Game Day: Grizzlies (14-22) @ Suns (14-21), Sun 1/5/20

[iLLmatic]

.

[Cap]

?

[Indy]

Marion never had a play drawn up for him and still managed to average over 20 a game.

Marion was a 6ft7 pogo stick. Completely different players in every single way. Bad example of how you expect Ayton to get his in the same fashion.

Totally different. Marion got his 20 that way because that’s the player he was. He had no ball skill.

Ayton is a potentially dominant big man with elite touch around the paint. We’re trying to use him like the 5th option on a team. He is NOT CLINT CAPELA. If you try to use him like Clint, you will hate him AND you are completely wasting his strengths you never should have drafted him then!!!!!

I don’t care if it’s against Montys offense, he rather needs to expect the post to be fed and for Ayton to feast, or he needs to take a f*** hike. Or they need to trade Ayton. But this marriage is not good for either party right now.

He got stonewalled plenty of times against NY in the post. He could easily give us more than 14 & 12 just by crashing the glass and being more aggressive. Dude is still sleep walking.

Since we are on east coast time, my 10 year old son doesn't get to watch much suns basketball. With the early start last night we watched the first quarter together. About half-way through, he turns to me and says, "why does Ayton just stand around? He's 7 foot tall? It is like he isn't even trying."

[O_Gardino]

.

[O_Gardino]

I don't think this game was as simple as saying that Ayton should get more rebounds. Obviously, it would be awesome if he could take over a game like this. But our main problem was when Ayton was off the court.

We played 2 SF for about 33 minutes, and those were the minutes when they killed us. We just don't have a complete roster yet. We need one more reliable backup guard, one more athletic big man, and one more star.

[Superbone]

Does anybody know what the game plan was and what the team was doing wrong other than not giving enough effort through the first 3 quarters?

[AmareIsGod]

Effort. And whatever happened to the 1.5 or whatever?

[Split T]

Are we sure the problem was offensively? We shot poorly from 3, but that’s more of a random occurrence. Memphis had a pretty efficient offensive night against us, that’s where are biggest problems lie.

[Indy]

I got the impression it was about defensive schemes. I mean, how many wide open shots did their bigs get? I think it was half-way through the first when Booker screamed at Ayton to "CONTEST!!!" the 3 point shots after they made a wide open three with Ayton standing in front of them but barely holding his arms up.

[O_Gardino]

IMO, we didn't get the effort we needed from Ayton, the athleticism we needed from Baynes, or the size we needed from Cam / Bridges / Oubre. JJJ, JV, and Clarke ate our lunch. 55pts on .675 shooting.

[Gladiator]

I only saw the highlights but JJJ made some incredible plays - big contested dunk, three-pointers. It would be great to see Ayton impose himself like that instead of just taking what comes to him in the flow of the game.

[iLLmatic]

I only saw the highlights but JJJ made some incredible plays - big contested dunk, three-pointers. It would be great to see Ayton impose himself like that instead of just taking what comes to him in the flow of the game.

Hey he averages a double double a game though!

[Split T]

JJJ had a couple flashy plays in the game, but overall I don’t think his impact was bigger than Ayton’s.

[Mori Chu]

I sometimes wonder whether Ayton is getting the bad rap that some other players like Vince Carter have gotten, where he appears effortless on the floor and is therefore seen as lazy. Isn't it John Wooden who said, never confuse activity for achievement? Ayton is no PJ Tucker in terms of his apparent effort level, but he puts up much better numbers than a lot of other players who supposedly try harder than he does.

[Superbone]

[Flagrant Fowl]

That's a pretty damn good saying something while saying nothing quote. Kudos, Monty.

[Indy]

Did anyone else read that as blaming the new starting lineup James suggested to him?

[Superbone]

Did anyone else read that as blaming the new starting lineup James suggested to him?

I didn't. I get the impression that Baynes missed a lot of assignments.

[3rdside]

?

Procrastinating analysis that wasn't right, didn't have time to amend it then couldn't delete on tapatalk on the fly.

Summary:

- I don't personally think Rubio's the problem as Kidd took NJ to the finals twice with worse shooting than Rubio ever had
- We're shooting a lot less 3's during Booker's recent hot streak, 26 a game, than our 7-4 start, 35 a game, and making them a lot less (.388% down to .321%). Not the be all and end all as Split pointed out, but still significant
- Ayton's suspension badly upset the vibe, not least the defensive intensity possibly coming from all the losses
- Monty's not helping by phasing out Saric

Anyway, this seems like a nadir point in the season (hoooh boy did I just say that..) so hopefully we reset and go from here.

[ShelC]

Did anyone else read that as blaming the new starting lineup James suggested to him?

I didn't. I get the impression that Baynes missed a lot of assignments.

Felt like throughout the 1st quarter there were a lot of guys looking at each other with their hands up like "Where were you/What are doing?" because of a blown assignment. Baynes was definitely a culprit early, think Ayton too and Monty even called a TO 3 plays in to try and straighten things out. But it was pretty consistent throughout the first half from what I saw.