Game Thread: Suns vs. Spurs

[Brian in Mesa]

Originally posted by schutd
Can you guys moan about the officiating some more please? I didnt get enough of it over the last 14 pages. heh.

The officiating is whined about win or lose in these game threads. One such thread is nearly done with...only 81 more to go.

 

[matt_whitlock]

"It's crazy," forward Shawn Marion said. "It seems like we never left here. That's serious. It's like we never left."

It really seems that way. It's funny, it's a long offseason, but now that the games are underway, and with the first round rematch, it really does feel like our last game against the Spurs (before last night) was just yesturday.

 

[justAndy]

I'll really get into it...

..the 1st of January - after football season.
The bit of the game i saw, the Suns were hustlin', JJ was clankin', and the Spurs were definately getting more respect from the refs - but that's part of the game, i won't cry...
(F*** the Lakers!)

 

[schutd]

Originally posted by elindholm
What are the stats on how frequently the Suns start the year 0-1? It seems like it happens almost every season, no matter who the opponent is.

This makes 5 years in a row to open the season 0-1.

 

[elindholm]

This makes 5 years in a row to open the season 0-1.

Well at least I wasn't imagining it.

 

[SirStefan32]

I had to record the game, and I finally watched the whole thing, and I am dissapointed.

Marbury is awesome, and Jake Voskhul just keeps getting better, Marion did OK, Zarko is looking good, but everybody else stunk it up.

Oh, and nice game for Joe Johnson.
What was it? 1-10 shooting, 1-4 from the line.

 

[jbeecham]

Well it doesn't make it any better, but JJ should be 2-11. They credited his tip-in dunk to Amare.

 

[SirStefan32]

Right, but it's still horrible.

 

[Chaz]

Originally posted by SirStefan32
Oh, and nice game for Joe Johnson.
What was it? 1-10 shooting, 1-4 from the line.

In defense of Joe Johnson, I thought he played great defense. He took a charge or two, caused some turnovers, and got some nice rebounds.

I think his shooting will come around. I say he needs a few more games as starter to see if he can settle into the starting role.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

i just don't see the mental part of the game coming 'round for joe johnson. yeah, in other parts of the game he's good. but when the blanks are removed and real bullets put in he just can't shoot straight.

he's a glorified T.R. Dunn. he's not starting material in my mind. bring him off the bench, if he's playing well, keep him in, if not, cut his minutes.

i know it's only the first game . . . but c'mon . . . he had good looks and 1-10? 1-4 from the line? he killed us.

on the same note, casey jacobsen did nada. if he can't shoot the three, he's useless out there. his specialty right now looks to be driving to the top of the key and getting himself in trouble with the ball. he added nothing.

 

[jbeecham]

Don't forget Casey's brilliant move of trying to take the ball to the hole against Duncan 2-3 times and getting fouled/blocked (no foul call of course). When other guys fouled him, he did make his free throws though (4-4). So he improved at least in one area. It would be nice if he could develop this move: fake the 3, drive towards the hole and pull-up for a 10 ft shot. Right now everyone expects him to try to take it to the hole so they wait there for him and block him almost every time.

 

[Chaplin]

Originally posted by jbeecham
Don't forget Casey's brilliant move of trying to take the ball to the hole against Duncan 2-3 times and getting fouled/blocked (no foul call of course). When other guys fouled him, he did make his free throws though (4-4). So he improved at least in one area. It would be nice if he could develop this move: fake the 3, drive towards the hole and pull-up for a 10 ft shot. Right now everyone expects him to try to take it to the hole so they wait there for him and block him almost every time.

I'll never fault CJ for trying to take it inside--it's what keeps his defenders off-balance. And kudos for at least trying to get Duncan to foul him...

 

[Suns_fan69]

I agree, I appreciate the effort of CJ to at least get himself to the free throw line and not always camp on the line and shoot all the time. I will say he needs to work on his judgement a bit, driving against Tim Duncan will rarely get you the call.

 

[jbeecham]

Here's an interesting take on the Brevin Knight for Battie trade idea.

