Suns Off-season Thread

[Covert Rain]

It still doesn't address why.

Speculation doesn't either.

 

[elindholm]

Agree. Might do it if we got Sabonis AND Haliburton

In a three-way trade? They aren't on the same team.

 

[Mainstreet]

Speculation doesn't either.

I thought this was a discussion forum.

 

[Covert Rain]

I thought this was a discussion forum.

Nobody says it isn't. Just stating a fact.

 

[Mainstreet]

Nobody says it isn't. Just stating a fact.

I don't think anyone thought speculation was a fact.

 

[Covert Rain]

I don't think anyone thought speculation was a fact.

No but it was a valid response to your statement. Again, I will stick with what we know (how the team played the coach coached).

 

[Mainstreet]

No but it was a valid response to your statement. Again, I will stick with what we know (how the team played the coach coached).

We know how the team played but we don't know how Monty coached. It calls for speculation.

 

[Covert Rain]

We know how the team played but we don't know how Monty coached. It calls for speculation.

We absolutely know how Monty coached. What are you talking about? We can see the sets he ran. We could see the lack of adjustments. There are NBA analysts/coaches all over the NBA who watched the game, who know the game that said the same thing. Monty struggled making adjustments. We also witnessed him go long stretches without calling timeouts. People not only here called that out but the play-by-play guys called it out a couple times during the series as well. We also watched how he managed his lineups.

 

[Mainstreet]

We absolutely know how Monty coached. What are you talking about? We can see the sets he ran. We could see the lack of adjustments. There are NBA analysts/coaches all over the NBA who watched the game, who know the game that said the same thing. Monty struggled making adjustments. We also witnessed him go long stretches without calling timeouts. People not only here called that out but the play by play guys called it out a couple time during the telecast as well. We also watched how he managed his lineups.

Fact: Monty was the NBA Coach of the Year.

 

[Covert Rain]

Fact: Monty was the NBA Coach of the Year.

Fact: that is a regular season award and has nothing to do with the playoffs.
Fact: Bridges was defensive player of the year all year for us and we watched him struggle at times in the playoffs.
Fact: Booker was an MVP candidate and disappeared in Game 7 which is very un-MVP like.

You are acting like it's a video game where attributes are locked in.

 

[Mainstreet]

Fact: that is a regular season award and has nothing to do with the playoffs.

So do you want to speculate about the playoffs?

About all we know is the Suns played terrible in games 6 and 7; someone said Chris Paul may have played injured and Monty said there was "internal" issue with Ayton.

 

[Chaplin]

So do you want to speculate about the playoffs?

About all we know is the Suns played terrible in games 6 and 7; someone said Chris Paul may have played injured and Monty said there was "internal" issue with Ayton.

Monty didn't say that though. He said they will discuss his future internally, not that there is an issue. That little nugget is coming from third parties with "sources".

 

[Covert Rain]

So do you want to speculate about the playoffs?

About all we know is the Suns played terrible in games 6 and 7; someone said Chris Paul may have played injured and Monty said there was "internal" issue with Ayton.

Exactly. The Suns played horrible. Monty struggles with adjustments. No speculation needed. Also, I don't want to hear about Chris Paul being injured. He was out there playing and moving around. He passed up shots. Hell if Monty played Chris while he was injured that is on Monty which further proves my point. So, thank you?!? There is an internal issue with Ayton but we know nothing about it.

 

[Mainstreet]

Monty didn't say that though. He said they will discuss his future internally, not that there is an issue. That little nugget is coming from third parties with "sources".

BY WILLS RICE Arizona Sports:

Immediately after the loss Williams was asked about the center’s usage, but before the reporter could finish his question he received a quick answer from the 2021-22 NBA Coach of the Year.

Immediately after the loss Williams was asked about the center’s usage, but before the reporter could finish his question he received a quick answer from the 2021-22 NBA Coach of the Year.

“It’s internal,” Williams abruptly told reporters on Sunday.

Suns' Monty Williams stands by Deandre Ayton's usage in Game 7

Monty Williams stuck by his decision to keep Deandre Ayton off the court during the final moments of the team's playoff run in 2022.

arizonasports.com

 

[Hoop Head]

RFA: DA, Cam J, Holiday, Lundberg and Ish.
Holiday will be traded, forever in Montys doghouse, it would zero sense to keep him if Monty will not play him.

