Game Day: Suns (38-28) @ Nets (33-31) , Mon 3/17/14

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Shabazz
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Re: Game Day: Suns (38-28) @ Nets (33-31) , Mon 3/17/14

Post by Shabazz »

Miles Plumlee has been really, really bad now for a really, really long time. Just brutal on offense and he's not providing the rim protection he used to. I think it's a combination of exhaustion and a lack of confidence.

I can't find the stats, but a few months ago I read his post-ups yielded nearly the fewest PPP of all players in the league in similar situations. I don't think I've seen a successful post up since. It's either a turnover or a brick.

We gotta get him going again in the pick and roll and build him up from there. When we throw the ball to him in the post it sucks the life out of the offense.

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Mori Chu
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Re: Game Day: Suns (38-28) @ Nets (33-31) , Mon 3/17/14

Post by Mori Chu »

Yeah, Plums has been disappointing for a while now. I honestly didn't get to see most of his good run at the start of the season because I was moving and starting a new job. Now that I am catching more games, he has been hard to watch. I hope he is just hitting a sophomore rookie wall. We need more contributions from our big men.

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Ring_Wanted
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Re: Game Day: Suns (38-28) @ Nets (33-31) , Mon 3/17/14

Post by Ring_Wanted »

I believe the biggest reason to Plumlee's struggles is lack of energy, because he looked so much better his first full game after coming back from injury against the Clippers, but when you are shot that's not going to last.

Bledsoe out and better scouting are part of it too, but there is a clear decrease in his mobility, which is particularly noticeable on defense. Earlier in the season he jumped and contested everything, but that's gone now, and it is taking its toll.

Anyway, Plumlee is a clear weakness right now. When he had legs he would contribute even if his post moves were inconsistent, but if he can't protect the rim and he doesn't move around, he is basically a cone, which is a common theme with our other 'bigs' on D.

Frye played super hard on D for the better part of the season, but it's gone now too, so what's remaining is a 'defense' quite similar to Kieff's, and we have nothing to contest shots inside to go along with an inability to prevent penetrations, because neither Goran nor Green are even decent one on one defenders and Tucker can't be on every body.

And again, I don't think Bledsoe is the solution because he has shined recovering after being driven by, not locking anyone down. But if the opposite player is not denied and you bank on chasing him, at some point you need help from the paint, and that obviously not happening, so we are almost equally screwed.

By the way, Dragic needs to start going under screens, not trying to pass thorough them, because he just can't do it and his man always gets a ton of room.

Also, if you can't trust you back line, I'd instruct my defenders to switch after every screen, no matter what's the matchup. They can't do any worse than currently, so I think they should give it a try. Also, mix it up a little with some zone D. Just try something different, because we are not going anywhere rutinely allowing 30+ quearters.

m1chal
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Re: Game Day: Suns (38-28) @ Nets (33-31) , Mon 3/17/14

Post by m1chal »

m1chal wrote:I think we match up well with them. Should be a Suns win. GO TEAM!
Apparently we don't match up all that well with the Nets. This loss is on me. My bad, such jinxing won't happen again :oops:

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LazarusLong
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Re: Game Day: Suns (38-28) @ Nets (33-31) , Mon 3/17/14

Post by LazarusLong »

Nets beat Suns in Phoenix earlier in the season ... for whatever reason, it's not a good matchup for Phoenix. Plumlee seems to be overthinking on offense; when he catches the ball deep, he hesitates for a count or two, instead of taking it up strong.

As I mentioned in another thread, for a majority of this team, it's the first time they've played this much in the NBA. And for Frye, he missed all of last year, so he may be hitting bit of a different wall (he's not exactly a rookie).

Kief continues to play well offensively. He could be the starter at 4 next season.

As for this game, rinse, spit, flush ...
Window is open again ... blue skies ahead?

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