Suns @ Thunder Game Thread 12-31-12

[AzStevenCal]

Happy New Years everyone, this one may not be pretty. Dragic will be without his backup tonight, Telfair is back in Phoenix. If he were healthy I'm pretty sure we'd have ended our losing streak tonight. Man it feels great to have an excuse. Beats the heck of saying we suck and they don't.

Steve

Edit: Telfair is there, I must have misunderstood.

 

[AfroSuns]

Happy New Years everyone, this one may not be pretty. Dragic will be without his backup tonight, Telfair is back in Phoenix. If he were healthy I'm pretty sure we'd have ended our losing streak tonight. Man it feels great to have an excuse. Beats the heck of saying we suck and they don't.

Steve

Same to you Steve!!

I smell a blow-out

 

[AfroSuns]

Suns are holding their own though to start

 

[AzStevenCal]

Suns are holding their own though to start

When they play like this I can't help think that we're just not that far away from being a decent team. And then I remember how difficult it can be to play against a team that's considered to be far below your level. It can take awhile to wake up enough to fight through the lethargy.

Steve

 

[AzStevenCal]

I think if we could switch Dragic with Westbrook we'd be a top tier playoff team and OKC wouldn't miss a beat. Russell is better than Goran but Goran would be content with making others into stars and Westbrook would do for us what Harden is doing for Houston. Since this will never happen maybe we can talk Dragic into being more of a me-first type player. We really don't need a facilitator as much as we need a dominant scorer and Dragic has that in him physically if not mentally.

Steve

 

[AfroSuns]

WTF, Suns are not getting any call <sigh>. the advantages of being a contender.

 

[Phrazbit]

Hanging with the Thunder! Very surprising. Lots of hustle.

And it looks like we have finally found the perfect way to use Beasley!

 

[BC867]

And it looks like we have finally found the perfect way to use Beasley!

24 more minutes for . . .

The happiest words we could ever see,
Michael Beasley DNP

 

[damo]

This has to be somewhere, so I'm putting it here.

http://imgur.com/Xdccs

 

[ArizonaSportsFan]

24 more minutes for . . .

The happiest words we could ever see,
Michael Beasley DNP

Why would that make you happy? He might as well play. He hasn't been THE reason for a loss (or a win) this year as far as I can tell.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Why would that make you happy? He might as well play. He hasn't been THE reason for a loss (or a win) this year as far as I can tell.

I think removing him completely from this team prior to the start of the season and we'd have had at least 6 more wins and perhaps as many as 13 more.

Steve

 

[Phrazbit]

Why would that make you happy? He might as well play. He hasn't been THE reason for a loss (or a win) this year as far as I can tell.

I think there are several games that our odds of winning would have increased exponentially if he had gotten lost on his way to the arena.

 

[ArizonaSportsFan]

I think removing him completely from this team prior to the start of the season and we'd have had at least 6 more wins and perhaps as many as 13 more.

Steve

Wow - that is a crazy comment. He didn't play the other night (obviously), and yet the outcome was the same as if he had played.
Are you saying "If he wasn't on the team and was instead replaced by an All-Star"? He gets too little time on the floor to make an impact one way or the other. He turns the ball over too much, but when given 5-8 minutes to do so it is not like it eclipses the dumb things that the rest of the team is doing. I am not an apologist, I just think it doesn't make much sense to not play him 10 mins a game. I would also like to see Morris get more time, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen either.

 

[Phrazbit]

Wow - that is a crazy comment. He didn't play the other night (obviously), and yet the outcome was the same as if he had played.
Are you saying "If he wasn't on the team and was instead replaced by an All-Star"? He gets too little time on the floor to make an impact one way or the other. He turns the ball over too much, but when given 5-8 minutes to do so it is not like it eclipses the dumb things that the rest of the team is doing. I am not an apologist, I just think it doesn't make much sense to not play him 10 mins a game. I would also like to see Morris get more time, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen either.

Yes, the dumb things he does far eclipse the dumb things others do. The guy is among the worst defenders in the league, when he is in the game we give up huuuuuuge scoring runs on a regular basis, in the minnesota game he individually gave up several fast breaks by not bothering to run back on D. He is virtually never in the right spot on rotations, he does not rebound unless the ball goes straight to him and I have NEVER seen anyone defend screens worse than he does.

And on top of all that he has been apocalyptic on offense this year. A 37% shooter who not only sucks as a scorer himself but is a severe detriment to the offense of the players on the court with him because of Beasley's habit of freezing the ball for awful isolation plays, and then when he does not have the ball he becomes a total spectator.

You could replace Beasley with almost ANYONE and the Suns would be drastically improved.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Wow - that is a crazy comment. He didn't play the other night (obviously), and yet the outcome was the same as if he had played.
Are you saying "If he wasn't on the team and was instead replaced by an All-Star"? He gets too little time on the floor to make an impact one way or the other. He turns the ball over too much, but when given 5-8 minutes to do so it is not like it eclipses the dumb things that the rest of the team is doing. I am not an apologist, I just think it doesn't make much sense to not play him 10 mins a game. I would also like to see Morris get more time, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen either.

No, it's not a crazy comment. And are you seriously going to point to a loss at OKC without Beasley as evidence that we're the same with and without him. Go back and watch the losses to Golden State, Utah, Chicago, Lakers, Miami (in Phx), Philadelphia, Knicks, Dallas and Orlando and tell me that Beasley isn't single-handidly responsible for many of our losses. Even the Detroit loss could be laid at his feet. He just killed us on defense and before you knew it, the other team was unbeatably hot and we just sort of gave up out there.

Steve

 

[Chaplin]

No, it's not a crazy comment. And are you seriously going to point to a loss at OKC without Beasley as evidence that we're the same with and without him. Go back and watch the losses to Golden State, Utah, Chicago, Lakers, Miami (in Phx), Philadelphia, Knicks, Dallas and Orlando and tell me that Beasley isn't single-handidly responsible for many of our losses. Even the Detroit loss could be laid at his feet. He just killed us on defense and before you knew it, the other team was unbeatably hot and we just sort of gave up out there.

Steve

Beasley isn't single-handidly responsible for many of our losses.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Beasley isn't single-handidly responsible for many of our losses.

In almost every way measurable he's among the worst players to log significant minutes in the NBA. When you consistently post -16, -22, -17 etc in close losses you're having a direct impact on the outcome. Saying he is single-handidly responsible for the losses was in context. I didn't mean the rest of the team played perfectly, just that removing him from those contests would likely have meant several more wins (at least 6 games).

Steve

 

[Phrazbit]

Beasley isn't single-handidly responsible for many of our losses.

When he was playing big minutes, especially in the 1st half, and the team was regularly falling behind by 10-20 points while he was on the court, and then we spent the rest of the night digging our way out while Beasley watched... those were games where it is really easy to say our odds would have been WAY better if he had gotten lost on his way to the building. And that was basically half our games during the first month and a half.

 

[Superbone]

If Beasley had played any more minutes last night, I'm convinced we would have lost.

 

[Mainstreet]

I bet the Suns would give Beasley away for free.

 

[Superbone]

I bet the Suns would give Beasley away for free.

For sure! Blanks can go with him. In fact, I'll chip in if I have to.