Warriors at Suns

[AzStevenCal]

Take the 2nd best player off any contending team and replace them with Dragic, you still think that is a contending team?

I love Dragic and I don't mean it as a slight, especially since he is getting paid closer to 5th/6th wheel money.

Sure, replace Wade with Dragic and I still think they are a contending team. Replace Westbrook with Dragic and I still think they are a contending team. You couldn't do it for every situation but there are a couple IMO. In OKC's case, I think it's almost addition by subtraction. Durant is such a weapon and Dragic would be content to let him be the man, something Westbrook hesitates to do. In the Miami situation, Wade at his best is much better than Goran but injuries have left him at less than his best more often than not.

Steve

 

[AzStevenCal]

I was hoping for a team that would at least be competitive... It is very clear that in all reality probably won't be the case this year..

Well, there is competitive and then there is competitive. No, we're not going to win too many battles with the big guys but we should be competitive with the 6 seed and lower type teams. Unfortunately, we're probably going to lose a lot of games that we're competitive in simply because we don't have that go-to star.

Steve

 

[SunsTzu]

Sure, replace Wade with Dragic and I still think they are a contending team. Replace Westbrook with Dragic and I still think they are a contending team. You couldn't do it for every situation but there are a couple IMO. In OKC's case, I think it's almost addition by subtraction. Durant is such a weapon and Dragic would be content to let him be the man, something Westbrook hesitates to do. In the Miami situation, Wade at his best is much better than Goran but injuries have left him at less than his best more often than not.

Steve

It's safe to say we disagree, but even if you replaced Wade with Dragic he would still be the 3rd best player on the Heat and you could make the same argument with the Thunder.

 

[splitsecond]

some of you are nuts. We will be lucky to win 30 games.

 

[jagu]

at least the flakers are about to be 0-2

They are probably thinking about trading for Kevin Love now.

 

[elindholm]

They are probably thinking about trading for Kevin Love now.

Heh! Or maybe Granger.

 

[AzStevenCal]

some of you are nuts. We will be lucky to win 30 games.

If Beasley plays like he did tonight you're probably right. However, to be fair to the rest of the board, very few of us actually expect them to win much more than 30 games.

Steve

 

[Bodha]

Id like to be the first to thank Michael Beasley for being generous enough to bequeath us an entire 8 points.


This is going to be a long


long

long

year.

Gortat sucks.


Louis Scola was our one bright spot tonight. Too bad we have an entire team of bench players.

 

[jagu]

Yea Gortat Sucks..

10 points, 9 rebounds, 5 blocks. Just awful.

 

[95pro]

Id like to be the first to thank Michael Beasley for being generous enough to bequeath us an entire 8 points.


This is going to be a long


long

long

year.

Gortat sucks.


Louis Scola was our one bright spot tonight. Too bad we have an entire team of bench players.

gortat sucks? wow
dragic played good from what i saw. guy is tough to guard and he plays good on D too. he should have had more assists. that's one more bright spot other than the noted Scola.

i havent watched beasley much over his career. but does he always get his teams offense out of rythm? i did like his chase-down block though.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Id like to be the first to thank Michael Beasley for being generous enough to bequeath us an entire 8 points.


This is going to be a long


long

long

year.

Gortat sucks.


Louis Scola was our one bright spot tonight. Too bad we have an entire team of bench players.

Gortat sucks??? Let me guess, you watched 5 minutes of the game and took a wild guess? Gortat played weak early in the game but he stepped up nicely after that. And dragon was a brighter spot than Scola.

Steve

 

[sunsfan88]

It must be so nice to get contributions from your rookie the way the Warriors did from Barnes....

 

[Bodha]

Yea Gortat Sucks..

10 points, 9 rebounds, 5 blocks. Just awful.

10 points is garbage.

you watched 5 minutes of the game and took a wild guess?

Steve

That is correct. I also havent forgotten him disappearing at the end of last year when we still had a chance at the playoffs.



Tucker was a suprise. Dragic showed some flashes of a franchise guy

 

[carey]

Those five blocks were enormous in turning around the game. I'm usually the first to criticize TheGORTAT, but he was going at it tonight.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

Bodha is just barely above troll level so just ignore him.

