Game Day: Kings (1-2) @ Suns (0-3), Mon 10/23/17

[Superbone]

Time: 7:00 pm AZ (7:00 pm PT/10:00 pm ET)
Place: Talking Stick Resort Arena, Phoenix, AZ
TV: FSAZ, NBALP

Well, this should be interesting. Triano makes his Phoenix interim head coaching debut. Let's see if anything is any different. Does Bledsoe still start? Does he even play?

Go Suns!!!

Dis • cuss

[Mori Chu]

Wouldn't be surprised if they somehow won this one, given how teams usually bounce up after a coach gets fired. But we need every loss we can get at this point.

[Wally_West]

I don’t think we need every loss we can’t get, I think we are going to be fine in that department. Call me crazy but I don’t see how we aren’t in the bottom 3 by the end of the season. I’d be little surprised if we don’t get the worst record this season. We are freaking horrible.

[Flagrant Fowl]

For those interested, Vegas has us as a 1.5 point favorite. That was the same line for opening night, which was fucking insane.

I think we have a chance in this one, but my money would be on the Kings if I had place a bet.

I forgot to add that I think Bledsoe shouldn't play. He's checked out and his trade value can only go down with more poor performances or an injury.

[Cap]

Wouldn't be surprised if they somehow won this one, given how teams usually bounce up after a coach gets fired. But we need every loss we can get at this point.

Given what we've done so far, we can "bounce up" and still lose by 20.

[O_Gardino]

We should be looking at the Kings like the Lakers. They are a peer team we should be looking to assert ourselves over. Given how closely tied our drafts are, we should be looking to prove that we got the better players.

Fox is quicker than anyone we have. Will we rotate on defense, or will he eat us alive?

Will Chriss / Bender be able to take care of Skal?

[In2ition]

I'm curious how this will go and I'll be watching closely how the team changes. I'm not expecting a win though, even though it would make sense that they do win this one.

[In2ition]

It's being reported that Bledsoe was sent home when he came into shoot around this morning. He will not be playing tonight. Maybe a trade is really in the works.

[ShelC]

Can we move these to the Bledsoe thread? No point taking up the gameday thread with Bledsoe trade news.

[Split T]

Can we move these to the Bledsoe thread? No point taking up the gameday thread with Bledsoe trade news.

Good idea. Back to topic, do we start James or ulis tonight?

[ShelC]

I think James starts. I like him a lot better on the floor because he's a threat to score. Ulis can be a fine backup but I also would expect Booker to see minutes at backup PG.

[O_Gardino]

I think James starts. I like him a lot better on the floor because he's a threat to score. Ulis can be a fine backup but I also would expect Booker to see minutes at backup PG.

Agreed, although we really need his scoring in the second unit, too.

Maybe we see some Jackson at PG tonight as well.

Also, I hope Ulis is back in game shape, because we are going to need minutes from him.

[Split T]

James is better right now, but I also kinda like him in the 2nd unit. A 2nd unit of ulis/Daniels/Jones Jr/Chriss/Bender isn't going to score very well. James or Warren needs to be in that 2nd unit

[ShelC]

I'd go James, Booker, Jackson, Warren and Chandler/Bender. Then Ulis, Daniels, Warren, Chriss, Len/Chandler/Bender. Ulis should have all the scorers around him so he can get them the ball. We don't need a scoring guard with that unit.

[O_Gardino]

I know it's not going to happen, but I'd like to see:

James \ Booker \ Jackson \ Bender \ Chriss
Booker, Jackson, and Bender move the ball. Chriss and James dunk and shoot. Chriss has to learn to set a screen. You can hide Bender on offense a little bit.

Ulis \ Daniels \ Warren \ Dudley \ Len
Ulis and Len run some pick and roll. Daniels and Dudley just spot up and keep the floor spread. Warren can cut and do this thing in traffic.

[Split T]

https://twitter.com/Gambo987/status/922534114753789954

[carey]

Triano said he's going with a traditional line-up. Look for one of Jackson or Warren to move to the bench and one of Bender or Chriss to move into the starting line-up. I'd possibly look for a shift from Chandler to Len as well.

Expect to see more than 4 minutes through 3 quarters for Bender going forward too. Triano said he knows the young guys need to play. I expect that has been made perfectly clear by the front office.

[carey]

I'll get the news thread going in a bit but there were some things in Gambo's interview on Doug & Wolf that I did not like today. He flat out called Bender a bust and that Chriss is nothing more than a 7th or 8th guy on a team. He said that along with trading the vets we should consider trading some of the young guys. The only key pieces to the rebuild for sure right now are Booker, Jackson and this year's pick.

You can listen to it linked in this article: http://arizonasports.com/story/1287760/ ... urnaround/

[EDC]

Triano said he's going with a traditional line-up. Look for one of Jackson or Warren to move to the bench and one of Bender or Chriss to move into the starting line-up. I'd possibly look for a shift from Chandler to Len as well.

Expect to see more than 4 minutes through 3 quarters for Bender going forward too. Triano said he knows the young guys need to play. I expect that has been made perfectly clear by the front office.

I think it would be a disaster to reward Chriss with the starting job after the effort he has given so far. It is too much to hope that Bender gets the nod. We will probably see Dudley starting at the 4.

I hope you are right and we see more time for Bender though.

[O_Gardino]

Triano said he's going with a traditional line-up. Look for one of Jackson or Warren to move to the bench and one of Bender or Chriss to move into the starting line-up. I'd possibly look for a shift from Chandler to Len as well.

Expect to see more than 4 minutes through 3 quarters for Bender going forward too. Triano said he knows the young guys need to play. I expect that has been made perfectly clear by the front office.

I think it would be a disaster to reward Chriss with the starting job after the effort he has given so far. It is too much to hope that Bender gets the nod. We will probably see Dudley starting at the 4.

I hope you are right and we see more time for Bender though.

Agree on all points. We may see Duds in the starting lineup.