Playoffs: Nuggets @ Suns Thursday game thread 5-11-2023 - Game 6

[Finito]

Denver was the better team it’s not that they won it’s how they won

1 Ty Lue
2 Nick Nurse

In that order.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

So obviously this includes Booker and Durant as well.

Why in the world did the Suns trade for Durant leaving the rest of the team, aside from Booker, looking like a G-League team?

This is funny considering I’m pretty sure you pimped everyone of those players at some time this season. Including saban Lee.

 

[Raindog]

My father was playing me one-on-one in our driveway when I was 18. I knocked him down, he broke his elbow. He went in the house, got a sling. Came back out and beat me with one arm.

My dad has 100x’s the heart of fAykton.

Is your dad Chuck Norris by any chance?

 

[mjb21aztd]

Time to clean out their lockers..... Suns going fishing.

Monty will have all summer to figure out next year's rotation selections.....if anyone is left on the bench to consider.

I like Durant, but sure miss Bridges and Cam Johnson. Young guys with mega potential to build on.

Denver,, Best team won!

They should go to the black river awesome bass fishing...

.maybe monty/da get eaten by a bear

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Not a storybook ending for Al.

I guess it’s apropos for a suns guy.

 

[Finito]

My father was playing me one-on-one in our driveway when I was 18. I knocked him down, he broke his elbow. He went in the house, got a sling. Came back out and beat me with one arm.

My dad has 100x’s the heart of fAykton.

You must really suck at basketball.

Lol jk

 

[Finito]

I hope Denver wins it so the world can see how good Jokic really is

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

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Ayton isn’t the only one taking his ball and going home early

Yup. That’s a pissed off booker.

 

[Hoop Head]

They should go to the black river awesome bass fishing...

.maybe monty/da get eaten by a bear

Oh my. You never fail to crack me up.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Is your dad Chuck Norris by any chance?

he was on the basketball court. Dad had the most lethal elbows in all of Phoenix and didn’t care who took one in the face if it meant getting a better shot or rebound.

 

[DJ Tabooh]

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Ayton isn’t the only one taking his ball and going home early

Yeah I’m disappointed in Book. This is 2 years in a row that we’ve gotten smoked in an elimination game and he no showed. My favorite player. When things get tough, gotta be able to handle the criticism even if he’s not 100 percent.

I believe in you #1. At worst he’s a top 5 Phoenix Sun ever. But if you wanna be legendary…you can’t keep letting this happen.

Winning is HARD. Jordan didn’t win til 26, same as Bron. KD had to go to a super team to win his titles. Will be interesting to see how DBook responds.

I still have faith that he can bring us a title but these last few years have been tough with the Luka drama and now tonight.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

That's a lazy argument. Does losing badly to Denver mean much? What was the value of KD if it wasn't to get us more wins? It's not like he led the Nets to a championship the previous year, the Celtics swept them in four games. Win totals mean a heck of a lot more than loss totals. You can't win a championship without regular season wins and the team with the best regular season record does pretty well in the postseason historically.

Okay KD was 36-13 in games he played this year. Who cares?

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Is your dad Chuck Norris by any chance?

Lol. No. He a 5’10 Jewish surgeon. But he was a very good basketball player. And maybe the single most competitive individual on a court or field I’ve known personally in my entire life.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

You must really suck at basketball.

Lol jk

Admittedly I’ve never been great. But I was a pretty good athlete in my prime. He was just a helluva hoopster.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

he was on the basketball court. Dad had the most lethal elbows in all of Phoenix and didn’t care who took one in the face if it meant getting a better shot or rebound.

And the best up fake I’ve ever seen. Took me YEARS not to fall for it. And if you hadn’t played against him for years he was getting you in the air at his will.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Yeah I’m disappointed in Book. This is 2 years in a row that we’ve gotten smoked in an elimination game and he no showed. My favorite player. When things get tough, gotta be able to handle the criticism even if he’s not 100 percent.

I believe in you #1. At worst he’s a top 5 Phoenix Sun ever. But if you wanna be legendary…you can’t keep letting this happen.

Winning is HARD. Jordan didn’t win til 26, same as Bron. KD had to go to a super team to win his titles. Will be interesting to see how DBook responds.

I still have faith that he can bring us a title but these last few years have been tough with the Luka drama and now tonight.

Book needs to take his medicine too. It does reflect on his career these last two playoff losses

 

[AzStevenCal]

Okay KD was 36-13 in games he played this year. Who cares?

