Phx-Suns.Net

bender back in

That travel when Bender starts his move! It happens way too often. Maybe he's used to getting away with it in Europe?

stop passing it to tucker please

Ulis with a few careless turnovers.

Two hands Len. Two hands.

That is going to be a flagrant 1 for sure.

Guess not.

Bender in with 16 to go for defense? Switching everything it seems.

They won a close game, a wire-to-wire battle. Nice effort.

Not a work of art, but still a win at the end of a long run trip.

my observations:

the good:
the 2nd qtr from the 2nd unit was nice basketball to watch. Good passing, movement which resulted in good looks. Really liked what ulis, bender and dudley were doing. Our offense looked functional.
Bender penetrating from the wing is great since he can pass over anyone (and he actually looks to pass)
Len look solid despite the missed dunk. Especially when going to his moves quickly one on one
tucker looked fine when just grabbing boards and shooting corner 3's. which he made for a change

the bad:
Ulis got a little sloppy in the 4th.
I think we should have looked for len more off the pnr. Our starting guards still force their offense a lot
Our 4th quarter offense was awful. The entire quarter was basically getting the shot clock down to 10 seconds before doing anything. luckily knight pulled a 3 out of his ass at the end
bookers hard foul at the end.
We could have passed to bender more. Multiple times tucker who look right and him then decide to drive into traffic with predictable results. Keep it simple tucker. Felt like he played a lot also.
not really a fan of playing starters an entire quarter unless they are totally kicking ass

suns win!

EDC wrote:That is going to be a flagrant 1 for sure.

It looked much worse than it was. He took a huge swipe but missed everything.

You've got to give it up for the guys tonight. They battled hard at the tail end of a grueling 6 game road trip. Great effort and everybody contributed. Now we finally come home for a three game homestand.

Another nice Alex Len game. Where the haterz at?

Didnt watch because of travel. How the hell did TJ injure his head?

Also 27 mins of Tucker? Yeesh.

Oh, the other nice thing is that we finished a close game this time. Even more impressive that it was at the end of the road trip.

I think the team is starting to gel a little. Ulis, Bender and Chriss getting minutes and doing ok. Ulis has been my favorite of the three. He makes things happen. Len doing pretty well. Tucker starting to get his 3pt shot back. Ann Meyers said Bookers toe and ankle are fine.

Whats the deal with Warrens head? They called it an illness the first two days and now its a head injury that might last awhile? Weird...

http://arizonasports.com/story/925222/s ... ad-injury/
Anytime that there is a head injury, as an organization, we want to be very cautious with it,” Suns general manager Ryan McDonough said on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM’s Burns and Gambo show. “He was feeling a little off in the Indiana game on Friday. We took him out of the game and ran a bunch of tests. I’m not going to elaborate too much on it, but he’s going to be fine. He’s starting to get back in the flow. I think he’ll be out a matter of weeks; I don’t think it will be days but I don’t think it will be months. He’ll come back and play when he’s ready.

Shabazz wrote:Another nice Alex Len game. Where the haterz at?

Len seems to play better when he starts.
Off the bench, I like the options of Williams and Bender, for right now.
Williams gives you muscle in the paint, while Bender gives more of perimeter game.

Chandler probably would be happier playing for a serious playoff contender.
Trade him for a draft choice and a bad contract (player).

Six players in double-figures, and yet somehow we score only 92 points.

Very solid outing for Len: 17 points, 12 boards, 2 blocks in 35 minutes. I still think we need to keep the guy.

Ulis and Bender got a lot of minutes tonight, relatively speaking (16 and 13, respectively). That's somewhat encouraging.

LazarusLong wrote:

Shabazz wrote:Another nice Alex Len game. Where the haterz at?

Len seems to play better when he starts.
Off the bench, I like the options of Williams and Bender, for right now.
Williams gives you muscle in the paint, while Bender gives more of perimeter game.

Chandler probably would be happier playing for a serious playoff contender.
Trade him for a draft choice and a bad contract (player).

He has certainly been much better offensively and fouls a lot less often as a starter -

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... plits/2017

I would commit to this starting lineup for the foreseeable future (when Warren returns) -

C - Len
PF -Chriss
SF - Warren
SG - Booker
PG - Bledsoe

Chandler and Tucker are not any sort of long-term answer. And you have to give Bender, Ulis and Williams minutes to develop them as players. You might as well throw Jones out there too and see if he can play.

And Chandler, Knight, Tucker and even Bledsoe are all available for the right price.