Game Day: Pacers (16-20) @ Suns (25-11), Sat 3/13/21

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Superbone
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Re: Game Day: Pacers (16-20) @ Suns (25-11), Sat 3/13/21

Post by Superbone »

Yep, I remember that draft well. I wanted Sabonis as well and yet we took two other duds in front of him.
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SunsRIt
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Re: Game Day: Pacers (16-20) @ Suns (25-11), Sat 3/13/21

Post by SunsRIt »

I said a few weeks ago and I still believe it. Ayton needs to blur benched until he grows a pair.

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Furlanfufi
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Re: Game Day: Pacers (16-20) @ Suns (25-11), Sat 3/13/21

Post by Furlanfufi »

There are not any sports specialized psychologist in AZ? Because this mental issues could and should be adressed.

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ShelC
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Re: Game Day: Pacers (16-20) @ Suns (25-11), Sat 3/13/21

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BAMF
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Re: Game Day: Pacers (16-20) @ Suns (25-11), Sat 3/13/21

Post by BAMF »

SunsRIt wrote:
Sun Mar 14, 2021 1:24 am
I said a few weeks ago and I still believe it. Ayton needs to blur benched until he grows a pair.
I like Ayton a lot but I'm with you here. He is too sensitive and honestly I want us to pick up Drummond if he gets bought out to take the starting position and make Ayton have to fight for minutes. Also learn how to be a center from Drummond. Worse case scenario Ayton doesn't fit and we trade him for a PG for the future. Which I hope doesn't happen and he keeps growing with our team organically. But my patients are starting to wear thin.

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Mori Chu
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Re: Game Day: Pacers (16-20) @ Suns (25-11), Sat 3/13/21

Post by Mori Chu »

The blocked dunk was awful. But I thought Ayton played well overall and wasn't the reason we lost the game. I feel like people are piling on Ayton and blaming him for this loss when many of our players were to blame. Crowder shot like 1-8. Paul also missed almost every shot. And so on. Plus indiana played great defense and is probably better than their record indicates. I don't see a benefit to trying to blame this whole loss on one guy who actually put up pretty good numbers.

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Re: Game Day: Pacers (16-20) @ Suns (25-11), Sat 3/13/21

Post by phatmike »

Mori Chu wrote:
Sun Mar 14, 2021 11:14 am
The blocked dunk was awful. But I thought Ayton played well overall and wasn't the reason we lost the game. I feel like people are piling on Ayton and blaming him for this loss when many of our players were to blame. Crowder shot like 1-8. Paul also missed almost every shot. And so on. Plus indiana played great defense and is probably better than their record indicates. I don't see a benefit to trying to blame this whole loss on one guy who actually put up pretty good numbers.
Certainly it's not all on DA. I'm "piling on" because of his seemingly lack of consistent ability to do basic things like catch a ball in the paint. With his size, any pass that touches his hands deep in the paint should almost always at the minimum generate a field goal attempt or foul. Instead, it seems like it's a 50/50 proposition of him controlling the ball or it getting fumbled and turned over. I don't even really care if he dunks the ball anymore, just get a shot up. Hell, Frank does this with arguably HALF of the physical talent.

Maybe I'm just hyper focused on watching DA so I'm inflating the negative impact of this. He does some nice things out there - he had a drive from the top of the key last night that we haven't seen before. He has good vision and makes good passes. Dammit I want him to succeed. He has every physical tool to do so. He has a HOF point guard.

Oh well.

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ShelC
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Re: Game Day: Pacers (16-20) @ Suns (25-11), Sat 3/13/21

Post by ShelC »

Just gotta chalk last night up to an L. Can't win 'em all and the Pacers are tough, a better team than their record. I thought our depth could carry us since they're a little thin and were on a B2B but they had more bounce than we did.

Paul seemed to never find a rhythm (maybe an all-star hangover?) and Jae looked completely out of sync. Aside from those two, we really didn't shoot that poorly overall. Just couldn't find that extra gear to make a run. I thought the Pacers defended us really well and maybe were OK giving up the DA putbacks and easy baskets to stay solid on the perimeter.

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Re: Game Day: Pacers (16-20) @ Suns (25-11), Sat 3/13/21

Post by Superbone »

Book was exactly right and it all came down to this:

"Book said he thought Indiana played harder than them. Saw it from his team in spurts but the Pacers had it all night."

Suns waited until the 4th quarter to turn it on and by then, it was too late.
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Re: Game Day: Pacers (16-20) @ Suns (25-11), Sat 3/13/21

Post by bajanguy008 »

Yea couple concerning things

I always say I don't mind the guys missing shots but getting outworked is always frustrating to watch. The Pacers are not a good matchup for Book simply because they have no talkers smh lol. Brogdon, Holiday, LeVert don't say a thing, don't get overly physical so those not the type of guys who usually get Book going :). All jokes aside tho, I appreciated the fact that in the desperation during the 4th he was still making the right read and creating some 3s for the others. Couldn't get under 10 cuz the damage was already done. Look forward to him bouncing back against his buddy Dillon Brooks who is the exact opposite of the Pacers guys as we all know. That's y I always enjoy him cooking that dude so anyways

DA.....
This is a funny one for me because yes we've all wished he would be benched when he seems disengaged but now it's happening I have my concerns. Funny enough I think there have been a few games where he was terrible, we all cringed at him coming back in the 4th then he puts together a decent 4mins or outstanding stretch (Bulls).

