Nets @ Suns Game Thread

[elindholm]

Oh everybody knew....Yeah everyone knows everything after the fact.

You obviously weren't in the draft chat on this board.

 

[Nasser22]

ESPN has not mentioned anything.

Well people found out about it while watching the game on ESPN didn't they? I didn't hear it on FSN and someone from Boston on another message board knew it so I thought it was from that?

 

[Chaplin]

ESPN has not mentioned anything.

Not true, they did point it out after it happened.

Shawn Marion is the most versatile player in the league--he's the only player in the NBA that is in the top 20 of every offensive category. However, he still does not and never will have a stellar basketball IQ. I am so happy that D'Antoni gave him an earful--taking that quick shot and then missing 2 straight free throws? How does one of the best players in the league DO that?

That said, the 4th quarter was a near-collapse, but all-in-all, it was a great defensive performance by the Suns, especially in that first half. Amare was an absolute beast out there. But the same old thing happened, he just doesn't get many touches in the 2nd half. There are so many things we can be doing to stop giving away leads like this, and they are little things, too. We can recognize them, why can't the coaching staff?

 

[pokerface]

Oh everybody knew....Yeah everyone knows everything after the fact.

You obviously weren't in the draft chat on this board.

Maybe so but sometimes everybody is wrong too. The Suns seem to put more faith in proven talent than draft picks...So much more faith that they're willing to pay much higher for the privilage. Hard to fault them for a willingness to spend.

 

[Folster]

They only didn't draft Iggy or Deng because they thought those guys would be gone by the 7th pick. Too bad they didn't wait until the draft to see. Regardless, that season was really exciting and Q was a big part of that.

Yeah because all of the good players are gone before the 7th pick in the draft. Let's see. Amare, Shawn, Nash, Raja, KT, Diaw, Barbosa were all drafted after 7. Do we even have a player that was drafted before 7?

 

[tobiazz]

Not true, they did point it out after it happened.

Sorry, I thought he meant did SportsCenter give details after the game. During the game, they showed D'Antoni yelling at Marion and said they had to be separated or something. No details of what was said though. Probably regarding to Marion's bad clock usage.

 

[Folster]

Maybe so but sometimes everybody is wrong too. The Suns seem to put more faith in proven talent than draft picks...So much more faith that they're willing to pay much higher for the privilage. Hard to fault them for a willingness to spend.

It's easy to fault them considering how how well the Suns draft.

 

[tobiazz]

I wanted them to draft a playmaker, but to succeed on the Suns, a player must be able to shoot from distance. Williams is the worst 3pt shooter in the league, so he would probably not be helping the Suns that much. He would help more than Banks probably, but maybe they thought they could find a decent shooting PG in free agency.

 

[Mainstreet]

Maybe so but sometimes everybody is wrong too. The Suns seem to put more faith in proven talent than draft picks...So much more faith that they're willing to pay much higher for the privilage. Hard to fault them for a willingness to spend.

We basically agree here. I've mentioned before the Suns want more polished players whether it be in the draft or more proven NBA talent. However, what bothers me the most is the Suns scouting may not be as accurate (or perhaps relied upon) the past few years. The Suns could have had PG's Rondo or Marcus Williams in the 2006 draft and Millsap seems to be developing nicely as a rebounding machine in Utah as well. Drafting players later in the draft used to be a Suns' strength.

 

[pokerface]

We basically agree here. I've mentioned before the Suns want more polished players whether it be in the draft or more proven NBA talent. However, what bothers me the most is the Suns scouting may not be as accurate (or perhaps relied upon) the past few years. The Suns could have had PG's Rondo or Marcus Williams in the 2006 draft and Millsap seems to be developing nicely as a rebounding machine in Utah as well. Drafting players later in the draft used to be a Suns' strength.

I guess the Suns looked at this year as "their year" so they didnt want to mess with draft picks even though they've had very good success at drafting. They didnt want to wait or gamble on draft talent this time around.

At least next draft they have abundant picks in a supposedly very deep draft....we'll see what happens.

 

[jbeecham]

Marcus Williams was the best PG in the draft, but he had character issues in college so you knew the Suns weren't going to draft him.

 

[cly2tw]

Marion never passes to Amare! Two times, he passed across the fields for two TOs while Amare was about 5 feet next to him. Oh, wait, he passed to him once and got it back with Amare's beautiful pass for a dunk on his own cut.

Amare's only problem seems to be conditioning. He was able to concentrate and stay on his feet most of the game. His 7 blocks result right from patience and concentration. They did not force-feed him too often, which is good for his comeback. He should try to regain conditioning wihtout having too high of an offensive responsibility.

Diaw just doesn't have confidence in shooting yet. They should have employed the screen and switch to get him some mismatched downlow more like in the playoffs.

Williams was phenomenal for a game, but over the time Banks should prove to be acceptible for his contract.

 

[slinslin]

BTW, unless memory serves me wrong it was cheesebeef betting anything that Marcus Williams would definately be a bust.

Those were just ******** moves, everytime the Suns traded their picks it was a horrible trade pretty much.

Almost everyone in the chat knew we should have picked Marcus Williams.

And how can you trade away a #7 pick for garbage if you dont even know for sure that Iguodala or Deng would be on the board? They were even both available, just a stupid move by Bryan Colangelo.

 

[NastyOne]

has KT impressed anyone this year? hes a foul machine, cant handle a pass and his rebounding is only decent

I pretty much hit the nail on the head during the offseason when i said Kurt Thomas career is going down the drain (Injuries & Age) and we should deal him.

