Devin Booker scores franchise-record 70 points in loss to Celtics

[slinslin]

It is sad that you are trying to make this personal. No, I have never had contact with Eric Bledsoe.

I believe he will continue to hold the team back, accumulating nothing but stats, as I have posted in the past. He is too small to play alongside a Point Guard and has not shown the ability to be a skilled NBA Point Guard himself. Or be a team leader. A classic tweener who puts up stats, but cannot lead the team to its next level.

I have been a Suns fan for a long time and root for the team to succeed and make us proud. Eric Bledsoe has yet to show the ability to do that.

what the f man, you are so delusional it is unreal, honestly.

Bledsoe is by FAR the best player on this team, BY FAR. Look at the difference he has made between when he plays and when he does not. Claiming anything else is just BS of the highest category.

 

[pokerface]

what the f man, you are so delusional it is unreal, honestly.

Bledsoe is by FAR the best player on this team, BY FAR. Look at the difference he has made between when he plays and when he does not. Claiming anything else is just BS of the highest category.

He's the best player on the team by far you're right...But is he a great team player? I think he's considered a scoring point guard mostly...I like his game but can he nurture a very young suns team to maturity? Yes and no I guess...

 

[3rdside]

what the f man, you are so delusional it is unreal, honestly.

Bledsoe is by FAR the best player on this team, BY FAR. Look at the difference he has made between when he plays and when he does not. Claiming anything else is just BS of the highest category.

This is meaningless drivel.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[JCSunsfan]

Ok. I tend to agree with Slin. Bledsoe is a very good pg and presently the best player on the team, though Booker is catching up.

He is significantly under appreciated and a rookie no matter how good is going to take several years to develop.

I do not mind upgrading the position if possible but saying he is holding the team back is not accurate IMO.

 

[Yuma]

Best part of that article:
"Suns’ offense is filled with weird spacing mistakes and actions that don’t put players on the move and in positions to succeed, and in a sharper offense with better players around him Booker’s shooting percentages could potentially skyrocket as his shot selection improves."

I have often though that. Mostly we come down pass the ball two or three times, then someone goes one on one.

 

[Mainstreet]

Bledsoe is not really a tweener. He's a solid pg. we've just had KJ, Kidd, marbury and Nash who were top pgs. We are totally skewed in our vision of what a pg should be bc we've always had elite pg play.

The Suns certainly have been spoiled for sure.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

The Suns certainly have been spoiled for sure.

I mean just look at the rest of the league. Not many of the good teams have an elite facilitating PG on their team. Players that can put the ball in the basket are the most important in today's game.

 

[Mainstreet]

I mean just look at the rest of the league. Not many of the good teams have an elite facilitating PG on their team. Players that can put the ball in the basket are the most important in today's game.

I agree. Are you talking past tense or a current Suns player?

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

I agree. Are you talking past tense or a current Suns player?

I'm more talking about right now and addressing the seemingly non stop posts that I see about us needing an elite facilitator.

 

[Sunburn]

Kobe Booker. We got very lucky in the draft Suns fans.

 

[ColdPickleNachos]

I mean just look at the rest of the league. Not many of the good teams have an elite facilitating PG on their team. Players that can put the ball in the basket are the most important in today's game.

Okay...let's look at the rest of the league...

Top 10 Teams in the NBA (by current record):

1. Warriors - Have Curry (11th in the NBA in Assists Per game) and Green (9th in APG; 2nd among non point guards) and their team leads the league in APG.
2. Spurs - Point guard is arguably their biggest weakness this year; team is 6th in league in APG. Give me Pop and the Spurs system, and I will quit asking for anything more.
3. Rockets - Found success by putting Harden as the lead facilitator (leads league with 11.3 APG)
4. Celtics - Team is 4th in league in APG
5. Cavs - PG is not elite distributor, but Lebron runs things and is 6th in the entire league in APG.
6. Wizards - John Wall is 2nd in the league in APG
7. Jazz - Their star center just called out their starting pg for not passing enough.
8. Clippers - Chris Paul (4th in league in APG)
9. Raptors - Kyle Lowry (10th in league in APG)
10. Thunder - Russell Westbrook (3rd in league in APG)

7 of the 10 NBA leaders in PPG are on top 10 teams.

