Scrimmage 2: Phoenix Suns @ Boston Celtics, Sunday 07/26/20, 10:30 AM PT

[bwgood77]

With Jones being at best a meh GM and Monty not being the calibre of Head Coach to get the absolute max out of this group, I'm not too confident with the direction of this team. We really need to somehow catch lightning in a bottle for this to become something legit. Relying purely on the talent of Booker, Ayton and hoping support pieces like Cam and Bridges to truly blossom is just not going to get it done at that next level. It's tough when you look at the rest of the roster after guys like Bridges; it's Oubre (who knows where he'll be at after next season or this offseason), same with Frank, Rubio (turning 30 in a few months), Baynes/Saric are FA's after this season and a handful of other guys who are on the fringes of an NBA team.

It's a tough pill to swallow when we have to look at the Knicks hiring Thibs as a way to find positives out of all this.

Yeah, it's amazing you can rebuild for like 7 years and have our depth chart. Then you see a team like Memphis having like 2 of the top 3 players in the rookie of the year race or Denver after drafting Jokic in the second, getting Porter middle of the first and Bol Bol mid 2nd....this is after already having so much depth they have to just get rid of or let go legit level rotation players.

It’s still so incredibly stupid to think that James Jones thought having Dario Saric and Cam Johnson was better than getting Clarke and securing the SG, PF, SF (Bridges) and C positions for years to come. All that would’ve been left would’ve been to find a future PG eventually.

Ugh it still pisses me off when I think about last year’s draft. And that’s why I still don’t think James Jones is the right guy to be making decisions.

At least Cam looks like he will be able to be a nice rotation player who can hit 3s and spread the floor...barely any of our team can break about 36% from the arc regularly. But yeah, as much as people liked Clarke, he ended up better than most would have expected, with people worried about his shot and his length potentially impacting his effectiveness.

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

Yeah, it's amazing you can rebuild for like 7 years and have our depth chart. Then you see a team like Memphis having like 2 of the top 3 players in the rookie of the year race or Denver after drafting Jokic in the second, getting Porter middle of the first and Bol Bol mid 2nd....this is after already having so much depth they have to just get rid of or let go legit level rotation players.

It’s still so incredibly stupid to think that James Jones thought having Dario Saric and Cam Johnson was better than getting Clarke and securing the SG, PF, SF (Bridges) and C positions for years to come. All that would’ve been left would’ve been to find a future PG eventually.

Ugh it still pisses me off when I think about last year’s draft. And that’s why I still don’t think James Jones is the right guy to be making decisions.

At least Cam looks like he will be able to be a nice rotation player who can hit 3s and spread the floor...barely any of our team can break about 36% from the arc regularly. But yeah, as much as people liked Clarke, he ended up better than most would have expected, with people worried about his shot and his length potentially impacting his effectiveness.

Brandon Clarke was a local kid, too. Oh, well. I still think Jones & Co. deserve credit for more or less nailing an out-of-nowhere selection. I love Cam. I'm beginning to think he's already stolen Oubre's job.

[lilfishi22]

Yeah, it's amazing you can rebuild for like 7 years and have our depth chart. Then you see a team like Memphis having like 2 of the top 3 players in the rookie of the year race or Denver after drafting Jokic in the second, getting Porter middle of the first and Bol Bol mid 2nd....this is after already having so much depth they have to just get rid of or let go legit level rotation players.

I dont disagree about roster/asset mismanagement. However I think Denver is a tough comparison since they were already a stacked team going into the Porter and Bol Bol draft so had the luxury of taking massive risks on those guys and letting them sit out. They also still might go down with an injury tomorrow and be a bad pick - you never know.

As for Memphis, fair enough, but I think we got a better player in the Ayton/JJJ draft and if we picked at #2 and not #6 last year we would have drafted Ja as well.

I agree...but we got Ayton because we had the #1 pick. Many would argue it wasn't the right pick anyway at #1, but he should still be a top player in the draft so that's fine. It's just that we never seem to hit on any picks in the 2nd round anymore...or late first like we did with Dragic and Barbosa....and we busted 3 top 8 picks in two years (trading Bogdan and 2 1sts for one of those 3 picks)...overall it's just frustrating. Heck, if we just had Bogdan, ignoring all else with those picks, that would make a big difference. Of course if we had Fox or Isaac we'd be in a lot better position too.

