Opening Night: Game 1: Phoenix Suns @ Golden State Warriors l Tuesday l 7:00pm l TNT

[WeekapaugGroove]

Also let's be real here, all these old stars are using designer PEDs that really **** work.

We're not seeing primes or athletes last an extra 5-10 years because they are eating and sleeping better these days It's the gear and as someone in my 40s I need some.
Sent from my SM-F731U using RealGM mobile app

[NapoleonII]

KD had his best shooting season last year, highest FG%, over 40% from 3 on nice volume, highest TS%, highest 2pt%.

He had a great playoff series against the Clippers, shooting 52% overall, 46% from 3, 96% from the line on 9 free throws a game..so got to the line a ton, and averaged 28.4, 7.6 and 6.2.

Those numbers are absurd. Booker had his best #s also in this series, but that was largely due to having KD require so much defensive attention.

KD did not shoot well from 3 against the Nuggets...had a bad series in that regard, and with turnovers, averaging over 3 a game, but again, he still got to the line a ton, over 8x a game, shooting over 88% from the line, and shot over 50% from 2, and averaged 29.5, almost 10 boards a game (9.7), and 5 apg.

Those are still crazy #s, despite not shooting well from 3. But that didn't have a huge impact, as he took 23 shots per game, and like 4 3s a game, making an avg of 1 a game. It's not like he was going 2-10 from 3 every game.

This was after playing like 8 games with the Suns in the regular season, going against the best team in the NBA.

And now he has one poor shooting game to start the season, yet still contributed in other ways, pulling down 11 boards, and people are writing him off.

I think he will decline, and is maybe starting to, but I'm not entirely sure about that given last year was one of his best years ever.

Yep.

The ACL injury has sapped a lot of his athleticism, and will continue to as he enters middle age. He will be fine, and will probably finish with great shooting numbers across the board this year. Mostly because of Booker and Beal taking a lot attention away from defenses.

But in order for stars to keep being stars, they need to adjust. Look at how Jordan changed his attacking game/drawing fouls/dunking/lay-ups to taking a ton of mid-range post-ups, and even more threes. Or how Duncan basically stopped taking jumpers / bank-shots.

KD has to adjust, and he's figuring stuff out on the court. It's been 1 freaking game, so no need to sound the alarm. But we're fans, and we notice stuff, we have thoughts.

Vogel is a great basketball mind tho, a championship coach.

I was SUPER impressed with how we looked defensively. These warriors are used to stomping on teams (even without Green) and they looked like a bunch of inefficient chuckers out there.

[NapoleonII]

Also let's be real here, all these old stars are using designer PEDs that really **** work.

We're not seeing primes or athletes last an extra 5-10 years because they are eating and sleeping better these days It's the gear and as someone in my 40s I need some.
Sent from my SM-F731U using RealGM mobile app

I'm a full time accountant who does some writing free lance on the side, and I need some, too. Sharing is caring.

[bwgood77]

I loved how gritty and tough we seemed defensively last night. The defense was very physical. Loved our effort on the offensive boards - though the Warriors had one more. I feel like they're always getting a lot of offensive rebounds because of all the threes they put up, but the numbers for past years don't reflect that.

19 turnovers is a lot, and we may struggle with that at times. Continuity will help, as will Beal's speed when he returns.

Both teams were pretty cold shooting the ball, but the Warriors shot 35.6% from the field and 22% from three and the game still went down to the wire. Thought CP3 was great for them: he might get in the 6MOY conversation if he stays healthy.

I was also really impressed by our depth, our bench shooting, and most of all by the toughness of Nurkic and Okogie. As others have said, we wouldn't have won that game with Ayton. People complain about his hands, but man, it was refreshing to see our center get some tough boards and play physically. It set the tone for the rest of the team.

Should be a great season!

Who knows if we won with Ayton. His last game against GS, when Green AND Looney were there, he had 27 and 12 on over 68% shooting, 13-19 from the field.

