Phoenix Suns Thread - Like a sunrise

[Look2Me4Guidance]

Booker had some very nice assists. TJ Warren is the master of those sneaky cuts to the basket.

Warren is the best mover off the ball I have ever seen since following the Suns and I've followed them since the 92-93 season. Imagine if he played with Nash!

 

[Gigantic]

I reckon Warren is also one of the best off-balance finishers in the league. He's money from those contact lay ups!

 

[Milk Steak]

I reckon Warren is also one of the best off-balance finishers in the league. He's money from those contact lay ups!

Love Warren, so good in the paint. He's not flashy,but he's so consistent. The fact he's averaging just under 20 points a game and has no outside shooting game shows how good a year he's having.

 

[Look2Me4Guidance]

Love Warren, so good in the paint. He's not flashy,but he's so consistent. The fact he's averaging just under 20 points a game and has no outside shooting game shows how good a year he's having.

I'm hoping he can develop a 3 ball. Look at DeRozan now. It can be done. TJ's contract has to be one of the best value in the league. A steal at 4/50

 

[Milk Steak]

I'm hoping he can develop a 3 ball. Look at DeRozan now. It can be done. TJ's contract has to be one of the best value in the league. A steal at 4/50

It's surprising he's so reluctant to shoot 3s as he's so much more comfortable shooting from only a step or 2 closer and consistently hits them.

 

[Milk Steak]

Have only been able to watch patches of games lately,but we are in a real rut. I know we're in rebuild mode,but I'd love for us to bring in someone in the trade period. We need a power forward or centre with some kind of a presence inside. Len is a dumpster fire. Comes in for 3 minutes, gets 3 fouls has no touch near the rim.

I don't like Booker playing PG. I know we're short on point guards especially with Canaan out now,but I'd prefer trying to get Booker open rather than trying to set up less talented players.

I did not see the appeal in Jackson up until the last month or so as he looked awful, but he's quickly becoming my favourite Suns player. Looks way more confident, he's aggressive and drives hard to the hoop and is hitting 3s all of a sudden. He's a gooden.

 

[savagelunchbox]

Suns are tanking for the optimal chance of getting the no1 pick.

 

[james Dean]

We've been rebuilding for 8 years and still look miles off.

Booker is a jet, Warren is a good role player but the rest stink

Chriss, Len, bender and Jackson all as high draft picks is just awful

 

[Gigantic]

Jackson is having some sort of month. He's starting to show what I expected from him. Personally, I think there's room for both him and Warren on this roster especially with Jackson's ability to handle the ball.

Bender shows some good things here and there but going to need a lot more consistency from him. His last few games have been good though.

As for Chriss, I'm starting to think his ceiling isn't very high. He's also got some attitude issues.

We have two major holes to fill this off-season - a PG and a C. Personally, I want to see us package Chriss + Miami/Milwaukee pick + a few of our many 2nd round picks and get us a PG or move up in the draft. And then draft Ayton with our pick, but unless we have a top-3 pick then that's not likely.

 

[Milk Steak]

 

[Milk Steak]

We got a point guard who's not terrible

 

[Wojcinski]

We got a point guard who's not terrible
View attachment 458001

As an Orlando fan I can tell you that he is pretty bad, but I think he'll be an upgrade over Ulis or whoever the Suns were playing at PG. Payton is good with the ball in hand, cuts and drives well but he has no real jumpshot and tends to panic and turn the ball over if his 'plan A' doesn't work.

 

[Milk Steak]

As an Orlando fan I can tell you that he is pretty bad, but I think he'll be an upgrade over Ulis or whoever the Suns were playing at PG. Payton is good with the ball in hand, cuts and drives well but he has no real jumpshot and tends to panic and turn the ball over if his 'plan A' doesn't work.

That's really what we need at the moment. A decent ball handler that can facilitate. Ulis has gone backwards and wouldn't be in the side if we had any depth.
Apparently Peyton is shooting at 37% from the 3 point line this year,that's not too bad.

 

[Wojcinski]

That's really what we need at the moment. A decent ball handler that can facilitate. Ulis has gone backwards and wouldn't be in the side if we had any depth.
Apparently Peyton is shooting at 37% from the 3 point line this year,that's not too bad.

He has definitely improved from 3 but he isn't a volume 3 point shooter and this is mostly because he usually doesn't shoot them well. It is a decent trade though as second round picks are generally pretty worthless. Elfrid would have left Orlando via FA this year anyway so hopefully the change of scenery might see some good improvement in his game.

 

[Gigantic]

Cannot see how Payton won't be able to help us short term, whether that's a good thing for us or not remains to be seen though as he could slow the tank engine which seems to be full steam ahead towards a top 5 pick atm

 

[Milk Steak]

Cannot see how Payton won't be able to help us short term, whether that's a good thing for us or not remains to be seen though as he could slow the tank engine which seems to be full steam ahead towards a top 5 pick atm

I'm hoping with a semi decent PG we can be more competitive to finish the season. Be good to have another guard with some height. I can't see us improving enough to fall back in the draft much.I'm hoping Peyton works out well for us and we can draft a decent power forward or centre that offers some kind of defence and rim protection and some ability to score inside. Len is garbage and Bender doesn't seem to be able to offer much outside of perimeter shooting. Chriss could go either way. Every time he starts to look like a product that can block add something in offence,then he seems to regress.

