Game 10: OKC Thunder (5-4) @ Phoenix Suns (4-5) | Sunday | 6:00 PM

[enigmatics]

Just saw a clip of Eubanks taking Chet off the dribble from the 3pt line for a slam.

Not something I would've expected to see lol.

[sunsbg]

Eubanks and Goodwin actually played pretty well until 4Q. Then everybody and mainly supposed closers KD and Beal bricked everything. Funny, the team would be top 4 with 7-3 record counting only first three quarters of the games.

[sunsbg]

Just saw a clip of Eubanks taking Chet off the dribble from the 3pt line for a slam.

Not something I would've expected to see lol.

He had like 3-4 dunks in this game. I was more surprised by Allen's dunk though.

[lilfishi22]

Absolutely nothing to worry about...I mean it is just 10 games...we are still only counting games, so all is good!
Imagine being a Nets' fan prior to the previous season....or a Clippers' fan - those guys are counting in seasons: "Oh, it's only 3 seasons, but wait for next season when all our stars are healthy" and then "Oh, it is just 4 seasons, but you will see next season".
As I said - nothing to worry about. Well, the roster is made of 3 injury prone stars and a bunch of random pedestrians, but wait for when the 3 stars are healthy....

I wouldn't say there's nothing to worry about. There are issues like Nurk's defense for example, that won't be solved by having everyone back. There are issues like the 3 stars being inherently injury prone which is solved when everyone is back healthy until they get injured again.

The most worrying issue right now is that in the 4th quarter, we don't seem to be able to play like we do the rest of the game. When you have KD and Beal, we really shouldn't have these 13pts quarters, these 23pt quarters (against LA), even against the Bulls we only dropped 19pts. We will look much better with Book orchestrating the offense in the 4th but it doesn't change the fact that for some reason our offense goes straight down the toilet in the 4th...and we just look like a lotto team, with KD and Beal which shouldn't be the case. In the 1st half of this game, we had 21 field goals on 12 assists...it's not great but it is what it is. In the 3rd quarter we had 9 field goals on 7 assists, a much better ratio. And then in the 4th quarter...we had 4 turnovers, 2 made field goals and ONE single assist. We're not even playing our game in the 4th quarter. It's like we're throwing out our entire playbook in the 4th quarter.

It's baffling

[sunstrooper]

Absolutely nothing to worry about...I mean it is just 10 games...we are still only counting games, so all is good!
Imagine being a Nets' fan prior to the previous season....or a Clippers' fan - those guys are counting in seasons: "Oh, it's only 3 seasons, but wait for next season when all our stars are healthy" and then "Oh, it is just 4 seasons, but you will see next season".
As I said - nothing to worry about. Well, the roster is made of 3 injury prone stars and a bunch of random pedestrians, but wait for when the 3 stars are healthy....

I wouldn't say there's nothing to worry about. There are issues like Nurk's defense for example, that won't be solved by having everyone back. There are issues like the 3 stars being inherently injury prone which is solved when everyone is back healthy until they get injured again.

The most worrying issue right now is that in the 4th quarter, we don't seem to be able to play like we do the rest of the game. When you have KD and Beal, we really shouldn't have these 13pts quarters, these 23pt quarters (against LA), even against the Bulls we only dropped 19pts. We will look much better with Book orchestrating the offense in the 4th but it doesn't change the fact that for some reason our offense goes straight down the toilet in the 4th...and we just look like a lotto team, with KD and Beal which shouldn't be the case. In the 1st half of this game, we had 21 field goals on 12 assists...it's not great but it is what it is. In the 3rd quarter we had 9 field goals on 7 assists, a much better ratio. And then in the 4th quarter...we had 4 turnovers, 2 made field goals and ONE single assist. We're not even playing our game in the 4th quarter. It's like we're throwing out our entire playbook in the 4th quarter.

