Game 49: Phoenix Suns @ Milwaukee Bucks, Sunday, Feb 2, 12pm MST

[Blonde]

Playing the best team in the NBA with a depleted roster. The only thing worth taking away from this one is that Ayton plays extremely soft against guys who are tougher than him. Not looking into much else here.

[schnakenpopanz]

So you want a guy who doesn't have clutch genes

Lebron could Win only with players who adapted to his game.
Same goes for other stars nowdays.

Congrats, you literally have 4 of the worst takes in a 4 post timeline I have ever seen. You're like the opposite realgm Damian Lillard.

i heard that a lot back then when people were defending the moves of hedo turkoglu, shannon brown, michael beasley etc.
i call it as i see it.
booker and ayton are good second tier players. nothing more nothing less.
look at bledsoe. he was supposed to be a leader for the suns. traded to the bucks in a secondary role together with middleton and giannis they flourish.
has bledsoe changed? no. he is still the same knucklehead, but he is doing the things he is supposed to do. he is not a player who will carry the team as a leader.

[ATTL]

You can just tell when Kelly is going to shoot. When he has the ball he is going to shoot, it's a pretty clear tell.

[bwgood77]

Blowing so many lottery picks is why we're in this current position. If one of Josh, Bender, or Chriss was a good player or we drafted a good player instead then we would be so much better. If two were good then we would be in the playoffs right now.

I was thinking of McD's all time bust team, including trades.

Starting lineup

Tyler Ulis
Archie Goodwin
Josh Jackson
Marquese Chriss
Dragan Bender

6th man - Brandon Knight
Tyler Ennis
Mike James
Sonny Weems
Zoran Dragic

Others

Davon Reed
Shaquille Harrison
George King
Alec Brown

Missing anyone?

I don't think Alex Len was bad considering Nerlens Noel and Ben McLemore ended up being worse.

[ATTL]

Jalen can get to the rim really easily. Just need to teach him to shoot from three, midrange, free throws, defense,

[bwgood77]

You can just tell when Kelly is going to shoot. When he has the ball he is going to shoot, it's a pretty clear tell.

He's actually been passing more, but you can still tell when he is going to shoot or go to the rim, because the look in his eye is different.

[3toheadmelo]

Somehow Booker gets a pass despite willfully deciding not to play defense, not fouling not boxing out, basically leaving the team in a continued 4-5 situation, but Ayton in his second season gets all sorts of anger. I fail to understand the logic. Like, its not his fault he was #1 pick. And everyone not named Kobe needs some seasons to mature but Ayton somehow has to be superman right from the start.

He seems to be more the finesse player than the brute force type that gets irrelevant after one serious injury. Allow some time to adjust to the speed of the league and THEN talk again.

From some of the comments it seems like the Suns are coming from a season that saw at least the second round if not conference finals. I think the progress is very obvious and encouraging. Contending for the title? Maybe in a few years. Does that make this season meaningless? Hardly.

I haven't seen anyone talk about this but Ayton has said that he relies on Mark Bryant to tell him when to go beast mode in the paint or when to just be a finesse type player based on match ups. I assume he is just following his advice. Either way he a 2nd year player and the progress he has made this year is great. Booker is an awesome talent and should've been an all star IMO but he turns the ball over, his defense is suspect after all these years. So he deserves some blame too like you said. Ultimately I still think Booker and Ayton is a great duo. It's the players around them that seem to be the problem.

[IrasArgor]

Blowing so many lottery picks is why we're in this current position. If one of Josh, Bender, or Chriss was a good player or we drafted a good player instead then we would be so much better. If two were good then we would be in the playoffs right now.

I was thinking of McD's all time bust team, including trades.

Starting lineup

Tyler Ulis
Archie Goodwin
Josh Jackson
Marquese Chriss
Dragan Bender

6th man - Brandon Knight
Tyler Ennis
Mike James
Sonny Weems
Zoran Dragic

Others

Davon Reed
Shaquille Harrison
George King
Alec Brown

Missing anyone?

