Game Day: Suns (13-10) @ Timberwolves (15-8), Mon 12/8/25

[Mori Chu]

Mark Williams was awesome tonight ...

It's funny because he doesn't put up the gaudy numbers of another recent former #1 pick we had at center but he's more impactful. Plays bigger, dunks the ball, knows how to tip rebounds and keep them alive even if he's not grabbing them, run the floor hard. His impact goes beyond the boxscore when you watch the games.

Yeah, Mark Williams tries hard and he seems to have a pretty high bbiq, doing things like smart positional defense, tipping rebounds, and going up strong when near the basket. He doesn't look that huge for a center, but he does a surprisingly good job holding his own against bigger Cs like Jokic and Gobert. And the guy is just tough and strong and kicks ass. Love him. Really hope we can re-sign and keep him. And I think they are doing a smart job managing his minutes and protecting him against injury, knock on wood.

[JustWinBaby]

Mark Williams was awesome tonight with 22 points on 7-9 shooting along with 7 rebounds. Gillespie was the man as usual with 19, 6, and 4. Lots of other guys contributed, including Oso who gave us 10 points on 5-6 shooting and 5 boards. Even guys like Goodwin (9) and BOOYEA! (5) chipped in. Really impressive win for such a short-handed team.

It's funny because he doesn't put up the gaudy numbers of another recent former #1 pick we had at center but he's more impactful. Plays bigger, dunks the ball, knows how to tip rebounds and keep them alive even if he's not grabbing them, run the floor hard. His impact goes beyond the boxscore when you watch the games.

Exactly. I have none of the frustrations with Williams that I had with our first ever #1 overall pick.

And for as good as Williams has been I don't think he has peaked and will likely get even better. And then we have Maluach waiting in the wings even though some have gotten frustrated in his slow progress.

Plus, Williams is four years younger than our former #1 pick. I often forget how young he is due to his size and maturity.

Everyone on this team has contributed to our success this year and I love watching all of them. CG & Dillon have been great, but I really think our best acquisition was Williams. He is exactly what you want out of your center. Dillon is great but Williams has been fantastic. Wait, we have only seen JGreen in one game. How good can this team be?

Williams is going to get paid this summer. What is our record when Williams has sat out?

[Superbone]

It's funny because he doesn't put up the gaudy numbers of another recent former #1 pick we had at center but he's more impactful. Plays bigger, dunks the ball, knows how to tip rebounds and keep them alive even if he's not grabbing them, run the floor hard. His impact goes beyond the boxscore when you watch the games.

Exactly. I have none of the frustrations with Williams that I had with our first ever #1 overall pick.

And for as good as Williams has been I don't think he has peaked and will likely get even better. And then we have Maluach waiting in the wings even though some have gotten frustrated in his slow progress.

Plus, Williams is four years younger than our former #1 pick. I often forget how young he is due to his size and maturity.

Everyone on this team has contributed to our success this year and I love watching all of them. CG & Dillon have been great, but I really think our best acquisition was Williams. He is exactly what you want out of your center. Dillon is great but Williams has been fantastic. Wait, we have only seen JGreen in one game. How good can this team be?

Williams is going to get paid this summer. What is our record when Williams has sat out?

And remember how head scratching it was for many Suns fans when we traded for Williams and then drafted Maluach within minutes? How about now? The Suns knew what they were doing.

[ShelC]

Wasn't sure what to make of it then, not sure what to make of it now.

[Shabazz]

Bothers me that we have CG on the floor but Royce and Brooks are bringing the ball up and either turn it over or just put up a shot with no offense being run. We've done enough to win this game but stupid play is going to cost us.

I was worried Brooks was going to cost us the game when he jacked a couple at the end. Luckily he didn't shoot again.

Ott made a nice move to get Brooks off the floor for a few minutes toward the end of the game, when he was clearly tired and kept coming up way short on questionable midrange shots. I've been pretty impressed with Ott as a game manager overall. Adjustments seem to happen quickly, he's good at using timeouts to break up opposing teams' flow, and substitutions have mostly made sense, especially since the first half-dozen games or so. This is generally a pretty smart group of players anyways, and having a coach pushing the right buttons amplifies that nicely.

Brooks took one of the worst shots I've ever seen in the last minute of this one. He nearly shot it backwards. I'll continue to maintain that DB shooting 20 mid-range shots/game is not a recipe for long-term success. Even if we need someone to pick up the scoring burden, I'd rather see the creation coming from CG or Allen.

Agreed on Ott, though. The inclination may have been to go bigger in this game with Richards and/or NHD, but he went small and forced the Wolves to match up with us. Some of our best minutes were with Oso, Dunn and 3 guards.

[Shabazz]

It's funny because he doesn't put up the gaudy numbers of another recent former #1 pick we had at center but he's more impactful. Plays bigger, dunks the ball, knows how to tip rebounds and keep them alive even if he's not grabbing them, run the floor hard. His impact goes beyond the boxscore when you watch the games.

Exactly. I have none of the frustrations with Williams that I had with our first ever #1 overall pick.

