Suns News: Week 6 (11/27- 12/3)

[ShelC]

Last Week's Games
Tue, Nov 21 vs Portland 120-107 WIN!
Wed, Nov 22 vs Golden State 123-115 WIN!
Fri, Nov 24 @ Memphis 110-89 WIN!
Sun, Nov 26 @ New York 116-113 WIN!

This Week's Games
Wed, Nov 29th @ Toronto 7:30pm EST on SUNS LIVE, AZ FAMILY 3TV / AZ FAMILY SPORTS NETWORK 44
Friday, Dec 1st vs Denver 10:00pm EST on ESPN
Sun, Dec 2nd vs Memphis 9:00pm EST on SUNS LIVE, AZ FAMILY 3TV / AZ FAMILY SPORTS NETWORK 44

Suns Stories

Where would the Phoenix Suns be without Eric Gordon this season?
https://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2023 ... his-season

Phoenix Suns own strong odds to advance in NBA In-Season Tournament
https://arizonasports.com/story/3538777 ... ournament/

Power Rankings
HoopsHype
https://hoopshype.com/lists/nba-power-r ... r-the-top/

Phoenix Suns #7

Record: 11-6
Last Week: 4-0
Net Rating: +4.1
Stock Up: Devin Booker, Eric Gordon

The Suns are one of the hottest teams in the league and they’re mostly winning with just one star in the lineup. They haven’t had the toughest competition in their recent winning streak, but it’s encouraging that they’re winning the games they’re expected to win after a rough 4-6 start to the season. Head coach Frank Vogel seems to have finally figured out his main rotation, and that will make them dangerous once both their stars are healthy.

The Ringer - The First Month NBA Power Rankings
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2023/11/2 ... on-celtics

3. Phoenix Suns
11-6 record, plus-4.1 net rating
Preseason ranking: no. 4

Devin Booker is averaging 29.4 points to go along with 8.9 assists and only 3.1 turnovers, looking the part of one of the five best players in the league. Here’s an amazing stat that details his progress: This season, his assists are generating 24.2 points per game for his teammates, per NBA Advanced Stats. His previous career high was 17.2, which came during the 2019-20 season. But this season’s mark is double what he averaged during the Chris Paul era. It’s been a lot of fun to watch him fully realize his potential. Booker ran eight pick-and-rolls total as a Kentucky freshman, and now he’s nearly leading the NBA in pick-and-rolls per game. The Suns are rolling with him, even in games when Kevin Durant is absent. But the whole plan was to have three stars in Phoenix, not just one or two. Will Bradley Beal get healthy? Can KD stay on the floor? I’m not as worried about Phoenix’s depth as some people. It’s the questions about the stars’ durability that hold me back from ranking the Suns even higher.

[Mori Chu]

Thanks for making the threads, Shel! (You put "Week 3" which I assume was a typo, so I edited the thread titles.) Love seeing all that green in our game log up there.

[Split T]

Book should win player of the week

[Superbone]

Yep, glad to see that Shel is mastering the art of all green at the top.

[Superbone]

[ShelC]

Here are some X posts about +/-, more Book highlights, OR leaders...

Spoiler: show/hide

[Superbone]

Interesting that all but one of Book's game clinchers came on the road. Dude is a road warrior.

[JeremyG]

[Superbone]

The first third of this is Booker/Suns analysis from Redick and Legler:

[ShelC]

There it is

[AmareIsGod]

I need to change my name to DBIG. DevinBookerIsGod.

We know he has big nuts. I'm sure the long arm of the law is too.

[Kryptonic]

The first third of this is Booker/Suns analysis from Redick and Legler:

Love it... great stuff.

[Kryptonic]

There it is

Well deserved! Crazy he's had more players of the week than Nash did and Nash was 2 MVP's. Booker barely gets brought up in the MVP conversation. Crazy.

[Split T]

Nash wouldn’t have won MVPs by todays standards…nash stats didn’t blow you away, he won those MVP’s because he was a steadying presence, the team was awesome, and we sucked without him.

[Kryptonic]

fair

[JeremyG]

There it is

Well deserved! Crazy he's had more players of the week than Nash did and Nash was 2 MVP's. Booker barely gets brought up in the MVP conversation. Crazy.

What's even crazier is that he didn't have any until 2021: https://basketball.realgm.com/nba/award ... he-Week/30 (you can sort by team). To be fair to Kidd, Barkley, KJ, and Nance though, there was only one award per week instead of two back then and they each had 4 or 5 while in Phoenix.

[Superbone]

This is a little surprising:

[TOO]

This is a little surprising:

Especially for a team that has mostly started 3 guys 6'5" or under.

[Mori Chu]

Hmm, that doesn't match the eye test to me. Is it more about pace? Or maybe it's a sign that some of our guys like KD and Okogie get way more blocks than usual for their position?

[ShelC]

KD's been a sneaky shotblocker this year. Nurk is slow on defense but has good timing near the rim and is averaging over 1. Eubanks is just over 1. Surprisingly KBD is averaging 1 bpg.