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

[SunsRback4Good]

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.

Slim how come you don’t see Mikal becoming a vital 2nd option to Book in the playoffs? He was already getting better and showcasing his scoring In different ways the last 30 games of the season before being traded. If book gets doubled, Bridges can finally manage to hold his own.

[WeekapaugGroove]

Sarver not using the MLE last summer was a little parting gift from that prick. They could have used an extra guy. And that is definitely a Sarver decision because every GM will spend any dollar their owner allocates.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

[sunsfan1o1]

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.

Different coach, different system, different team, different conference. Can’t compare apples to oranges. Compare apples to apples. We’ve seen the twins and Booker in the playoffs and it wasn’t great last time they played.

[BobbieL]

Sarver not using the MLE last summer was a little parting gift from that prick. They could have used an extra guy. And that is definitely a Sarver decision because every GM will spend any dollar their owner allocates.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

I was thinking about that exact thing today. The third guard was always an issue and it had nothing to do with the Durant trade - he just didn't use the TPMLE. Suns needed a third guard - hell, still do.

[enigmatics]

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.

Yeah let's just dismiss the Mavs series as a nothing burger. That series was one of the driving factors behind pursuing KD because the roster as it was constructed was REGRESSING in the playoffs, especially on the road and then topped it off with that historically bad blowout loss at home.

You're already getting 27 from KD even 24 when it's ugly like last night. 25-30 pts from the Twins isn't moving the needle that much. The defensive switching on the part of the Nugs would also be EXTREMELY different vs the threesome of Book/Bridges/Camjo vs. Book/Durant. It's inarguable. The Twins got to showcase a little more post-trade because their usage rate went up. In the playoffs it didn't make a lick of difference.

The only place I see a difference is in player rotations - but that ultimately will never be top tier in the NBA due to who's coaching.

[Revived]

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.

Please read the below, we could’ve been in much better shape including the lack of bench depth you mention

viewtopic.php?p=105868025#p105868025

[Revived]

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.

Yeah let's just dismiss the Mavs series as a nothing burger. That series was one of the driving factors behind pursuing KD because the roster as it was constructed was REGRESSING in the playoffs, especially on the road and then topped it off with that historically bad blowout loss at home.

You're already getting 27 from KD even 24 when it's ugly like last night. 25-30 pts from the Twins isn't moving the needle that much. The defensive switching on the part of the Nugs would also be EXTREMELY different vs the threesome of Book/Bridges/Camjo vs. Book/Durant. It's inarguable. The Twins got to showcase a little more post-trade because their usage rate went up. In the playoffs it didn't make a lick of difference.

The only place I see a difference is in player rotations - but that ultimately will never be top tier in the NBA due to who's coaching.

Dude you wanna talk about the Mavs series only, then fine let’s talk about KD’s last time in the playoffs, the Celtics series! You remember that one right? Where he shot fcking 20% and averaged like 12 turnovers a game? Nets may have been better off with Landry Shamet than KD.

If you want to let one playoff series define all players, then we should define KD by how he played against Boston when he was complete ass cheeks.

And I hate to say this but you’re one of the people I’m talking about in the post below. There’s no way in hell you can tell me this crap lineup is better than what’s mentioned in the post especially considering how successful the team that did make that trade is right now.

viewtopic.php?p=105868025#p105868025

[POLI]

Monty Williams is a d**khead.

I don’t even care anymore about what happens. This coach will lead us to the fire.

I don’t think we can ever win a championship with Monty as coach. He’s just really dumb, but it’s not his fault.

Some people are just not that smart. He means well, it’s just his brain has limited capacity.

He’s the worst remaining coach in the playoffs.

With a bench of Warren, Ross, Lee, Payne, Biyombo, Landale, Shamet... what do you expect?
Starters to play 48 minutes... ?

[sunsfan1o1]

Monty Williams is a d**khead.

I don’t even care anymore about what happens. This coach will lead us to the fire.

I don’t think we can ever win a championship with Monty as coach. He’s just really dumb, but it’s not his fault.

Some people are just not that smart. He means well, it’s just his brain has limited capacity.

He’s the worst remaining coach in the playoffs.

With a bench of Warren, Ross, Lee, Payne, Biyombo, Landale, Shamet... what do you expect?
Starters to play 48 minutes... ?

Let’s see. Nuggets played 8 guys.
Dhead played 11 guys. Here’s the kicker. The 2 best guys we have on our bench are not playing.

