What do we WANT from this year?

[nashrambler13]

I have no idea how we're going to do compared to other teams around the league right now. Sometimes I look at a team like Portland and I feel like they're not better than us if our "whole team plays like it COULD" (yeah right) and other days I remember how injury prone half of our team is (Bled, Len, TJ, BK, Tyson, apparently PJ now??) and I just get ready for a season full of losses. It should be exciting though, we definitely have the talent to at the very least be fun!

And man y'all, I'm just really happy no one chose option one, we would've had issues. Good stuff though, I look forward to going all in with this team. Hopefully TOO much vet play doesn't ruin it for all of us!

[Walt_Uoob]

This should be a really interesting season for us. From Watson's stint last year and comments this summer, I think he'll insist on a deep rotation that focuses on teamwork/bonding first, development second, wins third. And that's exactly what I want.

For example, I imagine he'll carve out minutes for the young guys (not all of them every game) in some sort of pre-determined rotation, and will stick to that rotation even in close games, rather than playing our injury-prone vets 40+ minutes in a game just to get a regular season win. Though as a players' coach I could see some riding of the hot hand, etc. In other words, I think we'll be playing to win, but not really game-planning to win.

Another thing we should remember about Watson is that for all his talk about love and family, he seems totally willing to bend his system to the desires of the management. If we're trying to trade someone, he'll run the whole offense through that player, praise him to the media, etc. And I'm more than fine with that as long as the whole Watson system doesn't start to seem like a blatant sham. It worked well to showcase Markieff for a bit before trading him, and I wouldn't be surprised if playing Len so much at PF was a suggestion from above to develop some of Len's lesser skills while also subtly tanking. Again, I'm down with all of that, as long as it doesn't get to feeling too duplicitous.

So I think and hope it goes something like this: we'll start out with a pretty deep but veteran-heavy rotation, then probably showcase some of those vets even more heavily leading up to the trade deadline, then make a trade or two and subtly tank the rest of the year. And going in with those expectations, it'll be a fun season to watch!

[MrMiyagi]

I have no idea how we're going to do compared to other teams around the league right now. Sometimes I look at a team like Portland and I feel like they're not better than us if our "whole team plays like it COULD" (yeah right) and other days I remember how injury prone half of our team is (Bled, Len, TJ, BK, Tyson, apparently PJ now??) and I just get ready for a season full of losses. It should be exciting though, we definitely have the talent to at the very least be fun!

And man y'all, I'm just really happy no one chose option one, we would've had issues. Good stuff though, I look forward to going all in with this team. Hopefully TOO much vet play doesn't ruin it for all of us!

I don't think TJ is injury prone, he just got injured last season. Knight and Len miss games here and there, but not overly worrisome (each have had a surgery, but I don't think it's a trend). Bledsoe is really the glass cannon here.

[WeekapaugGroove]

Id love to see chandler and knight play well early in the season to rehab their trade value then get moved before the deadline.

Overall i just want to see the young guys develop. If that leads to wins cool if not and they pick top 5 next year im cool with that too.

[simon24]

Id love to see chandler and knight play well early in the season to rehab their trade value then get moved before the deadline.

Overall i just want to see the young guys develop. If that leads to wins cool if not and they pick top 5 next year im cool with that too.

Who would want Chandler?

[WeekapaugGroove]

Id love to see chandler and knight play well early in the season to rehab their trade value then get moved before the deadline.

Overall i just want to see the young guys develop. If that leads to wins cool if not and they pick top 5 next year im cool with that too.

Who would want Chandler?

Thats a very good question. I guess Cleveland could have some interest if they feel they need another rim protector. But i would assume the cavs would have to send shumps crap contract back to make it work.

Best case would be chandler playing well and injuries hitting some contenders bigs and then hoping that contender has an expiring to send back.

[simon24]

Id love to see chandler and knight play well early in the season to rehab their trade value then get moved before the deadline.

Overall i just want to see the young guys develop. If that leads to wins cool if not and they pick top 5 next year im cool with that too.

Who would want Chandler?

Thats a very good question. I guess Cleveland could have some interest if they feel they need another rim protector. But i would assume the cavs would have to send shumps crap contract back to make it work.

Best case would be chandler playing well and injuries hitting some contenders bigs and then hoping that contender has an expiring to send back.

I think Tristan should be fine.

Only teams I could think of is BOS (come off the bench/start in certain matchups to give them a legit rebounder) and CHA (upgrade at C, may keep them in the playoff hunt).

[bwgood77]

The vast majority voted 13/14/15 with young guys playing, so it will be interesting to see the vibe of the forum if we play the young guys a lot and get blown out. The other night in a PRESEASON game some were overreacting to being down so much.

[Qwigglez]

The poll needs different answers. I want us to play the young guys but I think we could still possibly make the playoffs with them being a regular part of the rotation. IDK, best of both worlds for me.