Hoopsworld Article My only problem with this is that Battie has three more years left with a salary of 4.4, 4.8, and 5.2 million. Knight makes 5.0 mil this year, so the Suns would save around .6 million this year but would have two more years of his salary to deal with. To make this make more sense for me I think the Suns should include Cezary Trybanski. The reason why is that he makes 1.6 mil this year and 1.76 next year. This adds a savings of 2.2 million for the Suns this year and makes Battie’s contract only look like 3.04 for next season. This is even a bigger savings this year because of the dollar for dollar cap penalties. Trybanski probably wouldn’t see anytime this year anyways so why not get rid of his salary. The deal works through Realgm’s trade checker. This is the only way I would want the deal to go down is if they got trade Knight and Trybanski for Battie.

 

[elindholm]

I think RealGM must be wrong on this one. I don't see how a trade of Battie for Knight plus Trybanski can work under cap rules.

Also, why would the Celtics want Trybanski? If they would be willing to give up Battie for inferior talent, they'll at least want signficiant salary relief out of the deal.

 

[Chaplin]

Originally posted by jbeecham
Here's an interesting take on the Brevin Knight for Battie trade idea.

Sure, that makes sense for the Suns, but would the Celts take that deal?

 

[SirStefan32]

I think we would have to throw in a pick to get the C's to do this deal, but again, we are talking about Danny Aingle, who knows what this guy might do.

 

[hcsilla]

Originally posted by elindholm
think RealGM must be wrong on this one. I don't see how a trade of Battie for Knight plus Trybanski can work under cap rules.

Yes, that was my first thought as well.

But the Battie for Knight, Trybanski swap works under the cap because in the Walker-trade BOS got a 3 mil. trade exception which swallows Trybanski's salary.

I think that including of Trybanski would be probably a deal-breaker for BOS.

 

[jbeecham]

What if we included cash to pay the 1st year of Trybanski's salary? That way we'd save on the luxury tax and they'd only have to pay him for 1 season.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Originally posted by elindholm
I think RealGM must be wrong on this one. I don't see how a trade of Battie for Knight plus Trybanski can work under cap rules.

Also, why would the Celtics want Trybanski? If they would be willing to give up Battie for inferior talent, they'll at least want signficiant salary relief out of the deal.

Everything I've subbmitted to RealGM lately ends up TRADE ACCEPTED, even when I know it doesn't work under the cap.

 

[JCSunsfan]

The guys on the ESPN Boston board were figuring THEY would have to throw in a pick to get us to accept the Knight/Battie deal.

I guess it would be fine, but I'm not interested in trading Trybanski right now. He might not pan out, but he's 7-2, can actually run, and blocks shots. I'd want to give him a real good look.

I've been pleased with Little Jake. 10 pts and 9 boards is quite decent production for a Suns center.

Now if we could get our guards to be a little more patient when Jake comes out to set those picks.

 

[Chaplin]

Originally posted by JCSunsfan

I guess it would be fine, but I'm not interested in trading Trybanski right now. He might not pan out, but he's 7-2, can actually run, and blocks shots. I'd want to give him a real good look.

How do you know Tryblockski can actually run?

 

[KingLouieLouie]

Rumors circulating out of Detroit have the Pistons trading Corliss Williamson and Lindsey Hunter to the Celtics for Eric Williams... I wonder if that would affect the chances of the Celtics in being interested in Knight.....

I wonder if this could be made into a 3-way deal somehow?

 

[JCSunsfan]

Originally posted by Chaplin
How do you know Tryblockski can actually run?

I haven't actually seen it, but that was the line when he came here and in training camp. That's my point, I want to see if its true--or not.

 

[JCSunsfan]

I did hear that Boston was talking with GS about a deal for Battie.

If we could do a 3 way deal that would land us Foyle, I'd be fine with that. I think just a plain old, Battie to GS, Foyle to Phx, Knight to Boston, would work.

A center rotation of Jake, Foyle, Trybanski, and IR Williams wouldn't be bad at all. It would give us a chance to "test drive" Foyle and decided if we want to re-up him next summer.

Why would these teams do this? Well, Boston was already interested in a Battie for Knight deal. They come out better cap wise.

GS gets a player thats locked up for a couple of years at a mid-range salary. GS might want a pick or two to do this. Maybe both the Suns and Boston could throw in a second round pick.

An of course, we get Foyle's services for a year, but with no long term commitment unless we want it.