2024 NBA Playoffs - West 1st Round: #3 Minnesota Timberwolves vs. #6 Phoenix Suns (MIN SWEEPS 4-0)

[SweetTouch]

These wolves are trying to be the bad boy grizzilies

Anthony Edwards is taking Ja morants role
Mcdonaiels is brooks

We’ll see what happens next round

[B-easy]

The Superteam/Big3 model no longer works in the modern league.

It can work if you somehow have great role players. But that never happens. It costs too much tax.

[TwolvesFanRome]

The Superteam/Big3 model no longer works in the modern league.

It can work if you somehow have great role players. But that never happens. It costs too much tax.

Kat
Ant
Gobert

It seems to me work well so far!

Supported by Conley McDaniels Naw Kyle Reid Morris...

[TwolvesFanRome]

These wolves are trying to be the bad boy grizzilies

Anthony Edwards is taking Ja morants role
Mcdonaiels is brooks

We’ll see what happens next round

Brooks is a dirty player, nothing to compare with McDaniels imho.

[web123888]

Suns blew their title window in 2021 after dropping a 2-0 lead. Doncic stole their souls the following year. Durant isn’t that dude and has never been capable of leading a team legitimately anywhere and Suns totally wasted their future assets on this highly overrated and flawed roster.

[web123888]

The Superteam/Big3 model no longer works in the modern league.

It can work if you somehow have great role players. But that never happens. It costs too much tax.

It certainly can work if your big 3 are actually good enough.

Durant is old and overrated, never was as good as the hype. He’s not even a legit top 10 player. Booker too. Beal just sucks and never was worthy of being mentioned as part of a big 3.

[LaLover11]

The Superteam/Big3 model no longer works in the modern league.

It can work if you somehow have great role players. But that never happens. It costs too much tax.

It certainly can work if your big 3 are actually good enough.

Durant is old and overrated, never was as good as the hype. He’s not even a legit top 10 player. Booker too. Beal just sucks and never was worthy of being mentioned as part of a big 3.

Murray, Porter Jr, Gordan, Jokic are a Big 4

All these players can give you 30 pts any playoff game
Murray is a Top 3 PG right now in the post season
Porter JR is OKC Young Durant lite right now
Gordon is The best off ball PF & can defend AD
Jokic is The Modern Shaq with High IQ

This team would most likely beat 2016 Warriors and 97 Bulls

[facothomas22]

Is it safe to say that the Suns Championship window may be closed? They have almost no picks to trade, so their ability to improve the roster is quite limited. Kevin Durant clearly doesn't have the same impact that he once had. Devin Booker is a playoff choker. The Beal trade simply hasn't worked out. This roster is just very flawed. Royce O'Neale is basically the Suns only legit defender(Josh Okogie is a good defender,but doesn't get a lot of playing due to his offense or lack thereof). The best course of action for the Suns may be to trade both Kevin Durant and Devin Booker and get back as many draft picks and young players as possible.

[Exp0sed]

ofc superteams still work (and will always work)
Suns are not a big 3 \ superteam type team

Booker is overrated, KD is very old and Beal hasn't been right for a while and wasn't that good to begin with, they are also all very redundant and it was easy to foresee this team will have alot of diminishing returns

all three guys also don't play all that well of the ball and have little experience in being a #2 or a #3

Beal was always not a good defender (to put it mildly), if u add him to the team and don't feed him on offense then he's hurting you on D and on O when he's off the ball

I thought his contract was one of the worst in the league but at least it makes some sense for a lowly Wizards team that wanted some butts on the seats, it made zero sense for this team especially as it completely destroys their flexibility and adds to an already very high tax implications

it's not that you can't build a superteam in 2024 (you most def can and there are a few of those rn) it's that pairing three different one dimensional scorers with iffy defense is a bad idea

in yesterday's game at home in a must win game the Suns scored just 109 pts, with all three of their "stars" playing 42-43, in large part that's obviously a testament to just how good the Wolves defense is but it's also because of those diminishing returns

KD had 8-18, Booker was 8-15 and Beal was 10-19,neither reached 30 pts
now imagine just KD and Booker, or Beal and Booker, KD and Beal - splitting that same load. that would mean KD and Booker would both have taken 28 FGA, which is right up their alley in 42 or 42 minutes of playing time

the efficiency drop would be minimal (if at all, who knows maybe as a tandem they'd be more in rhytm) so that 3rd guys contributes very little offensively and hurts the team in other areas. just a poorly constructed team.

