Both him and Ayton have done better on both ends than expected for first time playoff performers. If CP3 was healthy for games 2-3 then I think Booker’s offense #s would’ve looked a bit better. Hopefully he sees it in the game film that he just needs to make quicker decisions with the ball when the double comes. I’m sure it’s discouraging to seeing all our 3pt shooters just brick after brick though.
The only disappointment for me from the first 4 games has been Bridges and Cam Johnson. LeBron has been able to get any shot he wants on Bridges and Bridges has barely provided anything on offense to make up for it (10 pts or less in all 4 games). The creating his own shot thing vanished completely in the playoffs thus far. Cam Johnson, same thing, except he has probably had more wide open 3s attempted and is shooting below 40% from 3.
I do think it has to do with first time playoff jitters (some guys have it, some don’t) so not worried longterm wise. But I do wish Bridges especially would take more shots and be more of a force offensively rather than just deferring to Booker/CP3 each time he gets the ball.
Bridges is smart at taking good shots...3s or rim, but CP3 only recognizes him on cuts and gets him cleaner looks from 3. Not a coincidence Bridges got a lot more shots in games 1 and 4 than 2 and 3. Cam too with the cleaner looks.
Booker most disappointing shooting 40% and 26% from 3 with 5 turnovers a game. Doesn't matter how many points you get if they are not efficient and you give the opponent 5 more possessions while giving yourself 5 fewer.
Well, I guess I can say Dario and Crowder have been even worse, but expectations for Booker are much higher.
And when talking about Bridges vs Booker's D, that's a joke because guarding LeBron and AD, there is only so much you can do...and then Booker is always on the worst offensive player on the floor.
And then the help/team D is worlds apart obviously. Seems you rely more on tweets than eye test.
Booker has defended a lot of minutes to Shroeder on every game.
He is playing good defense, Schroeder doesn't have a high basketball IQ but he is a terrific scorer. Not an easy player to defend at all, and Book is doing a good job on him and the other perimeter players that he is defending.
Both him and Ayton have done better on both ends than expected for first time playoff performers. If CP3 was healthy for games 2-3 then I think Booker’s offense #s would’ve looked a bit better. Hopefully he sees it in the game film that he just needs to make quicker decisions with the ball when the double comes. I’m sure it’s discouraging to seeing all our 3pt shooters just brick after brick though.
The only disappointment for me from the first 4 games has been Bridges and Cam Johnson. LeBron has been able to get any shot he wants on Bridges and Bridges has barely provided anything on offense to make up for it (10 pts or less in all 4 games). The creating his own shot thing vanished completely in the playoffs thus far. Cam Johnson, same thing, except he has probably had more wide open 3s attempted and is shooting below 40% from 3.
I do think it has to do with first time playoff jitters (some guys have it, some don’t) so not worried longterm wise. But I do wish Bridges especially would take more shots and be more of a force offensively rather than just deferring to Booker/CP3 each time he gets the ball.
Bridges is smart at taking good shots...3s or rim, but CP3 only recognizes him on cuts and gets him cleaner looks from 3. Not a coincidence Bridges got a lot more shots in games 1 and 4 than 2 and 3. Cam too with the cleaner looks.
Booker most disappointing shooting 40% and 26% from 3 with 5 turnovers a game. Doesn't matter how many points you get if they are not efficient and you give the opponent 5 more possessions while giving yourself 5 fewer.
Well, I guess I can say Dario and Crowder have been even worse, but expectations for Booker are much higher.
And when talking about Bridges vs Booker's D, that's a joke because guarding LeBron and AD, there is only so much you can do...and then Booker is always on the worst offensive player on the floor.
And then the help/team D is worlds apart obviously. Seems you rely more on tweets than eye test.
Booker has defended a lot of minutes to Shroeder on every game.
He is playing good defense, Schroeder doesn't have a high basketball IQ but he is a terrific scorer. Not an easy player to defend at all, and Book is doing a good job on him and the other perimeter players that he is defending.