So now Monty not even giving him the chance is interesting but my main problem is, although I love Dario and he's a warrior. This development has him playing straight til the end from the 3rd quarter which for any player isn't ideal. I'm fairly certain in these games he's played like the last 16-18mins and I think that's suboptimal to say the least. Closing with Dario is fine with me but if he's not getting a breather in the 4th, that might be counter productive to the Best Chance to Win theory....
SUNS Fan from the Land of Sun, Sea and Sand ;)

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Mori Chu
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Re: Game Day: Pacers (16-20) @ Suns (25-11), Sat 3/13/21

Post by Mori Chu »

DA had 14 points on 7-10 shooting. That is pretty darn good. Now I notice that he shot 0-2 on FTs. He doesn't attack the basket, doesn't draw fouls enough. I get that. But he has found a way to be our 3rd-4th offensive option and be *VERY* efficient while doing so. He rarely takes a dumb/bad shot; he's careful and restrained offensively, never trying to hero-ball it or take a bad shot. He doesn't win us a lot of games, but he blends into the team offensive scheme so well that I feel like he almost never hurts us out there. The guy can just quietly get you 15 points and 12 boards with 60-70% shooting like it's nothing.

And I'll be a broken record here and point out that he's still only 22 years old. He is going to grow a lot and improve a lot over the next 2-3 years. He's already impressive and he hasn't hit his ceiling.

I see some people saying Kaminsky is better. Give me a break. I like Frank for what he is, but he doesn't deserve to start and often completely hurts us out there to the point that we have to pull him. Last night he had 2 points in 13 minutes. You want to find scapegoats for the loss, how about the fact that our starting PF scores just 2 and our bench PF shoots 1-8? How about that our starting PG shoots 2-10? Not attacking those guys, either, just saying that there is plenty of blame to go around.

You guys hate Ayton's hands, saying he can't catch a ball. But I saw several plays last night where guys threw it up and Ayton stuffed it in. And one of the best of the night was a no-look pass from Crowder to Ayton for a wide open dunk; Ayton caught that one. He sometimes bobbles the ball, sure, but you guys look right past all the nice completions he gets to harp on the few he misses. And yeah, his P&R skills aren't perfect yet. But he hasn't really been running that play with such frequency until CP3 arrived. It's been a few months. He's working on it. He is already a lot better at it than he was at the start of the season. With all the complaining about his being a coward, you guys act like he never tries to dunk or go to the basket.

I think it's a mistake to be impatient with a talented young big man. He needs time to continue to develop. Sorry he isn't Amare and he isn't a #1 option right out of school. That isn't what he is. Let go of the #1 pick / Luka stuff. Ayton is good. He fits our offense well and leaves lots of shots for our sharp-shooting swingmen and ball-dominant guards. He anchors our defense and makes up for our mediocre perimeter defenders. You guys are so mad that Ayton isn't some other type of player, you don't appreciate the player he is, and the player he is becoming.

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Re: Game Day: Pacers (16-20) @ Suns (25-11), Sat 3/13/21

Post by Split T »

Outside of a few plays, I didn’t really have a problem with him this game. He was mostly engaged.

I’m curious how you see Ayton developing Mori? I feel like he’s going backwards offensively. What’s the next step for him as a player?

I’m also curious why you say he’s a good fit in our offense? You’re right that he doesn’t take bad shots and is generally very efficient, but guys that do that aren’t exactly difficult to find. We had Richaun Holmes who could do that for much less money.

I think the reason he hasn’t been closing games is Saric is just a much better fit for our offense. A big that can shoot, dribble, and pass is just very valuable to what we do. Ayton doesn’t do any of that. He’s somewhat of a roll threat, so he does help out when we run pick n roll with him, but he’s mostly a low post big...which isn’t a huge part of our offense.

I’d love to see him hitting shots and dribbling more, but I’m also ok if that doesn’t come. I just want him to play defense, run hard in transition(he can create mismatches down low by running hard), and be a beast on the glass(offensive and defensive).

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Re: Game Day: Pacers (16-20) @ Suns (25-11), Sat 3/13/21

Post by specialsauce »

Substitute Aytons name for Alex Len or Bender in Mori’s take and it’s the exact same posts essentially from 2-5 years ago

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Re: Game Day: Pacers (16-20) @ Suns (25-11), Sat 3/13/21

Post by Indy »

Split T wrote:
Sun Mar 14, 2021 3:58 pm
Outside of a few plays, I didn’t really have a problem with him this game. He was mostly engaged.

When our bar for him is "he seemed engaged for most of the game" we already lost. He made no impact on the game last night.

