Game Day: Clippers (50-28) @ Suns (46-32), Tues 4/9/24

[AmareIsGod]

I can top that...I bought StubHub tickets and Uber'd here...

Did you show your appreciation?

Had Spinanos Pizza for the 1st time...was actually pretty good...had a churro...not s total loss...

Nice. I'm not familiar with Spinanos but it sounds like it may be worth a spin. Good food makes everything better.

Spinato's is pretty good. We sometimes go to the one at 16th Street & Bell. Their pizza has a bit of a sweet taste, but not overpowering.

Same location we go to since it's about 3 minutes drive from our house.

[Cap]

http://www.playoffstatus.com/nba/sunswhatif.html not looking good now. More of a chance to finish 9-10 than 6.

[O_Gardino]

This game just proves that Nurkic is better than Kawhi and Harden put together.

sigh

[Cap]

They don’t give a probability for “lose play-in, win lottery, give it up in swap.”

[Split T]

At least we’d still get like the 7th pick

[JeremyG]

Haven’t had a lot of time to post the last few months, so get ready for a (short) rant.

What an utterly disgusting, depressing season.

I always try to be patient with coaches and give them enough time to prove themselves. But after last night’s start, I can’t see how Vogel deserves to make it to tonight as head coach. Of course they will give him at least one full season, and even having to fire a coach after one season is tough.

But obviously the problem with this team extends way beyond just the coaching staff.

People always said to be careful what you wish for, but I just wanted Sarver gone. Ishbia has come in, and quite literally, dismantled and destroyed this team. And for what? Just to find out that he’s no better of a person than Sarver.

Booker is proving that he’s as overrated (at least by this fanbase) as I’ve always suspected. Supermax contract and just cannot carry a team when it counts like legit superstars do.

The only person I cannot blame is, ironically, James Jones, who is still, supposedly, the President of Basketball Operations and General Manager of the Phoenix Suns. Lol. Has anyone even seen him or heard from him lately? I can’t blame him because I have no clue what decisions he would have made if he was actually the one making decisions. I have zero confidence that he has any power left.

[In2ition]

At least we’d still get like the 7th pick

Is that true? Even with all the pick swaps that they attached to it?

[Mori Chu]

I bet we end up in 8th. And we don't deserve any better than that. Honestly we seem more like a 10th place team to me. At least the Lakers and Warriors have championship pedigree; we haven't won shit.

I never root for the Suns to lose. But I'd be fine with it if we were eliminated in the play-in. It would show the players, coaching staff, and front office undeniably that this team is total garbage and not let them delude themselves into thinking it is salvageable.

[BigLewy]

I've never felt this level of not caring about a team with a winning record before. The awful tanking years, I didn't care as much because it was expected to suck and I wanted the best pick possible, even if they screwed most of them up. Now, I'm lucky if I watch a full half, especially since the games start late over here on the East Coast. Team full of passionless mercenaries.

[Cap]

I bet we end up in 8th. And we don't deserve any better than that. Honestly we seem more like a 10th place team to me. At least the Lakers and Warriors have championship pedigree; we haven't won shit.

I never root for the Suns to lose. But I'd be fine with it if we were eliminated in the play-in. It would show the players, coaching staff, and front office undeniably that this team is total garbage and not let them delude themselves into thinking it is salvageable.

“We missed the playoffs in 2020, was that team unsalvageable?”

Delusion done.

[Cap]

At least we’d still get like the 7th pick

Is that true? Even with all the pick swaps that they attached to it?

The swaps are with Memphis (27-51) and Washington (15-64). Memphis is currently at #7.

[In2ition]

At least we’d still get like the 7th pick

Is that true? Even with all the pick swaps that they attached to it?

The swaps are with Memphis (27-51) and Washington (15-64). Memphis is currently at #7.

I can't complain about that, haha. Thanks, Cap.

[ShelC]

I've never felt this level of not caring about a team with a winning record before. The awful tanking years, I didn't care as much because it was expected to suck and I wanted the best pick possible, even if they screwed most of them up. Now, I'm lucky if I watch a full half, especially since the games start late over here on the East Coast. Team full of passionless mercenaries.