I agree he has become a pretty solid 1 on 1 defender. But no players have played well offensively for the Lakers outside of LeBron, AD in 2 games, Schroeder in 1, Drummond in 1 or 2 on putbacks and stuff...and maybe Gasol with a few 3s. Booker also has size on most of those guys while a guy like Bridges is giving up massive size vs LeBron and AD. AD also played poorly in 2 games, and the other two he got most of his points at the line, and most of those fouls were not on Bridges when he was guarding him.
bwgood77 wrote: Bridges is smart at taking good shots...3s or rim, but CP3 only recognizes him on cuts and gets him cleaner looks from 3. Not a coincidence Bridges got a lot more shots in games 1 and 4 than 2 and 3. Cam too with the cleaner looks.
Booker most disappointing shooting 40% and 26% from 3 with 5 turnovers a game. Doesn't matter how many points you get if they are not efficient and you give the opponent 5 more possessions while giving yourself 5 fewer.
Well, I guess I can say Dario and Crowder have been even worse, but expectations for Booker are much higher.
And when talking about Bridges vs Booker's D, that's a joke because guarding LeBron and AD, there is only so much you can do...and then Booker is always on the worst offensive player on the floor.
And then the help/team D is worlds apart obviously. Seems you rely more on tweets than eye test.
Booker has defended a lot of minutes to Shroeder on every game.
He is playing good defense, Schroeder doesn't have a high basketball IQ but he is a terrific scorer. Not an easy player to defend at all, and Book is doing a good job on him and the other perimeter players that he is defending.
I agree he has become a pretty solid 1 on 1 defender. But no players have played well offensively for the Lakers outside of LeBron, AD in 2 games, Schroeder in 1, Drummond in 1 or 2 on putbacks and stuff...and maybe Gasol with a few 3s.
Well, but that is because we are defending pretty well. Both teams are playing good defense, that is why the final scores are low compared to what both teams averaged in the RS.
King4Day wrote:If it wasn't mentioned already, Miami finished with the 18th pick (going to OKC). This would have been ours had we not traded it for Bridges.
Thats one thing - I was never that worried about the pick being too high as Miami and Riley aren't the type to bag it. He keeps that team very competitive.
I like Mikal - very good player. McDunce got that one right for that offseason. Otherwise, his moves that summer were ter'ble
Both him and Ayton have done better on both ends than expected for first time playoff performers. If CP3 was healthy for games 2-3 then I think Booker’s offense #s would’ve looked a bit better. Hopefully he sees it in the game film that he just needs to make quicker decisions with the ball when the double comes. I’m sure it’s discouraging to seeing all our 3pt shooters just brick after brick though.
The only disappointment for me from the first 4 games has been Bridges and Cam Johnson. LeBron has been able to get any shot he wants on Bridges and Bridges has barely provided anything on offense to make up for it (10 pts or less in all 4 games). The creating his own shot thing vanished completely in the playoffs thus far. Cam Johnson, same thing, except he has probably had more wide open 3s attempted and is shooting below 40% from 3.
I do think it has to do with first time playoff jitters (some guys have it, some don’t) so not worried longterm wise. But I do wish Bridges especially would take more shots and be more of a force offensively rather than just deferring to Booker/CP3 each time he gets the ball.
Bridges is smart at taking good shots...3s or rim, but CP3 only recognizes him on cuts and gets him cleaner looks from 3. Not a coincidence Bridges got a lot more shots in games 1 and 4 than 2 and 3. Cam too with the cleaner looks.
Booker most disappointing shooting 40% and 26% from 3 with 5 turnovers a game. Doesn't matter how many points you get if they are not efficient and you give the opponent 5 more possessions while giving yourself 5 fewer.
Well, I guess I can say Dario and Crowder have been even worse, but expectations for Booker are much higher.
And when talking about Bridges vs Booker's D, that's a joke because guarding LeBron and AD, there is only so much you can do...and then Booker is always on the worst offensive player on the floor.
And then the help/team D is worlds apart obviously. Seems you rely more on tweets than eye test.
