Game Day: Pacers (28-16) @ Suns (18-25), Wed 1/22/20

[Superbone]

Time: 7:00 pm AZ (6:00 pm PT/9:00 pm ET)
Place: Talking Stick Resort Arena, Phoenix, AZ
TV: FSAZ, NBALP

The Suns are looking to match last season's win total tonight. In order to do that, we can't come out sluggishly again. TJ will be out for revenge so let's hope our defense is prepared to try to lock him down. Baynes continues to be out and Cam is still questionable.

Go Suns!!!

Dis • cuss

[ShelC]

I'd love for the crowd to not even acknowledge TJ. People talk about Ayton's "empty stats", I thought TJ's 18 and 5 were always empty. Doing the same in Indy, nothing new.

[3rdside]

Tj off the bench is pretty much what we need right now.

Can Kelly fill that role?

Even if he could, tj and Kelly is better than just Kelly.

[In2ition]

I don't have any hate for TJ. I always liked him on the Suns, but thought he needed to go this past summer. They needed rebounding, defense and passing, which TJ didn't offer. TJ kind of screwed the Suns too. He was healthy, but never became active last yr, which torpedoed his value. He was going to help out a team that needed what he offered.

[3rdside]

And he couldn't have co-existed with Oubre and Bridges .. just looking at our roster right now is all, he's healthy, we're not, and we need scoring.

[Mori Chu]

I liked TJ more than most here. But I think I've come to agree that it was fine to move on from him. I liked his effortless scoring, but he was a black hole and never passed, and he didn't give us anything else like defense or rebounding. One can reasonably argue whether we should have paid assets to get rid of TJ for free (ugh), but in terms of the roster and team, he seems to have been eminently replaceable by Oubre and Bridges, to say nothing of Cam.

[Mori Chu]

Wow, the Pacers are 28-16, that's such a great season for them. And they've done it without Oladipo to boot. Sabonis is leading them in scoring at 17.8 along with 12.9 rebounds. It continues to break my heart that we had not one but TWO chances to draft him and passed both times, taking the delightful Dragan Bender and Marquese Chriss. UGH.

Side note: Indy got blown out two days ago by the absolutely surging Utah Jazz, 118-88.

[Superbone]

Wow, the Pacers are 28-16, that's such a great season for them. And they've done it without Oladipo to boot. Sabonis is leading them in scoring at 17.8 along with 12.9 rebounds. It continues to break my heart that we had not one but TWO chances to draft him and passed both times, taking the delightful Dragan Bender and Marquese Chriss. UGH.

Side note: Indy got blown out two days ago by the absolutely surging Utah Jazz, 118-88.

And even we were smart enough to know he was the pick.

[3rdside]

I liked TJ more than most here. But I think I've come to agree that it was fine to move on from him. I liked his effortless scoring, but he was a black hole and never passed, and he didn't give us anything else like defense or rebounding. One can reasonably argue whether we should have paid assets to get rid of TJ for free (ugh), but in terms of the roster and team, he seems to have been eminently replaceable by Oubre and Bridges, to say nothing of Cam.

I made a numerical argument in the summer that we were fine offloading him for what we paid, only to get the numbers back to front / change my conclusion that we should have got more from him (at least I think that's what I said).

Although I think I also made a further argument that we gained via more ball sharing / less black hole behaviour, so maybe I was overall indifferent to the trade, plus there was the argument about letting players leave our club happy to begin to change perceptions of us around the league in the wake of Dragic, Morri etc etc.

No regrets? Maybe just a little.

[3rdside]

Wow, the Pacers are 28-16, that's such a great season for them. And they've done it without Oladipo to boot. Sabonis is leading them in scoring at 17.8 along with 12.9 rebounds. It continues to break my heart that we had not one but TWO chances to draft him and passed both times, taking the delightful Dragan Bender and Marquese Chriss. UGH.

Side note: Indy got blown out two days ago by the absolutely surging Utah Jazz, 118-88.

Sabonis just wasn't the sexy pick - that was Chriss, with hops and a million dollar smile, and Bender the 7-0 euro (what could possibly go wrong..).

It was a 2-fer / hedge your bets for a PF move, and on paper arguably quite logical, just a pity they both sucked.

To be fair, I liked the Chriss pick but Bender was el-busto from day one in my mind.

[Nodack]

Sometimes you’re the bug and sometimes you’re the windshield.

[3rdside]

*I liked the Chriss pick but we paid a lot for him; 13th, 28th and Bogdan .. I suppose we couldn't have predicted his value, and it would always be tough signing an unseen euro to a large contract, and it was a weak draft as well so maybe it looks worse on paper.

Caris LaVert (20), Pascal Siakam (27), Malcolm Brogdon (36) and maybe DeJounte Murray (29) were available however (and great to see we selected Tyler Ulis at 34 over Brogdon!)

[LazarusLong]

Sometimes you’re the bug and sometimes you’re the windshield.

"It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear ..." Norm Peterson

[bajanguy008]

[djy2j]

I anticipate TJ having a very TJ like game: 26/4/2. As for the other Pacers, I'm not sure what to expect. They got the brakes beat off them in Utah last game. I've seen zero Pacers games here in Indy this year due to the dispute between Fox Sports and Dish Network so I don't know what their play style is really.

Myles is a strong defender but he's not going to out muscle Ayton. I expect Ayton to take a lot of jumpers in lieu of getting his shot blocked at the rim by Myles.

Booker is going to have to work hard with, I assume, Brogdon on him most of the night.

I expect Lamb or Aaron Holiday to have a career night because it's the Suns and someone has to do it.

[Superbone]

I anticipate TJ having a very TJ like game: 26/4/2. As for the other Pacers, I'm not sure what to expect. They got the brakes beat off them in Utah last game. I've seen zero Pacers games here in Indy this year due to the dispute between Fox Sports and Dish Network so I don't know what their play style is really.

Myles is a strong defender but he's not going to out muscle Ayton. I expect Ayton to take a lot of jumpers in lieu of getting his shot blocked at the rim by Myles.

Booker is going to have to work hard with, I assume, Brogdon on him most of the night.

I expect Lamb or Aaron Holiday to have a career night because it's the Suns and someone has to do it.

Who's going to set the Indiana 3 point makes record tonight?

[Flagrant Fowl]

I anticipate TJ having a very TJ like game: 26/4/2. As for the other Pacers, I'm not sure what to expect. They got the brakes beat off them in Utah last game. I've seen zero Pacers games here in Indy this year due to the dispute between Fox Sports and Dish Network so I don't know what their play style is really.

Myles is a strong defender but he's not going to out muscle Ayton. I expect Ayton to take a lot of jumpers in lieu of getting his shot blocked at the rim by Myles.

Booker is going to have to work hard with, I assume, Brogdon on him most of the night.

I expect Lamb or Aaron Holiday to have a career night because it's the Suns and someone has to do it.

Who's going to set the Indiana 3 point makes record tonight?

I've been thinking about this since the Spurs game. My money is on one of the Holiday brothers.

[Nodack]

Somebody will...

[Superbone]

I'm curious what our fans' reception will be like for Warren.

[djy2j]

We should consider a paying defense on Sabonis. Then Try running some sort of offense. But what do I know?