Game Day: Suns (9-8) @ Mavericks (8-11), Sat, 1/30/2021

[Indy]

It wasn’t Crowder or Christian Wood. It was Crowder, Saric and Jevon or Christian Wood and some minimum players.

And people are making an assumption that Wood would have been willing to sign here or that an offer wasn't made to him.

This. I think a ton of us wanted Wood, but that doesn't mean we could get him.

[O_Gardino]

It's going to be tough to keep him off the allstar team with the way he's playing for Houston.

[Split T]

Wood wasn’t going anywhere to be a backup. And we didn’t have the cap space to sign him and bring back Saric.

[Indy]

Wood wasn’t going anywhere to be a backup. And we didn’t have the cap space to sign him and bring back Saric.

No, but if he were our starting PF, we could make do with Jalen and Frank as our backups, with another big on a vet minimum.

But yeah, a lot of things would have to change on this current team/roster to have him here. Probably not likely with our current GM and Coach.

[Superbone]

Crowder isn't so redundant with Cam and Mikal because of his bulk and strength. He's much more of a physical defender which is something we lacked at the 3/4 with Mikal, Cam and Kelly. Jae is what he is. I don't think he was sold as a top 10 PF in FA or a piece to get us over the top, but more a versatile, veteran defender who can hit the 3, guard most 4s and just played a key part in a Finals run. He's a plug n play glue guy. There's realyl no reason to complain about the contract or production at this point.

Shel gets it.

[Split T]

Jae has been fine. He’s currently shooting better from 3 than all but 1 year of his career. His TS numbers are the same. Only his Boston years have been better. His rebounding is on par with what he’s done throughout his career. Assists are up near the top of his career. Don’t pay attention to the overall fg%, it’s low because he’s got a ridiculous 75% + 3pt rate. He’s essentially only shooting 3’s.

He’s giving us about what I expected. Smart team D, hustle, leadership, and he’s a capable shooter. Would love for Bridges and Cam to get some of his looks, but that’s got more to do with the D forcing the looks to Crowder I’d think.

[Mori Chu]

Wood is having a great season, but I go back and forth on whether his presence here would have been strictly better than what we currently have. Do you really want to start Wood and Ayton at PF/C together? Our spacing and 3-point shooting would suffer pretty heavily. Part of what has been causing us to win games is the fact that we have 2-3 great 3-point shooters on the floor at almost all times. In the starting lineup, Booker, Bridges, and Crowder/Johnson are all deadly 3-point shooters. Paul is mediocre, and Ayton shouldn't be shooting many 3s, but otherwise that's a lot of firepower. Replace Crowder/Johnson with Wood and it's a much heavier and plodding lineup. Not sure that is actually better in 2021's NBA.

Arguably Wood might be muscling out Ayton for the starting spot if Ayton had started out slowly as he did. Then we'd probably be starting Paul-Booker-Bridges-Cam-Wood, and bringing Ayton off the bench. That's a strong team, but do you really want Ayton coming off the bench? Won't that just lead him to be upset and probably have him off the team in 1-2 years? You can tell me you like Wood better than Ayton, but that seems like pretty poor asset management.

I think I prefer this version of things where we are truly giving Ayton the best chance to thrive here before any potential of giving up on him. The decision I regret more from this past offseason isn't passing on Wood; it's passing on Tyrese Halliburton, who has been excellent. Oof. He was right there for the taking; it was clear in the moment that he'd be a great pick. We really whiffed on that one. Still rooting for Smith to improve and show us he can be a rotation guy, but it's hard to watch Halliburton playing as one of the top few picks from this draft when we could have had him. He could be getting these Nader minutes and overachieving in them, helping run our bench unit. How nasty would that be?

[Split T]

Christian Wood is shooting 38% from 3. He’s a better 3pt shooter than Crowder. He’s also dropping 24/11 and 1.6 blocks. He’s better than Ayton too. You’d start him at the 4 and play him as the backup 5 as well.

[ShelC]

Christian Wood is shooting 38% from 3. He’s a better 3pt shooter than Crowder. He’s also dropping 24/11 and 1.6 blocks. He’s better than Ayton too. You’d start him at the 4 and play him as the backup 5 as well.

That would've changed the dynamic of the team too much IMO and could've led to some chemistry issues. Also, this stuck with me from the SI team preview when they get input from some scouts. Maybe there's something there we don't know?

Christian Wood is O.K. He’s not a normal human being. He’s a weird guy. He’s going to want to get his shots.

[Shabazz]

It wasn’t Crowder or Christian Wood. It was Crowder, Saric and Jevon or Christian Wood and some minimum players.

And people are making an assumption that Wood would have been willing to sign here or that an offer wasn't made to him.

I’m saying IF we matched Houston’s offer and he agreed to come here, we would have had to operate as an under the cap team, which would have meant no mid-level (Crowder) and renouncing our free agents (Saric, Carter).

[Split T]

Christian Wood is shooting 38% from 3. He’s a better 3pt shooter than Crowder. He’s also dropping 24/11 and 1.6 blocks. He’s better than Ayton too. You’d start him at the 4 and play him as the backup 5 as well.

That would've changed the dynamic of the team too much IMO and could've led to some chemistry issues.

It would have changed it for sure. There wouldn’t have been as much of a need to draw out aggressive Ayton. Wood would have taken that role...I think signing Wood would have been pretty bad for Ayton. We’d probably have to move him and I’m not sure we would have gotten much in return. So who knows how it ultimately would have turned out.

