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Suns News: Week 20 3/9-3/15

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 3:48 pm
by carey
Booker had a monster game against Milwaukee. Maybe that helps him break out of his funk. Strangely only 2 games this week?

Last Week's Games

vs. Toronto LOSS 123-114
vs. Portland WIN! 127-117
vs. Milwaukee WIN! 140-131

This Week's Games

Tuesday, March 10th @ Portland 10:00 PM EST
Saturday, March 14th @ Dallas 2:00 PM EST

Suns Stories

Could the Suns finally be turning the corner after big wins? -- https://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2020 ... r-big-wins

Center of the Sun: Suns finish homestand strong despite mounting injuries -- https://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2020 ... juries-nba

Here's why Suns season ticket prices are jumping as much as 50%. -- https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/ ... 958283002/

Re: Suns News: Week 20 3/9-3/15

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 3:57 pm
by Superbone
Good stuff as always. Thanks carey.

Couldn't see AZ Central's clickbait though. :|

Re: Suns News: Week 20 3/9-3/15

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 3:58 pm
by Superbone
Good stuff!
The Suns drained 19 three-pointers in back-to-back games for the first time in the team’s storied 52-year history, beating the Portland Trail Blazers, 127-117, and Milwaukee Bucks, 140-131. The team’s 140 points on Sunday against the league’s best defense is a shocker, and is the highest point total for the franchise since 2010. Their 47 first quarter points is a high this year for an opening quarter, second only to the 48-point third quarter in Dallas earlier this year, and their 77 first half points is a high for any half this season.

Re: Suns News: Week 20 3/9-3/15

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 6:50 pm
by Superbone
Cam out 2 weeks with mono!

Re: Suns News: Week 20 3/9-3/15

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 6:51 pm
by SunsRIt
ArizonaSports.com: Suns announce Cameron Johnson will be out for at least 2 weeks with mono while Frank Kaminsky is out indefinitely - https://bit.ly/2v7ATVA

Re: Suns News: Week 20 3/9-3/15

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 6:59 pm
by Shabazz
Cam alternating between old-man injuries and kissy high school boy illnesses.

Re: Suns News: Week 20 3/9-3/15

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 7:03 pm
by Superbone
Shabazz wrote:
Mon Mar 09, 2020 6:59 pm
Cam alternating between old-man injuries and kissy high school boy illnesses.
He must have had a heck of a birthday party!

Re: Suns News: Week 20 3/9-3/15

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 10:28 pm
by Superbone
Charles Barkley to sell MVP trophy to build affordable housing in hometown

https://arizonasports.com/story/2288631 ... s#comments

Re: Suns News: Week 20 3/9-3/15

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2020 5:59 pm
by Superbone

Re: Suns News: Week 20 3/9-3/15

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2020 6:12 pm
by Superbone

Re: Suns News: Week 20 3/9-3/15

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2020 7:55 am
by O_Gardino
Saric is on a heck of a hot stretch. Since returning to the starting lineup (and getting healthy), he is averaging 14.6/6.9/1.9 on .544/.522 shooting. Pretty nice 7 game run. This is the first stretch this season when he is shooting well from both 2 and 3.

In terms of his disappointing season, Dario's numbers aren't off much from his career numbers. His 3pt shooting is quite a bit lower than normal, but his 2pt shooting is by far the best of his career. Rebounds, assists, blocks and steals are all exactly where they always are. His turnovers a lower than his career average. I'm not really disappointed with his production, other than 3pt shooting. I don't know if this means anything, but Saric's worst months by far were January and February when Ayton was playing.

What concerns me is his lack of activity earlier in the season. He was really only productive in the first quarter and sometimes 4th. It looked like he didn't have the physical or mental stamina to give consistent effort the whole game.

There are a lot of possible explanations/conclusions to draw (or jump to).
- That's just who he is, and I expected too much.
- The Suns have asked him to do too much in the offence. He needs to play off of dominant stars.
- It took him this much of the season to find his way in Monty's system.
- He wasn't physically right.
- Saric is a bad fit next to Ayton.
- Saric struggled to adjust to all of our different 4/5 lineups where his role changed throughout the season.
- He's a young player, and this is part of his growth. He'll keep getting better. Just like Oubre's 14 good games last season.

