Phx-Suns.Net

I wonder if the Celtics are still whining about being the disrespected #1 seed....

In the playoffs, individual talent tends to win out. IT is great, but he can be severely reduced by a top notch defender because of his sheer size, and they simply don't have a secondary scorer who can be depended on to get buckets in crunch time. This is not that dissimilar to the Suns 7sol teams when Amare was the only true scorer... Marion is the greatest garbage man in NBA history, but still just a garbage man, and Nash was a passer first second and third, he just can't break people down off the dribble to score when the game is on the line.

In2ition wrote:

carey wrote:I'm certainly not pining for Robin freakin' Lopez. I am sad the Celtics are about to go down 0-2 to the Bulls in the playoffs. What a bummer. I don't want to say this validates what we all thought about winning with IT in the playoffs when he's dealing with a personal tragedy though. I'm not really sure what this says about anything.

I'm not pining for him, but he is playing well.

FWIW, the Bulls seem to have better talent and should win, IMO. The only position that the Celtics are better at is PF.

Watching Lopez this whole season is one of the main reasons I think we should maybe hold on to Len. Lopez has become a very solid starting center in this league. Like I've said before, we don't need all-stars at every single position.

Superbone wrote:

In2ition wrote:

carey wrote:I'm certainly not pining for Robin freakin' Lopez. I am sad the Celtics are about to go down 0-2 to the Bulls in the playoffs. What a bummer. I don't want to say this validates what we all thought about winning with IT in the playoffs when he's dealing with a personal tragedy though. I'm not really sure what this says about anything.

I'm not pining for him, but he is playing well.

FWIW, the Bulls seem to have better talent and should win, IMO. The only position that the Celtics are better at is PF.

Watching Lopez this whole season is one of the main reasons I think we should maybe hold on to Len. Lopez has become a very solid starting center in this league. Like I've said before, we don't need all-stars at every single position.

If we can find a decent trade for Chandler, I'd rather give his money and minutes to Len.

Cap wrote:

Superbone wrote:

In2ition wrote:

carey wrote:I'm certainly not pining for Robin freakin' Lopez. I am sad the Celtics are about to go down 0-2 to the Bulls in the playoffs. What a bummer. I don't want to say this validates what we all thought about winning with IT in the playoffs when he's dealing with a personal tragedy though. I'm not really sure what this says about anything.

I'm not pining for him, but he is playing well.

FWIW, the Bulls seem to have better talent and should win, IMO. The only position that the Celtics are better at is PF.

Watching Lopez this whole season is one of the main reasons I think we should maybe hold on to Len. Lopez has become a very solid starting center in this league. Like I've said before, we don't need all-stars at every single position.

If we can find a decent trade for Chandler, I'd rather give his money and minutes to Len.

Same here.

Aztec Sunsfan wrote:Would the Raptors trade with us some deal around JV for Bledsoe? What else would it take either side?

They avoid overpaying Lowry and get younger, while we can move on from both Eric and Len. With Lowry struggling again, it could be the ideal offseason to do it.

I think we shouldn't consider JV for Bledsoe, ever, and they shouldn't replace Lowry with Bledsoe. Lowry is the absolute leader of that team, heart and sould as said by ShelC. If the Raps don't pay Lowry (and I think they should and will), might as well tear it down and rebuild.

Valanciunas is an enigma. Sometimes he gives you the impression that he could carry an offense, given enough touches (Casey is suspect here), but other times he disappears for a whole match, and his P+R defense is always terrible. Fifteen years ago he'd be way more valuable. Today he finds himself in the same situation as Kanter, Monroe and the likes, it is, unplayable at times and hard to fit in a starting lineup, yet useful for stretches. Just one more option that's nice to have if you are invested but in my opinion not a player you spend a lot to acquire. If the scenario involved Bledsoe, I'd want nothing less than a mid lotto pick from the Raps too.

Ring_Wanted wrote:

Aztec Sunsfan wrote:Would the Raptors trade with us some deal around JV for Bledsoe? What else would it take either side?

They avoid overpaying Lowry and get younger, while we can move on from both Eric and Len. With Lowry struggling again, it could be the ideal offseason to do it.

I think we shouldn't consider JV for Bledsoe, ever, and they shouldn't replace Lowry with Bledsoe. Lowry is the absolute leader of that team, heart and sould as said by ShelC. If the Raps don't pay Lowry (and I think they should and will), might as well tear it down and rebuild.

Valanciunas is an enigma. Sometimes he gives you the impression that he could carry an offense, given enough touches (Casey is suspect here), but other times he disappears for a whole match, and his P+R defense is always terrible. Fifteen years ago he'd be way more valuable. Today he finds himself in the same situation as Kanter, Monroe and the likes, it is, unplayable at times and hard to fit in a starting lineup, yet useful for stretches. Just one more option that's nice to have if you are invested but in my opinion not a player you spend a lot to acquire. If the scenario involved Bledsoe, I'd want nothing less than a mid lotto pick from the Raps too.

I agree. JV is a great rebounder and has pretty good touch around the basket and an increasingly useful post game, but his defense is not there. He's not Kanter bad, but he's not going to anchor a defense. I'm not that interested in picking him up unless it's to get rid of Knight. I also agree that, if Raps don't extend Lowry, then they need to tear down completely. No point trying to reproduce what they had with Bledsoe in place of Lowry.

Right now on TNT the Pacers are way ahead of the Cavs. Up 72-49 at the half. Paul George already has 21 points and 9 boards. Wow.

Until they lost.

Bucks dismantled the raps tonight. Cavs-Bucks in round 2 looks like a real possibility. The King vs The Freak. It probably won't be this year, but Giannis is going to pass up Lebron soon and take his crown.

