Suns News: Week 10 12/26-1/1

[carey]

Guys, what happened to Dudley? Seems like he's out of the rotation entirely

Since Watson has to play Tucker then getting Bender on the floor has come at the expense of Jared. He's not injured but rather is receiving healthy DNPs. I'd rather play Dudley and Bender together (yay high IQ teammates) and have Bender guard the SF and Dudley the PF than have Tucker on the floor at all right now.

[Cap]

Guys, what happened to Dudley? Seems like he's out of the rotation entirely

Bender, Chriss, Dudley, Tucker and Warren can't all play. At the moment, Dudley is the odd man out.

[Danimal]

surely a knight trade has to be imminent with his minutes going down.

[Danimal]

From ESPN Insider -

http://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_ ... orst-teams

How to fix the big flaws on each of the NBA's four worst teams

Phoenix Suns (28)

Big flaw: Lineup musical chairs

...

The Suns don't need to dump all of their vets, and it's not like they're short on young talent. They just don't need so much lineup clutter. Even if Tucker turned into an eventual draft-and-stash pick, it would be a useful step in not only creating space in the rotation short-term but also providing potential long-term stability.

This this this

Totally. This franchises lover affair with tucker shows what we mediocre standards we accept and lack of commitment to player development
Tucker for draft and stash sounds a decent return. But this doesn't warrant show casing him with so many minutes. Tucker has racked up some note worthy defensive games on stars this year so if we cut down his minutes I don't think it really hurts his value. Other gms would understand we are rebuilding. I guess we are trying to maintain this perception that tucker is a prized starter but i don't see it makes a big difference. Unless they are worried about chemistry going sour with all the vets taking a back seat. But hey they had their opportunity to win and our record is what it is.

I imagine knight and tucker will be gone by the deadline for the reasons listed in the article. It makes total sense
Chandler then needs to go the bench so we can see what we have in Len. Chandler seems to be slowly going into cruise control this season anyway (good rebounding though). I imagine he only gets moved if we feel we are selling high

I imagine we are sniffing around to see if we can land a star in a deal with Bledsoe. He is putting up good numbers and his Value has never been higher. Perhaps wall or boogie or welp, rudey gay. Don't think anything will Materialise but McD has been dreaming about landing a star from day 1.

Then look to cash in assets for elite talent next year in the draft. Either one the highly ranked PGs or josh Jackson if he appear S to have star pontential.

Sorry for the long post. It's how I deal with the losing. It's a lot more fun watching the games now with the rooks playing
Happy NY

[Cap]

I imagine we are sniffing around to see if we can land a star in a deal with Bledsoe. He is putting up good numbers and his Value has never been higher. Perhaps wall or boogie or welp, rudey gay. Don't think anything will Materialise but McD has been dreaming about landing a star from day 1.

If we trade Bledsoe, we're tanking the rest of the season. It would make more sense to do it for picks and prospects than an established star.

[Superbone]

surely a knight trade has to be imminent with his minutes going down.

http://clutchpoints.com/report-brandon- ... -deadline/

Report: Brandon Knight likely to be traded by deadline

Via ESPN:

The latest signals continue to suggest that Suns guard Brandon Knight will be one of the bigger names to move between now and the Feb. 23 trade deadline. Knight played only nine minutes in the Suns’ home win Thursday night over Toronto, less than 20-year-old rookie Tyler Ulis.

[carey]

I can see a scenario where both are dealt. I wonder if it's one where McDonough keeps his job though.

I can see one where Bledsoe is moved for major future assets and our resident tank commander starts with Booker the rest of the year and we win less than 20 games & draft in the top 3.

I see one where Knight is dealt for a rotational player like a Doug McDermott and an expiring contract.

I see Tucker moving within the next 6 weeks. I do not think we get a first round pick, but I do think we get a player drafted in the first round of '16 or '15. I don't know who that is.

[Furlanfufi]

I hope PJ and Knight are gone soon.

[pickle]

Nobody saw the article claiming that Knicks have identified Tucker as a player they want to get to help shore up their defense?

I'm honestly not that much against playing Tucker. I think as fans we tend to have these "center of the world" delusions that everyone should know what players we have and what they are capable of. If I'm some GM in the East who is busy focusing on my players and scouting, and now my coach came out and said "please get me a defensive wing", I'm gonna start by looking around the league at advanced stats and perhaps Tucker would get ruled out right away if he is averaging 15 mpg rather than 25 or playing half the games and getting half DNP-CDs, because I'd be worried about things that are going on that I'm simply not aware of. Like Bone said in an earlier thread, if Tucker didn't get moved by the deadline, and was still logging heavy minutes and stunting growth of the youngsters, then I have a problem. That we are showcasing him for other teams now, is something I can understand and almost support. I'd love to see more of Chriss and Bender, but they are rookies, and if they had to sit behind veterans for half the year before the reigns are handed over with no strings attached, I think that'll be A-OK.

