Game Day: Suns (7-6) @ Spurs (10-3), Mon 11/23/15

[Superbone]

Yeah, it was cool seeing Jaws play basketball.

[Superbone]

apologize if these comments tend to be longish.

clearly this is a game to forget. my god the first quarter i'm amazed we managed to actually take shots. feels like every trip we take down the court our pg, the last guy up, coughs the ball up in some dribble move and then there's no one back there to defend their breakaway layup/dunk. i like brandon knight, read the piece that was posted in our news thread and like that he's a cerebral player, but i think there are some serious holes in his game. maybe the spurs were a little handsy on defense, but my god... this is his second 8 TO game and it can't all be on the officiating. i think of all those turnovers, there might have been one offensive foul. the others were real legitimate turnovers. i'm no expert on reading the court, but i feel like for a guard his dribble is too high which gives elite defenders just that extra split second to get a hand in there. i mentioned this before, but i wish he would spend an entire off season focusing on improving his handles. i can tell that he made a concerted effort to play pg... did not look for his shot and always passed. there were two or three very good passes to open teammates who could not convert, but i liked what he was doing, when he was clearly the lone pg on the team. however, our team has been playing a game where everyone waits for the two pgs to make something happen so naturally when they catch the ball without 5 feet of open space, they aren't sure what to do next. when knight attacks the basket, i've noticed that he puts his head down and just goes... doesn't look to drop the ball off. on the plus side, he's much more accurate around the basket in this game than the pelicans one. the difference seems to be whether he can get that step... if he doesn't, which was the case in new orleans, his physique or shooting-in-traffic ability isn't good enough to allow him to be effective around the rim, whereas if he does, he's very accurate. maybe he could learn some guard footwork from tony parker. on defense, same issue... he just can't move his feet well enough to really stay in front of his man.

I don't mind the longness but I just can't get myself to read the giant blocks of text without capitalization. It's just too uniform for my eyes. It's too tough to make out where sentences start and who you're talking about without proper name capitalization. Sorry to be blunt but I honestly want to read your stuff.

[Nodack]

SA hasn't lost at home yet. They make everybody look bad there. Bledsoe has been running the offense and with him out it reminded me of when Nash would go out and the offense would grind to a halt. SA would have Nash's number as well and just double team him the whole game. SA seems to double team everybody who has the ball and be ultra aggressive at all times.

Isn't it time for Pop to retire yet? He always gets the most out of his team and they always seem to find and make diamonds out of coal. I think I will throw a party when he retires.

[Shabazz]

We also refused to use Brandan Wright in a pick-and-roll role, when he is excellent at this. Seriously, if you let him roll to the basket and throw it anywhere near him, you get a free basket. But no. We didn't care for his services and let him leave. I guarantee that if Nash were here, Wright would have been a valuable player and we'd have kept him.

We have tried this a lot lately with Chandler. But our "PGs" haven't been that great getting him the ball where he can just flush it. Instead he has to make crazy catches to do damage, and he isn't 28 anymore. And Len doesn't have good hands. So we don't really have the guys to do this until Bledsoe or Knight are already hitting their shots and forcing the defender to run at them instead of sneaking back into the lane to disrupt the poor pass from our guards.

Yup. We have 3 PGs and none of them are good at running the pick and roll.

[LazarusLong]

Isn't it time for Pop to retire yet? He always gets the most out of his team and they always seem to find and make diamonds out of coal. I think I will throw a party when he retires.

You and the rest of the Western Conference, who he's been torturing for all these years ...

[Indy]

apologize if these comments tend to be longish.

clearly this is a game to forget. my god the first quarter i'm amazed we managed to actually take shots. feels like every trip we take down the court our pg, the last guy up, coughs the ball up in some dribble move and then there's no one back there to defend their breakaway layup/dunk. i like brandon knight, read the piece that was posted in our news thread and like that he's a cerebral player, but i think there are some serious holes in his game. maybe the spurs were a little handsy on defense, but my god... this is his second 8 TO game and it can't all be on the officiating. i think of all those turnovers, there might have been one offensive foul. the others were real legitimate turnovers. i'm no expert on reading the court, but i feel like for a guard his dribble is too high which gives elite defenders just that extra split second to get a hand in there. i mentioned this before, but i wish he would spend an entire off season focusing on improving his handles. i can tell that he made a concerted effort to play pg... did not look for his shot and always passed. there were two or three very good passes to open teammates who could not convert, but i liked what he was doing, when he was clearly the lone pg on the team. however, our team has been playing a game where everyone waits for the two pgs to make something happen so naturally when they catch the ball without 5 feet of open space, they aren't sure what to do next. when knight attacks the basket, i've noticed that he puts his head down and just goes... doesn't look to drop the ball off. on the plus side, he's much more accurate around the basket in this game than the pelicans one. the difference seems to be whether he can get that step... if he doesn't, which was the case in new orleans, his physique or shooting-in-traffic ability isn't good enough to allow him to be effective around the rim, whereas if he does, he's very accurate. maybe he could learn some guard footwork from tony parker. on defense, same issue... he just can't move his feet well enough to really stay in front of his man.

