Suns at Rockets Game Thread

[Cheesebeef]

And constant bitching isn't going to bring a title to the desert. Or change the way we are coached. Or change our thrifty ownership. Or change our players.

It's just a game Fokker. If you can't be entertained when we are winning then you should seriously consider allocating your free time to something more productive.

Chris do you really want a board with 5 thumbs up posts? If you want the site to have tumbleweed blowing through it, that's your perogative, but a) I'm pretty sure that ain't good for the overall health of the site and b) it's the freaking internet man... complaining comes with the territory. Now, if you'd rather not read that kind of stuff, you seriously consider turning off your browser, thus allocating your free time to do something more productive.

 

[az1965]

Chris do you really want a board with 5 thumbs up posts? If you want the site to have tumbleweed blowing through it, that's your perogative, but a) I'm pretty sure that ain't good for the overall health of the site and b) it's the freaking internet man... complaining comes with the territory. Now, if you'd rather not read that kind of stuff, you seriously consider turning off your browser, thus allocating your free time to do something more productive.

My thoughts exactly...

 

[Bufalay]

My thoughts on the game:


2. Hill continues to shine. Someone compared him to JJ, but he's well beyond JJ territory, in my mind. A giant boost.

Joe Johnson, not James Jones.

 

[arwillan]

hill is playing like Joe right now, if you trade some 3's (Joe) for some midrange/foul shots. defense is good, passing is good, leadership is good. keep it up grant

 

[YouJustGotSUNSD]

November 17th, 2007

Grant Hill - 43
Shawn Marion - 42
Leandro Barbosa - 41
Steve Nash - 36


We can all hold hands and say how good it feels to win, or we can open our eyes and realize this RIDICULOUS amount of minutes for these players is unacceptable and doomed for failure.

Amare Stoudemire has officially contracted the Mark West curse. It is time to exorcise the demons.

Sean Marks is nowhere to be seen this season. We re-signed him and were told he was going to surprise us this season. He played great in preseason.

I think we should be relying on our rookies in the early regular season so we dont have to rely on them in the postseason.

If raja's foot is slow to heal, amare's knee swells up again, and nash's ribs/shoulder simply crumble, we will be officially FUBAR if we have to use our stagnant bench.

What happened to playing banks nightly to raise his trade value or get some worth out of his contract?

I enjoyed the ride last year, but I thought it was too short. The Suns said they were going to change it this year and I expect it to be longer, but the ride feels the same so far.

Im spoiled.


P.S. Watched the game at Majerle's tonight. Airhead waitresses didnt even know there was a game on, had to ask them to change the channel from college ball...

Saw the Trans-Siberian Orchestra tonight. Amazing concert.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

Chris do you really want a board with 5 thumbs up posts? If you want the site to have tumbleweed blowing through it, that's your perogative, but a) I'm pretty sure that ain't good for the overall health of the site and b) it's the freaking internet man... complaining comes with the territory. Now, if you'd rather not read that kind of stuff, you seriously consider turning off your browser, thus allocating your free time to do something more productive.

Believe it or not you can actually say good and bad things at the same time. Nothing has to be black and white, completely positive or negative. There are those (and no it's not you cheese) who seem to have nothing good to say about the Suns anymore.

 

[arwillan]

Believe it or not you can actually say good and bad things at the same time. Nothing has to be black and white, completely positive or negative. There are those (and no it's not you cheese) who seem to have nothing good to say about the Suns anymore.

well said. because of the past 2 years, people have just let themselves believe that it will happen all over again and that any signs of light from this team are just those flashes they see every year. i for one believe this is the year. i can't say we are ready to play the finals this very moment, but i have a feeling we will win it this year.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

You can't become too focused on the Suns minutes for one game. You have to look at season averages. We were down a starter so others picked up the slack.

