GM 8: Suns @ Bulls

[garrick]

The Suns have to do everything they can to get Malcom Brogdon. I’m not sure they have the pieces to do it but he’s perfect for this team.

We have nothing to trade for anyone anymore. It’s done, there’s no trades the Suns can make for several years because we have no trade assets.

Out of all 30 teams in the league, the Suns have the least amount of trade assets available for trade for any player. And honestly that’s understating it, we basically have jack ***** to trade anyone for anything.

I think our guys on vet minimums are actually good players. The problem is.. I did not know Brogdon makes 22 million a year. Yeah, no way they can match up contracts for him. You’re absolutely right.


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https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2023/03/trade-breakdown-dario-saric-to-the-thunder.html

We still have the TPE's for both Payne and Dario but even with that we don't have a contract to add someone with enough monetary value to trade to make up the difference unless you want to throw Nurkic in there but I don't think we can trade him back to the Blazers.

The Dario trade gave us 4.6 million TPE to work with but yeah it's hard to make up the 17 million difference with any of our players and Brogdon is injured again so I don't know if we want to add another injury prone player to our roster.

[Saberestar]

We did get screwed by refs in OT a bit but Suns had no business winning that game. Bulls outplayed the Suns thoroughly and I feel bad for Alex Caruso, he owned the fck out of Kevin Durant.

I don’t think I’ve watched player completely own a player for the entirety of a game like Caruso did to KD who is a supposed top 30 player and first ballot HOFer etc.

Yeah, that’s why Caruso needed a teammate to run hard and double team KD all the time when he had the ball lol

Caruso is a great defender but he didn't own KD, I imagine Caruso reading something like that and laughing about it.

That double team originated open shots after the hokey assists, but we didn't shoot well in the fourth.

Gordon missed shots that he usually makes and we had some TOs trying to make the right play.

[Saberestar]

Well, it wasn't pretty but it was a win. I didn't like a few things from our team but I loved some good stuff.

Grayson Allen was Dan Majerle in this one, good defense with excellent 3p shooting.

Nurkic took advantage of Vucevic, Cs like him are perfect to display all his skills. He scored, assisted and was a beast on the boards. He had some bad TOs but hopefully that will improve with chemistry.

KD was having a nice game until they put Caruso on him and started to double him, then some TOs and some missed shots but his presence and Bulls attention on him created so many good shots for our team. 25 points, 9 assists, 7 rebounds and 2 steals in a mediocre game for his standards.

KBD solidified his starting role, that 3p shot gave us the W. His defense is underrated yet.

Beal didn’t play well, he scored some 3s but he looked out of basketball shape yet.

Okogie, Watanabe, Eubanks...not their games, all of them aren't good passers and we needed good passers in this one because the Bulls defended up and pretty hard every passing lane.

All in all a good W on the road.

[Saberestar]

We don't have anyone that can really attack the paint besides Beal so it's a real problem when teams take away the 3 or we just aren't hitting our shots during stretches of the game.

We need a slasher like Oubre or someone who can get free throws to get us in the bonus because the weakness of last season hasn't been fixed coming in to this season. We are entirely too reliant on jump shots for the offense.

Kevin Durant is at 10.8 drives per game so far this season, which although is likely not sustainable, it is the highest rate of his career since the NBA started tracking it in 2013-2014.

Read on Twitter

And Eric Gordon and Book can attack the paint from the perimeter too.

[Revived]

We did get screwed by refs in OT a bit but Suns had no business winning that game. Bulls outplayed the Suns thoroughly and I feel bad for Alex Caruso, he owned the fck out of Kevin Durant.

I don’t think I’ve watched player completely own a player for the entirety of a game like Caruso did to KD who is a supposed top 30 player and first ballot HOFer etc.

Yeah, that’s why Caruso needed a teammate to run hard and double team KD all the time when he had the ball lol

Caruso is a great defender but he didn't own KD, I imagine Caruso reading something like that and laughing about it.

That double team originated open shots after the hokey assists, but we didn't shoot well in the fourth.

Gordon missed shots that he usually makes and we had some TOs trying to make the right play.

Did you not watch the game? Caruso locked him KD plenty single handedly including the last possession of 4th QTR when not one Bulls player even thought about doubling. It was 6’4 Caruso vs 6’11 KD 1 on 1 and Caruso had his ass.

[Saberestar]

We did get screwed by refs in OT a bit but Suns had no business winning that game. Bulls outplayed the Suns thoroughly and I feel bad for Alex Caruso, he owned the fck out of Kevin Durant.

I don’t think I’ve watched player completely own a player for the entirety of a game like Caruso did to KD who is a supposed top 30 player and first ballot HOFer etc.

Yeah, that’s why Caruso needed a teammate to run hard and double team KD all the time when he had the ball lol

Caruso is a great defender but he didn't own KD, I imagine Caruso reading something like that and laughing about it.

