Suns News: Week 17 (2/7 - 2/13)

[pickle]

I honestly can’t believe we are seriously discussing Ayton vs. Sabonis to the tune of nearly 20 posts.

I assumed (apparently rightly so) that the racist comment was a joke so I won’t get into that.

On the merits of these two players, maybe we need to look at the greater context. What is our goal in this discussion? Are we trying to be academic or are we actually talking about the context of the 2021-22 Phoenix Suns who are sitting at 45-10 on the season with a number of spectacular statistics that I won’t recite one by one? One of our very best attributes is chemistry and why are we ok with such a massive disruption when we are clearly right on the cusp?

Looking past the chemistry issues, we finally have a strong defensive team in the 32 years I’ve watched this team, and we all know the cliche that defense wins championships, and why would we ever move our paint anchor for someone that has slow foot speed and can’t jump? I mean we beat the Clippers last year in a game where both teams barely put up 90 points. I don’t see Sabonis helping the team there. And don’t say McGee and Bizzy.

Ayton is not the offensive hub that Sabonis is, but he’s not a Capela or Mitchell Robinson on offense. When he’s healthy he is our third point of attack where his getting 3 feet into the lane creates not only offensive gravity but that turn around right hook is one of our top offensive options — 4 point play went into this and that and CP3’s middy and Booker’s 3 point pull up (at least early season) each generates about 120 pts per 100 possessions IIRC.

Sabonis is not a particularly useful player without the ball in his hands as he’s not a shooter. CP3 is also not best utilized spotting up and attacking close outs at this point in his career, particularly with Sabonis parked in or near the lane. If this were NBA2K I’d probably make such a change. In real life, particularly this season, I wouldn’t go anywhere near that trade. I don’t care how much it’ll take to extend Ayton. He’s worth it to this team.

[Shabazz]

I honestly can’t believe we are seriously discussing Ayton vs. Sabonis to the tune of nearly 20 posts.

I assumed (apparently rightly so) that the racist comment was a joke so I won’t get into that.

On the merits of these two players, maybe we need to look at the greater context. What is our goal in this discussion? Are we trying to be academic or are we actually talking about the context of the 2021-22 Phoenix Suns who are sitting at 45-10 on the season with a number of spectacular statistics that I won’t recite one by one? One of our very best attributes is chemistry and why are we ok with such a massive disruption when we are clearly right on the cusp?

Looking past the chemistry issues, we finally have a strong defensive team in the 32 years I’ve watched this team, and we all know the cliche that defense wins championships, and why would we ever move our paint anchor for someone that has slow foot speed and can’t jump? I mean we beat the Clippers last year in a game where both teams barely put up 90 points. I don’t see Sabonis helping the team there. And don’t say McGee and Bizzy.

Ayton is not the offensive hub that Sabonis is, but he’s not a Capela or Mitchell Robinson on offense. When he’s healthy he is our third point of attack where his getting 3 feet into the lane creates not only offensive gravity but that turn around right hook is one of our top offensive options — 4 point play went into this and that and CP3’s middy and Booker’s 3 point pull up (at least early season) each generates about 120 pts per 100 possessions IIRC.

Sabonis is not a particularly useful player without the ball in his hands as he’s not a shooter. CP3 is also not best utilized spotting up and attacking close outs at this point in his career, particularly with Sabonis parked in or near the lane. If this were NBA2K I’d probably make such a change. In real life, particularly this season, I wouldn’t go anywhere near that trade. I don’t care how much it’ll take to extend Ayton. He’s worth it to this team.

Good stuff, Pickle.

[bajanguy008]

Thought I heard the guys say this last night. That's nuts lol



This surprised me lol. For some reason it doesn't seem like a Monty quote.


He's always tempering expectations, a more Monty quote would be "Yes it's been a good stretch, there are things we are focusing in on and hopefully we continue to see the results"
I just find it interesting he said so publicly which for me means that it for sure gonna happen lol. Look out league

[Flagrant Fowl]

Remember when they won 18 in a row and the general feeling was like, "This is great, but let's be careful of getting worked up over wins in December."? Nearly three months later and I can't help but feel the same way except I've run out of places to pinch myself.

I'm blaming Robert Sarver if the Suns don't win it all this year because only his bad karma from being an asshole could derail the momentum this team has going right now.

[Mori Chu]

Remember when they won 18 in a row and the general feeling was like, "This is great, but let's be careful of getting worked up over wins in December."? Nearly three months later and I can't help but feel the same way except I've run out of places to pinch myself.

I'm blaming Robert Sarver if the Suns don't win it all this year because only his bad karma from being an asshole could derail the momentum this team has going right now.

Knowing our luck, right as we're about to go back to the Finals, the Sarver investigation will complete and they'll discover he is a pedo or something and shut the team down.

[bajanguy008]

Was tracking our assists but knew CP3 had some uncharacteristic miscues so didn't even realize the turnovers were top stuff too
Impressive

[3rdside]

I honestly can’t believe we are seriously discussing Ayton vs. Sabonis to the tune of nearly 20 posts.