I thought you were someone that preferred analytics over the eye test? No I definitely like the eye test wayyyy more than analytics. But when the analytics support what I see with my eyes (which is how it should be imo in scouting analytics should always compliment eye test, not the other way around) then it makes it easier to make my point.
Booker’s turnovers are an issue that’s part of the making quicker decisions when double team comes that I was talking about. Make no mistake about it though the Lakers defense is geared up to stop Booker and their throwing two at him with a third lurking to almost triple team. This is a big part of other guys like Ayton and the shooters getting open looks. Ayton has took advantage of it thankfully but the shooters like Bridges, Crowder, Johnson have not. Bridges is shooting like 40% from 3 for the series but not taking nearly enough. And even considering the looks he’s getting, 40% seems low compared to how well he was playing the in reg season. I don’t think many people would have Booker as most disappointing but to each their own. Even in gm 2 or 3 which wasn’t his best performance statistically guys like Damian Lillard were tweeting praise about him.
And Booker has been defending Schroeder quite a bit and doing a decent job thus far. Scoreder’s a pretty damn good offensive player.
Bridges has actually struggled guarding the smaller quick players like Murray, Lillard, Schroeder etc so this is nice that Booker can step up here at least in this series. You are right though that guarding LeBron is more difficult for sure and it’s not realistic to expect him to have the same level of success against him that Booker would against guys the caliber of Scroeder, KCP etc. I just expected Bridges to make things more difficult for LeBron because from watching the games LeBron just overpowers him each time very easily and then Monty switches Crowder on to him. Crowder doesn’t have the foot speed or length that Bridges provides though so it’s the less ideal defender even though Crowder is a good defender himself. Bridges listed at 209 lbs while LeBron is at 250 so there’s no shutting down his drives entirely without help d but I think Bridges can do more to make it more difficult for LeBron.
I forgot to mention Crowder though and I would include him in as a trio with Bridges and Cam as well. I think for the Suns to win this series at least one of these three will need to give us a more overall pts production in each win. Especially once Lakers start trapping or making a significant adjustment on Payne who’s been playing extremely well.
bwgood77 wrote: Bridges is smart at taking good shots...3s or rim, but CP3 only recognizes him on cuts and gets him cleaner looks from 3. Not a coincidence Bridges got a lot more shots in games 1 and 4 than 2 and 3. Cam too with the cleaner looks.
Booker most disappointing shooting 40% and 26% from 3 with 5 turnovers a game. Doesn't matter how many points you get if they are not efficient and you give the opponent 5 more possessions while giving yourself 5 fewer.
Well, I guess I can say Dario and Crowder have been even worse, but expectations for Booker are much higher.
And when talking about Bridges vs Booker's D, that's a joke because guarding LeBron and AD, there is only so much you can do...and then Booker is always on the worst offensive player on the floor.
And then the help/team D is worlds apart obviously. Seems you rely more on tweets than eye test.
I thought you were someone that preferred analytics over the eye test? No I definitely like the eye test wayyyy more than analytics. But when the analytics support what I see with my eyes (which is how it should be imo in scouting analytics should always compliment eye test, not the other way around) then it makes it easier to make my point.
Booker’s turnovers are an issue that’s part of the making quicker decisions when double team comes that I was talking about. Make no mistake about it though the Lakers defense is geared up to stop Booker and their throwing two at him with a third lurking to almost triple team. This is a big part of other guys like Ayton and the shooters getting open looks. Ayton has took advantage of it thankfully but the shooters like Bridges, Crowder, Johnson have not. Bridges is shooting like 40% from 3 for the series but not taking nearly enough. And even considering the looks he’s getting, 40% seems low compared to how well he was playing the in reg season. I don’t think many people would have Booker as most disappointing but to each their own. Even in gm 2 or 3 which wasn’t his best performance statistically guys like Damian Lillard were tweeting praise about him.
And Booker has been defending Schroeder quite a bit and doing a decent job thus far. Scoreder’s a pretty damn good offensive player.