But overall, thank God for the Ayton/Bridges draft. If we messed that one up big time and had a bust, or ended up with Bagley or Bamba, it could be a real disaster.

We didn't ace the 2020 draft but at least we didn't double down on two busts like we did in 2016. The 2016 and 2017 draft really put a massive dent in our roster today. We should have one, if we're lucky 2 guys who are starters now or at least, 2 rotation players but we hit on none of them when we had very high picks and those are franchise changing picks for the wrong reasons.

I really wasn't a fan of Jones when we promoted him from interim to full GM. I didn't think he had the experience and so far, he hasn't really made any moves that gives me hope that I'm going to be proven wrong. I think Cam is going to have a fine career, probably not much more than a decent rotation guy but Jones have made some poor decisions so far. We need to do better....I don't know how but we need to do better.

[Crives]

I dont disagree about roster/asset mismanagement. However I think Denver is a tough comparison since they were already a stacked team going into the Porter and Bol Bol draft so had the luxury of taking massive risks on those guys and letting them sit out. They also still might go down with an injury tomorrow and be a bad pick - you never know.

As for Memphis, fair enough, but I think we got a better player in the Ayton/JJJ draft and if we picked at #2 and not #6 last year we would have drafted Ja as well.

I agree...but we got Ayton because we had the #1 pick. Many would argue it wasn't the right pick anyway at #1, but he should still be a top player in the draft so that's fine. It's just that we never seem to hit on any picks in the 2nd round anymore...or late first like we did with Dragic and Barbosa....and we busted 3 top 8 picks in two years (trading Bogdan and 2 1sts for one of those 3 picks)...overall it's just frustrating. Heck, if we just had Bogdan, ignoring all else with those picks, that would make a big difference. Of course if we had Fox or Isaac we'd be in a lot better position too.

But overall, thank God for the Ayton/Bridges draft. If we messed that one up big time and had a bust, or ended up with Bagley or Bamba, it could be a real disaster.

We didn't ace the 2020 draft but at least we didn't double down on two busts like we did in 2016. The 2016 and 2017 draft really put a massive dent in our roster today. We should have one, if we're lucky 2 guys who are starters now or at least, 2 rotation players but we hit on none of them when we had very high picks and those are franchise changing picks for the wrong reasons.

I really wasn't a fan of Jones when we promoted him from interim to full GM. I didn't think he had the experience and so far, he hasn't really made any moves that gives me hope that I'm going to be proven wrong. I think Cam is going to have a fine career, probably not much more than a decent rotation guy but Jones have made some poor decisions so far. We need to do better....I don't know how but we need to do better.

I think you are really underselling what Jones has done for the culture. Getting Monty was a massive win.

[lilfishi22]

I agree...but we got Ayton because we had the #1 pick. Many would argue it wasn't the right pick anyway at #1, but he should still be a top player in the draft so that's fine. It's just that we never seem to hit on any picks in the 2nd round anymore...or late first like we did with Dragic and Barbosa....and we busted 3 top 8 picks in two years (trading Bogdan and 2 1sts for one of those 3 picks)...overall it's just frustrating. Heck, if we just had Bogdan, ignoring all else with those picks, that would make a big difference. Of course if we had Fox or Isaac we'd be in a lot better position too.

But overall, thank God for the Ayton/Bridges draft. If we messed that one up big time and had a bust, or ended up with Bagley or Bamba, it could be a real disaster.

We didn't ace the 2020 draft but at least we didn't double down on two busts like we did in 2016. The 2016 and 2017 draft really put a massive dent in our roster today. We should have one, if we're lucky 2 guys who are starters now or at least, 2 rotation players but we hit on none of them when we had very high picks and those are franchise changing picks for the wrong reasons.