Everyone talked about how important he was to us.

Bet you all wish we could trade Kurt Thomas for Drew Gooden now huh?

 

[Amare32]

know we won but DAMN

Why do we always do this crap, up 17 Vs their bench and only win by 6? while them cutting it to 3..

Letting Williams score 20+ in the 4th? what a joke

we still havn't fixed the problem.

 

[SirStefan32]

They won, but only because the Nets were just terrible.
How is it that they look like the best team I have ever seen in first quarter and then look like a bunch of community college players the rest of the game is just amazing.

They have got to find a way to stop doing this crap- letting teams come back late in the game.

Boris Diaw needs to learn to look for his shot. I swear he could have had 20 points last night if he would take a shot instead of passing the ball.

Banks needs to learn to figure out what he wants to do before he jumps up in the air. I remember three times he jumped up in the air and didn't know what to do with the ball. He turned it over twice and commited one offensive foul.

J. Rose has got to step up. We all know he has it in him, but he is suffering from the Marion syndrome- stand at the three point line and shoot the ball.

It was GREAT, and I mean GREAT to see Amare blocking all kinds of shots. He is absolutely amazing. He had a few mental mistakes but he is looking good.

Bell was looking pretty good too.

I am not too worried as it is early in the season, but I really hope they can figure out a way to avoid those long periods of time with no scoring.

 

[Folster]

Marion never passes to Amare! Two times, he passed across the fields for two TOs while Amare was about 5 feet next to him. Oh, wait, he passed to him once and got it back with Amare's beautiful pass for a dunk on his own cut.

That was a gorgeous pass. I hope they work out their problems.

Amare's only problem seems to be conditioning. He was able to concentrate and stay on his feet most of the game. His 7 blocks result right from patience and concentration. They did not force-feed him too often, which is good for his comeback. He should try to regain conditioning wihtout having too high of an offensive responsibility.

I have also been pleased with his boxing out and rebounding, something I was worried about after the summer league where rebounding seemed not to concern him in the least. Another encouraging thing was that a good number of his blocks were man-up blocks not weak side blocks as you said require patience and concentration.

Diaw just doesn't have confidence in shooting yet. They should have employed the screen and switch to get him some mismatched downlow more like in the playoffs.

Diaw and Banks both.

Williams was phenomenal for a game, but over the time Banks should prove to be acceptible for his contract.

If Banks continues to fail to hit the mid-range jumper he is going to stagnate the offense considerably. Teams will play off of him and dare him to shoot. Juat imagine if Nash couldn't shoot.

 

[sunsfn]

Nash played 40 minutes last night!!
39 minutes against the Hornets,
36 minutes against the Warriors.

They have to do something about this soon.

In the game last night, there were a few times that Banks looked like he had never been on a basketball court before!

Jalen Rose only played 7 minutes. D'Antoni must think he does not know the suns style yet.

On a positive note, the suns won and Amare looked great compared to his last couple games.

 

[Nasser22]

I pretty much hit the nail on the head during the offseason when i said Kurt Thomas career is going down the drain (Injuries & Age) and we should deal him.

Everyone talked about how important he was to us.

Bet you all wish we could trade Kurt Thomas for Drew Gooden now huh?

I'm pretty happy with his highest FG% in the league right now and he's still playing solid D. His problem is he can't jump but he's been a good contributor. And it'll be good to have a tough veteran player on this team for the playoffs.

 

[elindholm]

Bet you all wish we could trade Kurt Thomas for Drew Gooden now huh?

I'd rather have traded him for Duncan, which was about as likely.

 

[jbeecham]

The Suns looked tired in the 4th, they got very little bench production so the starters logged heavy minutes. LB being out is hurting them as well. Banks had some nice moments out there, but they all came when Nash was in the game and he was playing SG. When Nash was on the bench and Banks had to run the offense, our offense went stagnant as they dared Banks to shoot outside jumpers (which he bricked).

I don't know what's wrong with our bench........KT needs to play with Nash because no one else gets him wide open 15ft jumpers. Rose looks like he doesn't know what he should be doing out there so he just stands around behind the 3pt line. James Jones takes bad shots over and over, the only shot he ever makes is a set shot 3ptr, his moving turnaround jumper he keeps trying hasn't gone in once this year. At least James hustles on defense, but if he's a negative on offense then he's not really helping us.

 

[elindholm]

Jones is shooting 4-23 (17%) on two-point attempts this season. That's not good.

 

[jbeecham]

Jones is shooting 4-23 (17%) on two-point attempts this season. That's not good.

and those were probaly all layups/dunks and maybe a catch and shoot 18ft shot.

 

[Ronin]

If anybody was wondering the Suns gave up 19 offensive rebounds to the New Jersey Nets. The Nets are the third worst offensive rebounding team in the league.

Defensive rebounding, the Suns are 12th in the League

 

[msdundee]

I'm pretty happy with his highest FG% in the league right now and he's still playing solid D. His problem is he can't jump but he's been a good contributor. And it'll be good to have a tough veteran player on this team for the playoffs.

Agreed, and those are all the reasons he's here. KT's value to the team doesn't always show on the stats and attention is usually focused elsewhere when he's in the game. He's doesn't get the ball that often -- when he does, he's got a nice dependable jump shot. Kurt came back this year in great shape and he's doing exactly what he's supposed to do.

It's good to see Diaw and Amare finding a little chemistry too. That has the potential for some real damage in the post.