And for as good as Williams has been I don't think he has peaked and will likely get even better. And then we have Maluach waiting in the wings even though some have gotten frustrated in his slow progress.

Plus, Williams is four years younger than our former #1 pick. I often forget how young he is due to his size and maturity.

Everyone on this team has contributed to our success this year and I love watching all of them. CG & Dillon have been great, but I really think our best acquisition was Williams. He is exactly what you want out of your center. Dillon is great but Williams has been fantastic. Wait, we have only seen JGreen in one game. How good can this team be?

Williams is going to get paid this summer. What is our record when Williams has sat out?

If that 3-point shot is real, then his value goes through the roof.

[Kryptonic]

Exactly. I have none of the frustrations with Williams that I had with our first ever #1 overall pick.

And for as good as Williams has been I don't think he has peaked and will likely get even better. And then we have Maluach waiting in the wings even though some have gotten frustrated in his slow progress.

Plus, Williams is four years younger than our former #1 pick. I often forget how young he is due to his size and maturity.

Everyone on this team has contributed to our success this year and I love watching all of them. CG & Dillon have been great, but I really think our best acquisition was Williams. He is exactly what you want out of your center. Dillon is great but Williams has been fantastic. Wait, we have only seen JGreen in one game. How good can this team be?

Williams is going to get paid this summer. What is our record when Williams has sat out?

If that 3-point shot is real, then his value goes through the roof.

He said on Gambo and Burns he's been working on it for a while

[ShelC]

It still comes down to longterm health with him. It all goes out the window if his knees/feet are shot or whatever the case was with his rescinded trade last year. I'd love to see a team friendly long term deal based on games played or whatever but that seems unlikely. And if he's missing B2Bs the rest of his career or on a minutes restriction, that needs to be accounted for.

[specialsauce]

I think you just stand pat for the most part though. Just play a little small or cut back on some minutes. We haven’t been fully healthy yet this year, so who knows if we ever even have all our guards healthy for an extended stretch. Maybe just see what a Royce/Richards trade can get you and just be happy with a playoff appearance. Next summer you can reevaluate with better options. I’m not saying i recommend it, but we would have access to trading 2 1st round picks in the summer.

Maybe we can get in the middle of the Golden State Milwaukee talks?

Golden State Sends out Kuminga and Looney gets either Royce O'Neale or Grayson Allen, Jock Landale, 2031 Bucks 1st Round Pick (top 10 protected)

Milwaukee Sends out Bobby Portis and Kyle Kuzma gets Jonathan Kuminga and Nassir Little

Phoenix Sends out Either Royce O'Neale or Grayson Allen and Nassir Little and gets Bobby Portis, Kyle Kuzma, and Kevon Looney.

Bro, are you stuck in a time warp? Come back to 2025

[O_Gardino]

Love how Ott didn't force the NHD minutes.

Brutal.

[O_Gardino]

T-Mac saying CG is his favorite player in the league

Gillespie is really giving Dragic vibes lately. I know I'm just comparing white boy PGs to other white boy PGs, but it's really exciting to see another promising young PG running our offense again.

CG is 26, which is the same age that Dragic took the leap from backup to legit starter.

[Split T]

I was trying to come up with small PG’s that came out of nowhere(or at least role players) be stars… 2 guys I thought of were Kyle Lowry and Jalen Brunson…not saying Gillespie will be a HOFer, but shooting can take you a long ways

[specialsauce]

I was trying to come up with small PG’s that came out of nowhere(or at least role players) be stars… 2 guys I thought of were Kyle Lowry and Jalen Brunson…not saying Gillespie will be a HOFer, but shooting can take you a long ways

Brunson didn't come out of nowhere man. He averaged 23/5/4 on a championship team in college

[Split T]

I was trying to come up with small PG’s that came out of nowhere(or at least role players) be stars… 2 guys I thought of were Kyle Lowry and Jalen Brunson…not saying Gillespie will be a HOFer, but shooting can take you a long ways

Brunson didn't come out of nowhere man. He averaged 23/5/4 on a championship team in college

I’m not talking about college. He was a 2nd round pick and started his career as a role player. I mean Gillespie was also 16/4/3 at that same school and was the Big East POY twice Also your numbers seem off. Brunson averaged 19 and 4.

[Split T]

Isaiah Thomas is another one

[specialsauce]

I was trying to come up with small PG’s that came out of nowhere(or at least role players) be stars… 2 guys I thought of were Kyle Lowry and Jalen Brunson…not saying Gillespie will be a HOFer, but shooting can take you a long ways

Brunson didn't come out of nowhere man. He averaged 23/5/4 on a championship team in college

I’m not talking about college. He was a 2nd round pick and started his career as a role player. I mean Gillespie was also 16/4/3 at that same school and was the Big East POY twice Also your numbers seem off. Brunson averaged 19 and 4.

Senior year

[Split T]

I think you are looking at his per-40 minutes stats. He was 18.9/4.6/3.1 in his last year at Villanova. He skipped his senior year for the nba.

[specialsauce]

You're right