Haynes: The Suns are benching Beal and Nurkić

[Sgt Major]

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[Palma Dutch]

getting benched for a plumlee would radicalize me

[GeorgeMarcus]

Why did they sour on Nurkic so quickly? He had a pretty good year last year

[zimpy27]

Yeah this makes sense to bench Beal.

I think they are sending Nurkic back so Beal doesn't think it's just him. I expect Nurkic makes it back to starting lineup soon.

[Pacernation]

Makes sense. Both are garbage. Nurkic can do some things but whenever I watch him he looks uninterested and slow. He can't defend anybody and is a backup in todays league at best. Beal ist just washed and never healthy, easily the worst contract in the NBA. The sooner they bury both of them on the bench the better for them. At least Plumlee tries.

[OxAndFox]

Didn't Plumlee and Dunn start the last game anyway??

[giberish]

Beal makes sense. They need a PG next to Booker and a credible defensive forward next to KD Beal only makes sense starting if Booker (or perhaps KD) are injured. Of course Allen would be fine as the top bench SG/SF making Beal pretty unnecessary for the entire roster - just a crazy move to trade for him with their existing guys.

Nurkic vs Plumlee seems incredibly meh either way. It might just be partial cover for moving Beal out of the starters figuring they don't have any actual good center options.

[FeatheryTouch]

Dunn and Plumlee will definitely bring more defensive presence into the starting lineup, and the bench now has more scoring punch.

It will be interesting to see if it helps get Phoenix on track or accelerates it's demise with more locker room problems.

Of course it may also have the hidden benefit for the Suns of getting Beal to waive that no-trade clause in his contract...

[Mr Puddles]

Bringing Beal off the bench should have been done from the start (although I understand that team politics made that difficult to do).

It's not going to solve all of their problems, but having a defensive specialist with size in the lineup in Dunn makes much more sense from a roster balance standpoint than that gimmicky three guard Jones, Booker, Beal lineup Phoenix has been playing.

You'd think the Suns would have learned from their disastrous Bledsoe, Isaiah Thomas, Goran Dragic experiment.

[SunsLyf3]

Why did they sour on Nurkic so quickly? He had a pretty good year last year

There's more pressure in Phoenix to be successful right away due to the smaller window. They also finally realized that Nurk was not a winning player and never will be. Teams where he played in the playoffs are 3 - 17 with 0 playoff series win. We can talk about depth/talent in Portland but the one season they made a run Whiteside was the starter. Nurk is an empty stats guy. Grayson Allen is the 1 saving grace from that trade but in hindsight it looks like Portland fleeced the Suns. Even with DA not caring about his effort.

[OxAndFox]

I noticed Plumlee played 19.50 and Bol Bol played 11.50 against the Pacers. Did KD play the 5 the other minutes? I'm guessing they can't do that against Philly with Embiid/Drummond unless the 76ers go with Yabusele?

[Anderson Hunt]

Along with the Lakers' trade for Westbrook, the Suns' trade for Beal is the reason I'm fully and wholly confident in my abilities to run an NBA front office.

Many of these executives have full-on concussion protocol moments.

[UcanUwill]

I hear people say how trash Nurkic is, I checked his stats, not as bad I thought, his defensive rebounding is still insane, and he gets some blocks at least. But yeah, hes always been a weak link for this team, team simply has no depth at all, nowadays top teams have like 8 great to very competent guys, Suns have maybe 3.

P.S. Whoever did that BREAKING graphic for Chris Haynes, could use some improvement, Shams level graphic this was not. PM me Chris, I could photoshop a little better

[Sane]

Good move. It was always obvious Beal has to come off the bench. It's just a mathematical issue, nothing personal. Booker and Durant have always done better with a PG on the floor. They're not your James Hardens, these are not lead playmakers. They're more like a Kawhi - they need a PG. Booker is not a good enough PG. He's a 2 or a smallball 3. Durant is starting to become too slow for the SF spot, he's practically a full-time PF at this point if you want to extend his ability to beat his man off the dribble.

So the 1 or 2 was never ever going to be ok for Beal unless we discovered he can be a 10 assist per 36 guy or a low TO guy. He's none. He can't play the 3. It gets even more complicated actually.

Now you know you need a PG, Booker at the 2 and Durant at the 4. You already have your next problems to solve: there's no one here who can guard the best perimter player and the best big. If you don't understand the NBA tactically, you should know there is no such thing as a team that wins in the playoffs without those things. It's not optional and it can't be covered even with greatest offenses we've seen in the last 10 years. No matter how good you are at scoring, you won't be better than your opponent's lead scorer being defended by Booker or Beal.

So now these positions are locked:

rim protector who is a good screen setter or can stretch the floor
Durant
perimeter defender who can at minimum make open 3's and ensure Durant/Booker don't have to do that a lot
Booker
Floor general who can make open 3's

Beal does not fit any of these. I posted that on the day the trade was made that someone is going to get fired but it should be the GM or the owner because it was an unsolvable problem even if Beal was healthy. Ended up being the coach, who didn't do himself any favors with his uninspiring offensive ideas.

I'll bet you anything they go on a great run the rest of the way if Booker/Durant are healthy. Also, pretty clear they're dead-set on making a trade and they should be. Even in a lateral-value move, the roster needs more balance.