That double team originated open shots after the hokey assists, but we didn't shoot well in the fourth.

Gordon missed shots that he usually makes and we had some TOs trying to make the right play.

Did you not watch the game? Caruso locked him KD plenty single handedly including the last possession of 4th QTR when not one Bulls player even thought about doubling. It was 6’4 Caruso vs 6’11 KD 1 on 1 and Caruso had his ass.

Obviously I watched the game and pretty much the Bulls trapped KD or double teamed most of the time. Yeah, on some plays he defended him one on one but it wasn't the norm at all.

You can heard it directly from KD here.

Read on Twitter

[Fifii]

Another game that we had good start and we lose our advantage, maybe we have a problem with concentration or we don’t exist without Kevin on the floor.

We had 11 assist in first quarter and 32 in whole game. This is main source why we lose this advantage.

In Nurkic we playing slow positional attack in the other hand with him we looked better on the board. He is created to dirty game.

Grayson Allen was our second best player on the match. He looked very good beyond three point line. 8x3 incredible performance for him. I’m very glad that he is on our team.

Eric Gordon - wasting my breath

Yuta he misses huge shoot unfortunately but he look good.

Diop made huge three in OT. I think that if he missed we will lose match. He play pretty well on D.

Beal play first match. This is only opinion what I can to write.

Eric Gordon play for us for minimum but it doesn't justify him. If think it would be better if we sign insert him players like Dennis Smith Jr or Lonnie Walker IV

In the last word. Great move from Donovan that he put Alex on KD. KD definitely he not doing well on attack when he was guarded by Alex. I think Alex perfect will be fitting in our team, probably price would be huge

[Revived]

Yeah, that’s why Caruso needed a teammate to run hard and double team KD all the time when he had the ball lol

Caruso is a great defender but he didn't own KD, I imagine Caruso reading something like that and laughing about it.

That double team originated open shots after the hokey assists, but we didn't shoot well in the fourth.

Gordon missed shots that he usually makes and we had some TOs trying to make the right play.

Did you not watch the game? Caruso locked him KD plenty single handedly including the last possession of 4th QTR when not one Bulls player even thought about doubling. It was 6’4 Caruso vs 6’11 KD 1 on 1 and Caruso had his ass.

Obviously I watched the game and pretty much the Bulls trapped KD or double teamed most of the time. Yeah, on some plays he defended him one on one but it wasn't the norm at all.

You can heard it directly from KD here.

Read on Twitter

Respect to KD but I don’t need to hear what he said, I saw the game myself and the Bulls did not double KD once on that last 4th qtr possession when KD couldn’t score 1 on 1 against a guy 6-7 inches shorter than him and every single OT possession was also Caruso single handedly defending KD and locking him up. They doubled him earlier in the game and then realized they don’t need to double him and that Caruso can handle him by himself.

[bwgood77]

That is the best thing about KD though, the tweet above where it mentions his drives. He gets to the line a ton and usually knocks them down. His defensive gravity is huge too, which helps Book immensely when he is healthy.

The turnovers between him, Book and Nurk are killing us though. Book is averaging 5.5 and KD 4.3, so almost 10 turnovers a game between them. Nurkic 4 last night.

[WeekapaugGroove]

That is the best thing about KD though, the tweet above where it mentions his drives. He gets to the line a ton and usually knocks them down. His defensive gravity is huge too, which helps Book immensely when he is healthy.

The turnovers between him, Book and Nurk are killing us though. Book is averaging 5.5 and KD 4.3, so almost 10 turnovers a game between them. Nurkic 4 last night.

I expect the turnovers to gradually decrease as guys get used to playing together. There are stretches in these games where you can tell it's a group still trying to figure it where their teammates are going to be.

I haven't commented much this year because I don't think the team we're seeing right now is really a good representation of how it will look in like March.

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[spanishninja]

was there any footage of Beal's post game interview? hoping his back still feels fine after the nasty fall he took in the first half.

[King4Day]

I still think the turnovers will work themselves out once we lock down the rotations (and get Book back). But it's def something Jones needs to keep an eye on as we approach the deadline.

[WeekapaugGroove]

Booker and Beal are the two dudes who will handle the ball the most when they are at full strength and they've played like less than 100 combined minutes this season. So I don't think these 8 games really tell us much about this team.

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[MrMiyagi]

Booker and Beal are the two dudes who will handle the ball the most when they are at full strength and they've played like less than 100 combined minutes this season. So I don't think these 8 games really tell us much about this team.

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I'll take .500 ball thus far. We could easily have been 5-3 or 6-2, but also 3-5. Records with 2 or more of the big 3 are going to matter most to me, and right now we're 2-1 in games with 2.

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

Ya'll know the stat I love the most in this game?

48 3pt attempts

Nauseating.

