Suns @ Kings Friday game thread 3-24-2023

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Mainstreet

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It would be stupid to fire Monty Williams. Just like it was stupid to Fire D'Antoni.

I was a huge fan of Mike D'Antoni. I think his style of play was ahead of it's time but unfortunately he never embraced defense.
 

Bufalay

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I was a huge fan of Mike D'Antoni. I think his style of play was ahead of it's time but unfortunately he never embraced defense.
I wasn't even a huge fan of his, but the team sucked no matter who their coach was after him. The team just wasn't very good.

Monty Williams has proven that he is likely good enough to win a championship and therefore I think it would be dumb to fire him. It's not like he's too old and past his prime like a player. They should just keep him for the next 20 years.

Good coaches can lose lots of games if their players suck (see the Spurs).
 

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If the Suns don’t make it out of the west I would assume Ishbia shakes it up. He shipped out two fan favorites his first day on the job and wouldn’t think twice about cleaning out the front office. I suppose the only question is how much of a fan of Monty is Isiah Thomas?
 
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I wasn't even a huge fan of his, but the team sucked no matter who their coach was after him. The team just wasn't very good.

Monty Williams has proven that he is likely good enough to win a championship and therefore I think it would be dumb to fire him. It's not like he's too old and past his prime like a player. They should just keep him for the next 20 years.

Good coaches can lose lots of games if their players suck (see the Spurs).

Certainly, the Suns GM did Monty no favors this past summer and weakened the Suns depth both now and in the future.

Fans may soon miss those 50 plus win seasons.
 
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If the Suns don’t make it out of the west I would assume Ishbia shakes it up. He shipped out two fan favorites his first day on the job and wouldn’t think twice about cleaning out the front office. I suppose the only question is how much of a fan of Monty is Isiah Thomas?

Ishbia may want to look in the mirror first and consider buying a foam finger.
 

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I've been saying the issue is talent or lack thereof on the Suns side with key players out. I've tried to make that clear enough.

Dude it’s not talent we have talent. This team is a mess with no direction.

We even had these horrible stretches when Bridges and Cam were here.

It’s pretty damn obvious what the problem is.
 
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Dude it’s not talent we have talent. This team is a mess with no direction.

We even had these horrible stretches when Bridges and Cam were here.

It’s pretty damn obvious what the problem is.

Maybe you are overestimating the talent the Suns are putting on the court right now.

I think not having Durant and Ayton has a lot to do with it.

It's not just missing Bridges and Cam Johnson. The Suns never replaced Crowder, Saric or even found an alternative for Cam Payne.
 

AzStevenCal

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Dude it’s not talent we have talent. This team is a mess with no direction.

We even had these horrible stretches when Bridges and Cam were here.

It’s pretty damn obvious what the problem is.
Really? When? We had these stretches when Bridges was here but it wasn't due to Mikal, it was due to the rotating cast of teammates he was left with thanks to so many injuries. Even Booker has failed to carry the team when he's been straddled with inferior talent.

When CamJ was still here we had a pretty good record (6-2) but then he went out for 39 games, shortly after Cam's exit CP3 went out and then Booker went out and Ayton missed a handful of games and CamP went out and even some of our G League level players went down with injuries. Anyway, by my count, from the bubble on, we are 120-49 in games CamJ played for us including postseason. It's tough to find or make a big deal about any so-called bad stretches with him.
 

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Dude it’s not talent we have talent. This team is a mess with no direction.

We even had these horrible stretches when Bridges and Cam were here.

It’s pretty damn obvious what the problem is.
Are we talking about the horrible stretches that led to the Finals or the best record in the League because I get them confused (I smoke so much weed) or are we talking about the horrible stretches that every team in the League has (again, lot's of weed) and will always have. I think this is when the massive fail choke job in the playoffs TWO YEARS IN A ROW! gets mentioned even though there are 15 teams that lose in the playoffs every year and only one winner. That the best team doesn't always win the championship, lots of **** has to go your way. And how young teams usually have to make the climb a few times before making it to the top. But back to Monty, who will most likely be our head coach for the foreseeable future, I don't think he's had a healthy roster in like 40 or so games, wait I forgot he had 3 of them :D my bad, you know, all the weed
 

Finito

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Maybe you are overestimating the talent the Suns are putting on the court right now.

I think not having Durant and Ayton has a lot to do with it.

It's not just missing Bridges and Cam Johnson. The Suns never replaced Crowder, Saric or even found an alternative for Cam Payne.

