Moderators: bwgood77, Qwigglez, lilfishi22
carey wrote:Also, it's good to see Phrazbit found something to complain about for the year. I was worried that with Beasley gone he might not have a dead horse to beat.
carey wrote:Surprise. It only took one game to prove Chad Ford wrong. The guy is hardly every right about anything. I think a number of regular posters here could have the same success at predicting future player & team success as Ford.
I'm not saying we're going to be good, but "won't win a game in the West" bad? Come on,man.
JehuuBacon wrote:A couple things:
1. I like Chad Ford, but that's because I really enjoy all his draft coverage. That's what he lives for. So although he can be a pretty good judge of individual talent, it's tough to say if he's an expert in team win/loss projection. And while it's probably unpopular that he thinks the Suns will be terrible this year, keep in mind that that's the overwhelming opinion these days. It's not like Chad Ford said anything highly controversial here.
2. I don't know if this has been addressed, but it sort of bothers me when people say that the Suns are 'tanking'. It comes down to what you define as tanking, but to me it always has a very negative connotation attached to it as if it's something to be ashamed of. The Suns should not be ashamed of what they're doing. What Ryan McDonough has accomplished thus far is nothing short of incredible and isn't something that I would've imagined could be possible when he took the job this year. He has successfully flipped all of our expendable talent for equal or greater value and put the Suns in a position for future success. Clearing cap space, trading for younger prospects, and amassing draft picks is a clever and proven rebuilding strategy and not something that is easily done. Tanking is not putting in the effort on the court, sitting players, basically willingly losing games. That's not something that I saw in the first game last night against the Blazers, thankfully. As long as I see the Suns playing hard and trying to win with the players they have, I don't consider them a tanking team.
BurningHeart wrote:The point is that if Ryan McDonough is as good as you people think he is, it doesn't matter WHERE we pick because he'll find the right guy regardless.
"I don't know how you come to work every day and lead a group of people, whether it's me, whether it's Ryan (McDonough), whether it's Robert (Sarver), whether it's Jeff (Hornacek)," Babby told Bickley with Marotta Thursday. "You can't come to work every day and lead people with the hope of failure, you can't do that.
Babby added that anyone who watched the Suns' 104-91 win over the Portland Trail Blazers Wednesday night would know that while you may find some folks who want the team to lose, none of them will be playing, coaching or managing.
"We want to win every night, and you can't build a successful culture if you don't have that aspiration"
"Probably special for Coach; his first time playing against his old team. That'll be interesting," P.J. Tucker said. "He knows the inside tricks of what they do, so definitely paying a little extra attention because he knows exactly what they do."
Added Goran Dragic, "When we're going to have that meeting before the game, he's going to be, how do you say, pumped up. Everybody wants to win that game, especially for Jeff."
That says a lot about the bond between head coach and team when players are making those comments, especially this early in the relationship.
fromthetop321 wrote:I got Lebron number 1, he is also leading defensive player of the year. Curry's game still reminds me of Jeremy Lin to much.
JehuuBacon wrote:A couple things:
1. I like Chad Ford, but that's because I really enjoy all his draft coverage. That's what he lives for. So although he can be a pretty good judge of individual talent, it's tough to say if he's an expert in team win/loss projection. And while it's probably unpopular that he thinks the Suns will be terrible this year, keep in mind that that's the overwhelming opinion these days. It's not like Chad Ford said anything highly controversial here.
2. I don't know if this has been addressed, but it sort of bothers me when people say that the Suns are 'tanking'. It comes down to what you define as tanking, but to me it always has a very negative connotation attached to it as if it's something to be ashamed of. The Suns should not be ashamed of what they're doing. What Ryan McDonough has accomplished thus far is nothing short of incredible and isn't something that I would've imagined could be possible when he took the job this year. He has successfully flipped all of our expendable talent for equal or greater value and put the Suns in a position for future success. Clearing cap space, trading for younger prospects, and amassing draft picks is a clever and proven rebuilding strategy and not something that is easily done. Tanking is not putting in the effort on the court, sitting players, basically willingly losing games. That's not something that I saw in the first game last night against the Blazers, thankfully. As long as I see the Suns playing hard and trying to win with the players they have, I don't consider them a tanking team.
carey wrote:Also, it's good to see Phrazbit found something to complain about for the year. I was worried that with Beasley gone he might not have a dead horse to beat.
MrMiyagi wrote:Lob to DA for the win
DRK wrote:I can;t remember who said it, but one of the posters put it very very nicely.
We're a team that's not built to win. However if we do manage to win more than expected, that's a very good sign. It shows that our young talent is better than expected.
Whoever you are, let me know and I'll give you an And1.
DirtyDez wrote:What player would ever try to lose?
3. Phoenix Suns | Status: Tanking | Record: 2-1
Conventional wisdom from Tank Rank last week: "It's hard to see [the Suns] winning a game in the West this year." To which the Suns responded by beating both the Blazers and Jazz to start the season. In those two games, center Miles Plumlee played out of his mind, putting up back-to-back double-doubles. To put that into perspective, Plumlee put up just three double-doubles in his last two seasons at Duke. Plumlee was sporting a 24 PER before regressing to the mean (0 points, 5 rebounds) in a loss against the Thunder on Sunday.
Expect the rest of the team to follow Plumlee's lead eventually. However, with games against a struggling Pelicans team and an even shakier Nuggets team coming up this week, they may yet put another win or two in the books.
phrazbit wrote:You will tell me its my opinion and I am making assumptions, but just like when I said last year's team would be awful... my opinion and predictions will eventually be proven as truth.
Moochthemonkey wrote:phrazbit wrote:You will tell me its my opinion and I am making assumptions, but just like when I said last year's team would be awful... my opinion and predictions will eventually be proven as truth.
lol ok
bwgood77 wrote:3. Phoenix Suns | Status: Tanking | Record: 2-1
Conventional wisdom from Tank Rank last week: "It's hard to see [the Suns] winning a game in the West this year." To which the Suns responded by beating both the Blazers and Jazz to start the season. In those two games, center Miles Plumlee played out of his mind, putting up back-to-back double-doubles. To put that into perspective, Plumlee put up just three double-doubles in his last two seasons at Duke. Plumlee was sporting a 24 PER before regressing to the mean (0 points, 5 rebounds) in a loss against the Thunder on Sunday.
Expect the rest of the team to follow Plumlee's lead eventually. However, with games against a struggling Pelicans team and an even shakier Nuggets team coming up this week, they may yet put another win or two in the books.
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story/_/ ... e-top-list
MrMiyagi wrote:Lob to DA for the win
ginobiliflops wrote:Where is the poster that was so confident we'd be the worst team of all time? He had a movie star guy as an avatar. Our mod warned me for calling him an idiot.
I'd like to call him an idiot once more.