Game Day: Pelicans (16-43) @ Suns (27-32), Fri 2/28/25

[Cap]

Why are Book and KD on the floor in garbage time?

[Kryptonic]

Why are Book and KD on the floor in garbage time?

Good point….. but,why are we still surprised by dumb coaching decisions?

[Wally_West]

Fucked up it took this long to play Bol. Seriously, what the fuck.

Playing him significant minutes from the start of the season probably would at least have us at .500 right now.

[Wally_West]

Bud leaving Bol on the bench is ruining my prediction

He’s a dumbass

[Wally_West]

Need to re-sign Bol and I’d be cool with Gillespie being our main back up pg for next season. Cool with filling out the roster with young and hungry players, something this team really lacks.

[Split T]

Fucked up it took this long to play Bol. Seriously, what the fuck.

Playing him significant minutes from the start of the season probably would at least have us at .500 right now.

He was good to finish last season too and I think most of us were expecting him to be in the rotation, but Bud didn’t want to play him. Vogel was clearly reluctant too. I know he’s not the smartest guy out there and can make a lot of mistakes, but we need a guy that makes things happen.

[Split T]

Need to re-sign Bol and I’d be cool with Gillespie being our main back up pg for next season. Cool with filling out the roster with young and hungry players, something this team really lacks.

Gillespie wouldn’t shoot when he was out there with the starters, but his shot looks good. He let it fly in garbage time. I’d give him a look as well and hopefully he’ll get more confident to shoot with the starters.

[Superbone]

Bud leaving Bol on the bench is ruining my prediction

It was sad that he was one away from his career high and then he didn't put him back in until garbage time and nobody would pass him the ball.

[Superbone]

Game Score Predictions Results:

Split T - I’m gonna start guessing the leading scorer…Bol Bol with a 40 piece…suns win by 27
TOO - Suns by 16 dead coach in waiting bounce
Superbone - Suns finally get pissed and do something about it. (I have a good imagination.) Suns by 12 (statement was made before I knew McCollum and Zion were out tonight)
SunsRIt - Suns by 12
Gladiator - Suns by 6 but unimpressive
Mori Chu -Suns by 4
LazarusLong - The Big Easy by 10
Charlie Smithy! - Offering up his glutes
ShelC - Durant loves you

Pelicans 108 - Suns 125; Suns by 17; Congratulations to tonight's winner: TOO!

Split did call the leading scorer correctly and that was not an obvious pick. I don't know if he's ever been the leading scorer for the Suns.

[Split T]

Yes! I get some points

[TOO]

Game Score Predictions Results:

Split T - I’m gonna start guessing the leading scorer…Bol Bol with a 40 piece…suns win by 27
TOO - Suns by 16 dead coach in waiting bounce
Superbone - Suns finally get pissed and do something about it. (I have a good imagination.) Suns by 12 (statement was made before I knew McCollum and Zion were out tonight)
SunsRIt - Suns by 12
Gladiator - Suns by 6 but unimpressive
Mori Chu -Suns by 4
LazarusLong - The Big Easy by 10
Charlie Smithy! - Offering up his glutes
ShelC - Durant loves you

Pelicans 108 - Suns 125; Suns by 17; Congratulations to tonight's winner: TOO!

Split did call the leading scorer correctly and that was not an obvious pick. I don't know if he's ever been the leading scorer for the Suns.

Winner winner

[ShelC]

Postgame Quotes and Videos

Spoiler: show/hide

[ShelC]

So, not to be Debbie Downer here but I'm tempering my expectations on guys like Bol and Gillespie. We're a bad team and we played the Pels who were missing like 7 guys. It's tough to say whether Bol or CG would be getting legit minutes on the top playoff contending teams. Would they be getting playing time on our teams 3-4 years ago?

I guess this was a good response to the loss and all the reporting that's come out. But consider the opponent. The ball movement on offense was good and it looked like we were actually running offense. Still, not expecting anything from this team the rest of the way.

[AmareIsGod]

So, not to be Debbie Downer here but I'm tempering my expectations on guys like Bol and Gillespie. We're a bad team and we played the Pels who were missing like 7 guys. It's tough to say whether Bol or CG would be getting legit minutes on the top playoff contending teams. Would they be getting playing time on our teams 3-4 years ago?

I guess this was a good response to the loss and all the reporting that's come out. But consider the opponent. The ball movement on offense was good and it looked like we were actually running offense. Still, not expecting anything from this team the rest of the way.

This isn't a one off great Bol Bol game though. As a starter, he's had several very good games. I'd understand if this was his first standout game this season or as a Sun but it's not.

[Mori Chu]

I actually think Bol is good and he's ready and he should just get consistent rotation (maybe even starter) minutes. He really broke out at the end of last season, and then new Coach Bud just shoved him to the end of the bench and never played him. I never understood that. Why re-sign the guy only to bury him? I suspect he's a frustrating player to coach because of his at-times low BBIQ, tunnel vision, being out of sorts on defense at times. But he's just clearly way more talented than most of the bums we have on our roster.

I also feel like whenever I have gotten to see Gillespie play, he's really surprised me in a positive way. Maybe it's just because he is playing in garbage time against scrubs, but he seems to know what he's doing, have a good handle, a pretty smooth and consistent shot, seems to see the floor. I wouldn't mind giving him more consistent rotation minutes at backup PG to see if he is a guy we could have in the rotation next season.

The other guy I keep thinking about is Monte Morris. I still don't get why this guy has never been able to get a legitimate shot as a rotation guard for us. Others (was it Shel or Bone?) said he should maybe even be starting instead of Tyus Jones, which I didn't originally agree with but now wonder about. He's so much bigger than Tyus, and he can't possibly be as bad on defense.

The other other guy I keep looking for is Oso. Why did he just completely drop out of the rotation? I would rather see him as our main backup C than Plumlee at this point. Plum has a veteran presence and savvy about him, but given that our season is basically sunk, can we just get rook some minutes to learn and grow? He is good! Bud used to play him! What happened?

Point is, I do think we had more talent on this roster than it seemed, and we might have been able to win more games if we had tried giving some of these guys a chance. We have suffered so much for lack of defense, athleticism, size, and ball movement, and these guys rotting on the bench have those qualities, but we have ignored them. And it's hard for me to blame anybody but Coach Bud for this, since these are his guys and he should know what players he has and how to use them.

[Mori Chu]

[Superbone]

I do hope we keep Bol around. He's only 25 and just coming into his prime. He's definitely unique.

[Split T]

So, not to be Debbie Downer here but I'm tempering my expectations on guys like Bol and Gillespie. We're a bad team and we played the Pels who were missing like 7 guys. It's tough to say whether Bol or CG would be getting legit minutes on the top playoff contending teams. Would they be getting playing time on our teams 3-4 years ago?

I guess this was a good response to the loss and all the reporting that's come out. But consider the opponent. The ball movement on offense was good and it looked like we were actually running offense. Still, not expecting anything from this team the rest of the way.

I do think both are worth more of a look, but a lot of this is just latching on to anything we can

[Mori Chu]

The only possible positive about waiting this long into the season to play Bol consistent minutes (two times in a row!) is that maybe it will obscure his value enough that we could sign him to a reasonably priced multi-year contract and have him around long enough that we'd actually get to reap the benefit of playing and developing him. The worry would be that this summer some team will throw a huge contract at him. But given how little run he's gotten, maybe he'll still be under the radar enough that we can re-sign him.

[Mori Chu]