Suns @ Wizards 12-22-18

[Chaplin]

I JUST got back from the game. I wanted to share some observations without looking at the box score or reading the discussion here.

First off, there were many Suns fans at the game. I was pleasantly surprised.

Oubre, Jackson, Bridges, and Holmes are even more fun to watch in person, at least when it comes to defense.

I felt that Melton was underused. He played very well, and late in the game, Suns had trouble scoring and getting stops at different times. I felt that Melton would have helped. Old man Crawford was off tonight.

Ayton was awful defensively. Maybe it's different watching them in person, but I have never seen such an awful defensive performance against any player, let alone some scrub. I had never heard of Bryant before tonight, and I am pretty sure that he dropped 30 points on Ayton tonight. He is the reason Phoenix didn't win.

Warren has got to make his free throws.

I don’t get it. They consistently switched up top and Bryant made them pay. It wasn’t because Ayton was passive, he was consistently told to switch putting him in a bad spot where the other player didn’t switch. Ayton was actually the guy doing it right and the other guy simply did t switch and there was no help defense. Again not Ayton’s fault.

 

[Shaggy]

Lol is there no video of josh Dunking on markieff? That was terrific.

http://bleacherreport.com/post/phoenix-suns/fafc945a-6dd3-4e3d-ac45-0b08970bde54

 

[Bufalay]

I don’t get it. They consistently switched up top and Bryant made them pay. It wasn’t because Ayton was passive, he was consistently told to switch putting him in a bad spot where the other player didn’t switch. Ayton was actually the guy doing it right and the other guy simply did t switch and there was no help defense. Again not Ayton’s fault.

The Suns relapsed into a ton of bad habits this game, and they were fortunate that they hung in there for 63 minutes with real chances to win.

On offense, we saw a reversion to Kokoskov's two favorite plays, which are (1) the utterly pointless weave 25 feet from the basket, which looks like a parody of a marching band drill, and (2) Ayton half-heartedly setting a screen even farther away than that, with the guard's job to then thread a perfect pass to him through heavy traffic while he's making his way through the lane. Later in the game, it was Booker playing hero ball and forcing things that simply weren't there, over and over again.
.

Speaking of Igor’s idiotic offense. What is with that weird spin move that all the pgs do a couple times a game? I’ve seen Melton okobo and Canaan all do it.

 

[SirStefan32]

Some additional thoughts:

Ayton is incredibly long. I knew he was tall with a very good wingspan, but I didn't appreciate just how long he was until I saw him in person.

Daniels was talking to the youngsters a lot, which was really nice to see.

Bridges was again very passive on offense. Looks like he only took four shots. He needs to do better than that.

Oubre doesn't do stupid stuff. Or at least he didn't do anything stupid in this game. I really enjoyed watching him play. He is like a weird cross between JJ and Bridges, but far more developed.

Officiating was really bad. One ref in particular was awful. You could see Ken Mauer talking to her several times, and even overruling her on at least one occasion. I am not sure if officiating was to blame for the loss, but it was pretty bad.

Bender is an outstanding cheerleader.

Washington fans were class acts tonight. Several of them mentioned how good the Suns were going to be in a year or so, they said "great game" after the game, and two of them bitched about how the NBA screwed the Suns out of the championship with that Amare/ Diaw suspension.

 

[1tinsoldier]

I don't know how you call a player with 18 and 17 rebounds in the last 2 games soft.

by being both passive and aggressive at times in the same game
for a few minutes he was his most aggressive yet
minutes later he let a key rebound slip by him in crunch time

the main passive criticism is not laying the hammer down when someone gets inside for a layup
he did foul out in OT, but one was offensive and another 2 were trivial and needless

the best description of what Ayton needs to add to his defensive game
is what Holmes, Bridges, and JJ already do
-- not surrender layups

if he learns to play smarter and not get needless fouls
he can be an enforcer in the paint
if i were coach, i'd tell Ayton and Holmes i want to see them collect 10 hard fouls between both of them every game

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

I assume you're responding to Ouchie's post which called Ayton passive on defense.

