Suns News: Week 9 (12/12 - 12/18)

[Mori Chu]

Last Week's Games:
Mon, Dec 5 @ Dallas 6:30pm MST NBATV LOSS 130-111
Wed, Dec 7 vs Boston 8:00pm MST ESPN LOSS 125-98
Fri, Dec 9 @ New Orleans 6:30pm MST LOSS 128-117
Sun, Dec 11 @ New Orleans 1:30 pm MST LOSS 129-124 OT

This Week's Games
Tue, Dec 13 @ HOU
Thu, Dec 15 @ LAC 10:30 PM EST
Sat, Dec 17 vs NOP 9:00 PM EST

https://www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/ ... oenix-suns

Suns News:

Chris Haynes on the Jae Crowder trade market:
https://bleacherreport.com/videos/32036 ... der-market

Josh Okogie's recent play is a bright side of a dark stretch:
https://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2022 ... on-houston

Mikal Bridges is evolving; trust his process:
https://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2022 ... is-process

Is this a foul? Suns continue to complain about officiating:
https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/ ... 732727007/

Group led by Thiel backs $3B bid to buy Suns:
https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/ ... 721486007/

[Superbone]

I don't like all that red but other than that, you did a great job.

[Mori Chu]

[Superbone]

Very cool that he followed through and the students have to be happy about their financial gifts.

[Superbone]

[Split T]

Think INF said it, but we’re close to him being useful on offense too. I’d like to see us use him more in the Bruce Brown role of being a 6’4 roll man. I’d like to keep him around and see if that’s something we can unlock. He’s young and is obviously elite defensively. If he can find a way to even be a small offensive asset, he’ll have a long career. Corner 3 and short roll playmaker. He’s big and athletic enough for a guard that he should be a decent finisher, though his percentages haven’t been great. He’s rebounding like a maniac though, especially on offense, and he’s had a big uptick in assist rate, steal rate, and block rate. He’s almost doubling his output rate in those areas. He’s an average corner 3 away from being a starter level player imo.

[Mori Chu]

Yeah, I don't think this current stretch is a fluke. I think he can absolutely play at this level and get better. He just needs to put up 1,000 corner 3s a day in the gym until he can hit them at a decent clip (he's already progressing), and then that's about all you could ever ask of the guy. Give him 100% of Shamet's minutes, and also trim back CP3's a bit to give Okogie a few more. He's exactly what we need for our perimeter defense. Great pickup by Jones this offseason.

Everybody is trashing Jones for not getting us any new stars this summer, and that's totally fair. But he seems to have made at least 3 signings that have been exceptionally valuable: Damion Lee (leading the league in 3pt%!), Okogie (monster defender), and Landale (offensive backup center). None of these guys makes us a contender, but you have to admit that this is a pretty good batting average for finding good depth in an offseason where we didn't have much cap room and were also trying to juggle bigger moves like the Ayton/KD stuff. I will also credit Jones for retaining Biyombo and Wainwright on a very fair price, and for NOT overpaying to try to keep JaVale.

[Drewsprocket]

Okogie fits sort of the PJ Tucker role but just more energy, less able to defend 5s. I’d love to see him on Luka more.

[Split T]

It just made me think how good of a player you could make if you just combine Okogie skills to our other players already established skills.

Imagine Cam Payne if he had Okogie’s size, athleticism, and defense? That would solve our long term pg problems.

Or if you combined Lee’s shooting with Okogie’s everything else. Perfect 3-D role player.

Or give CP3 Okogie’s youth, body, defense, and athleticism.

Or imagine Booker with Okogie’s hustle and D? He’d be an mvp level player and considered top 5 in the game.

[Superbone]

Think INF said it, but we’re close to him being useful on offense too. I’d like to see us use him more in the Bruce Brown role of being a 6’4 roll man. I’d like to keep him around and see if that’s something we can unlock. He’s young and is obviously elite defensively. If he can find a way to even be a small offensive asset, he’ll have a long career. Corner 3 and short roll playmaker. He’s big and athletic enough for a guard that he should be a decent finisher, though his percentages haven’t been great. He’s rebounding like a maniac though, especially on offense, and he’s had a big uptick in assist rate, steal rate, and block rate. He’s almost doubling his output rate in those areas. He’s an average corner 3 away from being a starter level player imo.

He's starting to remind me of Dort a little bit in how his offense is improving.

[Superbone]

It just made me think how good of a player you could make if you just combine Okogie skills to our other players already established skills.

Imagine Cam Payne if he had Okogie’s size, athleticism, and defense? That would solve our long term pg problems.

Or if you combined Lee’s shooting with Okogie’s everything else. Perfect 3-D role player.

Or give CP3 Okogie’s youth, body, defense, and athleticism.

Or imagine Booker with Okogie’s hustle and D? He’d be an mvp level player and considered top 5 in the game.

Man, what if Ayton had his energy and aggression? Gives me goosebumps to think about it.

[ShelC]

Think this is week 5 for Cam. The Suns tend to be vague and cautious with injuries so I'm not expecting him back until after the new year.

[Split T]

Cam(or maybe the suns) has always been slow returning. They originally said 1-2 months so I’m expecting more like 2 months. That puts us 1st/2nd week of January.

Get him back, let him play a few weeks and then ship him and Ayton to Brooklyn for KD, everyone agree? Haha

[Superbone]

I think 6 weeks is the minimum recovery time after a meniscectomy.

[Split T]

I think 6 weeks is the minimum recovery time after a meniscectomy.

It was only 9 days for Brandon Roy

[Superbone]

I think 6 weeks is the minimum recovery time after a meniscectomy.

It was only 9 days for Brandon Roy

That's ridiculous and probably why he was out of the league so fast.

[Split T]

I think 6 weeks is the minimum recovery time after a meniscectomy.

It was only 9 days for Brandon Roy

That's ridiculous and probably why he was out of the league so fast.

His knees were already shot I think…I believe a big reason he dropped a bit in the draft is no one thought he’d last long with his knees. He basically made the decision to come back super quick for the playoffs because he wasn’t going to get many more chances.

Was basically the end of his career. He was bad in the playoffs against us and then played one more season(he wasn’t good) and then retired.

[Split T]