Suns Lakers Game Thread 12/25/07

[YouJustGotSUNSD]

Something that amazed me last year, and amazed me in the off-season and now in the mid-season is we still don't have a very good 2 guard. Barbosa is inconsistant with the 3, can only penetrate and against good defense is stuffed.

People hated on me for suggesting we get Ray Allen, but he's exactly what this team needs. 19.0 more points per game.

Anyways. I'm sick of the TALK of trades. DO IT!

Disagree completely. Least of our worries is the 2 guard. Not even close to the top of the priority list man.

All NBA defensive player and 6th man of the year at our 2, what other team has such a fruitful combination?

 

[Sunshooter]

Two levels of coaching.

Bynum get 28 pts with 11/13 FG, most of them are easy basket.

 

[OldDirtMcGirt]

I'm amazed at the Raja bashing. He plays hard every night, brings toughness, veteran leadership, and good shooting. What more do you want? He's a great player that we should look to keep if we're really committed to winning.

 

[AnonymouslyKnown]

Yea, the Suns suck at defence so they should get rid of one of their good defenders. You guys are so smart.

 

[Treesquid PhD]

Two levels of coaching.

Bynum get 28 pts with 11/13 FG, most of them are easy basket.

I think you are right. Dantonis loves them some jump shootin. and Phoenix doesn't really have jump shooters because we traded them all or let them walk! So what does Dantonis do? they make Marion and Grant Hill primary three point options, only Grant Hill is smart enough to not fall into the Dantoni's trap, of course Marion loves threes so there is zero doubt he will pump them up at a 28% clip. Any other coach would run the offense through Amare and Nash and shut down Marion's threes, it makes no sense not too, but poor dantonis, they just can't help it.

 

[YouJustGotSUNSD]

Raja shot 50%FG and 4/5 from 3.......and just got off injury.

Its better to focus your criticisms, not spew them around like shotgun blasts.

Problem areas:
Defense
Diaw
Dantoni
Amare
Banks
Marion shooting 3s
Rookies

In that order

our FG% isnt where it needs to be as well but I dont find it an alarming issue at the moment.

 

[Folster]

How did this team not get up for this game? Amare for KG should have happened. He was nonexistent out there. How did he get All NBA first team last year? He certainly didn't deserve it.

 

[Treesquid PhD]

Raja shot 50%FG and 4/5 from 3.......and just got off injury.

Its better to focus your criticisms, not spew them around like shotgun blasts.

Problem areas:
Defense
Diaw
Dantoni
Amare
Banks
Marion shooting 3s
Rookies

In that order

our FG% isnt where it needs to be as well but I dont find it an alarming issue at the moment.

Outside of defense and marion's three those are people not areas, who owns that? I think it's coaching.

 

[OldDirtMcGirt]

How did this team not get up for this game? Amare for KG should have happened. He was nonexistent out there. How did he get All NBA first team last year? He certainly didn't deserve it.

Amare doesn't even deserve to be an all-star this year, with Kaman and Yao outplaying him.

 

[Treesquid PhD]

How did this team not get up for this game? Amare for KG should have happened. He was nonexistent out there. How did he get All NBA first team last year? He certainly didn't deserve it.

So because Amare didn't show up today he didn't deserve the award last year?

 

[Cheesebeef]

we've become the 50 win, one and done Kings. Our record is entirely dependent on beating up the East. Too bad we don't play there.

 

[btimsah]

Disagree completely. Least of our worries is the 2 guard. Not even close to the top of the priority list man.

All NBA defensive player and 6th man of the year at our 2, what other team has such a fruitful combination?

Well it depends which evil your talking about. Does dantoni want to outscore them, or stop them?

We allow so many points because were weak on defense, I suppose you could say screw the 2 guard because we need better defense and a bigger inside presence.

The problem is, I don't think Dantoni will ever fix the defense so..

We need a better 2 guard who put up a lot of points to make up for our sucky defense (outscore them, because we struggle to do that and often don't against the good teams). The 6th man of the last year is inconsistant and easy to shut down.

After watching this game, I don't know or understand what the Suns philosophy is on defense. Because after watching it, Amare was useless.

 

[OldDirtMcGirt]

Well it depends which evil your talking about. Does dantoni want to outscore them, or stop them?

We allow so many points because were weak on defense, I suppose you could say screw the 2 guard because we need better defense and a bigger inside presence.

The problem is, I don't think Dantoni will ever fix the defense so..

We need a better 2 guard who put up a lot of points to make up for our sucky defense (outscore them, because we struggle to do that and often don't against the good teams). The 6th man of the last year is inconsistant and easy to shut down.

After watching this game, I don't know or understand what the Suns philosophy is on defense. Because after watching it, Amare was useless.

Is that you Mike?

Simply relying on jumpshooting and scoring to make up for shoddy defense has never worked in the NBA for good reason.

 

[tobiazz]

Disagree completely. Least of our worries is the 2 guard. Not even close to the top of the priority list man.

