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Who is the second most important piece of our core?

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Second most important player in our young core

Ayton
45
61%
Bridges
29
39%
 
Total votes: 74

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Re: Who is the second most important piece of our core? 

Post#121 » by bwgood77 » Fri Mar 5, 2021 8:18 pm

Revived wrote:
TouchPassDario wrote:
Revived wrote:This. I don’t think people understand that big lofers are becoming obsolete in the NBA.

Joel Embiid just got send by a Boston Celtics team which has Daniel Theis and Enes Kanter as its best big men. The man that everyone refers to as the best center in the NBA, Nikola Jokic, is about to be send home in the first round. Jusuf Nurkic, another top 10 center, has been getting wrecked in the playoffs. Steven Adams looks clueless out there against a rotation which features 6’5 PJ Tucker as the best big man.

Rudy Gobert has been the only traditional C that’s having a good playoff run and even that is coming to an end next round because the Mavs or Clippers will take advantage of him with their wing players.

In terms of bigs, this league is now about guys like Siakam, Davis and Porzingis aka excellent rim protector with the ability to switch onto wings periodically and hit 3s. His teammate, and a personal favorite of mine Maxi Kleber does this as well (not as good a rim protector but still).

Brandon Clarke is about to be the next Porzingis. We need bigs of this caliber and Ayton’s not gonna be it.


Laughed hard.

Really, the three best players in the NBA now are Jokic, Embiid, and Giannis. AD is right there, too. Durant is 6’ 10” and probably needs to be guarded by an elite athletic big given his length. An elite defensive big has not been this important since the 90s.

Man, it must have taken you quite some time to find this 7 month old post. You really are a troll and I should’ve already followed the advice of others who already blocked you.

It’s a sign of a good team to have trolls back though. Nobody cares enough to troll when we’re a bad team. But we had plenty during the SSOL era, and I’m sure we’ll get plenty more. :thumbsup:


You were the king of bumping threads on the GB though...and we are talking about very old threads.
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Re: Who is the second most important piece of our core? 

Post#122 » by Revived » Fri Mar 5, 2021 8:46 pm

bwgood77 wrote:
Revived wrote:
TouchPassDario wrote:
Laughed hard.

Really, the three best players in the NBA now are Jokic, Embiid, and Giannis. AD is right there, too. Durant is 6’ 10” and probably needs to be guarded by an elite athletic big given his length. An elite defensive big has not been this important since the 90s.

Man, it must have taken you quite some time to find this 7 month old post. You really are a troll and I should’ve already followed the advice of others who already blocked you.

It’s a sign of a good team to have trolls back though. Nobody cares enough to troll when we’re a bad team. But we had plenty during the SSOL era, and I’m sure we’ll get plenty more. :thumbsup:


You were the king of bumping threads on the GB though...and we are talking about very old threads.

I know and I got re-banned on there for it and now bumping threads is like common practice on GB lol.
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Re: Who is the second most important piece of our core? 

Post#123 » by bwgood77 » Fri Mar 5, 2021 11:33 pm

Revived wrote:
bwgood77 wrote:
Revived wrote:Man, it must have taken you quite some time to find this 7 month old post. You really are a troll and I should’ve already followed the advice of others who already blocked you.

It’s a sign of a good team to have trolls back though. Nobody cares enough to troll when we’re a bad team. But we had plenty during the SSOL era, and I’m sure we’ll get plenty more. :thumbsup:


You were the king of bumping threads on the GB though...and we are talking about very old threads.

I know and I got re-banned on there for it and now bumping threads is like common practice on GB lol.


Yeah, a bump after 15 months is quite a long time..only to post a tweet that also applied to Booker that year...actually does this year too...barely.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1520632&start=60#p67390316
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Re: Who is the second most important piece of our core? 

Post#124 » by Revived » Sat Mar 6, 2021 12:13 am

bwgood77 wrote:
Revived wrote:
bwgood77 wrote:
You were the king of bumping threads on the GB though...and we are talking about very old threads.

I know and I got re-banned on there for it and now bumping threads is like common practice on GB lol.


