#1 or BUST! The O'Mighty DRAFT Thread

[Errntknght]

I am just not too worried about the tank any more. Jackson might be the player I want most in this draft anyway. He will be there at three or four.

Yep, if our young guys rack up a bunch of wins that's good news to me. I'm with you on Jackson, too, though my opinion is second hand - a bunch of you guys said he was near the top of the heap defensively and that's what I'm looking for out of this draft. I suspect if Fultz or Ball is available when we draft, we'll take him but I can live with that.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

Good night for the tank so far. Philly and Orlando both win. Now the Lakers just need to find a way to win.

 

[pokerface]

Good night for the tank so far. Philly and Orlando both win. Now the Lakers just need to find a way to win.

And the Suns need to lose....oops! Sorry Mr. McCoy...so so sorry!

 

[pokerface]

Yep, if our young guys rack up a bunch of wins that's good news to me. I'm with you on Jackson, too, though my opinion is second hand - a bunch of you guys said he was near the top of the heap defensively and that's what I'm looking for out of this draft. I suspect if Fultz or Ball is available when we draft, we'll take him but I can live with that.

You want the suns to rack up a bunch of wins and then get Jackson? Good luck with that!

 

[Errntknght]

You want the suns to rack up a bunch of wins and then get Jackson? Good luck with that!

I want the Suns to be a good team and if they show they can compete with the good teams around the league we've made a tremendous improvement - that's more important than any one player we can add. I've had the position from the start of the year that we should go all out in player development but when Watson elected to go with the 'established' players thinking that was the best way to win, I wanted them to lose big time and get something out of an otherwise useless season. Yeah, Watson was making it a pointless season.

 

[pokerface]

I want the Suns to be a good team and if they show they can compete with the good teams around the league we've made a tremendous improvement - that's more important than any one player we can add. I've had the position from the start of the year that we should go all out in player development but when Watson elected to go with the 'established' players thinking that was the best way to win, I wanted them to lose big time and get something out of an otherwise useless season. Yeah, Watson was making it a pointless season.

Well I agree with that totally. If the suns can win with the youth and they get developed faster then that's pretty exciting. If the suns go all in on the youth movement then I'm prepared to let ping pong balls fall where they fall. There is really nothing that can or should be done.

 

[AzStevenCal]

I want the Suns to be a good team and if they show they can compete with the good teams around the league we've made a tremendous improvement - that's more important than any one player we can add. I've had the position from the start of the year that we should go all out in player development but when Watson elected to go with the 'established' players thinking that was the best way to win, I wanted them to lose big time and get something out of an otherwise useless season. Yeah, Watson was making it a pointless season.

He gave Chriss a lot of minutes almost as a gesture to the idea of playing the young guys but the sporadic minutes for Ulis and Bender never made sense.

Watson always maintained that developing the young players was a priority but it was hard to see much evidence of that in the games other than with Marquese. But from Watson's perspective, I guess he was playing the young guys in his own way. Remember, we have 8 players on the roster that weren't alive in 92.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

He gave Chriss a lot of minutes almost as a gesture to the idea of playing the young guys but the sporadic minutes for Ulis and Bender never made sense.

Watson always maintained that developing the young players was a priority but it was hard to see much evidence of that in the games other than with Marquese. But from Watson's perspective, I guess he was playing the young guys in his own way. Remember, we have 8 players on the roster that weren't alive in 92.

TBF the argument can be made that the time these guys had to learn from the bench has helped them to be ready to be successful now that they have the opportunity to play. We can't pick and choose what Watson does right or wrong and give Watson credit for some of the good things and not some of the other good things.

 

[leclerc]

I agree Cards. I've been a bit hard on Watson for his offence, defence, his substitutions, and inconsistent minutes to Bender and Ulis. I have not given him much credit for getting them to play hard.

 

[pokerface]

I agree Cards. I've been a bit hard on Watson for his offence, defence, his substitutions, and inconsistent minutes to Bender and Ulis. I have not given him much credit for getting them to play hard.

Yeah I haven't thought of that either. If Watson is behind them playing hard with some passion then on some level he's doing something right. Plus he is playing the youth a lot more. BUT he's still playing Bledsoe too much!!! I think that's why some of us are still frustrated with him.

 

[Mainstreet]

I was reading an article by Doug Haller at azcentral which delves into player rotations after the All-Star break and Earl Watson's thought process.

It sounds like Watson is taking a risk by playing the young players without assurance from the front office about job security.

As a result, Suns coach Earl Watson was asked when or if he planned to return center Tyson Chandler and guard Brandon Knight to the rotation. Both players haven't played since the All-Star break, a stretch of six contests, including Sunday.

"I'm not changing it unless management changes it,'' Watson said. "I have a boss and my boss has a boss, so whatever comes from up top is what's going to happen. And right now, that's not even part of our equation."

