Game 26: Suns @ Mavericks

[bwgood77]

Good lord, these free throws are embarrassing.

But maybe we learnt something about ourselves with these last 7 minutes : push the damn ball. We need to stop exposing ourselves in the half court set. We have the utility to do it with guys who can run the floor. In fact, our team has no stiffs. Get these young legs running.

Yes, but not recklessly.

[Jdiddy701]

Let's see what happens tonight/tomorrow with trades if anything. Bledsoe needs help.


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[blacksun]

Hey blacksun, Do you think Chelsea can get into the top 4 this season?

Still too early to tell but i dont think so. Im personally more concerned about how they proceed after this season because im not really excited about the names theyre reportedly trying to bring in for next year. I hope Mou stays tho

[Sunsss]

I think this is just a bad matchup for us. Carlisle really has a good idea of how to slow down an offense like ours. He can throw 5 different guys at our guards and force them to make the right play at the right time which they struggle at. Although I was really impressed by Bledsoe in the second half. 13/16 shooting by Dallas in the 3rd was just too much.

[sunskerr]

Good lord, these free throws are embarrassing.

But maybe we learnt something about ourselves with these last 7 minutes : push the damn ball. We need to stop exposing ourselves in the half court set. We have the utility to do it with guys who can run the floor. In fact, our team has no stiffs. Get these young legs running.

Yes, but not recklessly.

We kinda had to go all in (with the reckless play) because we were down by 20. But that was probably one of the funnest sequences of play I've seen from the Suns in a while. If we can just get the ball up in a hurry and not walk the ball up I think we'd be a lot more efficient. Bledsoe and (especially) Knight are not good play makers. Running the ball down at breakneck speed for an open shot and then going to Bledsoe/Knight if you can't find a shot seems a much better strategy than just walking the ball down court and getting into another ISO.

[blacksun]

Good lord, these free throws are embarrassing.

But maybe we learnt something about ourselves with these last 7 minutes : push the damn ball. We need to stop exposing ourselves in the half court set. We have the utility to do it with guys who can run the floor. In fact, our team has no stiffs. Get these young legs running.

Yes, but not recklessly.

We kinda had to go all in (with the reckless play) because we were down by 20. But that was probably one of the funnest sequences of play I've seen from the Suns in a while. If we can just get the ball up in a hurry and not walk the ball up I think we'd be a lot more efficient. Bledsoe and (especially) Knight are not good play makers. Running the ball down at breakneck speed for an open shot and then going to Bledsoe/Knight if you can't find a shot seems a much better strategy than just walking the ball down court and getting into another ISO.

Agreed. Id rather see a forced fastbreak than an iso where only one guy touches the ball for an entire possession.

[KLEON]

Hey blacksun, Do you think Chelsea can get into the top 4 this season?

Still too early to tell but i dont think so. Im personally more concerned about how they proceed after this season because im not really excited about the names theyre reportedly trying to bring in for next year. I hope Mou stays tho

I hope Jose stays too but I think Cesc, Matic and Ivanovic have been pathetic this season so I wouldn't mind them getting Pogba, Stones and a quality right back for next season.

[blacksun]

Hey blacksun, Do you think Chelsea can get into the top 4 this season?

Still too early to tell but i dont think so. Im personally more concerned about how they proceed after this season because im not really excited about the names theyre reportedly trying to bring in for next year. I hope Mou stays tho

I hope Jose stays too but I think Cesc, Matic and Ivanovic have been pathetic this season so I wouldn't mind them getting Pogba, Stones and a quality right back for next season.

Yup. Time to move on from Iva, and Costa too, but thats just me. Cesc and Matic can still turn it around i hope. Its gonna take around 150M to bring Pogba and stones in imo but id rather spend on them than a bunch of relievers again like Baba, Djilo, etc.

[jredsaz]

back to the trade board. LOL

[JMac1]

Archie been taking FT lessons from Shaq? WTF.

No, all these FT misses and turnovers are Horny's fault.

No. But the original substitution and placing a lineup of PJ, Price, and Chandler in there spotting Dallas a 20 pt lead is his fault! If he knew how to sub, we wouldn't have been down so damn much, lets not forget that fact.

[RunDogGun]

I just started watching the game, I was out most of the night. Is Zaza the new Mark Eaton? How does he not foul out in the first quarter? He fouled the hell out of Len on four different plays.

[bwgood77]

Archie been taking FT lessons from Shaq? WTF.

No, all these FT misses and turnovers are Horny's fault.

No. But the original substitution and placing a lineup of PJ, Price, and Chandler in there spotting Dallas a 20 pt lead is his fault! If he knew how to sub, we wouldn't have been down so damn much, lets not forget that fact.

I wasn't arguing his subs haven't been questionable at times. But had we nailed some of those free throws down the stretch, it could have been a different game at the end.

[JMac1]

No, all these FT misses and turnovers are Horny's fault.

No. But the original substitution and placing a lineup of PJ, Price, and Chandler in there spotting Dallas a 20 pt lead is his fault! If he knew how to sub, we wouldn't have been down so damn much, lets not forget that fact.

I wasn't arguing his subs haven't been questionable at times. But had we nailed some of those free throws down the stretch, it could have been a different game at the end.

Oh, I thought you were trying to excuse Jeff's pattern of lousy coaching.

