Suns News: Week 11 3/1-3/7

[carey]

The Suns went 3-1 last week making for a 12-3 February. Their best month in who knows how long. It feels great to be a Suns fan again. Two games this week & then we hit the All-Star break.

Last Week's Games

vs. Portland WIN! 132-100
vs. Charlotte Loss 124-121
@ Chicago WIN! 106-97
@ Minnesota WIN! 118-99

This Week's Games

Tuesday, March 2nd @ L.A. Lakers 10:00 PM EST TNT
Thursday, March 4th vs. Golden State 10:00 PM EST

Suns Stories

Center of the Sun, Part 1: Suns closing in on 3rd in the West - https://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2021 ... ing-on-3rd

Solar Panel: The one with <3 Lindsey Smith <3 as our special guest! - https://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2021 ... chris-paul

[jonh]

I've given up trying to predict what this team is going to do. Looking forward to 2 competitive games. I think the Suns will be motivated to have a good game against both teams.

[Shabazz]

The business of basketball is as cutthroat as ever, as indicated by the sheer quantity of former McDonald's All Americans and all-conference college players on every G League roster. Young players can no longer afford to view a G League assignment as a demotion -- it's a fight for NBA survival. Even former top-10 picks like Josh Jackson, Dragan Bender, Jahlil Okafor, Mario Hezonja and Marquese Chriss saw their rookie scale options declined despite coming into the NBA as teenagers. This should serve as a wake-up call for players currently debating entering the 2021 NBA draft.

In the 2020 NBA draft class, players who might have cause for concern (with all stats through Thursday's games) include:

Jalen Smith (No. 10 pick, Phoenix Suns) -- This was a surprising pick on draft night (especially with Tyrese Haliburton on the board) and Smith's play in the NBA preseason, the regular season and now on assignment in the G League isn't encouraging thus far. He's posting a 48% true shooting percentage through six games and struggling badly defensively, having a very difficult time standing out from regular G Leaguers, despite being one of the best big men in college basketball at Maryland last season. Finding a position to defend, as well as some consistency with his jumper (he's 8-of-37 for 3 on the season thus far) will be important first steps.

[Mori Chu]

Both of those games this week are going to be tough. The Lakers are a real test. Lucky to face them when they don't have Davis.

[Split T]

2 of the last 3 weeks...does he get player of the month?

[Indy]

2 of the last 3 weeks...does he get player of the month?

Hard to win player of the month over a guy that was player of the week for half the month, right? Did Book have a really shitty couple of weeks outside of that, where someone else was awesome?

[bajanguy008]

2 of the last 3 weeks...does he get player of the month?

Hard to win player of the month over a guy that was player of the week for half the month, right? Did Book have a really shitty couple of weeks outside of that, where someone else was awesome?

Even if we are forgetting an off game or two. Think this tweet says it all, who better ?

[BKinSJC]

2 of the last 3 weeks...does he get player of the month?

Could definitely happen. They tend to factor team wins heavily into the POTM award, just like they do POTW - and that being the case, the Jazz (12-2 in February) and Suns (12-3) are the most likely to produce a winner. If they want to look at the guys with the big counting stats, then, that basically means Booker or Mitchell.

Booker in February played in all 15 Suns games, and averaged 27.9 / 4.5 ast / 3.7 reb, on 52.3/49.5/85.2 shooting splits - 57.7 EFG and 62.2 TS%.
Mitchell's numbers were 14 games played, 26.8 / 5.9 / 5.1, on 43.2/38.0/81.1 splits, 51.0 EFG and 56.2 TS%.

Mitchell's team was slightly better overall, and his assist and rebounding numbers are a little better. Booker scored more and did so on significantly better efficiency. It's hard to quantify defensive impact of both guys, but I think it's fair to say that neither one is relied on to be a lynchpin, and neither one spends much time on the opposition's best scorers. I'd leave it to people who think that it's possible to separate individual from team defense to opine on whether one guy is significantly more impactful than the other, but I do think Booker's effort, at least, has generally been good.

