Game Day: Hornets (3-5) @ Suns (5-3), Fri 11/14/14

[Sunsfan4life]

Hey theres an terrible officiating call.

[da_suns_fan]

This isnt a playoff team.

[The Bobster]

This isnt a playoff team.

No, they're not.

The defense needs a lot of improvement, but the offense has been even more disappointing.

[specialsauce]

This team has zero chemistry and too many 1990's Allen iverson wannabes. The sooner we make a trade the better chance we have at playoffs

[Wally_West]

This team is going to have to start playing radically different real soon if they want to make the playoffs this season. The west is too strong to spend a good portion of the season dedicated to figuring out your shit. Also I really hope these struggles don't lead to some bullshit "Fire Hornacek" campaign.

[INFORMER]

Even if this season goes south, I don't think anyone should be fired, especially not Hornacek.

What I hate is that we keep having to suffer through first-time execs horrible basketball decisions, decisions and mistakes hardly anyone else would make, and mistakes that set us back so much and that waste valuable resources and opportunities. I'm sick of it.

[carey]

Even if this season goes south, I don't think anyone should be fired, especially not Hornacek.

What I hate is that we keep having to suffer through first-time execs horrible basketball decisions, decisions and mistakes hardly anyone else would make, and mistakes that set us back so much and that waste valuable resources and opportunities. I'm sick of it.

I'm not close to giving up on anyone in our front office / coaching staff. However, I do think a trade is on the horizon that can fix a lot of our issues. We also need to shelve some dead weight as well. I know they are desperate for some outside shooting but Tolliver is not it. I thought he would be serviceable here but he just makes mistake after mistake out there. Bury him on the bench. Play Warren all of Tolliver's minutes. I'd look into what it would take to get Draymond Green from G.S. I'm pretty sure they can't resign him without going into the tax. G.S. might not be willing to do it until after the year, but I might give up one of my assets for him if it meant I never had to see Tolliver, Marcus, or Randolph at the 4 ever again.

[INFORMER]

I'd look into what it would take to get Draymond Green from G.S.

You'd be wasting your time. They love him and value him. Kerr even said Green would remain the starter even with David Lee back. He's not going anywhere.

[Mori Chu]

A game like tonight makes me really wish Dragic were our only PG. The two-PG thing is rough and I don't think it really works. And I am starting to feel like Isaiah Thomas is fool's gold. He takes a ton of shots every game where he doesn't even look for the open man. I think we just have too many me-first guys and gunners at the 1-3 spots. Even the Morrii chuck up their fair share of shots. Basically the guys on the team I like watching are:

Dragic
Tucker
Markieff Morris
Len
(somewhat) Plumlee

Concerning me a lot:

TOLLIVER (he's horrible)
Bledsoe
Thomas
Gerald Green

[SDC]

Green was 0-6 in 8 mins with 1 rebound and 1 turnover. He really is hit or miss

green plays well, suns win.

green plays poorly, suns lose.

[ShelC]

The problem i see is that we have too many very good players that Coach is trying to play. We need to tighten the rotation, give guys defined roles and get some flow going. The hot-hand thing isn't working. Unfortunately, a guy like IT3 is a luxury for us and might be the one making it difficult for our backcourt to get into rhythm. We have too many swingmen to find time for between Green, Tucker and Morris. We gotta shake out this roster.

[Ring_Wanted]

Green, IT and Tolliver screwed us tonight.

Bledsoe, Plumlee and Marcus played really well but it was wasted. Len was decent. Kieff too overall. Dragic's shot was not on today but at least he scored off fastbreaks, although in crunch time he couldn't get by anyone. Charlotte's defense is no joke as it is, but I think the refs allowed them too much contact.

Biyombo had a double double in 15 minutes. Brutal.

[Ring_Wanted]

A game like tonight makes me really wish Dragic were our only PG. The two-PG thing is rough and I don't think it really works. And I am starting to feel like Isaiah Thomas is fool's gold.

Last year there was more room for the two pgs, both in terms of floor space and minutes distribution.

Basically everything that's working differently is a byproduct of substracting Frye and adding IT3, and it's not looking good overall. The team wins games because it has a lot of firepower and is never completely out of it, but that's looking to be unsustainable.