I really wasn't a fan of Jones when we promoted him from interim to full GM. I didn't think he had the experience and so far, he hasn't really made any moves that gives me hope that I'm going to be proven wrong. I think Cam is going to have a fine career, probably not much more than a decent rotation guy but Jones have made some poor decisions so far. We need to do better....I don't know how but we need to do better.

I think you are really underselling what Jones has done for the culture. Getting Monty was a massive win.

Maybe I have. Getting Monty is a good win, I give Jones credit for being able to convince Monty to join us over a more potentially lucrative role with LA. But OK, we have Monty now. What caliber a coach is he really? I like that players seem to like him and that's a positive but what about when it comes to actual coaching? Is he the type of guy to get the max out of his players? Is he the type of x's and o's guy that can get the team play better than they should be able to?

[bwgood77]

We didn't ace the 2020 draft but at least we didn't double down on two busts like we did in 2016. The 2016 and 2017 draft really put a massive dent in our roster today. We should have one, if we're lucky 2 guys who are starters now or at least, 2 rotation players but we hit on none of them when we had very high picks and those are franchise changing picks for the wrong reasons.

I really wasn't a fan of Jones when we promoted him from interim to full GM. I didn't think he had the experience and so far, he hasn't really made any moves that gives me hope that I'm going to be proven wrong. I think Cam is going to have a fine career, probably not much more than a decent rotation guy but Jones have made some poor decisions so far. We need to do better....I don't know how but we need to do better.

I think you are really underselling what Jones has done for the culture. Getting Monty was a massive win.

Maybe I have. Getting Monty is a good win, I give Jones credit for being able to convince Monty to join us over a more potentially lucrative role with LA. But OK, we have Monty now. What caliber a coach is he really? I like that players seem to like him and that's a positive but what about when it comes to actual coaching? Is he the type of guy to get the max out of his players? Is he the type of x's and o's guy that can get the team play better than they should be able to?

He seems like a pretty solid coach, when it comes to commanding respect and player development. It's tough to know how good he will be overall...probably not a top tier coach, and I'm not sure how innovative he is, or how he is with X's and O's but I like the .5 concept....I like the defensive development of Ayton and Bridges and how he seems to want guys to hustle on that side and demand it...even Booker has improved some defensively....shows some effort on that side sometimes.

I think one drawback so far might be being too connected to players he has coached in the past, and impacting decisions because of it...like with Saric and Payne. But it's nice that players in the league like him and respect him and it seems want to play for him..could help us in free agency.

[lilfishi22]

I think you are really underselling what Jones has done for the culture. Getting Monty was a massive win.

Maybe I have. Getting Monty is a good win, I give Jones credit for being able to convince Monty to join us over a more potentially lucrative role with LA. But OK, we have Monty now. What caliber a coach is he really? I like that players seem to like him and that's a positive but what about when it comes to actual coaching? Is he the type of guy to get the max out of his players? Is he the type of x's and o's guy that can get the team play better than they should be able to?

He seems like a pretty solid coach, when it comes to commanding respect and player development. It's tough to know how good he will be overall...probably not a top tier coach, and I'm not sure how innovative he is, or how he is with X's and O's but I like the .5 concept....I like the defensive development of Ayton and Bridges and how he seems to want guys to hustle on that side and demand it...even Booker has improved some defensively....shows some effort on that side sometimes.

I think one drawback so far might be being too connected to players he has coached in the past, and impacting decisions because of it...like with Saric and Payne. But it's nice that players in the league like him and respect him and it seems want to play for him..could help us in free agency.

not saying he's a dud coach because I think he's done some good things. I'm just not sure if he's the kind of guy that can get us to another level and if he's on board for the next 5 years (or however long his contract is) then what does that mean for the team?

I agree that being a player's coach has its pros and cons. Pros is that players like and respect him and are more less likely to tune out if he's able to get through to them. But as you mentioned, con is that he can get a little too close to players and unable to do what's best for the team. We'll see how it plays out but as I said, I think he's a bit run of the mill, maybe a bit more solid than that but I feel like at this juncture, with Booker maxed out and Ayton/Bridges up for extension end of next season, this *is* going to be team/coach for the foreseeable future and I'm not that confident.