Re: Suns News: Week 20 3/9-3/15

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2020 9:45 am
by Mori Chu
I like Dario. I think it was a bad move to essentially announce publicly that we won't be keeping him next season. Why do that? It would totally undercut his confidence and make him feel alienated from the team. He's playing remarkably well given those circumstances. I don't think he's a great PF, but we basically want a starting PF who is comfortable being our 5th most important starter. So it's hard to want that but also expect the guy to give us huge numbers every night. I don't want a PF who would demand the ball or play out of the rhythm of the offense. Guys like Saric and to some degree Bender understand their role and play within it. Saric actually gives us a lot of little things like his passing and team defense that I didn't expect before he came here. I wish his shooting were a bit more consistent, but if it were, he probably would not have been available last offseason in the first place.

To me the bottom line is that Saric is almost exactly the *kind* of PF we need (good outside shooting, team player, doesn't demand the ball, decent on defense, provides intangibles). If we let him leave, I hope we don't sign the wrong kind of player to replace him, such as a bruiser, a tweener, an inside/paint PF, a ballhog, etc.

Re: Suns News: Week 20 3/9-3/15

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2020 10:13 am
by ShelC
I think he can be a nice combo forward/center off the bench. As a starter, he just can't hang athletically IMO.

Re: Suns News: Week 20 3/9-3/15

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2020 10:33 am
by Superbone
Mori Chu wrote:
Wed Mar 11, 2020 9:45 am
I like Dario. I think it was a bad move to essentially announce publicly that we won't be keeping him next season. Why do that?
When did we do that? I'm not aware of it.

Re: Suns News: Week 20 3/9-3/15

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2020 2:14 pm
by Mori Chu
Superbone wrote:
Wed Mar 11, 2020 10:33 am
Mori Chu wrote:
Wed Mar 11, 2020 9:45 am
I like Dario. I think it was a bad move to essentially announce publicly that we won't be keeping him next season. Why do that?
When did we do that? I'm not aware of it.
Gambo and others reported it about a month ago. They said we were shopping him at the deadline and that he isn't in our plans for next year. Just rumors, obviously, but I saw it from several sources. The team didn't seem to do anything to try to quell the rumors, and Dario was essentially out of the rotation at that time.

https://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2020 ... ext-season

Re: Suns News: Week 20 3/9-3/15

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2020 2:42 pm
by Superbone
Pfft. Rumors? OK. “Out of the rotation” AKA injured.

Re: Suns News: Week 20 3/9-3/15

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2020 3:56 pm
by Nodack
I‘Ve been critical of Saric. He’s slow and can’t jump, misses or gets his shots blocked around the rim. He has played well lately hitting his 3’s and getting creative around the hoop. He’s definitely better than our starting PF from last year. Then again we didn’t have any PF’s last year except Bender who never played.

Re: Suns News: Week 20 3/9-3/15

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2020 4:50 pm
by carey
Earl Watson at the commentator desk for the PAC-12 tournament. Gross.

Re: Suns News: Week 20 3/9-3/15

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2020 7:56 pm
by Flagrant Fowl
carey wrote:
Wed Mar 11, 2020 4:50 pm
Earl Watson at the commentator desk for the PAC-12 tournament. Gross.
It's a proven track to a Pac12 head coaching position, which is great news for the rest of the conference that is smart enough to not hire him.

Re: Suns News: Week 20 3/9-3/15

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2020 1:28 am
by Ring_Wanted
I don't care the team has let it known they are not bringing Saric back. To me that was a foregone conclusion as Saric is a mediocre rotation player and aiming him in a trade down move was questionable in itself, seeing we lacked athleticism, defense and shooting at PF and Saric was bad on two of those areas and only average (at best) at shooting; but the move became absurd once you acknowledge contract was essentially expiring and our salary cap landscape didn't favot keeping him at all. This trade was a clear example of mismanaging an asset by the GM.