It's baffling

I think it makes perfect sense and it is exactly my point. When you have only 3 players, capable of creating a shot, and they are never healthy (so the opponents face 2 of them at most), you are most of all predictable. When the roster is so much imbalanced as the Suns' roster is, teams just need to pressure KD enough and the Suns are done. No one else is capable of taking lead and score under pressure, and it is so obvious....every opponent knows it and uses it in the 4th. There is nothing baffling here. I will say it again - 3 always injured stars and 12 4th stringers is not a viable strategy to win games in the RS and for sure not in the PO. Everyone complains how no one else is stepping up - yes!, we don't have the personnel for that, these guys are not this type of players, they cannot step up and shouldn't be expected to! The Suns had those guys who are needed now, and let them all go.
I don't want to diminish or take something away from our roster - they obviously hustle and play with heart, it is just not enough. It is what it is, and i think we should accept the reality.

[lilfishi22]

Absolutely nothing to worry about...I mean it is just 10 games...we are still only counting games, so all is good!
Imagine being a Nets' fan prior to the previous season....or a Clippers' fan - those guys are counting in seasons: "Oh, it's only 3 seasons, but wait for next season when all our stars are healthy" and then "Oh, it is just 4 seasons, but you will see next season".
As I said - nothing to worry about. Well, the roster is made of 3 injury prone stars and a bunch of random pedestrians, but wait for when the 3 stars are healthy....

I wouldn't say there's nothing to worry about. There are issues like Nurk's defense for example, that won't be solved by having everyone back. There are issues like the 3 stars being inherently injury prone which is solved when everyone is back healthy until they get injured again.

The most worrying issue right now is that in the 4th quarter, we don't seem to be able to play like we do the rest of the game. When you have KD and Beal, we really shouldn't have these 13pts quarters, these 23pt quarters (against LA), even against the Bulls we only dropped 19pts. We will look much better with Book orchestrating the offense in the 4th but it doesn't change the fact that for some reason our offense goes straight down the toilet in the 4th...and we just look like a lotto team, with KD and Beal which shouldn't be the case. In the 1st half of this game, we had 21 field goals on 12 assists...it's not great but it is what it is. In the 3rd quarter we had 9 field goals on 7 assists, a much better ratio. And then in the 4th quarter...we had 4 turnovers, 2 made field goals and ONE single assist. We're not even playing our game in the 4th quarter. It's like we're throwing out our entire playbook in the 4th quarter.

It's baffling

I think it makes perfect sense and it is exactly my point. When you have only 3 players, capable of creating a shot, and they are never healthy (so the opponents face 2 of them at most), you are most of all predictable. When the roster is so much imbalanced as the Suns' roster is, teams just need to pressure KD enough and the Suns are done. No one else is capable of taking lead and score under pressure, and it is so obvious....every opponent knows it and uses it in the 4th. There is nothing baffling here. I will say it again - 3 always injured stars and 12 4th stringers is not a viable strategy to win games in the RS and for sure not in the PO. Everyone complains how no one else is stepping up - yes!, we don't have the personnel for that, these guys are not this type of players, they cannot step up and shouldn't be expected to! The Suns had those guys who are needed now, and let them all go.
I don't want to diminish or take something away from our roster - they obviously hustle and play with heart, it is just not enough. It is what it is, and i think we should accept the reality.

We're regularly winning the first 3 quarters as evidenced by the amount of times we're going into the 4th with a lead and that's against all types of teams. So we clearly can play very well, maybe not enough to blow teams out and hold the lead but we're consistently going into the final quarter with a decent lead. Then it just seems like we go away from all we do that has worked and gotten us the lead to start spamming iso possessions. I get KD/Beal are the guys who you expect to step up so you will get a higher percentage of iso possessions from them but what about everyone else? Why do we suddenly stop playing the way we do through 3 quarters, everyone starts becoming tentative and begins to just give the ball up to KD/Beal to create. I'm OK with KD/Beal iso possessions in the final few minutes but it almost seems to start way earlier which doesn't make sense to me.

[NapoleonII]

I think it's important to realize this isn't NBA 2k24....

Beal and KD have how many hours playing with each other?

Eric Gordon and KD?