I agree with you. There is too much early criticism of Ayton. He was the #1 pick, but he is not Superman. On a team that, until five games ago, was being blown out of most games.

The "passive" tag rests with the coaching staff.

(A) if devil was replying to my post nowhere did I call him “soft.”

(B) I also didn’t call Ayton “passive on defense” - I said I was bummed to hear he was passive on defense. I didn’t get to see the game. I was just responding to comments I read in this game thread that had made that observation. Please don’t attribute comments to me that I didn’t make. Not starting an argument but as I’ve said a few times, words matter and I just don’t like when someone says I said something when I didn’t. As you can see it has a snowball effect. Next thing you know devil thinks I’m calling Ayton soft. I never even saw the game and made no first hand observations.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

I don't think ouchie was calling him soft, from the sound of his original post it sounded like he didn't get to watch the game and was basing the passive comment from the previous posts.

I wouldn't call him soft by any means but I think ayton is very conscious of fouls so he doesn't want to contest as much when he is forced to switch and help,

Whew, someone gets it. Thank you.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

http://bleacherreport.com/post/phoenix-suns/fafc945a-6dd3-4e3d-ac45-0b08970bde54

That was awesome.

 

[SweetD]

One question I have is why did JJ only get 17 minutes? I get his shot was off, but still he needs to be out there more. I hope he gets more minutes tonight since it is a back to back.

 

[devilalum]

One question I have is why did JJ only get 17 minutes? I get his shot was off, but still he needs to be out there more. I hope he gets more minutes tonight since it is a back to back.

Maybe you answered your own question.

 

[Folster]

http://bleacherreport.com/post/phoenix-suns/fafc945a-6dd3-4e3d-ac45-0b08970bde54

Eddie Johnson with a terrific call. Kevin Ray should've cut him off to give that play the call it deserved.

 

[Finito]

Tough loss tonight but losing by 3 in Tripple OT is no shame.

It's all about effort man I don't care about wins and losses I just want to see this young team play hard and there doing that now.

 

[Mainstreet]

Sun Devils Won!!!! I figured that was relevant because I watched a bunch of the Suns game on my phone while at the ASU game.

A. The Wizards are BETTER without Wall. Beal may have played the best game of his career.
B. Booker had 14 dimes and only 4 turnovers in FIFTY FIVE minutes.
C. I thought Ayton made another step forward. He is going to be DOMINANT.
D. Where the hell were Bridges and JJ?
E. Bryant is not THAT good.

The news for me is the Suns were scouting the game. I thought they were not doing much of that now.

 

[Mainstreet]

During the game I kept thinking if the Suns had not added Oubre, the Suns would have lost during regulation and probably handily at that.

Jackson and Bridges were extremely quiet on offense with Jackson only scoring only 2 points and Bridges 5.

The Suns needed someone besides Warren, Ayton and Booker to help carry the load.

 

[Suns_fan69]

Saw this defensive lowlights video on Ayton

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Certainly looks bad when it's concentrated like this, and doesn't show the other hustle plays he made (diving on the floor, offensive rebound and put back in traffic on multiple occasions), but certainly his footwork/footspeed needs some work. Of course, his team left him alone on Beal multiple times with no one getting his back.

 

[Suns_fan69]

Actually, Melton looked like he wanted to help, but didn't really communicate to Ayton where he was to have him funnel Beal to the help.

 

[Mainstreet]

Saw this defensive lowlights video on Ayton

Certainly looks bad when it's concentrated like this, and doesn't show the other hustle plays he made (diving on the floor, offensive rebound and put back in traffic on multiple occasions), but certainly his footwork/footspeed needs some work. Of course, his team left him alone on Beal multiple times with no one getting his back.

I think this is exactly what gets fans going on Ayton's rim protection sometimes. He could easily move over for a block on some of these plays with very little effort.