Warren and Ross can provide offense. Play Craig and run a small lineup with KD at the 5 and make Jokic work. He literally plays zero defense. He just sits and watches. He’s actually getting some good rest on defense because dhead doesn’t put him in pick and roll action.

[Revived]

Read on Twitter

The whole podcast is worth the listen but this 1 minute clip really does sum it up well.

[enigmatics]

Dude you wanna talk about the Mavs series only, then fine let’s talk about KD’s last time in the playoffs, the Celtics series! You remember that one right? Where he shot fcking 20% and averaged like 12 turnovers a game? Nets may have been better off with Landry Shamet than KD.

If you want to let one playoff series define all players, then we should define KD by how he played against Boston when he was complete ass cheeks.

And I hate to say this but you’re one of the people I’m talking about in the post below. There’s no way in hell you can tell me this crap lineup is better than what’s mentioned in the post especially considering how successful the team that did make that trade is right now.

viewtopic.php?p=105868025#p105868025

I can't take you seriously - especially when in that post you linked me to you declared the Lakers:

"They were utter garbage for all season long and made a trade without blowing up their team in February and now they’re well on their way to like semi finals or finals and another chip. "

Based on what? Taking care of a Grizzlies squad that was a shadow of its former self due to injuries (Adams out, Clarke out, Morant/Kennard hurt in series) and the dysfunction stemming from the Morant suspension? You mean this new iteration Laker squad that had the 4th easiest SOS in the Western Conference after the All-Star break? Only being fair here - many criticized the Suns as having a cupcake schedule (their SOS was 13th btw). That's not to say the Lakers haven't improved because they have.

There's no arguing with it because you've already gone hyperbolic. Now the new look Lakers have to face a legitimate NBA contender with a treasure trove of championship experience and HEALTHY above all else.

[Revived]

Dude you wanna talk about the Mavs series only, then fine let’s talk about KD’s last time in the playoffs, the Celtics series! You remember that one right? Where he shot fcking 20% and averaged like 12 turnovers a game? Nets may have been better off with Landry Shamet than KD.

If you want to let one playoff series define all players, then we should define KD by how he played against Boston when he was complete ass cheeks.

And I hate to say this but you’re one of the people I’m talking about in the post below. There’s no way in hell you can tell me this crap lineup is better than what’s mentioned in the post especially considering how successful the team that did make that trade is right now.

viewtopic.php?p=105868025#p105868025

I can't take you seriously - especially when in that post you linked me to you declared the Lakers:

"They were utter garbage for all season long and made a trade without blowing up their team in February and now they’re well on their way to like semi finals or finals and another chip. "

Based on what? Taking care of a Grizzlies squad that was a shadow of it's former self due to injuries (Adams out, Clarke out, Morant/Kennard hurt in series) and the dysfunction surrounding the Morant suspension? You mean this new iteration Laker squad that had the 4th easiest SOS after the All-Star break? Only being fair here - many criticized the Suns as having a cupcake schedule (their SOS was 13th btw).

There's no arguing with it because you've already gone hyperbolic. Now the new look Lakers (who are without a doubt improved) have to face a legitimate NBA contender with a treasure trove of championship experienced and HEALTHY.

Dude you seriously want to talk about health? You realize that this amazing KD team would’ve got swept or lost in 5 of the Clippers were healthy right? Every game was tooth and nail and barely scraped by against a Clippers team that was missing their 2 very best players, 2 HOF players. You wanna compare that to Adams/Clarke? Are you serious or just fcking around?

I’m pretty certain like 90% of non-Suns and non-Lakers would easily take the Lakers to win in 5 or 6 games in a series against the Suns based on what the Suns have shown in the playoffs so far. Hell probably a majority of our fans know based on what we’ve seen from Suns so far that we would lose to the Lakers in a series.

KD is 35 yrs old. He’s old. He can’t get by any defenders, and his half his crossovers result in defenders easily stealing the ball because he’s so slow and old hence his high amount of turnovers. Literally only thing KD can do now is just shoot over the top of players because he’s tall. And even that he was miserable at in the last game. Of course he’ll bounce back and have a better game than that but this isn’t prime KD anymore.

[enigmatics]

Dude you seriously want to talk about health? You realize that this amazing KD team would’ve got swept or lost in 5 of the Clippers were healthy right? Every game was tooth and nail and barely scraped by against a Clippers team that was missing their 2 very best players, 2 HOF players. You wanna compare that to Adams/Clarke? Are you serious or just fcking around?

