Game Day (Preseason): Suns (3-1) @ Lakers (2-3), Thurs 10/19/23

[TOO]

Are the Suns’ centers allowed to do this? Go figure after 5 years!!

Tsakalidis rolling over in his grave.

[AmareIsGod]

Saben Lee is the worst. Tunnel vision. It has to be frustrating for all of the other guys out there on offense knowing he's going to ignore them every time down the floor.

[AmareIsGod]

Ish is better than 3 or 4 of these guys.

[Furlanfufi]

[ShelC]

Postgame Quotes and Videos

Spoiler: show/hide

[Flagrant Fowl]

I'm pretty sure Metu is the defaco 3rd string Center at this point. I think we'll see him with KD in the front court when Nurkic or Eubanks miss games and that'll be the smallest lineup we run.

I'm dreading watching Bol Bol play meaningful minutes even in January. I'd feel so much better if we had one more Nurkic/Eubanks type of guy to replace him. Bo Cruz and Dewayne Deadmon are available.

[Flagrant Fowl]

I'm pretty sure this is the only possession they faced each other 1v1. I was talking to my computer screen the whole time. "He's gonna pull, he's gonna pull.. BANG".

No chance in hell KD was going to pass or try to get to the rim in a pre-season game.

[carey]

Have we talked about how AD ate Nurkic's lunch yet? 1-11? Woof.

[Mori Chu]

Have we talked about how AD ate Nurkic's lunch yet? 1-11? Woof.

Nurk shot 1-11 and had 5 fouls. I think these are the types of games where we'll miss the former center guy. Former guy was able to mostly guard guys like AD and Jokic 1:1. Nurkic was overmatched.

[BigLewy]

I watched the first quarter and then went to bed and woke up and did a double take at the final score. Talk about a ridiculously deep team. This should hopefully help keep the starters minutes down overall. I can't even remember how many times last year Book and CP3 would play 35+ minutes in January against a team like the Pistons because the bench blew a big lead in the fourth quarter. I can't see that happening much this year. Man am I excited for the regular season.

[ShelC]

So we got bad Nurk last night but that was almost to be expected. AD is a too athletic for him to defend and too long for Nurk to do anything around the rim. Nurk was still playing hard tho and doing his best to box out, but he was physically overmatched the way guys like Darko and Frank used to be. Maybe we can scheme to help on AD and make other guys beat us or just hope the offense pushes thru and makes up for the defense. But Eubanks looked good so they could be a nice two-headed monster in some matchups and if Metu's shooting holds up he'll be seeing some minutes at the 5 too.

Allen was off but still played hard and did some of the little things to fill up the stat sheet. The TOs are frustrating and just seem like they're coming from him going too fast at times. He should be tighter with the ball and more careful in traffic. EG is great and just a solid presence, he's a tank. I thought Little looked good guarding LeBron and getting some of his offense going.

Have to go back and watch more of the other guys but I think we kind of know who's doing what at this point. We have really solid depth, especially in the backcourt and can throw a bunch of different looks at teams with our 3/4 depth. Might be best served using all those guys instead of cutting 1 or 2 out of the rotation completely.

[Split T]

AD is the best defender in the game when he’s locked in. Nurkic challenged him a lot at the rim and did not do well. Nurkic isn’t some star, we know this, he’s going to have games like this. Part of the problem is we sat Book and Beal. I think Nurk was trying to pick up the slack. He’s not really a guy that can do that. He’s a role player.

[Split T]

I'm pretty sure Metu is the defaco 3rd string Center at this point. I think we'll see him with KD in the front court when Nurkic or Eubanks miss games and that'll be the smallest lineup we run.

I'm dreading watching Bol Bol play meaningful minutes even in January. I'd feel so much better if we had one more Nurkic/Eubanks type of guy to replace him. Bo Cruz and Dewayne Deadmon are available.

I think Metu is making a case for backup 4. He’s been really good.

Do you think Bol is going to get meaningful minutes? To me he’s clearly 14th or 15th in the rotation. Might even end up behind the 2-way guys. I’m not really worried. He looks like I’d expect I would look if I suddenly grew a foot and started playing in the nba. I’m kinda blown away he managed to produce for Orlando last year. He looks so awkward, lost, and out of place on the court.

[Superbone]

I'm pretty sure Metu is the defaco 3rd string Center at this point. I think we'll see him with KD in the front court when Nurkic or Eubanks miss games and that'll be the smallest lineup we run.

I'm dreading watching Bol Bol play meaningful minutes even in January. I'd feel so much better if we had one more Nurkic/Eubanks type of guy to replace him. Bo Cruz and Dewayne Deadmon are available.