I care. I offered Cam's record with us last year to challenge his statement that we were getting killed on the boards when CamJ played last season. I care a heck of a lot more about wins than I do rebounds whether we're talking CamJ or KD. And I think it's getting lost here but I wanted to trade for KD but only if the price was right.

 

[Cheesebeef]

And the best up fake I’ve ever seen. Took me YEARS not to fall for it. And if you hadn’t played against him for years he was getting you in the air at his will.

That up and under Kevin McHale move was deadly too. Also had a lightning first step for one of the tribe in his late 30’s.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Book needs to take his medicine too. It does reflect on his career these last two playoff losses

Yup.

And that Bucks game 6 stings like a bitch too. Despite Giannis going supernova on us, that game was tight the entire game and winnable but Book stunk in that one too to the tune of 8/22, 0/7 from 3 for only 19 points.

 

[DJ Tabooh]

Yup.

And that Bucks game 6 stings like a bitch too. Despite Giannis going supernova on us, that game was tight the entire game and winnable but Book stunk in that one too to the tune of 8/22, 0/7 from 3 for only 19 points.

I remember he made PJ Tucker touch earth in game 6 but missed the pull up three.

I know we’ve had our back and forths about DBook. Tonight was rough. The team goes as he goes. That shouldn’t take away from how unreal his postseason was.

It just shows you how hard winning is. No one wins without help. Gonna be a longggggggggg offseason.

 

[Raindog]

Yup.

And that Bucks game 6 stings like a bitch too. Despite Giannis going supernova on us, that game was tight the entire game and winnable but Book stunk in that one too to the tune of 8/22, 0/7 from 3 for only 19 points.

And lest we forget, Monty's bonehead move of not calling a timeout on that last run up the court by Booker. I screamed and cursed like a maniac at my television, much to the dismay of my new (at the time) girlfriend.

 

[Phrazbit]

Because you keep ignoring the WAS part which means our old core was fools gold too. What would have staying put accomplished? At least with the Durant trade they swung for the fences. Not sure why that is so difficult to understand.

You act as though it was one or the other. It wasn’t.

We had a ton of flexibility to add to a group that was just a hair short of glory. Instead of using that flexibility they “swung for the fences” destroyed their flexibility, their cap, almost all their draft options and as result we didn’t even improve in the short term.

The odds that the Durant trade will go down as an all time disaster are extremely high right now.

 

[wagonmound464]

The odds that the Durant trade will go down as an all time disaster are extremely high right now.

It sure looks that way now

We expected 30-35 points per night,,high percentage shooting,,good ball handling,,and adequate defensive play from a 7-footer. The past two games those 'hopes' didn't materialize.

KD's post game interview, he said > 'It was embarrassing' [ for him and the fans ]
.

 

[Germz249]

The odds that the Durant trade will go down as an all time disaster are extremely high right now.

I understand where you’re coming from. We did swing for the fence and came up short but there is also no guarantee we would win a championship keeping Bridges.

I am on the side of hey we went for it. Had Bridges drop numbers like he did with the Nets here I would have rather rolled with him and Cam.

Lets just hope we can make some moves this offseason.

 

[Absolute Zero]

I turned the game off as the first half was winding down and fell asleep early watching SNL reruns instead. Our guys just didn't match the energy that Denver brought, punching us in the mouth several times with no real fight in response except from Payne.

I think we can now analyze the big trade. I love KD and am glad he is a Sun. I hope things get better from here. But as it stands right now today after getting eliminated, it was a bad trade. The thing that they didn't think through was the depletion of the roster and how that would effect KD and Book.

Yes we picked up another hall of famer, but we put him and Book in a position where they had to play 40+ minutes in the playoffs which took a cumulative toll. They had no legs in the elimination game. No legs in basketball means you are going to be missing your shots. And if you bring a guy in at the price they gave up for the purpose of winning a title, but put him in a position where he is essentially handicapped by having to play too many minutes, its a bad deal.

We had already lost McGee and Jae with no effective replacement in terms of toughness, grit and D. And then we give up the twins who were our spark and energy. And then you throw in the draft picks we lost, we were shanghaied.

And now we need to make significant roster upgrades which is going to be very challenging. I am sure they will try to move on from DA and CP3 but am really not sure we will be able to get much in return. And despite all the rhetoric on here about those guys, their departure will be a loss.

All is not well in Suns land! But we have been here before. Our owner has a lot of money but he is going to have to learn to be smarter in his moves.