Game 48: Phoenix Suns at Minnesota Timberwolves, Sunday, January 20th, 5PM MST

[Archx]

Watched the game at a friends house so i wasnt here to post, but here are my takeaways from the game:

Some people here are acting like he had an amazing game, but truth is he had 2 Dunks, a layup and a jumper and thats it. It was also against probably the leagues worst defensive starting C. Once again he was in 3 point bricking mode, clunking off 5 of them. Defense wise, he was so-so. He moves quickly and stayed with his man for the most part, but i really dont remember much solid help defense, deflections or steals, just that one block.

I strongly disagree with you on this one. I don't know how you can't see this but Suns spacing was the real reason why offense was working for the most of the game. They hit many tough shots but also had a lot of room to operate in. When Bender played PnR with Booker or Crawford, defenders couldn't just collapse down low but had to stay up. Anytime someone from the Suns tried to drive to the rim Bender pulled his man out to the perimeter instantly creating a lot of space under the rim.

He played amazing defense on KAT through the whole game. Sure he got in foul trouble but all the time he was on the court, KAT barely scored over him in direct 1v1 duel. He kept his arms up, he's a tall and long guy. You rarely see Ayton or Holmes just stretch their arms up over defenders. Rose couldn't even get a layup over him in the 1st half. Sadly Rose started heating up with his jumpshots and no one could stop him in the 2nd.

All in all, saying he had a mediocre game is a huge understatement. He created so much space, was insanely good on defense ( at least for Suns standards ), he helped a ton as a weak side defender, played smartly within the system he was being trusted in and even though he did miss some shots, he deserved to take them.

I'm really hoping this trend continues because he could play a huge part from the bench. Offensively and more importantly defensively as well.

[Revived]

Refs f***** the Suns heavily in the first half. Booker and Jackson were justified in their techs. It was hard to watch, and they were still winning. They needed to hit more FTs and this game was a win. Not sure what the **** is going on with their FT shooting. Everyone has been bad, even the high career percentage guys.

Maybe the players are just like... "**** this season, let's just sly tank the rest of it and get another high pick, no point in trying to win anymore"

But yeah, it's hard enough to watch the Suns at this point, but the lopsided officiating is making it almost torturous. The Suns don't need the help to lose games, refs. They would do that fine on their own.

This team doesn’t need to tank, that’s one of the good things about this season as we don’t have to root for Ls. They can give their best effort at winning games and still suck balls enough to lose vs anyone in the league.

[Revived]

I was also thinking while watching the game just now, Devin Booker may not be the problem when Devin Booker gets double or triple teamed. His teammates are clueless in what to do when their man doubles off of them. The team needs to figure out how to make the other team pay for doubling or tripling Booker. They don't seem to know where to go when it happens, so I can't completely blame Booker when he ends up turning it over trying to throw it to an out-of-position teammate. Booker is having his struggles this season, but I don't know if the lion's share of the blame can be put on Booker for that.

Well one issue is that Melton (Or Okobo) arnt offensive threats at the PG position and neither is Bridges at SF. Bridges only averages 6 shot attempts a game and 3 of those are from 3. Teams study film and know this so defenders slack off these two guys and instead double Booker and Ayton (Or whoever with the slacking defender in a "Roaming" mode.

Look, i love me some Bridges and i think him getting all the minutes and starting as a rookie are GREAT for his development, but i also think it may be time to but Oubre in the starting line-up. There is a huge difference between a guy being able to score 4 or 6 points while being lightly guarded (Bridges) and a guy scoring 16+ points a game (Oubre). More of a threat and helps keep the defense honest, while also making it easier for Booker.

I’m with you on this. Bridges right now looks like a Tony Allen type player and can’t have those kind of guys starting, they come off the bench much like Allen did.

His 3pt shot needs to be re-worked because he severely lacks NBA range.

It sucks that an older rookie player we gave up the farm for to draft has such limitations scoring the ball but it is what it is.

The starting lineup needs more offensive threats and they need to go with Oubre over Bridges and see how that works.

[DroughtsOverPHX]

Watched the game at a friends house so i wasnt here to post, but here are my takeaways from the game:

Some people here are acting like he had an amazing game, but truth is he had 2 Dunks, a layup and a jumper and thats it. It was also against probably the leagues worst defensive starting C. Once again he was in 3 point bricking mode, clunking off 5 of them. Defense wise, he was so-so. He moves quickly and stayed with his man for the most part, but i really dont remember much solid help defense, deflections or steals, just that one block.

I strongly disagree with you on this one. I don't know how you can't see this but Suns spacing was the real reason why offense was working for the most of the game. They hit many tough shots but also had a lot of room to operate in. When Bender played PnR with Booker or Crawford, defenders couldn't just collapse down low but had to stay up. Anytime someone from the Suns tried to drive to the rim Bender pulled his man out to the perimeter instantly creating a lot of space under the rim.