This is the league that Steph built. Chucking for volume, not for makes. Everyone suddenly thinks of themselves as a shooter from range. I miss the 90's era when shooters were actually shooters and stretch 4's and 5's weren't really a thing.

I do not miss the 90s. I've gone back and watched some old Barkley-era playoff games over the years, and there are so many elements of those games that are laughable by today's standards. On defense, everything was simple, unimaginative man-to-man due to the illegal defense rule. People say it was more physical, and sure, there was a lot more contact on cutters, in the open court, and guys would get pounded on drives to the basket. But in the half-court, defense was loose, with everyone sagging off shooters and going under screens, because...

On offense: Nobody could shoot! And I'm not just talking about 3 pointers. Almost every shot guys took back then would be considered a bad look today. So many post possessions that seemed to last an eternity resulting in ugly shots. There was no spacing on offense - most possessions were just an endless search for a contested close shot or a clean look from 15 feet.

And I'm not even getting into the worst part about the 90s, which is how it ended. The bully ball got taken to an extreme in the late-90s and early-2000s, with long possessions, everyone battling underneath, whole games played in the half court, and teams regularly scoring in the 80s per game. Absolutely hideous.

The modern game has its faults, but I'll take this era, where almost everyone can launch the long ball, over the era of mediocre half-court basketball that preceded it. IMO, today's game is MUCH more physical, as defenses have really tightened up to prevent anyone from getting a clean look, and teams have to actively generate space with their shooting as opposed to being gifted it since the only thing that mattered was keeping the ball out of the paint.

[WeekapaugGroove]

Nauseating.

This is the league that Steph built. Chucking for volume, not for makes. Everyone suddenly thinks of themselves as a shooter from range. I miss the 90's era when shooters were actually shooters and stretch 4's and 5's weren't really a thing.

I do not miss the 90s. I've gone back and watched some old Barkley-era playoff games over the years, and there are so many elements of those games that are laughable by today's standards. On defense, everything was simple, unimaginative man-to-man due to the illegal defense rule. People say it was more physical, and sure, there was a lot more contact on cutters, in the open court, and guys would get pounded on drives to the basket. But in the half-court, defense was loose, with everyone sagging off shooters and going under screens, because...

On offense: Nobody could shoot! And I'm not just talking about 3 pointers. Almost every shot guys took back then would be considered a bad look today. So many post possessions that seemed to last an eternity resulting in ugly shots. There was no spacing on offense - most possessions were just an endless search for a contested close shot or a clean look from 15 feet.

And I'm not even getting into the worst part about the 90s, which is how it ended. The bully ball got taken to an extreme in the late-90s and early-2000s, with long possessions, everyone battling underneath, whole games played in the half court, and teams regularly scoring in the 80s per game. Absolutely hideous.

The modern game has its faults, but I'll take this era, where almost everyone can launch the long ball, over the era of mediocre half-court basketball that preceded it. IMO, today's game is MUCH more physical, as defenses have really tightened up to prevent anyone from getting a clean look, and teams have to actively generate space with their shooting as opposed to being gifted it since the only thing that mattered was keeping the ball out of the paint.

I'll preface this by saying I am somewhat in the camp that every team launching a million 3s a game gets boring.


BUT I will very vehemently disagree with anyone who thinks 90s era ball was good or something they should try to go back to. Worst era in NBA history, the muck it up on D and iso or post play O sucked to watch. It also should be noted it's an outlier as far as NBA history, prior to that era the NBA was very fast paced and high scoring.

They won't actually do it but simply making 2s worth 3 and 3s worth 4 points would fix the current math problem that's driving teams to shoot so many 3s.

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[ImNotMcDiSwear]

This is the league that Steph built. Chucking for volume, not for makes. Everyone suddenly thinks of themselves as a shooter from range. I miss the 90's era when shooters were actually shooters and stretch 4's and 5's weren't really a thing.

I do not miss the 90s. I've gone back and watched some old Barkley-era playoff games over the years, and there are so many elements of those games that are laughable by today's standards. On defense, everything was simple, unimaginative man-to-man due to the illegal defense rule. People say it was more physical, and sure, there was a lot more contact on cutters, in the open court, and guys would get pounded on drives to the basket. But in the half-court, defense was loose, with everyone sagging off shooters and going under screens, because...

On offense: Nobody could shoot! And I'm not just talking about 3 pointers. Almost every shot guys took back then would be considered a bad look today. So many post possessions that seemed to last an eternity resulting in ugly shots. There was no spacing on offense - most possessions were just an endless search for a contested close shot or a clean look from 15 feet.

And I'm not even getting into the worst part about the 90s, which is how it ended. The bully ball got taken to an extreme in the late-90s and early-2000s, with long possessions, everyone battling underneath, whole games played in the half court, and teams regularly scoring in the 80s per game. Absolutely hideous.