Yeah, a bump after 15 months is quite a long time..only to post a tweet that also applied to Booker that year...actually does this year too...barely.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1520632&start=60#p67390316

Lol there’s threads being bumped after like 2-3 yrs on the GB nowadays. Not sure why you don’t like Booker much especially when you see even other elite players around the league all talking about how much they respect his game. I’m critical of him too when he gets into the hero ball stuff at times but there’s still far more good than bad with what he brings on the court. I know the other day you made a post about how you think CP3 likes Booker maybe or something but both CP3 and Monty have said they only came to the Suns because of Booker. Probably the one of the main reasons James Jones came here too.
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Re: Who is the second most important piece of our core? 

Post#125 » by bwgood77 » Sat Mar 6, 2021 12:18 am

Revived wrote:
bwgood77 wrote:
Revived wrote:I know and I got re-banned on there for it and now bumping threads is like common practice on GB lol.


Yeah, a bump after 15 months is quite a long time..only to post a tweet that also applied to Booker that year...actually does this year too...barely.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1520632&start=60#p67390316

Lol there’s threads being bumped after like 2-3 yrs on the GB nowadays. Not sure why you don’t like Booker much especially when you see even other elite players around the league all talking about how much they respect his game. I’m critical of him too when he gets into the hero ball stuff at times but there’s still far more good than bad with what he brings on the court. I know the other day you made a post about how you think CP3 likes Booker maybe or something but both CP3 and Monty have said they only came to the Suns because of Booker. Probably the one of the main reasons James Jones came here too.


I like Booker. I just mentioned it's weird to post some stat like that which also applies to our own player. Guys that take a lot of shots and are not high assist/reb/stl/block games may not be that abnormal.
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Re: Who is the second most important piece of our core? 

Post#126 » by Revived » Sat Mar 6, 2021 12:24 am

bwgood77 wrote:
Revived wrote:
bwgood77 wrote:
Yeah, a bump after 15 months is quite a long time..only to post a tweet that also applied to Booker that year...actually does this year too...barely.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1520632&start=60#p67390316

Lol there’s threads being bumped after like 2-3 yrs on the GB nowadays. Not sure why you don’t like Booker much especially when you see even other elite players around the league all talking about how much they respect his game. I’m critical of him too when he gets into the hero ball stuff at times but there’s still far more good than bad with what he brings on the court. I know the other day you made a post about how you think CP3 likes Booker maybe or something but both CP3 and Monty have said they only came to the Suns because of Booker. Probably the one of the main reasons James Jones came here too.


I like Booker. I just mentioned it's weird to post some stat like that which also applies to our own player. Guys that take a lot of shots and are not high assist/reb/stl/block games may not be that abnormal.

It doesn’t apply to Lavine anymore because he’s a higher scorer now. Back when I made that post, he was a 16 pt/game scorer and now he’s at 28ppg. Back then he was at 49% TS and now he’s at 65% TS. Even if it’s on higher volume, he’s still a big time scorer enough to where yeah the rest of those metrics doesn’t matter. And yes I believe if he had similar 3 & D guys around him and a good facilitator then Bulls could have similar success.
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Re: Who is the second most important piece of our core? 

Post#127 » by Saberestar » Mon Apr 5, 2021 3:37 pm

After 2/3 of the season it is a good moment to stop and compare them again.

Bridges
13.3 points, 4.8 boards, 2.3 assist and 0.9 blocks shooting 41% from three in 32.4 mpg.

Ayton
14.5 points, 10.8 boards, 1.5 assists and 1.1 blocks shooting 61% from the field in 30.4 mpg.

Both have played and started on every game and they have been very good defensively.

Again is a tied game for me between these two as a third best player on our roster after Book and CP3.

It is gonna be really interesting to see how they perform in the playoffs.
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Re: Who is the second most important piece of our core? 

Post#128 » by bwgood77 » Mon Apr 5, 2021 6:30 pm

Saberestar wrote:After 2/3 of the season it is a good moment to stop and compare them again.

Bridges
13.3 points, 4.8 boards, 2.3 assist and 0.9 blocks shooting 41% from three in 32.4 mpg.

Ayton
14.5 points, 10.8 boards, 1.5 assists and 1.1 blocks shooting 61% from the field in 30.4 mpg.

Both have played and started on every game and they have been very good defensively.

Again is a tied game for me between these two as a third best player on our roster after Book and CP3.

It is gonna be really interesting to see how they perform in the playoffs.


