Suns News: Week 16 (1/31 to 2/5)

[Split T]

There’s just no reason to bring them back until they’re 100%, we’ve got plenty of bigs. Where we’re hurting right now is the backcourt…with Payne and Shamet out, Payton is our only bench guard. Our bench tomorrow will be Payton/Wainright/Smith/McGee…are the 10 day contracts not a thing anymore? Surely there’s someone out there we can add to give us some depth. I’m not really excited about playing Paul and Book 40 minutes a night. I guess get ready for 25-30 minutes of Payton tomorrow.

This is why we need to add a guard at the deadline, we are surviving 4 injuries to our bigs…we are 1 injury away from playing Payton important minutes in the playoffs.

[pickle]

I’m sure we never heard of Justin Jackson again for a reason but I’d sure love to give a crack to a guy like that. Whatever happened to Bass?

[Superbone]

Ugh! I am not looking forward to 30+ minutes of EP. He played some decent D last night but his turnovers and offense are atrocious. I wish he still had the crazy hair in his face that I could blame but he's just not a good enough NBA player.

[Split T]

I’m sure we never heard of Justin Jackson again for a reason but I’d sure love to give a crack to a guy like that. Whatever happened to Bass?

Can only sign 2 10 day contracts, Bass just ran out of time. Jackson didn’t have his renewed.

[Indy]

I completely disagree with David on that one. I don't think telling Paul and Book to play 25 mpg instead of the 32 they are playing will protect them from injuries. They aren't guys playing with a degenerative disorder like Nash was. It doesn't take much to step on a guy's ankle or pull a hamstring.

[dragickingdom]

I’m sure we never heard of Justin Jackson again for a reason but I’d sure love to give a crack to a guy like that. Whatever happened to Bass?

Can only sign 2 10 day contracts, Bass just ran out of time. Jackson didn’t have his renewed.

I'm sure I must be crazy but I swear I read about a player signing his 4th 10 day contract....or maybe I'm not crazy.

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/2 ... y-Contract

[Nodack]

Ugh! I am not looking forward to 30+ minutes of EP. He played some decent D last night but his turnovers and offense are atrocious. I wish he still had the crazy hair in his face that I could blame but he's just not a good enough NBA player.

Is it me or does he start off every game with a turnover?

[Indy]

I’m sure we never heard of Justin Jackson again for a reason but I’d sure love to give a crack to a guy like that. Whatever happened to Bass?

Can only sign 2 10 day contracts, Bass just ran out of time. Jackson didn’t have his renewed.

I'm sure I must be crazy but I swear I read about a player signing his 4th 10 day contract....or maybe I'm not crazy.

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/2 ... y-Contract

I thought you have to have players in covid protocols to use the new provision of more than 2 10-day contracts.

[bajanguy008]

This is cool

People were tagging him in this post to let him see NBA.com used his image for the Suns hence his reaction tweet lol

[Mori Chu]

I agree with this one pretty strongly. Really worried about the potential for injury to our starting guards. I think playing Payton big minutes is a necessary evil at this point. It isn't worth burning out CP3; we need him for the playoffs. We saw in the Finals what a not-100% CP3 is like, and it hurts us a lot. Rather drop a few games in February and keep guys fresh.

Also could we please just get a backup guard? C'mon, James Jones, work your magic.

[Split T]

I don’t want to play our guys 40 minutes either, but I will say that CP3 got hurt in the playoffs, it wasn’t a worn out issue…just took a couple hits(shoulder and wrist).

You can get hurt whether you play 25 minutes or 40 minutes.

[Mori Chu]

I don’t want to play our guys 40 minutes either, but I will say that CP3 got hurt in the playoffs, it wasn’t a worn out issue…just took a couple hits(shoulder and wrist).

You can get hurt whether you play 25 minutes or 40 minutes.

Respectfully, I never agree with this logic. Even if you assume that injuries are not about wearing out / wear and tear and that they are entirely about random chance and freak accidents, if you're on the court for 25 minutes vs 40, you have a 25 / 40 as much chance of being part of one of those accidents, don't you?