It might also be fun to see the league think slightly out of the box, and consider giving the award to Gobert (who was third in the league in rebounding and first in blocks in February, and remains essential as a screener, defender, and occasional scoring threat in Utah), or Chris Paul (who had some great games, was fifth in the league in assists at 9.4, and contributed 17.4 points a game as a secondary scorer on really efficient 53.6/46.3/95.5 shooting splits).

Finally, and though I know it's a really slippery statistic, I think it's sort of fun to note that, for the month of February, if you filter for at least 9 games played and 25 minutes a game, the top ten players in the league in Individual Net Rating consist of five members of the Jazz, three of Your Phoenix Suns, and two Milwaukee Bucks. On that list, Booker is tenth (just behind Ayton) and Mitchell is eighth, but CP3 and Gobert are third and fourth.

[Split T]

Highest offensive rating of anyone on that net rating list(top 100 at least) is Booker. Suns were 123.5 points per 100 with Booker on the court in February.

There are guys that had better stats(Kawhi, Curry, Luka) and guys that had better records(Mitchell). The two player of the weeks make me think it’ll be Book. Luka is the one I could see snagging it. His team went 8-4 and he dropped 30-7-8 on .618 TS. Curry also was pretty crazy...like 32-5-6 on like a .679 TS. His team was like 7-6 though.

[O_Gardino]

Just a couple of thoughts about the Suns recent play. Maybe this has already been said in the game threads.

1. We are not good enough to try to turn it off and on. I'l take those last 2 wins, but I'm not satisfied.
2. Cam Payne is struggling. Seems like he is either fire or ice.
3. Moore isn't shooting well at all, but the Suns tend to play well when he is on the court. I'm glad he's doing what he is, but I would love to see Payne grow and surpass him.
4. DA looks tired, man.
5. Kaminsky is still the Most Valuable Frank.
6. Jalen Smith looks worse than he did as a freshman. I think 'rona really messed him up. Here's hoping for a solid recovery.
7. Cam Johnson is obviously in a bit of a funk, but his shot is actually falling pretty well. It shows how good a shooter he is that we consider 38% a slump for him.
8. It drives me crazy how DA will get in a zone and look really engaged, and then one adjustment by the defense takes him out of the game for the rest of the quarter. He and the guards need to work on adjusting to keep him in the flow when he has that mentality.

[Split T]

[O_Gardino]

Well deserved.

[BKinSJC]

You'd have to say, best month of Book's professional career by far, taking into consideration individual and team success.

I think the only other period of time that could come close was the bubble, late July/August of last year, but while Book was great (even better in some ways than this last month) and the team went undefeated, the way it ended with the Suns just short of the playoffs had to have left a bitter aftertaste to the whole thing.

Or maybe I'm just projecting.

[Mori Chu]

You'd have to say, best month of Book's professional career by far, taking into consideration individual and team success.

I think the only other period of time that could come close was the bubble, late July/August of last year, but while Book was great (even better in some ways than this last month) and the team went undefeated, the way it ended with the Suns just short of the playoffs had to have left a bitter aftertaste to the whole thing.

Or maybe I'm just projecting.

Arguably the bubble was better. Or for individual success, maybe the month when he had 70, which was March 2017. But this is a great stretch for him, to be sure.

[Nodack]

I’m sure he would take winning over any of those other accolades.

[Split T]

Post all star break in 2019 he was phenomenal...I remember he was essentially putting up Harden numbers in terms of scoring and efficiency.

[Split T]

31/6/5 in the bubble with .640 TS

[Indy]

31/6/5 in the bubble with .640 TS

And more importantly, the best player on an 8-0 team.

[Superbone]

31/6/5 in the bubble with .640 TS

And more importantly, the best player on an 8-0 team.

Including an incredible game winning, website bannering shot!

I can't remember. Did he have more than one game winner in that stretch?

[Split T]

Booker in the 3pt shootout and CP3 in the skills challenge