I don't mind the longness but I just can't get myself to read the giant blocks of text without capitalization. It's just too uniform for my eyes. It's too tough to make out where sentences start and who you're talking about without proper name capitalization. Sorry to be blunt but I honestly want to read your stuff.

The periods and ellipses do that for me.

And there is a capital T and O in that post... I guess you just missed it.

[Superbone]

apologize if these comments tend to be longish.

clearly this is a game to forget. my god the first quarter i'm amazed we managed to actually take shots. feels like every trip we take down the court our pg, the last guy up, coughs the ball up in some dribble move and then there's no one back there to defend their breakaway layup/dunk. i like brandon knight, read the piece that was posted in our news thread and like that he's a cerebral player, but i think there are some serious holes in his game. maybe the spurs were a little handsy on defense, but my god... this is his second 8 TO game and it can't all be on the officiating. i think of all those turnovers, there might have been one offensive foul. the others were real legitimate turnovers. i'm no expert on reading the court, but i feel like for a guard his dribble is too high which gives elite defenders just that extra split second to get a hand in there. i mentioned this before, but i wish he would spend an entire off season focusing on improving his handles. i can tell that he made a concerted effort to play pg... did not look for his shot and always passed. there were two or three very good passes to open teammates who could not convert, but i liked what he was doing, when he was clearly the lone pg on the team. however, our team has been playing a game where everyone waits for the two pgs to make something happen so naturally when they catch the ball without 5 feet of open space, they aren't sure what to do next. when knight attacks the basket, i've noticed that he puts his head down and just goes... doesn't look to drop the ball off. on the plus side, he's much more accurate around the basket in this game than the pelicans one. the difference seems to be whether he can get that step... if he doesn't, which was the case in new orleans, his physique or shooting-in-traffic ability isn't good enough to allow him to be effective around the rim, whereas if he does, he's very accurate. maybe he could learn some guard footwork from tony parker. on defense, same issue... he just can't move his feet well enough to really stay in front of his man.

I don't mind the longness but I just can't get myself to read the giant blocks of text without capitalization. It's just too uniform for my eyes. It's too tough to make out where sentences start and who you're talking about without proper name capitalization. Sorry to be blunt but I honestly want to read your stuff.

The periods and ellipses do that for me.

And there is a capital T and O in that post... I guess you just missed it.

No, that's the one thing that stands out.

[Furlanfufi]

apologize if these comments tend to be longish.

clearly this is a game to forget. my god the first quarter i'm amazed we managed to actually take shots. feels like every trip we take down the court our pg, the last guy up, coughs the ball up in some dribble move and then there's no one back there to defend their breakaway layup/dunk. i like brandon knight, read the piece that was posted in our news thread and like that he's a cerebral player, but i think there are some serious holes in his game. maybe the spurs were a little handsy on defense, but my god... this is his second 8 TO game and it can't all be on the officiating. i think of all those turnovers, there might have been one offensive foul. the others were real legitimate turnovers. i'm no expert on reading the court, but i feel like for a guard his dribble is too high which gives elite defenders just that extra split second to get a hand in there. i mentioned this before, but i wish he would spend an entire off season focusing on improving his handles. i can tell that he made a concerted effort to play pg... did not look for his shot and always passed. there were two or three very good passes to open teammates who could not convert, but i liked what he was doing, when he was clearly the lone pg on the team. however, our team has been playing a game where everyone waits for the two pgs to make something happen so naturally when they catch the ball without 5 feet of open space, they aren't sure what to do next. when knight attacks the basket, i've noticed that he puts his head down and just goes... doesn't look to drop the ball off. on the plus side, he's much more accurate around the basket in this game than the pelicans one. the difference seems to be whether he can get that step... if he doesn't, which was the case in new orleans, his physique or shooting-in-traffic ability isn't good enough to allow him to be effective around the rim, whereas if he does, he's very accurate. maybe he could learn some guard footwork from tony parker. on defense, same issue... he just can't move his feet well enough to really stay in front of his man.