I’m pretty certain like 90% of non-Suns and non-Lakers would easily take the Lakers to win in 5 or 6 games in a series against the Suns based on what the Suns have shown in the playoffs so far. Hell probably a majority of our fans know based on what we’ve seen from Suns so far that we would lose to the Lakers in a series.

KD is 35 yrs old. He’s old. He can’t get by any defenders, and his half his crossovers result in defenders easily stealing the ball because he’s so slow and old hence his high amount of turnovers. Literally only thing KD can do now is just shoot over the top of players because he’s tall. And even that he was miserable at in the last game. Of course he’ll bounce back and have a better game than that but this isn’t prime KD anymore.

You're making your own argument here and it doesn't matter to me how you've apparently polled 90% of non-Suns fans and non-Lakers fans in your head. You're mocking the Suns by calling them amazing - I never uttered any of those words and expressed my concerns eeking by the Clippers - albeit by far and away the deepest team in the NBA vs a team that had not even played 10 games together with KD.

That's the distinction - there are a lot of people like yourself who have unreasonably cornered the argument into CHIP IN 2023 or BUST and pro-rated the rest of the journey to a big ball of doom. FFS they're now at 15 games together dude - 15!!!!!!!!!!!!! Half of that having to learn to play together in the playoffs! KD doesn't necessarily need to be PRIME - nobody on the planet should think that given his age at this point. Regardless he's still a true 1 or 1A and one with playoff/championship experience to help with the next level development for Booker - Mikal and Johnson were none those things.

[spanishninja]

****. Embiid just won MVP. Joker will murder us even more now.

[Revived]

Dude you seriously want to talk about health? You realize that this amazing KD team would’ve got swept or lost in 5 of the Clippers were healthy right? Every game was tooth and nail and barely scraped by against a Clippers team that was missing their 2 very best players, 2 HOF players. You wanna compare that to Adams/Clarke? Are you serious or just fcking around?

I’m pretty certain like 90% of non-Suns and non-Lakers would easily take the Lakers to win in 5 or 6 games in a series against the Suns based on what the Suns have shown in the playoffs so far. Hell probably a majority of our fans know based on what we’ve seen from Suns so far that we would lose to the Lakers in a series.

KD is 35 yrs old. He’s old. He can’t get by any defenders, and his half his crossovers result in defenders easily stealing the ball because he’s so slow and old hence his high amount of turnovers. Literally only thing KD can do now is just shoot over the top of players because he’s tall. And even that he was miserable at in the last game. Of course he’ll bounce back and have a better game than that but this isn’t prime KD anymore.

You're making your own argument here and it doesn't matter to me how you've apparently polled 90% of non-Suns fans and non-Lakers fans in your head. You're mocking the Suns by calling them amazing - I never uttered any of those words and expressed my concerns eeking by the Clippers - albeit by far and away the deepest team in the NBA vs a team that had not even played 10 games together with KD.

That's the distinction - there are a lot of people like yourself who have unreasonably cornered the argument into CHIP IN 2023 or BUST and pro-rated the rest of the journey to a big ball of doom. FFS they're now at 15 games together dude - 15!!!!!!!!!!!!! Half of that having to learn to play together in the playoffs! KD doesn't necessarily need to be PRIME - nobody on the planet should think that given his age at this point. Regardless he's still a true 1 or 1A and one with playoff/championship experience to help with the next level development for Booker - Mikal and Johnson were none those things.

A trade giving up FIVE 1st round picks and the only two young and potential players besides Booker for KD is absolutely a championship or bust move. Because guess what? We’re completely fcked cap space wise, we have very few players with trade value that’s easy to move and we have zero lemme repeat ZERO first round picks to actually draft any half decent players from.

So yeah there’s of fcking course gonna be doom if this team falls short because they made a championship or bust move. I didn’t do it, Ishbia did.

And yeah if you think another season next year when KD is gonna be even older is gonna win you a chip then there’s some beachfront property in Arizona I have for sale that you may be interested in. KD is gonna get more injury prone as he ages, if he missed 40% of this season then he’ll likely miss 60% next season. CP3 is gonna be even more washed if he even comes back. Even if he doesn’t come back, Suns are so screwed salary cap wise that there’s very little ways to actually improve the team or bring in a good replacement for him.

