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

[PittsburghSuns]

Biggest problem moving forward is we are counting on another aging star just like we did with CP. KD is old and broken down he won’t play a full year and next year might not make a full playoff run. This trade will not be a win for us 2 years from now. Next season is the opportunity if they make great moves which is questionable at best.

[irish22022]

Damn is there anyone on this forum at all that understands this series is still just getting started? We don't need Ross or Warren. We need KD to shoot better. That's a bet that is statistically worth making. It's far from over.

[Slim Charless]

and they were certainly not putting up those same numbers last year in the playoffs that they did this year. Mikal was 13/4/5 and Cam was 11/3/4.

it's funny that everybody last year were saying that we weren't a real contender because we didnt' have a top 10 player (even though that wasn't true) and now this year we have two top 10 players and they are **** on our bench.

Hmmmmmm

What's the one thing that links last years disappointing playoffs with this year's disappointing playoffs. Besides Ayton. Someone who's job it is to make sure things all mesh together correctly..........can't think of his name.....

mmhmm, but sadly Udoka's no longer available because we didnt' get eliminated soon enough, and I see Nick Nurse as Monty with glasses.

I don't want Nurse.

[enigmatics]

Damn is there anyone on this forum at all that understands this series is still just getting started? We don't need Ross or Warren. We need KD to shoot better. That's a bet that is statistically worth making. It's far from over.

I'm not panicked. I haven't seen anything from the Nuggets that makes me worry - Game 1 was a total aberration.

Even with the CP3 injury, had KD not stunk up the joint they still pull the game out. As you said, we need him to step up 1st and foremost. Then secondly the bench needs to give the team SOMETHING - ANYTHING!!!!!! Finally the iso-ball has got to stop. That's how you know how bad a coach Monty really is.

[BurningHeart]

Damn is there anyone on this forum at all that understands this series is still just getting started? We don't need Ross or Warren. We need KD to shoot better. That's a bet that is statistically worth making. It's far from over.

I think it's logical and fair for people to be concerned when the objective was to win 4 out of 7 games but now it's win 4 out of 5 games, especially considering there's absolutely nothing that indicates that this team as it is playing right now is capable of doing that against an actually-good opponent.

[WeekapaugGroove]

Everyone not named Devin Booker needs to play better. Period

Maybe Payne gets some mojo back starting for an injured CP.

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[kennydorglas]

Damn is there anyone on this forum at all that understands this series is still just getting started? We don't need Ross or Warren. We need KD to shoot better. That's a bet that is statistically worth making. It's far from over.

Well our bench scored 4 pts last game
of course we need Ross AND TJ on this team.

[KdoubleDees23]

MONTY Should be fired for not trying something new! Obviously what he has isn't working.

Cam Payne
Ross
Craig
Biyombo

should be our bench

[sunsfan1o1]

Damn is there anyone on this forum at all that understands this series is still just getting started? We don't need Ross or Warren. We need KD to shoot better. That's a bet that is statistically worth making. It's far from over.

Well our bench scored 4 pts last game
of course we need Ross AND TJ on this team.

You realize KD will play better if dhead plays guys who can shoot and get buckets, you know like Ross and Warren.

The spacing will be better for KD and Book and Ayton.

D***khead is too much of a d***khead to understand that.

If CP3 can’t go Fri we might see Ross finally.
Sadly, that might be the only way D***khead plays an actual NBA rotation player off the bench in the playoffs.

[SunsRback4Good]

MONTY Should be fired for not trying something new! Obviously what he has isn't working.

Cam Payne
Ross
Craig
Biyombo

should be our bench

We need scoring Biyombo isn’t moving the needle misses easy bunnies inside. CamP can’t shoot threes or do anything useful anymore. Craig can play defense but also can’t score lately. Ross is only viable option to test out and see what he can provide. I wish Saben Lee was part of our playoff rotation he’s a smart player that can shoot and pass. Next year watch out for Saben he’ll surprise all of us.

[SunsRback4Good]

Damn is there anyone on this forum at all that understands this series is still just getting started? We don't need Ross or Warren. We need KD to shoot better. That's a bet that is statistically worth making. It's far from over.

Well our bench scored 4 pts last game
of course we need Ross AND TJ on this team.

You realize KD will play better if dhead plays guys who can shoot and get buckets, you know like Ross and Warren.

The spacing will be better for KD and Book and Ayton.

Monty is too much of a Saint to understand that.

If CP3 can’t go Fri we might see Ross finally.
Sadly, that might be the only way our savior Monty plays an actual NBA rotation player off the bench in the playoffs.

[bwgood77]

Read on Twitter

Book’s been great in these playoffs but this response could’ve been better. It honestly sounds like a “I’m just happy to be here” type quote. He needs to be a leader and call out whoever needs to be called out whether it’s publicly or privately. LeBron, Kobe, Shaq, MJ etc all called out plenty of teammates and coaches publicly and it helped them in the journey to get like 20+ rings just between all of them.

You need that confidence. Of course he's not happy to be dow 0-2 but he loves a challenge. He just has to bring it. He knows teams can easily come back down 0-2, especially from personal experience with the Bucks and Mavs, The Warriors just did it too.

[bwgood77]

Read on Twitter

It's kind of ironic that last year we were desperate for a 2nd scorer because no one could provide anything to relieve pressure from Booker. So desperate that we traded our team for KD.

Fast-forward to now, when our new scorer can't make a damn shot and literally every single role player is completely useless. And the majority have been useless for 7 straight games

That last stat is even worse than it looks because Ayton was 7/10, so 70%, so remove that and it would look extremely awful.

