130 - 104
110 - 113
100 - 125
128 - 125 (OT) Phoenix stood pat, content prioritizing patience secured tight by the flexibility of its assets. The indecision of that decision has all come back to bite the team in its current state, putting the front office in a strenuous position to make a midseason gut call instead of the obvious one in the summer.
Each bullet point of the Suns’ offseason has a direct effect on why they’re stuck in this position with a 20-15 record, a murky vision of if they’re a clear-cut title contender.
Phoenix dealt with the Deandre Ayton situation by matching his offer sheet. Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to what both sides ultimately wanted entering the restricted free agent process.
Ayton has been good this year. He is right on the edge of being a top-five center in basketball. He is also making more mistakes than he usually does as a rock-solid player on both ends, to the point where Mikal Bridges of all people snapped on him at the end of a bad loss to the had-just-lost-10-in-a-row Washington Wizards.
Finding Ayton consistently in the post and his midrange areas throughout four quarters remains a chore. The count of games when Ayton has a huge first quarter and then only takes a shot or two in his following shift is rising. I will avoid pointing fingers at whose fault that is and focus on what is the most important, which is that it is still a problem five years into the first overall pick’s career.
His most efficient move is left low block, post up, back his man down into the center of the lane, hook shot. It's also the one that his teammates ignore the most, even when he has his man sealed and is calling for the ball (many times, he's already in the center of the lane sealing his man and they still ignore him--and he can't stay there long without risking a 3-second call). He also does a good job passing out of it to an open shooter if he's doubled immediately. They should run it at least 10 times per game, but Monty won't adjust the game plan, even with Booker out.Split T wrote: ↑Thu Dec 29, 2022 11:05 amIs their a player in recent memory who had a similar problem to that last quote and how did the team resolve it?
It does happen a lot where Ayton scores a bunch early and then doesn’t get a lot of opportunities later on. I’m of the opinion that it’s because the defense came in with a certain strategy and adjusted to keep Ayton from scoring so easily. Now the guards are not getting the same reads since Ayton is being defended differently and are passing to shooters or taking the shots themselves.
Some would say to force it into Ayton anyways and see what happens, but I’ve really yet to see Ayton handle added attention well. He doesn’t attack it, he just passes out. Which honestly is probably smart, but then why give it to him in the first place?
I’ve said it many times before, but Ayton having any sort of move to get himself into scoring position and not be dependent on other players is really the answer. Is there an example of someone who consistently got their shots up while also being dependent on their teammates to get them the ball in scoring positions?
I watched parts of the Wolves/Pels, Kings/Nuggets, and Bulls/Bucks yesterday and all those big men…with the exception of Rudy, are just more capable of creating their own opportunities.
Ayton has had a couple good games in a row, so I don’t want to attack him, but he still has the same old problems and I haven’t seen much indication that he’s fixing them. He’s consistently playing more engaged right now, but even in one of the last two games, he got a guy in the post, called for the ball(it did take a bit for the suns to get it to him, I think it was Craig) and he proceeded to face up and take a 12 foot contested jumper. That’s not exactly what you want. That’s fine if he occasionally does that, but he does it 90% of the time.
I guess I’m still frustrated and while I’m not calling for him to be traded, I wouldn’t be upset if he’s moved after Jan 15th and I’d definitely look to move him this offseason.
Coincidentally he just caught a tough bounce pass form Paul on a fastbreak and dunked it. It was a probably the play I remember most from that Wiz game because of how rarely we've seen that sequence.O_Gardino wrote: ↑Thu Dec 29, 2022 11:23 amI think DA doesn't catch the ball well under pressure, and the rest of the Suns don't do a good job of putting a pass high enough for him to go get it without interference. DA just isn't a guy who can reach down for a bounce pass at his knees in traffic, and that tends to be what he gets after the first quarter.
Anyone know where we could find stats on that? I'd really lime to know if there's any validity to my take.
I think it boils down to those 3 things pretty much exactly. Ayton needed to take a leap and didn't. CP needed to hold on and hasn't. Cam got injured. Mikal has regressed offensively and Crowder/Saric/Shamet are all just wasted cap dollars at this point. It's a testament to Devin Booker that this team is above .500 & they may not be for much longer.Split T wrote: ↑Sat Dec 31, 2022 11:38 amWe needed Ayton to hit as a max player for this team to work. Or we needed CP3 to hold on as a all-nba player and to find value around the edges(Crowder/Saric/Shamet upgrades). Or we needed a breakout from CamJ or Mikal. None of that happened and so here we are…