"Passionless mercenaries" is a good description. Jones said you could have one or two of those guys in your lockerroom and win. Now we have a roster full of them.

The fact that this performance happened on Fan Appreciation Night is the cherry on the sundae for this season. If Ishbia had the balls, he'd refund fans' money for last night.

[Scarecrow33]

Can you imagine Kobe or MJ responding with "Chillin'" after a loss like that? Ishbia has more work to do now than when he bought the team. We probably need to keep Beale because of his contract and I like him better than KD or Book anyway. At least Beale occasionally sounds like a responsible leader.

[wpmiller42]

I'm not totally down on the team, but there are some significant concerns that need to be addressed this off-season, regardless of whether or not we win a championship, or flame out in the play in.

We can't have our best scorer in Booker being the main initiator on offense. We are just minimizing our best weapon on the court by trying to make him a facilitator all game. We need a pass first point guard.

We desperately need a backup center, or we need to go small in the non-Nurkic minutes. The amount of time that Eubanks gets is crazy, especially when it's clear that after a few minutes, he's not going to be it for the night. Honestly, I think we might be able to address this through the draft.

I don't know if it's on the coaching staff, the players, or both, but this team needs to play with a sense of pride or desperation or whatever you want to call it night in and night out. We have flat out approached games unprofessionally this season; and that's just sad for a team with this level of talent. It's dumb that we'd basically have the 6th seed locked up if we hadn't lost to the Spurs 3 times! And that's just 3 of countless bad losses this year.

I like Ayton and don't want to pile on him, but the apathy that we vilified him for has become a trait of this season and he's not even here anymore. So was it CP3 or Monty that was lighting the fire? Was it Cam J and Mikal? We need to rekindle that flame over the offseason.

[Cap]

We desperately need a backup center, or we need to go small in the non-Nurkic minutes. The amount of time that Eubanks gets is crazy, especially when it's clear that after a few minutes, he's not going to be it for the night. Honestly, I think we might be able to address this through the draft.

Anyone in particular you think we should be looking at?

[wpmiller42]

We desperately need a backup center, or we need to go small in the non-Nurkic minutes. The amount of time that Eubanks gets is crazy, especially when it's clear that after a few minutes, he's not going to be it for the night. Honestly, I think we might be able to address this through the draft.

Anyone in particular you think we should be looking at?

I like Edey and think he's worth the risk at the range that we'd be taking him. But I also think that Missi from Baylor might be available and I like his rebounding and aggressiveness. I don't think Filipowski from Duke will fall, but I think this also might be a crazy draft and maybe he's available. It's not through the draft, but I wonder what it would take to get Tshiebwe off the Pacers' G League team. I think he could develop into a solid big as well.

[JeremyG]

I'm not totally down on the team, but there are some significant concerns that need to be addressed this off-season, regardless of whether or not we win a championship, or flame out in the play in.

If we win a championship, I won't care if any concerns are addressed in the offseason.

We can't have our best scorer in Booker being the main initiator on offense. We are just minimizing our best weapon on the court by trying to make him a facilitator all game. We need a pass first point guard.

Yes, I knew the arrogant lack of point guard would come back to haunt us. Or we should have at least used Beal as the point guard.

So was it CP3 or Monty that was lighting the fire? Was it Cam J and Mikal? We need to rekindle that flame over the offseason.

I remember being told on here that in addition to CP3, it was Booker, and then Booker and KD, lighting that fire--they were supposedly the real "hoopers" and "sickos."

Lol.

[Split T]

I think the team doesn’t seem to listen to Vogel…hard to criticize him for anything other than getting the team to listen. Is there a coach they would listen to? I’m not sure…My expectations are as low as can be…I’ll be happy if we just get to the 1st round at this point. Actually I’d kinda rather we lose in the play-in tbh. Get a higher pick and maybe it’ll be a wake up call that we can’t just take everything so casually.

[TOO]

I'd honestly rather not make the playoffs and hope someone decent falls in the draft and Ishbia cleans house.