Suns News: Week 6 11/19-11/25

[carey]

Four game road trip to the East. We might win a game or two this week. Chicago and Detroit are both winnable.

Last Week's Games

@ Oklahoma City LOSS 118-101
vs. San Antonio WIN! 116-96
vs. Oklahoma City LOSS 110-100

This Week's Games

Monday, November 19th @ Philadelphia 7:00 PM EST on NBATv
Wednesday, November 21st @ Chicago 8:00 PM EST
Friday, November 23rd @ Milwaukee 8:30 PM EST
Sunday, November 25th @ Detroit 4:00 PM EST

Suns Stories

Suns' Deandre Ayton: Battle with Embiid is 'another game.' - https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/ ... 049479002/

What we learned from the Suns' loss to the Thunder: https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/ ... 045947002/

Suns veteran Anderson finding peace with limited role: https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/ ... 044071002/

Steven Adams: Suns’ Deandre Ayton misunderstood in-game comments - https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/ ... 040272002/

Center of the Sun: Suns now 3-12 as they head out on four-game Eastern Conference road trip - https://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2018 ... ip-preview

[Superbone]

You da man, Carey! Thanks for the great threads. Another tough stretch. Chicago most likely the only winable game for us. As long as I see the same effort and continued improvement, I'll be happy.

[carey]

You da man, Carey! Thanks for the great threads. Another tough stretch. Chicago most likely the only winable game for us. As long as I see the same effort and continued improvement, I'll be happy.

Anytime, my friend!

[bajanguy008]

regarding tonight's decision
https://twitter.com/esidery/status/1064661515599515649

[Indy]

I haven't been into the game day thread yet... how did everyone like Point Book? Without reading what you all said, I am split.

+ I like having the best player on the team have the ball in his hands / - Man that sure gets tiring on him, and you need to limit his minutes if you are going to play him at PG most of the time

+ Any way to get Mikal more playing time, especially with the starters, is good / - Mikal doesn't seem to be able to do anything with the ball in his hands besides shoot

+ The Book/Ayton screen and roll or pick and pop could be our primary offensive weapon and be great / - It needs a lot more time on the court before it is great, and it is hard to watch when they are not on the same page--seems like 50/50 between good shot or TO.

+ Book can really handle the ball in traffic when we have shooters to space the floor at the corners / - When we don't have good shooters out there, he gets 3 guys around him and ends up in a TO

+ We had our 2nd lowest TOs as a team last night (the Mavs aberration game was one lower) / - I know that Book has been our primary offender on TOs...

+ If Book is at PG, that should give us more size and lead to better rebounding / - we suck as a team at rebounding (28th), so not sure who can help us here

[azsportsfan]

Nice summary of the last few games. Took them a while to get here, and they are still gelling and figuring things out, but they are looking better despite the final scores. Rebounding (especially giving up second chance points) is a real bugaboo. TOs have subsided a little. The "Players Only" team really seems to like Booker/Ayton/Bridges/Warren. And they kept calling for the FO to get a point guard in here - even a young one - because Booker can't do it all.

[Cap]

+ I like having the best player on the team have the ball in his hands / - Man that sure gets tiring on him, and you need to limit his minutes if you are going to play him at PG most of the time

We’re not competing for anything this season besides ping pong balls. If it helps him develop, I wouldn’t worry too much about it costing us games in the short run.

- Mikal doesn't seem to be able to do anything with the ball in his hands besides shoot

We knew he was 3&D when we traded for him. I wouldn’t expect him to do much else, especially in November of his rookie season.

- we suck as a team at rebounding (28th), so not sure who can help us here

Zion is probably our best hope.

[Mori Chu]

I haven't been into the game day thread yet... how did everyone like Point Book? Without reading what you all said, I am split.

+ I like having the best player on the team have the ball in his hands / - Man that sure gets tiring on him, and you need to limit his minutes if you are going to play him at PG most of the time

+ Any way to get Mikal more playing time, especially with the starters, is good / - Mikal doesn't seem to be able to do anything with the ball in his hands besides shoot

+ The Book/Ayton screen and roll or pick and pop could be our primary offensive weapon and be great / - It needs a lot more time on the court before it is great, and it is hard to watch when they are not on the same page--seems like 50/50 between good shot or TO.

+ Book can really handle the ball in traffic when we have shooters to space the floor at the corners / - When we don't have good shooters out there, he gets 3 guys around him and ends up in a TO

+ We had our 2nd lowest TOs as a team last night (the Mavs aberration game was one lower) / - I know that Book has been our primary offender on TOs...

+ If Book is at PG, that should give us more size and lead to better rebounding / - we suck as a team at rebounding (28th), so not sure who can help us here

Nice post. I don't hate Point Book given what we have on our roster. But I worry about his hamstring injury and the wear-and-tear that playing point will cause on his body. I think I would rather see them do something like Point-Josh-Jackson honestly. As much as I dislike JJ, he can dribble and can create on offense. If they just told him, "Look, you are the starting PG, you should not shoot unless you absolutely have to; set everybody up and go get 10 assists," I actually think that would be a good role for him.

