Suns News: Week 19 2/29-3/6

[carey]

Hornacek was always reactive instead of proactive. It will be interesting to go the other way for once though I don't think Len is a PF in any way, shape or form.

[Cap]

He has the shape and form, it's just a question of skills.

[carey]

He has the shape and form, it's just a question of skills.

He doesn't have those either.

[Superbone]

Listened to Talk to the Coach on AZSports today and I thought about you, EDC. Coach says Len is the starting PF now. He wants other teams to match up with us, not the other way around.

Nice. Now if we can only get Len to realize he is taller than everyone else.

Use the hook big guy!

I'd love to see Len bring back Jabbar's sky hook.

[England Sun]

Playing him from the start and openly making him number 1 option is very smart. You give him all the minutes possible to let him get his confidence and catch up on time lost due to injuries.
Also helps him learn, grow and develop.
The other important thing it does is free some pressure from Booker and help him get into a good rhythm without the pressure of being no one option so early in his career. Give him chance to learn & develop and grow together.
Shame Warren is out, would have been good to give all 3 starting minutes and let them work it out with less pressure.

[iLLmatic]

Listened to Talk to the Coach on AZSports today and I thought about you, EDC. Coach says Len is the starting PF now. He wants other teams to match up with us, not the other way around.

Nice. Now if we can only get Len to realize he is taller than everyone else.

Use the hook big guy!

I'd love to see Len bring back Jabbar's sky hook.

Ha! That opening drive looked pretty darn near like the sky hook by Len.

[Mori Chu]

Hornacek was always reactive instead of proactive. It will be interesting to go the other way for once though I don't think Len is a PF in any way, shape or form.

I don't think this "Len at PF" thing will end well. We shall see.

[pickle]

I just wish I had the foresight to grab him for my fantasy team.

[Indy]

I don't get those of you that say he doesn't have the size, skills, or ability/agility to play the 4.

[TOO]

I don't get those of you that say he doesn't have the size, skills, or ability/agility to play the 4.

Agreed.

[Indy]

I don't get those of you that say he doesn't have the size, skills, or ability/agility to play the 4.

Agreed.

Sure, it might not be successful in the end, but when you watch him play, do you not see a guy that can play with many of the 4/5s in the league?

[TOO]

The only problem I have with Len playing the 4 is where he usually gets the ball on offense. Needs to work on his post game and not dropping his hands repeatedly.

[pickle]

From an on-court basketball perspective, I think any exposure to game time is great for Len. He might not be one of those players that has enough bravado to think that he can take over the world, so some game-time rep would definitely help with the comfort and confidence level. He might not be most suited to playing the 4 in the modern NBA given his somewhat slower lateral movement and the prevalence of the stretch-4, but getting reps defending quicker players can't be a bad thing, right?

Been reading a bit on Hassan Whiteside, and while the poor defensive player with gaudy stat story might be slightly overblown, it is pretty apparent that he's unwilling to show on pick and rolls and that severely limits Miami's defensive efforts. If Len gets to chasing quicker players and gets even marginally better at it, it'll help his future as a more versatile defensive five.

[ShelC]

His first two years or so I thought he could play some PF but he may have gotten too big and lost some of his quickness and agility.

[Mori Chu]

I really don't get Len-as-PF. Why would anybody do this? It stunts his natural development and has him practicing things he isn't natural at and probably won't ever be good at. PFs in 2016 need to be way more nimble and agile than Len currently is. They also need long shooting range including 3-point range. Len kinda-sorta has a midrange jumper in development but no way should he be out there shooting threes. I also just don't think Len can defend most current agile PFs.

The modern NBA PF is a Draymond Green, Markieff Morris type who's more of a glorified SF... Not a 7'2" giant playing out of position.

There is *0* chance that we would be talking about this if we didn't have Tyson Chandler on the roster. What is this franchise's obsession with signing guys who don't play well together and then playing everybody out of position?

[The Bobster]

Len & Teletovic should be starting. There's no reason to start Chandler now that the trade deadline has passed.

[dragickingdom]

There's no reason to be starting Price or Tucker either. I would rather get Goodwin and anyone else young and unproven the court time then vets that will not be here long term.

[Cap]

There's no reason to be starting Price or Tucker either.

The only player who should be starting is Booker. Bring everybody else off the bench.

Good luck out there, Devin.

[Superbone]

"Suns Are On the Road Again" - song parody by Vince Marotta with Bickley & Marotta (3/1):

http://arizonasports.com/player/?a=319549

[Nodack]

I don't know what we expect from the team right now. We want them to lose but complain when they get beat. We want the coach to start the young guys and get on him for playing Tucker and Price. Half the team is on ten day contracts. We started Goodwin. He tried to break the NBA record for turnovers and is Swiss cheese on D. Price isn't great but, at least attempts to play defense and so does Tucker. Goodwin is getting plenty of minutes starting or not.

I am ok with Len as PF right now. He is getting a ton of touches. I don't think it's a permanent thing. We don't have a lot of strengths on this team right now. We have two tall quality centers and playing them at the same time gives other teams matchup problems and that is one of the few edges we have to exploit. it worked against Memphis but not the other day.

Len, Booker and Goodwin are our guys not injured that we are betting the future on. They are getting plenty of minutes. At this point that's all that really matters aside from not getting anymore people hurt.