Timberwolves @ Suns Sunday Playoff game thread 4-28-2024 - Game 4

[95pro]

At least I know he cares that he played horrible (not that it excuses he played horrible). I would much rather see that verses what I have seen in the past or on other teams (guys laughing, smiling or showing zero emotion). The only thing I might possibly read into this is that Vogel might be or has lost the team when you couple this with the players rolling their eyes at Frank story.

Didn't Beal start his post game or exit interview with a laugh? I forget which one.

This guy has been seen smiling and laughing on the court all season.

 

[Chaplin]

Didn't Beal start his post game or exit interview with a laugh? I forget which one.

This guy has been seen smiling and laughing on the court all season.

Yes he made fun of himself because of what he said after the game in Game 3.

Crazy that this narrative about Beal is still being talked about.

 

[Yuma]

Beal is the closest thing we have to Mikal Bridges in the sense of being a positive guy on this team. I personally think he's winning folks over with his positivity and no BS in interviews.

 

[clyde2tw]

At least I know he cares that he played horrible (not that it excuses he played horrible). I would much rather see that verses what I have seen in the past or on other teams (guys laughing, smiling or showing zero emotion). The only thing I might possibly read into this is that Vogel might be or has lost the team when you couple this with the players rolling their eyes at Frank story.

Agree. Beal was the guy who openly said he'd do anything to help team win, and he followed that with his play in the last 30some games when healthy. But in game 4, he had seen enough from Vogel to know anything he and his teammates on the court did would have be in vain. On D, just put KD on Towns and Beal on Ant was the recipe for disaster, with constantly out of position defense, we even had no match for McD and Walker's drives. Except for late insertion of Okogie, none of our players on the court could properly defend their counterparts 1-on-1!

 

[1982baskets]

Wolves are legit. They just beat the defending champs. Think we need to take a step back and evaluate without emotions. Who was really the better team?

Gobert, Reid, Towns gave them a big advantage in the middle. They had a stretch big, two stretch bigs, and had DPOTY level 5.

At the wing, Edwards may be the next great wing of this era. He was very tough to defend.

They had a smart savvy PG in Conley who sets the table and brings stability.

Their bench was better.

On our end - Grayson was a no show because of injury. Our bench was basically Gordon who is basically done, and a lot of young players who have not established themselves in the NBA with any significant role (Bol, Little, Okogie etc).

The big 3 could not obtain the advantages they should have because they were overwhelmed by the Wolves on defense. The inability to defend the Wolves + plus no Grayson greatly impacted the big 3's impact. Royce just didn't fit in as a starter.

I know it's easy to pile this all on Vogel. But the Wolves were clearly the better team. I would be patient, I would look to add a really good assistant to replace Young. The #1 thing I would do though is look to add some leadership to the team. In the form of a PG. We can not go back to the PG by committee experiment. Booker needs to be free of the PG role. Let him score, that's who he is. Beal, as well, is a scorer. This is NOT the Miami Heat big 3 type team. Lebron, is a lot like Magic. He is pass first, has a PG mindset. Lebron is the type that will pass on the last shot of the game to an open man. Beal/Booker are not even remotely close to Lebron in decision making, play calling and PG role. When Vogel won a ring with Lebron, Lebron was that team's PG. He can not honestly believe that Beal or Booker can fill in that same role. They are both secondary guards, guards that can give you some PG play but not be the primary PG.

We played similar to how the Lakers, Hornets and Clippers played. Like a team that was not up there with the elites and was going to get sent home in round 1. We were a 6 seed for a reason folks. We're not that good, been saying it all season. We lacked a PG (no Saben freaking Lee is not the answer) and we lacked an athletic enough big.

In a way, Vogel inherited a team where he thought he was going to coach Ayton, Paul at the 5/1 with Durant, Book at the wings. Probably that team does better in the playoffs than what we have. Issue is that team ain't winning a title either.

 

[Covert Rain]

Wolves are legit. They just beat the defending champs. Think we need to take a step back and evaluate without emotions. Who was really the better team?

Gobert, Reid, Towns gave them a big advantage in the middle. They had a stretch big, two stretch bigs, and had DPOTY level 5.

At the wing, Edwards may be the next great wing of this era. He was very tough to defend.

They had a smart savvy PG in Conley who sets the table and brings stability.

Their bench was better.

On our end - Grayson was a no show because of injury. Our bench was basically Gordon who is basically done, and a lot of young players who have not established themselves in the NBA with any significant role (Bol, Little, Okogie etc).

The big 3 could not obtain the advantages they should have because they were overwhelmed by the Wolves on defense. The inability to defend the Wolves + plus no Grayson greatly impacted the big 3's impact. Royce just didn't fit in as a starter.

I know it's easy to pile this all on Vogel. But the Wolves were clearly the better team. I would be patient, I would look to add a really good assistant to replace Young. The #1 thing I would do though is look to add some leadership to the team. In the form of a PG. We can not go back to the PG by committee experiment. Booker needs to be free of the PG role. Let him score, that's who he is. Beal, as well, is a scorer. This is NOT the Miami Heat big 3 type team. Lebron, is a lot like Magic. He is pass first, has a PG mindset. Lebron is the type that will pass on the last shot of the game to an open man. Beal/Booker are not even remotely close to Lebron in decision making, play calling and PG role. When Vogel won a ring with Lebron, Lebron was that team's PG. He can not honestly believe that Beal or Booker can fill in that same role. They are both secondary guards, guards that can give you some PG play but not be the primary PG.