[UcanUwill]

getting benched for a plumlee would radicalize me

Plumlee is pretty solid for what he does, I think his rep is worse than what he really is, but he is one of those rare NBA players who score less than 10 points per 36 minutes, so yeah... Suns should probably try to bring someone like Milutinov from overseas, he is probably better than Both Nurk and Plumlee, who has Milutinov rights, I know he was drafter?

[Calvin Klein]

They probably doing this so he agrees to be traded

[og15]

Good move. It was always obvious Beal has to come off the bench. It's just a mathematical issue, nothing personal. Booker and Durant have always done better with a PG on the floor. They're not your James Hardens, these are not lead playmakers. They're more like a Kawhi - they need a PG. Booker is not a good enough PG. He's a 2 or a smallball 3. Durant is starting to become too slow for the SF spot, he's practically a full-time PF at this point if you want to extend his ability to beat his man off the dribble.

So the 1 or 2 was never ever going to be ok for Beal unless we discovered he can be a 10 assist per 36 guy or a low TO guy. He's none. He can't play the 3. It gets even more complicated actually.

Now you know you need a PG, Booker at the 2 and Durant at the 4. You already have your next problems to solve: there's no one here who can guard the best perimter player and the best big. If you don't understand the NBA tactically, you should know there is no such thing as a team that wins in the playoffs without those things. It's not optional and it can't be covered even with greatest offenses we've seen in the last 10 years. No matter how good you are at scoring, you won't be better than your opponent's lead scorer being defended by Booker or Beal.

So now these positions are locked:

rim protector who is a good screen setter or can stretch the floor
Durant
perimeter defender who can at minimum make open 3's and ensure Durant/Booker don't have to do that a lot
Booker
Floor general who can make open 3's

Beal does not fit any of these. I posted that on the day the trade was made that someone is going to get fired but it should be the GM or the owner because it was an unsolvable problem even if Beal was healthy. Ended up being the coach, who didn't do himself any favors with his uninspiring offensive ideas.

I'll bet you anything they go on a great run the rest of the way if Booker/Durant are healthy. Also, pretty clear they're dead-set on making a trade and they should be. Even in a lateral-value move, the roster needs more balance.

Beal makes sense. They need a PG next to Booker and a credible defensive forward next to KD Beal only makes sense starting if Booker (or perhaps KD) are injured. Of course Allen would be fine as the top bench SG/SF making Beal pretty unnecessary for the entire roster - just a crazy move to trade for him with their existing guys.

Nurkic vs Plumlee seems incredibly meh either way. It might just be partial cover for moving Beal out of the starters figuring they don't have any actual good center options.

They already had a PG in the starting lineup, they have started Tyus Jones all season.

The problem is that they were starting 3 guards in the backcourt, didn't have any real "defensive" guy in the starting lineup, and they were certainly not producing enough offense to justify their 25th Drtg team.

Of course considering many people already knew the build was a poor idea, it's mainly just an I told you so situation. How can you be paid professionally to do this role and can't even reflect on how similar situations have played out in the past?

[OxAndFox]

getting benched for a plumlee would radicalize me

Plumlee is pretty solid for what he does, I think his rep is worse than what he really is, but he is one of those rare NBA players who score less than 10 points per 36 minutes, so yeah... Suns should probably try to bring someone like Milutinov from overseas, he is probably better than Both Nurk and Plumlee, who has Milutinov rights, I know he was drafter?

Nikola Milutinov?

On 25 June 2015, Milutinov was selected with the 26th overall pick of the first round of the draft, by the San Antonio Spurs. On 6 August 2021, the Spurs sent his draft rights to the Brooklyn Nets as part of a multi-team trade.

Nikola Milutinov is the only active draft-and-stash prospect selected in the first round to never make it to the NBA.

[UcanUwill]

getting benched for a plumlee would radicalize me

Plumlee is pretty solid for what he does, I think his rep is worse than what he really is, but he is one of those rare NBA players who score less than 10 points per 36 minutes, so yeah... Suns should probably try to bring someone like Milutinov from overseas, he is probably better than Both Nurk and Plumlee, who has Milutinov rights, I know he was drafter?

Nikola Milutinov?

On 25 June 2015, Milutinov was selected with the 26th overall pick of the first round of the draft, by the San Antonio Spurs. On 6 August 2021, the Spurs sent his draft rights to the Brooklyn Nets as part of a multi-team trade.

Nikola Milutinov is the only active draft-and-stash prospect selected in the first round to never make it to the NBA.

Yes, Nikola Milutinov (every former Yugo center who is good is named Nikola these days). He is very old school center, but he is a bit too good to not be in the NBA if you ask me, especially considering some trash bigs who been in the NBA for years. Would probably make a good back up center for most teams, funny that he is back up center in Europe too, his euro team Olympiacos is stacked, but their main center, Moustapha Fall, would probably be a bit too slow, too post centric to fit current NBA, Nikola would fit better.

[rand]

Phoenix can move around deck chairs as they like, that ship is going down. Beal trade was the killer. Suns gave up a huge haul of picks for a guy who torpedoes almost every lineup they try him in and has one of the worst contracts in the NBA.

How much longer before Booker demands out?