Suns News: Week 7 12/2-12/8

[Danimal]

What’s the story with Tyler Johnson lately. Has he been unwell or is there other reasons for his limited minutes ?

I think his reduced minutes started when Ty Jerome got healthy.

Was tj really that bad? Seems odd to push him to the end of the bench but keep rewarding Kaminsky for missing open layups.

Johnson has been god awful bad according to the advanced metrics this season. Like, 6th worst in the league per minute bad.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/20 ... r-ratings/

That’s a shame since it kills his trade value to be anything better but an expiring contract.

[Ring_Wanted]

I don't think there was going to ever be any relevant value to TJ other than the expiring status.

[Superbone]

Ayton not looking too shabby from 3:

[Indy]

Maybe it has just been too long since I have seen him shoot, but he has such a strange release. Almost a two-handed flick instead of a shot. Glad they are going in...

[Superbone]

Nah, Blabby was still the worst.

[Superbone]

Maybe it has just been too long since I have seen him shoot, but he has such a strange release. Almost a two-handed flick instead of a shot. Glad they are going in...

The arc looks pretty good though...

[In2ition]

Maybe it has just been too long since I have seen him shoot, but he has such a strange release. Almost a two-handed flick instead of a shot. Glad they are going in...

The arc looks pretty good though...

It got flat when he got a little lazy on his footwork. It was that stretch where he missed like 4 in a row. You can almost predict when he is going to miss, just by his initial footwork.

[Shabazz]

Maybe it has just been too long since I have seen him shoot, but he has such a strange release. Almost a two-handed flick instead of a shot. Glad they are going in...

He does seem to be getting better lift on them.

[JeremyG]

Any idea why Ayton is 2 inches shorter than he was a year ago?

https://www.nba.com/players/deandre/ayton/1629028 His official NBA profile said 7'1'' a year ago: https://web.archive.org/web/20181222004 ... on/1629028

And don't tell me it's from taking a diuretic.

[Superbone]

Any idea why Ayton is 2 inches shorter than he was a year ago?

https://www.nba.com/players/deandre/ayton/1629028 His official NBA profile said 7'1'' a year ago: https://web.archive.org/web/20181222004 ... on/1629028

And don't tell me it's from taking a diuretic.

Shoes. Lack thereof.

[Superbone]

[Indy]

It is telling that we get so many wide open 3s, but can't convert. Ricky, Frank, even Mikal so far. All of those guys get lots of open 3s, and just can't even come close to league average in %. At least Kelly and Dario are almost at 33%.

[Split T]

Any idea why Ayton is 2 inches shorter than he was a year ago?

https://www.nba.com/players/deandre/ayton/1629028 His official NBA profile said 7'1'' a year ago: https://web.archive.org/web/20181222004 ... on/1629028

And don't tell me it's from taking a diuretic.

Nba re-measured everyone this offseason without shoes

[Shabazz]

[ShelC]

That's a really good article.

[Superbone]

Yes, excellent.

[JeremyG]

Any idea why Ayton is 2 inches shorter than he was a year ago?

https://www.nba.com/players/deandre/ayton/1629028 His official NBA profile said 7'1'' a year ago: https://web.archive.org/web/20181222004 ... on/1629028

And don't tell me it's from taking a diuretic.

Nba re-measured everyone this offseason without shoes

Oh wow, thanks, I missed that somehow. So now it will be difficult to compare players to previous generations.

[specialsauce]

I would love to offer the Bulls Oubre and Okobo for Markkanen

[ShelC]

Why would they want Oubre when they have Porter and his awful deal.

[3rdside]

“Propelled by an ultra-efficient Booker, the Suns are playing competitive basketball in the early season”.

Great article but Booker’s 20.1 PER is just not that efficient.

PER has it’s flaws – it over-rewards for rebounds (which explains why front-court players have higher PER’s on average than back-court players) and rewards volume of shots rather than efficiency with which they’re made (a player can increase his PER even if his shooting %’s go down just by shooting more) but it’s still a reasonable overall assessment of a player’s game based on measurables.

In comparison to Doncic (no particular reason for choosing him other than he’s having a top-10 greatest PER season ever and he’s a guard), Booker has:

Worse AST:TOV ratio (1.55 vs 2.0)
Less FGA (17.4 vs 20.3)
Better eFG% (.578% vs .552%)
Less FTA (5.8 vs 9.3)
Less Rebounds (3.9 vs 9.8)
Less Steals (0.6 vs 1.3)
More Blocks (0.3 vs 0.1)
More Personal Fouls (3.2 vs 2.4)

He won't ever get to Doncic's level mainly because of the Rebounding and AST / AST:TOV differences but with this image in mind https://imgur.com/gZ97W0V for Booker to increase his PER he should:

- Shoot more, which will likely happen once he’s better adjusted to Monty / Rubio etc
- Increase his FTA, which will likely happen as he starts shooting more
- Cut down turnovers

On Doncic vs Ayton, Ayton has a 1-game PER of 26.3 which is pfg (pretty f***** good) ... so go Ayton, go Suns.