Suns Are Markedly Better Than in the Playoffs

[Dr. Jones]

Curious, how far away is he, and what does he need to do to reach that level?

I am not sure he can personally.

He didn't come in with any transcendent skills. But man does he work and grind. A born scorer without a true 42 to 43% three point game.

KD has wingspan, and height to go with Laser shooting accuracy. Shots are clean from anywhere and he defends like a demon.
Giannis is a DPOY with the most athletic game I have ever seen. He takes two strides for the three point line to dunk. The most physically dominant player since Shaq.
Steph has HOF handles and is the greatest shooter of all time. When he's off, we win. If he goes nuclear, we are in trouble.
AD (when healthy) is my #4.
Lillard can take over as well. Maybe better than Steph when he is truly on.

Booker may be more like Klay IMO. But before injury, Klay was a superior defender even though Book has closed the gap.

 

[Chaplin]

I thought the exact same thing last year. Then the Bucks swept us out.

Again..... Giannis had 40 and 50 in two of the three Bucks home games. Middleton went for 40 in the other.

Well...... He's a stud for sure. But he hasn't shown the gear I speak of. Is he a top 12 player in the league? yes. But the delta between Steph, Giannis, KD, Lebron, healthy AD, and the rest of the league is much wider when it comes to this inner circle HOF'er gear IMO.

Again, We were swept out of the finals last year.

Everything needs to go perfect health wise. Especially with Booker & Paul to be the well oiled super deep super squad.

Yes the Bucks beat us last year winning four straight. But you can’t ignore that we had no size and CP3 was injured. Plus we are significantly better this year than last.

By the time the finals comes around the East teams will have beaten each other to a pulp. I seriously will not expect the same type of collapse this year.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Can I say Borg? haha

Resistance is Futile.

we'll bring ya over on the politics board eventually, too .

 

[Cheesebeef]

I am not sure he can personally.

He didn't come in with any transcendent skills. But man does he work and grind. A born scorer without a true 42 to 43% three point game.

KD has wingspan, and height to go with Laser shooting accuracy. Shots are clean from anywhere and he defends like a demon.
Giannis is a DPOY with the most athletic game I have ever seen. He takes two strides for the three point line to dunk. The most physically dominant player since Shaq.
Steph has HOF handles and is the greatest shooter of all time. When he's off, we win. If he goes nuclear, we are in trouble.
AD (when healthy) is my #4.
Lillard can take over as well. Maybe better than Steph when he is truly on.

Booker may be more like Klay IMO. But before injury, Klay was a superior defender even though Book has closed the gap.

see, I think he's better than Klay. Pre-Injury Klay anyway. That dude was a much better shooter, but I think Book is the better overall scorer and playmaker.

 

[Chaplin]

see, I think he's better than Klay. Pre-Injury Klay anyway. That dude was a much better shooter, but I think Book is the better overall scorer and playmaker.

And now, defender.

 

[Cheesebeef]

And now, defender.

yeah, but if we're talking peak, Klay was better on D also. Booker has made HUGE strides defensively and I think can actually be called flat out good at this point. But pre-injury Klay was a great defensive player. Book has a little ways to go to reach that level.

it's why I don't see them as all that similar. they've got much different strengths to their respective games.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

No one is beating the Suns in 7 games if CP3 and Booker are healthy

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

I am not sure he can personally.

He didn't come in with any transcendent skills. But man does he work and grind. A born scorer without a true 42 to 43% three point game.

KD has wingspan, and height to go with Laser shooting accuracy. Shots are clean from anywhere and he defends like a demon.
Giannis is a DPOY with the most athletic game I have ever seen. He takes two strides for the three point line to dunk. The most physically dominant player since Shaq.
Steph has HOF handles and is the greatest shooter of all time. When he's off, we win. If he goes nuclear, we are in trouble.
AD (when healthy) is my #4.
Lillard can take over as well. Maybe better than Steph when he is truly on.

Booker may be more like Klay IMO. But before injury, Klay was a superior defender even though Book has closed the gap.

I agree book isn’t those guys. But he’s also a good deal above even a healthy klay. Klay can’t create like Booker.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

see, I think he's better than Klay. Pre-Injury Klay anyway. That dude was a much better shooter, but I think Book is the better overall scorer and playmaker.

Borg again

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

No one is beating the Suns in 7 games if CP3 and Booker are healthy

I kinda think this is true

 

[JCSunsfan]

I agree book isn’t those guys. But he’s also a good deal above even a healthy klay. Klay can’t create like Booker.

And the sports media types are now calling him a superstar. At least StephenA is.

 

[Covert Rain]

I simply know better than to compare the regular season to the playoffs. Have seen it happen so many times that the game just plays different. I think they are better and deeper this regular season with zero doubt. They are. The team despite adversity was pretty resilient last year during the playoffs. They just kept finding ways to win. I can buy that people think they will be a better playoff team this year but so will other teams. I am just going to keep separating the two.

 

[JCSunsfan]

I simply know better than to compare the regular season to the playoffs. Have seen it happen so many times that the game just plays different. I think they are better and deeper this regular season with zero doubt. They are. The team despite adversity was pretty resilient last year during the playoffs. They just kept finding ways to win. I can buy that people think they will be a better playoff team this year but so will other teams. I am just going to keep separating the two.