I don't think Alex Len was bad considering Nerlens Noel and Ben McLemore ended up being worse.

Don't forget litany of Head Coaches:
Lindsey Hunter
Jeff Hornacek
Earl Watson
Jay Triano
Igor Kokoškov

[sunsbum]

Lebron could Win only with players who adapted to his game.
Same goes for other stars nowdays.

Congrats, you literally have 4 of the worst takes in a 4 post timeline I have ever seen. You're like the opposite realgm Damian Lillard.

i heard that a lot back then when people were defending the moves of hedo turkoglu, shannon brown, michael beasley etc.
i call it as i see it.
booker and ayton are good second tier players. nothing more nothing less.
look at bledsoe. he was supposed to be a leader for the suns. traded to the bucks in a secondary role together with middleton and giannis they flourish.
has bledsoe changed? no. he is still the same knucklehead, but he is doing the things he is supposed to do. he is not a player who will carry the team as a leader.

You said Booker is a more skilled Kevin Martin, just stop ...I don't care about your crystal clear 20/20 future vision you had 10 years ago. Means nothing to anyone on this board.

[bwgood77]

The idiocy of this board blows my mind at times. If you want to blame anyone blame ownership and the past gm and coaches for not having a solid roster to support Booker or getting guys coached up. It's clear this team is still lacking quality depth and having 6 rotation players out doesn't help

True (though I won't call anyone an idiot)...I just listed McD's moves. Booker has still been great at what he does, other than the turnovers. Defense obviously has always been bad but he is improving there too. I think most people ripping him there didn't see how bad he was last year. He's still bad, but a lot less bad.

[handsome salary]

Warren is doing great things in the league after he left the team, Bledsoe is doing great after he left the team. may be we should start wondering if the ingredient is the problem, or the chef.

I mean nobody is really surprised. They kinda achieve the same they did in Phoenix but have a better FO/scouts with better coaching and better players around them. There is a reason the Suns have now gone a decade without an all star or a playoff series and that reason is the owner/FO.

[Crives]

Lol

Read on Twitter

?s=21

[schnakenpopanz]

Congrats, you literally have 4 of the worst takes in a 4 post timeline I have ever seen. You're like the opposite realgm Damian Lillard.

i heard that a lot back then when people were defending the moves of hedo turkoglu, shannon brown, michael beasley etc.
i call it as i see it.
booker and ayton are good second tier players. nothing more nothing less.
look at bledsoe. he was supposed to be a leader for the suns. traded to the bucks in a secondary role together with middleton and giannis they flourish.
has bledsoe changed? no. he is still the same knucklehead, but he is doing the things he is supposed to do. he is not a player who will carry the team as a leader.

You said Booker is a more skilled Kevin Martin, just stop ...I don't care about your crystal clear 20/20 future vision you had 10 years ago. Means nothing to anyone on this board.

Let's meet again when Booker is playing for the Heat together with doncic and wins mutliple rings.
That's how the nba is nowdays get used to it.

[sunsbg]

Why Booker is still in, we are playing B2B tomorrow

Stat padding considerations. Need monster numbers to whine about "snub", even if meaningless in a blowout. Also noone else gets a touch.

You are going way overboard with your Booker hate.

[TeamTragic]

Booker on the other hand needs other good players around him.

You mean like how Lillard Has CJ to take pressure off him, or Harden had Eric Gordon/Chris Paul/Westbrook, or Steph Curry Had KD/Klay. Ya must be nice, I'm sure Booker would agree with your statement even though you were using it as a negative.

Booker needs a supporting cast that helps with defense and rebounding.
Booker needs shooters around him.
He has NEVER had that on this team.

That is not a slight against him.

[SuperSunsFan]

Warren is doing great things in the league after he left the team, Bledsoe is doing great after he left the team. may be we should start wondering if the ingredient is the problem, or the chef.