Grant Hill 35.1 minutes, career 36.9
Barbosa 32.6 minutes, career 25.4
Marion 37.1 minutes, career 37.9
Nash 33.6 minutes, career 30.5
Stoudemire 25.8 minutes, career 33.7
Diaw 32.2 minutes, career 28.0

Really the only guy playing high minutes is Marion but it is right at his career averages. Barbosa's and Diaw's minutes are up but that is because of injuries to Amare and Bell.

If you cut right to the real point, it is that you as fans want to see Strawberry and Tucker play and that is why you are complaining about the minutes. You might see Strawberry play at some point, but the Suns have been pretty open with how far behind Tucker is compared to Strawberry.

 

[elindholm]

Believe it or not you can actually say good and bad things at the same time. Nothing has to be black and white, completely positive or negative. There are those (and no it's not you cheese) who seem to have nothing good to say about the Suns anymore.

But pointing to the W-L record isn't much of a rebuttal. I think we've all figured out that true contenders use the regular season as warmup for the playoffs. Are the Suns doing that right now? It sure doesn't look like it. Their level of play, regardless of the result, hasn't been high enough to constitute a serious playoff threat. They can win 60 or 65 or 70 regular season games, but that doesn't mean they're prepared for the playoffs.

From what I've been able to see so far this season -- which I'll admit isn't much, although I did watch the entire game tonight -- the Suns simply aren't an elite team right now. The Hornets have a great record too, and no one considers them title contenders.

 

[YouJustGotSUNSD]

well said. because of the past 2 years, people have just let themselves believe that it will happen all over again and that any signs of light from this team are just those flashes they see every year. i for one believe this is the year. i can't say we are ready to play the finals this very moment, but i have a feeling we will win it this year.

I must admit I lack that feeling at this point in time. It will probably come in Jan/Feb

 

[YouJustGotSUNSD]

You can't become too focused on the Suns minutes for one game. You have to look at season averages. We were down a starter so others picked up the slack.

Grant Hill 35.1 minutes, career 36.9
Barbosa 32.6 minutes, career 25.4
Marion 37.1 minutes, career 37.9
Nash 33.6 minutes, career 30.5
Stoudemire 25.8 minutes, career 33.7
Diaw 32.2 minutes, career 28.0

Really the only guy playing high minutes is Marion but it is right at his career averages. Barbosa's and Diaw's minutes are up but that is because of injuries to Amare and Bell.

If you cut right to the real point, it is that you as fans want to see Strawberry and Tucker play and that is why you are complaining about the minutes. You might see Strawberry play at some point, but the Suns have been pretty open with how far behind Tucker is compared to Strawberry.

I feel my point is we saw how well Skinner can do with extra minutes. Why not disperse Bells minutes to the bench which would be a much wiser long term investment.

Grant Hill should not be playing 40+ in November. There's no point to cut to. Thats the biggest point of them all.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

As far as Banks playing, in his last 22 minutes of play, Banks has went 0-6, with no steals, assists, or rebounds.

You wonder why he isn't playing?

In fact, in the 7 games that Banks has played in he has a grand total of 6 assists (4 of those coming in one game). That is in 72 minutes of NBA play.

 

[Cheesebeef]

You can't become too focused on the Suns minutes for one game. You have to look at season averages. We were down a starter so others picked up the slack.

Grant Hill 35.1 minutes, career 36.9

Really the only guy playing high minutes is Marion but it is right at his career averages. Barbosa's and Diaw's minutes are up but that is because of injuries to Amare and Bell.

If you cut right to the real point, it is that you as fans want to see Strawberry and Tucker play and that is why you are complaining about the minutes.

come on Chris - it's not that people want to see Strawberry and Tucker play - it's that they want to see Grant Hill PLAY IN JUNE AND BE FRESH. citing Hill's career numbers as proof that he's not playing too many minutes is just flat out a BAD argument and you know it considering that the overwhelming majority of those "career" numbers you just posted from Hill occured 7-12 years ago, not to mention the guy's 35 with a history of breaking down. Posting the above without taking into consideration who Hill really is and where the career minutes number comes from is specious at best. And he's the guy everyone's worried about (or at least I am).