To be fair, very few of our players did.

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Mori Chu
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Re: Game Day: Pacers (16-20) @ Suns (25-11), Sat 3/13/21

Post by Mori Chu »

specialsauce wrote:
Sun Mar 14, 2021 5:02 pm
Substitute Aytons name for Alex Len or Bender in Mori’s take and it’s the exact same posts essentially from 2-5 years ago
I agree, reposting the same tired stuff for years is bad. Hey what are your thoughts about Kelly Oubre?

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Split T
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Re: Game Day: Pacers (16-20) @ Suns (25-11), Sat 3/13/21

Post by Split T »

Haha

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Re: Game Day: Pacers (16-20) @ Suns (25-11), Sat 3/13/21

Post by BAMF »

specialsauce wrote:
Sun Mar 14, 2021 5:02 pm
Substitute Aytons name for Alex Len or Bender in Mori’s take and it’s the exact same posts essentially from 2-5 years ago
He't not even close to as bad as them but he certainly needs to work on his mindset and butterfingers. Maybe take up some boxing or Muai Thai. Something where you get hit in the face.

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Re: Game Day: Pacers (16-20) @ Suns (25-11), Sat 3/13/21

Post by Indy »

lol mori

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Re: Game Day: Pacers (16-20) @ Suns (25-11), Sat 3/13/21

Post by SunsRIt »

Mori Chu wrote:
Sun Mar 14, 2021 3:46 pm
DA had 14 points on 7-10 shooting. That is pretty darn good. Now I notice that he shot 0-2 on FTs. He doesn't attack the basket, doesn't draw fouls enough. I get that. But he has found a way to be our 3rd-4th offensive option and be *VERY* efficient while doing so. He rarely takes a dumb/bad shot; he's careful and restrained offensively, never trying to hero-ball it or take a bad shot. He doesn't win us a lot of games, but he blends into the team offensive scheme so well that I feel like he almost never hurts us out there. The guy can just quietly get you 15 points and 12 boards with 60-70% shooting like it's nothing.

And I'll be a broken record here and point out that he's still only 22 years old. He is going to grow a lot and improve a lot over the next 2-3 years. He's already impressive and he hasn't hit his ceiling.

I see some people saying Kaminsky is better. Give me a break. I like Frank for what he is, but he doesn't deserve to start and often completely hurts us out there to the point that we have to pull him. Last night he had 2 points in 13 minutes. You want to find scapegoats for the loss, how about the fact that our starting PF scores just 2 and our bench PF shoots 1-8? How about that our starting PG shoots 2-10? Not attacking those guys, either, just saying that there is plenty of blame to go around.

You guys hate Ayton's hands, saying he can't catch a ball. But I saw several plays last night where guys threw it up and Ayton stuffed it in. And one of the best of the night was a no-look pass from Crowder to Ayton for a wide open dunk; Ayton caught that one. He sometimes bobbles the ball, sure, but you guys look right past all the nice completions he gets to harp on the few he misses. And yeah, his P&R skills aren't perfect yet. But he hasn't really been running that play with such frequency until CP3 arrived. It's been a few months. He's working on it. He is already a lot better at it than he was at the start of the season. With all the complaining about his being a coward, you guys act like he never tries to dunk or go to the basket.

I think it's a mistake to be impatient with a talented young big man. He needs time to continue to develop. Sorry he isn't Amare and he isn't a #1 option right out of school. That isn't what he is. Let go of the #1 pick / Luka stuff. Ayton is good. He fits our offense well and leaves lots of shots for our sharp-shooting swingmen and ball-dominant guards. He anchors our defense and makes up for our mediocre perimeter defenders. You guys are so mad that Ayton isn't some other type of player, you don't appreciate the player he is, and the player he is becoming.
I have been leading the charge to defend him for the last 2 years saying exactly this. He has regressed offensively starting with the bubble and I’m not sure why. Is he trying to get his defense where it needs to be and then work more on the offense? I feel like he did nothing basketball related during the layoff last year. Amare was good because you could actually tell he worked on his game during the off-season. It just looks like Ayton works on his video game and interview skills and little else. I fully want/expect him to easily be a 27/15 guy and feel like he can get there pretty easily if he would just try and stay engaged throughout the whole game. He needs to realize he is bigger and stronger than most players in the NBA and attack. That bungled dunk attempt last night was a prime example. The guy that “blocked” his “dunk” attempt should be on a poster right now. Instead Ayton pulled back and looked like a fool.

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specialsauce
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Re: Game Day: Pacers (16-20) @ Suns (25-11), Sat 3/13/21

Post by specialsauce »

Mori Chu wrote:
Sun Mar 14, 2021 5:23 pm
specialsauce wrote:
Sun Mar 14, 2021 5:02 pm
Substitute Aytons name for Alex Len or Bender in Mori’s take and it’s the exact same posts essentially from 2-5 years ago
I agree, reposting the same tired stuff for years is bad. Hey what are your thoughts about Kelly Oubre?
:lol:

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