Game Day: Suns (7-4) @ Grizzlies (6-6), Monday 1/18/2021

[Flagrant Fowl]

I don't buy the "spacing" claims all that much. Cam is shooting 4% better from three this season, so it's not like opposing defenses are fine with Crowder taking that shot and not Cam.

[Indy]

I don't buy the "spacing" claims all that much. Cam is shooting 4% better from three this season, so it's not like opposing defenses are fine with Crowder taking that shot and not Cam.

They are not, but Cam can go around them better than Crowder if they jump out, so they have more to think about when trying to cover Cam.

[LazarusLong]

KJ
Majerle
Raja
...Barkley
Hornacek
Mike Sanders
Ronnie Lee
Eric Bledsoe

Annnnnd we'll finish this list with

...Bo Outlaw

Bell
Majerle
Outlaw
Bledsoe
Lee (he was a huge favorite of mine!)
Sanders
KJ
Hornacek
Barkley


KJ and Barkley are exactly the kind of stars that Colangelo loved - tremendous offensively and passable defensively (or much better with effort). Chanbers, Nash, Eddie Johnson and Hornacek were all limited in what they could do defensively. And then there were guys like Don Buse and Mark West who just brought their lunch pail and did the dirty work every night.

I'd add Curtis Perry and Gar Heard, whose yoemen work in the paint freed Adams to do his magic as a high-post center.
A shout out to Ricky Sobers who combined defense and playground take-no-shit attitude.
And Dick Van Arsdale was known as a defensive ace when he came to the Suns.
Rick Barry said Van played him the toughest of anybody.

[Flagrant Fowl]

I don't buy the "spacing" claims all that much. Cam is shooting 4% better from three this season, so it's not like opposing defenses are fine with Crowder taking that shot and not Cam.

They are not, but Cam can go around them better than Crowder if they jump out, so they have more to think about when trying to cover Cam.

That's fair.

[Superbone]

I don't think we talked about the lineup change. Many of us were asking for that and I think it was an improvement. Crowder will be made better use of off the bench while I prefer CJ in the starting lineup.

[Mori Chu]

I don't think we talked about the lineup change. Many of us were asking for that and I think it was an improvement. Crowder will be made better use of off the bench while I prefer CJ in the starting lineup.

It's worth noting that our big splash FA/trades from this offseason are not going 100% smoothly so far. We're pouring around $50m into Paul and Crowder, and they aren't playing their best ball (yet?).

[Furlanfufi]

Crowder is playing fine. If we had VanFleet in Paul's place it would probably be better also.

[Superbone]

Crowder is playing fine. If we had VanFleet in Paul's place it would probably be better also.

Yeah, I don't have any issues with Crowder's play.

[Nodack]

He’s been as advertised. Cam Johnson and Bridges have both progressed well and earned their spots. Paul hasn’t been awful, just not great yet. The biggest disappointment has been Ayton and Booker and Ayton has been coming on as of late. They have been force feeding him and he is starting to get some confidence going and a little more aggressiveness. Booker will find his mojo again. He’s not hurt.

[Superbone]

It’s not just this board talking about the Kardashian effect on Booker. Just read this posted by somebody on YouTube, “DBook got hit with the Kardashian Curse.” in the post-practice media availability video from today. And then another comment, “I actually believed for a moment he wouldn’t be affected. Unfortunately the curse gets everyone.”

[carey]

It’s not just this board talking about the Kardashian effect on Booker. Just read this posted by somebody on YouTube, “DBook got hit with the Kardashian Curse.” in the post-practice media availability video from today. And then another comment, “I actually believed for a moment he wouldn’t be affected. Unfortunately the curse gets everyone.”

And none of those comments are me.

[O_Gardino]

Not a lot to say about this one. I'm frustrated that we still don't have a good starting lineup. I guess it's nice that we aren't getting blown out?

Gorgui Dieng outplayed Booker. End of story. Every time there was a switch on either end of the floor, Dieng won the matchup.

I thought the lineup change helped the starters and hurt the bench.

As much as I like Dario, we can't be so reliant on him.

It was nice to see a better version of Ayton.

Back to Booker: he stunk.

[ShelC]

The Kardashian thing is stupid, no one was mentioning it when he was leading us to 8-0 in the bubble.

I really think he and CP need to find a way to co-exist. Book became ball dominant because of the trash PGs he's been forced to play with and Rubio was fine deferring and being a spot up shooter. Maybe it's more halfcourt sets to get Book open off screens or switches for post ups where he can go to work. Maybe it's inside-out via Ayton to draw the defense? It can't just be CP dribbling and then giving to Book to dribble looking for a shot.

[O_Gardino]

It’s not just this board talking about the Kardashian effect on Booker. Just read this posted by somebody on YouTube, “DBook got hit with the Kardashian Curse.” in the post-practice media availability video from today. And then another comment, “I actually believed for a moment he wouldn’t be affected. Unfortunately the curse gets everyone.”

And none of those comments are me.

There are some folks on the Suns Reddit with the same type of comments.

The comments on this are funny. "he's under that snatch spell" "I had a stroke reading the first paragraph"

[Indy]

The Kardashian thing is stupid, no one was mentioning it when he was leading us to 8-0 in the bubble.

I really think he and CP need to find a way to co-exist. Book became ball dominant because of the trash PGs he's been forced to play with and Rubio was fine deferring and being a spot up shooter. Maybe it's more halfcourt sets to get Book open off screens or switches for post ups where he can go to work. Maybe it's inside-out via Ayton to draw the defense? It can't just be CP dribbling and then giving to Book to dribble looking for a shot.

How much easier would their life be if Ayton could roll hard to the basket on a regular basis? There was at least one great Book/DA PnR. If that was a standard offense with Mikal threatening the 3 or the cut, Cam wide open, and I guess CP3 waiting for a catch and shoot 3 as well--not worth 40M, but hey.

[bajanguy008]

Watched some of this live, saw the mood on here in the comments and then decided to take my time re-watching the full game cause I wasn't in the mood to see Suns playing poorly.

Devin inefficient game was a head scratcher but the best in the game have off-nights, my big disappointment was seeing some immaturity which doesn't really happen anymore. Letting one call or possession upset him and lead to minutes of poor play by forcing things, that 3min stint in the first quarter was No Bueno

I was surprised on the night to see Cam starting, I'm super high on him as everyone must figure by now but still have a preference of him as a 6th man scorer where he would get more sets run for him instead of the Glue guy role that Jae plays with the starters where Monty says nothing is run but he just knows how to get involved. that being said they ran a double pin down to start the game which got Book a nice midrange jumper but we'll see how it goes.

Oh and as far as Cam no surprise to see us doing the Clarke thing again smh seeing those comments just reminds me I'm higher on Cam than most, Clarke is a solid young player but there are things he doesn't do that I think if he was on our team there would be criticisms the same way we do for all/most our squad

[Superbone]

I'm frustrated that we still don't have a good starting lineup.

??? I think we do. Booker just needs to be Booker.

[O_Gardino]

They aren't good until they can consistently beat the other team's starters.

[Superbone]

They aren't good until they can consistently beat the other team's starters.

It was one game, dude.

[O_Gardino]

They aren't good until they can consistently beat the other team's starters.

It was one game, dude.

It has been like this the whole season.

Here's a link to the only game all season when our starters were better than our bench.

https://www.nba.com/game/phx-vs-sac-002 ... #box-score