Dare I say the "T" word . . . ?

[pokerface]

They won’t ourposefully play poorly and I wouldn’t ask them to do so. I hope this year we lose a lot but our players continue to develop during the course of the season.

I just mean Booker/Warren are good and some other players step up sometimes.

 

[Raze]

They won’t ourposefully play poorly and I wouldn’t ask them to do so. I hope this year we lose a lot but our players continue to develop during the course of the season.

...and develop a thirst for winning. It's alright to lose when you're outmatched. But go into off season with a laser focus to never be outmatched again. Jordan did it after losing to Detroit. LeBron did it after losing to Dallas. Booker looks like he's ready to do it now.

 

[Errntknght]

They won’t ourposefully play poorly and I wouldn’t ask them to do so. I hope this year we lose a lot but our players continue to develop during the course of the season.

I think that is too much to hope for. In fact the reason I'm not for tanking this year is that would require our young guys not improve. If they don't improve a fair amount that means our rebuild has stalled at a very low level, meaning we are the disaster most pundits think we are. Monroe looks like he will give us a boost and Sauce should further solidify our frontcourt, and Davon Reed our backcourt when they're fully healthy. I believe Alec Peters will be a positive contributor, too, at a modest level.

The good news, as far as our draft slot goes, is that our schedule gets tougher so we could improve some and not climb much in the standings. The bad news is that when Chandler is well, Len's playing time may drop way off. Also, for one game, Ulis looked more like himself and his play before has been hurting us, as many have noted.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

...and develop a thirst for winning. It's alright to lose when you're outmatched. But go into off season with a laser focus to never be outmatched again. Jordan did it after losing to Detroit. LeBron did it after losing to Dallas. Booker looks like he's ready to do it now.

I agree. But the rest of the team has to be ready around him. Booker, as much as I love him, is not a Jordan or lebron. And you have to remember he’s surrounded by babies. The suns are the youngest team in the league.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

I think that is too much to hope for. In fact the reason I'm not for tanking this year is that would require our young guys not improve. If they don't improve a fair amount that means our rebuild has stalled at a very low level, meaning we are the disaster most pundits think we are. Monroe looks like he will give us a boost and Sauce should further solidify our frontcourt, and Davon Reed our backcourt when they're fully healthy. I believe Alec Peters will be a positive contributor, too, at a modest level.

The good news, as far as our draft slot goes, is that our schedule gets tougher so we could improve some and not climb much in the standings. The bad news is that when Chandler is well, Len's playing time may drop way off. Also, for one game, Ulis looked more like himself and his play before has been hurting us, as many have noted.

You realize you just essentially said that every player will pan out and be successful. That never happens.

 

[Raze]

I agree. But the rest of the team has to be ready around him. Booker, as much as I love him, is not a Jordan or lebron. And you have to remember he’s surrounded by babies. The suns are the youngest team in the league.

Completely agree. But he could be a Paul Pierce, which isn't too shabby. Or even Steph Curry.

The thing that makes Steph able to do so much on O is because he has a stellar D around him. I don't see why Devin couldn't be similar if he had a D minded true PG and a fully developed Josh Jackson.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Completely agree. But he could be a Paul Pierce, which isn't too shabby. Or even Steph Curry.

The thing that makes Steph able to do so much on O is because he has a stellar D around him. I don't see why Devin couldn't be similar if he had a D minded true PG and a fully developed Josh Jackson.

I’d agree with that.

 

[pokerface]

Big game tonight. Suns vs Bulls. That would be a big LOSS to pull out.

Play Len heavy minutes. I dare him to put together two good games in a row.

 

[Errntknght]

You realize you just essentially said that every player will pan out and be successful. That never happens.

Let's see I mentioned Monroe, Sauce, Davon Reed, Ulis and Peters. Yes, its my opinion all of those guys will pan out, to the extent of being positive contributors on a playoff team. Odds are that at most one will develope enough to be a starter on a contending team. Among the guys I didn't mention I'm less sanguine about the chances of Jones Jr, Mike James, Daniels and Chriss panning out to the same extent. One of them is likely to surprise me.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Uh that win hurts. Drops us from like 4th worst record to 10th and closer to 12th.

Btw, I typed this in the game thread, thought better of it and moved it here, so no complaining please.

 

[Hoop Head]

We've played more games than some teams behind us. We were tied in the loss column with the Grizzlies tonight but had 2 more wins, now it's 3 and they have the loss. We have 2 more losses than the Kings and Lakers who are behind us in the standings. It'll even out soon but the team is on a bit of a roll right now.

 

[pokerface]

We've played more games than some teams behind us. We were tied in the loss column with the Grizzlies tonight but had 2 more wins, now it's 3 and they have the loss. We have 2 more losses than the Kings and Lakers who are behind us in the standings. It'll even out soon but the team is on a bit of a roll right now.

Dallas and Chicago won tonight which helped.

Is it me or does it seem the suns have played a lot of the easier teams in the league? We haven't played GS yet for instance.

 

[Errntknght]

Dallas and Chicago won tonight which helped.

Is it me or does it seem the suns have played a lot of the easier teams in the league? We haven't played GS yet for instance.

we've played 19 games against 500+ temas and 17 games against <500 teams so by this crude meaure we haven't played a wesk schedule. My feeling agrees with yours though - not many games against the best teams. Whats hurting us in the PP ball hunt is going 10-7 against sub 500 teams - - we're 3-16 against the 500+ as we should be. The net result is that our schedule isn't likely to help us garner more PP balls. The other problem is that we are graadually improving and Reed and Sauce returning will probably boost us further in that direction.

 

[Haunting]

ESPNs prediciton tools still predict us with the 3rd worst record

http://www.espn.com/nba/stats/rpi/_/sort/EWP

But that is influenced a lot still by our terrible point differential which is much worse than our record. And out point differential of course is tilled by losing 2 games by a comined 90 points at the beginning of the season.

According to their model we should be 9-27 but we are 13-23.

We had the 7th easiest schedule so far but a lot of games and about 11 back to back sets, 10 of which included traveling.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Enjoying every win.

 

[Chaplin]

I read somewhere that our remaining schedule is the #1 toughest in the league.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

I read somewhere that our remaining schedule is the #1 toughest in the league.

Interesting.

 

[BC867]

Interesting.

Merry Christmas!

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Merry Christmas!

Haha

 

[pokerface]

Dallas, Chicago, AND Atlanta won tonight...wow.


I'm not giving up...on giving up.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Dallas, Chicago, AND Atlanta won tonight...wow.


I'm not giving up...on giving up.

Aargh if we could just stop pulling off last second wins against bad teams we could lock in a top four pick!

Right now we occupy the 10th slot. Yuck.

 

[pokerface]

Aargh if we could just stop pulling off last second wins against bad teams we could lock in a top four pick!

Right now we occupy the 10th slot. Yuck.

Hey we all want the suns to play good but...these miracles are killing our draft!


I think our schedule is bound to toughen up. Plus our competition is winning which is keeping things in reach.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Man we keep wasting the bad teams winning by pulling out unpredicted wins. AAAARGH!

 

[pokerface]

 

[Ronin]

Losing but we are not getting much separation from the other tanking teams.

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