[Indy]

I don’t want to play our guys 40 minutes either, but I will say that CP3 got hurt in the playoffs, it wasn’t a worn out issue…just took a couple hits(shoulder and wrist).

You can get hurt whether you play 25 minutes or 40 minutes.

Respectfully, I never agree with this logic. Even if you assume that injuries are not about wearing out / wear and tear and that they are entirely about random chance and freak accidents, if you're on the court for 25 minutes vs 40, you have a 25 / 40 as much chance of being part of one of those accidents, don't you?

So then guys off the bench that play 25 mpg get injured 30-40% less often than starters? I don't think the numbers back that up, but maybe I am wrong there.

[Split T]

I don’t want to play our guys 40 minutes either, but I will say that CP3 got hurt in the playoffs, it wasn’t a worn out issue…just took a couple hits(shoulder and wrist).

You can get hurt whether you play 25 minutes or 40 minutes.

Respectfully, I never agree with this logic. Even if you assume that injuries are not about wearing out / wear and tear and that they are entirely about random chance and freak accidents, if you're on the court for 25 minutes vs 40, you have a 25 / 40 as much chance of being part of one of those accidents, don't you?

Sure, but then why pay him at all? Why not just sit him until the playoffs?

And I don’t want to play him 40 minutes either, but even if he plays 25 minutes a game, that’s 825 minutes of basketball he’ll play before the playoffs. And that doesn’t include practice.

If he continues at his current pace, he’ll play 1050 minutes. So you’re saving 225 minutes…I don’t think it’s worth it. I think we can do better at getting him out of the game earlier when we have it under control, but CP3 has been very injury free over the last few years, I don’t think we need to treat him like a fragile player.

[bajanguy008]

Yes this been fairly evident

We haven't really been locking up that much, more as King says scoring well and as always then doing our Clutch thing late

[JeremyG]

It's not just about injuries with CP3. It's the fact that he'll be 37 years old in May and if he plays heavy minutes in the regular season he may not have much left in the tank by the postseason. Like I said in the other thread a few days ago, it's time for Monty to prioritize health over winning regular season games.

I'm fine with Payton getting 30 minutes per game. In fact, if he knew he was being relied on for 30 minutes per game, I think he would play better.

[Split T]

CP3 takes care of his body as well as anyone and seems to get better as the season goes on. I’m not worried about him wearing out.

[3rdside]

[*]Not in the table below, but
*Book is shooting 66/54/53 @ that FT%
*CP3 is shooting 56/29/82
*DA is shooting 91/--/100 [/list]

Adding this to the Clutch stats:

66 players have taken at least 25 shots
* Book leads FG% at 65.5% (next closest is Giannis at 60.0%)

68 players have taken at least 10 3PAs
* Book is 4th in 3PA% at 53.8% (only other Sun that has taken at least 10 is Crowder and he is shooting 40% on them)

62 players have played in at least 10 games w/Clutch time and have more than 10 assists per 100 possessions
* Paul is #1 with 15.1 (next closest is 12.0)

Interesting to read all this ... the clutch scoring link I posted last week was from NBA.com, which according to this definition defines clutch scoring as 4th quarter scoring:

In basketball, clutch is a term that usually starts taking form as the 4th quarter starts. This is because the 4th quarter is the last quarter to either catch up or hold out the lead. When a game is close or a back and forth, the 4th is where the winning happens.

But looking at the link itself, the Minutes Played column shows all players <5mins so maybe it's the same 5 minute rule?

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/clutc ... =GP&dir=-1

Booker is up to 78th from 120th when I first posted the link, but I can't reconcile the list as I have to start work...

[3rdside]

Why I couldn’t quickly find the definition of Clutch on NBA.com itself I’ve no idea, maybe it’s there somewhere

[Indy]

Why I couldn’t quickly find the definition of Clutch on NBA.com itself I’ve no idea, maybe it’s there somewhere

https://www.yardbarker.com/nba/articles ... 5_35060582

Not on NBA.com, but references them.