Game 29: Dallas Mavericks (17-12) @ Phoenix Suns (14-14) | Monday | 8:30 PM

[Jdiddy701]

Do Booker and Durant care? I'm seriously asking because it sure doesn't seem like it on the court. There in lies the problem and my main concern with this team. Not a playoff team on Christmas but we're expecting to be a contender in May? I don't see it

Yeah, I don’t think anyone expects it anymore. I’m more concerned making the playoffs honestly.


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[Mulhollanddrive]

Suns are cursed, it's like being ugly everything is more difficult.

[SkyBill40]

Is it honestly time we start fielding calls for the entire roster? Should we see what we can get for Booker? That's the only way we have a chance of restocking our future. It'll suck for a long time again, but we have little choices seeing Durant and Beal are both failed experiments that are soon to come to an end as well.

This is an absolutely miserable time to be a Suns fan. And here I thought the 20 win seasons were bad. This seems worse and especially so seeing the talent on the roster.

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[Qwigglez]

Read on Twitter

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Calling teammates out when your effort is subpar probably won’t go over well. It would be different if Book and KD were cooking the Mavs and defensively they were out there giving 110% effort, but when Metu got 23 points 19 rebounds, Grayson Allen got 32, I don’t think you should be calling teammates out.

[dremill24]

Do Booker and Durant care? I'm seriously asking because it sure doesn't seem like it on the court. There in lies the problem and my main concern with this team. Not a playoff team on Christmas but we're expecting to be a contender in May? I don't see it

I thought Booker was just bad while KD looked like he quit. Maybe I saw it differently than everyone else.

Neither have given any real effort on defense all year. One might argue they're setting the tone there.

[Revived]

KD averaging 6 turnovers a game for the last 3 games.

[darealjuice]

Looking like the 2K approach to roster construction isn’t working out for us. Book has played it admirably, but it’s pretty clear we need an actual point guard to get our offense running. Way too much focus has been put on Booker and KD getting others involved, and it’s led to a predictable and stagnant offense.

Even at his best, Beal doesn’t fix our issues. Add Beal and it’s just another scorer to play isoball. We just lost with Allen dropping 30 and Metu going for 20/20. We have roster talent, the balance isn’t right though.

[Revived]

I don’t think enough people realize how completely fcked the Suns are for the future in terms of flexibility, salary cap, draft picks etc.

I’m gonna say one thing here that im sure most of yall will disagree with; Robert Sarver was a better Suns owner than Matt Ishbia. Yes, I can confidently say that even with all the mistakes Sarver made in 20+ years as owner while Ishbia only been here 8/9 months. I don’t say this as someone who liked Sarver at all, but Ishbia is just that much worse imo.

There’s not one single trade that Sarver did whether it’s selling 2 first rd picks for cash, the Marion trade, or moves like letting JJ walk or Amare walk or even signings like Turkoglu/Warrick/Childress etc that comes even close to how horrific both the KD and Beal trades are.

We traded away 2 players in Cam Johnson and Mikal Bridges who may be career role players but will continue to get better every year and both will be in the NBA for probably the next 12-15 years.

We traded that plus an insane amount of 1st rd picks for two players who will be retired from the NBA in just 5 years.

Plus the ignorance to trade a PG that has always made players around them better in CP3 for an insanely injury prone SG giving up even more salary cap flexibility and picks.

Matt Ishbia absolutely fcking blows. I don’t care how rich he is, he tried a “get rich quick” scheme which maybe works in the slimey mortgage industry that he’s in but doesn’t work in real life.

And please don’t say BS like “Oh hindsight is 20/20 the KD trade is one everyone would make”. Yall can go check the KD trade thread. Many, MANY, of us here thought it was stupid and a massive mistake to give up that many.

Robert Sarver told the Nets it would either be Mikal/Cam alone or just the picks plus cap fillers alone. Ishbia came in and decided to give up both. Absolute idiot.

Merry Christmas yall.

[enigmatics]

Looking like the 2K approach to roster construction isn’t working out for us. Book has played it admirably, but it’s pretty clear we need an actual point guard to get our offense running. Way too much focus has been put on Booker and KD getting others involved, and it’s led to a predictable and stagnant offense.

Even at his best, Beal doesn’t fix our issues. Add Beal and it’s just another scorer to play isoball. We just lost with Allen dropping 30 and Metu going for 20/20. We have roster talent, the balance isn’t right though.

If they want a PG they're not going to be able to keep Allen imo, but it needs to get done yesterday.

[Golanator]

Do Booker and Durant care? I'm seriously asking because it sure doesn't seem like it on the court. There in lies the problem and my main concern with this team. Not a playoff team on Christmas but we're expecting to be a contender in May? I don't see it

Book cares for sure. Never once saw him quit. Some nights he doesn’t play well (tonight and too often recently) but he still plays hard.

KD is chillin. He might not care. I was all for the trade when it happened but if we could get some young talent + a pick or two back I’d strongly consider it.

Jalen Williams from OKC or Scottie Barnes or someone like that would be sweet.

[garrick]

Read on Twitter

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Calling teammates out when your effort is subpar probably won’t go over well. It would be different if Book and KD were cooking the Mavs and defensively they were out there giving 110% effort, but when Metu got 23 points 19 rebounds, Grayson Allen got 32, I don’t think you should be calling teammates out.

He should be calling out KD for being a bum but with Book he's only selective with who he calls out.

Metu at least was one of two players who showed up today I don't see how he deserves a chewing out here.