The TNT ticker refers to the Freak as "Y. Antetokounmpo". I wonder if he can play the pan flute.

How do the Pacers let the Cavs do that? They had a 26-point lead. Man...

Also for those pining over Turner he had a brutal game.

carey wrote:How do the Pacers let the Cavs do that? They had a 26-point lead. Man...

Also for those pining over Turner he had a brutal game.

Well, the Pacers are getting another chance. They're replaying Game 3 on TNT right now.

I'm not worried about ol' Ted. He makes his money either way.

Cap wrote:

carey wrote:How do the Pacers let the Cavs do that? They had a 26-point lead. Man...

Also for those pining over Turner he had a brutal game.

Well, the Pacers are getting another chance. They're replaying Game 3 on TNT right now.

I'm not worried about ol' Ted. He makes his money either way.

4/10

2.5/10

Not your best stuff.

Superbone wrote:

In2ition wrote:

carey wrote:I'm certainly not pining for Robin freakin' Lopez. I am sad the Celtics are about to go down 0-2 to the Bulls in the playoffs. What a bummer. I don't want to say this validates what we all thought about winning with IT in the playoffs when he's dealing with a personal tragedy though. I'm not really sure what this says about anything.

I'm not pining for him, but he is playing well.

FWIW, the Bulls seem to have better talent and should win, IMO. The only position that the Celtics are better at is PF.

Watching Lopez this whole season is one of the main reasons I think we should maybe hold on to Len. Lopez has become a very solid starting center in this league. Like I've said before, we don't need all-stars at every single position.

This is not the first time I've heard someone compare the Lopez and Len situations.

I'm sorry. Robin was every much the player he is now that he was when he was on the Suns. The only difference I see is he has a more reliable jump shot. He was a solid defender, shot blocker and decent rebounder while on the Suns. He was very consistent.

Len is more Jake Voskuhl, Hamed Haddadi, Iakovos Tsakalidis than he is Robin Lopez.

specialsauce wrote:

Superbone wrote:

In2ition wrote:

carey wrote:I'm certainly not pining for Robin freakin' Lopez. I am sad the Celtics are about to go down 0-2 to the Bulls in the playoffs. What a bummer. I don't want to say this validates what we all thought about winning with IT in the playoffs when he's dealing with a personal tragedy though. I'm not really sure what this says about anything.

I'm not pining for him, but he is playing well.

FWIW, the Bulls seem to have better talent and should win, IMO. The only position that the Celtics are better at is PF.

Watching Lopez this whole season is one of the main reasons I think we should maybe hold on to Len. Lopez has become a very solid starting center in this league. Like I've said before, we don't need all-stars at every single position.

This is not the first time I've heard someone compare the Lopez and Len situations.

I'm sorry. Robin was every much the player he is now that he was when he was on the Suns. The only difference I see is he has a more reliable jump shot. He was a solid defender, shot blocker and decent rebounder while on the Suns. He was very consistent.

Len is more Jake Voskuhl, Hamed Haddadi, Iakovos Tsakalidis than he is Robin Lopez.

I agree. Robin also has a mean streak - Len is a pussy. Robin also appears to be from another planet. He will probably have a bigger 2nd career as a character actor in Hollywood.

I heard on the radio earlier this week that there was a local poll taken on who the voters would choose between, Len and Williams - 85% chose Williams.

I don't get the support. He could not earn more minutes from our coach than Williams, after we sat Chandler. The support for Len is generally coming from posters that fully support our coach - WTF

As reported I do not fully support our coach but I think he has spoken and I agree with his decision to play Williams more minutes.

Len is tough. He gets in the face of anyone and doesn't back down. His character is not an issue, but offensively he plays smaller than he is, is mechanical and doesn't have great awareness when near to the basket (which are flaws similar to RoLo's).

And for what it's worth, RoLo was never a decent rebounder for us. His best rebound% was 14.2 (and has never been above 14.8%, which he did last year for the Knicks). There was a case that during his second year here, his boxing out allowed the team to rebound better, but actually grabbing the ball was not his strong suit. His recent performance against the Celtics (a crazy 12 offensive boards over two games) is more of a product of Boston's terrible rebounding ability and perhaps it is inducing some recency bias.

specialsauce wrote:

Superbone wrote:

In2ition wrote:

carey wrote:I'm certainly not pining for Robin freakin' Lopez. I am sad the Celtics are about to go down 0-2 to the Bulls in the playoffs. What a bummer. I don't want to say this validates what we all thought about winning with IT in the playoffs when he's dealing with a personal tragedy though. I'm not really sure what this says about anything.

I'm not pining for him, but he is playing well.

FWIW, the Bulls seem to have better talent and should win, IMO. The only position that the Celtics are better at is PF.

Watching Lopez this whole season is one of the main reasons I think we should maybe hold on to Len. Lopez has become a very solid starting center in this league. Like I've said before, we don't need all-stars at every single position.

This is not the first time I've heard someone compare the Lopez and Len situations.

I'm sorry. Robin was every much the player he is now that he was when he was on the Suns. The only difference I see is he has a more reliable jump shot. He was a solid defender, shot blocker and decent rebounder while on the Suns. He was very consistent.

Len is more Jake Voskuhl, Hamed Haddadi, Iakovos Tsakalidis than he is Robin Lopez.

Your memory is quite hazy. Consistent he was not.

Listen old man, if anybody's memory is hazy it's yours!

specialsauce wrote:Listen old man, if anybody's memory is hazy it's yours!

Why you little whippersnapper!