Still tough. Bridges better at this point (slightly) but Ayton can be better in games. I think Ayton is more important though due to position and depth. His defense is really the last line of defense and he has gotten so good at switching and bottling up a lot of guards and wings...and even altering shots of bigs for misses...improvement on offense too....and screening...even if not pretty getting in the way as CP3 and Booker are good at weaving around him for open shots, while defender gets slowed up..

His gravity is a lot bigger and his ability to pass out of them.

Now if Bridges can continue to progress to Kawhi or even George-lite (he may be near that)...or even start to resemble them..he is it as well.

Hopefully they both keep improving equally to where this is a discussion and perhaps even one where they are included as discussion of "most important piece of core".
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Re: Who is the second most important piece of our core? 

Post#129 » by cberry78 » Mon Apr 5, 2021 6:50 pm

bwgood77 wrote:
Saberestar wrote:After 2/3 of the season it is a good moment to stop and compare them again.

Bridges
13.3 points, 4.8 boards, 2.3 assist and 0.9 blocks shooting 41% from three in 32.4 mpg.

Ayton
14.5 points, 10.8 boards, 1.5 assists and 1.1 blocks shooting 61% from the field in 30.4 mpg.

Both have played and started on every game and they have been very good defensively.

Again is a tied game for me between these two as a third best player on our roster after Book and CP3.

It is gonna be really interesting to see how they perform in the playoffs.


Still tough. Bridges better at this point (slightly) but Ayton can be better in games. I think Ayton is more important though due to position and depth. His defense is really the last line of defense and he has gotten so good at switching and bottling up a lot of guards and wings...and even altering shots of bigs for misses...improvement on offense too....and screening...even if not pretty getting in the way as CP3 and Booker are good at weaving around him for open shots, while defender gets slowed up..

His gravity is a lot bigger and his ability to pass out of them.

Now if Bridges can continue to progress to Kawhi or even George-lite (he may be near that)...or even start to resemble them..he is it as well.

Hopefully they both keep improving equally to where this is a discussion and perhaps even one where they are included as discussion of "most important piece of core".

This will always put Ayton ahead of Bridges. Having a 7-foot defensively impactful Center in the middle will always be more important than a wing defender. Now if Bridges reaches a Pippen-esque level of versatility that's different.

I still am of the opinion that a competent NBA-level PG is more important than either though.

CP3 >>> Rubio > DA > Bridges >>>> any of those scrubs we ran out there before Rubio.
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Re: Who is the second most important piece of our core? 

Post#130 » by Bogyo » Mon Apr 5, 2021 7:09 pm

It depends on who develops more in the future. Bridges is the better basketball player as of now, but Ayton might be more impactful becouse of his role on the team (pretty much the only legit big for rebounds and interior D). If we want to be legit contenders, Ayton has to get more consistent, and a better player. Completely doable if he really puts his mind to it.

The other way would be Bridges becoming Khwai or Pippen - which can also happen, but since those two are HoF players it's a bit less likely than Ayton becoming a legit allstar/all-nba player, even though he seems like he has all the important things, he might just not be that good of a player overall, that is a tall order for anyone, no matter the tools/mindset and whatnot.
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Who is the second most important piece of our core? 

Post#131 » by Jdiddy701 » Mon Apr 5, 2021 8:00 pm

Mikal Bridges is definitely more important for the team. There’s not many players like Mikal. He’s the absolute perfect player next to Devin Booker and all championship contending teams would love to have him.

I think there are many centers in the league we could substitute with Ayton and probably wouldn’t notice a huge difference. Now, if Ayton starts to play with consistency and to the level he should be playing, I will change my answer but don’t see that happening. I think he’s content being an average player.

I’ll put my stock on Bridges before DA.

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Re: Who is the second most important piece of our core? 

Post#132 » by Ryu » Mon Apr 5, 2021 9:21 pm

Jdiddy701 wrote:Mikal Bridges is definitely more important for the team. There’s not many players like Mikal. He’s the absolute perfect player next to Devin Booker and all championship contending teams would love to have him.

I think there are many centers in the league we could substitute with Ayton and probably wouldn’t notice a huge difference. Now, if Ayton starts to play with consistency and to the level he should be playing, I will change my answer but don’t see that happening. I think he’s content being an average player.