This team is built for the playoffs. They will be a better playoff team. However other teams will be better playoff teams this year as well. Injuries played a big factor last year.

 

[Mainstreet]

This team is built for the playoffs. They will be a better playoff team. However other teams will be better playoff teams this year as well. Injuries played a big factor last year.

People forget the Suns had injuries of their own to Booker, Payne, Paul and losing Dario Saric in the Finals.

 

[Covert Rain]

People forget the Suns had injuries of their own to Booker, Payne, Paul and losing Dario Saric in the Finals.

Only non-Suns fans forget. However, JC is right. Other teams were hurt too. Not to mention some pretty big pieces to their lineups. I think the Suns being better is going to be offset a bit come playoff time. It's a different beast. To me if the Suns make another run to the finals? It's going to be all about the depth on this team.

 

[Mainstreet]

Only non-Suns fans forget. However, JC is right. Other teams were hurt too. Not to mention some pretty big pieces to their lineups. I think the Suns being better is going to be offset a bit come playoff time. It's a different beast. To me if the Suns make another run to the finals? It's going to be all about the depth on this team.

The depth of the Suns will be a huge ingredient for them especially the way they play.

They keep grinding away and and coming at teams even when the bench enters the game.

No doubt the Suns bench is much deeper this season. The key will be Monty trusting the depth in the playoffs.

 

[Covert Rain]

The depth of the Suns will be a huge ingredient for them especially the way they play.

They keep grinding away and and coming at teams even when the bench enters the game.

No doubt the Suns bench is much deeper this season. The key will be Monty trusting the depth in the playoffs.

Most coaches shorten the bench come playoff time. I hope Monty doesn't go too far with that because the depth on this team is the huge difference this year.

 

[Mainstreet]

Most coaches shorten the bench come playoff time. I hope Monty doesn't go too far with that because the depth on this team is the huge difference this year.

Last night, before the Suns went small, I thought they could have used Biyombo when they were being outrebounded by the Rockets. I hope this is not an indication Monty wants to shorten his rotation with so many games left.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Last night, before the Suns went small, I thought they could have used Biyombo when they were being outrebounded by the Rockets. I hope this is not an indication Monty wants to shorten his rotation with so many games left.

Somehow, he just seems to forget about rotation players. I don't know if that's what happened with Biyombo but Monty has admitted to this multiple times in the past.

 

[Mainstreet]

Somehow, he just seems to forget about rotation players. I don't know if that's what happened with Biyombo but Monty has admitted to this multiple times in the past.

This should be one of the duties of the assistant coaches like Kevin Young.

I know Jae Crowder has raised strategy issues before to Monty.

 

[Covert Rain]

Last night, before the Suns went small, I thought they could have used Biyombo when they were being outrebounded by the Rockets. I hope this is not an indication Monty wants to shorten his rotation with so many games left.

Him not using Biyombo has actually drawn league wide attention. I have read or heard a couple different shows mention it. Let's not all forget almost this entire forum was screaming to see Frank in rotation during that run.

 

[Mainstreet]

Him not using Biyombo has actually drawn league wide attention. I have read or heard a couple different shows mention it.

I missed the attention outside the forum but it's very noticeable as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Somehow, he just seems to forget about rotation players. I don't know if that's what happened with Biyombo but Monty has admitted to this multiple times in the past.

We only played our bigs 38 minutes total. So I don’t think he forgot, I think he decided to strategically go small. The issue is that our smalls tend to get rebounded by opposition smalls that are athletic and crash the boards.

Also both Ayton and mcgee being unable to take advantage and kill the smaller squad on the offensive boards was a tremendous disappointment last night. It should’ve been a night where Ayton threatened 30 and 15 but ended up with 23 and 9 and was basically somewhat offset by by their lone 7 footer.

 

[Mainstreet]

We only played our bigs 38 minutes total. So I don’t think he forgot, I think he decided to strategically go small. The issue is that our smalls tend to get rebounded by opposition smalls that are athletic and crash the boards.

Also both Ayton and mcgee being unable to take advantage and kill the smaller squad on the offensive boards was a tremendous disappointment last night. It should’ve been a night where Ayton threatened 30 and 15 but ended up with 23 and 9 and was basically somewhat offset by by their lone 7 footer.

I did notice when Monty went small it was successful.

He did it in another game where it seemed counterintuitive and it worked then as well.

I do know the Suns big men were getting outworked by the smaller Rockets when they built leads.

 

[Covert Rain]

We only played our bigs 38 minutes total. So I don’t think he forgot, I think he decided to strategically go small. The issue is that our smalls tend to get rebounded by opposition smalls that are athletic and crash the boards.

Also both Ayton and mcgee being unable to take advantage and kill the smaller squad on the offensive boards was a tremendous disappointment last night. It should’ve been a night where Ayton threatened 30 and 15 but ended up with 23 and 9 and was basically somewhat offset by by their lone 7 footer.

They definitely do and we scraped by in this game. To me it made no sense not using Biyombo. This is what I was referring to above. Fans here were screaming when the team was getting killed on the boards and struggling inside and Frank just lingered on the bench round after round. It's one thing that really bugs me about Monty. With our deep bench I don't want that to be an issue this playoff run.