Cam J is not restricted. He's eligible for an extension this off-season but he's under contract for next season. After that he'd be a restricted free agent.

 

[Proximo]

Fact: that is a regular season award and has nothing to do with the playoffs.
Fact: Bridges was defensive player of the year all year for us and we watched him struggle at times in the playoffs.
Fact: Booker was an MVP candidate and disappeared in Game 7 which is very un-MVP like.

You are acting like it's a video game where attributes are locked in.

Well yes, all of that kind of happened. However I would say physically Bridges was just outmatched vs Luka so I am not down on him at all

Booker disapeared really only in the last 2 games, while that is not good, I don't think it's enough to state he can never be counted on again.

And Monty didn't really change anything, he coached the way he always does, and maybe that's a problem, but he has done a lot right in at least parts of his job to get us from 20 - 64 wins in 3 seasons.

It's really just not black or white.

Honestly if CP3 wasn't 37 and Ayton wasn't acting like a moron I would be fully in favor of running it back.

 

[reebokalone2001]

Whats' up with AZ pro teams? It seems they just have a problem drafting good players. We have Keim and now James Jones.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Monty didn't say that though. He said they will discuss his future internally, not that there is an issue. That little nugget is coming from third parties with "sources".

Nah dude. They asked why he didn’t come back into the game and only played 3 second half minutes. Monty stone faced said “It’s internal.” And stared dead ahead. There was an obvious issue there.

 

[AZ Native]

Internal, is not a good look.

 

[GatorAZ]

You know the worst part? Chris Paul was shooting 47% from three against the Mavs but the Mavs saw something in Chris. His hesitation. Chris passed up so many shots or just hesitated instead of shooting. We watched Grant Williams look like he was going to have an off night with the Celtics but the Bucks kept daring him to shoot the three. He did. They won. The Mavs did the same thing to Paul and he turned Ayton passive. Despite a great % he only took 11 threes over the course of the entire series.

It makes me sick the more I think about it. My faith in Paul has almost evaporated without a legit back PG next season. If they roll into next season relying on Paul like they did these past two? I will expect similar results.

CP3 could sit the end of every b2b next season and still play more games than he did this year. He wasn’t overworked.

Agree on getting a better PG and sending Payne back to China.

 

[Finito]

Internal, is not a good look.

Internal is always better than going at it in public

 

[AzStevenCal]

CP3 could sit the end of every b2b next season and still play more games than he did this year. He wasn’t overworked.

Agree on getting a better PG and sending Payne back to China.

He was overworked in the games he played in the second half of the season. There's no excuse for him playing so many 35+ minute games. But whether it had anything to do with his playoff disappearance, we'll never know.

 

[AzStevenCal]

I just got caught up on this thread. So...

Booker is a better shooter than Kobe. Kobe was a better defender. Booker is a better clutch shooter but Kobe was a better overall clutch player because he could get his shoot even under heavy defense and he didn't often turn the ball over when doubled. Kobe was simply on another level from Devin, just as MJ and Lebron were on a different level from Kobe.

We aren't getting Lebron unless Sarver is forced out or LBJ fires Rich Paul.

A healthy AD (although rarely seen) would be the best possible pairing to a re-signed Ayton. Don't have a clue how to make that happen.

Kyrie would be a nice addition if we didn't have to give up assets to get him although the guy drives me nuts.

Lillard wouldn't help us much.

Can't see Durant wanting to come here.

Can't see Monty wanting Harden.

Can't see Jokic being traded.

Can't see a reason to pay Gobert a salary far greater than we are reluctant to give to DA.

 

[AZ Native]

Internal is always better than going at it in public

Of course. That’s how you know how bad it was.

 

[GatorAZ]

He was overworked in the games he played in the second half of the season. There's no excuse for him playing so many 35+ minute games. But whether it had anything to do with his playoff disappearance, we'll never know.

I don’t have a problem with his minutes. Sometimes he played 7-8 min over his game average and sometimes under. That’s how it works on a game to game basic during the season. In the 2nd half of game 2 he was the best player on the floor and during the first half of game 3 he was the worst player on the floor. So you’re either saying he got injured on his day off or regular season minutes caught up to him at that exact moment. CP3’s playoff sample size is 15 years long at this point. It is what it is.