Suns News: Week 17 (2/6 - 2/12)

[bajanguy008]

[Flagrant Fowl]

I'm nervous about Payne and Saben Lee being the only Point Guards behind Paul, but that's mostly due to the ambiguity around Payne's injury. I won't be worried if he's completely healthy when it matters.

That said, I think they probably made a run at Jackson first.

I don’t trust Payne, either to be healthy or when he’s on the floor. He’s been better this year than last but was pretty rough before he got hurt. If he’s at that same level in the playoffs we can’t go to him.

I also don’t think it’s as big of an issue with KD now on the roster. When push comes to shove I think CP3, Book and KD will be our primary initiators.

Assuming full health, I think we'll see Payne look a lot more like he did in his best minutes because he'll have a lot less pressure to score with guys like Ross and Warren around him. He's always performed best when tasked with just organizing the offense and picking his spots to attack. We see his limitations when he's out there with 4 guys who're dependent on others to create their offense. He starts trying to do too much after 3-4 empty offensive possessions.

[bajanguy008]

Y you stealing my post bro
Lol

Been waiting on his confirmed return date to give my opinion but I agree totally.
I think I'm accurate in saying that most the comments about Payne recently has been along the lines of inconsistent, others attributed some of it to playing with Biz instead of Dario who gave him more space and driving lanes

So as you said, our 2nd unit and honestly whole team had him as the main person outside of Book who could attack the paint off the dribble and it would be clear that he would start Pressing alot to fill that role

As we've been talking about perimeter defense, I also felt that's where he can impact now. Remember Bubble Payne, when he was just trying to fit in so was hounding players full court with Jevon and just bringing the energy/hustle was his focus

The trade takes some of that scoring pressure off him as "FF" mentioned because even when in rhythm sometimes he would still struggle with look for his and when to feed others. Book or KD probably gonna be staggered to come back with that 2nd unit so Payne should Mainly just need to push the fast break and look to be knocking down his spot up 3s to be impactful

[Split T]

Wondering how the rotation works out when we’re completely healthy…it seems like we maybe don’t have a locked in 5th starter, but we are loaded with guys 7-9 in the rotation that will want to play.

Starters:

CP3, Book, KD, Ayton, and TBD

6th man: TJ

Backup PG: Payne

Backup 2/3: Ross, Lee, Okogie, Shamet
Backup 4: Craig, Wainright, Bazley
Backup 5: Landale, Biyombo

My guess at the rotation…to start at least:

Paul, Booker, Craig, KD, Ayton with
Payne, Ross, Lee, Warren, Landale off the bench.

I kinda think Okogie/Craig are interchangeable and who starts and plays may depend on whether the opposing team has a star guard or wing. Feels like Shamet is probably not going to get his job back as Ross probably takes it. He’s gonna have to get his minutes at pg if he gets them.

Lee will probably keep getting minutes but I can see him losing time to Okogie/Ross/Craig if he can’t find his shot. It’s been off the last week or so. Bazley doesn’t seem to have a super clear path to minutes. He might take the backup 4 minutes until KD comes back, but we might just give those to Ish who’s been here. Of course Ish is just about out of games on the season and needs to be converted. I am still intrigued with Bazely at small ball 5, and think there’s an outside shot he becomes the defacto 5th starter if we want his size/defense and just have him catch and shoot from 3 on offense. Though I think that’s unlikely.

I do think a Book/Okogie/Ish/Bazley/KD lineup could be fun for those last shot defensive lineups. Could even switch Craig for Book if you want more size or the team has someone like Luka. Ayton could also be out there if they’ve got a Jokic/Embiid.

[Wally_West]

[Superbone]

That's hilarious. I love how he starts pointing up into the stands as if he was in the middle of something.

[Split T]

So Tuesday we should see TJ and Bazley at least, right? Also didn’t they put the trade deadline during the all-star break once? Seems like putting it sometime during that break would make a lot of sense…though I guess the break also gives teams/front office personnel, and league personnel a break too and maybe you can’t do that with a trade deadline during it.

What if the trade deadline was literally the day the all-star break started, so like the Thursday before the Sunday game and stop regular season games on Wednesday.

[Wally_West]

Hmm

[Flagrant Fowl]

Beware or single random clips that fit a predetermined narrative.

Of course his effort will be better here playing in meaningful games, but he’s not at all a guy to throw on the other teams best scorer and call it a day.

[Superbone]

Beware or single random clips that fit a predetermined narrative.

Of course his effort will be better here playing in meaningful games, but he’s not at all a guy to throw on the other teams best scorer and call it a day.

No, that's for Bazley.

[Split T]

Bazley did have a lot of clips at least…and he’s got the reputation of being a good defender, plus some advanced stats also like him defensively. There’s more smoke for him at least.

We could play that one clip of Javale stripping Luka and call him a Luka stopper too

[Wally_West]

Damn. Anybody hear the interview?

[SunsRIt]

Damn. Anybody hear the interview?

He sounded like he was half asleep. Very little content and short answers.

[bajanguy008]

[bajanguy008]

Shout-out to everyone on here

Special mention to "Saucey" who if I had to guess posted the most combined rants about guys in that first pic

[specialsauce]

Damn. Anybody hear the interview?

He sounded like he was half asleep. Very little content and short answers.

He’s rather an asshole, has a very low IQ, or was extremely nervous and quiet. Or drugs.

[specialsauce]

Shout-out to everyone on here

Special mention to "Saucey" who if I had to guess posted the most combined rants about guys in that first pic

Some of the worst suns ever

[bajanguy008]

[Suns_Dave]

Damn. Anybody hear the interview?

https://omny.fm/shows/burns-gambo/dariu ... ward/embed

[bajanguy008]