I"m glad the trade was made, because I think Ayton's strengths don't fit as well with KD, given he takes so many shots, and Ayton's were reduced to under 10, but he played very well against the Warriors in their last outing.

[matt131]

I loved how gritty and tough we seemed defensively last night. The defense was very physical. Loved our effort on the offensive boards - though the Warriors had one more. I feel like they're always getting a lot of offensive rebounds because of all the threes they put up, but the numbers for past years don't reflect that.

19 turnovers is a lot, and we may struggle with that at times. Continuity will help, as will Beal's speed when he returns.

Both teams were pretty cold shooting the ball, but the Warriors shot 35.6% from the field and 22% from three and the game still went down to the wire. Thought CP3 was great for them: he might get in the 6MOY conversation if he stays healthy.

I was also really impressed by our depth, our bench shooting, and most of all by the toughness of Nurkic and Okogie. As others have said, we wouldn't have won that game with Ayton. People complain about his hands, but man, it was refreshing to see our center get some tough boards and play physically. It set the tone for the rest of the team.

Should be a great season!

Who knows if we won with Ayton. His last game against GS, when Green AND Looney were there, he had 27 and 12 on over 68% shooting, 13-19 from the field.

I"m glad the trade was made, because I think Ayton's strengths don't fit as well with KD, given he takes so many shots, and Ayton's were reduced to under 10, but he played very well against the Warriors in their last outing.

I have a few Warriors fans friends and they’ve all told me their biggest concern in the past when thinking about playoff matchups with the Suns was Ayton. My response was always: in a seven game series, Draymond would get under his skin, destroy his confidence, and destroy him completely.

For single regular season games, Ayton was very very good at attacking their lack of size.

[dremill24]

Please check back after 10 games, a mid-range fade for KD is a layup for most players.

Its clearly not...hes better at making mid range fade aways relative to most players but that doesnt make it a good shot relative to shots that are less contested. Its a great safety valve as a backup plan but he and the coaching staff need to make a conscious effort to get him better looks as the primary focus, instead of the first option being a contested fade away with a guy hanging on his hip. He can get hot more than others but it has to be sustainable.

Cringe. You're really questioning how Durant plays？gotta be sustainable? WTF? He's one of the best players in NBA history yet you think you know better ?


He's got 2 rings 2 finals MVPs and shoots over 50% for his career. Id say his inefficient midrange jumpshots are working for him

ARE his inefficient jump shots working for him or DID his inefficient jump shots work for him before? I cant sit here and say i wrote down his entire shot profile when he was younger to say whether he has always taken them and just made them more or if he was getting better looks before, but We watched him take bad shot after bad shot against the Nuggs all series and his success rate was not very good. Better than most guys would be taking those shots, but not good enough in the big picture.

It doesnt take a genius to understand that easier shots go in more often than difficult ones. Whats cringey is the idea of just blowing off the concept of getting better looks for your best scorers. It doesn't take anything away from his greatness to say that he and the team could do a better job of getting him more efficient looks. That should be the goal for any scorer right? I doubt it will matter much in the regular season but those things end up mattering in the playoffs.

Im not writing him off or anything, just seems like low hanging fruit.

[King4Day]

Fun game last night.
3rd quarter was frustrating.
Allen just needs to find his place.
In fact, most of the turnovers we had were clearly due to the team not knowing each other. Warriors are too good of a team to not take advantage. The fact we won this, IN Golden State, was impressive.

1 road game out of the way. 1 division game (win) out of the way (that goes towards a possible tie breaker come playoff time).

[sashaturiaf]

Some things I enjoyed in game 1

1. How hard Okogie and Goodwin crashes the boards, a couple of dogs for sure. Teams are going to cheat off them all season long so it's good they're going to work to make teams pay for that. A 3 pointer isn't the only thing you can offer as a role guy, these guys are going to feast on the O boards all season long.
2. Everything about Yuta, guy is just so fundamentally sound on top of his hustle and generally high bball IQ. The fact he turned down multiple MLE offers to pay for the minimum here says it all about where his head is as a basketball player, he's here to win and get better above all. You can never have enough of these guys in the locker room.
3. The whole team as a whole just feels much nastier than last season's team, despite also being more skilled and better at shooting (though we sure didn't show it this game). Props to Ishbia and Jones for a great offseason.