I assumed (apparently rightly so) that the racist comment was a joke so I won’t get into that.

On the merits of these two players, maybe we need to look at the greater context. What is our goal in this discussion? Are we trying to be academic or are we actually talking about the context of the 2021-22 Phoenix Suns who are sitting at 45-10 on the season with a number of spectacular statistics that I won’t recite one by one? One of our very best attributes is chemistry and why are we ok with such a massive disruption when we are clearly right on the cusp?

Looking past the chemistry issues, we finally have a strong defensive team in the 32 years I’ve watched this team, and we all know the cliche that defense wins championships, and why would we ever move our paint anchor for someone that has slow foot speed and can’t jump? I mean we beat the Clippers last year in a game where both teams barely put up 90 points. I don’t see Sabonis helping the team there. And don’t say McGee and Bizzy.

Ayton is not the offensive hub that Sabonis is, but he’s not a Capela or Mitchell Robinson on offense. When he’s healthy he is our third point of attack where his getting 3 feet into the lane creates not only offensive gravity but that turn around right hook is one of our top offensive options — 4 point play went into this and that and CP3’s middy and Booker’s 3 point pull up (at least early season) each generates about 120 pts per 100 possessions IIRC.

Sabonis is not a particularly useful player without the ball in his hands as he’s not a shooter. CP3 is also not best utilized spotting up and attacking close outs at this point in his career, particularly with Sabonis parked in or near the lane. If this were NBA2K I’d probably make such a change. In real life, particularly this season, I wouldn’t go anywhere near that trade. I don’t care how much it’ll take to extend Ayton. He’s worth it to this team.

The point of the discussion was not Ayton himself, it’s whether we can afford him, and whether we *want* to afford him considering other options out there.

Saying you don’t care how much it costs is fine, but it’s not realistic.

[pickle]

I disagree. In an ordinary year, sure it’s fine to weigh the value of the player vs. their salary. In a year when we are the best team in the league and Ayton is a key piece, where one of our top players is 37 and our window is not forever, I really can’t imagine any serious member of this team or any fan would willingly jeopardize the best chance this franchise has had at a championship for a few million dollars in a non-repeater tax. We also keep hearing about the upcoming media deal where even if we max Ayton we may only be a tax payer for a year. So if with all of that we still assume that Sarver is going to blow up the team to save a few bucks, we may as well just give up on the team altogether and start rooting for the Knicks. Dolan is equally bad but he’s at least willing to spend.

[ShelC]

[Superbone]

Poor Cam.

[pickle]

It's unconscionable to me that Mikal roots for an LA team, to be honest. I now have a favorite between the twins.

[Flagrant Fowl]

According to the backstory of his fandom, it has nothing to do with Los Angeles.

I'll just say that I'm glad this Suns team is good because if this happened 5-6 years ago one of them might have to get traded to save the locker room.

[pickle]

Yeah I know. But still. I prefer the Bengals twin.

[Split T]

They’ve also only been in LA for a short time…he became a fan when they were in St. Louis. It’s simply that they were the fun, exciting team with Warner, Faulk, Holt, and Bruce when he started watching football. Got a buddy who was a fan for the same reason, though he switched as he got older to the Cards

[AmareIsGod]

They’ve also only been in LA for a short time…he became a fan when they were in St. Louis. It’s simply that they were the fun, exciting team with Warner, Faulk, Holt, and Bruce when he started watching football. Got a buddy who was a fan for the same reason, though he switched as he got older to the Cards

Poor guy.

[Nodack]

No NFL team in AZ when I was growing up. You had to pick a team outside the state. One rainy day in high school PE class we watched nfl films and this one was all about the Silver and Black Raiders and I fell in love with their bad boys attitude. Years later I moved to Los Angeles to go to school and the Raiders moved to LA. I got to go to a bunch of games. I lost interest in football after the strikes and years later I moved back to Phoenix and we got the Cards. I went to a Cards Raiders game at ASU after not watching football for awhile and it just seemed like all the Raiders fans were gang members. The Raiders kind of sucked now and I disowned them as a fan. I have almost got into the Cards a little when they do well. I jump right on and off that bandwagon.

The Suns are for life. Thick or thin.

[Split T]

[Split T]

His math isn’t right though. Warriors have 25 games left, so let’s say they go 19-6, that puts them at 61-21. We’d need to get to 62-20 to avoid a tie, so we’d only need to go 16-10 as we are 46-10 currently. If we go 20-6 like he says, we’ll finish at 66-16 and GS would need to go 24-1 to tie us.

[Split T]

[Mori Chu]

His math isn’t right though. Warriors have 25 games left, so let’s say they go 19-6, that puts them at 61-21. We’d need to get to 62-20 to avoid a tie, so we’d only need to go 16-10 as we are 46-10 currently. If we go 20-6 like he says, we’ll finish at 66-16 and GS would need to go 24-1 to tie us.

There's still a lot of season left. I would be hesitant to declare it "over" who gets first place in the West. Knock on wood, you just don't know which teams will stay healthy or which teams will go through a rough patch or whatever. Also, he should know better than to jinx it with a tweet like that!