The modern game has its faults, but I'll take this era, where almost everyone can launch the long ball, over the era of mediocre half-court basketball that preceded it. IMO, today's game is MUCH more physical, as defenses have really tightened up to prevent anyone from getting a clean look, and teams have to actively generate space with their shooting as opposed to being gifted it since the only thing that mattered was keeping the ball out of the paint.

I'll preface this by saying I am somewhat in the camp that every team launching a million 3s a game gets boring.


BUT I will very vehemently disagree with anyone who thinks 90s era ball was good or something they should try to go back to. Worst era in NBA history, the muck it up on D and iso or post play O sucked to watch. It also should be noted it's an outlier as far as NBA history, prior to that era the NBA was very fast paced and high scoring.

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Yeah, I didn't even mention the ISO ball that dominated the league between Jordan's second retirement and the SSOL Suns. Grossly repetitive, static and inefficient - and yet, ubiquitous. Ugh!

Seeing these Pacers box scores makes me wonder if Tyrese Haliburton is the heir apparent to His Nashtiness. Fast, full-court, shoot or dunk basketball is the best.

[Saberestar]

Did you not watch the game? Caruso locked him KD plenty single handedly including the last possession of 4th QTR when not one Bulls player even thought about doubling. It was 6’4 Caruso vs 6’11 KD 1 on 1 and Caruso had his ass.

Obviously I watched the game and pretty much the Bulls trapped KD or double teamed most of the time. Yeah, on some plays he defended him one on one but it wasn't the norm at all.

You can heard it directly from KD here.

Read on Twitter

Respect to KD but I don’t need to hear what he said, I saw the game myself and the Bulls did not double KD once on that last 4th qtr possession when KD couldn’t score 1 on 1 against a guy 6-7 inches shorter than him and every single OT possession was also Caruso single handedly defending KD and locking him up. They doubled him earlier in the game and then realized they don’t need to double him and that Caruso can handle him by himself.

Yeah, you are talking about a few plays where he defended KD 1n1...on a 53 minutes game. They trapped or double him all game long.

You don't believe KD...OK, here is Vogel saying it.
"KD double teamed all night".

Read on Twitter

[Revived]

Obviously I watched the game and pretty much the Bulls trapped KD or double teamed most of the time. Yeah, on some plays he defended him one on one but it wasn't the norm at all.

You can heard it directly from KD here.

Read on Twitter

Respect to KD but I don’t need to hear what he said, I saw the game myself and the Bulls did not double KD once on that last 4th qtr possession when KD couldn’t score 1 on 1 against a guy 6-7 inches shorter than him and every single OT possession was also Caruso single handedly defending KD and locking him up. They doubled him earlier in the game and then realized they don’t need to double him and that Caruso can handle him by himself.

Yeah, you are talking about a few plays where he defended KD 1n1...on a 53 minutes game. They trapped or double him all game long.

You don't believe KD...OK, here is Vogel saying it.
"KD double teamed all night".

Read on Twitter

Lol dude it wouldn’t matter if you next posted a video of Joe Biden saying that KD was doubled every play. It wouldn’t make it true.

Trust your own eyes, not other people’s words. Not just in basketball, but life in general.

You can watch these plays below, watch it on mute if you want, the only thing important is the footage. It’s KD one on one missing jumpers over Caruso, getting stripped by Caruso, missing layups on Caruso. And KD was doubled some, yes, but he also wasn’t at all late in the 4th and OT after they realized they don’t need to.

Read on Twitter

I don’t even think this is accurate because I don’t remember the one time KD scored on Caruso.

[Saberestar]

Respect to KD but I don’t need to hear what he said, I saw the game myself and the Bulls did not double KD once on that last 4th qtr possession when KD couldn’t score 1 on 1 against a guy 6-7 inches shorter than him and every single OT possession was also Caruso single handedly defending KD and locking him up. They doubled him earlier in the game and then realized they don’t need to double him and that Caruso can handle him by himself.

Yeah, you are talking about a few plays where he defended KD 1n1...on a 53 minutes game. They trapped or double him all game long.

You don't believe KD...OK, here is Vogel saying it.
"KD double teamed all night".

Read on Twitter

Lol dude it wouldn’t matter if you next posted a video of Joe Biden saying that KD was doubled every play. It wouldn’t make it true.

Trust your own eyes, not other people’s words. Not just in basketball, but life in general.

You can watch these plays below, watch it on mute if you want, the only thing important is the footage. It’s KD one on one missing jumpers over Caruso, getting stripped by Caruso, missing layups on Caruso. And KD was doubled some, yes, but he also wasn’t at all late in the 4th and OT after they realized they don’t need to.

Read on Twitter

I don’t even think this is accurate because I don’t remember the one time KD scored on Caruso.

Ok, good for you, trust whatever you want, you are free.