NBA PLAYOFFS: Round 2 l Game 2: Phoenix Suns @ Denver Nuggets l Monday l 7:00pm l TNT l Nuggets lead series 1-0

[Puff]

Lee, Terrence Ross, Cam Payne, TJ Warren, Craig or Okogie whoever isn't starting. All those guys would play a bit on most of the playoff teams. 3 of those guys combined for the most bench points in franchise history in the regular season. We have a weak bench but not this weak. Monty needs to figure it out.

I will never forgive passing on Haliburton. My god this team would be in such better shape. Probably wouldn't need to trade for KD either.

I really cannot understand all the blame being thrown at Monty. The blame belongs directly on James Jones or the owner. We really do not know what kind of restrictions he had with Sarver. Obviously, the Haliburton mistake is the biggest issue. We would not be doing any better, THIS YEAR, with Mikal and Johnson rather than KD. The major problem is and has been the lack of a legit replacement for CP3. He just cannot be asked to play 40 minutes a night. Cam Payne has stunk all season not just in the playoffs. Why in the world did we not keep Saben Lee on the playoff roster? If it cost us Wainright or any of the other bench players, we would be far better off with Saben at this point. I do not know who decided not to keep him on the roster. We passed on other available point guards and did not keep him. Who made THAT decision? If it was Monty I will gladly join the fire Monty bandwagon.

If Booker plays the point guard for the entire game I expect he will have double digit turnovers.

Sam

[PittsburghSuns]

Lakers were a laughingstock for the first half of the season then make shrewd trades and look like legit contenders. We get KD give up the farm and look like dog ****. Welcome to my hell.

[MrMiyagi]

KD was pretty unbelievable in the Clips series. Not sure what you were watching, but being the focus of the D every night he averaged 28.4, 7.6, 6.2, 1, 1 on 52/46/96 splits. Book did have an unbelievable series...even better #s, with all the defensive attention KD attracts, but we are not winning that series or this one unless both play well. Even in this series, with KD having one poor shooting night, he still is averaging 26.5, 11, 2.5 blk.

I mean of course if you put Book on the current Nets team they are on fire. If you put KD on it, they would likely win it all.

You mean against the depleted Clippers?

Who cares? Can KD or Phoenix control that? more "whatif'ism" this board is so in love with.

I honestly don't care, but others seem to like to ignore boons we've received and use the boons of other teams to undermine their success.

[enigmatics]

I really cannot understand all the blame being thrown at Monty. The blame belongs directly on James Jones or the owner. We really do not know what kind of restrictions he had with Sarver. Obviously, the Haliburton mistake is the biggest issue. We would not be doing any better, THIS YEAR, with Mikal and Johnson rather than KD. The major problem is and has been the lack of a legit replacement for CP3. He just cannot be asked to play 40 minutes a night. Cam Payne has stunk all season not just in the playoffs. Why in the world did we not keep Saben Lee on the playoff roster? If it cost us Wainright or any of the other bench players, we would be far better off with Saben at this point. I do not know who decided not to keep him on the roster. We passed on other available point guards and did not keep him. Who made THAT decision? If it was Monty I will gladly join the fire Monty bandwagon.

If Booker plays the point guard for the entire game I expect he will have double digit turnovers.

Sam

Seems to me JJ doesn't work in a vacuum and likely consults with a Monty. I could be wrong, but based on what I see that's what it appears like. It's just utterly baffling that here we are having to rely on Cam f-in Payne to play significant minutes in an important series. The guy was over-achieving fools gold plain and simple.

[KdoubleDees23]

Lakers were a laughingstock for the first half of the season then make shrewd trades and look like legit contenders. We get KD give up the farm and look like dog ****. Welcome to my hell.

Because they swing for a home run, and most of the time miss, but they built out a deep team with solid role players.

Suns lost depth. That was the greatest advantage we had the last 2 seasons. We had depth, and when the starters went out, the bench was trusted.

Now Monty isn't even playing our best bench players.

[Puff]

Well, it appears that JO is going to be very affordable in the off season. He has played good defense, but his offense is non existent. We need him to make at least a few shots if we are to have any chance in this series.

[bwgood77]

Because they didn’t have Devin Booker….who’s the one carrying this crap Suns team, not KD.

Slim do you know who Booker is? Sometimes I feel like you forget or something lol. He’s literally the only reason the Suns are in the 2nd round.

Put Booker on the current Nets team and they easily go to the finals. Easily, I don’t think they would lose more than 1-2 games in any series.

KD was pretty unbelievable in the Clips series. Not sure what you were watching, but being the focus of the D every night he averaged 28.4, 7.6, 6.2, 1, 1 on 52/46/96 splits. Book did have an unbelievable series...even better #s, with all the defensive attention KD attracts, but we are not winning that series or this one unless both play well. Even in this series, with KD having one poor shooting night, he still is averaging 26.5, 11, 2.5 blk.

I mean of course if you put Book on the current Nets team they are on fire. If you put KD on it, they would likely win it all.

Slimm was trying to make the comparison that the Suns are still playing and that Bridges and the Nets aren’t. I said if Bridges had Booker on the Nets, the Nets would still be playing too.