All NBA defensive player and 6th man of the year at our 2, what other team has such a fruitful combination?

Don't expect them to win those awards next year. But I do agree that they are not the biggest problem. Their problems center around Amare. His lack of interior defense is making the entire team bad at defense. He is not dominating on the offensive side to make up for it.

 

[cly2tw]

I remember a time when Bynum and Dwight Howard couldn't stay on the court for more than 25 min due to foul trouble. Today Bynum played 42. The offense has again bypassed Amare most of the game. He is not the best defender so at least let him try to draw more fouls on the Lakers as a kind of defense by attacking and give us a better chance.

Whenever Nash leads the team in scoring, we lose the game. And this time, it's not really that other players can't score. He was just no more as patient.

I like what I saw by Diaw. He was trying to be aggressive at least. His shot selection might not have been the best. but he is readjusting himself.

LB just can't seem to be able to make an entry pass. We had quite a few good positions on the inside by Amare and others, but we just didn't make the pass to take advantage of it. The defense should bet better but our offense needs a little more variety.

 

[Folster]

So because Amare didn't show up today he didn't deserve the award last year?

No he didn't deserve it last year and I said it then. He's overrated.

 

[Treesquid PhD]

Well it depends which evil your talking about. Does dantoni want to outscore them, or stop them?

We allow so many points because were weak on defense, I suppose you could say screw the 2 guard because we need better defense and a bigger inside presence.

The problem is, I don't think Dantoni will ever fix the defense so..

We need a better 2 guard who put up a lot of points to make up for our sucky defense (outscore them, because we struggle to do that and often don't against the good teams). The 6th man of the last year is inconsistant and easy to shut down.

After watching this game, I don't know or understand what the Suns philosophy is on defense. Because after watching it, Amare was useless.

Just a guess, but in a hypothetical world another coach would probably shock us with a few months work on Amare. I don't think this staff or organization really cares about interior defense.

Just saying Amare should get better or putting it all on him is crap, who has this coaching staff ever actually improved on defense?

The bottomline line is they just don't care, hey their "fun and gun", they break meaningless records and sell out. That's what this team is and wants to be.

 

[Treesquid PhD]

Don't expect them to win those awards next year. But I do agree that they are not the biggest problem. Their problems center around Amare. His lack of interior defense is making the entire team bad at defense. He is not dominating on the offensive side to make up for it.

I agree with this. Amare needs to make up for his poor defense with offense and he isn't.

This isn't all on Amare though, there are many problems with this team.

 

[Folster]

You could hear Van Gundy chomping at the bit to fix this team by his comments. D'Antoni just doesn't get it.

 

[OldDirtMcGirt]

Just a guess, but in a hypothetical world another coach would probably shock us with a few months work on Amare. I don't think this staff or organization really cares about interior defense.

Just saying Amare should get better or putting it all on him is crap, who has this coaching staff ever actually improved on defense?

The bottomline line is they just don't care, hey their "fun and gun", they break meaningless records and sell out. That's what this team is and wants to be.

The problem with Amare is that while the coaching staff should definitely work more on his defense, is that he simply isn't putting forth the effort. Defense and reboudning are by far the most effort dependent skills, and it's by no coincidence that those are Amare's two weaknesses.

 

[btimsah]

Is that you Mike?

Simply relying on jumpshooting and scoring to make up for shoddy defense has never worked in the NBA for good reason.

I don't know if you read what I wrote. Try reading it... For the first time.

 

[OldDirtMcGirt]

I don't know if you read what I wrote. Try reading it... For the first time.

If Antoni won't fix the defense, then all the scoring in the world won't help this team. All it will do is take time away from our best defender.

 

[btimsah]

You could hear Van Gundy chomping at the bit to fix this team by his comments. D'Antoni just doesn't get it.

Yeah I found myself wishing we'd hire Van Gundy. When he said that Barbosa is not really a point guard and suggested Grant Hill take the ball up - I liked it.

We could use him on our coaching staff.

 

[Treesquid PhD]

The problem with Amare is that while the coaching staff should definitely work more on his defense, is that he simply isn't putting forth the effort. Defense and reboudning are by far the most effort dependent skills, and it's by no coincidence that those are Amare's two weaknesses.

I beg to differ, I think he is out of position in defense all the time, he puts in effort but it is effort running around trying to stop the point gaurd or top of the key player and running at shooters etc...Which is rediculous.

When he is inside he is always being pushed inwards, that to me is lack of coaching.

I'd be willing to bet that another coach besides the Dantoni brothers would do wonders with Amare on defense.

 

[OldDirtMcGirt]

I beg to differ, I think he is out of position in defense all the time, he puts in effort but it is effort running around trying to stop the point gaurd or top of the key player and running at shooters etc...Which is rediculous.

When he is inside he is always being pushed inwards, that to me is lack of coaching.

I'd be willing to bet that another coach besides the Dantoni brothers would do wonders with Amare on defense.

I guess the only way to find out the problem is to get a coach that actually gives a crap about defense and rebounding.