Suns_fan69
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Really good video breaking down how Dallas adjusted their defense starting in game 3. Phoenix did not adjust their offense to counter:
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Monty…
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Ouchie-Z-Clown
I'm better than Mulli!
Prettt much sums up what I was seeing, but I hadn’t picked up on doncic hedge (and apparently neither did monty). The pick and roll would’ve worked with Ayton if he was told to either catch and floater or catch and immediate swing to the open corner three. But we never saw either.
Pretty good video indeed. The suns just never adjusted and ran the same sets as some of have said. With this in mind, i think some players just quit on Monty while some quit on cp3. Several times in this vid, and on other plays the suns passed the ball to someone else other than cp3.
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The way CP3 was playing the past several games, that might have been an effort to protect him from himself rather than quitting on him.
The difference to me is they wanted to stop Booker and if we applied the same to anyone by Doncic defensively it wouldn’t work as they had multiple guys in the last four games who were nailing threes all game or scored. Mavs knew our three point shooting sucked and let us have at it.
We were so tentative, guys like CJ, Shamet, Book and even Crowder would just catch and shoot. For some reason guys were trying to fake and drive, which is the logical thing to do, but when half of your game is being shooter and you dont shoot that just played to their defensive scheme. On top of that we didn't make our open shots too.
elindholm
edited for content
And, as a team, the Suns are poor finishers in traffic. Always have been. They don't drive to score; they drive hoping to get a foul call.
It shows what money is doing to sports. IMHO. Ironically, the same thing that helped build sports in general is now tearing them apart.
CardsSunsDbacks
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I think it's clear that Monty just doesn't trust or believe in Ayton's offense at this point. Realistically he should be making that a legit part of every game plan, especially when other guys don't have it going.
1tinsoldier
Hall of Famer
my main observation is about Monty, but here's all my notes about game 1 of the season:
in my mind, the only time to sit a star player with foul trouble (for 17 minutes in the 1st half) is when you have a good player to back him up (and we don't). To not play Ayton because you're afraid he won't play when he fouls out is a self-fulfilling prophecy. He needs to learn how to work it out sometimes. As it turned out, he only picked up 1 more foul in the next 23 minutes he played.
sadly, like the prior 2 Mav's game, they had us beaten strategically.
The Mavs game-plan is to use collapsing defenses to control Booker and Paul and force the ball into the weakest offensive player's hands. In the playoffs Crowder had the ball too much (in the past teams did it with Kaminsky). It was Landry in the 1st half (though he wasn't too bad). And in the 4th it was Lee -- who came through. But I don't want the ball consistently in our 2nd or 3rd string players with the clock winding down. Figure it out coach! You had 6 months to contemplate those Mavs debacles.
for crucial plays, how many times have we seen Monty just dump the ball to Booker?
seemingly no play of any kind
and Booker dribbles until the defense eventually forces it out of his hands
Booker is good at getting his own shot
but NOT in crunch time when the defense knows we're playing Booker-ball
(in contrast, the Warriors have a collection of plays to free up Curry for good shots)
and why was most clutch-player in the NBA in the past 3 years sitting in the 4th?
sure, he wasn't scoring up to that point but that's nothing new
it's his MO to make the right decisions in the clutch
and Monty and Booker didn't.
we got lucky that Lee bailed us out
we need to play to our strengths
and until proven otherwise this season
those strengths are Booker doing a little of everything but keeping the ball moving and Paul working the ball to Ayton, Cam J, and Bridges -- and Paul closing out games.
yes, i'm worried about what Paul has left in the tank
too often he isn't very productive in the 1st half
so limit him to 6 or 7 minutes per quarter
-- but surely the last 7 minutes of every 4th
i'm disappointed in Monty, but of course, i'm encouraged by the 2nd half result.
on to the next game of the REDEMPTION TOUR...
in my mind, the only time to sit a star player with foul trouble (for 17 minutes in the 1st half) is when you have a good player to back him up (and we don't). To not play Ayton because you're afraid he won't play when he fouls out is a self-fulfilling prophecy. He needs to learn how to work it out sometimes. As it turned out, he only picked up 1 more foul in the next 23 minutes he played.
sadly, like the prior 2 Mav's game, they had us beaten strategically.