7 of the 10 NBA leaders in APG are on top 10 teams.

Rubio is an outlier because of his horrible shooting. Otherwise, Jrue Holiday is the only pg in the top 10 in assists whose team is not in the playoffs. Incidentally, that same team has 2 elite scorers.

It seems to me that having an elite distributor is pretty much essential unless you are the Spurs. We are not the Spurs. It also helps if they are elite at scoring, but IT, Lillard and Irving are the only PGs who are elite at scoring (25 ppg) and not at distributing.

Lillard's team is not that good, LeBron does the facilitating for the Cavs, and IT pretty clearly has a ceiling, due in large part to his score-first focus. They are all top 25 in the league in APG.

Sure, if you have an elite distributor who can't score it limits you, but the same is true about an elite scorer at the PG spot who doesn't pass.

I certainly don't see the statistics to back up scoring over passing from the PG position. If anything, it seems they are equally important. Elite scorers at other positions (Booker!) are easier to find than elite distributors.

Also, I'm no pro athlete, but I've played enough basketball to know that I much prefer playing with a pg who passes versus one who doesn't. I doubt NBA players view this differently.

 

[ColdPickleNachos]

Bledsoe imo is a really good scorer and a good distributor, but is not elite at either. I certainly don't think he's the problem, but he's probably not the solution either. Even if he continues to improve, he's highly unlikely to be elite in a few years when this team has a chance to compete.

We'll eventually need to upgrade at point guard, find a Lebron/Draymond type, or find an elite coach like Pop or Brad Stevens.

The upgrade at PG seems most likely.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

Okay...let's look at the rest of the league...

Top 10 Teams in the NBA (by current record):

1. Warriors - Have Curry (11th in the NBA in Assists Per game) and Green (9th in APG; 2nd among non point guards) and their team leads the league in APG.
2. Spurs - Point guard is arguably their biggest weakness this year; team is 6th in league in APG. Give me Pop and the Spurs system, and I will quit asking for anything more.
3. Rockets - Found success by putting Harden as the lead facilitator (leads league with 11.3 APG)
4. Celtics - Team is 4th in league in APG
5. Cavs - PG is not elite distributor, but Lebron runs things and is 6th in the entire league in APG.
6. Wizards - John Wall is 2nd in the league in APG
7. Jazz - Their star center just called out their starting pg for not passing enough.
8. Clippers - Chris Paul (4th in league in APG)
9. Raptors - Kyle Lowry (10th in league in APG)
10. Thunder - Russell Westbrook (3rd in league in APG)

7 of the 10 NBA leaders in PPG are on top 10 teams.

7 of the 10 NBA leaders in APG are on top 10 teams.

Rubio is an outlier because of his horrible shooting. Otherwise, Jrue Holiday is the only pg in the top 10 in assists whose team is not in the playoffs. Incidentally, that same team has 2 elite scorers.

It seems to me that having an elite distributor is pretty much essential unless you are the Spurs. We are not the Spurs. It also helps if they are elite at scoring, but IT, Lillard and Irving are the only PGs who are elite at scoring (25 ppg) and not at distributing.

Lillard's team is not that good, LeBron does the facilitating for the Cavs, and IT pretty clearly has a ceiling, due in large part to his score-first focus. They are all top 25 in the league in APG.

Sure, if you have an elite distributor who can't score it limits you, but the same is true about an elite scorer at the PG spot who doesn't pass.

I certainly don't see the statistics to back up scoring over passing from the PG position. If anything, it seems they are equally important. Elite scorers at other positions (Booker!) are easier to find than elite distributors.

Also, I'm no pro athlete, but I've played enough basketball to know that I much prefer playing with a pg who passes versus one who doesn't. I doubt NBA players view this differently.