[NTB]

The vast majority voted 13/14/15 with young guys playing, so it will be interesting to see the vibe of the forum if we play the young guys a lot and get blown out. The other night in a PRESEASON game some were overreacting to being down so much.

This.

[bwgood77]

The poll needs different answers. I want us to play the young guys but I think we could still possibly make the playoffs with them being a regular part of the rotation. IDK, best of both worlds for me.

I definitely would have chose the option of "Start Bledsoe, Booker, Warren, Bender and Chriss with Ulis, Dudley, Chandler, Barbosa and Len getting spot minutes and win the championship" if that were an option. No doubt.

[nashrambler13]

The vast majority voted 13/14/15 with young guys playing, so it will be interesting to see the vibe of the forum if we play the young guys a lot and get blown out. The other night in a PRESEASON game some were overreacting to being down so much.

It would almost be interesting to do it AGAIN after preseason, but I think preseason would affect the results more than it "should". I've enjoyed the preseason a ton, but I'd say we are probably overrating the how good we are based on it, which leads to disappointment in game threads. We've also experienced some pretty high highs (Devin confirming what we all thought, Chriss in general) and, to be frank, some pretty low lows (The first quarter of the Jazz game).

We'll see what happens. I think if we are bad (like we were in that first quarter of the Jazz game, which may have been the most miserable basketball I have ever watched), people will realize it quickly. Preseason is important to see how different players mesh, and how players have improved (in terms of nuance), but I don't think it gives a very clear indication on how good a team like us can play when the other team actually plays it's starters the whole game. From what I've seen, I'm not sure we would have won a game if every team had played it's actual rotation; I am still (sadly) preparing for a good amount of losses.

That being said, had I known before this poll that Booker was starting and that Len would be an embarrassment, I probably would have voted for the 10/11/12 option. I agree that it's time to start at least putting up some fight. However, I still want to keep giving Dragan minutes, cause I think he will improve a ton faster if he keeps getting consistent (and low) minutes. I guess preseason has changed my opinion slightly: I think we definitely give Knight a chance at the 6th man role, but I want to trade Tucker. I feel like he and Dudley are redundant in a lot of their positives.

Bledsoe / Ulis
Booker / Knight
TJ / Dragan
Dudley / Chriss
Tyson / Len

Although at some point, I'd like for Chriss to start so we can move Dragan to PF (I hate the "Dragan at SF" thing, but if that's the only way for him to get minutes, fine.)

Bledsoe / Ulis
Booker / Knight
TJ / Dudley
Chriss / Dragan
Tyson / Len

[jcsunsfan]

Id love to see chandler and knight play well early in the season to rehab their trade value then get moved before the deadline.

Overall i just want to see the young guys develop. If that leads to wins cool if not and they pick top 5 next year im cool with that too.

If they are going to be traded, I hope it will be earlier rather than later. I don't want to spend that much of the season waiting for trades to happen. Last season was excruciating.


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[bwgood77]

We really need to start playing Bender more and possibly a dose of Derrick Jones Jr in garbage time, especially if we are down in games.

I am just not sure if Tucker is playing so many minutes now that he's healthy and gotten the rust off for trade value purposes or not.

[mrcalzone]

Prop 205 to pass. A lot of buckets from Booker, I really like that kid, I wish the Knicks could have him (I'm a Knicks fan but living in AZ atm). Still catch a lot of Suns games when the Knicks aren't playing though, just a basketball fan altogether so I guess I am somewhat knowledgeable on the Suns.

[Damkac]

Sadly there isn't "13/14/15 (with lots of veteran play)" option on the poll because that's what happening so far.

[Qwigglez]

Sadly there isn't "13/14/15 (with lots of veteran play)" option on the poll because that's what happening so far.

We aren't going to be 13/14/15 even with veteran play
Our young guys will get some burn don't worry. Eventually the older heads will have magical injuries.

[bwgood77]

The thing is, we can't be short sighted. I'll take a close loss, or even a loss in general with the young guys getting good minutes to learn what it takes against premier defenders in the league, and how hard they need to work. We don't have good enough defenders for them to see this in practice.

I'll take a loss today where we are extremely likely going nowhere this season with those guys learning on the court in real game minutes over Barbosa and even Dudley and Tucker getting a ton of minutes to get a win. Especially Knight too, but I have a feeling he is going to get a good amount of minutes regardless.

I really don't mind Dudley and Tucker getting minutes because they set good examples of leaving it all on the floor and just knowing how to play through experience, but Barbosa seems mostly washed out...and at many times Tucker as well, but perhaps most of that so far is because of Tucker being injured. I'd ultimately rather trade Tucker at some point this season after setting that example

But one key thing is that we were playing a good team on the road without a key piece in Chandler and it came down to the end anyway.

I think the being a great team in the future is FAR more important than trying to be a pretty good team now. Even Booker and Warren will work even harder to get there.

And, another thing about losing with the young guys over pulling out potentially more wins with the vets (though I'm not sure that will happen anyway) is that we will get another high pick and I think next year we can begin to take that first major step.