Pelicans @ Suns 4-5-19

[Suns_fan69]

Jackson may yet turn into the player the Suns thought they drafted.

Ironically I think if he could learn to finish better at the rim on driving layups he would fare even better. He seems to miss a lot of easy baskets that way perhaps on indecision whether to dunk it or lay the ball up. Encouraging is he is shooting .329 from three point range this season.

The 2 main knocks on Jackson on offense is that his 3pt shot isn't consistent and he has trouble finishing at the rim in traffic. Against NO he showed a semblance of a floater and also stopped for turnarounds before getting too deep. He also was making contested 3s. Even against lesser competition it's good to see him making some adjustments.

 

[Superbone]

Randle is a good player and better than anyone that took the court yesterday.

That said, Ouchie is right. Nobody’s performance from games like these matter.

These games between two non playoff teams are less competitive and meaningful than pre season and perhaps even summer league games. Didn’t Alec Peters go off for 40 last season or the year before in this type of game?

Agree to disagree. Randle was not taking the night off.

 

[Mainstreet]

The 2 main knocks on Jackson on offense is that his 3pt shot isn't consistent and he has trouble finishing at the rim in traffic. Against NO he showed a semblance of a floater and also stopped for turnarounds before getting too deep. He also was making contested 3s. Even against lesser competition it's good to see him making some adjustments.

Exactly. Josh showed a nice floater and turn around jump shot so he is making progress. When he shoots in rhythm his shot looks a lot better.

I can't figure out why he can't finish at the rim more consistently. I'm thinking it has something to do with timing. Maybe he will learn some hesitation moves and change of speed moves rather than force it up when the defender is there.

I do not see any physical reason why he cannot dunk the ball. Maybe he rushes things too much at times. He is 100% energy.

 

[BC867]

Regular as clock work McLeod would make lineup changes much like hockey. He believed in platooning to a fault.

I used to crack up at his typical pre-game interviews with Al McCoy. "Al, we last played the Milwaukee Bucks, Al, on January 15th, Al, at which time, Al, they beat us, Al, by a score, Al of 120-89, Al. Here's hoping, Al, we can do better to-nite', Al." "Thanks, Coach, for that great insight." Most of the games were on radio, so we couldn't see if Al was able to keep a straight face.

Minutes later MacLeod would take out his hottest scorer because his allotted minutes were up.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Yeah, I don't totally agree. Bender basically had Randle's number in the 2nd half and OT and Randle is a quality starting PF who the Pelicans featured in this game.

The dude who put up 31 and 12? Eh . . .

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Agree to disagree. Randle was not taking the night off.

You’re right, he didn’t. He outscored his average by 10pts and outrebounded his average by over 3. And you’re bragging about the job bender did on him?

 

[Hoop Head]

You’re right, he didn’t. He outscored his average by 10pts and outrebounded his average by over 3. And you’re bragging about the job bender did on him?

FWIW Bender did a great job on him in the 4th and OT when the game was on the line. Say what you will about his statline but he was basically the only "star" in the game on either team and Bender made sure he wasn't going to beat the Suns. If there was any player that we needed to keep from beating us it was Randle and Bender did that, so I'll give him credit there. I don't expect a quarter of solid play between the 4th and OT to show up in the boxscore.

 

[Superbone]

You’re right, he didn’t. He outscored his average by 10pts and outrebounded his average by over 3. And you’re bragging about the job bender did on him?

Did you watch the game?

 

[Hoop Head]

Did you watch the game?

Not to pick on Ouchie or anyone specifically but I swear that if posters watched the majority of games they posted about then 90% of disagreements here wouldn't take place. I don't mean full games either, even 12 minutes worth of game time would drastically reduce arguments. We're all adults and have lives that keep us from being able to watch 2 hours worth of basketball 3-4 nights a week. I wish the NBA did something like the NFL does how they air replays without all of the no-yardage plays and all of the nonsense before the snap. It allows you to watch an entire football game without missing anything important in less than an hour.

I wish League Pass offered some condensed replay system after the game is over where you input how much time you have to watch and they give you a version of the game in 15, 30, 45, or 60 minutes. There's money to be made in that. I imagine AI could handle cutting most of the footage also.

 

[Hoop Head]

I looked up the play-by-play for the Pelicans game because I was curious when Bender got his blocks. He had 2 going into the 4th quarter and got 5 of them in the 4th and OT. He had 2 in the final 41 seconds of regulation and the 2 he had in OT were in the final 2 minutes of that period. So he was definitely clutch on the defensive end, coming up big when needed.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/pbp/201904050PHO.html#q4

 

[ArizonaSportsFan]

JJ will make large strides at the rim when he finds his left hand. The number of times (all of them) that he comes in to the hoop from the left to lay it up with his right hand - exposing it to deflections and blocks - is baffling.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Guys. Good games this time of year are fools gold. Even Archie has some awesome games during the garbage time of the season.

This is like preseason. These are pre summer league games.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Did you watch the game?

Admittedly only the very end.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

I looked up the play-by-play for the Pelicans game because I was curious when Bender got his blocks. He had 2 going into the 4th quarter and got 5 of them in the 4th and OT. He had 2 in the final 41 seconds of regulation and the 2 he had in OT were in the final 2 minutes of that period. So he was definitely clutch on the defensive end, coming up big when needed.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/pbp/201904050PHO.html#q4

That’s great, but getting back to the central concept being discussed, I still don’t see it being indicative of anything other than bender is capable of playing well against scrubs.

 

[Hoop Head]

That’s great, but getting back to the central concept being discussed, I still don’t see it being indicative of anything other than bender is capable of playing well against scrubs.

His matchup at the end was Randle and he isn't a scrub. It was only one game though so I'm not going to say Bender has finally found his role moving forward because he has done this before, in a way. This was probably his best NBA game so far and I don't think anyone is claiming we need to make it a priority to retain him this summer because of that 1 game either. I'm simply giving credit where it's due for a good outing, which I believe Superbone is also. Because someone is applauded for a good performance in a game thread doesn't mean anymore than they deserve some credit for what they did in that game. I'm not sure why that needs to be explicitly stated.

I know there was some talk of keeping him if he was cheap but that doesn't seem to be what's being discussed, instead it's he only had a good game because the Pelicans suck. The Suns suck and so has Bender for quite some time, it's nice to see him not suck and help win a game.

 

[Krangodnzr]

That’s great, but getting back to the central concept being discussed, I still don’t see it being indicative of anything other than bender is capable of playing well against scrubs.

Heh, it looks to me like he is developing into an average NBA player...finally.