NBA PLAYOFFS: GAME 1: (5) Los Angeles Clippers @ (4) Phoenix Suns l Sunday l 5:00 l TNT

[Revived]

We had a whopping 10 bench points last night. Give me Ross, because I can't stand watching Shamet shoot.

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During that time KD was out, the bench lineup that worked for the Suns was Warren/Lee/Ross working together. And of course Monty sits 2 of those two and hardly plays the other.

I hate to say it cause you never want to wish injuries but Monty can’t help himself…if the Suns want to go far in the playoffs, their best chance at that would be if Wainwright and Shamet ran into each other going for a loose ball or something and got injuries knocking them out for rest of playoffs. Again hate to say it because both players seem like nice personable guys and all but it’s the only way to save Suns from Monty’s idiocy.

[KdoubleDees23]

Payne needs to come back and Ross needs to play

[Revived]

It’s clear this team would be better off with Bridges and Cam. Would make us deeper and more versatile. Still wouldn’t be a championship team because Chris Paul is trash and Ayton is inconsistent.

The new ownership team made a huge move and failed miserably. Durant is a great player but he’s older always been fragile and we were not a contender with or without him. Now our future is completely bleak can’t imagine book won’t want out in a couple years when these guys retire or are traded/released.

New owner got a new toy and wanted to play with it right away instead of slowly unwrapping his present and opening it in an appropriate manner.

He never accounted for the improvement and age of Bridges/Johnson instead decided to piss it all way for a big name.

Watching those guys play tonight hurt thinking this could have been our core with Book for many years. Still not sure what would have happened with DA long term and CP was a horrendous long term deal at his age but man this blows.

Roster balance matters. It takes a knowledge GM to understand that. Look at a guy like Rob Pelinka and how he built the Lakers. Probably the best Lakers team since the Kobe back to back title team.

Good bench scoring in Rui/Beasley, an elite defender in Vanderbilt and solid 3rd option scorer in Dlo. They all “fit” perfectly.

Funny thing all those were moves the Suns could’ve made too WITHOUT giving up Bridges or Johnson. Imagine doing that instead of busting too quick when seeing the KD name.

I remember there were folks here that said Rui was trash and they were glad Suns didn’t trade Jae Crowder for him. Lmaoo. Not one Suns bench player will score more in rest of playoffs than Rui scored yesterday as the Lakers like 7th or 8th option. He carried them to a playoff win, yeah I’m sure glad we passed on a trade like that!!

We have Shamet off the bench though so it’s all good.

[sunskerr]

I just saw Alex Len receive a pass with 2 defenders in the post on him and he made an aggressive move and dunked it. Then he got an offensive rebound which resulted in a wide open 3.

BUT ANYWAY

I'll pass judgment on the team when our playoffs run is over. Those Lakers acquisitions were always going to be good because those guys were rotation level players.

I'd dig up what I wrote about Rui but it's probably too far buried. But it went along the lines of "he's shown the ability to get you 20 points and he's young and athletic - you could do worse and its low risk for mid-high reward". I had experience watching Rui through the Dynasty league here and felt he could be anywhere from a really nice player to a Morris-level rotation guy for us. And I was surprised people were so against him because he had been having a decent season in limited minutes and what the **** were the other options available that had that potential to be an actual 8 player rotation guy especially at the time we had Crowder sitting out.

[lilfishi22]

I actually don't have a problem with starting Craig. He did about as well as you could hope guarding Kawhi, Okogie doesn't have the size to guard Kawhi, KD will only get into foul trouble guarding Kawhi full-time, and I wouldn't expect either Okogie or Craig to have big impacts on offense if they're not playing with the starters anyways. I think Craig gets more playing time if he doesn't get into foul trouble yesterday too.

My gripe is 24 minutes for Shamet and Wainwright seeing the floor at all. I'm hoping both of those were driven by Craig getting into foul trouble, but we'll see. I understand that Shamet gets playing time over Ross because Ross can't guard his own shadow, but I'd rather see Okogie's defense and occasional spot shooting out there. We should be running a 9-man rotation max, and Wainwright should not be in it. Unfortunately I don't feel good anyone on our bench playing big minutes in the playoffs though.

I get we might've needed some size with Wainwright so I'm not too fussed with him playing some minutes but Shamet getting 24 when he's no better (likely worse) than Ross, TJ and Okogie is really hard to understand. Shamet is a better defender than Ross but the upside is clearly on Ross' side with his scoring or at least a floor spacer. Shamet didn't really add much offensively aside from finish on a couple of easy fast breaks but even with that, it's hard to understand him getting the minutes he got.

I think Okogie playing 6min is just odd. We could've used his defense and rim pressure and even if he's not going 6 for 8 from 3 or something, just having him out there is more helpful than whatever Shamet was doing.

I think in most circumstances, Shamet will get fewer minutes in G2 but with Monty, it's hard to tell

Considering CP3 and Book sat about 15 minutes yesterday, I think Shamet would have played around that much without foul trouble for Craig last night. Okogie would have made more sense to fill those minutes though. I'm not a huge Ross fan personally.

I'm just not sure what SHamet is doing out there. In the regular season we had Okogie bringing the ball up to take pressure off of Book/CP3 and his defense is clearly miles better than Shamet's so it makes little sense for Shamet to play literally 4x more minutes than Okogie.