Bridges has actually struggled guarding the smaller quick players like Murray, Lillard, Schroeder etc so this is nice that Booker can step up here at least in this series. You are right though that guarding LeBron is more difficult for sure and it’s not realistic to expect him to have the same level of success against him that Booker would against guys the caliber of Scroeder, KCP etc. I just expected Bridges to make things more difficult for LeBron because from watching the games LeBron just overpowers him each time very easily and then Monty switches Crowder on to him. Crowder doesn’t have the foot speed or length that Bridges provides though so it’s the less ideal defender even though Crowder is a good defender himself. Bridges listed at 209 lbs while LeBron is at 250 so there’s no shutting down his drives entirely without help d but I think Bridges can do more to make it more difficult for LeBron.
I forgot to mention Crowder though and I would include him in as a trio with Bridges and Cam as well. I think for the Suns to win this series at least one of these three will need to give us a more overall pts production in each win. Especially once Lakers start trapping or making a significant adjustment on Payne who’s been playing extremely well.
Well, no, the eye test, but I use analytics for teams I don't watch much, and for non traditional box stats I get curious about, like the hustle stats I've mentioned for Ayton like contested shots on 2s and 3s, contested boards, screen assists, and then stuff like TS%, etc and I post a lot of that stuff too just to share.
Also fg%s by range (like rim, short range, mid range, long mid range, short mid range, etc)..isos, %s on isos or pullups vs catch and shoots.
I just mention some of those advanced stats you don't always capture by the eye test because many times people will focus on negatives or positives for certain players while ignoring the opposite.
But these posts during the series are almost all using the eye test. I just don't see you in too many game threads during the game and then I see you post stat tweets afterwards.
Booker may not be the most disappointing player (that's probably Dario and Crowder) but the most disappointing relative to expectations, while guys like Ayton and Payne are overperforming relative to expectations. Guys like Bridges and Cam are playing about how I expected given a first playoff series.
For more objective non biased opinions, you could read the GB game thread and their thoughts. Book does face double teams and sometimes triple but he wouldn't if he made quicker decisions. If he started moving on the catch and passed or shot he would be fine. It's not his preferred play style but if he did he'd improve on assists, turnovers and FG%.
Bridges maybe should shoot more 3s but he usually takes them even with a defender closing out, unless he is too close...and typically he'd drive in that scenario but with their bigs he can't.
Anyway, he's taking more than he did in the regular season...at 5.25 per game as opposed to 4.4 per game.
Id say Bookers series has been up and down. Great game 1, Kind of bad game 2, flat out bad game 3, game 4 was kind of in-between. His numbers game 4 were bad but I thought his early scoring was very important because the rest of the team seemed tight and that game could have gotten away from them. Second half he didn't shoot well but I thought he defended well and did a good job of recognizing his teammates were getting hot and not trying to force his game.
Big week for him coming up. He kind of needs a super star type game in one of these.
The Lakers have been defending him well and Booker is asked to be a hard shot maker when the offense bogs down. But part of being a 'star' is making hard shots in big games. Lots of dudes can make open looks (although you wouldn't say that with some suns right now lol) but the stars make contested shots at big times.
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming Wow! What a Ride!-H.S.T.
WeekapaugGroove wrote:Id say Bookers series has been up and down. Great game 1, Kind of bad game 2, flat out bad game 3, game 4 was kind of in-between. His numbers game 4 were bad but I thought his early scoring was very important because the rest of the team seemed tight and that game could have gotten away from them. Second half he didn't shoot well but I thought he defended well and did a good job of recognizing his teammates were getting hot and not trying to force his game.
Big week for him coming up. He kind of needs a super star type game in one of these.
The Lakers have been defending him well and Booker is asked to be a hard shot maker when the offense bogs down. But part of being a 'star' is making hard shots in big games. Lots of dudes can make open looks (although you wouldn't say that with some suns right now lol) but the stars make contested shots at big times.
Game 1 he was awesome aside from the turnovers. The rest of the games, not so good outside of some moments. He has been a pretty big part of the reason the 3 pt shooters aside from Crowder (because he was left open) don't get a lot of good looks. When he drove and dished a time or two it looked good.
