Game Day: Lakers (31-27) @ Suns (33-24), Sun 2/25/24

[Flagrant Fowl]

I didn’t have an issue with how Vogel staggered the minutes with everyone available to play.

Beal is going to be in the mid-high 30’s in minutes and be in the closing lineup, so this is really only debating around the first 6 minutes of the game. He’s going to get more time to be the focal point in the middle part of the game regarless starting.

[SunsRIt]

I personally liked that Eric Gordon didn’t see minutes this game. O’Neal and Bol played very well and didn’t leave room for Gordon.

[MightyMoog]

EG was injured. He should be back by Thursday. Definitely starting to look like it’s starting 5 with Royce, Eg and Bol as the 8. With Thad and Okogie as spot minutes at the 9th.

[Nodack]

Bol seemed like a joke when we got him. I remember Nurkic making fun of him when asked about him early on. Durant has taken to him and he has really shown me he has a lot more to his game than just being a bean pole that can hit a few threes like his dad. He has skills.

[Kryptonic]

Bol's been a pleasant surprise the last few games and if he continues on this trajectory I have higher hopes about our playoff run.

I've definitely grown more bol'ish on him

[Shabazz]

EG was injured. He should be back by Thursday. Definitely starting to look like it’s starting 5 with Royce, Eg and Bol as the 8. With Thad and Okogie as spot minutes at the 9th.

I kind of like this top 8.5. Has some versatile lineup combinations.

I suspect if there are no surprises on the buyout market by Friday that we’ll convert Saben from a 2-way to a standard deal.

[Shabazz]

One deal I wish we had jumped in on was the Gordon Hayward deal to reroute Vaseline Micic for Nas Little (NC return, better timeline fit for CHA). I wonder if there’s interest in exploring that in the summer.

[In2ition]

Always nice to see the Suns beat the Lakers by double digits, especially when AD and LeBron have big games, and Book & KD had below average games.

[SunsSince92]

It’s hard to view coming off the bench as anything but negative due to egos, buts it’s really a function of improving rotations and optimizing balance.

Starting 3 guys under 6’6” with Durant as your power forward has its limitations that we’ve seen throughout this season against the Mavs, Clippers, Lakers. I think back to what Aaron Gordon did last season and have a ton of reservations about this team being able to compete in the postseason.

Additionally, the Durant as offense initiator lineups have been abysmal. Turnover riddled and stagnant offense with iso-ball.


If Beal was willing to be the Ginobili role, we’d ensure consistent firepower offensively through the game. Even when it’s Booker + Bench (and usually Allen or EG) the offense sputters.

I recognize it’s absolutely not going to happen because of his price tag, Big 3 narrative, etc., but it seems we’re not maximizing this roster with our undersized starters.

Yeah, I was mainly talking from a contract / big 3 perspective but I get your point that it doesn't necessarily maximise the potential of this roster to have a bunch of undersized starters on the court at the same time.

A more likely scenario is dropping Grayson to the bench for Royce and allowing him to be the facilitator for the second unit. He proved he could do it with his 14 assist explosion a few weeks ago and would, to my mind, be preferable to a Durant initiated offense which has been abysmal, as you say. It'll be interesting to see what Vogel does.

[Split T]

I don’t think Beal off the bench is a terrible idea…you’d really need Beal to be on board with it and you could still have an avenue to 30 minutes for him.

Biggest problem is you’d want to have chemistry for the big 3 because come playoff time they will certainly play a lot together so I’d rather just stick with them all starting for now.

Putting Beal on the bench makes zero sense to me. He's a legit star and was brought in to form part of a big 3. His level of performance for the most part has lived up to that billing so I really question why he should be the one to make way? The only thing that has let him down is his availability, but that's not a reason to bench him in my view.

As others have said, it’s about managing rotations. He’d still play as much. Just easier to stagger the minutes. You could also do it by just pulling him early. Take him out after 4 minutes. Bring him back in at the 4 minute mark when KD leaves. Play him till the 8 minute mark in the 2nd…give him a few minutes rest and have him finish the half. That’s starting him, letting him run the 2nd unit and getting him 32-34 minutes.

[djy2j]

Fuck the Lakers! Nice to see Bol playing well and contributing.

I still worry that the Suns don't do enough of the little things to make a deep playoff run. KD passing late in the shot clock to Okogie just isn't a winning strategy. The Suns still get really sloppy at times. But there's still times to gel and smooth everything out so we'll see. Just got to get hot at the right time.

[Nodack]

Work in progress for sure.

[Superbone]

Kevin Durant was pleased with the way the Suns stepped up with LA focused on stopping him and Book, saying he missed some makable shots.

Then alluded to Charles Barkley’s recent comments with a smirk: “That’s the reason you got a team. The *leadership* was incredible tonight.”

OK. This explains KD's postgame interview on ABC where he went on and on about how the "leadership" is what won this game. It was weird but now it all makes sense. KD is a sensitive guy. (This and all the tweet responses.)

[Superbone]

Here it is. He sets the postgame interview record for the number of times he says 'leadership'.

[TOO]

Petty KD is funny.

[ShelC]

Noticed that when he did it. Wish he weren't so sensitive to all that stuff. I think the noise affects him more than it should and he can get into his own head at times.

[Mori Chu]

I hadn't noticed that; that cracks me up. I don't mind petty KD. MJ was always fueled by some small controversy or slight. If KD is motivated in similar ways, more power to him.

[Superbone]

Dumb Nurkic only had 18! Otherwise, could have been 20+!

[Kryptonic]

Dumb Nurkic only had 18! Otherwise, could have been 20+!

pfft... should just buy him out and cut our losses

[Mori Chu]

Who were the 5 starters who all got 18 in that 2009 game?