I’ll put my stock on Bridges before DA.

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You are in denial if you think DA is just an average player. And I would like to hear the names of those centers and how many (15? 20?) of them would make us at least equally good.
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Re: Who is the second most important piece of our core? 

Post#133 » by lilfishi22 » Mon Apr 5, 2021 11:34 pm

I've posted twice in this thread and I've flipped flopped between Ayton and Bridges in those two posts.

Now that we have a pretty good sample size of this new playoff-bound Sun's team play, I think it's Ayton. I think we know what we can expect from Bridges on a nightly basis and he's vital to our defense and being that glue guy on offense but I've come to the conclusion that this team's potential as a perennial contender lies in how good Ayton can be. If he's an all-star, all-NBA level C (even if it's 3rd team) and is consistent, we're super tough to beat. He's a handful on both ends of the court when he's on and Booker/CP3 are already tough to deal with but when we have that inside presence, there's just too many options for Booker/CP3 to utilise.

It just comes down to consistency, consistency consistency with Ayton.
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Re: Who is the second most important piece of our core? 

Post#134 » by cberry78 » Mon Apr 5, 2021 11:59 pm

If you go to Stathead and compare Mikal to both Kawhi and Pippen in their 3 years he surprising compares favorably to both. Not as many Assists or Steals as Pippen, and not as many Rebounds as Kawhi - but same type of player.

Mikal vs Pippen
https://stathead.com/tiny/Dvc3H

Mikal vs Kawhi
https://stathead.com/tiny/swkRz
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Re: Who is the second most important piece of our core? 

Post#135 » by bwgood77 » Tue Apr 6, 2021 12:29 am

cberry78 wrote:If you go to Stathead and compare Mikal to both Kawhi and Pippen in their 3 years he surprising compares favorably to both. Not as many Assists or Steals as Pippen, and not as many Rebounds as Kawhi - but same type of player.

Mikal vs Pippen
https://stathead.com/tiny/Dvc3H

Mikal vs Kawhi
https://stathead.com/tiny/swkRz


I don't think he's anything like Pippen. Pippen was a beast and yeah, great distributor, steals, rebounds, etc. And 3 pt shooting wasn't a big thing back then.

Kawhi is similar. He can create, he can shoot 3s, but he's not as big on the steals and assists as a guy like Pippen....he can also score now but when he came in that wasn't his main thing...he could be like the 3rd or 4th guy on the Spurs.
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Re: Who is the second most important piece of our core? 

Post#136 » by TouchPassDario » Tue Apr 6, 2021 3:36 am

Jdiddy701 wrote:Mikal Bridges is definitely more important for the team. There’s not many players like Mikal. He’s the absolute perfect player next to Devin Booker and all championship contending teams would love to have him.

I think there are many centers in the league we could substitute with Ayton and probably wouldn’t notice a huge difference. Now, if Ayton starts to play with consistency and to the level he should be playing, I will change my answer but don’t see that happening. I think he’s content being an average player.

I’ll put my stock on Bridges before DA.

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It’s not really close, actually. The other way, of course.

We have one somewhat quality big outside of Ayton, and a bunch of decent wings.
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Re: Who is the second most important piece of our core? 

Post#137 » by TouchPassDario » Tue Apr 6, 2021 3:37 am

Oh boy, you think Ayton is replaceable....

Lmao he is maybe the most well-rounded big in the league.
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Re: Who is the second most important piece of our core? 

Post#138 » by Mulhollanddrive » Tue Apr 6, 2021 11:19 am

Ayton's potential determines if we can win a championship so he's the most important piece.
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Re: Who is the second most important piece of our core? 

Post#139 » by Saberestar » Tue Apr 6, 2021 11:42 am

cberry78 wrote:If you go to Stathead and compare Mikal to both Kawhi and Pippen in their 3 years he surprising compares favorably to both. Not as many Assists or Steals as Pippen, and not as many Rebounds as Kawhi - but same type of player.

Mikal vs Pippen
https://stathead.com/tiny/Dvc3H

Mikal vs Kawhi
https://stathead.com/tiny/swkRz

Pippen was much better at the same age, not even close.

Leonard was two years younger on his third season.

These two players are not realistic comparisons for Mikal. They are two of the best SFs in the history of the game.

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