it didn't help that their 5h starter whose been very important to their "success" (if u can call it that) was injured. they gutted their depth for KD and could have had a mulligan this season, had they used to off-season to improve their depth and cohesion. instead they went and gave up assets for the right to pay Beal a supermax..

horrible gm'ing

[Exp0sed]

Is it safe to say that the Suns Championship window may be closed? They have almost no picks to trade, so their ability to improve the roster is quite limited. Kevin Durant clearly doesn't have the same impact that he once had. Devin Booker is a playoff choker. The Beal trade simply hasn't worked out. This roster is just very flawed. Royce O'Neale is basically the Suns only legit defender(Josh Okogie is a good defender,but doesn't get a lot of playing due to his offense or lack thereof). The best course of action for the Suns may be to trade both Kevin Durant and Devin Booker and get back as many draft picks and young players as possible.

it was closed the moment they traded for Beal

not only is it closed, now they have to rebuild by trading their best asset (Booker), because no1 is giving up anything for Beal and no1 will give up much for KD

had they never traded for either (and def for Beal), they could have kept retooling and improving bit by bit around Booker, whose still in his prime. trading him is horrible for the Suns, you don't normally trade an All-NBA guy whose content to stick around and is in his prime, but I really see no other way for them to rebuild and I doubt Ishbia will roll with a treadmill team so..

[Bob8]

ofc superteams still work (and will always work)
Suns are not a big 3 \ superteam type team

Booker is overrated, KD is very old and Beal hasn't been right for a while and wasn't that good to begin with, they are also all very redundant and it was easy to foresee this team will have alot of diminishing returns

all three guys also don't play all that well of the ball and have little experience in being a #2 or a #3

Beal was always not a good defender (to put it mildly), if u add him to the team and don't feed him on offense then he's hurting you on D and on O when he's off the ball

I thought his contract was one of the worst in the league but at least it makes some sense for a lowly Wizards team that wanted some butts on the seats, it made zero sense for this team especially as it completely destroys their flexibility and adds to an already very high tax implications

it's not that you can't build a superteam in 2024 (you most def can and there are a few of those rn) it's that pairing three different one dimensional scorers with iffy defense is a bad idea

in yesterday's game at home in a must win game the Suns scored just 109 pts, with all three of their "stars" playing 42-43, in large part that's obviously a testament to just how good the Wolves defense is but it's also because of those diminishing returns

KD had 8-18, Booker was 8-15 and Beal was 10-19,neither reached 30 pts
now imagine just KD and Booker, or Beal and Booker, KD and Beal - splitting that same load. that would mean KD and Booker would both have taken 28 FGA, which is right up their alley in 42 or 42 minutes of playing time

the efficiency drop would be minimal (if at all, who knows maybe as a tandem they'd be more in rhytm) so that 3rd guys contributes very little offensively and hurts the team in other areas. just a poorly constructed team.

it didn't help that their 5h starter whose been very important to their "success" (if u can call it that) was injured. they gutted their depth for KD and could have had a mulligan this season, had they used to off-season to improve their depth and cohesion. instead they went and gave up assets for the right to pay Beal a supermax..

horrible gm'ing

I don't believe they had many choices after giving everything for KD and being over the cap. Which better player could they get for 61.5 mio salary of CP3? No one. The mistake was trading everything for old KP, Beal was just the best available replacement for CP3, who wouldn't have helped them anyway. Funny thing is, that Beal might be playing better than Booker. Booker is for sure the biggest disappointment. They have traded every player except him and result is worse than before. Maybe they should go different way this year. Trade Booker.

[metalinguss]

These wolves are trying to be the bad boy grizzilies

Anthony Edwards is taking Ja morants role
Mcdonaiels is brooks

We’ll see what happens next round

Lmao. Edwards is just having fun. Ja tries too hard to be gangster. And none of these players are as dirty and unbearable as Brooks. Try again.

[Exp0sed]

ofc superteams still work (and will always work)

I don't believe they had many choices after giving everything for KD and being over the cap. Which better player could they get for 61.5 mio salary of CP3? No one. The mistake was trading everything for old KP, Beal was just the best available replacement for CP3, who wouldn't have helped them anyway. Funny thing is, that Beal might be playing better than Booker. Booker is for sure the biggest disappointment. They have traded every player except him and result is worse than before. Maybe they should go different way this year. Trade Booker.