The absolute best team's in the league are good passing teams, but are not relying on an "elite" distributer to make the passing happen. They just have multiple guys that are good distributers and are unselfish.

While Harden is on a team that has the 3rd best record in the league they have virtually no shot at winning a title.

LeBron is having the best year of his career in APG and he has won 3 titles in the past with around 6-7 assists per game (not saying it is related, but his team has been pretty lackluster this year with him averaging his career best APG as well).

The Warriors have a couple good facilitators, but rely much more on everyone being unselfish than any one player distributing to everyone.

Ultimately when I am talking about the "best" teams I am referring to the teams that are true title contenders or have won a title anywhere within the last decade or so. The pretty common theme for all of those teams has been that they rely far more on team passing than having one guy that facilitates for everyone or had more than one player that was elite at creating points for himself (Warriors, Spurs, Lakers, Mavs, Heat, Cavs).

I would like to point out that I never said a team doesn't need to be good at passing and unselfish with the ball, but only that they don't need to have an elite facilitator at the PG position, nor do they need to have an elite facilitator at any position as long as they have good team passing mixed with at least a couple pretty good facilitators.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Okay...let's look at the rest of the league...

Top 10 Teams in the NBA (by current record):

1. Warriors - Have Curry (11th in the NBA in Assists Per game) and Green (9th in APG; 2nd among non point guards) and their team leads the league in APG.
2. Spurs - Point guard is arguably their biggest weakness this year; team is 6th in league in APG. Give me Pop and the Spurs system, and I will quit asking for anything more.
3. Rockets - Found success by putting Harden as the lead facilitator (leads league with 11.3 APG)
4. Celtics - Team is 4th in league in APG
5. Cavs - PG is not elite distributor, but Lebron runs things and is 6th in the entire league in APG.
6. Wizards - John Wall is 2nd in the league in APG
7. Jazz - Their star center just called out their starting pg for not passing enough.
8. Clippers - Chris Paul (4th in league in APG)
9. Raptors - Kyle Lowry (10th in league in APG)
10. Thunder - Russell Westbrook (3rd in league in APG)

good lord... you know what I see when I look at the above? The NBA SUCKS this year. That is an ugly top 10.

 

[JCSunsfan]

good lord... you know what I see when I look at the above? The NBA SUCKS this year. That is an ugly top 10.

Funny. We have more high scoring players in the NBA than ever before. There are 13 players scoring 24 points a game or more. Typically its about 6. We have one player averaging a triple double for the first in the NBA in decades, and another that is leading the league in assists, close in points, and pulling down 8 boards a game.

Perceptions are interesting.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

Funny. We have more high scoring players in the NBA than ever before. There are 13 players scoring 24 points a game or more. Typically its about 6. We have one player averaging a triple double for the first in the NBA in decades, and another that is leading the league in assists, close in points, and pulling down 8 boards a game.

Perceptions are interesting.

It's a combination of pace going up and players/teams taking more 3s than ever before.

 

[Phrazbit]

It's a combination of pace going up and players/teams taking more 3s than ever before.

I think also more and more teams are playing position-less basketball, not caring if they have "2 bigs, 2 wingers and a pg", rather just getting their 5 best guys out there as much as possible.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

I think also more and more teams are playing position-less basketball, not caring if they have "2 bigs, 2 wingers and a pg", rather just getting their 5 best guys out there as much as possible.

Doing these numbers in my head, but the average number of 3 pointers attempted per game right now is about 27 per game and the team that takes the fewest is at 21.3 attempts. Going back 10 years the average per game was about 17 per game and the lowest was 10.0. Going back a little further than that to the 99-00 season the average was about 13 per game and the lowest that year was 7.8 attempts per game. Not only are teams taking more 3s, but they are building their rosters with more and more players that are capable of making them at a high rate. Looking at it pace actually isn't a whole lot faster probably about 4 points higher than 10 years ago.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Not a Suns' fan, but thought you guys would appreciate this:

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