[matt131]

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[dmastro32]

He's the true 1B because KD is just not the same guy anymore. Age is setting in.

What we really need is for somehow Portland to buy out Malcom Brogdon and us swoop in there and sign him.

I wish.

With new CBA brogdon makes too much money. Even if bought out the suns would not be able to sign him. I think we can only sign bought out players that make less than 7 million

[enigmatics]

Some things I enjoyed in game 1

1. How hard Okogie and Goodwin crashes the boards, a couple of dogs for sure. Teams are going to cheat off them all season long so it's good they're going to work to make teams pay for that. A 3 pointer isn't the only thing you can offer as a role guy, these guys are going to feast on the O boards all season long.
2. Everything about Yuta, guy is just so fundamentally sound on top of his hustle and generally high bball IQ. The fact he turned down multiple MLE offers to pay for the minimum here says it all about where his head is as a basketball player, he's here to win and get better above all. You can never have enough of these guys in the locker room.
3. The whole team as a whole just feels much nastier than last season's team, despite also being more skilled and better at shooting (though we sure didn't show it this game). Props to Ishbia and Jones for a great offseason.

Regarding the crashing of the boards - we're going to see a lot of that, especially since they're not likely to get a lot of rebounding productivity from KD at the 4 spot.

[garrick]

I loved how gritty and tough we seemed defensively last night. The defense was very physical. Loved our effort on the offensive boards - though the Warriors had one more. I feel like they're always getting a lot of offensive rebounds because of all the threes they put up, but the numbers for past years don't reflect that.

19 turnovers is a lot, and we may struggle with that at times. Continuity will help, as will Beal's speed when he returns.

Both teams were pretty cold shooting the ball, but the Warriors shot 35.6% from the field and 22% from three and the game still went down to the wire. Thought CP3 was great for them: he might get in the 6MOY conversation if he stays healthy.

I was also really impressed by our depth, our bench shooting, and most of all by the toughness of Nurkic and Okogie. As others have said, we wouldn't have won that game with Ayton. People complain about his hands, but man, it was refreshing to see our center get some tough boards and play physically. It set the tone for the rest of the team.

Should be a great season!

Who knows if we won with Ayton. His last game against GS, when Green AND Looney were there, he had 27 and 12 on over 68% shooting, 13-19 from the field.

I"m glad the trade was made, because I think Ayton's strengths don't fit as well with KD, given he takes so many shots, and Ayton's were reduced to under 10, but he played very well against the Warriors in their last outing.

I have a few Warriors fans friends and they’ve all told me their biggest concern in the past when thinking about playoff matchups with the Suns was Ayton. My response was always: in a seven game series, Draymond would get under his skin, destroy his confidence, and destroy him completely.

For single regular season games, Ayton was very very good at attacking their lack of size.

We never faced GSW in the playoffs so we will never know how Ayton would have fared against them.

The same thing that let Nurkic be a big factor against GSW would work for Ayton as well. With no tall defenders Nurkic wasn't getting his shot altered or swatted away.

Felt like GSW did try to attack Nurkic but they couldn't really capitalize due to a lot of misses by Wiggins and poor free throw shooting. Whenever Nurkic tries to recover on the PnR he can't cover ground fast enough and resorts to fouling.

[Mulhollanddrive]

So the Durant problem last night was he took 20 jump shots and made 3 that were assisted.

He kept dribbling into a crowd, our ball movement was non existent. If we can make teams rotate and have them off balance by spreading the ball we'll get much better shot quality.

