Game 64: Phoenix Suns (33-30) @ Cleveland Cavs (39-25)

[Son of Ra]

This is a young team who just had a major roster overhaul midseason playing a back to back after an OT game without arguably our 2nd best player. On top of all that we were playing one of the hottest teams in the NBA who has the best player in the league.

Let's not get carried away here everyone. This team still has a ton of potential

I'm sorry but I am tired of this young team narrative. It is meaningless that we are young on paper because we don't play our young guys. It is equivalent to the Spurs signing 5 14-year-olds and saying look how young we are.

[asubennett]

Eric Bledsoe is so damn inconsistant. Whoever was comparing him to westbrook should be banned from the board. There is NO way this dude can lead a team to a championship. Literally the whole weight of this franchise is on Alex Lens shoulders.

It was me tough guy but you need to be clear about the context of what I said. OKC fans wanted Russel gone pre and post NBA finals against the Heat. They thought he was a volume scorer, inefficient and a ball stopper. They wanted KD to get all of his touches and felt trading him away would be addition by subtraction at the time. Westbrook is only 26 still but has been in the league two full years longer than Bledsoe and has never had to play behind a Chris Paul type.

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/i ... -westbrook

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/i ... ic-bledsoe

Bledsoe averages 10pts less per game this season than Westbrook on 10 less shots. He also averages less turnovers per game.

Westbrook back two seasons ago - Same development time as Bledsoe currently was a 23 / 5 /7 player/ BUT - shot 43% FG and 33% 3FG.

Bledsoe - current seasons, 17 / 6 /6. Better rebounder, slightly less assists. He is 6 less pts per game than Westbrook was BUT....He is also taking 7 less shots per game than Westbrook. And also getting to the line 5 times less per game.

Bledsoe is also 46% and 33% from the field. Slightly better than Westbrook was at this point in his career.

The three most athletic PG's in the NBA right now are Westrbook, Waal and Bledsoe. Period.

As Bled get's more and more comfortable being a leader I believe he could absolutely have a similar career trajectory as Westbrook. The kid is only 25 and nowhere near his prime. Our offensive system needs an overhaul right now. We have terrible spacing, terrible pick and roll play and limited outside shooting. All things that are required for someone like Bledsoe to take advantage of space and get to the hoop.


The biggest glaring difference in their games right now to me is jump shooting. Eric has a set shot while Russel get's up and can shoot in traffic. If Bled can learn that (similar to KJ) it will open his game up tremendously.

[carey]

Isn't Sunsoholic really In Len We Trust. Hopefully the mods ban this loser.

Now you know why I've been saying go back to Twitter and off this board. He's a grade A arsehole.

[carey]

This is a young team who just had a major roster overhaul midseason playing a back to back after an OT game without arguably our 2nd best player. On top of all that we were playing one of the hottest teams in the NBA who has the best player in the league.

Let's not get carried away here everyone. This team still has a ton of potential

I'm sorry but I am tired of this young team narrative. It is meaningless that we are young on paper because we don't play our young guys. It is equivalent to the Spurs signing 5 14-year-olds and saying look how young we are.

Well, I think we have the 2nd youngest starting line-up in the league with Eric-BK-Tucker-Morris-Len. The oldest guy on that line-up is Tucker at the ripe old age of 29. The rest are 25,23,25,21. That's an average of about 24 and a 1/2. YOUNG.

[Frank Lee]

This is a young team who just had a major roster overhaul midseason playing a back to back after an OT game without arguably our 2nd best player. On top of all that we were playing one of the hottest teams in the NBA who has the best player in the league.

Let's not get carried away here everyone. This team still has a ton of potential

I'm sorry but I am tired of this young team narrative. It is meaningless that we are young on paper because we don't play our young guys. It is equivalent to the Spurs signing 5 14-year-olds and saying look how young we are.

Well, I think we have the 2nd youngest starting line-up in the league with Eric-BK-Tucker-Morris-Len. The oldest guy on that line-up is Tucker at the ripe old age of 29. The rest are 25,23,25,21. That's an average of about 24 and a 1/2. YOUNG.

Young by design or default ? Are you assuming this will be the squad next yr... and with such an assumption, they all will be better in the areas they lack ? I do not have that confidence. They are kind of awful right now. Potential does not always evolve into ability.

[letsgosuns]

"We didn't do a good job of really blasting it up," said Hornacek, whose team ranked second in the NBA with 19.3 fastbreak points per game. "It was more of a half-run, half-jog. We got in late so maybe they were a little worn out from last night's game, an overtime game. Our guards couldn't push it as fast as they did the other day."