I'd love to see Knight get moved. I also think we tend to be overly pessimistic about him since we started the Knight relationship off on the wrong foot with that awful trade in the first place. I imagine he would have some value to other teams, and could potentially be a very useful Crawford type contributor on the right team. Chicago, Philly, Orlando, Dallas, Brooklyn all need scoring out of their back court, and I can think of many teams that need more depth on their benches, such as Detroit, New York, even Cleveland or San Antonio could use a guy like Knight. The open question is, what can we get back out of these teams. Personally, I'd love to get a future first rounder and some fodder to match salaries right now. I realize that's a dream case scenario, but let's see what happens closer to the deadline. Last thing I want to get is a 3rd or 4th year player up for an extension, essentially recreating the Knight contract problem all over again.

[Shabazz]

OK. This has gone on long enough. It's time to settle the debate once and for all. Who was the better Sun, Luke Zeller or Taylor Griffin?

[pickle]

On the Watson staggering youth development comment, I admit to not having followed his coaching closely, but another way to interpret it, rather than going full on conspiracy theory mode, might be that a team can only afford to run one or two youngsters together at the same time, and they need to stagger who to throw out there in order to maximize the learning opportunities without completely losing control. So he wants to give one or two guys consistent minutes first and hope for some tangible improvement before throwing more guys to the fire. As much as I'd love for us to just start Ulis Booker Warren Chriss Bender today, I don't think that unit will learn much of anything through sustained 30 point defeats.

[pickle]

OK. This has gone on long enough. It's time to settle the debate once and for all. Who was the better Sun, Luke Zeller or Taylor Griffin?

Seth Curry by a landslide.

[Shabazz]

Please take this seriously, Pickle.

[Mori Chu]

I don't care about how Watson talks about the rookies, or what he says in general; talk is cheap. I want to judge by actions and results. I'm just miffed that Bender gets so few minutes and that until recently Ulis never saw the court. I know it's a lot of minutes for a lot of very young players. But if we aren't winning anyway, I see no need to play vets like Tucker 35-40 minutes and starving the rooks for playing time.

[EDC]

http://arizonasports.com/story/981228/e ... e-minutes/

Watson basically says Knight isn't willing to put in the effort on the defensive end but Ulis is and that is why Knight isn't playing. Only problem is our starting guards are playing really poorly defensively as well.

Watson basically chucking Knight under the bus. I'm not a Knight fan but singling him out as our defensive problem is pretty amusing. Not something you would expect "family" to do to you.

[O_Gardino]

http://arizonasports.com/story/981228/e ... e-minutes/

Watson basically says Knight isn't willing to put in the effort on the defensive end but Ulis is and that is why Knight isn't playing. Only problem is our starting guards are playing really poorly defensively as well.

Watson basically chucking Knight under the bus. I'm not a Knight fan but singling him out as our defensive problem is pretty amusing. Not something you would expect "family" to do to you.

Just once, I would like us to part ways with a player without bashing him in the media first. Just one fucking time.

[Superbone]

Please take this seriously, Pickle.

Ha! That made me laugh out loud. Especially with the name of the person you are addressing.

[Indy]

http://arizonasports.com/story/981228/e ... e-minutes/

Watson basically says Knight isn't willing to put in the effort on the defensive end but Ulis is and that is why Knight isn't playing. Only problem is our starting guards are playing really poorly defensively as well.

Watson basically chucking Knight under the bus. I'm not a Knight fan but singling him out as our defensive problem is pretty amusing. Not something you would expect "family" to do to you.

Just once, I would like us to part ways with a player without bashing him in the media first. Just one fucking time.

This. It hasn't mattered which GM or coach we have, but we do this over and over. It smells of Sarver. I always think back to that first year and the security guard... Not a good person.

[O_Gardino]

http://arizonasports.com/story/981228/e ... e-minutes/

Watson basically says Knight isn't willing to put in the effort on the defensive end but Ulis is and that is why Knight isn't playing. Only problem is our starting guards are playing really poorly defensively as well.

Watson basically chucking Knight under the bus. I'm not a Knight fan but singling him out as our defensive problem is pretty amusing. Not something you would expect "family" to do to you.

Just once, I would like us to part ways with a player without bashing him in the media first. Just one f*** time.

This. It hasn't mattered which GM or coach we have, but we do this over and over. It smells of Sarver. I always think back to that first year and the security guard... Not a good person.

Exactly! That security guard tells us everything we need to know about Robert.

[Indy]

http://arizonasports.com/story/981228/e ... e-minutes/

Watson basically says Knight isn't willing to put in the effort on the defensive end but Ulis is and that is why Knight isn't playing. Only problem is our starting guards are playing really poorly defensively as well.

Watson basically chucking Knight under the bus. I'm not a Knight fan but singling him out as our defensive problem is pretty amusing. Not something you would expect "family" to do to you.

Just once, I would like us to part ways with a player without bashing him in the media first. Just one f*** time.

This. It hasn't mattered which GM or coach we have, but we do this over and over. It smells of Sarver. I always think back to that first year and the security guard... Not a good person.

Exactly! That security guard tells us everything we need to know about Robert.

Completely agree. And a middle-aged tiger isn't going to change his spots now.