Eric Gordon and Beal?

Nurk and KD / Beal?



You take away every contender's best player (or highest usage / best creator) and re-tool their teams from last year, AND fire their coach and bring in a new one.....what do you think it's going to look like after 10-12 games? In a league where you're playing the best players and basketball minds in the world?

It's growing pains. It's a new system with 80% new players....give it some more time before a ton of concern.

[lilfishi22]

I think it's important to realize this isn't NBA 2k24....

Beal and KD have how many hours playing with each other?

Eric Gordon and KD?

Eric Gordon and Beal?

Nurk and KD / Beal?



You take away every contender's best player (or highest usage / best creator) and re-tool their teams from last year, AND fire their coach and bring in a new one.....what do you think it's going to look like after 10-12 games? In a league where you're playing the best players and basketball minds in the world?

It's growing pains. It's a new system with 80% new players....give it some more time before a ton of concern.

+1

I think it's also worth pointing out that Eric Gordon went out of his way to join the Bahamas national team, in part, to try and build some chemistry with DA in games with real stakes. To me, it just shows that no matter how much time you have spend in practice or training camp, nothing really compares to live, competitive basketball. He obviously didn't have to and could've just started to build chemistry from training camp onwards but he knew how valuable court time is for build chemistry.

[grumpysaddle]

I wouldn't say there's nothing to worry about. There are issues like Nurk's defense for example, that won't be solved by having everyone back. There are issues like the 3 stars being inherently injury prone which is solved when everyone is back healthy until they get injured again.

The most worrying issue right now is that in the 4th quarter, we don't seem to be able to play like we do the rest of the game. When you have KD and Beal, we really shouldn't have these 13pts quarters, these 23pt quarters (against LA), even against the Bulls we only dropped 19pts. We will look much better with Book orchestrating the offense in the 4th but it doesn't change the fact that for some reason our offense goes straight down the toilet in the 4th...and we just look like a lotto team, with KD and Beal which shouldn't be the case. In the 1st half of this game, we had 21 field goals on 12 assists...it's not great but it is what it is. In the 3rd quarter we had 9 field goals on 7 assists, a much better ratio. And then in the 4th quarter...we had 4 turnovers, 2 made field goals and ONE single assist. We're not even playing our game in the 4th quarter. It's like we're throwing out our entire playbook in the 4th quarter.

It's baffling

I think it makes perfect sense and it is exactly my point. When you have only 3 players, capable of creating a shot, and they are never healthy (so the opponents face 2 of them at most), you are most of all predictable. When the roster is so much imbalanced as the Suns' roster is, teams just need to pressure KD enough and the Suns are done. No one else is capable of taking lead and score under pressure, and it is so obvious....every opponent knows it and uses it in the 4th. There is nothing baffling here. I will say it again - 3 always injured stars and 12 4th stringers is not a viable strategy to win games in the RS and for sure not in the PO. Everyone complains how no one else is stepping up - yes!, we don't have the personnel for that, these guys are not this type of players, they cannot step up and shouldn't be expected to! The Suns had those guys who are needed now, and let them all go.
I don't want to diminish or take something away from our roster - they obviously hustle and play with heart, it is just not enough. It is what it is, and i think we should accept the reality.

We're regularly winning the first 3 quarters as evidenced by the amount of times we're going into the 4th with a lead and that's against all types of teams. So we clearly can play very well, maybe not enough to blow teams out and hold the lead but we're consistently going into the final quarter with a decent lead. Then it just seems like we go away from all we do that has worked and gotten us the lead to start spamming iso possessions. I get KD/Beal are the guys who you expect to step up so you will get a higher percentage of iso possessions from them but what about everyone else? Why do we suddenly stop playing the way we do through 3 quarters, everyone starts becoming tentative and begins to just give the ball up to KD/Beal to create. I'm OK with KD/Beal iso possessions in the final few minutes but it almost seems to start way earlier which doesn't make sense to me.

Kevin Young, the mastermind. It happened last season too, so I have to think he's the one making that call.