AtheJ415 wrote:lilfishi22 wrote:SkyBill40 wrote:It's a slow burn. You've been around long enough to know as much.
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That's why I look at the big picture but also look for improvements and areas of weaknesses game by game whereas others seem to be stuck in the mindset that they weren't happy with the KD/Beal trades (fine opinion to have) so anything short of being 10-2 and a finished product on Day 1 is a disaster.
I know we're 6-6 and it's not where I hoped we'll be nor has our play or coaching been particularly impressive as a whole but it's a marathon. I'm not writing this (and subsequent) seasons off, as some seem to already have, just because we're not having the absolutely ideal start. And I can damn near guarantee even if we were 10-2 or 11-1 or 12-0, some will still look to the Nuggets or the Celtics or whoever else and have already decided they we have no chance in hell.
Like I don't care if anyone has a dissenting opinion, that's fine to have but I don't see the point of watching this iteration of the Phoenix Suns if you've already prejudged this team, seemingly in the offseason, and only jump on here to spell disaster. My view is that we're not a finished product, we have legitimate weaknesses we may not be able to address without a trade/signing and it's entirely possible Vogel isn't the coach to take us to a title but we're in mid-November and unlike a bunch of other posters, I'm keeping an open mind
Then name them. Tell me, where has this team improved aside from Booker returning? Give specifics.
But here's a list of changes we've made to try and improve:
- We've experimented with different line ups and in particular, gotten KBD a lot more minutes and while playing him in the 4th where his length and defense has been an asset.
- After a decent first few games Okogie stopped hitting shot entirely and we had to bring him back to the bench. He's been on a shorter leash from a shooting standpoint and more importantly, we've greatly reduced the number of minutes he's shared with Goodwin. Goodwin has benefited imo by not having another non-shooter like Okogie out there who defenses can help off. As a result, Goodwin has shot better from 3 in the 4 games leading up to Book's return.
- We've also reduced the Nurk minutes from around 28mpg down to just under 25mpg which is close to where I expect they should be. Those minutes have gone to Eubanks who started the first 8-10 games on about 18mpg and now it's sitting at around 20mpg. Those increased minutes and opportunities has been good for Eubanks who has been getting more time with some of the starting players.
- We tried to rest KD earlier in the 3rd quarter so he can start the 4th and give us a bit of a boost from the beginning of the 4th rather than 6-8min into the 4th. But that is not the norm and under normal circumstances, we do want to finish the 3rd quarter strong and have someone like Book/Beal start the 4th and bring KD at the 6-8min mark whilst Book/Beal take a short rest before finishing out the game. This hasn't yielded the results we've wanted but we're clearly trying to do something to address our 4th quarter woes.
Ultimately, there is far too small a sample size especially when you want to take out 4 games out of the sample size of 12 while also having one blow out against the Jazz which skews the data even more. Not to mention Beal playing a good amount of minutes and playing a fairly significant role while also not playing particularly well which further skews the data. So it would be difficult to say a single move has definitely yielded concrete positives because there are far too many differentiating factors game by game like opponent, individual play etc on such a small sample size. Also improvements aren't always linear. Making one move that works against one team and against one scheme might not work for the next 2 teams.
