Nobody is questioning if he knows the team better but there are certain areas the team didn't excel in when he shortened his bench. The stats don't lie. The Suns got killed on the boards last game and it almost cost us the game. Can they win? Sure but it sure seems like the Suns make it harder on themselves sometimes. If you look at most of the games the Suns have struggled in? They gave up a ton of second chance pints. Small ball doesn't alleviate that at all.
Yet he left Biyombo on the bench. He left Frank on the bench during last year's playoffs. Again, look at the games we lost or were too close for comfort. You will see a pattern in terms of giving up second chance points.
That didn't change when they went small. They had their chances in that stretch. Basically, we just outscored them which worked but didn't solve the problem and could have backfired. Once again it's the team's clutch play in the final minutes that saved them.
It wasn't just about last night, Biyombo has played slightly less than 26 minutes over the last 9 games.
I went back to look at the offensive rebounds Phoenix gave up and the majority were because guards/forwards were not boxing out well: NBA.com video box score
It's amazing how this team can be so dominate on the inside night in and night out but yet at times this season just get absolutely worked on the boards and give up a ton of second chance points. When that happens this team really struggles. Thank goodness it doesn't happen that often.
So we dominated the boards when we went small? Didn't give up second chance points? No we didn't. It didn't solve the problem. Also, I don't believe we still wouldn't have won the game had Biyombo been given time. Who knows. Like I said, Houston still had their chances down the stretch.
Winning the game and solving the problem that got us there are two different things which is the point I was making. The Suns are always going to have a chance to win if they continue to play clutch down the stretch. It's who this team is playing big or not this season. We just didn't get to see if Biyombo could have impacted the game or not. He has played very little as of late.
Rebounding and second chance points make some of these games closer than they need to be. In our losses we struggle there. We know the Suns won. The Suns just sometimes make it harder than it needs to be. Clutch play is great and all but I wouldn't mind seeing more blowouts. Small ball isn't going to get us more rebounds or reduce other teams second chance points. In this case it sparked some offense and worked. It's just not something that is going to solve where the team struggles sometimes.
It was our biggest weakness last year. Get DA in foul trouble and pound the offensive glass. Brook Lopez, Giannis, and even Middleton and Jrue are great rebounders.
AD is perpetually injured. Kyrie while a great scorer doesn’t necessarily effect winning and he’s not a good defender and older. We have to remember Book is only 25. Steph won MVP at 27-28. He’s still growing. He can be 50-40-90 if he takes shots within the flow instead of forcing it. But make no mistake, Devin Booker is the best 2 guard in basketball. He’s a dawg.
Oh I agree with you there. I think it can spark things for sure. I just don't want to see Monty not go deep into the bench when there are options for the sake of shortening the bench.
His improvement on the other end can't be stated enough. During the Clippers game he got burned a couple times and was visibly upset during the commercial break. So much so that it looked like Bridges and Paul were talking him down. He went out after that got a steal, deflection and fought for a defensive rebound. He wants to get better there. Not sure I could say that when he entered the league.
It wasn't really a weakness against the Bucks until our guards came up injured. Prior to that CP3, Booker and Payne made them pay if they put Lopez or Portis out there with Giannis.