 

[Mainstreet]

And then there is this.

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[SunnyBaller]

Saw this defensive lowlights video on Ayton

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Certainly looks bad when it's concentrated like this, and doesn't show the other hustle plays he made (diving on the floor, offensive rebound and put back in traffic on multiple occasions), but certainly his footwork/footspeed needs some work. Of course, his team left him alone on Beal multiple times with no one getting his back.

Not all of those are on ayton, some definitely are but I don't understand why adjustments weren't being made by Igor, he is not fast enough to defend quick guards like Beal but most of the game he had to switch to defend around the 3 pt line. That play were Beal had everyone clear out and went 1v1 in ayton, where was the help??? He's gonna lose that more often than not right now until he gets quicker. Alot of confusion went on with him and most of the team last night I wouldn't expect to see that again, at least not to that level tonight.

 

[SirStefan32]

Saw this defensive lowlights video on Ayton

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Certainly looks bad when it's concentrated like this, and doesn't show the other hustle plays he made (diving on the floor, offensive rebound and put back in traffic on multiple occasions), but certainly his footwork/footspeed needs some work. Of course, his team left him alone on Beal multiple times with no one getting his back.

I think his footwork and speed are outstanding for someone who is over seven feet tall. Most guards can't stay in front of Beal. My problem with Ayton is that he doesn't attempt to recover and block from behind or from the side. He just gives up on the play once the defender goes past him. On most of the possessions in that video, he also should have had some help. His help defense is awful, but the rest of the team isn't much better.

 

[1tinsoldier]

we used to call that the toreador defense. just give him a red cape

yes, a big man like Ayton needs help that starts to react as soon as a smaller/faster player makes his move
but we also see big men catch up for the swat when the ball goes up

 

[Errntknght]

This game should be a terrific learning experience for the team and for Igor in particular. He needs to have about three plays for crunch time which use Booker as a decoy - one setting up each of Warren, Ayton, and Oubre for the shot. Warren and Oubre are flexible enough that even if the defense sniffs it out they have a good chance of scoring anyway.

The pick and roll defense obviously needs some work and there's a number of possible adjustments. One that they should work on is trapping the guard(probably) coming off the pick. The key thing in doing that is to commit to the the trap immediately - but correctly. You don't want the trap man(the big) getting out in front of the play. You want him to be the trailer so his size can be used to block the pass to the roll man. It takes practice to know how to position yourself to do that but if Ayton could learn it, it would be a plus his whole career. Oliver Miller was the best I've ever seen at trapping against the P&R or P&P or trapping in general. Trapping is a lost art these days. Tim Thomas was surprisingly good at trapping - MacMilllan(Blazers) was, too, though that was no surprise.

One thing I noticed was that Anton was not good at closing out on the perimeter. Typical error in over committing. With his length he doesn't have to get that close but he has to learn that. And how to settle in balance so he can retreat.

As a number of people pointed out, Ayton was consistently left alone when he'd switched onto Beal. That's on his teammates and coach, mostly on the coach I'd say. He needs to have a plan in place for when that happens - including how to avoid the switch. The Suns were almost cooperating with it.

Igor needs to have a plan for substituting at crunch time. Your best line up is not your best when they get too tired - several people noted this as well.

 

[95pro]

Ayton just gets too close to guards instead giving himself a cushion. If they shoot he’s still long enough to bother the shot. If they attempt to drive then he’s got that cushion. But often times he tried to close out too much on guards. It’s a minor adjustment he needs to make at this level.

 

[SirStefan32]

Ayton just gets too close to guards instead giving himself a cushion. If they shoot he’s still long enough to bother the shot. If they attempt to drive then he’s got that cushion. But often times he tried to close out too much on guards. It’s a minor adjustment he needs to make at this level.

Yep, the exact opposite of what Bender does. He backs of and stays in front of them, but gives them too much space.