Suns @ Warriors Friday game thread 12-27-19

[Sunburst]

Suspect Sarver is more "involved" with the team now compared to the start of the season.

You can see it in the players... something is up.

 

[GatorAZ]

so... who we looking at in college to be the next savior that we'll all be disappointed by if we get to draft him?

Scouring mocks for 23 year old role players as we speak!

 

[Cheesebeef]

Suspect Sarver is more "involved" with the team now more compared to the start of the season.

You can see it in the players... something is up.

the biggest problem here with Sarver goes back to the 2018 off-season. I don't know what Monty Williams is. The team flashed early but has completely fallen apart. Yes there are injuries but every team has injuries and whatever message Monty gave over the summer about accountability didn't get through Ayton's thickass head. And Monty wasn't exactly a coaching demon in his first stint in the league. All said, I don't really place blame on him.

All blame goes on Sarver for not locking up Budholzer last off-season. I don't care what went wrong there, but it went wrong. Combine that with passing on Doncic, hiring Igor and giving Trevor Ariza all of our cap room (oh and wasting TWO first round picks on Bridges) and you have one of the most disastrous off-seasons in Suns history. One in which Sarver from all accounts had a heavy hand on the scale.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Scouring mocks for 23 year old role players as we speak!

ouch... man, the truth hurts.

 

[SunnyBaller]

Just break this team down , at some point you have to stop the bleeding and start over even if it's one failed attempt after another, trade booker for a good return no NBA team is ever going to get anywhere without a number 1 guy and he's not that but he could be used to potentially find one

 

[Son of RedRage]

Still amazed that Adam Silver still hasn't said fudge it and taken away the team from Sarver. One of the biggest markets in the US and he's letting it go to waste with a bad product. Insane.

 

[BC867]

Warriors outscore the Suns by 21 points in the 4th quarter.

Opposing teams have learned that, as long as they stay close through three quarters, they can turn it on in the 4th quarter and beat the Suns.

That's quite a revelation for the rest of the league. Pace yourself for three quarters. We'll win the fourth.

Tonight's fourth quarter was extreme, but the pattern has been there for awhile now.

Realistically, I don't see that changing with this roster, even if Ayton were back and in game condition.

 

[BC867]

Still amazed that Adam Silver still hasn't said **** it and taken away the team from Sarver. One of the biggest markets in the US and he's letting it go to waste with a bad product. Insane.

I thought so, too, about us being one of the biggest markets, then checked it out last year.

We were right in the middle of NBA metropolitan areas. 14th out of 30.

Still, that is no excuse for our losing streak.

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[Shaggy]

This team is just bad. Losing to the helpless warriors and now on a 9 game losing streak? Pathetic.

 

[pokerface]

Got our hopes up early in the season for now lets pull the rug out underneath us


Yeah I dont see Ayton swooping in to save us. He just doesn't seem that type of player right now. My gut feeling is this team got too banged up BUT there is no resilience to them either now.

 

[dscher]

This team is just bad. Losing to the helpless warriors and now on a 9 game losing streak? Pathetic.

This. Season over. Man, seems like we say this all the time about az sports, but it was fun while it lasted. Geez

 

[Finito]

I’m good with trading everyone Booker and Ayton included. I love Booker but it’s clear he’s part of the problem not solution.

I see an effort issues. This team just mails it in and they always have. Booker doesn’t inspire or lead he goes along to get along.

how bout these guys stop worrying about there game day outfits and actually bring some effort.

you can’t go from playing like bats out of hell the first month to this BS.

 

[pokerface]

Maybe the suns wernt as good as they looked early in the season and not as bad as they look now?

 

[swagron]

I’m good with trading everyone Booker and Ayton included. I love Booker but it’s clear he’s part of the problem not solution.

I see an effort issues. This team just mails it in and they always have. Booker doesn’t inspire or lead he goes along to get along.

how bout these guys stop worrying about there game day outfits and actually bring some effort.

you can’t go from playing like bats out of hell the first month to this BS.

Agreed. Booker is probably a number 3 on a good team. He’d be great on a team that needs scoring because that’s really all he does. He doesn’t regularly make his team or teammates better- he’s a scorer. He wouldn’t be a choice on a winning teams “Big 2”.
IMO Ayton will an average player, nothing to get excited about. He can sleepwalk through games and get stats, but much like Booker, can’t be counted on in critical moments or when the game really matters.