He played amazing defense on KAT through the whole game. Sure he got in foul trouble but all the time he was on the court, KAT barely scored over him in direct 1v1 duel. He kept his arms up, he's a tall and long guy. You rarely see Ayton or Holmes just stretch their arms up over defenders. Rose couldn't even get a layup over him in the 1st half. Sadly Rose started heating up with his jumpshots and no one could stop him in the 2nd.

All in all, saying he had a mediocre game is a huge understatement. He created so much space, was insanely good on defense ( at least for Suns standards ), he helped a ton as a weak side defender, played smartly within the system he was being trusted in and even though he did miss some shots, he deserved to take them.

I'm really hoping this trend continues because he could play a huge part from the bench. Offensively and more importantly defensively as well.

Though there is no comparison in ceilings and it's not saying much, Bender is ahead of Ayton defensively, probably has a better BBIQ and more fundamentally sound. An aggressive swing-from-the-rim dunk is what we wish we saw more from Ayton. I think we will regret giving up on Bender once he's on a different team. We never used him much as a center before this -- the whole time he has been here, he's been out at the 3 point line. (missing 3's) At the very least I wish we'd keep him on our bench.

[Saberestar]

I was also thinking while watching the game just now, Devin Booker may not be the problem when Devin Booker gets double or triple teamed. His teammates are clueless in what to do when their man doubles off of them. The team needs to figure out how to make the other team pay for doubling or tripling Booker. They don't seem to know where to go when it happens, so I can't completely blame Booker when he ends up turning it over trying to throw it to an out-of-position teammate. Booker is having his struggles this season, but I don't know if the lion's share of the blame can be put on Booker for that.

Well one issue is that Melton (Or Okobo) arnt offensive threats at the PG position and neither is Bridges at SF. Bridges only averages 6 shot attempts a game and 3 of those are from 3. Teams study film and know this so defenders slack off these two guys and instead double Booker and Ayton (Or whoever with the slacking defender in a "Roaming" mode.

Look, i love me some Bridges and i think him getting all the minutes and starting as a rookie are GREAT for his development, but i also think it may be time to but Oubre in the starting line-up. There is a huge difference between a guy being able to score 4 or 6 points while being lightly guarded (Bridges) and a guy scoring 16+ points a game (Oubre). More of a threat and helps keep the defense honest, while also making it easier for Booker.

I’m with you on this. Bridges right now looks like a Tony Allen type player and can’t have those kind of guys starting, they come off the bench much like Allen did.

His 3pt shot needs to be re-worked because he severely lacks NBA range.

It sucks that an older rookie player we gave up the farm for to draft has such limitations scoring the ball but it is what it is.

The starting lineup needs more offensive threats and they need to go with Oubre over Bridges and see how that works.

I really like Bridges, but it is true that he lacks so many things on offense for now.

If he needs to improve one thing badly it is his ball handling. He can not put the ball on the floor and that is unacceptable for a SG/SF.

Obviously his 3p shooting needs improvement too, but I can live with his decent percentages in his rookie season.

I like his defense and his basketball IQ. He is a low usage/smart player that is gonna have a long career in the NBA...but an improvement on offense is needed for sure.

[Revived]

Well one issue is that Melton (Or Okobo) arnt offensive threats at the PG position and neither is Bridges at SF. Bridges only averages 6 shot attempts a game and 3 of those are from 3. Teams study film and know this so defenders slack off these two guys and instead double Booker and Ayton (Or whoever with the slacking defender in a "Roaming" mode.

Look, i love me some Bridges and i think him getting all the minutes and starting as a rookie are GREAT for his development, but i also think it may be time to but Oubre in the starting line-up. There is a huge difference between a guy being able to score 4 or 6 points while being lightly guarded (Bridges) and a guy scoring 16+ points a game (Oubre). More of a threat and helps keep the defense honest, while also making it easier for Booker.

I’m with you on this. Bridges right now looks like a Tony Allen type player and can’t have those kind of guys starting, they come off the bench much like Allen did.

His 3pt shot needs to be re-worked because he severely lacks NBA range.

It sucks that an older rookie player we gave up the farm for to draft has such limitations scoring the ball but it is what it is.

The starting lineup needs more offensive threats and they need to go with Oubre over Bridges and see how that works.

I really like Bridges, but it is true that he lacks so many things on offense for now.

If he needs to improve one thing badly it is his ball handling. He can not put the ball on the floor and that is unacceptable for a SG/SF.

Obviously his 3p shooting needs improvement too, but I can live with his decent percentages in his rookie season.

I like his defense and his basketball IQ. He is a low usage/smart player that is gonna have a long career in the NBA...but an improvement on offense is needed for sure.

Yeah he’s a already a very good defensive player which is good. Just nothing on offense.