[bwgood77]

No. But the original substitution and placing a lineup of PJ, Price, and Chandler in there spotting Dallas a 20 pt lead is his fault! If he knew how to sub, we wouldn't have been down so damn much, lets not forget that fact.

I wasn't arguing his subs haven't been questionable at times. But had we nailed some of those free throws down the stretch, it could have been a different game at the end.

Oh, I thought you were trying to excuse Jeff's pattern of lousy coaching.

Nah, I'm 50/50 on him now, but I don't think we have superior talent to anyone above us, so regardless of that, the team is about where I expected. I wouldn't mind seeing him gone for a superior coach, but that can also be fools gold, because we have often brought in worse coaches than we had before (Porter)...I just don't think we have great talent to compete with the best, and with an experienced desperate team with more vets than us after a b2b, I didn't expect to win anyway. Plus Hornacek hasn't had any continuity with the roster after the first season....after every half season there seems to be a huge reset for him to work with. The better team have continuity and chemistry.

[JMac1]

I wasn't arguing his subs haven't been questionable at times. But had we nailed some of those free throws down the stretch, it could have been a different game at the end.

Oh, I thought you were trying to excuse Jeff's pattern of lousy coaching.

Nah, I'm 50/50 on him now, but I don't think we have superior talent to anyone above us, so regardless of that, the team is about where I expected. I wouldn't mind seeing him gone for a superior coach, but that can also be fools gold, because we have often brought in worse coaches than we had before (Porter)...I just don't think we have great talent to compete with the best, and with an experienced desperate team with more vets than us after a b2b, I didn't expect to win anyway. Plus Hornacek hasn't had any continuity with the roster after the first season....after every half season there seems to be a huge reset for him to work with. The better team have continuity and chemistry.

Can't argue with you there, but I do believe Jeff could do a better job. The only keepers on this team IMO is Bledsoe and Booker.

Sad sad situation in Phoenix....Better news is I started Odell Beckham and my new pool is coming along nicely

[bwgood77]

Oh, I thought you were trying to excuse Jeff's pattern of lousy coaching.

Nah, I'm 50/50 on him now, but I don't think we have superior talent to anyone above us, so regardless of that, the team is about where I expected. I wouldn't mind seeing him gone for a superior coach, but that can also be fools gold, because we have often brought in worse coaches than we had before (Porter)...I just don't think we have great talent to compete with the best, and with an experienced desperate team with more vets than us after a b2b, I didn't expect to win anyway. Plus Hornacek hasn't had any continuity with the roster after the first season....after every half season there seems to be a huge reset for him to work with. The better team have continuity and chemistry.

Can't argue with you there, but I do believe Jeff could do a better job. The only keepers on this team IMO is Bledsoe and Booker.

Sad sad situation in Phoenix....Better news is I started Odell Beckham and my new pool is coming along nicely

Jeff could certainly do a better job and his rotations are head scratching at times. I'm guessing he will be gone anyway, so I just hope we find someone better. I sorta wish Shaka Smart didn't get that UT coaching job, because he is the type of coach much like Brad Stevens who has vastly overachieved in college at a small school, but now he is probably at a school that pays him more than Sarver would, and he just notched a huge victory against North Carolina. He preaches defense, but also his guards drive everything.

I would rather find a guy like that than a guy like Thibs who I think is a great coach but is definitely the wrong one for the Suns.

[RunDogGun]

It's crazy, but Archie's whole game is getting to the line, how does he miss all five? We gave up too many open shots. We also let them push us around too often. Getting doubled in the third is just terrible.

We need to find more shots for Booker. He needs to come off screens better. How does Jeff not run plays like he did, coming off screens at the elbow? I bet Booker could live off that shot alone. But Booker needs to take those open threes when he has the chance.

Mirza was terrible. We should have started with Chandler tonight. Let him beat up ZaZa, and then run a small ball lineup with Len in the center position. A third quarter boost with Booker and Warren was greatly needed, yet never implemented.

I was a bit shocked to see both Weems and Goodwin play, but for not playing in a while, they had a lot of energy. Overall good hustle from the deep bench. I'm impressed we stay in games basically playing our second and third string PFs. Leuer looks pretty good shooting those elbow shots, we need to get him more of those. Knight looked pretty bad in the second half. It was like our starting guards flipped spots and each had bad and good halves. We should have ran plays for Knight right away, and see if he could have gotten the stroke going. He was 2-2 from three in the first half, and then 0-2 in the second. Why not get him going early? It's crazy, but we go from decent ball movement with success and then revert back to selfish ball, and suck.

Oh well, hope Kieff gets his wish, and we move him soon.

[Revived]

That was way too SSOL.

We haven't seen this offense in ages. It's great to see it again. In fact, with our poor half court sets (we don't really have any half court sets), maybe we should do this more often.

I agree, I've thought they should be pushing the pace all year. Hornacek's plays are dead ends. The Suns have the roster for it, and then can switch to Chandler/Tucker/Price if the situation calls for it.


Also, missed FTs. SMH.

What plays? His only play is fastbreak and the typical high pick and roll which every 6th and 7th grade basketball team in the nation run.

[SunsRback4Good]

I just started watching the game, I was out most of the night. Is Zaza the new Mark Eaton? How does he not foul out in the first quarter? He fouled the hell out of Len on four different plays.

A diehard fan such as yourself never misses a game. Im disappointed in you sir.

[Years90Suns]

As said before, we need to push the tempo more.
It makes no sense to play with two point guards if we do not run the hell out of our opponents.