Phx-Suns.Net

As long as it goes in...

Ricky Rubio is now the World Cup all-time leader in assists

Back to back threes by Rubio probably broke the back of poland. His career arc is now where Jason Kidd was (3pt shooting phase)

SDC wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 10, 2019 7:57 am

Of course, that’s a) the statistics of small samples, and b) the international 3. Last season he shot .311 on NBA 3s.

I would love it if Rubio has added a 3-point shot to his game. I saw the videos where it looks like his form has changed a bit and that he's added a "hop" to gather his footing and arms. Shooting is weird; sometimes a guy who struggles with shooting finds a particular shot that he can hit reliably and adds it to his game. Kidd with 3s is a good example, though I think it is premature to compare Rubio to that, given that Kidd became one of the top 3-point shooters by total 3s made of all time.

All it takes is for Rubio to have one or two spots where he can reliably hit a jumper to completely change his impact on the floor. His passing and defense are already great. If he is also a semi decent threat to score, he'll be a huge weapon for us.

I think even if he hasn't added a 3-pointer, he'll still make a huge impact. I am super excited to see next year's team. I keep hearing these pundits and experts like Bill Simmons or ESPN people casually dismissing the Suns and saying we'll win 25 games. It could happen, but I do think this team has a chance to surprise people and be way better than expected.

Almost all of his threes are spot ups. There's one during the poland game where he pumped fake the defender into freezing, then took one dribble to the left, then let it fly.

MVP of Spain?

Keep the videos coming, SDC. Good stuff!

Marty [Mori Chu] wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 10, 2019 9:43 am

I think even if he hasn't added a 3-pointer, he'll still make a huge impact. I am super excited to see next year's team. I keep hearing these pundits and experts like Bill Simmons or ESPN people casually dismissing the Suns and saying we'll win 25 games. It could happen, but I do think this team has a chance to surprise people and be way better than expected.

This is my worry, but then I keep looking at it and I don't think there is any way that they win only 25 games. I even asked Matt Moore who was critiquing Booker on his season last year, if they were to have had Oubre and Tyler all season, would they have won 30 games? He said it would have been in the upper 20s in his opinion. And that's without the bench, or an actual PF on the roster, and still dependent on all those green 2nd rounders. It's kind of crazy how much better this roster should be this year.

In2ition wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 10, 2019 1:41 pm

Marty [Mori Chu] wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 10, 2019 9:43 am

I think even if he hasn't added a 3-pointer, he'll still make a huge impact. I am super excited to see next year's team. I keep hearing these pundits and experts like Bill Simmons or ESPN people casually dismissing the Suns and saying we'll win 25 games. It could happen, but I do think this team has a chance to surprise people and be way better than expected.

This is my worry, but then I keep looking at it and I don't think there is any way that they win only 25 games. I even asked Matt Moore who was critiquing Booker on his season last year, if they were to have had Oubre and Tyler all season, would they have won 30 games? He said it would have been in the upper 20s in his opinion. And that's without the bench, or an actual PF on the roster, and still dependent on all those green 2nd rounders. It's kind of crazy how much better this roster should be this year.

Agreed they should be a lot better than last year. But their competition in the west got better, too. How many teams in the west didn't get better? And for the ones that got worse, how many dropped enough to say we can challenge them?

We also upgraded immeasurably in the coaching department.

It’s very easy to just write off the suns. We’ve been terrible for awhile, no one, besides us, is gonna question someone who just assumes we’re only winning 25 games. The west did get stronger, but I don’t think by that much.

Lakers, clippers, Jazz, pelicans - stronger
Nuggets, blazers, Rockets, Spurs, Kings, Mavs, wolves - relatively the same
Warriors, thunder, grizz - worse

Winning 25-30 games is still much better than last year. Especially if we eliminate the truly embarrassing losses. How many games were over by the half, or even the end of first quarter last year? We can be much better without doubling our win total.

It's a simple recency bias, as justified or unjustified as it may be.

My personal O/U is still right around 30 games. We could push into the mid-to-upper 30's if everything breaks right with injures and good luck. In contrast, we could end up in the low-to-mid 20's with injuries to one or more of the core guys and bad luck.

I can't see us winning less than 30 games.