[TheXgasm]

Best Bender we have seen in a long time, but thats really not saying anything. Expectations were super low so any meager thing he did got a response from many here on the board. OMG he got a dunk!! Ayton gets 3-4 a night and no one says anything because its expected of him. Are people so dense that they completely forgot WHY expectations were so low for him? Its because he was/is horrible. Some people here are acting like he had an amazing game, but truth is he had 2 Dunks, a layup and a jumper and thats it. It was also against probably the leagues worst defensive starting C. Once again he was in 3 point bricking mode, clunking off 5 of them. Defense wise, he was so-so. He moves quickly and stayed with his man for the most part, but i really dont remember much solid help defense, deflections or steals, just that one block.

Boy, I don't know about anyone else but this sounds a lot like HATERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR talk

I dunno, I wholeheartedly disagree. This is the first time I saw Bender making actual big man moves. His cuts to the basket were smart and the timing was good on a lot of them, his tip-ins were the result of good timing as well. Did any of us think he had decent rebounding instincts? I didn't. And Towns was 8-22 from the field. 36%! Yeah he got fouled a lot and ended up scoring 30 but come on. Tell me that Bender's D against Towns wasn't nice to see.

I'm not calling the guy an all-star or anything, and he needs to fix the lack of arc on that shot desperately, but I think underplaying a decent game from him is just as disingenuous as overreacting to it is.

[Fo-Real]

Most of os are still and always will be low key rooting for Bender. Also a lot of us are starving for an actual pf in the lineup, I like Tj but we need to go back to more traditional or big even if it's Holmes at C and Ayton at pf. With the possibility of Bender showing signs of being some help, if you won't start Ayton, he is more comfortable as a pf.

[bwgood77]

I was also thinking while watching the game just now, Devin Booker may not be the problem when Devin Booker gets double or triple teamed. His teammates are clueless in what to do when their man doubles off of them. The team needs to figure out how to make the other team pay for doubling or tripling Booker. They don't seem to know where to go when it happens, so I can't completely blame Booker when he ends up turning it over trying to throw it to an out-of-position teammate. Booker is having his struggles this season, but I don't know if the lion's share of the blame can be put on Booker for that.

I think when he sees that coming it needs to get rid of the ball quickly. If not, he usually can't see and makes a bad pass. It's one of those things where if a second guy is coming towards you, you should usually see it and hit his man if you can, and if not, anyone else.

[bwgood77]

Best Bender we have seen in a long time, but thats really not saying anything. Expectations were super low so any meager thing he did got a response from many here on the board. OMG he got a dunk!! Ayton gets 3-4 a night and no one says anything because its expected of him. Are people so dense that they completely forgot WHY expectations were so low for him? Its because he was/is horrible. Some people here are acting like he had an amazing game, but truth is he had 2 Dunks, a layup and a jumper and thats it. It was also against probably the leagues worst defensive starting C. Once again he was in 3 point bricking mode, clunking off 5 of them. Defense wise, he was so-so. He moves quickly and stayed with his man for the most part, but i really dont remember much solid help defense, deflections or steals, just that one block.

The dunks and aggressiveness were nice to see on offense, and that's what we expected from Ayton, but Bender was rolling hard and knew how to work that which Ayton needs to do more of.

And Towns his MUCH improved defensively. Far from the worst in the league.

But regardless of that, you are right, he didn't do great on offense, but he was aggressive and smart...had he hit 3s...just a couple out of his 5 shots, it would have been a great game, but he was likely rusty with his shot.

But the MAIN thing was his defense on KAT. If only Ayton could have that kind of defense. I mean he was fantastic. Sure he wasn't Gobert, but he made shots tough by denying him good looks and held him to 2 points in the second half.

Of course he's not overall better than Ayton on offense, but Ayton was a #1 pick in the most loaded draft we've seen in a long time.

Bender hadn't played this year. He was incredibly impressive given the circumstances...first time starting going against one of the best offensive players in the NBA.

[bwgood77]

[quote="Kerrsed"For as much as Bridges helps us on one end he is killing us on the other. He is like a reverse Booker. He played solid D all night, but his offense just isnt there. Only good part of that is he only took 3 shots (And made 1). That shouldnt be acceptable for a starter to have only 3 shots taken in a game, but somehow we have 2 of them (Im looking at you Melton).[/quote]

Bridges is one of the top wing defenders in the NBA. As a rookie. We don't need him to score. His shots are not falling as much as we would like, but it's still near 35% which is respectable. He spread the floor which is his role. Regardless of shots, he require a defender to be out on him opening up lanes for the other players and not allowing them to be doubled, like Melton and Jackson do when they are out there.

[bwgood77]

Bender needs to play more.

We'll see whether it's a fluke or not. Triano did the same thing with Bender last season - just threw his ass into the fire at starting 5 and he responded with a string of double-doubles. But, you know how the rest of the story went.