I don't mind the longness but I just can't get myself to read the giant blocks of text without capitalization. It's just too uniform for my eyes. It's too tough to make out where sentences start and who you're talking about without proper name capitalization. Sorry to be blunt but I honestly want to read your stuff.

Capitalization and paragraph...It's very hard to read without both for a non native speaker.

[Indy]

I like the long posts pickle. They have a lot of great things to say. But they would generate more discussion with the proper formatting.

[pickle]

Understood... thanks for the note guys, and especially bone for bringing it up. Been a habit of mine for many years now and I never realized it was a problem. I'll try to be better with it...

Though that one long paragraph, it really was just the one paragraph as I was mostly commenting on Knight's game. At least that was the intention.

One other thing I meant to say yesterday on this game... We gave up something like 28 turnovers, but hey, we also roped SA into 19 of their own which is uncharacteristic, I would say. So we have this mild ability to make the other team play our game... This is me being positive about an otherwise completely forgettable game.

[Mori Chu]

My rule is, I only read a post if it has at least 4 exclamation points in it!! Use lots of exclamation points and I will read your message!! Okay?!!

[pickle]

Blah blah blah blah (Mori, this is for you, !!!!) blah blah blah blah...

[Nodack]

What about pig Latin cussing? That gets noticed too. Astardba, bonofasitch, dog gammit, fother mucker.

[Superbone]

Understood... thanks for the note guys, and especially bone for bringing it up. Been a habit of mine for many years now and I never realized it was a problem. I'll try to be better with it...

Though that one long paragraph, it really was just the one paragraph as I was mostly commenting on Knight's game. At least that was the intention.

One other thing I meant to say yesterday on this game... We gave up something like 28 turnovers, but hey, we also roped SA into 19 of their own which is uncharacteristic, I would say. So we have this mild ability to make the other team play our game... This is me being positive about an otherwise completely forgettable game.

Thanks, pickle! I was really trying not to be "that guy" but I really wanted to read your posts so I was being honest.

I'm not upset at all about the SA game. Those guys are on a whole other level. We've definitely got a lot of work, time, and player refinement to get there. Leonard really impressed me. The guy is a beast. He does it all and his defense is world class.

I was actually impressed our guys hung in as long as they did. There was a point in the 3rd quarter when it looked like the Spurs were going to blow it open. They got up by 17 or something like that but our guys kept fighting and went on a 12-0 spurt. Even Spurs color commentator Sean Elliot was saying he was glad to see their bench play the end of the game but he had been hoping it would have been a quarter earlier.

[pickle]

Thanks, pickle! I was really trying not to be "that guy" but I really wanted to read your posts so I was being honest.

I'm not upset at all about the SA game. Those guys are on a whole other level. We've definitely got a lot of work, time, and player refinement to get there. Leonard really impressed me. The guy is a beast. He does it all and his defense is world class.

I was actually impressed our guys hung in as long as they did. There was a point in the 3rd quarter when it looked like the Spurs were going to blow it open. They got up by 17 or something like that but our guys kept fighting and went on a 12-0 spurt. Even Spurs color commentator Sean Elliot was saying he was glad to see their bench play the end of the game but he had been hoping it would have been a quarter earlier.

No no, no sweat at all bone. It's always useful to know what I'm doing that are outside of my range of expectations. You are helping me out with that feedback.

I'm not upset that we lost the SA game, but I am upset with the way we turned over the ball... SA is clearly a team on a different level than us and I'm glad that we got the schooling. I wish we didn't make so many low level mistakes that made the game far more difficult for us than it needed to be though. There are of course positives that can be taken, but the biggest for me is how much room we have for growth before we hit some sort of a bottleneck that can only be fixed by the front office. We are pretty far from having maximized the available talent on hand.

Love Kawhi Leonard's game.

[Nodack]

SA puts a lot of defensive pressure on teams and are always very physical. That causes misses and turnovers. I'm sure the Suns were just as frustrated playing the game as I was watching it. Everything the Spurs shoot seems like easy buckets and every shot we take ends up being pressured desperation shots at the end of the shot clock or a turnover.

[Shabazz]

Some passes we threw were just awful and/or telegraphed. Especially Knight.

[Superbone]

Some passes we threw were just awful and/or telegraphed. Especially Knight.

Definitely room for improvement.