Game Day: Suns (8-10) @ Pistons (9-9), Wed 12/2/15

[The Bobster]

Hey, at least we got another Tom Chambers guarantee at halftime.

[Wally_West]

Hopefully Luke Walton can implement a decent offense for us next season... :p

Nobody even knows if this guy can coach. GSW is a juggernaut even Hornacek couldn't fuck up.

20-0 is 20-0.

[The Bobster]

Two disappointing losses in a row.

[Wally_West]

Hopefully Luke Walton can implement a decent offense for us next season... :p

Nobody even knows if this guy can coach. GSW is a juggernaut even Hornacek couldn't fuck up.

Same team lost in the first round two years ago with Mark Jackson as coach.

Teams grow and mature, your point?

That's a lot of growing and maturing in one year.

[djy2j]

How to Piss Away a Game ~ the Jeff Hornacek story.

We had the advantage with Markieff out but he still manages to find the worst lineup possible. The Bledsoe, Knight, PJ, Leuer, Teletovic lineup was atrocious.

[carey]

I'm not hanging this loss on Hornacek. However, we have way, way too many mentally soft guys on this team. I like the way Knight is playing but we need to move either him or Bledsoe anyway and get someone that isn't an idiot here at guard. I'm glad that Hornacek played Booker decent minutes, he's going to be a gamer. Already the best pure shooter on the team since Nash. The sky is the limit for this kid as long as he remains confident and he continues to get meaningful playing time. He should have played in the 4th. He was 5-6 for 18 points for christ's sake.

[Mori Chu]

There were several positive takeaways from tonight's loss.

* Leuer had a GREAT game.
* Booker had a great game, too.
* Teletovic had a very good game, three.
* Another solid Warren game.
* Bledsoe actually got 9 assists. (This is probably related to playing in a lineup with good shooters.)
* Hornacek actually played lineups with lots of shooting and scoring on the floor. That is a good thing. We somehow seem to play lineups with only 2 shooters/scorers out of 5 a lot.
* NO FUCKING MARKIEFF MORRIS. DIAF DIAF DIAF.

But the bad outweighed the good:

* Knight and Bledsoe didn't shoot well. 8-20 and 8-21.
* Knight in particular seemed to try to be a hero several times and took bad shots.
* We still had a ton of possessions where guys clearly didn't have any interest in working together as a team and just jacked up the first shot they saw.
* Weird lineups with no big men and weak defense.
* Gave up a huge lead that we had no business losing.
* Choked down the stretch and in OT.
* Still no real go-to guy down the stretch.
* Coaching staff generally has an air of incompetence in many ways; does not seem to adjust or react to game situations well.
* Tucker seems to take as much off the table as he puts on it most games.

[Shabazz]

Props to Ryan for the Leuer trade. I posted that I really liked it at the time, but Leuer's wildly exceeded expectations. Only issue with him is that he's going to be expensive to keep around next year.

He should keep his starting job when Markieff gets healthy. He's literally better at everything right now.

[AmareIsGod]

There were several positive takeaways from tonight's loss.

* Leuer had a GREAT game.
* Booker had a great game, too.
* Teletovic had a very good game, three.
* Another solid Warren game.
* Bledsoe actually got 9 assists. (This is probably related to playing in a lineup with good shooters.)
* Hornacek actually played lineups with lots of shooting and scoring on the floor. That is a good thing. We somehow seem to play lineups with only 2 shooters/scorers out of 5 a lot.
* NO FUCKING MARKIEFF MORRIS. DIAF DIAF DIAF.

But the bad outweighed the good:

* Knight and Bledsoe didn't shoot well. 8-20 and 8-21.
* Knight in particular seemed to try to be a hero several times and took bad shots.
* We still had a ton of possessions where guys clearly didn't have any interest in working together as a team and just jacked up the first shot they saw.
* Weird lineups with no big men and weak defense.
* Gave up a huge lead that we had no business losing.
* Choked down the stretch and in OT.
* Still no real go-to guy down the stretch.
* Coaching staff generally has an air of incompetence in many ways; does not seem to adjust or react to game situations well.
* Tucker seems to take as much off the table as he puts on it most games.