 

[Neo]

This looks like it will be a sucessful season.

Huh? How are you defining success?

 

[jagu]

Some of you posters have way too high expectations. This isn't a championship team, enjoy the season and that's it.

 

[Griffin]

Suns played well enough to win, but made some mistakes down the stretch in a close game. That offensive rebound GS turned into a three was really the difference.

Dragic had a very nice game, although he made a crucial mistake at the end passing the ball when there was no time. Scola with a very nice debut. Gortat with a strong game defensively.

The second unit struggled mightily in the first half and allowed GS to build a large lead. But they did much better second time around, especially on the defensive end.

Very poor debut for Beasley. And where was Johnson?

 

[Absolute Zero]

I just watched bits and pieces. I was impressed how we battled back and took a solid lead in the fourth.

But clearly Gentry is still figuring out how to use these guys. I don't know how many shots we missed down the stretch, but we had no offense, Dudley was bricking everything. So Beasley could have provided a spark, but he just sat out the rest of the game. Same with Wes Johnson, he could have provided some much needed shooting, but he sat it out as well. Gentry seems to have a tendency not to switch up much down the stretch, even when things are massively failing.

 

[Chaz]

It is going to take 10-15 games just to see how this team is going to come together.
It was a disappointing loss considering how close it was.

The lack of a go-to guy was evident. Beasley has the talent but has not shown me (in one game) that he is willing to put out the effort.

Dragic needed to be more aware of the clock and take that last shot.

 

[Mainstreet]

Some of you posters have way too high expectations. This isn't a championship team, enjoy the season and that's it.

I have to keep reminding myself of that and not get so intense.

 

[SirStefan32]

When I am watching Suns games this year, I am not really going to focus on winning. This is a brand-new team, and it will take a while for them to develop chemistry. We all know that they are not winning the championship any time soon, so I am primarily interested in specific aspects of development.

I really like what I saw from Dragic (minus the mistake at the end of the game.) He played good D, he was very aggressive driving to the hoop, he made some nice passes. Had the Suns made half their wide-open shots, he would have ended up with 15 assists. I do want him to get even more aggressive and start taking over games. I know that Besley is supposed to be the scorer, go-to guy, or whatever we want to call it, but I want to see Dragic become that guy. This is his team, and he needs to start taking over.

Gortat was terrible early on, but he really played strong in the second half, especially on D. He just needs to keep it up and be more focused.

Scola was Scola- couple of dumb mistakes, but overall very good.

I liked defense in general- everyone was aggressive and, for the most part, focused. There is plenty of work to do, but I liked what I saw considering it was the first game of the season.

Tucker was a really nice surprise. I knew he was a Lou Amundson- type player when it came to effort, but I didn't realize that he actually has some skill.

Beasly was just terrible, Telfair did very well running the second unit in the second half. O'Neal should just retire, and Morris did OK.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

People saying that Gentry flat out sucks as a coach are being ridiculous. Is he a good Xs and Os guy? No, but his teams play hard and are competitive even when everyone believes they should lose.

 

[jagu]

When I am watching Suns games this year, I am not really going to focus on winning. This is a brand-new team, and it will take a while for them to develop chemistry.

+10000

What are winning for? For false hope that this team can win some ring? I rather see progress for the future. I can deal with losing as I've seen crappy Suns teams in the past.

I loved what I saw from Dragic. He played D that we haven't seen at PG in a long time last night. He looked good on offense controlling the ball and finding open guys who missed shots they might make on another day. Clearly this Suns defense could improve as the season wears on. PJ Tucker, what a great signing. People say basketball is all about skill. Tucker is all-out hustle and that's why he found himself playing a lot late in the game. Morris played excellent defense as well and he needs to just go inside rather than shoot threes.

There will be days when Shannon Brown and Dudley make those wide open shots and win the game. Both are good shooters. This loss wasn't too painful. A lot of good promise.

 

[Chaz]

I thought JO was decent. He moved well and could give a good 15-20 min/game.

I was less than impressed with Morris. That technical was ridiculous. I agree that he needs to get closer to the basket and stop hanging out on the perimeter.