I’ll even go a step further and say Booker on the current Nets team would go further than this current Suns team.

I almost responded to that part too. He probably goes further but it doesn't work that way. The trade was bad enough. Had we included Book as well, it would have obviously helped Brooklyn a TON more giving them a top player on top of what they already got. Their depth is huge. I know you are not specifically saying "if Booker was included in the trade" but putting him on what the Nets already got for their players, that's basically it.

I didn't see notice that part of Slim's post but of course the Suns are going further. We have been the favorite the last two years already and we were trying to somehow accelerate our window more, while Brooklyn was taking a step back getting very good younger players + a boatload of assets. We were the favorite the last two years giving up a ton to theoretically get better, and they were a first round sweep team trading a superstar for an enormous package of young talent and picks. Not a lot was expected there.

[bwgood77]

Lee, Terrence Ross, Cam Payne, TJ Warren, Craig or Okogie whoever isn't starting. All those guys would play a bit on most of the playoff teams. 3 of those guys combined for the most bench points in franchise history in the regular season. We have a weak bench but not this weak. Monty needs to figure it out.

I will never forgive passing on Haliburton. My god this team would be in such better shape. Probably wouldn't need to trade for KD either.

I really cannot understand all the blame being thrown at Monty. The blame belongs directly on James Jones or the owner. We really do not know what kind of restrictions he had with Sarver. Obviously, the Haliburton mistake is the biggest issue. We would not be doing any better, THIS YEAR, with Mikal and Johnson rather than KD. The major problem is and has been the lack of a legit replacement for CP3. He just cannot be asked to play 40 minutes a night. Cam Payne has stunk all season not just in the playoffs. Why in the world did we not keep Saben Lee on the playoff roster? If it cost us Wainright or any of the other bench players, we would be far better off with Saben at this point. I do not know who decided not to keep him on the roster. We passed on other available point guards and did not keep him. Who made THAT decision? If it was Monty I will gladly join the fire Monty bandwagon.

If Booker plays the point guard for the entire game I expect he will have double digit turnovers.

Sam

Why do you keep saying they should have kept Saben Lee on the playoffs when it continues to be mentioned he was a two way player that never could have been eligible for the playoffs?

He had a few good games, but I doubt he's making a dent of difference in a series like this anyway. It reminds me of everyone thinking Aaron Holiday would have turned the tides of the Mavs series last year.

I agree with the rest. Jones has been good at some things, but some of the other things he has done/not done have really hurt us bad (yes, Haliburton, or even getting Bane or someone there). Monty doesn't have a lot of options. I'm sure we'd be better with someone like Spoelstra, but guys like Spoelstra are not walking the streets either.

[sunskerr]

Lakers were a laughingstock for the first half of the season then make shrewd trades and look like legit contenders. We get KD give up the farm and look like dog ****. Welcome to my hell.

Because they swing for a home run, and most of the time miss, but they built out a deep team with solid role players.

Suns lost depth. That was the greatest advantage we had the last 2 seasons. We had depth, and when the starters went out, the bench was trusted.

Now Monty isn't even playing our best bench players.

Our depth was always bad. Don't be revisionist here lol.

Again, it should be hammered home: our depth was never that good.

so trading multiple rotation players for a single one was always going to weaken our already questionable depth.

[KdoubleDees23]

Lakers were a laughingstock for the first half of the season then make shrewd trades and look like legit contenders. We get KD give up the farm and look like dog ****. Welcome to my hell.

Because they swing for a home run, and most of the time miss, but they built out a deep team with solid role players.

Suns lost depth. That was the greatest advantage we had the last 2 seasons. We had depth, and when the starters went out, the bench was trusted.

Now Monty isn't even playing our best bench players.

Our depth was always bad. Don't be revisionist here lol.

Again, it should be hammered home: our depth was never that good.

so trading multiple rotation players for a single one was always going to weaken our already questionable depth.

Our depth in the Finals run was amazing! Probably the deepest team in the NBA.

When you have

Payne - playing like he was
CamJo
Crowder - Craig
Kaminsky - Saric

That is a deep team

[sunskerr]

Payne - playing like he was
CamJo
Crowder - Craig
Kaminsky - Saric

That is a deep team

come on man outside of Cam you're not serious. We got bodied by the Bucks on size alone. That team was 6-7 deep.

[Calvin Klein]

I really cannot understand all the blame being thrown at Monty. The blame belongs directly on James Jones or the owner. We really do not know what kind of restrictions he had with Sarver. Obviously, the Haliburton mistake is the biggest issue. We would not be doing any better, THIS YEAR, with Mikal and Johnson rather than KD. The major problem is and has been the lack of a legit replacement for CP3. He just cannot be asked to play 40 minutes a night. Cam Payne has stunk all season not just in the playoffs. Why in the world did we not keep Saben Lee on the playoff roster? If it cost us Wainright or any of the other bench players, we would be far better off with Saben at this point. I do not know who decided not to keep him on the roster. We passed on other available point guards and did not keep him. Who made THAT decision? If it was Monty I will gladly join the fire Monty bandwagon.

If Booker plays the point guard for the entire game I expect he will have double digit turnovers.

Sam