dremill24 wrote:I think the point isn't so much to copy their exact blueprint as it is to find front court players with defensive versatility, which if you don't think is important then you're just lost.
Getting versatile front court players that can defend as the article suggests is what every team in basketball tries to do. That is nothing new and certainly not a blueprint. This is what I have a problem with:
"Like Phoenix did with Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight, the Blazers built their identity around two attacking point guards in Damian Lillard and Most Improved Player C.J. McCollum."
"Yes, Portland provided proof the Suns’ model isn’t a failed experiment. There was also proof two ball-dominant point guards can play alongside — and sometimes at the same time as — a silky-smooth gunner like Allen Crabbe or, for Phoenix, Devin Booker. Like the Blazers, the Suns could be able to roll with three guards in stints, and it may not take Suns coach Earl Watson to draw from Stotts’ genius to make it happen."
Later on the author says:
"The Suns would be keen to copy the blueprint of what exactly to piece around a guard-oriented system that should remain in place no matter how Watson handles a complex group that will include some combination of Bledsoe, Knight, Booker, Archie Goodwin and perhaps Bogdan Bogdanovic."
Uhh did the Blazers win the title? No. Did they win 60+ games? No. Did they even win more games than the Dragic/Bledsoe Suns team? No. The Suns have proven for three straight years it is a failed experiment. The Blazers did nothing more than the 2013-14 Suns team. You want to follow the blueprint of a 44 win team? This is insane.
This writer says the two-point guard system should remain place with the slew of mediocre guards the Suns have. He claims it is successful because of what the Blazers just did. What does he consider success? Beating a injury-riddled Clippers team? Winning one game out of five versus the Warriors when Curry misses the first four games? It is a joke.
He also downplays what Booker is to the Suns and calls him a silky-smooth gunner like Allen Crabbe. Booker to the Suns is what Lillard is the Blazers. Booker is not a secondary option, stand at the three point line all game long player. He is a run the offense through him player.
I would much rather follow the blueprint of the Warriors. That team is a guard-dominated offense but guess what, they have a defined point guard and defined shooting guard that are 6'3" and 6'7". They do not have two ball-dominating point guards that are both about the same height. In addition, they do not have just some random versatile defending big guys. They have a top three power forward in the league in Draymond Green and arguably the best defensive center in the league in Bogut. That is a hell of a lot more than guys like Plumlee and Davis.
This makes me wonder what has happened to fans expectations of the Suns. You seriously want the Suns to be like the current Blazers? What? You want the benchmark to be 44 wins and lose in the first or second round? Not me. I want a championship. And if the Suns build a team like this article suggests, that will be their team. 40 something wins and an early playoff exit. Count me out of wanting a blueprint like that.
I cannot believe someone wrote an article that says hey, let's follow the blueprint of a loser! I guarantee you that the Blazers would not even follow what this article says. On the first moment of free agency, the Blazers will probably be on the phone with Whiteside or Horford and offer them max contracts because they know it is impossible to win a title the way this article says to build a team.