I wouldn't say Thomas is fool's gold, though. Just like Green, he is what he is, and nobody is on every game. But from a roster standpoint, maybe having just one of them is enough, assuming that by pawning the other one off you add something you lack like big man depth, while also improving the dynamics of the two starters.

Others have spoken about this notion but I think it won't take much longer until the need to make a move is perentory (if it isn't already).

[Sunsfan4life]

The problem i see is that we have too many very good player who Coach is trying to play. We need to tighten the rotation, give guys defined roles and get some flow going. The hot-hand thing isn't working. Unfortunately, a guy like IT3 is a luxury for us and might be the one making it difficult for our backcourt to get into rhythm. We have too many swingmen to find time for between Green, Tucker and Morris. We gotta shake out this roster.

This is a great take. I agree 100%. Its a tough job for Hornecek because they all are good players and all play similar positions, but I think he needs to commit to a rotation and stick with it even if someone gets off to a bad start. I was hoping Atlanta would go south this season so it would make a guy like Milsap or hortford available but they have looked decent so far. The log jam is IT,Dragic,Bled,Green in the backcourt because they all are use to having the ball in their hands and getting up shots. Dragic probably plays the best off the ball out of all 4 of them and the problem with that is he's the one who has looked best as our point guard and is, IMO, by far our best decision maker. When Gerald isn't making shots he contributes very little else. When IT doesn't have the ball in his hands he becomes marginalized. Eric is a good defender and can do more then the other 2 off the ball, but seems to kinda fade away when he doesn't have the ball in his hands or doesn't touch it for a few possessions. Dragic moves very well off the ball, is probabaly the best shooter of the 4 and is consistently moving or looking free teammates up. Just watch him off the ball compared to the others.

I'm not as angry as others because I expected this to be a "process" and us not to hit our stride right away. I also expect this to be a year where we would be a bottom end playoff team in a very competitive conference I didn't expect us to compete for the division with what we have in the frontcourt, but I agree with the consensus, the offense seems too 1 dimensional and even the 2 games we won this week (Brooklyn and GS) we won with Green and IT playing hero ball in the 2nd half instead of nice ball movement and good D. I'm not knocking them at all because it looks like the offense is designed for that right now.

[djy2j]

Accidentally saw the score before I wstched the DVR this morning so I turned it off after the 1st quarter. Sounds like I made a wise decision. Wel see how they fare tonight

[da_suns_fan]

The problem i see is that we have too many very good players that Coach is trying to play. We need to tighten the rotation, give guys defined roles and get some flow going. The hot-hand thing isn't working. Unfortunately, a guy like IT3 is a luxury for us and might be the one making it difficult for our backcourt to get into rhythm. We have too many swingmen to find time for between Green, Tucker and Morris. We gotta shake out this roster.

I got shredded for saying this team reminded me of that 97 team that started out 0-13 and had a lot of the same problems.

Too many players, no clear leader, etc.

[LazarusLong]

Not that you got shredded for it ... it's just that nobody on planet Earth agrees with you, that's all.

[Indy]

Not that you got shredded for it ... it's just that nobody on planet Earth agrees with you, that's all.

I think you are rounding up Dusty. There might be at least one other person on the planet that would agree.

[INFORMER]

A game like tonight makes me really wish Dragic were our only PG. The two-PG thing is rough and I don't think it really works. And I am starting to feel like Isaiah Thomas is fool's gold.

Last year there was more room for the two pgs, both in terms of floor space and minutes distribution.

Basically everything that's working differently is a byproduct of substracting Frye and adding IT3, and it's not looking good overall. The team wins games because it has a lot of firepower and is never completely out of it, but that's looking to be unsustainable.

I wouldn't say Thomas is fool's gold, though. Just like Green, he is what he is, and nobody is on every game. But from a roster standpoint, maybe having just one of them is enough, assuming that by pawning the other one off you add something you lack like big man depth, while also improving the dynamics of the two starters.

Others have spoken about this notion but I think it won't take much longer until the need to make a move is perentory (if it isn't already).

1. Hard to blame the two guys that are almost singlehandedly responsible for multiple wins.
2. Interesting, though not unexpected, how one player is inexplicably absent from that diagnosis of what ails the team.

[INFORMER]

Dragic probably plays the best off the ball out of all 4 of them and the problem with that is he's the one who has looked best as our point guard and is, IMO, by far our best decision maker.

Yep.