Phx-Suns.Net

The Suns are getting perilously close to the franchise record of 13 straight losses in 1996-97. The big difference - the Suns started that year 0-13 but were 40-29 the rest of the year and made the playoffs.

Chriss has slowly improved over the course of the season. He still has an occasional game where he disappears, but they're much more infrequent now.

Warren has been very good since the All-Star Game and is now more-or-less the #2 option.

Ulis has struggled a bit lately - maybe it's because he's played so many minutes as of late and is a little worn down.

It would sure be nice if they'd had Bender available all of these games so that we could have seen him get some valuable playing experience.

Which veterans do we see in the Summer league this year? Jones, Ulis, Chriss and Bender are probably locks I would think. Probably Williams too.

The bad:
such awful defense. Len offered a little bit of resistance but we gave up a lot around the hoop to a really short team
NO BENDER!! i know he is still injured but i swear i read multiple things saying he was coming back tonight
so many silly turnovers. Just lazy passes when there was very little pressure outside the 3pt line
Ulis was a little quiet


The good:
Len did was he supposed to do down low against that big softy Leonard. Got deep position and made easy finishes. Several 3pt plays
warren and booker looked good on O. Not sure we why we don't looked for warren to get us going early during our traditional game opening lull. He had 3 beautiful spin moves for the score
Chriss had his moments on O

I still don't see the blazers doing jack in the playoffs. Maybe they have 1 or 2 games where their back court goes nuts. But with Nurkic out their front line sucks and everything seems to revolve around their backcourt who i feel get a bunch of soft calls every game we play. They wont get that against higher seeds though. Worst case for them is they put a scare into a higher seed and as a result their front office does nothing to address the awful signings they made last offseason. Reminds me of our childress, turkolu (sp?) offseason where we got a bunch of good players who didn't move the needle and soaked up cap space. I think their backcourt putting up such big numbers masks a lot of ills on that team. Also how the hell do all these playoff bound teams let the suns almost wrestle back games with the lineups we are running currently?!
I really wish we had gotten Nurkic. That trade helps to somewhat mask their terrible offseason. When is he a FA?

carey wrote:Chriss could be the real dead. If only we can see if we hit on Bender too.

Ulis HAS to get his scoring efficiency up or he's just Ish Smith only not as fast (but close.)

Pretty serious accusation. What evidence do you have that he is a zombie?

Wally_West wrote:

carey wrote:Chriss could be the real dead. If only we can see if we hit on Bender too.

Ulis HAS to get his scoring efficiency up or he's just Ish Smith only not as fast (but close.)

Pretty serious accusation. What evidence do you have that he is a zombie?

He ate my brain.

The Bobster wrote:The Suns are getting perilously close to the franchise record of 13 straight losses in 1996-97. The big difference - the Suns started that year 0-13 but were 40-29 the rest of the year and made the playoffs.

We can catch the Lakers if we lose out. Orlando is not a threat anymore, but if we winning one more game means you have to be ok with #3 odds.

It would sure be nice if they'd had Bender available all of these games so that we could have seen him get some valuable playing experience.

Absolutely. Such a shame his rookie year has been robbed.
Which veterans do we see in the Summer league this year? Jones, Ulis, Chriss and Bender are probably locks I would think. Probably Williams too.[/quote]
Booker so he scores 100 hahah.

Williams to get cardio, Jones to defend and shoot and Ulis to get to know his targets. I don't know if Chriss and Bender would benefit more from Summer league action or hitting the gym to lift and get repetitions.

Ring_Wanted wrote: Williams to get cardio, Jones to defend and shoot and Ulis to get to know his targets. I don't know if Chriss and Bender would benefit more from Summer league action or hitting the gym to lift and get repetitions.

Bender needs to play. Play, play, play. I'm no longer mad he'll be playing for his national team this Summer. I'm too lazy to look up the dates for that but it could make him unavailable for Summer League. I also want DJJ on the team and I want him shooting the ball 20 times a game. And I don't mean dunks. Defenders are already starting to sag off him and play physical when he's near the basket which basically negates his entire game.

Sorry about the earlier typo. It was late.

carey wrote:

Ring_Wanted wrote: Williams to get cardio, Jones to defend and shoot and Ulis to get to know his targets. I don't know if Chriss and Bender would benefit more from Summer league action or hitting the gym to lift and get repetitions.

Bender needs to play. Play, play, play. I'm no longer mad he'll be playing for his national team this Summer. I'm too lazy to look up the dates for that but it could make him unavailable for Summer League. I also want DJJ on the team and I want him shooting the ball 20 times a game. And I don't mean dunks. Defenders are already starting to sag off him and play physical when he's near the basket which basically negates his entire game.

Sorry about the earlier typo. It was late.

He first needs to play these last games, then he needs to hit the weight room hard with the training room mafia. I like that he's going to play with his national team, but he should also play summer league, then back to the weight room hard to get ready for the season. He needs to make improvements in his strength and hopefully his hops too.

Yeah, first finish off the season healthy and playing meaningful NBA minutes for his development. I'd be pretty happy if over the summer he just played for his national team, then hit the gym here and went on to the training camp and preseason. Anyway, I won't complain if I watch him in SL, but I don't know if the kind of game played at SL really benefits him at this stage.

The Bobster wrote:The Suns are getting perilously close to the franchise record of 13 straight losses in 1996-97. The big difference - the Suns started that year 0-13 but were 40-29 the rest of the year and made the playoffs.

You act like this is a bad thing. We need to lose out for this deep draft and a chance to screw the Lakers. Management does not want to win and it is the reason we are sitting our veterans. They WANT to set the record. As far as I know, this is the first time in Suns history that we have tanked to this extent and I'm not mad about it. Next season I expect to start moving in the other direction toward the playoffs. I like our young core and expect to get a major piece in the draft.

Not that the second round pick is nearly as valuable, but it would also be nice to get the first pick in the second round as well. I'm hoping that the Lakers win a couple more, the Nets win out and the Suns lose out. Then, the Suns win the lottery, the Lakers fall to 4th or 5th and the opportunity arises were the Suns can make significant improvements this summer for the near and long term future, building a championship core and dynastic group. I'm also not going to go into the off-season with a sour attitude over the losing streak, and feel the Suns have a much much brighter future than I thought 2 or 3 years ago at this same time.

Superbone wrote:

The Bobster wrote:The Suns are getting perilously close to the franchise record of 13 straight losses in 1996-97. The big difference - the Suns started that year 0-13 but were 40-29 the rest of the year and made the playoffs.

You act like this is a bad thing. We need to lose out for this deep draft and a chance to screw the Lakers. Management does not want to win and it is the reason we are sitting our veterans. They WANT to set the record. As far as I know, this is the first time in Suns history that we have tanked to this extent and I'm not mad about it. Next season I expect to start moving in the other direction toward the playoffs. I like our young core and expect to get a major piece in the draft.

I am sure these players don't want that record, but I don't care about it a whit. Its just a number, a team number. Its not a league number or anything.

Is there a previous Lakers' game that can provide us with hope, with another LA win that allow us to compete for a single game and prevent that record?