Jackson / Booker / Bridges / Warren / Ayton

[O_Gardino]

I haven't been into the game day thread yet... how did everyone like Point Book? Without reading what you all said, I am split.

+ I like having the best player on the team have the ball in his hands / - Man that sure gets tiring on him, and you need to limit his minutes if you are going to play him at PG most of the time

+ Any way to get Mikal more playing time, especially with the starters, is good / - Mikal doesn't seem to be able to do anything with the ball in his hands besides shoot

+ The Book/Ayton screen and roll or pick and pop could be our primary offensive weapon and be great / - It needs a lot more time on the court before it is great, and it is hard to watch when they are not on the same page--seems like 50/50 between good shot or TO.

+ Book can really handle the ball in traffic when we have shooters to space the floor at the corners / - When we don't have good shooters out there, he gets 3 guys around him and ends up in a TO

+ We had our 2nd lowest TOs as a team last night (the Mavs aberration game was one lower) / - I know that Book has been our primary offender on TOs...

+ If Book is at PG, that should give us more size and lead to better rebounding / - we suck as a team at rebounding (28th), so not sure who can help us here

Point Book: I think he started out with 6 assists in the first 8 minutes and had 2 in the entire rest of the game. I think he shot 6-9 from 3 to start and missed his last 6 3pt attempts. He really is a great creator and shooter ins stretches, but he just doesn't have the body to be Westbrook and create everything on every play. He needs someone else to take on a lead role at times.

Bridges can pass from anywhere if his teammates get open, and he can handle the ball in open space, but he doesn't create off the dribble under pressure. The last couple of games I've seen him bring the ball up the court after a rebound and initiate the offense, and he does that well when there isn't full court pressure.

More size only leads to better rebounding if our taller guys rebound the ball. Unfortunately, Warren, Jackson, Booker, and Bridges are very similar rebounders to Crawford, Canaan, Okobo, and Melton. Melton might actually be the best rebounder out of that whole bunch. Ast night, Crawford and Canaan combined for 4 rebounds in 36 minutes, Jackson and Warren combined for 4 in 51 minutes, and Bridges and Booker combined for 4 in 59 minutes.

[O_Gardino]

...

Jackson / Booker / Bridges / Warren / Ayton

I don't think we've tried that lineup.

[bajanguy008]

https://twitter.com/DuaneRankin/status/1065018347774009344

[Xylus]

Much different response from Embiid than the "real estate" comments he made about Drummond. He must have realized mid-game that he'd like to play 2K with his new buddy Deandre.

[Indy]

What would it take to sign Mirotic this summer?

If we stretch/waive Anderson, under contract for next year we have:

Code: Select all

                           
Book      27,250,000
T.J.      10,810,000
Ayton      9,562,920
Gosh       7,059,480
Bridges    4,161,000
Okobo      1,416,852
Melton     1,416,852

Plus ~7-8M for a high 1st round pick, probably another 1M for our 2nd.

If you go after Mirotic, you get a big PF to play next to Ayton, that can rebound really well, and shoot from deep pretty well.

I would feel pretty good about a starting lineup of Book/Bridges/TJ/Mirotic/Ayton.

* You would need to sign another Holmes/Williams type guy, or maybe both?
* Someone to challenge JJ for the first swing off the bench (Justin Holliday, Seth Curry)
* A pest on defense PG that can hit 3s (TJ McConnel, or maybe Dinwiddie but not sure about his defense)--unless you see something amazing from Okobo/Melton this year

I guess if you get lucky enough to draft Zion you go about it differently...

[Split T]

I think it'll take a lot. Mirotic and Tobias Harris feel like the biggest names we can realistically get in free agency, maybe Kemba, but we're gonna have to pay them big bucks to leave their current situations.

[JCSunsfan]

I haven't been into the game day thread yet... how did everyone like Point Book? Without reading what you all said, I am split.

+ I like having the best player on the team have the ball in his hands / - Man that sure gets tiring on him, and you need to limit his minutes if you are going to play him at PG most of the time

+ Any way to get Mikal more playing time, especially with the starters, is good / - Mikal doesn't seem to be able to do anything with the ball in his hands besides shoot

+ The Book/Ayton screen and roll or pick and pop could be our primary offensive weapon and be great / - It needs a lot more time on the court before it is great, and it is hard to watch when they are not on the same page--seems like 50/50 between good shot or TO.

+ Book can really handle the ball in traffic when we have shooters to space the floor at the corners / - When we don't have good shooters out there, he gets 3 guys around him and ends up in a TO

+ We had our 2nd lowest TOs as a team last night (the Mavs aberration game was one lower) / - I know that Book has been our primary offender on TOs...