[bwgood77]

MONTY Should be fired for not trying something new! Obviously what he has isn't working.

Cam Payne
Ross
Craig
Biyombo

should be our bench

While I don't think we are necessarily finished by any means...I don't give up and think we are doomed like the masses, even though the odds are against us, at the same time a post like this makes me think of a quote like "reshuffling the chairs on the titanic."

You really can't win if those are your 5th-8th best players in the playoffs. Sorry. I know some say the best players win a series, but for the next 3-4 years we need Book and KD to stay healthy and both have monster games every game....or hot shooting from others.

Ayton can score efficienty if utilized more. When he was in Feb, he was scoring like 23 ppg on 70% shooting for a month and over 10 rpg.

This is overall his worst season in 3 years, so being that he had improved so much defensively 2 years ago and offensively 2 years ago and then even more last year, this season was disappointing, although I know some of it was so many injured players out and him having to work with different lineups every night all season.

[Revived]

Mikal and Cam Johnson scored a combined 42 ppg in the playoffs for Brooklyn. Durant and TJ getting us 28 ppg.

.... and were swept by team that didn't even have Joel Embiid lol.

Enough about those 2 already. They'll be in the lottery next season.

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.

[sunsfan1o1]

Mikal and Cam Johnson scored a combined 42 ppg in the playoffs for Brooklyn. Durant and TJ getting us 28 ppg.

.... and were swept by team that didn't even have Joel Embiid lol.

Enough about those 2 already. They'll be in the lottery next season.

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.

Lol. A little delusional I see.
You realize we were playing the 1 seed in Denver. That’s a tough place to play. KD and the bench guys will play better at home naturally.

Booker is getting better looks BECAUSE of KD.
If we still had Mikal and Cam, Clippers would’ve doubled Book and they’d be in Cancun right now with this bench and pathetic excuse for a head coach.

[Slim Charless]

.... and were swept by team that didn't even have Joel Embiid lol.

Enough about those 2 already. They'll be in the lottery next season.

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.

Lol. A little delusional I see.
You realize we were playing the 1 seed in Denver. That’s a tough place to play. KD and the bench guys will play better at home naturally.

Booker is getting better looks BECAUSE of KD.
If we still had Mikal and Cam, Clippers would’ve doubled Book and they’d be in Cancun right now with this bench and pathetic excuse for a head coach.

This. All of this.

Booker is lighting things up because Durant is drawing the doubles and/or the opponents best defender. Revived, I think you are the one missing the details of what's actually happening on the court:

Booker is getting secondary looks because every defense we play is focused on KD. This happened just last series when Kawhi was guarding who at the end of games and on the more important plays........

Kevin Durant.


Like I said before the "Twins" would be nothing more than trade fodder for us if they were still here.

[enigmatics]

Read on Twitter

[Revived]

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.

Lol. A little delusional I see.
You realize we were playing the 1 seed in Denver. That’s a tough place to play. KD and the bench guys will play better at home naturally.

Booker is getting better looks BECAUSE of KD.
If we still had Mikal and Cam, Clippers would’ve doubled Book and they’d be in Cancun right now with this bench and pathetic excuse for a head coach.

This. All of this.

Booker is lighting things up because Durant is drawing the doubles and/or the opponents best defender. Revived, I think you are the one missing the details of what's actually happening on the court:

Booker is getting secondary looks because every defense we play is focused on KD. This happened just last series when Kawhi was guarding who at the end of games and on the more important plays........

Kevin Durant.


Like I said before the "Twins" would be nothing more than trade fodder for us if they were still here.

Okay and if Booker was getting the main focus then Bridges/Johnson would getting combined 25-30 pts on 50% FG efficiency then. Yeah they were trash against the Mavs but that’s just one playoff series where everyone was trash. Bridges/Johnson average 25-30 pts a game combined in the playoffs for their career on very good efficiency. And considering Bridges became a much better scorer this season, it would probably have been far more.

[BobbieL]

Lol. A little delusional I see.
You realize we were playing the 1 seed in Denver. That’s a tough place to play. KD and the bench guys will play better at home naturally.

Booker is getting better looks BECAUSE of KD.
If we still had Mikal and Cam, Clippers would’ve doubled Book and they’d be in Cancun right now with this bench and pathetic excuse for a head coach.

This. All of this.

Booker is lighting things up because Durant is drawing the doubles and/or the opponents best defender. Revived, I think you are the one missing the details of what's actually happening on the court:

Booker is getting secondary looks because every defense we play is focused on KD. This happened just last series when Kawhi was guarding who at the end of games and on the more important plays........

Kevin Durant.


Like I said before the "Twins" would be nothing more than trade fodder for us if they were still here.

Okay and if Booker was getting the main focus then Bridges/Johnson would getting combined 25-30 pts on 50% FG efficiency then. Yeah they were trash against the Mavs but that’s just one playoff series where everyone was trash. Bridges/Johnson average 25-30 pts a game combined in the playoffs for their career on very good efficiency. And considering Bridges became a much better scorer this season, it would probably have been far more.

I am convinced the Suns would be in the same spot without a KD trade -meaning keeping Bridges/Johnson and trading Crowder for the multiple second round picks, Nwora, Hill and Ibaka. And by that spot, down 0-2 to the Nuggets

That said - the lack of bench depth is really hurting the Suns and Monty's rotations are terrible or at least, very confusing.