. I am not saying it will happen. Just saying, building around Booker isn't a thing anymore.

[Ghost of Kleine]

Read on Twitter

[Ghost of Kleine]

You play with KD and Beal and the opponents double you. How can you still keep losing important games? The team is either built wrong or your level was valued wrong when you got the super max contract.

Might be a bit of both honestly because yes we added stars. But the reality around those stars is:

KD-
is 37 and nearing the end of his career. He's still amazing at times and in most games, but father time is undefeated and the longer we hold him, the bigger the implied risk involved becomes towards age related value dropoff. At some point in the next couple of years, he's going to fall off the cliff just like everyone else!

BEAL-
At one time was a top end superstar scoring talent. But constant injuries and durability issues have stolen that from him. I feel bad for him because I think he's actually a really good guy and wants badly to play, sometimes overdoing it and then getting hurt more from excessive reckless compensating play. But he got paid for what he was years ago, and is also no longer that player unfortunately.

BOOKER-
Booker is a beloved faithful to this franchise star player but absolutely not a superstar franchise level option. We've tried to make a Robin level B option into a Batman A level option and it's just too much for his true abilities. Booker is great, but he's ultimately a streaky Mitch Richmond/ Steve Smith style player. When he's on, it's amazing!! But when he's not, it's very underwhelming.

So ultimately we're a soft overtly non athletic non physical team that relies on outshooting our opponents, and has faux superstar talent that at one point, could've/ would've dominated opponents.

But now that window has passed us. So when we're not shooting extremely well, we really having no other dynamic aspects to fall back on.

We've added decent but not great supplementary talent, but again are basically a " one trick pony" team that if you take away our shooting and rythm/ movement, you shot us down.

We need multiple high end physical elite athletes to create lateral gravity but don't have it. Our aged stars also don't care enough to change anything. It's a failed experiment over multiple years but many are in bitter denial of our reality that keeps slapping us in the face!

And our rebuild only grows longer and more painful as a result of ignoring this fact.

[Ghost of Kleine]

Edwards own Booker so bad.

No way Wolves trade him for Booker as it was suggested by some. Booker has really fallen off this season - no ASG, no playoffs, scoring stats are down. He's trying to play make more and improved A/T ratio but in expense of scoring. May need to let him be the primary option for a season to stat pad before getting traded, though if Suns are bad again next season his value may go down more. Also Ishbia is afraid to trade him as he probably expects this will anger the fanbase even more after the mess he's created.

The longer we hold onto both in this very poor situation, the greater the value depreciation will become. And the much worse our return and long term outcome also becomes as a result.

It might be different if our front office was at all decent at roster construction and making front office decisions, but they just aren't good at all at key aspects of team building.

The longer we stay in denial, the smaller our return from trading either/ both become! And the smaller the value return we get back, the longer and more hopeless our inevitable rebuild becomes too. It sucks! But it just hasn't gotten better over multiple seasons now and needs to be completely torn down!

[RaisingArizona]

At least we have the dear memories of the Coyotes

I miss the coyotes dearly. Yeah, they hardly make playoffs once or twice a decade, but I love hockey so much I don’t care. Just odd not seeing them play in AZ since 97.

You're telling me, brother. Last year was an awful sports year for the state.

[bwgood77]

The Wolves double Book and KD every game and I can't understand how we can’t punish them finding the open man at the rim.

We are scoring from 3 because they can't rotate quick enough for that but they can live with the results. It's working for them AGAIN.

We need to try something different, they have our number and they are comfortable playing against us.

We did punish them with Royce and Gillespie. We just don't have enough defense, athleticism, and talent overall. Book looks like he is scared to shoot these days and has lost confidence.