+ If Book is at PG, that should give us more size and lead to better rebounding / - we suck as a team at rebounding (28th), so not sure who can help us here

Awwwwww! Poor Devin. Having to play pg an entire game!! It makes him so tiiiiiioowd. Steve Nash, KJ, Jason Kidd and the whole bunch feel so bad for him.

[Indy]

I haven't been into the game day thread yet... how did everyone like Point Book? Without reading what you all said, I am split.

+ I like having the best player on the team have the ball in his hands / - Man that sure gets tiring on him, and you need to limit his minutes if you are going to play him at PG most of the time

+ Any way to get Mikal more playing time, especially with the starters, is good / - Mikal doesn't seem to be able to do anything with the ball in his hands besides shoot

+ The Book/Ayton screen and roll or pick and pop could be our primary offensive weapon and be great / - It needs a lot more time on the court before it is great, and it is hard to watch when they are not on the same page--seems like 50/50 between good shot or TO.

+ Book can really handle the ball in traffic when we have shooters to space the floor at the corners / - When we don't have good shooters out there, he gets 3 guys around him and ends up in a TO

+ We had our 2nd lowest TOs as a team last night (the Mavs aberration game was one lower) / - I know that Book has been our primary offender on TOs...

+ If Book is at PG, that should give us more size and lead to better rebounding / - we suck as a team at rebounding (28th), so not sure who can help us here

Awwwwww! Poor Devin. Having to play pg an entire game!! It makes him so tiiiiiioowd. Steve Nash, KJ, Jason Kidd and the whole bunch feel so bad for him.

Can you find a time when any of those guys were asked to do as much as we ask Booker to do, with even less on his team?

None of those guys ever came close to Booker's USG%. In over 30 years, only once did one of those guys break 25% usage, and Booker has been over 30 the last 2 years. Actually, he only had his rookie year below 25%.

Here is a list of guards that had a USG% above 31 at least once in their first 3 years in the league, regardless of age:
AI
Wade
Russ
Derrick Rose
Booker

Code: Select all

                                                                                                                                                             
                                                Crit  Tota                                                                                               Adva
Rk    Season Age  Tm  Lg USG%   MP            Player  G GS  PER 3PAr  FTr ORB% DRB% TRB% AST% STL% BLK% TOV% ORtg DRtg  OWS DWS   WS WS/48 OBPM DBPM BPM VORP
1    2010-11  22 OKC NBA 31.6 2847 Russell Westbrook 82 82 23.6 .074 .454  5.2 10.3  7.8 42.7  2.8  0.8 15.9  110  107  6.3 3.1  9.4  .159  4.4  0.5 5.0  5.0
2    2005-06  24 MIA NBA 32.5 2892       Dwyane Wade 75 75 27.6 .054 .568  4.5 12.6  8.7 33.0  2.6  1.5 13.2  115  103 10.2 4.2 14.4  .239  5.9  1.6 7.5  7.0
3    2010-11  22 CHI NBA 32.2 3026      Derrick Rose 81 81 23.5 .241 .348  3.2  9.4  6.4 38.7  1.5  1.3 13.1  113  103  8.3 4.8 13.1  .208  5.8  0.1 5.9  6.0
4    1998-99  23 PHI NBA 32.6 1990     Allen Iverson 48 48 22.2 .188 .449  3.8 10.1  6.9 24.2  3.0  0.3 11.7  105   99  4.3 2.9  7.2  .173  4.9 -0.3 4.6  3.3
5    2017-18  21 PHO NBA 31.7 1865      Devin Booker 54 54 18.1 .364 .312  1.5 12.7  7.0 24.4  1.2  0.6 13.9  105  115  1.9 0.6  2.4  .063  2.9 -2.4 0.4  1.2

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/21/2018.

[O_Gardino]

Westbrook had the highest usage of any young player in ALL OF HISTORY playing on a team with Durant, Harden, and Ibaka? Says a lot about Westbrook and a lot about coach Brooks.

[INFORMER]

Devin's greatest value for any team is as a scorer; he is one of the best in the league at putting the ball in the basket. PointBooker reduces his effectiveness to do that efficiently.

[In2ition]

Devin's greatest value for any team is as a scorer; he is one of the best in the league at putting the ball in the basket. PointBooker reduces his effectiveness to do that efficiently.

Agreed.

I do like the thought of him and Beal sharing playmaking duties though. They both have the ability to initiate the offense and play on and off the ball. It's an interesting thought.

[carey]

Devin's greatest value for any team is as a scorer; he is one of the best in the league at putting the ball in the basket. PointBooker reduces his effectiveness to do that efficiently.

This is the entire argument against Booker as PG in a nutshell and it's exactly right. I've done a 180 on the issue. I used to think he'd do a fairly good Harden impression, but that's just not his game.