Beautifully said. +100. This about sums up exactly how I've felt this entire season, and especially tonight. You nailed it Mori.

[Shabazz]

And how did we blow this game? How? How? How?

I think I inadvertently taught my kids the word "Fuck" tonight.

[AmareIsGod]

Props to Ryan for the Leuer trade. I posted that I really liked it at the time, but Leuer's wildly exceeded expectations. Only issue with him is that he's going to be expensive to keep around next year.

He should keep his starting job when Markieff gets healthy. He's literally better at everything right now.

If Markieff gets his starting job back next game because he's healthy, coach Hornacek can go fuck himself (or whoever is calling the shots on that decision). I'll give up on this team entirely for the season. It takes a level of incompetence I can't even compute or put into words for ANYBODY to say that Markieff Morris deserves the starting job over Lauer. Fuck tenure. Fuck salary. Fuck FOE. We're talking about effort and contribution. Kieff can ride the pine to splintertown until his asshole is a wooden 2x4, literally. Let him earn some minutes with effort off the bench. Then trade his ass. That's the only way we'll get any value out of him. Lon Babby and the organization gave him and Marcus a level of entitlement neither ever earned or deserved. We're reaping the benefits of it now. This self entitled thug needs to step up, become a real man, get over his brother and make his own bed. If he wants out, earn it. Or eat a dick.

[Shabazz]

39/21 is not a good minutes split for Tucker/Warren.

Tucker had 3-6-5 with 4 TOs in his 39 minutes.

[Superbone]

21-2 run in the fourth. SMH. This team just can't stand prosperity. Oh, well. They're so much more fun to watch without the Morris dud. Brandon Knight giveth and then taketh away. And of course Drummond hits his only two consecutive free throws with the game on the line. Learn from it and move on.

[Superbone]

Brandon Knight didn't want to go to the line. I don't want players like that making $14M/yr on my team.

I don't think that was it. It was just a brain fart.

[Superbone]

Anybody interested in defending PJ after tonight's game?

Nope.

[Split T]

Brandon Knight didn't want to go to the line. I don't want players like that making $14M/yr on my team.

I don't think that was it. It was just a brain fart.

I think he was trying to avoid the trap, he wasn't in a good position, giving up the ball was a good choice, just didn't see Marcus and made a poor pass.

[pickle]

Hopefully when I get home tonight this game will be finally available to watch. I'm not so pissed off about losing as you guys, as long as we see some positive developments from the pieces that will presumably still be here two years from now (or even if not, if they improve and can be used in a trade, I'll take that too). Bummed to see Len with only 15 minutes against Drummond. Happy to see Booker get success on the court in usable minutes.

I would not be all that bothered if we ended up with a terrible record, netting a higher pick, and losing a bunch of close games which presumably with more experience, maturity, and chemistry, we'll eventually start to pull out. I hate the season-opener type blowouts (also didn't see that game, but by all accounts it was an unmitigated disaster).

[Cap]

Hey, at least we got another Tom Chambers guarantee at halftime.

He should stop doing that.

[Indy]

Brandon Knight didn't want to go to the line. I don't want players like that making $14M/yr on my team.

I don't think that was it. It was just a brain fart.

I think he was trying to avoid the trap, he wasn't in a good position, giving up the ball was a good choice, just didn't see Marcus and made a poor pass.

Agreed. I don't think he was avoiding the line, but more likely just trying to get out of the trap as the safe play. He just doesn't have the kind of court vision you need to be a 14M/yr PG...

You know it is bad when you are a Phoenix Suns fan and you are just hoping for an average PG with average PG skills. I think Bledsoe is extremely talented in certain areas (and so is Knight), but I don't think either are what we need. And this may be early, but our starting two for the next dozen years is 19 years old and doesn't get regular playing time. We need to make room for him and fix our front court.

[Superbone]

Just removing Morris will improve our front court significantly. Leuer has earned the job. I'm at the point where I don't care what it takes to get rid of the sad sack. He has worn me down.