"Just another game" *Early Start* Game Day: Suns (35-29) @ Mavericks (33-31), Sun 3/5/23

[Superbone]

[Flagrant Fowl]

He's still elite at counting.

[Mori Chu]

Chris Paul scored eight of his 11 points in the fourth quarter for one of several tiebreaking or go-ahead buckets for both teams.

OK, he was a good role player. I guess my expectations need to be adjusted.

It's true. I believe they do. His HOF play ended last season. I think we just have to be happy with clutch play in key moments now. However, KD and Book is that guy now. Paul is a much lesser third option now.

I suppose my sarcasm was hard to detect. I said Paul wasn't anything special, that was to imply he's a role player now.

Yep, it was quite subtle. He is what he is now. We've got to face facts.

Paul: 11 PTS, 7 AST, 6 REB, 1 STL

Not a bad role player though.

I was completely happy with CP3's play today. I no longer expect huge stats from him, but I do want him to hit some open shots that KD and Book open up, and I do want him to play decent defense, and I want him to find open guys. And I don't want him to try to do too much, to put up tough shots in traffic, to have to fight a tough defender across the midcourt line on every possession and eat up 8-10 sec of our 24. I got exactly what I needed from him.

I was also pretty satisfied with Ayton's play. He scored only 9 points, so you would want to see more than that of course, but he had 16 rebounds and played good defense. I don't need him to score 20+ or whatever if we have KD and Booker. I want to see him catch / not bobble the ball, and I felt like he had good hands tonight, catching a few passes in the lane in traffic without losing the ball. He finished well and defended well other than 1-2 times when he was on Luka and can't keep up with him.

[Aztec Sunsfan]

He's still elite at counting.

I saw that, but why it didn't ending up on another free throw for the technical?

What's the rule then?

[Flagrant Fowl]

Yeah, IDK. The broadcast said something about not having an angle to see if Powell was on the court, but that's ridiculous. My guess is that he was standing on the sideline or something and the officials just let it go because they had no reason to suddenly be competent.

[TOO]

OK, he was a good role player. I guess my expectations need to be adjusted.

It's true. I believe they do. His HOF play ended last season. I think we just have to be happy with clutch play in key moments now. However, KD and Book is that guy now. Paul is a much lesser third option now.

I suppose my sarcasm was hard to detect. I said Paul wasn't anything special, that was to imply he's a role player now.

Yep, it was quite subtle. He is what he is now. We've got to face facts.

Paul: 11 PTS, 7 AST, 6 REB, 1 STL

Not a bad role player though.

I was completely happy with CP3's play today. I no longer expect huge stats from him, but I do want him to hit some open shots that KD and Book open up, and I do want him to play decent defense, and I want him to find open guys. And I don't want him to try to do too much, to put up tough shots in traffic, to have to fight a tough defender across the midcourt line on every possession and eat up 8-10 sec of our 24. I got exactly what I needed from him.

I was also pretty satisfied with Ayton's play. He scored only 9 points, so you would want to see more than that of course, but he had 16 rebounds and played good defense. I don't need him to score 20+ or whatever if we have KD and Booker. I want to see him catch / not bobble the ball, and I felt like he had good hands tonight, catching a few passes in the lane in traffic without losing the ball. He finished well and defended well other than 1-2 times when he was on Luka and can't keep up with him.

This was always Aytons best role, this with the offensive touch is what makes him useful.

[Flagrant Fowl]

He was moving a bit slower than usual and I think a couple of the BS fouls called on him put him in a funk. Kinda ridiculous that he picked up a technical foul in the 4th with all the bitching and moaning by everyone else the whole game.

[Wally_West]

Lol wtf

[djy2j]

Been happy with how seamless the transition into the KD has gone. Still a lot to figure out but at least were not 2-6 or whatever Dallas is with Kyrie.
Happy with how engaged KD has been on D. I figured his offense would be fine. Really nice to have another super reliable scorer.

Love what Okogie brings but teams are going to want him to shoot that corner 3. Maybe if he's not hitting we should not wait til he misses 8 of them to try something else.

