Game 44: The Booker Watch

Post #101 » by **Qwigglez** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:04 am

Booker needs to work on that left hand dribble.

Post #102 » by **bwgood77** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:04 am

Mulhollanddrive wrote:Warren doesn't look as confident out there.

Yeah, he didn't look as confident prior to last game, which may have played a role in not playing many minutes or getting back in. That dunk should help him though.

Post #103 » by **Qwigglez** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:04 am

Lorenzo, our best PG.

AtheJ415 · Post #104 » by **AtheJ415** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:04 am

RunDogGun wrote:
bwgood77 wrote:
AtheJ415 wrote:
Yup. Pretty much. Pop can make stupid players smart, or at least effective and somewhat efficient. Jeff can't.

yup, something that comes with experience as a coach.

Well having two number one picks to help you win a championship early in his coaching career, and multiple players taking less to stay on the team helps greatly. It goes to what we were talking about earlier with too much turnover of roster, GM, and coaches. There hasn't been much consistency. Also factor in we've had a whole slew of me first players, and it really isn't easy for a coach.

And heck, I didn't even get into the whole Holt/Stern friendship, and Donaghy exposing the bias in the reffing.

As far as the other post regarding coaching, I would take bets that it was easier for Phil to win with Jordan and Pippen, then it was for Jeff to win with Goran and Bledsoe/Green.

Also the Morris thing is tough to gauge. Last year, everyone and their mother here was saying we should just trade Marcus. I said over and over that you have to trade them as a pair. So the ones shocked and/or blaming McD for doing exactly what many here said to do, is head scratching. But I'm sure the thought was to trade Markieff once LMA signed with us. But since we missed out on him, Morris was still our best PF choice, and we had him signed for a good price. I'm not sure how McD would know that a professional player would act like a child, even after he and his brother got themselves involved in a felony assault case.

The Knight trade looks bad now, but at the time, I thought they were searching for the complement to Bledsoe to make the dream of the KJ/Hornacek backcourt come to life. But we didn't run them like that this season, and Bledsoe never came close to the KJ assisting.

I liked the Chandler signing, but he just never was fully healthy this season. But with him in the lineup, even with a half ass Morris, we looked good both defensively and on the boards. Once he got injured again, it all fell off. And that was partly due to Len just not being consistent.

Honestly, I still feel that the cancer that is Morris had more affect on this team than many think or care to acknowledge.

No player has ever assisted well in Jeff's system. It's not geared towards that. Bledsoe, IT, Goran, Ish Smith, etc.. Not a single one. And Ish in particular has assisted at a really high rate since leaving here. Jeff may be a good coach, but I think there's no getting around how horrendous he's been this year. He knows the game, but coaching has always been so much more than that. I don't have confidence that Jeff can do any of the non-X's and O's things that a coach must excel at at even a below average level. Markieff may be an unusual situation, but the overall lack of control and discipline, combined with the inability to manage personalities behind the scenes, has always been bad across all 3 years.

The real question is whether that 48 win season was the exception or what Jeff really is. That year, he had no chemistry issues or personalities to manage because almost every player across the board was in the greatest opportunity they had been in at that point in their careers. Goran was the 1st option. Bledsoe had never started before. Green and Tucker were just happy to be in the NBA again. The Morrii were just happy to be playing together, and were both in the biggest roles they had ever been in. I think Jeff's the kind of guy who can succeed when there's no chemistry or ego issues, but that's just so incredibly rare. Literally every team has these issues but they all handle it so much better than Jeff has (even excluding the Morri who are a special case of jackassery).

I don't think we could assemble a title contender in any way that had such a flukeish scenario. Even those same players all had growing egos. Flash forward to last year. Marcus thought he should start. Goran wanted to be traded to a team where he could shoot more even though they were winning at a better rate with IT. Markieff thought himself the Sun's "premiere" player. Point being, that scenario, which was less ideal in terms of talent but flukeishly ideal in terms of Jeff's lack of leadership and inability to get through to players not becoming a factor, was NEVER going to last. The real question now is, is there even a possible scenario where we could get a team that was that ideal for Jeff that his weaknesses aren't a big factor, or so talented that it doesn't even matter. I would say no to both, which is why I want him gone.

You can blame McDonough for not giving Jeff a lineup that he would succeed in coaching, but I don't think that somehow absolves just how bad Jeff has been this year. I think overall he's probably an average coach, but he's been the worst coach in basketball this year. This retrospective degrading of our players to be "not that talented" in an effort to excuse Jeff is somewhat ridiculous to me. Our guys aren't worldbeaters, but even without Bledsoe there's no excuse for getting blown out by the Lakers, Sixers, and Timberwolves. The gap between the worst and best players is smaller than ever. The games should be competitive and blowouts should be rare.

Mulhollanddrive · Post #105 » by **Mulhollanddrive** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:05 am

This is our future out there - Booker, Warren, Len.

Midnight_Suns · Post #106 » by **Midnight_Suns** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:05 am

chandler is the worst contract in the league.

Wow.

Gorilla Warfare · Post #107 » by **Gorilla Warfare** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:05 am

Boban's ears are so big they're allowing me to pick up TNT over-the-air in HD.

Sunsss · Post #108 » by **Sunsss** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:06 am

Our goal should be to score 18 every quarter to get to 70+.

Post #109 » by **ATTL** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:07 am

Alex Len showing why we should have patience with him.
The game really is more watchable without knight in there.

Mulhollanddrive · Post #110 » by **Mulhollanddrive** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:07 am

Just realised only Booker, Warren and Len made a shot that quarter.

Jdiddy701 · Post #111 » by **Jdiddy701** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:08 am

Weems and Jefferson are in.. This is where it gets really ugly.

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Mulhollanddrive · Post #112 » by **Mulhollanddrive** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:08 am

Remember when Leuer and Teletovic were discussed here as our PFs for the next 5 years, like 3 weeks ago.

oddity · Post #113 » by **oddity** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:10 am

I would watch the game more closely but Manu's glistening bald spot is really distracting me...

Post #114 » by **ATTL** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:12 am

Hey, welcome back cory

Gorilla Warfare · Post #115 » by **Gorilla Warfare** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:12 am

Jefferson is our best Center.

Jdiddy701 · Post #116 » by **Jdiddy701** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:13 am

Weems shot ... Just don't shoot.

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Sunsss · Post #117 » by **Sunsss** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:14 am

Our transition D is just...

Diaw just went coast to coast.

Gorilla Warfare · Post #118 » by **Gorilla Warfare** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:14 am

Boris Diaw is the best former Sun on the floor right now.

Midnight_Suns · Post #119 » by **Midnight_Suns** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:15 am

It's only one game, but does Jeff make any significant rotation or PT changes if they pull off the upset tonight?

Mulhollanddrive · Post #120 » by **Mulhollanddrive** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:15 am

Why do TNT even bother interviewing Popovich.