Game Day: Suns (1-1) @ Nuggets (0-1), Sat 10/25/25

[ShelC]

Trying to keep perspective here because of our situation but I wish we could not get down 20+ pts every game, which has happened so far. We won't know exactly what we have until Green is back and Williams is playing consistently (if he's ever able to). Overall, not loving the defensive miscommunications or lack of resistance in the paint. Last night was like a layup line. They shot 42 FTs to our 22 so that's the game the right there. I guess the strategy was to make Jokic a passer and he cut us up. The only other move would be to let him score 40 and try to shut everyone else down so maybe we'll try that next time.

Oso's in a tough spot but I thought he did well, relatively speaking. He might look a lot better in a backup role but he'll still be overmatched against backups like Lopez and JV. I wish we could see him as a 4 but then you'd need a 5 that can space which we don't have. There were some nice defensive plays from Oso and Dunn tho and even tho they're 2nd players, they're tough and don't back down. But you're not winning if your starting center only grabs 1 rebound.

Maluach got yammed on by Watson which might be one of those "dunk of the year" highlights. Didn't notice much else during his stint - he's big and moves well, which we know. But he's still just kind of out there.

Without another scoring threat, Book is just getting triple teamed which causes TOs or too many 3s for our shooters. If we get Green back, he can help handle the ball and force the defense to work more by getting downhill. I'd assume Allen goes to the bench and gives us another (better) scorer with CG which takes Royce out of the mix but that still doesn't address the lack of size. But even last night, CG had a rough game handling their pressure and size, which will happen now that he's on the scouting report. It'd be nice to see Ott reach deeper into his bench to try and find a spark the other team isn't accounting for.

[ShelC]

Postgame Quotes and Videos

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[O_Gardino]

It was tough to watch the other team's backups play better than our starters 2 nights in a row.

Anyone else worried by the lack of press regarding Green? All summer, the narrative was that Brooks would make us tough - almost nothing about Green. Now, when I find myself hoping the Green can help our offence, there's still very little mention of him by the Phoenix media folks.

I've actually been surprisingly pleased with Oso. He does a lot of good things out there, and has great chemistry with Dunn and Booker. He just needs to build his game with better box-outs etc over the season. I'm glad he's getting minutes, and I think he has been our best center overall.

Brooks is hilarious because he shoots like 60% on good, simple shots and 0% on moving, off-balance ones. He gives effort, but just doesn't make great decisions. That's who he is, and I don't know if it's worth commenting on it again.

Booker always starts the season slow, and it's wild that I think he's starting slow after putting up 31 twice. Somewhere around the 10 game mark, he will take it up a notch. It will be telling to see how much he stays within the offense.

Still better than anything we saw last season. I don't hate what I'm seeing; we are just overmatched.

[Superbone]

I'm just hoping we can beat Utah on Monday and get back to .500. No easy task though. I think we'll get better once Green is back and if Williams can eventually play consistently. Not expecting the playoffs but think we'll be competitive most nights. As expected, much more fun to watch than what we endured last season. We just played two of the deeper, better teams. I think we'll end up below .500 at season's end but we'll be in games with the average teams of the league.

We just have to keep our expectations in check. Like many of us have said before the season even started, we just want to see effort every night and consistent improvement as the season wears on. We made quite a bit of mistakes defensively last night so hopefully we'll shore up many of those. Denver and Jokic are particularly adept at picking team defenses apart.

[The Bobster]

They won't win many games giving up 126 points a game (they're allowing 71 a game in the first half)

[virtual9mm]

Let's see what kinds of adjustments they make. The Utah game is a very early must win game for the sake of the young players' confidence.

Dillon Brooks has Tuckeritis. Has real skills offensively but isn't good enough to think he should be a go-to-guy.

[specialsauce]

Ugh Green already ruled out