I mean nobody is really surprised. They kinda achieve the same they did in Phoenix but have a better FO/scouts with better coaching and better players around them. There is a reason the Suns have now gone a decade without an all star or a playoff series and that reason is the owner/FO.

we should have just kept Warren and filled the rest of the line up with a 3D power forward and 3D Point Guard. Warren is a good reliable 2nd second wheel scorer to go with Book.

[Revived]

I don’t understand how Booker and Oubre play more mins than any Bucks player in a game in which the Suns lose by 21.

Wtf type of coaching and minutes distribution is that? Usually the team that does the blowing out is the one that plays their players more mins to ensure the blowout while the losing team waves the white flag early.

This would be stupid even if they had tomorrow off but the fact their playing tomorrow on a back to back makes this even more dumb.

Monty Williams is truly clueless. It’s a damn **** shame that he didn’t join the Lakers.

[LesGrossman]

Warren is doing great things in the league after he left the team, Bledsoe is doing great after he left the team. may be we should start wondering if the ingredient is the problem, or the chef.

I mean nobody is really surprised. They kinda achieve the same they did in Phoenix but have a better FO/scouts with better coaching and better players around them. There is a reason the Suns have now gone a decade without an all star or a playoff series and that reason is the owner/FO.

That is what a coach is for. Get the best out of the personnel you have. Let their strengths shine, hide their weaknesses. Continuously teach them, allow them to improve by giving them constructive input on things they can improve on. Sadly i dont see much of this going on in Phoenix. Monty seems to be absorbed with outsmarting everyone with clever lineups (after half of the season reaching a point this board had predicted after a handful of games) and generally being likeable.

[sunsbg]

Blowing so many lottery picks is why we're in this current position. If one of Josh, Bender, or Chriss was a good player or we drafted a good player instead then we would be so much better. If two were good then we would be in the playoffs right now.

I was thinking of McD's all time bust team, including trades.

Starting lineup

Tyler Ulis
Archie Goodwin
Josh Jackson
Marquese Chriss
Dragan Bender

6th man - Brandon Knight
Tyler Ennis
Mike James
Sonny Weems
Zoran Dragic

Others

Davon Reed
Shaquille Harrison
George King
Alec Brown

Missing anyone?

I don't think Alex Len was bad considering Nerlens Noel and Ben McLemore ended up being worse.

Well, Mikal didn't look better than DiVincenzo in this game. Their raw season stats are not that different either. Not a complete bust, but that MIA pick could have been used much better.

[bwgood77]

Somehow Booker gets a pass despite willfully deciding not to play defense, not fouling not boxing out, basically leaving the team in a continued 4-5 situation, but Ayton in his second season gets all sorts of anger. I fail to understand the logic. Like, its not his fault he was #1 pick. And everyone not named Kobe needs some seasons to mature but Ayton somehow has to be superman right from the start.

He seems to be more the finesse player than the brute force type that gets irrelevant after one serious injury. Allow some time to adjust to the speed of the league and THEN talk again.

From some of the comments it seems like the Suns are coming from a season that saw at least the second round if not conference finals. I think the progress is very obvious and encouraging. Contending for the title? Maybe in a few years. Does that make this season meaningless? Hardly.

I haven't seen anyone talk about this but Ayton has said that he relies on Mark Bryant to tell him when to go beast mode in the paint or when to just be a finesse type player based on match ups. I assume he is just following his advice. Either way he a 2nd year player and the progress he has made this year is great. Booker is an awesome talent and should've been an all star IMO but he turns the ball over, his defense is suspect after all these years. So he deserves some blame too like you said. Ultimately I still think Booker and Ayton is a great duo. It's the players around them that seem to be the problem.

And injuries. Ayton will ALWAYS have a tougher time when we don't spread the floor and he's surrounded by a bunch of traffic. When these guys take it in from the 3 pt line and then pass it to Ayton he has 2-3 defenders on him. He is sometimes forced to shoot fadeaways or pass back out, but if he passed out people would complain about that and say he's scared to shoot.