[Superbone]

Christian Wood is shooting 38% from 3. He’s a better 3pt shooter than Crowder. He’s also dropping 24/11 and 1.6 blocks. He’s better than Ayton too. You’d start him at the 4 and play him as the backup 5 as well.

That would've changed the dynamic of the team too much IMO and could've led to some chemistry issues.

It would have changed it for sure. There wouldn’t have been as much of a need to draw out aggressive Ayton. Wood would have taken that role...I think signing Wood would have been pretty bad for Ayton. We’d probably have to move him and I’m not sure we would have gotten much in return. So who knows how it ultimately would have turned out.

It would be pretty sad if an undrafted player outperformed the #1 overall pick.

[Indy]

Christian Wood is shooting 38% from 3. He’s a better 3pt shooter than Crowder. He’s also dropping 24/11 and 1.6 blocks. He’s better than Ayton too. You’d start him at the 4 and play him as the backup 5 as well.

That would've changed the dynamic of the team too much IMO and could've led to some chemistry issues.

It would have changed it for sure. There wouldn’t have been as much of a need to draw out aggressive Ayton. Wood would have taken that role...I think signing Wood would have been pretty bad for Ayton. We’d probably have to move him and I’m not sure we would have gotten much in return. So who knows how it ultimately would have turned out.

It would be pretty sad if an undrafted player outperformed the #1 overall pick.

I know it is only a partial season so far, but which would you prefer?

Code: Select all

                                                                                                          
Player             MP  FG  FGA  FG%  3P 3PA  3P%  2P  2PA  2P% eFG%  FT FTA  FT%  TRB AST STL BLK TOV  PTS
Deandre Ayton    31.9 6.2 10.7 .578 0.1 0.6 .200 6.1 10.1 .599 .583 2.0 2.8 .720 12.6 2.0 0.4 1.1 2.1 14.4
Christian Wood   33.0 9.4 16.9 .553 1.8 4.7 .379 7.6 12.2 .620 .605 3.1 4.5 .698 10.7 1.2 0.8 1.6 2.0 23.6

[Superbone]

Christian Wood is shooting 38% from 3. He’s a better 3pt shooter than Crowder. He’s also dropping 24/11 and 1.6 blocks. He’s better than Ayton too. You’d start him at the 4 and play him as the backup 5 as well.

That would've changed the dynamic of the team too much IMO and could've led to some chemistry issues.

It would have changed it for sure. There wouldn’t have been as much of a need to draw out aggressive Ayton. Wood would have taken that role...I think signing Wood would have been pretty bad for Ayton. We’d probably have to move him and I’m not sure we would have gotten much in return. So who knows how it ultimately would have turned out.

It would be pretty sad if an undrafted player outperformed the #1 overall pick.

I know it is only a partial season so far, but which would you prefer?

Code: Select all

                                                                                                          
Player             MP  FG  FGA  FG%  3P 3PA  3P%  2P  2PA  2P% eFG%  FT FTA  FT%  TRB AST STL BLK TOV  PTS
Deandre Ayton    31.9 6.2 10.7 .578 0.1 0.6 .200 6.1 10.1 .599 .583 2.0 2.8 .720 12.6 2.0 0.4 1.1 2.1 14.4
Christian Wood   33.0 9.4 16.9 .553 1.8 4.7 .379 7.6 12.2 .620 .605 3.1 4.5 .698 10.7 1.2 0.8 1.6 2.0 23.6

Yeah, I meant more if they were playing together to Split's point. OTOH, maybe it would have lit a fire under him.

[Indy]

Got it. Yeah, it would be interesting coaching them together.

[specialsauce]

Christian Wood is shooting 38% from 3. He’s a better 3pt shooter than Crowder. He’s also dropping 24/11 and 1.6 blocks. He’s better than Ayton too. You’d start him at the 4 and play him as the backup 5 as well.

That would've changed the dynamic of the team too much IMO and could've led to some chemistry issues.

It would have changed it for sure. There wouldn’t have been as much of a need to draw out aggressive Ayton. Wood would have taken that role...I think signing Wood would have been pretty bad for Ayton. We’d probably have to move him and I’m not sure we would have gotten much in return. So who knows how it ultimately would have turned out.

It would be pretty sad if an undrafted player outperformed the #1 overall pick.

He’s outperformed a lot of people this season.

[specialsauce]

And whoever is saying Wood would have meant no Saric is wrong. We could have retained Saric as we had his rights

[Superbone]

Just listened to the 3rd quarter of the Dallas broadcast and the third guy on the broadcast crew chimed in twice to slam the Suns for not taking Doncic and then downplay Ayton’s play later in the quarter:

I’m still trying to figure out how Luka’s Slovenian coach was Phoenix’s coach and they somehow didn’t draft him. That is mind boggling. “I’ve coached and he’s one of the best in the world. Let’s not draft him.”

And then...

You know if you just look at Ayton’s numbers, 12 and 9, you think he’s having a great game but he’s been out of sorts for most of it as he heads to the bench right now.

The weird thing is how the play by play guy and main color commentator didn’t acknowledge his statements.

[Charlie Smithy!]

That third guy is known for being a semi popular radio host in the Dallas-Fort Worth area ; I don't know why they have a three-person booth, skin, as they call him, is obviously not known for his basketball acumen

[Indy]

And whoever is saying Wood would have meant no Saric is wrong. We could have retained Saric as we had his rights

We wouldn't have had the space to sign wood while keeping his rights. we would have had to renounce him and carter (and others I think).