"It's a great thing for younger players; it's a dangerous thing for coaches,'' he said. "This is not college. Coaches don't have seven-to-10 year contracts. ... But for us, coming into this situation, we owe it to these players for them to be great for their career. And as a former player, I've had my chance, so I have to give these young guys their opportunity. I have to give them whatever it takes, even if at some times there's risk for us moving forward as a staff. We owe it to these players. I always believe that if you do the right thing, then somehow opportunity opens up, whether it's continue to coach somewhere else, but you owe it to these younger players every day to develop and build confidence."

I think Earl Watson has done a tremendous job of developing the young players and developing a winning attitude. From where I sit, I could not ask any more from a head coach.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/spor...valuation-last-long-management-says/98781516/

 

[JCSunsfan]

Well I agree with that totally. If the suns can win with the youth and they get developed faster then that's pretty exciting. If the suns go all in on the youth movement then I'm prepared to let ping pong balls fall where they fall. There is really nothing that can or should be done.

You cannot tell developing young players to lose on purpose. And you can't really play the vets for the purpose of losing. . . I don't think.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Yeah I haven't thought of that either. If Watson is behind them playing hard with some passion then on some level he's doing something right. Plus he is playing the youth a lot more. BUT he's still playing Bledsoe too much!!! I think that's why some of us are still frustrated with him.

Ulis might change that. When BK is your back up pg, you have a tendency to play Bled too much. He mentioned it in the post-game yesterday. Said that Ulis is taking a lot of pressure off of Bledsoe.

Sitting BK and Chandler is all about Ulis, Len, and Williams.

Trading PJ has been good for Chriss and Jones Jr.

 

[Yuma]

Yuma said in another thread: "Emptied the bench for a long stretch at the end of the 4th quarter and the Hornets could still not take the game. Watson plays all the guys at the end of the bench, and they still hold on. Does not help with staying in the top three for the draft. The next 2 games should bring us back to Earth. "

Oops! Sorry guys.

 

[JCSunsfan]

I was reading an article by Doug Haller at azcentral which delves into player rotations after the All-Star break and Earl Watson's thought process.

It sounds like Watson is taking a risk by playing the young players without assurance from the front office about job security.





I think Earl Watson has done a tremendous job of developing the young players and developing a winning attitude. From where I sit, I could not ask any more from a head coach.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/spor...valuation-last-long-management-says/98781516/

They even have a little edge to them. I can't remember when the Suns had that.

 

[Yuma]

I meant to ask this earlier, is there a site where the draft order is updated based on the results of each night's games. Seems like someone might do this just for fun.

 

[Mainstreet]

I meant to ask this earlier, is there a site where the draft order is updated based on the results of each night's games. Seems like someone might do this just for fun.

I look at the ESPN NBA league standings.

http://www.espn.com/nba/standings/_/group/league

 

[Mainstreet]

They even have a little edge to them. I can't remember when the Suns had that.

I can't remember the Suns as a team playing with an edge for awhile. Raja Bell played with an edge but he was only one player.

 

[Yuma]

Philadelphia 76ers    23 39  .371
Orlando Magic         23 40  .365
Phoenix Suns          21 42  .333
Los Angeles Lakers    19 44  .302
Brooklyn Nets         10 51  .164

The race for the bottom! We still have time to catch the Lakers. I am more worried about losing the 3 spot, though.

 

[bwgood77]

I meant to ask this earlier, is there a site where the draft order is updated based on the results of each night's games. Seems like someone might do this just for fun.

http://www.tankathon.com/

 

[AzStevenCal]

The race for the bottom! We still have time to catch the Lakers. I am more worried about losing the 3 spot, though.

Yeah, we're going to be in a battle with Orlando and Philadelphia, the Lakers are out of our league. They have less talent than we do even before they gave away their best player and on top of that, they have far more motivation to tank than any other team.

If the Lakers don't finish with a top 3 pick (which means the lottery can kill them too), they lose their first round pick this season PLUS their first round pick in 2019. If they stay in the bottom 3, they'll only owe next year's first and a pair of seconds.

 

[AzStevenCal]

http://www.tankathon.com/

Great site, thanks for the link. And, hey, San Antonio is the only team riding a longer win streak than the Suns? Who'd have thought that?

 

[Yuma]

http://www.tankathon.com/

Great site! The Yotes are in the second spot, too!

 

[pokerface]

Sweet baby cheezitz! Save some of that fire for next season guys!! Jeesh our young studs can't contain themselves.

Ah well...In the long run its a good sign they want to win.

 

[pokerface]

we should be pretty safe..

Orlando and Philly have each 4 more wins than us already and while they probably won't win more than 2 more I can't see us winning more than 5.

A mere five days since you posted that...Things can change in a hurry me thinks.