This is such a bad excuse. The Suns were tired? Okay I get that you were probably a little bit tired from arriving at like 4 a.m. but this rotation consists of players in their early to mid twenties. The Cavaliers played a huge game the night before too against the Hawks and they did not look tired and their team is older than the Suns. The starter with the most energy was P.J Tucker who is one of the oldest players on the team. The team does not care. They have mailed it in. What about when the Suns were shooting 0-21 on 3pts at one point the night before against the Nets? Was that fatigue as well? Newsflash. The Suns beat the Nets because the Nets are terrible. It was embarrassing that they were down by 15 at any point in the game. Same with the Magic. Those two teams suck. The Nets are 25-35 in a horrible Eastern Conference. The Magic are 20-43 in the East. These are two pathetic teams that the Suns barely scratched out wins against.

The Suns were losing by 28 points entering the fourth quarter last night. It took a major rally led by a rookie who has barely played the entire season to make the score look respectable. The Suns were destroyed last night. Coach Hornacek is fishing for anything he can say to detract from the fact that this team is not playing hard for him. The Cavaliers had a layup line the first half last night and the Suns just stood there. It was 100% lack of effort on defense.

Now when it comes to Hornacek, I liked him a lot as a player. However, as a coach, he has not been good. Just because he was a good player and played under Jerry Sloan does not make him good at coaching. I am sure he is an intelligent basketball mind but so is Michael Jordan. Now look at how horrible Jordan is at putting a team together and drafting players. Every year Jordan's teams are awful. They have hovered around the 8th seed the past couple of years because the Eastern Conference is a disgrace compared to the Western Conference. While he is the greatest player of all time, he has failed miserably for many years at creating a competitive team. What does that say about these former players? It says that just because you were successful on the court does not mean you will be successful off the court.

People need to get over their love affair with Hornacek as a player. He is not a good coach. Players are not playing hard for him, he is soft on discipline, and nobody knows what the hell offense he is running. I have never heard of a team running isolation after isolation the entire game. His end of quarter plays are about the worst I have ever seen. He never gives the young guys consistent playing time. Goodwin did not play all that well in the first half in the short time he was in. Okay. Well let's see how he plays in the second half. What? You want to play Green instead? A guy who is most likely gone after this season and has no future on the team? Regardless of the fact that Green has the lowest iq on the team and has been horrendous lately, why do you want the hold back the development of a player that McDonough himself said is a major part of this team's future. Hornacek seems like he does not know what to do.

[carey]

Young by design or default ? Are you assuming this will be the squad next yr... and with such an assumption, they all will be better in the areas they lack ? I do not have that confidence. They are kind of awful right now. Potential does not always evolve into ability.

No, I don't think this is the opening day line-up next year. I was just commenting that people who are saying we aren't young are incorrect. If we played TJ and Archie over Green, Thornton & Marcus we'd be even younger. That's likely why Hornacek plays the older guys, so we can have some semblance of maturity out there. Only, it's backfiring tremendously. Veterans take a while to get in the grove, especially with new teams. I think we'd be better served by playing just Bullock, Archie, TJ and Wright off the bench. Screw everyone else.

[Revived]

"We didn't do a good job of really blasting it up," said Hornacek, whose team ranked second in the NBA with 19.3 fastbreak points per game. "It was more of a half-run, half-jog. We got in late so maybe they were a little worn out from last night's game, an overtime game. Our guards couldn't push it as fast as they did the other day."

This is such a bad excuse. The Suns were tired? Okay I get that you were probably a little bit tired from arriving at like 4 a.m. but this rotation consists of players in their early to mid twenties. The Cavaliers played a huge game the night before too against the Hawks and they did not look tired and their team is older than the Suns. The starter with the most energy was P.J Tucker who is one of the oldest players on the team. The team does not care. They have mailed it in. What about when the Suns were shooting 0-21 on 3pts at one point the night before against the Nets? Was that fatigue as well? Newsflash. The Suns beat the Nets because the Nets are terrible. It was embarrassing that they were down by 15 at any point in the game. Same with the Magic. Those two teams suck. The Nets are 25-35 in a horrible Eastern Conference. The Magic are 20-43 in the East. These are two pathetic teams that the Suns barely scratched out wins against.

The Suns were losing by 28 points entering the fourth quarter last night. It took a major rally led by a rookie who has barely played the entire season to make the score look respectable. The Suns were destroyed last night. Coach Hornacek is fishing for anything he can say to detract from the fact that this team is not playing hard for him. The Cavaliers had a layup line the first half last night and the Suns just stood there. It was 100% lack of effort on defense.

Now when it comes to Hornacek, I liked him a lot as a player. However, as a coach, he has not been good. Just because he was a good player and played under Jerry Sloan does not make him good at coaching. I am sure he is an intelligent basketball mind but so is Michael Jordan. Now look at how horrible Jordan is at putting a team together and drafting players. Every year Jordan's teams are awful. They have hovered around the 8th seed the past couple of years because the Eastern Conference is a disgrace compared to the Western Conference. While he is the greatest player of all time, he has failed miserably for many years at creating a competitive team. What does that say about these former players? It says that just because you were successful on the court does not mean you will be successful off the court.