 

[Chris_Sanders]

come on Chris - citing Hill's career numbers as proof that he's not playing too many minutes is just flat out, a BAD argument and you know it considering that the overwhelming majority of those "career" numbers you just posted from Hill occured 7-12 years ago, not to mention the guy's 35 with a history of breaking down. Posting the above without taking into consideration who Hill really is and where the career minutes number comes from is specious at best. And he's the guy everyone's worried about (or at least I am).

Hill averaged 34.9 minutes 3 years ago in Orlando and 30.9 minutes last year. He basically missed a season between that.

 

[Rab]

I do think minutes is a legit concern. You can only hope that Grant's minutes will be cut a bit when Raja returns.

Did DA even make a substitution in the 3rd? I was half watching the game, half playing with my daughter. I swear I saw the same guys in the whole quarter, except maybe Diaw.

Other than that, I think they're playing better. They're still 8-2 even not clicking on all cylinders and not being healthy. They have a high ceiling IMO, especially if they could nab PJ later on, or play Skinner a little more.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

Skinner could certainly use some extra minutes. He has been productive in what time he has had.

How about this...when/if Grant Hill breaks down, then we can see what his minutes are at before we have a hissy fit.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

Interesting stat of the night. Ming was -13 in a paltry 22 minutes.

I will be ecstatic if we play the Rockets in the playoffs.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Hill averaged 34.9 minutes 3 years ago in Orlando and 30.9 minutes last year. He basically missed a season between that.

right, three years ago, at age 32, and his body only let him play 65 games before he went on to miss the entire next season and then he came back and played in less minutes the next season and still missed 17 games. And now, three years later and new injuries later, he playing more time than he has in 7 years.

There's a reason the Spurs are always in great shape come the playoffs Chris. and it ain't because Pop runs them into the ground during the regular season to get them there.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

How about this...when/if Grant Hill breaks down, then we can see what his minutes are at before we have a hissy fit.

Appharently you don't agree.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Skinner could certainly use some extra minutes. He has been productive in what time he has had.

How about this...when/if Grant Hill breaks down, then we can see what his minutes are at before we have a hissy fit.

Right - because there won't be a plethora of posts from people like you saying: What will complaining about it accomplish? I'm sick of hearing about people complaining about Grant Hill going down.

Give me a break Chris. We're talking about this now because WE DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT LATER.

Again, maybe, just maybe, Greg Popovich knows what he's doing limiting the older players minutes on his team so they're actually fresh come playoff time. But hey, what the hell does he know that DA and you don't. I mean, he's only won 4 NBA titles and routinley kicks our ass when it counts.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

You realize that Tim Duncan played 39 minutes the night before when they played the Rockets right? LOL

 

[Cheesebeef]

You realize that Tim Duncan played 39 minutes the night before when they played the Rockets right? LOL

you realize that a) 39 minutes was his season high (as opposed to what's becoming the norm for Grant Hill) b) Duncan's only playing 33 minutes/game for the season c) Duncan isn't 35 years old and d) Duncan doesn't have a ridiculously long history of injuries and hasn't missed 5 of his last seven, while missing 20 games in the two seasons he was "healthy", right? LOL

 

[azirish]

I would like to see one of the other guards get some minutes, but right now the Suns are short handed without Bell.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

Anyway,

When you look at the games that the Suns have actually had their top 7 guys the minutes are pretty reasonable. Unfortunately that has only been 4 out of the 10 games they have played.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

you realize that a) 39 minutes was his season high (as opposed to what's becoming the norm for Grant Hill) b) Duncan's only playing 33 minutes/game for the season c) Duncan isn't 35 years old and d) Duncan doesn't have a ridiculously long history of injuries and hasn't missed 5 of his last seven, while missing 20 games in the two seasons he was "healthy", right? LOL

Yeah, I just thought it was overall funny. What's with your habit of repeating my last couple words anyway? It's kind of childish.