Suns News: The Offseason (2016)

[carey]

Zach Lowe: http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/1768 ... ngs-part-1

28. PHOENIX SUNS (22)

The Suns and Nuggets make you appreciate what Toronto has done in fielding two teams at once -- a veteran team that is really good and an intriguing bench squad of prospects who rarely play. Phoenix and Denver have the bifurcated rosters, but they don't win games. The intrigue of youth gets you only so far in these rankings.

Dragan Bender and Marquese Chriss probably won't play much as rookies, though with P.J. Tucker recovering from surgery, Earl Watson might be tempted to (gulp) shoehorn Bender into wing minutes.

It will be nice to see Eric Bledsoe again. Phoenix has to be crushed that Bledsoe and Brandon Knight have barely logged 1,000 minutes together since the Point Guard Trading Orgy of 2015, and now Watson has Knight coming off the bench. Knight has always conceived of himself as a classic point guard, but that's not what he is, and the Suns may be nudging him toward his destiny as a Jamal Crawford type. The cap spike accidentally made it acceptable -- and in some cases, unavoidable -- for teams to bring big-money players off the bench.

Still, the Suns did not flip a coveted Lakers pick for Knight, and then pay him $14 million per season, to be a backup. The league is cool on Knight now, but given the dearth of wings, the Suns might find a palatable trade market if Knight starts strong. (There is no indication that they have any interest in trading Bledsoe right now, sources say.)

Benching Knight means fewer botched alley-oops between Knight and Tyson Chandler, and less of Chandler pouting the facial equivalent of, "Why in the hell did I sign here, again?" That hurts the unintentional comedy score.

On the bright side, the Devon Booker/T.J. Warren starting duo brings a nice new-school/old-school vibe, and dunkin' Jared Dudley always makes the smart play. Steve Albert and Eddie Johnson are secretly a top-five broadcast team, and the team finally slapped purple back onto the floor after its hideous black-and-orange Halloween phase.

[O_Gardino]

FWIW, the BSotS guy thinks the high-five stat is entirely made up to make fun of a reporter who commented on the high fives in the postgame interview. I wouldn't read anything into it.

The funniest part of Watson’s interview was Watson’s reaction to our own Owen Sanborn’s simple comment about high-fiving each other between plays. Watson gave Owen a look, and then admitted they are actually tracking high-fives this year as a sign of enthusiasm.

Maybe that’s the new criteria for winning the Dan Majerle Hustle Award? Or maybe it’s a new award to rival the Majerle?

Watson made himself sound quite serious with his response, but I’m 99% sure he was the having the most fun trying to convince us it’s true.

[AmareIsGod]

Watson is probably laughing his ass off reading the articles where people actually believed him. Come on people. Who the fuck is going to count the high fives? As often as they occur, that would be a full time job during the games.

[Ring_Wanted]

[youtube][/youtube]

[O_Gardino]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I never saw that back in the day. That was brilliant!

[Aztec Sunsfan]

The high five stuff, I think it was a joke, Popovich's style.

For all the rookie coaches we've being trough recently, Watson's is growing on me faster. If Hornacek didn't strike gold on that single season, we would have been over his throat from day one. The Knicks job will tell how really he is, last season leaved open the question on wether he got screwed during the season or found an acorn the year before. But right now I don't feel like we missed on the next Thibodeau or Stevens in letting him go, never felt that way about him.

[Mori Chu]

^ I liked Hornacek pretty well, but he was not skilled at dealing with grumpy malcontented / troublemaking players. I don't think he will last long with the Knicks. I see him as more of an OKC Thunder, Jazz, Bucks, Pacers type of coach. A nice chill city/team where they won't chew him up and spit him out.

[AmareIsGod]

I don't know Marty re: Horny coaching OKC. Imagine him and Russell Westbrook? That relationship wouldn't go well at all.

[ShelC]

Hornacek was hung out to dry by management here. They knew it, that's why they didn't want to fire him outright once he lost the team. It was all on the FO.

I don't think things will bode well for him in NY either with Phil perched over his shoulder forcing him to run the triangle and guys like Rose and Melo not fitting that system. If things go sour in NY tho, he'll be the fall guy again but again, his rep won't take a hit because Phil will be the one to blame. The NY media is just waiting for the Knicks to start losing so they can run him and the triangle out of town. I could see Hornacek doing well with a team like Orlando.

[O_Gardino]

Nobody lasts long in NY, so I won't be surprised if JH is only there for 2ish seasons.

Honestly, I see him as more of an assistant in charge of the offense under a coach who needs some help with the Xs and Os. I thought he did pretty well drawing up plays, but not so good at managing the team or d3eveloping our young players. Of course, it's hard to say how much of that is directly his doing and how much is front office meddling.

[Cap]

TheSportsPost picks us to finish last in the West.

http://thesportspost.com/nba-season-pre ... ific-suns/

[TOO]

TheSportsPost picks us to finish last in the West.

http://thesportspost.com/nba-season-pre ... ific-suns/

1st in high 5's tho right?

[Mori Chu]

I don't know Marty re: Horny coaching OKC. Imagine him and Russell Westbrook? That relationship wouldn't go well at all.

I think I was imagining Westbrook being gone from OKC, which I bet will happen once they stink this year. But yeah I agree with you that Horny and Westy would not be a good fit.

[ShelC]

Wasn't sure where to put this but...well...
https://twitter.com/GoodmanESPN/status/784904338284044288

[Superbone]

Ha ha. That's hilarious. One might even say impressive.

[In2ition]

Looking for Suns news, I saw this: http://www.inquisitr.com/3591198/nba-tr ... gram-suns/

Personally, I think this is a little crazy.

Now, this one is much more palatable: http://www.hngn.com/articles/211569/201 ... x-suns.htm

[Superbone]

Looking for Suns news, I saw this: http://www.inquisitr.com/3591198/nba-tr ... gram-suns/

Personally, I think this is a little crazy.

Now, this one is much more palatable: http://www.hngn.com/articles/211569/201 ... x-suns.htm

The Suns front office would receive death threats for that first one.

[Superbone]

This is the first sentence of the second article:

The Los Angeles Lakers and the Phoenix Suns are two celebrated teams in the NBA. Both are tagged as favorites whenever a new NBA season is coming.

Huh? It doesn't seem like the writer's first language is English.

[In2ition]

This is the first sentence of the second article:

The Los Angeles Lakers and the Phoenix Suns are two celebrated teams in the NBA. Both are tagged as favorites whenever a new NBA season is coming.

Huh? It doesn't seem like the writer's first language is English.

Nor has been watching the NBA for the past 5 years.

[Aztec Sunsfan]

Is this trade trade supossed to happen before or after the Blake Griffin-Chris Bosh swap that is also on this site?