People need to get over their love affair with Hornacek as a player. He is not a good coach. Players are not playing hard for him, he is soft on discipline, and nobody knows what the hell offense he is running. I have never heard of a team running isolation after isolation the entire game. His end of quarter plays are about the worst I have ever seen. He never gives the young guys consistent playing time. Goodwin did not play all that well in the first half in the short time he was in. Okay. Well let's see how he plays in the second half. What? You want to play Green instead? A guy who is most likely gone after this season and has no future on the team? Regardless of the fact that Green has the lowest iq on the team and has been horrendous lately, why do you want the hold back the development of a player that McDonough himself said is a major part of this team's future. Hornacek seems like he does not know what to do.

Fact that we can only win by trying to run the other team off the floor is what is most frustrating.

[Marz11]

The extent of the Suns offense:

1) Push it

2) Pick and roll

3) Find the mismatch

4) Isolation

[JMac1]

Eric Bledsoe is so damn inconsistant. Whoever was comparing him to westbrook should be banned from the board. There is NO way this dude can lead a team to a championship. Literally the whole weight of this franchise is on Alex Lens shoulders.

It was me tough guy but you need to be clear about the context of what I said. OKC fans wanted Russel gone pre and post NBA finals against the Heat. They thought he was a volume scorer, inefficient and a ball stopper. They wanted KD to get all of his touches and felt trading him away would be addition by subtraction at the time. Westbrook is only 26 still but has been in the league two full years longer than Bledsoe and has never had to play behind a Chris Paul type.

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/i ... -westbrook

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/i ... ic-bledsoe

Bledsoe averages 10pts less per game this season than Westbrook on 10 less shots. He also averages less turnovers per game.

Westbrook back two seasons ago - Same development time as Bledsoe currently was a 23 / 5 /7 player/ BUT - shot 43% FG and 33% 3FG.

Bledsoe - current seasons, 17 / 6 /6. Better rebounder, slightly less assists. He is 6 less pts per game than Westbrook was BUT....He is also taking 7 less shots per game than Westbrook. And also getting to the line 5 times less per game.

Bledsoe is also 46% and 33% from the field. Slightly better than Westbrook was at this point in his career.

The three most athletic PG's in the NBA right now are Westrbook, Waal and Bledsoe. Period.

As Bled get's more and more comfortable being a leader I believe he could absolutely have a similar career trajectory as Westbrook. The kid is only 25 and nowhere near his prime. Our offensive system needs an overhaul right now. We have terrible spacing, terrible pick and roll play and limited outside shooting. All things that are required for someone like Bledsoe to take advantage of space and get to the hoop.


The biggest glaring difference in their games right now to me is jump shooting. Eric has a set shot while Russel get's up and can shoot in traffic. If Bled can learn that (similar to KJ) it will open his game up tremendously.

Good post.

[bwgood77]

The extent of the Suns offense:

1) Push it

2) Pick and roll

3) Find the mismatch

4) Isolation

With this crew, you can't make the offense to complex or complicated or it ends up turning into iso 100% of the time because they can't execute it.

[In Len We Trust]

Isn't Sunsoholic really In Len We Trust. Hopefully the mods ban this loser.

Now you know why I've been saying go back to Twitter and off this board. He's a grade A arsehole.

All because I think Hornacek sucks LOL!

You are just a troll that molds his basketball opinion based on what the public opinion is.

[SunsRback4Good]

What a shame. What a damn shame. Hornacek should be fired for being such an idiot at this point. This guy plays Gerald Green and Marcus Morris consistently over Warren and Goodwin. Green and Marcus have already peaked and they are not good players. Warren and Goodwin are filled with raw talent and smarter than Green or Marcus could ever be in their dreams. I would rather see the young guys out there developing than watch jokes of players like Green or Marcus. Maybe if Hornacek would actually put Warren in before the 4th quarter when the Suns are down by nearly 30 points it might have actually been more competitive. Hornacek has become a disaster of a head coach. I try to give him the benefit of the doubt so many times but his ability to develop young players is atrocious. Suns need to seriously rethink the head coaching position come this offseason.

I just don't get it. What's so special about Green and Marcus?

Something tells me that all of this has something to do with Hornacek's daughter possibly having affairs with some of these players. Would explain why it looks like nobody really listens to him.

Who would start such a vile rumor?

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Sunsoholic/status/571863964784578560[/tweet]

Pretty tasteless tweet.

[saintEscaton]

I'm inactive for a couple of days and I come back to this? Wtf? Might as well stop being a NBA discussion board and become TMZ

[TeamTragic]

I'm inactive for a couple of days and I come back to this? Wtf? Might as well stop being a NBA discussion board and become TMZ

This team is in such shambles