From reading some mock drafts it sounds as though there are some decent tall options that will be available between picks 4-10. Does anyone follow college ball at all?

 

[Gigantic]

I'm hoping with a semi decent PG we can be more competitive to finish the season. Be good to have another guard with some height. I'm hoping Peyton works out well for us and we can draft a decent power forward or centre that offers some kind of defence and rim protection and some ability to score inside. Len is garbage and Bender doesn't seem to be able to offer much outside of perimeter shooting. Chriss could go either way. Every time he starts to look like a product that can block add something in offence,then he seems to regress.

From reading some mock drafts it sounds as though there are some decent tall options that will be available between picks 4-10. Does anyone follow college ball at all?

I follow it here and there, mostly only seen the Duke guys play though. I watch highlights of the other top prospects when they have a good game.

I'd say top 8 is where we'd want to be then it starts to thin out. Not too many bigs outside of Bagley, Ayton, Bamba and Jackson Jr, who I think are the consensus best bigs in the draft. Then Wendell Carter who is just outside them and will fall in the lottery but outside the top 5.

 

[Gigantic]

Elrid Payton's debut tonight. I'm liking what I'm seeing so far. He solves a lot of issues we currently have at PG. Defense and great pass delivery.

Hopefully we can get him on a decent deal. It would certainly make our off-season a little bit easier

 

[Gigantic]

19 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds

Good debut for Payton. He could have easily notched 12 assists if some of the guys finished better. Pretty sure Bender blew 2 easy shots from Payton lol

Re-sign Payton and then make some moves to move up in the draft and pick up Ayton and we're looking good!

 

[Milk Steak]

Peyton was great. Drove really well to the basket and made a tonne of nice dishes. It'll be good to have a PG that is taller than 5'2" that is a threat to drive.
Warren and Jackson played well again. Got a nice medium size core in Jackson,Booker,Peyton and Warren now.

Our bigs are the problem. Yeah good on Bender for his scoring tonight,but he's still lacking in so many areas for a big. He's too tentative taking rebounds and going "hard" to the rim. There was a beautiful pass from Peyton to a cutting Bender (who was wide open next to the rim,but he wussed out at threw it back out to the 3 point line. He also gives far to much space to his man,then throws up a netball style block attempt.

Len is s**t and the less said about Chriss the better. I don't see him making it. Love his jams and occasional come from behind block,but he's a baby with a poor attitude and he's clumsy as hell. If he's on the court for more than 15 minutes he's usually on 5 fouls.

 

[Gigantic]

Peyton was great. Drove really well to the basket and made a tonne of nice dishes. It'll be good to have a PG that is taller than 5'2" that is a threat to drive.
Warren and Jackson played well again. Got a nice medium size core in Jackson,Booker,Peyton and Warren now.

Our bigs are the problem. Yeah good on Bender for his scoring tonight,but he's still lacking in so many areas for a big. He's too tentative taking rebounds and going "hard" to the rim. There was a beautiful pass from Peyton to a cutting Bender (who was wide open next to the rim,but he wussed out at threw it back out to the 3 point line. He also gives far to much space to his man,then throws up a netball style block attempt.

Len is s**t and the less said about Chriss the better. I don't see him making it. Love his jams and occasional come from behind block,but he's a baby with a poor attitude and he's clumsy as hell. If he's on the court for more than 15 minutes he's usually on 5 fouls.

I'm willing to cut Bender some slack for the time being. He's still only 20, and basically a boy in a man's league. But you're right on that netball style block haha, that does irk me a bit. Or sometimes it's even not even a raised arm, he just extends his arm out to their belly.

It definitely could be worse, like you said look at Chriss and his carelessness.

 

[Milk Steak]

I'm willing to cut Bender some slack for the time being. He's still only 20, and basically a boy in a man's league. But you're right on that netball style block haha, that does irk me a bit. Or sometimes it's even not even a raised arm, he just extends his arm out to their belly.

It definitely could be worse, like you said look at Chriss and his carelessness.

That charging foul on Chriss and his 5th foul where he just wrapped his arms around a player because he was frustrated just show how much he doesn't get it yet. Such a clunky driver to the basket.

 

[Milk Steak]

Anyway,I'll stop. Our power forwards and centres just s**t me off. The fact that the 3 we've got were all top 10 picks and none of them look like certainties to make it. Bender the most likely.

 

[Milk Steak]

Still a QTR to go,but * be it's hard to support this team. Yes I know they're young,Booker is out blah blah blah,but I'm struggling to see a future for the Suns. Jackson has had a good month apart from tonight and Booker obviously is a gun,but I don't even see much potential in any of the other guys to be any better than a decent player off the bench.

 

[Gigantic]

Still a QTR to go,but **** be it's hard to support this team. Yes I know they're young,Booker is out blah blah blah,but I'm struggling to see a future for the Suns. Jackson has had a good month apart from tonight and Booker obviously is a gun,but I don't even see much potential in any of the other guys to be any better than a decent player off the bench.

I agree. I don't think we can draft our way to being a contender in the western conference.

Booker is the right guy to build around but we need more than a Bender type player. I think Bender can develop into a decent starting stretch 4/5 alongside another superstar big i.e. Anthony Davis. But we'd also need a great PG and either Warren/Jackson to continue improving (ideally they'd be our #3 rather than #2 - which means either our PG and other big will be the #2 guy).