I like Ross but fully acknowledge his limitations defensively but we didn't get him for defense. Considering we got jack from the bench offensively, why we didn't play our key scorer off the bench (Payne was out), just didn't make much sense to me.

[lilfishi22]

We had a whopping 10 bench points last night. Give me Ross, because I can't stand watching Shamet shoot.

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During that time KD was out, the bench lineup that worked for the Suns was Warren/Lee/Ross working together. And of course Monty sits 2 of those two and hardly plays the other.

I hate to say it cause you never want to wish injuries but Monty can’t help himself…if the Suns want to go far in the playoffs, their best chance at that would be if Wainwright and Shamet ran into each other going for a loose ball or something and got injuries knocking them out for rest of playoffs. Again hate to say it because both players seem like nice personable guys and all but it’s the only way to save Suns from Monty’s idiocy.

This is fine when you're up 15 and want to give the other two guys a rest but up 8 against a Clippers team in the playoffs is not that time. Monty knew he F'd up and brought KD back after less than 2 min on the bench.

[Revived]

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Booker size wise is at least similar to Westbrook but man KD at 6’11 struggling against Westbrook and even getting hit **** blocked by Westbrook like 2-3 times in this game was sad.

And yeah maybe they shouldn’t be attacking Westbrook in iso…on that play where Westbrook blocked Booker at the end, Eric Gordon was the one that was guarding Durant.

6’3 Eric Gordon against the 6’11 Durant…and Suns decided to iso Westbrook instead.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, for a team with as many veterans and experience as this team does, it’s one of the dumbest teams out there when it comes to situational basketball.

[enigmatics]

God I wish the Suns had Sabonis. That man is the opitome of ACTIVE.

[KLEON]

Monty better damn sure make sure D Lee and TJ play tomorrow. I also would like to see Bazley play with CP, the Suns could use his versatility, athleticism and fearlessness.

[Revived]

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[lilfishi22]

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Clippers were dictating the shots we were taking outside of the hands of Book/KD/CP3.

DA taking 18fters or contested shots over a massive body in the paint is exactly what they want us to take. KD sitting on the corner not being an active threat is exactly what they'll live with. Likewise with Craig scoring as much as he did which is great but that has to be in addition to Book/KD putting up great numbers rather than instead of.

We need to play our game and not get too cute trying to outsmart a great HC before they've even shown their hand. Starting Craig worked out in this game because he played well but really, to make that change all of a sudden when Okogie had been starting for us for 25 straight games heading into the playoffs and having that chemistry with KD just tells me Lue forced this change on Monty without having to lift a finger. If it isn't working, then that's when adjustments should take place in G2 but not before even G1.

[sunsbum]

God I wish the Suns had Sabonis. That man is the opitome of ACTIVE.

was watching the kings highlights and was thinking the same thing. Idgaf what the box score says you'll never walk away from watching a game of his talking about effort in a negative way.

[garrick]

They used to, they traded it away.

It’s clear this team would be better off with Bridges and Cam. Would make us deeper and more versatile. Still wouldn’t be a championship team because Chris Paul is trash and Ayton is inconsistent.

The new ownership team made a huge move and failed miserably. Durant is a great player but he’s older always been fragile and we were not a contender with or without him. Now our future is completely bleak can’t imagine book won’t want out in a couple years when these guys retire or are traded/released.

New owner got a new toy and wanted to play with it right away instead of slowly unwrapping his present and opening it in an appropriate manner.

He never accounted for the improvement and age of Bridges/Johnson instead decided to piss it all way for a big name.

We gave away too much in the trade. Should have kept CamJo at least and held firm to have a reliable defender and scorer because our bench are either all defense or all offensive specialists and are a liability on one side of the court.

[TeamTragic]

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Shannon getting on DA

[lilfishi22]

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Shannon getting on DA

Skips first comments about DA being able to log 18/8 by accident because he's just that talented is the most succinct way to describe his career. A few shots in the paint, a few put backs and he'll get to 18 pretty quick and 8 rebounds is probably going to fall into his vicinity but it's not dominating.

It's literally as cruisey an 18/8 as the guy can get. He is that athletically talented and skilled but all he can muster in a losing effort in G1 of the playoffs is a casual 18/8. Before the supporters jump on me, I'm saying all this, Skip/Shannon is saying all this because we've SEEN and should EXPECT more from DA. DA can dominate, all he needs is a single F to give.....that's it.

[TeamTragic]

Watch on YouTube

Shannon getting on DA

Skips first comments about DA being able to log 18/8 by accident because he's just that talented is the most succinct way to describe his career. A few shots in the paint, a few put backs and he'll get to 18 pretty quick and 8 rebounds is probably going to fall into his vicinity but it's not dominating.

It's literally as cruisey an 18/8 as the guy can get. He is that athletically talented and skilled but all he can muster in a losing effort in G1 of the playoffs is a casual 18/8. Before the supporters jump on me, I'm saying all this, Skip/Shannon is saying all this because we've SEEN and should EXPECT more from DA. DA can dominate, all he needs is a single F to give.....that's it.

Exactly. Does DA want win a championship because he already got his bag.

Does he want to be great because KD is there to mentor him?