Win or lose, imo this Suns team has waaaay better efficiency and just overall intangible "feel" and "vibes" than last year. Dunno if we're a title contender but last year felt "off" almost every game from start to finish. Everything was a chore, a slog. This year's team has much more grace, more beauty, more easy buckets, more hustle. Everything just feels more right to me. Still some significant issues to work on, but I am much happier this year so far.
They have the swagger this year.
I am loving how Dunn is coming along. I don’t think he and Oso will be worse than Mikal and Cam as rookies.
Re: Game Day (Home Opener!): Mavericks (1-0) @ Suns (1-1), Sat 10/26/24
Re: Game Day (Home Opener!): Mavericks (1-0) @ Suns (1-1), Sat 10/26/24
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2024 5:42 am
by bajanguy008
Glad to get the win.
Didn't even know Beal wasn't playing and then was actually surprised Bud went with Dunn if I'm being honest.
Thought we would start Royce size/experience to try slow down Luka but man oh man, full credit to Dunn.
If you didn't know the pre-draft scouting reports, it would be hard to convince someone that he shot so poorly in college. Just love his competitiveness and it's obvious the work ethic is there
Another solid steady game by Tyus
Glad to see Nurk play "big" for most of the game. That reverse pivot finish with the left hand is one of the better moves I can remember him doing.
Can't blame those who were wondering what Bud was thinking with the 3 guard lineups but I said in preseason that Gillespie has a cool confidence about him I like
So personally I was glad to see him get a lil run, hit an open 3 and it's a small thing but bring the ball up against full court pressure.
KD and Book should not be doing that anymore with the PGs we now have.
The thing about missing our two swing men in Beal n Allen was that coach had the choice of going big with Bol at some point but not getting any run with those two out is a little ominous. I felt he did alright in preseason
Re: Game Day (Home Opener!): Mavericks (1-0) @ Suns (1-1), Sat 10/26/24
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2024 5:50 am
by bajanguy008
As for our stars
Nice game by KD, again couple poor passes but dude was hitting some tough jumpers all night.
I still have a concern with the physical play, both of them still seem to get thrown off their games if the refs letting dudes "get into" them
So yeah Book.....
I had issues with his mentality in the first two games, over passing and not attacking but no surprise he seemed up for a game against Klay/ Luka.
I've been saying that Klay is washed but might come to eat tbose words. I not even looking at the fact he hit shots, even (Klay the defender of old) I honestly felt like Book wasn't beating him off the dribble at all and that was crazy to me.
Book was getting locked up in my opinion.....
Those 12 FTs made his numbers look decent but couple of those shooting fouls were 50/50 and the type that I could have seen Book throwing a tantrum due to frustration if it went the other way.
Early days yet but definite slow start for #1
Well Lakers again next so will see how Rd2 goes against "the formidable" Reaves
Re: Game Day (Home Opener!): Mavericks (1-0) @ Suns (1-1), Sat 10/26/24
Re: Game Day (Home Opener!): Mavericks (1-0) @ Suns (1-1), Sat 10/26/24
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2024 6:36 am
by ShelC
Solid win after the Lakers game but I'm still feeling like this is too similar to last season. Hope I'm wrong but last year it was the same thing - bad loss with no flow followed by a good win with better (but not great) flow. Not to take away from the win but Dallas isn't that good and they're a better matchup for us than a team like the Lakers. We hate them so it's always fun to beat them but outside of Luka and Kyrie there's not much there. Even last year's Finals team was a fluke IMO. Last night Kyrie looked mostly disengaged and the Mavs in general shot really poorly. They were within one possession for a good part of the 3rd qtr but missed a lot of open shots. We kept them at arm's length and we were able to put the game away because KD went to work on Luka in the 4th but again, it was a lot of ISO that happened to work this time. That's 50-50 offense. Still not seeing any real offensive execution or actions/off-ball movement to get good/specific shots.
