Game Day: Pacers (28-16) @ Suns (18-25), Wed 1/22/20

[djy2j]

Embarrassing effort. Embarrassing performance. The Suns accomplished nothing with this game tonight. Literally everyone had a bad game. Your move James.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Back to back games where Ayton got pushed around on the block. His numbers were good against Aldridge, but Aldridge had the savvy to push Ayton away from what he wanted to do a lot of the time. That was the same case tonight against Sabonis and Turner. He took several bad shots and allowed the defender to dictate his movement.

But hey, at least he's not Myles Turner.

[Flagrant Fowl]

EJ was saying it on the broadcast; the Pacers are a physical team. Everyone in the league knows it, but the Suns didn't respond to their physicality until the second half when it was too late and the refs weren't having any of it.

Reputation matters in the NBA.

[Mori Chu]

[AmareIsGod]

Pathetic game. Glad I missed it.

[Mori Chu]

I anticipate TJ having a very TJ like game: 26/4/2.

Just about nailed it: 25-3-3.

[JeremyG]

How can every single player have a bad game...on the same night?

[djy2j]

I anticipate TJ having a very TJ like game: 26/4/2.

Just about nailed it: 25-3-3.

Death, taxes, and TJ having a real top heavy line...

[Nodack]

Swiss Cheese

[Shabazz]

We have a starting point guard with a glaring flaw, then a 3rd string point guard and 2 4th string point guards. Not ideal.

I don't want to see any more Jevon Carter. I know Tyler Johnson is having a down year, but he does everything better than Jevon, including defend. And if we're not going to play Tyler, then for the love of God, trade him for something. This team has glaring needs.

Any non-garbage-time lineup that includes Elie/Jevon/Ty is a coaching/substitution failure by Monty. That lineup doesn't put anyone in a position to succeed. It's small, slow and can't shoot.

[Nodack]

I don’t think Rubio’s shooting has been that bad. 41% isn’t great but, not glaringly bad.

[Wormwood]

I think we are seeing what I figured would happen: each of our players has glaring enough weaknesses that you can't really build a winning team around them. Even Book, for all his offensive excellence, is an abysmal defender. Oubre is a so-so shooter and defender statistically. Rubio is a poor shooter and scorer. Saric disappears. Kaminsky can't rebound or defend. Bridges is great, but he's a low offense 3 and D guys (crucial piece, but he's like 6th man on a top tier team, on the Suns, he's arguably our 2nd best player in terms of +/-).

[3rdside]

We have a starting point guard with a glaring flaw, then a 3rd string point guard and 2 4th string point guards. Not ideal.

I don't want to see any more Jevon Carter. I know Tyler Johnson is having a down year, but he does everything better than Jevon, including defend. And if we're not going to play Tyler, then for the love of God, trade him for something. This team has glaring needs.

Any non-garbage-time lineup that includes Elie/Jevon/Ty is a coaching/substitution failure by Monty. That lineup doesn't put anyone in a position to succeed. It's small, slow and can't shoot.

If you said something like "when Rubio has a bad day, then we're screwed", then I'd be inclined to believe that rather than saying it's his shooting. It doesn't help at times no doubt but Rubio is a net asset on this losing team and there have been worse shooting PG's who've achieved much more than Rubio has.

Fairly apparent issues:

Shooting 3's - we're not shooting them well but we're not shooting many of them either. Is this a coaching thing by design?
Bench - we don't have one with Baynes, Johnson and Kaminsky out, and TJ was built in as part of it, but doesn't play.
Perimeter defence - teams are killing us out there, why? Is it players and or coaching or both?

The last two points why I was annoyed Bridges didn't stay as a starter for a bit, with Oubre off the bench. Maybe a reach, but it seemed a pretty obvious move for Williams to try (and adds to the suspicion that Monty has pretty evident flaws as a coach).

[O_Gardino]

I anticipate TJ having a very TJ like game: 26/4/2.

Just about nailed it: 25-3-3.

Warren has had more than 3 assists 14 times in his career.

[djy2j]

I anticipate TJ having a very TJ like game: 26/4/2.

Just about nailed it: 25-3-3.

Warren has had more than 3 assists 14 times in his career.

The J in T.J. Stands for John Stockton

[iLLmatic]

Paying to move TJ Warren was absolutely retarded.

[3rdside]

Agreed

[djy2j]

Fairly apparent issues:

Shooting 3's - we're not shooting them well but we're not shooting many of them either. Is this a coaching thing by design?

Bad coaching. And when Monty says shit like “I want at least 30 attempts a game”, it’s just lip service. If you really wanted it to happen it’d happen.

I’m getting weary of Monty’s sweep it under the rug reaction because it hasn’t solved any problems.

[iLLmatic]

We could use him coming off the bench too. Hindsight 20/20 we might have been better off signing/trading Oubre, moving Bridges to the starting lineup and keeping TJ.

[djy2j]

We could use him coming off the bench too. Hindsight 20/20 we might have been better off signing/trading Oubre, moving Bridges to the starting lineup and keeping TJ.

I don’t find myself missing TJ. And that’s not me being a hater. He has flaws just as Oubre. Indiana is just a team that can hide said flaws because of the pieces they have around him. Suns don’t have that luxury.

I’d give the nod to Oubre over TJ because he’s shown he can be clutch. The things I remember about TJ is that he’s a gifted scorer, tends to disappear in big games or big moments, and the damn random and mystery injuries.