Game 1: Dallas Mavericks @ Phoenix Suns Wednesday @ 7:00 pm

[rsavaj]

What REALLY winds me up about Horny is that stupd Ryan Gosling-esque smirk he has on his face ALL GAME LONG. The one where you can't tell if he's happy, angry or doesn't even know what day it is. The only time he changes his annoying face is when we get a foul called against up and he has a "you can't be serious" laugh.

Plus who are his two sidekicks? The bald guy and the small guy?? They are the same as last season so PLEASE tell me one of them isn't a defensive coach becasuse if so he should've been LONG gone after the garbage D they played last season!!!

Small guy is Longbardi, Thib's defensive assistant in Chicago

[SunZel]

Terrible, terrible game.
Alex Len looks even more robotic than ever.

I'm such a genius. I would have taken cj mccollum with the 5th pick that year. Never been sold on Len because he has no feel for the game. Kristaps looks better than him already.

[handsome salary]

I have no idea why some are going with the 'it's just one game, relax". They do not deserve a mulligan for getting blown out by a mediocre team at their home opener.

Is this a team that made the playoffs last year? Nope.
Is this a team with really promising rookies trying to figure out the NBA game? Nope.
Is this a team with new head coach and winning system? Nope.
Do the Suns have one player who can take over a game? Nope.
Do the Suns have that one player other teams need to stop or slow down? Nope.

They are what they are. Blah.

[Matt1979]

What REALLY winds me up about Horny is that stupd Ryan Gosling-esque smirk he has on his face ALL GAME LONG. The one where you can't tell if he's happy, angry or doesn't even know what day it is. The only time he changes his annoying face is when we get a foul called against up and he has a "you can't be serious" laugh.

Plus who are his two sidekicks? The bald guy and the small guy?? They are the same as last season so PLEASE tell me one of them isn't a defensive coach becasuse if so he should've been LONG gone after the garbage D they played last season!!!

Small guy is Longbardi, Thib's defensive assistant in Chicago

And he couldn't learn ANYTHING from Thib?

Would love Thib as our coach.

[phnart]

How do you show up so flat for a first game? Last night was thoroughly disgusting. If they keep it up, it will be the only game this year I watch from start to finish. I won't repeat what a lot of you have already said...Booker and Leuer were sort of bright lights for me. Hornacek, Bledsoe, Tucker, Morris, Price, Chandler, Len, and the refs were just painful.

If I had to bet my own hard earned cash right now, I would put money on 27 wins.

[Saberestar]

Horrible game. It was a bad game since the beginning, even when we were up for a few minutes.

Knight has no vision and he doesn't even know how to pass the ball. It is amazing how many bad passes he tries in a single game.
And then you have to watch his terrible shot selection...in preseason and yesterday his shot selection has been atrocious. In my opinion Hornacek needs to put him on the bench after some ugly shots because he destroys our offense with that.
He put empty stats.

What can a say about Markieff? He is really weak mentally, REALLY WEAK. Wesley Matthews bothered him in the first minute of the game with his phisical defense and only with that he was out of the game. He is a good basketball player but he doesn't know how to play the mental side of the game. It is frustrating.

Bledsoe played bad, but his passion and intensity at least is there.

Chandler and Tucker weren't even a factor yesterday, we need some offense from them because we are not that talented offensively.

Bring us the Blazers. ....GO SUNS!

[chaplin1]

What is preseason for, if not to determine lineups. Why in the world would you play 13 players on opening night AT HOME? Just terrible coaching, even with foul trouble.

Funny enough, IMO the best players in the first half were Brandon Knight and Jon Leuer and Leuer kept getting benched in favor of Teletovic, who can't seem to be able to shoot.

[kennydorglas]

Terrible, terrible game.
Alex Len looks even more robotic than ever.

I'm such a genius. I would have taken cj mccollum with the 5th pick that year. Never been sold on Len because he has no feel for the game. Kristaps looks better than him already.