Sure he may need to take some hard shots at time when the D is swarming over everyone, but he needs to operate quickly and not hesitate so long because when he gets trapped repeatedly he can't really shoot at that point...or pass..this very often ends in a turnover...and are easily avoidable. It's weird he is so so slow at adapting his game.
Interesting to see what effect a game like this has on free agents etc. I think it means more to Free Agency than perhaps the rest of the season.
The question I wonder is this the end of players flocking to LeBron? And does it open the Suns open as more of a destination as we are a team clearly on the up?
Just looked at the schedule and four games are being played tomorrow. Its Kind of weird seeing 4 games on the weekday instead of the weekend where normally four games is being played. But cant complain I love basketball even more especially when my team is in it.
Dang I thought he was the best coach in the history of basketball according to Bill Simmons!!!
But actually, for a head coach to replace the GM is kind of odd to me.
That team has some real talent so it'll be interesting to see how they move forward with player acquisition and trades and stuff
Danny Ainge had all that draft capital over the years - especially with the trade from the Nets and they never won anything. I think Brown was hurt this playoffs; and Jayson Tatum was for sure the right pick over Josh Jackson. Marcus Smart - top 6 pick . Good player - but can't shoot
I just think Ainge's biggest problem is he was good at getting draft capital but he didn't draft well and he was afraid of trading draft capital. Every year there were trades it seems Ainge could have made but he never wanted to part with draft picks
Even last fall, when Hayward went to Charlotte - I think there was a sign and trade on the table and Ainge wanted a helluva lot from Indy when all he got was a TPE used for Evan Fournier. At the time I thought if the Celtics got Dougie Buckets as part of the S&T from Indy plus another player - it would have been better than a damn TPE.
Thats just my view of Ainge in Boston. Just never pulled the trigger
Dang so Stevens essentially retired. Isn't he like 32 years old? Work out with coaching? Pop is like 200 and still coaching his butt off. I'd be massively annoyed if I were a Celtics fan. I'd also be insufferable, whiny, lack self control and common sense, have a horrible accent, and have a shrine to Larry bird in my room if I were a Celtics fan.
Dang so Stevens essentially retired. Isn't he like 32 years old? Work out with coaching? Pop is like 200 and still coaching his butt off. I'd be massively annoyed if I were a Celtics fan. I'd also be insufferable, whiny, lack self control and common sense, have a horrible accent, and have a shrine to Larry bird in my room if I were a Celtics fan.
Wonder if Stevens regrets not taking the Indiana University job . Granted its coaching and recruiting. But less than half the games - less travel, seems like it would be less of a grind.
Can I just say again how much better the offseason is not talking about coaching hires and the lottery!
This seems like it could easily backfire. Stevens was one of the best coaches in the league, have fun replacing that. Surprised he's already burned out, I'm sure there's some extra pressure being in Boston though.
I'm not surprised that Ainge is on his way out though. They're in good shape for the future with Tatum and Brown, but it's pretty easy to argue that he blew capitalizing on their treasure chest of draft picks. Pretty decent example of how being hyper value-focused can come back to haunt you.
Man I hate the Lakers. People saying ahhh they should have traded for Lowry lol
DUDE! Lebron built a team, and got a handful of players for pay cuts, free at buyout deadline, etc. This is ridiculous on how much control Lebron has and how he has to build out his team to win! Guy is a punk
Wonder if Suns lead assistant Willie Green will get some looks for head jobs this off-season. He's one of the rising stars in the assistant coaching ranks.
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming Wow! What a Ride!-H.S.T.
Wonder if Suns lead assistant Willie Green will get some looks for head jobs this off-season. He's one of the rising stars in the assistant coaching ranks.
Have to say with how the Hawks are doing post Pierce -- doesn't mean he won't be good with another chance - but under McMillan, the Hawks are so much better. That shouldn't be a good endorsement of Pierce
Willie Green could be the type but when I look around the league - as he is a solid assistant, who has worked his way up. Another name - from the Suns coaching search - David Vanterpool. Long time assistant.
