Suns @ Nets 3/6

[82CardsGrad]

Best player in the game tonight, but you're doing your best to make sure his comments about the fans are true, huh?

"Best player in the game?" Seriously? Kief is lucky Cory Jefferson only played 16 mins!
Kief can by dynamic on offense, but that doesn't mean he's the best player in the game... At least not to me.
Won't comment about your mention of the fans as I don't enjoy feeding perma-victims...Kief included...

 

[DWKB]

The majority of point Jefferson got were clean up on the offensive boards. I remember one mid range jumper. Because Len was out and Wright couldn't guard Lopez one-on-one, they were doubling leaving Jefferson open on the switch. When Wright was out Keiff was the 5 and they still needed a double team on Lopez leaving Jefferson open on the defensive switch.

It's pretty obvious to me that some fans are so butt hurt by Morrii that they'll never be appreciated in PHX, not all, but a vocal group for sure.

Tonight the Suns won going 3-26 behind the arc. That's pretty impressive, but you wouldn't know it based upon some peoples posting here.

Granted, I've not seen enough games to make a very educated evaluation, but I don't think it's hard fouls or Ts that are the problem with this team, I think there isn't a superstar level player that can be go to in the half court, and turnovers are too common.

 

[82CardsGrad]

The majority of point Jefferson got were clean up on the offensive boards. I remember one mid range jumper. Because Len was out and Wright couldn't guard Lopez one-on-one, they were doubling leaving Jefferson open on the switch. When Wright was out Keiff was the 5 and they still needed a double team on Lopez leaving Jefferson open on the defensive switch.



It's pretty obvious to me that some fans are so butt hurt by Morrii that they'll never be appreciated in PHX, not all, but a vocal group for sure.



Tonight the Suns won going 3-26 behind the arc. That's pretty impressive, but you wouldn't know it based upon some peoples posting here.



Granted, I've not seen enough games to make a very educated evaluation, but I don't think it's hard fouls or Ts that are the problem with this team, I think there isn't a superstar level player that can be go to in the half court, and turnovers are too common.

Ah, that's right... You're a Kansas guy. I get it...
The Suns won a game they're supposed to win. They are the much better team. The Nets shot 35% for the game, turned the ball over 20 times and scored a mere 20 points combined in the 4th quarter and OT.
The Morii are extremely talented players. Immensely inconsistent, particularly Marcus. Don't play much defense or rebounding - particularly Kief. And are extremely immature. IMHO, this team would be about where they are at right now with or without the Morii.
They need to **** and improve their play and let their play do the talking...

 

[Absolute Zero]

Despite missing the bus and playing like crap a lot of the game, Tucker was huge in helping us come back from 15 down in the Fourth. He hit that 3 with about 5 minutes left to cut it to 12, hit two more shots to cut it to 7, played tough D and picked up a steal.

Marcus, after an extremely slow start, was also much stronger down the stretch and that charge he took on D. Williams with about 42 seconds left was huge.

Bledsoe is starting to really pick it up down the stretch. I didn't see any turnovers by him in the 4th or OT, so not sure why he is so careless earlier. Maybe it has more to do with Knight running the point. But he is still driving to the rim and drawing fouls, getting to the line.

Hornacek has been saying publicly that Knight is the best PG we have and he actually takes the initiative and calls plays for the team to run without Hornacek's prompting, which is a bit impressive since he just joined the team and doesn't really know the system yet.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Ah, that's right... You're a Kansas guy. I get it...
The Suns won a game they're supposed to win. They are the much better team. The Nets shot 35% for the game, turned the ball over 20 times and scored a mere 20 points combined in the 4th quarter and OT.
The Morii are extremely talented players. Immensely inconsistent, particularly Marcus. Don't play much defense or rebounding - particularly Kief. And are extremely immature. IMHO, this team would be about where they are at right now with or without the Morii.
They need to **** and improve their play and let their play do the talking...

Really? I think I read that Brooklyn was actually favored. Since the break they've suffered close losses at New Orleans and Houston and have beaten the Lakers, Nuggets, Mavericks and Warriors. What have we done since we traded away 2 of our 4 best players? We've now won 2 in a row which leaves us at 7 - 12 over the past month and a half.

We are not "the much better team", not against Brooklyn and not against just about any other team in the NBA. We're one of the 3 youngest teams in the league and we show it more often than not. Last night was an impressive win AFAIC, we had to shut down a team for several minutes in order to get back in the game and we did just that.

Steve

 

[elindholm]

There are no easy wins for this team at this point. We should be happy for every one we can get.

 

[Mainstreet]

There are no easy wins for this team at this point. We should be happy for every one we can get.

I agree. My goal for the Suns is to play well and develop as a team... nothing more. If the Suns could somehow finish the season with a winning record, it will would be a huge achievement.

 

[BC867]

Making a team wide policy also negatively effects the chemistry like when Dragic was sat during that stretch when Jeff was benching players for them and he was one of the few Suns who rarely gets technicals, so it's punishing players who weren't a part of the bigger problem.

This! And beyond.

The concept of one punishment for the group is lazy management. One proclamation for the faceless masses. The Coach utters it and thinks his job is done.

Or, to put it positively, a sharp Coach motivates each offender, one by one, based on the personality of each player. And follows up. Individually, with each offending player.

During my management career, I oversaw anywhere from 40 to 110 employees. You set the rules for the group, but deal with offenders individually. And motivationally.

