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My prediction for this series is that, in retrospect, we’ll wish we would’ve gotten Leonard Miller some run during the season.

I think Vogel is absolutely content to leave Kyle Anderson completely alone.

And I believe Leonard Miller will look good next year.

An interesting key I've noticed is that Ant hasn't been getting 3-point shots up against the Suns.

Ant puts up 7 or more 3s in over half of his games this year, but none came against Phoenix. A game with 3, a game with 4, a game with 6.

This is absolutely the worst matchup we could see on paper. But if we get past them? I think we have to be feeling confident that we can beat anyone.

Klomp wrote:This is absolutely the worst matchup we could see on paper. But if we get past them? I think we have to be feeling confident that we can beat anyone.

Except next opponent would be frigging Denver and Jokic.

Shaka_Zulu wrote:

Klomp wrote:This is absolutely the worst matchup we could see on paper. But if we get past them? I think we have to be feeling confident that we can beat anyone.

Except next opponent would be frigging Denver and Jokic.

I'm not worried about our confidence level against Denver.

Shaka_Zulu wrote:

Klomp wrote:This is absolutely the worst matchup we could see on paper. But if we get past them? I think we have to be feeling confident that we can beat anyone.

Except next opponent would be frigging Denver and Jokic.

Winning a playoff series would be the biggest and best thing to happen to this franchise in decades.

It would be a HUGE shot in the arm.

Also, you have to assume the road in the West goes through Denver.

I wonder if pushing tempo against PHO is a bad idea. MIN indeed have been one of slowest teams in terms of running in fastbreak, but with Edwards, Reid, McDaniels, NAW against Booker, Allen, Beal and KD can we get an advantage?

minimus wrote:I wonder if pushing tempo against PHO is a bad idea. MIN indeed have been one of slowest teams in terms of running in fastbreak, but with Edwards, Reid, McDaniels, NAW against Booker, Allen, Beal and KD can we get an advantage?

Outside of Edwards, who do we have to really push the ball? There is a reason we're such a slow team.

Definitely not Rudy or KAT. McDaniels handle isn't sufficient. Conley has significantly slowed down.

Honestly, McLaughlin is our best player at pushing the ball up the court...

BlacJacMac wrote:

minimus wrote:I wonder if pushing tempo against PHO is a bad idea. MIN indeed have been one of slowest teams in terms of running in fastbreak, but with Edwards, Reid, McDaniels, NAW against Booker, Allen, Beal and KD can we get an advantage?

Outside of Edwards, who do we have to really push the ball? There is a reason we're such a slow team.

Definitely not Rudy or KAT. McDaniels handle isn't sufficient. Conley has significantly slowed down.

Honestly, McLaughlin is our best player at pushing the ball up the court...

Pushing tempo was what we did the last game and it leads to all sorts of turnovers. Also you don't want to give Suns more possession, it gets tiring to defend. The key to me is breaking Suns' triple team zone defense on Ant. Go to the post with Towns or Ant draw/kick to open things up instead of forcing the issue.

TimberKat wrote:

BlacJacMac wrote:

minimus wrote:I wonder if pushing tempo against PHO is a bad idea. MIN indeed have been one of slowest teams in terms of running in fastbreak, but with Edwards, Reid, McDaniels, NAW against Booker, Allen, Beal and KD can we get an advantage?

Outside of Edwards, who do we have to really push the ball? There is a reason we're such a slow team.

Definitely not Rudy or KAT. McDaniels handle isn't sufficient. Conley has significantly slowed down.

Honestly, McLaughlin is our best player at pushing the ball up the court...

Pushing tempo was what we did the last game and it leads to all sorts of turnovers. Also you don't want to give Suns more possession, it gets tiring to defend. The key to me is breaking Suns' triple team zone defense on Ant. Go to the post with Towns or Ant draw/kick to open things up instead of forcing the issue.

Yup. Ant can't keep attacking the triple team. He needs to learn, as soon as the helpers start to come, to give up the ball and quickly move to a new spot where he can get it back in a more advantageous position.

TimberKat wrote:

BlacJacMac wrote:

minimus wrote:I wonder if pushing tempo against PHO is a bad idea. MIN indeed have been one of slowest teams in terms of running in fastbreak, but with Edwards, Reid, McDaniels, NAW against Booker, Allen, Beal and KD can we get an advantage?

Outside of Edwards, who do we have to really push the ball? There is a reason we're such a slow team.

Definitely not Rudy or KAT. McDaniels handle isn't sufficient. Conley has significantly slowed down.

Honestly, McLaughlin is our best player at pushing the ball up the court...

Pushing tempo was what we did the last game and it leads to all sorts of turnovers. Also you don't want to give Suns more possession, it gets tiring to defend. The key to me is breaking Suns' triple team zone defense on Ant. Go to the post with Towns or Ant draw/kick to open things up instead of forcing the issue.

I think we need to go back to Monte Morris in this series. McLaughlin has been a negative in both April games against Phoenix, whereas Monte was a +10 in 22 minutes in the first game.

I understand we used McLaughlin to inject some life and pace into the offense in this game, but otherwise they provide the same skills on offense but defensively Morris is bigger than McLaughlin and better on defense. He won't get bullied by their bigger guards.