[MrMiyagi]

****. Embiid just won MVP. Joker will murder us even more now.

Joker is doing that anyway. He literally doesn't care. He's got 2. He's going for that Larry O

[Ghost of Kleine]

How can you read those comments and get to that conclusion?

Free interpretation lol.

It's really not all that complicated of a correlative man! Last year in the Mavs series we didn't close out the game and after the leydown loss in game 6 Booker basically said the same thing about being excited for his first ever game 7 and they he was looking forward to it.


He should the exact same lack of concern or urgency towards being down in the series and remind me again how his casual, non chalfant demeanor and general lack of concern worked out for our postseason aspirations in that series?? This team has a serious lack of fire. A lack of urgency to get the job done and to repeatedly underestimate and take their situation lightly and it's resulted in a pretty disappointing negative outcome. Winners close and don't downplay the seriousness of their situations in pursuit of championships.

But overall, it's a pretty simple correlation that he's downplayed the severity of the situation before. And here tonight he's doing it again. It doesn't get simpler than that to make that connection obviously.

Lol, it amazes me how people transform everything in his mind.

He isn't downplaying anything but you want to believe it. It's OK.

Of course he may not view it (in his mind) as downplaying, minimizing or brushing this situation off. But it still comes across that way when you compare it to his post game statements from game 6 of the Mavs/ Suns series. He expresses the same excitement and the same jovialness and carefree attitude despite being in a seriously disadvantageous situation. That post conference very similar to this one carried carried the same nonchalant apathetical indifference towards the serious situation they were in after their collapse in that game. Now while they didn't necessarily collapse in this game, they are in a highly disadvantageous situation in this series. And the point to this correlation would be given our well documented history of post season collapse and dramatically underachieving relative to our stated goals and projections, displaying such a cavalier attitude after going down 0-2 in the series to a very strong Denver team and the odds of losing the series attached to that outcome sends a poor message when you consider the level of investment this franchise has mortgaged towards winning the championship!

I love Booker's excitement and passion for the game as it's very admirable! But he's the unspoken leader of this team, and he shouldn't be happy with, excited about, or enjoying this situation that we're currently in. Especially not when considering how very much we gave up/ mortgaged to finally achieve our championship aspirations. Enjoying "the moment" and enjoying the playoffs is one thing! BUT................... being lighthearted, indifferent, cavalier, or otherwise complacent to being down 0-2 in a tough series when we have a repeated history of monumental collapse and severely underachieving our stated goals is not inspiring or at all acceptable. This is not a lighthearted, casual or insignificant situation we're in after all. We have a very small window to actually be successful in our goals with Durant. And we've heavily mortgaged our future in this "all in move" win now move.

As the leader of this team and considering the seriousness of the situation we're currently in and the level of investment, He should be showing a lot more seriousness, focus, perhaps even some frustration or even level of disappointment??? But he shouldn't be excited about or enjoying the distinct possibility of getting knocked out of the playoffs early and another year of failure and being sent home early for the 3rd straight yr. Our team has a well documented history of being passive, being apathetic, underestimating teams, lacking any semblance of urgency or willingness to get the job done. As much as I like Booker and am grateful for his overall superstar talent, his statements reflect similarly to last seasons. And the outcome from that mentality back then resulted in a very embarrassing and disappointing outcome for us. It just reflects poorly downplaying the situation by sidestepping it given our postseason history.

[BobbieL]

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.

Please read the below, we could’ve been in much better shape including the lack of bench depth you mention

viewtopic.php?p=105868025#p105868025

Preaching to the choir --

I said it earlier -
5 second round picks
Saric
Craig or Payne
and a FRP unprotected

Would have been amenable to a trade?

but the bigger reason i was against the Durant trade was it was a one year shot in the dark. Paul is now out - so what do you do with his contract

they don't have picks
it was a short-sighted trade Ishbia

[Slim Charless]

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.

This entire paragraph is such a massive leap to conclusions.

Like I told all of you all year, Monty is the problem and those 2 would never have hit their current BRK peak here as Monty wouldn't have used them properly. Next, they both are getting a ridiclous amount of usage as opposed to what they were here-which increases these numbers you see. There's no tape on them for defenses to adjust to for these numbers and it isn't repeatable. Next year if the Nets run this back again, they'll be in the lottery.

You're just looking at stats and not understanding the fit and how our offense and the Nets offense works as it relates to how defenses play off on different players. You're also assuming that Monty can make the proper adjustments to properly take advantage of holes in the defense.

[RaisingArizona]

CP3 can heal up for the GSW series.