The Mavs game-plan is to use collapsing defenses to control Booker and Paul and force the ball into the weakest offensive player's hands. In the playoffs Crowder had the ball too much (in the past teams did it with Kaminsky). It was Landry in the 1st half (though he wasn't too bad). And in the 4th it was Lee -- who came through. But I don't want the ball consistently in our 2nd or 3rd string players with the clock winding down. Figure it out coach! You had 6 months to contemplate those Mavs debacles.
for crucial plays, how many times have we seen Monty just dump the ball to Booker?
seemingly no play of any kind
and Booker dribbles until the defense eventually forces it out of his hands
Booker is good at getting his own shot
but NOT in crunch time when the defense knows we're playing Booker-ball
(in contrast, the Warriors have a collection of plays to free up Curry for good shots)
and why was most clutch-player in the NBA in the past 3 years sitting in the 4th?
sure, he wasn't scoring up to that point but that's nothing new
it's his MO to make the right decisions in the clutch
and Monty and Booker didn't.
we got lucky that Lee bailed us out
we need to play to our strengths
and until proven otherwise this season
those strengths are Booker doing a little of everything but keeping the ball moving and Paul working the ball to Ayton, Cam J, and Bridges -- and Paul closing out games.
yes, i'm worried about what Paul has left in the tank
too often he isn't very productive in the 1st half
so limit him to 6 or 7 minutes per quarter
-- but surely the last 7 minutes of every 4th
i'm disappointed in Monty, but of course, i'm encouraged by the 2nd half result.
on to the next game of the REDEMPTION TOUR...
Last edited:
Peter Sheldon
Veteran
I agree with a lot of this. Especially regarding Book observations. But playing CP3 in the 4th would have been a guaranteed loss in this game IMHO. CP3 showed no ability to pass, shoot or defend all game. I thought Monty finally showed some balls and sat his butt in the 4th. CP3 will be fine against most teams. But not Dallas at all. Maybe true all season against Dallas.
Monty literally just lead the team back to win from a 22 point deficit without chris paul on the floor. Monty is not the problem.
JCSunsfan
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I do not think Monty is the problem. I am fine with him as a coach. However, I cannot watch any interviews with him. The guy talks so slow and pauses in the middle of his sentences so often, it just drives me nuts. Its a wonder he finishes a complete sentence in a time out.
You don't have to wonder. They play his audio during timeouts on broadcasts like last night. I can verify no slow pauses in timeouts.
He’s been ridiculously out coached in the playoffs the last two years.
You can’t ignore that
2 years ago, great run, no answer for yannis on roster
Last year, entire team deflated out of nowhere. Could shoot, couldn't do anything.
Just gonna ignore the outcouching huh.
You literally hear Kidd coaching during their huddles, "attack the rim, they have no shot blockers in the game right now".
Monty..."lets keeping working hard" or something to that affect.
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I don't believe coaching factored into our loss against Milwaukee. I think it clearly was a problem against the Mavericks but it wasn't the only issue. Obviously we'll never know but I'm not sure a great coach could have saved that wreck of a team.
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This might have occurred another time as well, but I heard a comment like this from Monty when the Suns were making their run to win the game.
Oh of course it did. We were up 2-0 then they started trapping Paul and picking him up full court
Once they made adjustments it was up to Monty to counter and he didn’t do anything.
It wasn’t Giannis that beat us it was Holiday and Middleton.
He’s proven he can’t make adjustments. I think Monty is a great coach to get a young team headed in the right direction but he’s not a championship caliber coach
1tinsoldier
Hall of Famer
i agree. he's not a bad coach. he deserved last year's award. but he was also key to us falling short both times
to clarify, btw, his exact words in the 2nd half huddle was "keep doing what your doing." no biggy, but that kind of generality as opposed to detailed direction and play-calling and strategy is his weakness
we eeked out this win in the end because Lee was forced to make some clutch shots at the end of awful possessions
to be fair, it's possible Monty sitting Paul was his counter to Dallas knowing how to contain him
but how is your only solution Cam Payne, after all this time to work on the problem for the first game of the year, especially when Payne was showing even less efficiency than Paul???
not gonna act like the grass is always greener when we were in the finals
DJ Tabooh
Hall of Famer
Booker was a +20 last night and was one of the keys to us getting back into the game after being down 15 in the 4th. He had 9 assists last night. I thought he did a good job of taking what the defense gave him and making the right reads.
Does he at times hold the ball too long…sure you can say that. But he shot 50% from the field and only 2 turnovers. For the first game of the season, I thought he played really well in his 41 minutes. I still think the key to unlocking everything is Bridges. I know he’s got the hardest assignment but he’s gotta become a more consistent scorer especially if CP3 takes a step back.
Hard to adjust when there's no one on the roster who can fill in for DA when he's sitting because of fouls. They won while they had Saric providing some resistance but once he was gone, that was it. Saric was a difference maker in that series. He wasn't huge but all we needed was a few plays a game to go the other way and the Suns win. Saric allowed for that.
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