 

[82CardsGrad]

Sad to see... and very frustrating of course.
Very easy to fall back into the sky is falling mentality. Seems everyone here has decided the only option is to toss everyone over-board. [emoji2957]

As for me, I believe this team is better than last year’s team. Yea, that isn’t saying much at all of course, but the way it’s built, I believe it’s better. I also believe you can’t discount what this team has had to contend with and the dysfunctional impact all of these factors have had on the team. The biggest being Ayton’s suspension and then return for 1 game.
But we are also playing with a PG who is indeed a big step up from last year, yet one who is 100% unreliable as a shooter and is often winded to boot (Rubio). We’ve been forced to play a career back-up center who has only ever had limited mins on the court, as a full time starter due to Ayton’s issues (Baynes). Oubre is improved over last season, yet he is now trying to do too much/be too much... mainly because he feels he needs to due to the teams’ struggles. That isn’t his game and we now see the results of him trying to be more than he is.
Bridges has shown nothing more than he did last season - which is a bummer. Frank offers some positivity... but is probably seeing too many mins as well.
Saric offers improvement over last season, but again is probably seeing too many mins and shouldn’t be a starter of course.

Anyway, I remain optimistic that this is nothing more or less than a work in progress. I believe Jones will steadily improve the talent - especially at PF and PG (Jerome would be a nice surprise if he were to take major steps forward).
And I will continue to hold off on judging Ayton, who he is and what he will be... He is still way too young and hasn’t played nearly enough games.
Lastly, regarding Booker... I do believe he would resemble more of a #1 if he had higher quality talent and better chemistry around him. So, on this team he is forced to try way too hard to compensate for the rest of the team and as such, looks more like a solid #2 option...
But again, if he had a better supporting cast and a more cohesive team, I believe he would look much better. Not totally sold on him being a crystal clear #1, but he would look more like that if better supported...

 

[mjb21aztd]

Omg this team is straight trash... sorry thing to wake up and see suns lose to warriors

I wonder how many wins suns will get at end of yr 25 30 if extremely lucky....

Than m probably get screwed in stupid lottery

Pathetic effort suns!!!!

 

[82CardsGrad]

FWIW, this trash Warrior team has now won 5 in a row, including a win on Christmas over the Rockets... so I guess the Rockets are trash as well. [emoji15]

 

[Bufalay]

If the Suns can't remedy Ayton's increasingly worrying bout of TJ Warren Syndrome, Sarver will be able to resurrect the "Amare strategy" and promote Ayton as the team's true 2020 lottery pick thus freeing him to sell the team's pick in the upcoming draft for cash.

 

[Bufalay]

FWIW, this trash Warrior team has now won 5 in a row, including a win on Christmas over the Rockets... so I guess the Rockets are trash as well. [emoji15]

Ok, you're right. The Suns aren't trash.

 

[82CardsGrad]

Ok, you're right. The Suns aren't trash.

[emoji106]

 

[mjb21aztd]

I just want to see ayton somehow play with authority when if he returns lol to give suns fans a glimpse of hope heading into next season....

Just stinks to have all that hope early in yr than a 360 degrees turn in wrong direction

 

[82CardsGrad]

Nobody expected this team to be a playoff contender this year...
I believe most “grounded” people would’ve been satisfied with a high 20’s win season, maybe 30... We would need to go 19 & 32 the rest of the season to get to 30 wins. Can we win 37% of our remaining games? If Ayton can come back fully healthy (apparently his ankle was more severely sprained than first thought), I like our chances for getting there...

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Nobody expected this team to be a playoff contender this year...
I believe most “grounded” people would’ve been satisfied with a high 20’s win season, maybe 30... We would need to go 19 & 32 the rest of the season to get to 30 wins. Can we win 37% of our remaining games? If Ayton can come back fully healthy (apparently his ankle was more severely sprained than first thought), I like our chances for getting there...

Since the 7-4 start we are 4-16. That’s a 20% win percentage. You’re expecting Ayton to raise the win percentage by 85%?

 

[82CardsGrad]

Since the 7-4 start we are 4-16. That’s a 20% win percentage. You’re expecting Ayton to raise the win percentage by 85%?

If Ayton can return and play consistently over the remaining 47-49 games or so, I think his contribution, which will include better rotations and chemistry, can give us a decent shot at 30 wins. I’m not betting on it of course. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened.

 

[Russ Smith]

The minute Golden State showed momentum, Monty should’ve thrown Booker back in there. We were lucky to be up double digits with as many turnovers as we had, so it was only inevitable that GSW took advantage in the 4th.

Also, Oubre is either a great player, or an awful player, and when he’s awful, he does nothing of value to compensate on the floor. He just keeps pushing the issue, such as forcing contested outside jumpers.

I was watching with Kelenna Azabuike as the color guy and he started saying mid 3rd quarter you can tell Monty gets it but the team doesn't seem to, if the Warriors start making any shots at all this game is going to flip because the Suns are wasting so many possessions with turnovers. Booker had 8 and Rubio 7, just way too much even when the Suns were up double digits you could see the run coming because of all the turnovers.

Azabuike was raving about the young core of the Suns, the under 25 core and pointed out if you add in Ayton it's even better but he also pointed out repeatedly that the Warriors defense was pretty simple, try and make anybody not named Booker score. He and the play by play guy were openly wondering why Booker sat so long.