MitchB3 wrote:Pickled Prunes wrote:MitchB3 wrote:
I'll tell you why I'm not high on the Suns. 1- The "Big 3" are all injury-prone, and right now KD and book, are playing extra games that aren't necessary. 2- They got rid of Vogel to bring in a coach that's exactly similar to the one they just fired. 3- Per usual they went one side of the ball, which is offense. Having 2 defenders isn't going to get it done. You also can't ask KD to give you 26+ along with being a solid defender at the age of 35-->36 (when the season starts). 4- Lastly, there are 8 spots for a deep west that can go 14 deep.
I think we agree, I'm not high on them either. All things being equal, I expect them to be a little better than last season. I also expect the NBA as a whole to be a little worse due to the depth of this draft.
The West might be 12 deep... 13 if you think SAS are serious threats to make the play in. It would be great, but I have my doubts. I would be shocked if they end with a better record than PHX. DEN, MIN and OKC are the only three teams I am certain will have a better record than PHX. I'm still not a believer that Kyrie can keep his head in DAL. What is NOP doing at center and how many games will Zion play? I am intrigued by DeMar in SAC but Mike Brown is uninspiring. How many games will Kawhi play? Will GSW land Markkanen? Every team outside the top three in the West have questions, and most of them are bigger than the questions in PHX.
I don't think the coach matters as much as you do. It wasn't Monty or Vogel's fault; The roster wasn't good enough. I do think it makes sense to focus on the side of the ball where all the talent is, offense in this case.
See the last part is where I have to disagree, coaching plays a tremendous role in the game of basketball. Vogel is a defensive coach who was given the task of making offensive players play some sort of defense. Which wasn't going to work. They didn't have a point guard and no rim protection. Now, they have two solid PG's, but still no rim protection, and also no bench.
Yes, I believe the SAS can be a play-in threat. Wemby is going to take another step in his development, they added a vet point guard in christopher paul. As for who will have a better record than the Suns, it's Den, Min, OKC, Dal, I'll say Mem. Everyone is sleeping on the Grizzles, because they were a bottom team, however, let's not forget they had to deal with injuries, and Ja 50 game suspension. They'll be back this upcoming season.
Of course coaching matters, I don't think we disagree on that. But in this case we are talking about three good coaches. The failure was in roster construction, not coach selection.
I am hopeful for SAS, but if they make the play in it will likely be on the backs of teams like GSW/LAL (old), HOU (young), NOP (injured). Yes, I know that PHX is both old and often injured. MEM could definitely jump right back to the top, but I am not a believer in Ja. The last time they were really good they had Adams and Brooks. Their defensive tenacity has taken a serious hit and Ja will make that worse, not better.
PHX added two actual PG's in Tyus and Monte and upgraded backup center from Eubanks to Plumlee. They actually have a solid 10-man rotation that makes sense positionally. (It would be nice if they had a little more length at SF and strength at PF.) The only key rotation player they lost was Eric Gordon and he can no longer guard a bag of donuts. As you mentioned with SAS, bringing in a true PG (or two) will help the role players most of all. Nassir Little was a solid role player when on the floor with Dame. Is Damion Lee Healthy?
Even without those two maybe's, Their lineups could look like this:
Nurkic/Plumlee
Durant/O'Neale
Booker/Allen
Beal/Okogie
Jones/Morris
You can't tell me that this isn't a serious improvement on last seasons lineup.