Book is out of sorts within the offense. He used to be surgical in the midrange, now he hesitates and passes up good shots for worse shots. Glad he went to the line 12 times but it just feels like he's forcing a lot more than he should and things are too difficult for him.
Great games by our roleplayers. Dunn is a stud but was held back a bit by fouls which was to be expected. I still hold my breath on the 3s because it's so rare for a non-shooter to turn it around this quickly. He's holding up with his shot tho. Nurk with a really good response, thought he'd struggle with the Mavs quickness and athleticism but he played big and played within himself. Less is more there. O'Neale was the X-factor. He's a good matchup who can guard everyone from Kyrie to Luke to PJ Washington. His defense, hustle and shooting is everything we need in that spot. Lee gave us 17 minutes and it was good to see him out there but Grayson is getting those minutes when he's back and we can move ONeal or Dunn to PF hopefully to cut back on KD's minutes. Still, there's a tough convo about Beal that needs to be had.
Less ballhandling from Book and KD meant less TOs. The more guys look for Jones and Morris to handle and bring the ball upcourt, the steadier we are. 26 assists to 11 TOs is more of what we need. I still think we'll struggle against bigger teams like the Lakers and Wolves so not ready to declare anything yet about this team. We need consistent defense and offense and I haven't seen it yet. It was only 3 games last year. Then it was only 13 games, then 33 games then 63 and before you knew it the season was over. We'll know what this team is after 15-20 games.
Re: Game Day (Home Opener!): Mavericks (1-0) @ Suns (1-1), Sat 10/26/24
Solid win after the Lakers game but I'm still feeling like this is too similar to last season. Hope I'm wrong but last year it was the same thing - bad loss with no flow followed by a good win with better (but not great) flow. Not to take away from the win but Dallas isn't that good and they're a better matchup for us than a team like the Lakers. We hate them so it's always fun to beat them but outside of Luka and Kyrie there's not much there. Even last year's Finals team was a fluke IMO. Last night Kyrie looked mostly disengaged and the Mavs in general shot really poorly. They were within one possession for a good part of the 3rd qtr but missed a lot of open shots. We kept them at arm's length and we were able to put the game away because KD went to work on Luka in the 4th but again, it was a lot of ISO that happened to work this time. That's 50-50 offense. Still not seeing any real offensive execution or actions/off-ball movement to get good/specific shots.
Book is out of sorts within the offense. He used to be surgical in the midrange, now he hesitates and passes up good shots for worse shots. Glad he went to the line 12 times but it just feels like he's forcing a lot more than he should and things are too difficult for him.
Great games by our roleplayers. Dunn is a stud but was held back a bit by fouls which was to be expected. I still hold my breath on the 3s because it's so rare for a non-shooter to turn it around this quickly. He's holding up with his shot tho. Nurk with a really good response, thought he'd struggle with the Mavs quickness and athleticism but he played big and played within himself. Less is more there. O'Neale was the X-factor. He's a good matchup who can guard everyone from Kyrie to Luke to PJ Washington. His defense, hustle and shooting is everything we need in that spot. Lee gave us 17 minutes and it was good to see him out there but Grayson is getting those minutes when he's back and we can move ONeal or Dunn to PF hopefully to cut back on KD's minutes. Still, there's a tough convo about Beal that needs to be had.
Less ballhandling from Book and KD meant less TOs. The more guys look for Jones and Morris to handle and bring the ball upcourt, the steadier we are. 26 assists to 11 TOs is more of what we need. I still think we'll struggle against bigger teams like the Lakers and Wolves so not ready to declare anything yet about this team. We need consistent defense and offense and I haven't seen it yet. It was only 3 games last year. Then it was only 13 games, then 33 games then 63 and before you knew it the season was over. We'll know what this team is after 15-20 games.
Thankfully it's the 3rd game of the season. I know many here already expect massive departure from last year's team, firing on all cylinders by now. We'll get there. New coaching staff and what was it.. a 4 game preseason or something? Let's give it 20 to 30 games before we declare this team some sort of splitting image of last year with the same flaws.