This says a lot about Len because KP is another stiff center w/ a poor feel for the game.
McCollum would be a super high draft pick if he didnt injured his leg... he was destroying everyone, pretty much like Lillard did.
It's funny to see them playing together now.

[KLEON]

I need someone to answer this serious question. Do the Suns have any set plays at all? I don't think I can watch another season with Bledsoe and Knight dribbling the hell out of the ball.

[bwgood77]

The Mavs have arguably the least talented roster in the NBA (esp without Parsons) and for the Suns to get spanked by them in Phoenix in the home opener is pretty telling.

Rick Carslie is probably the 2nd best coach in the NBA and imo today proved what he can do even when he has complete crap and Dirk to work with.

Though Wesley, Deron and even Felton have been good players and are all vets and they all were on fire tonight....not to say that wasn't partially on our defense, but those guys have confidence...with vets I certainly wouldn't say they are the least talented...we all just though those three guys were washed up, but like you said, Carlisle is a great coach, so he seemed to get those guys going. We all know our team is a work in process, but of course that game was incredibly ugly, so we will see where we go from here.

Wesley is good but he's not even recovered by ACL injury and is said to be on limited minutes.

Felton is garbage. There's just no other way to say it. I think him and Perkins could perhaps be maybe the two worst players in the league.

Deron has been garbage even though he was good a long time ago. I doubt he has another night like this against better defenses.

And Zaza Pachulia...LOL

Just no excuses for us to get blown out like this after all the "playoffs or bust" the Suns players were talking about before the game.

Wesley may not be fully recovered from ACL but that doesn't mean he can't sink shots among the best of them. Deron is a vet with talent...he's on the downside, but as you said, Carlisle is a great coach. Felton came back this year and played very well in the preseason. I actually drafted him in fantasy (though I did drop him and pick up someone else after further thought).

But you are going to have off shooting nights (happens to even the best teams), and all teams will have nights they get hot (happens to even the worst teams). I'm not feeling too good about the team right now, but I'm not going to make too big of a judgement based on one game. 3-5 games like this in a row...yes.

Knight maybe should just be a backup scoring pg with an occasional pass. He cannot have turnovers like that, but he was one of our best shooters last night.

[letsgosuns]

I need someone to answer this serious question. Do the Suns have any set plays at all? I don't think I can watch another season with Bledsoe and Knight dribbling the hell out of the ball.

I was thinking the exact same thing last night. I have no idea what the Suns are doing. Knight and Bledsoe are completely out of control. The entire offense appears to be isolation plays. In addition, this team is awful in transition. They almost never get easy buckets.

Here is a video of one of the last games ever for the seven seconds or less offense in 2008 when Marion was still on the team: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0kkqt0uvuM

Steve Nash had 15 points and 20 assists. The Suns score almost at will in transition every time. They run the same plays over and over again in half court sets. They have so many open shots. Their shooters hit open shots. It is virtually impossible for this current Suns team to play this way because of lack of basketball intelligence and overall skill. Bledsoe and Knight are terrible shooters and passers. Oh yeah, does anybody see a dual point guard lineup in that video? No. You have one point guard in charge of making the team better. Bledsoe and Knight? Those guys could not make players around them better even if they spent the next 10 years studying Nash.

[bwgood77]

I need someone to answer this serious question. Do the Suns have any set plays at all? I don't think I can watch another season with Bledsoe and Knight dribbling the hell out of the ball.

I was thinking the exact same thing last night. I have no idea what the Suns are doing. Knight and Bledsoe are completely out of control. The entire offense appears to be isolation plays. In addition, this team is awful in transition. They almost never get easy buckets.