[Slim Charless]

Some things I enjoyed in game 1

1. How hard Okogie and Goodwin crashes the boards, a couple of dogs for sure. Teams are going to cheat off them all season long so it's good they're going to work to make teams pay for that. A 3 pointer isn't the only thing you can offer as a role guy, these guys are going to feast on the O boards all season long.
2. Everything about Yuta, guy is just so fundamentally sound on top of his hustle and generally high bball IQ. The fact he turned down multiple MLE offers to pay for the minimum here says it all about where his head is as a basketball player, he's here to win and get better above all. You can never have enough of these guys in the locker room.
3. The whole team as a whole just feels much nastier than last season's team, despite also being more skilled and better at shooting (though we sure didn't show it this game). Props to Ishbia and Jones for a great offseason.

Regarding the crashing of the boards - we're going to see a lot of that, especially since they're not likely to get a lot of rebounding productivity from KD at the 4 spot.

I'm a big fan of Yuta. He's gonna see a TON of wide open looks and if he hits them then other teams are in trouble. I agree about the crashing boards thing, not enough players do that when the defense cheats off them. Shooting is not the only thing that helps a team win.

[RedIndian]

KD had his best shooting season last year, highest FG%, over 40% from 3 on nice volume, highest TS%, highest 2pt%.

He had a great playoff series against the Clippers, shooting 52% overall, 46% from 3, 96% from the line on 9 free throws a game..so got to the line a ton, and averaged 28.4, 7.6 and 6.2.

Those numbers are absurd. Booker had his best #s also in this series, but that was largely due to having KD require so much defensive attention.

KD did not shoot well from 3 against the Nuggets...had a bad series in that regard, and with turnovers, averaging over 3 a game, but again, he still got to the line a ton, over 8x a game, shooting over 88% from the line, and shot over 50% from 2, and averaged 29.5, almost 10 boards a game (9.7), and 5 apg.

Those are still crazy #s, despite not shooting well from 3. But that didn't have a huge impact, as he took 23 shots per game, and like 4 3s a game, making an avg of 1 a game. It's not like he was going 2-10 from 3 every game.

This was after playing like 8 games with the Suns in the regular season, going against the best team in the NBA.

And now he has one poor shooting game to start the season, yet still contributed in other ways, pulling down 11 boards, and people are writing him off.

I think he will decline, and is maybe starting to, but I'm not entirely sure about that given last year was one of his best years ever.

Yep.

The ACL injury has sapped a lot of his athleticism, and will continue to as he enters middle age. He will be fine, and will probably finish with great shooting numbers across the board this year. Mostly because of Booker and Beal taking a lot attention away from defenses.

But in order for stars to keep being stars, they need to adjust. Look at how Jordan changed his attacking game/drawing fouls/dunking/lay-ups to taking a ton of mid-range post-ups, and even more threes. Or how Duncan basically stopped taking jumpers / bank-shots.

KD has to adjust, and he's figuring stuff out on the court. It's been 1 freaking game, so no need to sound the alarm. But we're fans, and we notice stuff, we have thoughts.

Vogel is a great basketball mind tho, a championship coach.

I was SUPER impressed with how we looked defensively. These warriors are used to stomping on teams (even without Green) and they looked like a bunch of inefficient chuckers out there.

Yep, just one game, and I think it's not an exaggeration to say that Vogel is just vastly superior as a defensive coach than Monty.

I don't think we have very good defensive personnel on this roster, but they looked very solid. Lots of extremely advanced nuances to Vogel's system, and I think the team will only get better at it once they fully understand the scheme.

Even Nurkic's PnR defense was not as horrible as I expected. He got burned a couple of times, but on the whole the scheme seemed pretty solid. If Nurkic could get his conditioning on point by the playoffs (maybe lose another 5 pounds), I could see Vogel using him at the level of the screen and showing the way Malone uses Jokic. If he can do that stuff, we might miraculously put up a top 10 defense.

[Saberestar]

Sun fans, what was your first impression of Yuta Watanabe?

He played really well, he is gonna be a nice bench player for us.

[phx#7]

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Was more impressed with his off ball screens, he was freeing up teammates all over the place.

[enigmatics]

Read on Twitter

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Was more impressed with his off ball screens, he was freeing up teammates all over the place.

The little stuff like this makes all the difference in the world.