[Mulhollanddrive]

Buyout Chris Paul to play the 4th quarter

[SkyBill40]

Buyout Chris Paul to play the 4th quarter

He can't come back, even if he wanted to as he was traded and the CBA prohibits what you're suggesting.

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[bullsaficianado]

I don’t think enough people realize how completely fcked the Suns are for the future in terms of flexibility, salary cap, draft picks etc.

I’m gonna say one thing here that im sure most of yall will disagree with; Robert Sarver was a better Suns owner than Matt Ishbia. Yes, I can confidently say that even with all the mistakes Sarver made in 20+ years as owner while Ishbia only been here 8/9 months. I don’t say this as someone who liked Sarver at all, but Ishbia is just that much worse imo.

There’s not one single trade that Sarver did whether it’s selling 2 first rd picks for cash, the Marion trade, or moves like letting JJ walk or Amare walk or even signings like Turkoglu/Warrick/Childress etc that comes even close to how horrific both the KD and Beal trades are.

We traded away 2 players in Cam Johnson and Mikal Bridges who may be career role players but will continue to get better every year and both will be in the NBA for probably the next 12-15 years.

We traded that plus an insane amount of 1st rd picks for two players who will be retired from the NBA in just 5 years.

Plus the ignorance to trade a PG that has always made players around them better in CP3 for an insanely injury prone SG giving up even more salary cap flexibility and picks.

Matt Ishbia absolutely fcking blows. I don’t care how rich he is, he tried a “get rich quick” scheme which maybe works in the slimey mortgage industry that he’s in but doesn’t work in real life.

And please don’t say BS like “Oh hindsight is 20/20 the KD trade is one everyone would make”. Yall can go check the KD trade thread. Many, MANY, of us here thought it was stupid and a massive mistake to give up that many.

Robert Sarver told the Nets it would either be Mikal/Cam alone or just the picks plus cap fillers alone. Ishbia came in and decided to give up both. Absolute idiot.

Merry Christmas yall.

The KD trade was fine but we gave up to many picks. The Beal trade now is looking like a disaster. This team misses CP3. Booker can play PG but he's better feeding off a talented point guard like CP3. Suns need a good point guard now to take the pressure off of Booker. Gordon isn't it. That's one of the many problems with this team now. Beal will help if healthy but Suns miss CP3 and he ain't coming back. Suns need to find a PG.

[Frank Lee]

so glad we get to be haunted by luka for a decade plus

More like hunted… He again delivered a Luka Special to Book. Doncic is a flat out killer. Good to see some heat in this rivalry… but right now they got edge. Game 7 myass

[Sunlight]

When fans are angry and disappointed with a certain player, then changes have to be made. Sparkles much less.
It can't be that Grayson and Metu carry the team in the last quarter.

[bwgood77]

CP3 was the big difference maker the last 3 years...or his first two years until he got hurt in the Mavs series. We really miss that kind of leadership, tone setter, guy that you know will make all the right decisions down the stretch and we will close out the game, etc.

Trading him wasn't a problem though because that CP3 is gone. The team misses him and they need to fill that void but he himself can't even come close to filling what he was for 2 seasons ago until game 3 of the Mavs series. He lost it then and last year. He is now a shell of himself..Shooting sub 40%, 31% from 3.

Maybe he would work as a coach.

Beal will help when healthy but it doesn't solve our problem. The thing is, there is no one in the NBA really except LeBron who can read and adjust to an opponent who is adjusting on the fly like Paul could. He made every team instantly way way better. But once he faded, so did our team.

The KD trade is/was a disaster because CP3 was done by then. The "CP3 window" was closed...and it was time to retool...even when we got Chris Paul and the next two years I kept mentioning "We need our PGoTF"...but we never addressed it...then we traded depth and all our assets for 35 year old KD. The thing is, if someone would have told you we were under 500 at Christmas and the KD trade has been a disaster, you wouldn't have assumed he had been healthy all season. If we had CP3 I don't think it helps much because teams don't have to guard him...and he is too inefficient to allow him to be a scorer.

Even if we thought the facilitating alone was worth keeping it doesn't solve the future.

I just don't know what we can do. It's amazing how many options we had when we were shopping Jae to give us that extra piece to beef us up for the playoffs last year and we surprisingly traded every asset of value we had plus Jae for KD.

[sunsbg]

Is this Allen's and Metu's team now ? Haven't looked yet, are there Luka is Booker's AND Durant's daddy on GB ? Beal better take a lot of Booker's playmaking responsibilities as it's sad seeing Booker with 3p in Q2 and finishing the game with 20. KD is washed. Talks about taking care of the TOs and then kills the team in Q4 with very bad ones. What is worse than having a 30M C who can't dribble ? Having 50M superstar who can't either. At least if he did hit important shots in past few games. Half his shots are foul baiting at this point. Add lack of leadership qualities and it was a really bad trade.

[sunsbg]

50 for Doncic.

Ayton or Doncic? LOL

The question in 2023/24 is Booker + Durant for Doncic. Mavs will laugh indeed.

[garrick]

KD and Booker s***tying the bed together on national tv.

KD doesn’t even look like gives a ***t. This combined with what Woj said this morning and doesn’t sound good.

It'd be funny if he demanded out again. OKC would be about the only team he could request a trade to without looking completely terrible lol.

There's a bunch of players on OKC I'd love to have on the Suns. That actually might have the potential to balance the roster out.

I don't think they take a cancer like KD on that team.

We would need to take a horrible contract like Jerami Grant and add Brogdon and maybe a pick or two and Portland might bite.

KD would pout but at this stage in his career he might prefer just getting his stats on a garbage team without championship aspirations.