Terrance Ross looks extremely washed all the sudden. I know he had assignments on Kyrie and Luka a lot today but yeesh. He looked bad and offered nothing on offense today.

Happy for Ish. Out there playing with the starters in the 4th.

It'd be awesome if we were paying like 10 mil for Ayton's production. Like I'd be really happy with him.

Point guard production is going to be real issue with CP and Cam offering little offense or defense. Right now you have Warren, Bazely, and Shamet when healthy offering not much. Do you sacrifice one and sign another PG?

Also fuck Luka. Whiny little dad bod. Another fake tough guy act today. Enjoy going down with the Kyrie ship loser.

[Wally_West]

Lmao

[TOO]

Been happy with how seamless the transition into the KD has gone. Still a lot to figure out but at least were not 2-6 or whatever Dallas is with Kyrie.
Happy with how engaged KD has been on D. I figured his offense would be fine. Really nice to have another super reliable scorer.

Love what Okogie brings but teams are going to want him to shoot that corner 3. Maybe if he's not hitting we should not wait til he misses 8 of them to try something else.

Terrance Ross looks extremely washed all the sudden. I know he had assignments on Kyrie and Luka a lot today but yeesh. He looked bad and offered nothing on offense today.

Happy for Ish. Out there playing with the starters in the 4th.

It'd be awesome if we were paying like 10 mil for Ayton's production. Like I'd be really happy with him.

Point guard production is going to be real issue with CP and Cam offering little offense or defense. Right now you have Warren, Bazely, and Shamet when healthy offering not much. Do you sacrifice one and sign another PG?

Also fuck Luka. Whiny little dad bod. Another fake tough guy act today. Enjoy going down with the Kyrie ship loser.

KD is just so damn good man, when he's on the floor everyone else just looks better, look how much easier things look for Booker now.

[Mori Chu]

It'd be awesome if we were paying like 10 mil for Ayton's production. Like I'd be really happy with him.

OK I don't mean to be that guy, but Ayton averaged 22.8 ppg on .671 fg% and .824 ft%, along with 10.2 rebounds, for the entire month of February. In what world do you think it's right to pay that man $10m? He also knocked his knee in the prior game and is playing despite that injury. Is this really the game to knock the guy?

https://www.basketball-reference.com/pl ... plits/2023

[TOO]

Ayton was fine today, the foul trouble stink but he killed the boards

[specialsauce]

We don’t need DA to have a monster scoring game when book and KD are on. He needs to rebound and play active D and not miss his easy opportunities. His game today was fine.

[Split T]

It feels like KD has unleashed Book. They both have been unreal these last 3 games

[TOO]

It feels like KD has unleashed Book. They both have been unreal these last 3 games

Yep. Can't double or trap him now because KD is a ridiculous outlet. As long as the auxiliary pieces hit their open shots the Suns can go a long way.

[Aztec Sunsfan]

It'd be awesome if we were paying like 10 mil for Ayton's production. Like I'd be really happy with him.

OK I don't mean to be that guy, but Ayton averaged 22.8 ppg on .671 fg% and .824 ft%, along with 10.2 rebounds, for the entire month of February. In what world do you think it's right to pay that man $10m? He also knocked his knee in the prior game and is playing despite that injury. Is this really the game to knock the guy?

https://www.basketball-reference.com/pl ... plits/2023

Don’t get dk2j wrong, I suppose that’s why he said it would be awesome to be paying Ayton 10mill for that kind of production, like a supreme bargain deal, right? dy2j?

[Superbone]

This is funny.

[Shabazz]

AN INDIRECT TAUNT!

This was the dumbest tweet from a national media member (non-Fox Sports) that I’ve seen in a long time.

[Shabazz]

I’m not saying we won because of Ish but we don’t win without him. Pretty good for someone who supposedly isn’t an nba player, and didn’t deserve a roster spot…according to some.

He was huge. Suns were searching all game for someone who could play credible D and hit open 3s and he delivered in a big way.