Here is a video of one of the last games ever for the seven seconds or less offense in 2008 when Marion was still on the team: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0kkqt0uvuM

Steve Nash had 15 points and 20 assists. The Suns score almost at will in transition every time. They run the same plays over and over again in half court sets. They have so many open shots. Their shooters hit open shots. It is virtually impossible for this current Suns team to play this way because of lack of basketball intelligence and overall skill. Bledsoe and Knight are terrible shooters and passers. Oh yeah, does anybody see a dual point guard lineup in that video? No. You have one point guard in charge of making the team better. Bledsoe and Knight? Those guys could not make players around them better even if they spent the next 10 years studying Nash.

I agree we had much better players in 2008.

[bigfoot]

Fortunately our top players are signed for the next 4-5 years

Bledsoe thru 2019 at $13-15M per year
Knight thru 2020 at $13M-15M per year
Chandler thru 2019 at $13M per year
Morris thru 2019 at $8M per year

[Matt1979]

Fingers crossed last night dealt the players and management a severe blow to their ego's and they'll all get their heads in the game and we can start the season over tomorrow night.

[batsmasher]

One thing which actually annoyed me quite a bit is how little Weems played.

Oh and how immensely terrible Mirza is defensively (surprisingly one of the only things which carried over from preseason).

Other than that, everything has been covered. You wouldn't want anyone other than Chandler in the locker room after that game to set everything straight. We desperately need him to instill some mental toughness in this team. We looked like the same children that lost their cool last year. I'm starting to wonder if Horny has it in him to be the bad guy.

[Saberestar]

Yes, Teletovic needs to improve his conditioning a lot. He can not defend a chair out there. Leuer is right now way better than him and he deserves more playing time.

[JMac1]

Fire sale let's go!!
Nets trade: JJ/1st for Kieff/Knight
Heat trade: Deng/Anderson for Chandler/Tucker

New starting lineup: Bledsoe/Booker/Warren/Leur/Len
Soooo much more refreshing.

Other teams to consider would be Wizards (Nene for Kieff), Pistons (Jennings for Kieff LOL!). Maybe the Pacers would entertain this kinda deal of GHill/Budinger/JHill/Turner for Kieff/Knight.

definitely down for that!

[denial]

Booker is a future star. Ever since I heard him on the radio after he got drafted I have liked him. When imsaw him play in summer league I knew he was a steal. I think he will make more of an impact than any of our young guys. Great draft.

This iso-waste the clock-and-chuck crap has got to go. Last season you all told me we just needed a training camp together to get some set offense. so? This is garbage offense. And the defense didnt exist in the third quarter they were just toying with us.

Season opener
Home game
Blowout

I'm sorry but I'm officially on team fire hornaceck

[Marz11]

I need someone to answer this serious question. Do the Suns have any set plays at all? I don't think I can watch another season with Bledsoe and Knight dribbling the hell out of the ball.

I was thinking the exact same thing last night. I have no idea what the Suns are doing. Knight and Bledsoe are completely out of control. The entire offense appears to be isolation plays. In addition, this team is awful in transition. They almost never get easy buckets.

Here is a video of one of the last games ever for the seven seconds or less offense in 2008 when Marion was still on the team: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0kkqt0uvuM

Steve Nash had 15 points and 20 assists. The Suns score almost at will in transition every time. They run the same plays over and over again in half court sets. They have so many open shots. Their shooters hit open shots. It is virtually impossible for this current Suns team to play this way because of lack of basketball intelligence and overall skill. Bledsoe and Knight are terrible shooters and passers. Oh yeah, does anybody see a dual point guard lineup in that video? No. You have one point guard in charge of making the team better. Bledsoe and Knight? Those guys could not make players around them better even if they spent the next 10 years studying Nash.

You need chemistry to play like this. Look at the timing of player movement and passes and willingness to help each other.

This team has no chemistry at all. Something is seriously wrong, despite FO saying they have addressed it.

FO have done well to keep it from getting out, but the way that team played with no accountability to each other ort their coach says a lot in itself.

[MrMiyagi]

ONE GAME, GUYS. ONE!