Listen Crowder never even played this year and Saric hasn’t been a factor for 2 years.

Like I said we had really bad stretches with Bridges and Cam this year. The entire team including Booker have regressed. It’s very clear Monty doesn’t have this team’s attention
 

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Really? When? We had these stretches when Bridges was here but it wasn't due to Mikal, it was due to the rotating cast of teammates he was left with thanks to so many injuries. Even Booker has failed to carry the team when he's been straddled with inferior talent.

When CamJ was still here we had a pretty good record (6-2) but then he went out for 39 games, shortly after Cam's exit CP3 went out and then Booker went out and Ayton missed a handful of games and CamP went out and even some of our G League level players went down with injuries. Anyway, by my count, from the bubble on, we are 120-49 in games CamJ played for us including postseason. It's tough to find or make a big deal about any so-called bad stretches with him.

I’m talking about THIS YEAR and you know right I’m sorry we’ve looked great all year no problems at all.

Injuries are clearly the only thing to blame for this team being so up and down this year.

I don’t even have the energy for this Suns board anymore.
 

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Listen Crowder never even played this year and Saric hasn’t been a factor for 2 years.

Like I said we had really bad stretches with Bridges and Cam this year. The entire team including Booker have regressed. It’s very clear Monty doesn’t have this team’s attention
Booker 30+ a game with over 60% shooting percentage is regressing??
 

Finito

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Booker 30+ a game with over 60% shooting percentage is regressing??

Last year he was a much better all around player I think he finished 1st or 2nd defensively at shooting guard

His clutch stats were much much better last year to
 

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I wasn't even a huge fan of his, but the team sucked no matter who their coach was after him. The team just wasn't very good.
Huh? The less talented 2010 team with Gentry coaching them was just as good and got just as far (Game 6 WCF) as any much more talented DA team did, while also finally not being the Spurs bitch.
 

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Listen Crowder never even played this year and Saric hasn’t been a factor for 2 years.

Like I said we had really bad stretches with Bridges and Cam this year. The entire team including Booker have regressed. It’s very clear Monty doesn’t have this team’s attention

Only Paul has regressed, which was to be expected. Booker, Bridges and Cam all were having career years. We were 13-4 with Bridges and Cam in the lineup, we were 15-6 prior to getting obliterated by the injury bug, as the team started getting healthy again we were 9-2 leading up to the deadline.

Almost all of our problems, all year long, were because of injury.
 

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Huh? The less talented 2010 team with Gentry coaching them was just as good and got just as far (Game 6 WCF) as any much more talented DA team did, while also finally not being the Spurs bitch.

Yeah, Gentry did a great job that year. He trusted his bench in a way D'Antoni never did and it was a huge factor in the success that season.

The only thing I really miss about Mike D was that he was a good emotional catalyst for the team. He knew when to get fired up, knew when to scream at the refs and knew that sometimes he needed to get a T.
 

Finito

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Only Paul has regressed, which was to be expected. Booker, Bridges and Cam all were having career years. We were 13-4 with Bridges and Cam in the lineup, we were 15-6 prior to getting obliterated by the injury bug, as the team started getting healthy again we were 9-2 leading up to the deadline.

Almost all of our problems, all year long, were because of injury.

Bridges, Ayton and Booker have all seen dramatic drops in defensive ratings. Bookers clutch stats have fallen off badly from last year.

Paul has fallen off a cliff
 

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Yeah, Gentry did a great job that year. He trusted his bench in a way D'Antoni never did and it was a huge factor in the success that season.

The only thing I really miss about Mike D was that he was a good emotional catalyst for the team. He knew when to get fired up, knew when to scream at the refs and knew that sometimes he needed to get a T.
My issue with the second paragraph was that he was also wound so tight that the team was as well and Pop knew it, continuing to apply pressure until they exploded and self-destructed… just like they did the end of Game 4 in 2007.
 

AzStevenCal

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I’m talking about THIS YEAR and you know right I’m sorry we’ve looked great all year no problems at all.

Injuries are clearly the only thing to blame for this team being so up and down this year.

I don’t even have the energy for this Suns board anymore.
We've been horrible this year at times but no, we did not have stretches of horrible play when CamJ played. He was out with an injury during our tough times. Mikal played during those stretches but he had even less talent around him at times than Booker has available to him right now. And while injuries might not be the only problem for this team, it's easily problem number 1 and by a large margin.
 

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