Bender had 12/10 in his 29 minutes tonight - hope for his sake he can keep the pace up:

Watch on YouTube

Yeah, but all Bender did was shoot 3s last year, and even if he hit his normal % from last year he has 18 last night...probably rusty from 3. And I don't think he had too many double doubles last year. It was very rare he had double digit rebounds..probably only a handful of times and he started most the season.

I think watching the other bigs was good for him. If he can play like that consistently, I hope we keep him. He could guard 4s or bigs better than anyone on our roster probably, other than maybe Holmes. He was actually bodying up Towns and not allowing him to back up toward the basket easily and then really disrupted his shots.

Would love to know what his DFG% was last night.

I think he needs some time to see if he can sustain it...stretching the floor helps too if he can get his 3 ball back.

Particularly when we have one big or one wing out...he needs those minutes that open up.

Would really help our rebounding differential too.

[bwgood77]

Refs f***** the Suns heavily in the first half. Booker and Jackson were justified in their techs. It was hard to watch, and they were still winning. They needed to hit more FTs and this game was a win. Not sure what the **** is going on with their FT shooting. Everyone has been bad, even the high career percentage guys.

Maybe the players are just like... "**** this season, let's just sly tank the rest of it and get another high pick, no point in trying to win anymore"

But yeah, it's hard enough to watch the Suns at this point, but the lopsided officiating is making it almost torturous. The Suns don't need the help to lose games, refs. They would do that fine on their own.

This team doesn’t need to tank, that’s one of the good things about this season as we don’t have to root for Ls. They can give their best effort at winning games and still suck balls enough to lose vs anyone in the league.

Even if we play great down the stretch, we can reasonably probably only get to the 4th worst. Not that we couldn't catch Atlanta, but all those EC bottom feeders still have to play each other, so they likely all or most get wins.

And there is only a miniscule chance we catch anyone worse than bottom 5...so if we have 5th worst record, we still have like a 10.5 chance at 1 and a 42% chance of top 4. Worst 3 get only a small chance better at 14% at 1st and 52% chance at top 4.

http://www.tankathon.com/pick_odds

[Frank Lee]

Well, given the need for some changes in line ups, I think the Bender should be given 20+ mins per night the next couple of games to see if he could build upon the recent decent to good play he displayed. Confidence building participation and contribution could go a long ways with him.

What is there to lose?

Will be interesting to see his role going forward with the injuries to Ayton and Holmes. Perhaps even a starting slot at PF and adjust the wing/nonPF rotations, after Ayton returns if all goes well. IDK but again nothing to lose here and at the very least he might play himself towards being a positive trade asset.

Sit Ayton another game and let the Bender run

[TheXgasm]

I think the Bender should be given 20+ mins per night the next couple of games to see if he could build upon the recent decent to good play he displayed.

What is there to lose?

I agree with this, and before anyone gets all crazy about it I've thought it since we sat Ryan Anderson. Length and defense are two things Bender always brought (well defense was at least mediocre at worst usually) but it's clear to me that it was a mistake to decide to make him a spot-up shooter solely, when he is agile and quick for his size, has the skills to put the ball on the floor when needed, and can catch and roll decently. Camping him at the 3-point line is not the way to go, but rolling him out there occasionally is fine. He's just too big to not take advantage of that length and we've grossly misused him in that respect.

I do hope he gets minutes, though I doubt it.

[Son of Ra]

I never understood why we didn't give him any minutes at all. I thought out of the two times I can recall he got more minutes he looked really good the first time (like this game) and meh the second time.
He also seemed super confident this game, his body language seemed like "I got this, told ya". Maybe finally -like so many have wanted - "his balls dropped". Lol.

[hollywood6964]

I never understood why we didn't give him any minutes at all. I thought out of the two times I can recall he got more minutes he looked really good the first time (like this game) and meh the second time.
He also seemed super confident this game, his body language seemed like "I got this, told ya". Maybe finally -like so many have wanted - "his balls dropped". Lol.

I've been thinking since the start of the season he shoulda been getting at least 10 minutes a game to see what he's got. Plus he's one of the only bigs we have that can even try and play pf. Igor's just a lousy coach.

[lilfishi22]

At the very least, Bender has earned himself some consistent playing time the next couple of games imo.

[sunskerr]

The reason we didnt play bender was because he didn't earn any PT. Last night he was very active with taking cuts off the ball, setting screens, rolling, and following his teammates shots - if he keeps doing that he will earn his PT. As always, his quickness at 7 ft is astounding, so it was good to see him take advantage of that with his activity.

I liked his last game so I'll be excited to see if he can build on that going forward. His potential to shoot the 3 ball is also super valuable, combined with his defense.

[stoo]

It's croatian bigs time... Zubac, Zizic, and now Bender