My evaluation of Jeff as a Coach. Nice guy. A real nice guy. But Assistant Coach is his limit.

As the Peter Principle stated, "In an organizational hierarchy, every employee will rise or get promoted to his or her level of incompetence."

Unfortunately, in most cases, that must result in moving the employee rather than keeping and demoting him.

Sadly, whether with a dysfunctional/unbalanced roster or a more balanced one, Jeff is not leadership material in the long run. And, just as D'Antoni, he evidently does not realize that developing young players is part of his job.

That is my observation.

 

[Joe Mama]

If this team is any worse than it was before the trade deadline it's because they miss Isaiah Thomas scoring off the bench. I understand why they traded him because he wanted to be a starter and play starters minutes (despite supposedly accepting a Jason Terry role when he signed) and was vocal about it. But make no mistake. Take away Isaiah Thomas and replace him with Smith or Ennis prior to the All-Star break and we have 5-10 fewer victories. As much as everybody demonized Thomas his play off the bench was the reason we were even sniffing the playoffs.

We traded away Dragic and got Knight, but we replaced Thomas with Thornton. Also, we were already struggling to spread the floor with out Channing Frye. Thomas was probably our best three point shooter.

It shouldn't surprise anybody we are struggling. My guess is we would have been struggling anyways and losing Thomas off the bench was big.

Joe

 

[JCSunsfan]

Amazing study in optimists and pessimists.

Opt: We won!
Pess: But it was ugly, and we went 0-20 from three.
Opt: Yeah, it was ugly and we STILL WON!


Pess salesman: Don't send anymore widgets, no one here uses them.
Opt salesmen: Send more widgets! No one here has them!

The pessimest doesn't bother, because there is always a problem. He never succeeds at anything except predicting calaminy every once-in-a-while.

 

[82CardsGrad]

Really? I think I read that Brooklyn was actually favored. Since the break they've suffered close losses at New Orleans and Houston and have beaten the Lakers, Nuggets, Mavericks and Warriors. What have we done since we traded away 2 of our 4 best players? We've now won 2 in a row which leaves us at 7 - 12 over the past month and a half.

We are not "the much better team", not against Brooklyn and not against just about any other team in the NBA. We're one of the 3 youngest teams in the league and we show it more often than not. Last night was an impressive win AFAIC, we had to shut down a team for several minutes in order to get back in the game and we did just that.

Steve

To clarify... There are indeed no easy wins in the NBA - in all of pro sports actually. I didn't mean to imply that the Suns should've "easily" won this game. However, they are the more talented team, with more wins playing in a far tougher conference. So yes, IMO, this was a game they were supposed to win. And as I said, if not for the fact that the Nets played to their competence level in the 4th quarter and OT, we would've lost. Heck, Jack's game-winning attempt with no time left almost went, and he was wide open and uncontested. Yea, the Suns played better defense, slightly, in the last 17 mins of the game, but the Nets pathetic offense was much more the issue.

So I go back to what I have always maintained about this team... which is we need a bigger, stronger and tougher PF to compliment Len and to sure-up our defense. And we need to hope and pray that somehow, some way Bledsoe eventually figures out how to play at a consistent NBA level. Otherwise, we will remain a .500 or slightly better team...

 

[AzStevenCal]

To clarify... There are indeed no easy wins in the NBA - in all of pro sports actually. I didn't mean to imply that the Suns should've "easily" won this game. However, they are the more talented team, with more wins playing in a far tougher conference. So yes, IMO, this was a game they were supposed to win. And as I said, if not for the fact that the Nets played to their competence level in the 4th quarter and OT, we would've lost. Heck, Jack's game-winning attempt with no time left almost went, and he was wide open and uncontested. Yea, the Suns played better defense, slightly, in the last 17 mins of the game, but the Nets pathetic offense was much more the issue.

So I go back to what I have always maintained about this team... which is we need a bigger, stronger and tougher PF to compliment Len and to sure-up our defense. And we need to hope and pray that somehow, some way Bledsoe eventually figures out how to play at a consistent NBA level. Otherwise, we will remain a .500 or slightly better team...

The Suns were clearly the more talented team until we traded away 2 of our top players and replaced them with 1 player that might eventually play like the equal of 1 of the guys we moved. But we simply aren't the same team that earned that .500 + record. Right now I'm not sure which team has the most talent, especially if you take an injured Len out of the equation. I think it's the Suns but I'd love to have a healthy Lopez on our team or Mason Plumlee or even a Thaddeus Young.

Steve

 

[DWKB]

Really? I think I read that Brooklyn was actually favored. Since the break they've suffered close losses at New Orleans and Houston and have beaten the Lakers, Nuggets, Mavericks and Warriors. What have we done since we traded away 2 of our 4 best players? We've now won 2 in a row which leaves us at 7 - 12 over the past month and a half.

We are not "the much better team", not against Brooklyn and not against just about any other team in the NBA. We're one of the 3 youngest teams in the league and we show it more often than not. Last night was an impressive win AFAIC, we had to shut down a team for several minutes in order to get back in the game and we did just that.

Steve

He had to make the Suns "the much better team" so that he could Neg on them for the close game on the road with a poor shooting night (which happens). That way he can hate on them for God knows what reason, cause they offend his sensitive nature?

That was a good win last night.

Edit: and hell yeah I'm biased, I would hope that fans of a team would be such, I would hope that fans would be biased FOR the Suns as well, but there's a lot of hate by some here, 82 especially.