I think Metu is making a case for backup 4. He’s been really good.

Do you think Bol is going to get meaningful minutes? To me he’s clearly 14th or 15th in the rotation. Might even end up behind the 2-way guys. I’m not really worried. He looks like I’d expect I would look if I suddenly grew a foot and started playing in the nba. I’m kinda blown away he managed to produce for Orlando last year. He looks so awkward, lost, and out of place on the court.

Are we even sure Bol is going to make the team? Still have one more cut to go. Will it be Keon? He's maybe shown even less than Bol and has been kind of invisible.

[JeremyG]

Have we talked about how AD ate Nurkic's lunch yet? 1-11? Woof.

Nurk shot 1-11 and had 5 fouls. I think these are the types of games where we'll miss the former center guy. Former guy was able to mostly guard guys like AD and Jokic 1:1. Nurkic was overmatched.

Great to know we still have a starting center who can shoot 91% from the field in a game. Oh wait, that says 9.1%? My bad.

[Aztec Sunsfan]

Have we talked about how AD ate Nurkic's lunch yet? 1-11? Woof.

Is there someone surprised about it?

A role player going against a Top 20 player in the league and ending up 1-11 is more or less what I would expect and no doubt Vogel will be scheming that matchup properly when the real games are played, including calls for at least 9 of those shots for Booker and Beal. Nurkic’s performance can not be evaluated on a direct translation of what we used to hope from the former center, neither from his average production. The team downgraded the position scoring and athletic wise, in order to gain other kind of things, like adding some real 3point range, keeping the ball flowing from side to side and even some dribbling, as we already watched Jusuf bringing up the ball a couple times effectively during preseason. Particularly, we can see him TRYING to do what is expected from him EVERY SINGLE TIME.

It was so funny to watch Nurkic beating our former center on getting to every side of the court during the revenge game, kind of the rabbit and the turtle history on live action. Only one of those two was truly interested in showing his former team what they will be missing.

The final gain on that trade, no doubt was to balance the egos, no more pretending that we have 4 stars, and having to treat the departed guy as one of the marquee players. And everybody’s ears will be spared from hearing the word “dominayton” during media interviews again.

[Drewsprocket]

Have we talked about how AD ate Nurkic's lunch yet? 1-11? Woof.

Nurk shot 1-11 and had 5 fouls. I think these are the types of games where we'll miss the former center guy. Former guy was able to mostly guard guys like AD and Jokic 1:1. Nurkic was overmatched.

Great to know we still have a starting center who can shoot 91% from the field in a game. Oh wait, that says 9.1%? My bad.

Oh great Kassandra, how have we not heard you? What terrible a fate has unfolded upon us. If only we had one big man who rescues us from such woes.

[Drewsprocket]

Have we talked about how AD ate Nurkic's lunch yet? 1-11? Woof.

Is there someone surprised about it?

A role player going against a Top 20 player in the league and ending up 1-11 is more or less what I would expect and no doubt Vogel will be scheming properly when the real games are played, including calls for at least 9 of those shots for Booker and Beal. Nurkic’s performance can not be evaluated on a direct translation of what we used to hope from the former center, neither from his average production. The team downgraded the position scoring and athletic wise, in order to gain other kind of things, like adding some real 3point range, keeping the ball flowing from side to side and even some dribbling, as we already watched Jusuf bringing up the ball a couple times effectively during preseason. Particularly, we can see him TRYING to do what is expected from him EVERY SINGLE TIME.

It was so funny to watch Nurkic beating our former center on getting to every side of the court during the revenge game, kind of the rabbit and the turtle history on live action. Only one of those two was truly interested in showing his former team what they will be missing.

The final gain on that trade, no doubt was to balance the egos, no more pretending that we have 4 stars, and having to treat the departed guy as one of the marquee players. And everybody’s ears will be spared from hearing the word “dominayton” during media interviews again.

AD is a top 5 player when healthy and trying.

[TOO]

Have we talked about how AD ate Nurkic's lunch yet? 1-11? Woof.

Nurk shot 1-11 and had 5 fouls. I think these are the types of games where we'll miss the former center guy. Former guy was able to mostly guard guys like AD and Jokic 1:1. Nurkic was overmatched.

Great to know we still have a starting center who can shoot 91% from the field in a game. Oh wait, that says 9.1%? My bad.

I hope all your crackers are stale.

[Superbone]

Have we talked about how AD ate Nurkic's lunch yet? 1-11? Woof.

Nurk shot 1-11 and had 5 fouls. I think these are the types of games where we'll miss the former center guy. Former guy was able to mostly guard guys like AD and Jokic 1:1. Nurkic was overmatched.

Like in the playoffs last year?