We played similar to how the Lakers, Hornets and Clippers played. Like a team that was not up there with the elites and was going to get sent home in round 1. We were a 6 seed for a reason folks. We're not that good, been saying it all season. We lacked a PG (no Saben freaking Lee is not the answer) and we lacked an athletic enough big.

In a way, Vogel inherited a team where he thought he was going to coach Ayton, Paul at the 5/1 with Durant, Book at the wings. Probably that team does better in the playoffs than what we have. Issue is that team ain't winning a title either.

Legit or not The Suns couldn't muster a win. Not a single win. We have 3 of the best scorers in the NBA. Best 3 point shooter in the NBA. We actually have a center. Yes, this roster has major problems but to get swept are signs of a much bigger problem then roster construction. You don't have to be an NBA expert to see the stagnate offense, the 4th quarter collapses or the non-existent defense at times. Plus, the weird rotation decisions. Not using guys who contributed just after having a decent game for the next game for guys who have been sitting. Then doing so in the playoffs.

 

[nashman]

Legit or not The Suns couldn't muster a win. Not a single win. We have 3 of the best scorers in the NBA. Best 3 point shooter in the NBA. We actually have a center. Yes, this roster has major problems but to get swept are signs of a much bigger problem then roster construction. You don't have to be an NBA expert to see the stagnate offense, the 4th quarter collapses or the non-existent defense at times. Plus, the weird rotation decisions. Not using guys who contributed just after having a decent game for the next game for guys who have been sitting. Then doing so in the playoffs.

Agree to an extent Allen didn’t see much time in the series and MIN perimeter defense is ridiculous. They have now manhandled Denver at home and are up 2-0 headed home! Very likely Nugz get swept as well, do they suck? Guys are hitting shots for the Wolves, lots of guys not just one or two! We lost because outside of Book or Durant no one hit shots even open ones we simply didn’t rise to the occasion and they did! Sucks but it’s reality.

 

[Phrazbit]

Agree to an extent Allen didn’t see much time in the series and MIN perimeter defense is ridiculous. They have now manhandled Denver at home and are up 2-0 headed home! Very likely Nugz get swept as well, do they suck? Guys are hitting shots for the Wolves, lots of guys not just one or two! We lost because outside of Book or Durant no one hit shots even open ones we simply didn’t rise to the occasion and they did! Sucks but it’s reality.

We also play piss poor defense and on offense we settle for really bad shots, and that is largely on KD and Booker, they are choosing to take those.

Our favorite shot to take is an extremely challenging two pointer, on the other end we give up wide open threes galore.

The math simply doesn't work.

It gets especially bad when you factor in how much we just love to throw the ball to the wrong team. When the other team is making more 3s and crushing you in the turnover battle the math gets almost impossible.

Which is why Minnesota beating on Denver doesn't mollify my thoughts on the Suns. The way we lost to Minnesota was the same we we lost games all year. It's a team that flat out doesn't pass well, communicates poorly on both ends and plays an offensive style that requires extremely efficient shooting to even stay in the game.

 

[1982baskets]

Wolves are making the defending champs look like us. There is something about this Wolves team, they're on a different level defensively. We just didn't have the match ups and firepower to beat them.

The reason we didn't win a game is Allen. Without Grayson's 3 point shooting keeping defenses honest or pay for some of their help rotations, the team had Royce and other guys in those roles and were useless.

Overall though, I feel much better about the series today than I did when it just ended. Seeing how the Wolves are handling the Nuggets.

 

[Superbone]

Wolves are making the defending champs look like us. There is something about this Wolves team, they're on a different level defensively. We just didn't have the match ups and firepower to beat them.

The reason we didn't win a game is Allen. Without Grayson's 3 point shooting keeping defenses honest or pay for some of their help rotations, the team had Royce and other guys in those roles and were useless.

Overall though, I feel much better about the series today than I did when it just ended. Seeing how the Wolves are handling the Nuggets.

We all agree our team has lots of issues but we looked way better against the Wolves than the Nuggets are. It does make a Suns fan feel a little better. But it doesn't excuse just running it back next year.

 

[Phrazbit]

We all agree our team has lots of issues but we looked way better against the Wolves than the Nuggets are. It does make a Suns fan feel a little better. But it doesn't excuse just running it back next year.

Did we look better?

Yeah, the Nuggets fell flat on their face in game 2 but game 1 was a close game throughout that either team could have won.

The Suns were basically non-competitive during the 2nd half of games 1, 2 and 3. We didn't put up a real fight in any game until game 4.

It was also the same way we saw the Suns struggle all year. In games 2 and 3 it didn't have to be the Wolves to beat us out there, the Suns played so poorly that they could have lost to anyone. Giving up wide open looks on defense, and playing slow and sloppy on offense.