I agree that trading for an over the hill KD was the bigger error (sticking with Bridges and co. + plus the picks was obviously the best route for them) but doubling down on it was a mistake as well, so we disagree on that. Beal had at the time (imo) one of the worst contracts in the league, dude will earn 57m in 2027!

once you acquire Beal on that contract (and he's also got the only NTC in th league!) - you're stuck with him.
no1 will touch that with a 10 ft. pole, so even if it means having to punt a season - that would have been a better choice

there are always things you can do, maybe you bring a guy up from the g-league and he ends up being a keeper. Miami seems to find a couple of these every year lol. you can hope for something to happen around the league leading up to the trade deadline, you can usually do something

I'm not a fan of Booker or his game at all and I consider him generally overrated (before these playoffs, this just adds to that) but to his credit he has publically accepted the reduction in his role for the good of the team etc and it's not his fault he seems to be more effective playing a high volume style than a middling volume style - that's on the front office and the coaching staff

with that said, like I said - they are kinda forced now to trade him, because Beal is a negative asset and KD isn't worth much..

[Bob8]

ofc superteams still work (and will always work)

I don't believe they had many choices after giving everything for KD and being over the cap. Which better player could they get for 61.5 mio salary of CP3? No one. The mistake was trading everything for old KP, Beal was just the best available replacement for CP3, who wouldn't have helped them anyway. Funny thing is, that Beal might be playing better than Booker. Booker is for sure the biggest disappointment. They have traded every player except him and result is worse than before. Maybe they should go different way this year. Trade Booker.

I agree that trading for an over the hill KD was the bigger error (sticking with Bridges and co. + plus the picks was obviously the best route for them) but doubling down on it was a mistake as well, so we disagree on that. Beal had at the time (imo) one of the worst contracts in the league, dude will earn 57m in 2027!

once you acquire Beal on that contract (and he's also got the only NTC in th league!) - you're stuck with him.
no1 will touch that with a 10 ft. pole, so even if it means having to punt a season - that would have been a better choice

there are always things you can do, maybe you bring a guy up from the g-league and he ends up being a keeper. Miami seems to find a couple of these every year lol. you can hope for something to happen around the league leading up to the trade deadline, you can usually do something

I'm not a fan of Booker or his game at all and I consider him generally overrated (before these playoffs, this just adds to that) but to his credit he has publically accepted the reduction in his role for the good of the team etc and it's not his fault he seems to be more effective playing a high volume style than a middling volume style - that's on the front office and the coaching staff

with that said, like I said - they are kinda forced now to trade him, because Beal is a negative asset and KD isn't worth much..

It was Beal or corpse of CP3 for 61.5 mio. It looks pretty solid gamble, knowing that they were all in anyway.

[mcmurphy]

I was telling SneakyP.

People will start the hate if you give this guy titles and he starts doing this.

Read on Twitter

mmmmmhhh...
Ant, karma is a bad guy

[sunsbg]

I don't believe they had many choices after giving everything for KD and being over the cap. Which better player could they get for 61.5 mio salary of CP3? No one. The mistake was trading everything for old KP, Beal was just the best available replacement for CP3, who wouldn't have helped them anyway. Funny thing is, that Beal might be playing better than Booker. Booker is for sure the biggest disappointment. They have traded every player except him and result is worse than before. Maybe they should go different way this year. Trade Booker.

I agree that trading for an over the hill KD was the bigger error (sticking with Bridges and co. + plus the picks was obviously the best route for them) but doubling down on it was a mistake as well, so we disagree on that. Beal had at the time (imo) one of the worst contracts in the league, dude will earn 57m in 2027!

once you acquire Beal on that contract (and he's also got the only NTC in th league!) - you're stuck with him.
no1 will touch that with a 10 ft. pole, so even if it means having to punt a season - that would have been a better choice

there are always things you can do, maybe you bring a guy up from the g-league and he ends up being a keeper. Miami seems to find a couple of these every year lol. you can hope for something to happen around the league leading up to the trade deadline, you can usually do something

I'm not a fan of Booker or his game at all and I consider him generally overrated (before these playoffs, this just adds to that) but to his credit he has publically accepted the reduction in his role for the good of the team etc and it's not his fault he seems to be more effective playing a high volume style than a middling volume style - that's on the front office and the coaching staff

with that said, like I said - they are kinda forced now to trade him, because Beal is a negative asset and KD isn't worth much..

It was Beal or corpse of CP3 for 61.5 mio. It looks pretty solid gamble, knowing that they were all in anyway.

This is very simplistic way of looking at things done by Suns fans too. It's a team sport. Players need to fit together. Beal's back injury set the tone for the Suns season. KD burned out early because he had to carry the team with Booker missing significant time too. Main problem is they never showed good chemistry though. All of them are scorers. There is no place for all three of them. Booker and KD played like Big 3 against Denver in last playoffs with same washed out CP3 before he got injured. Now against supposedly good matchup in Wolves the so called Big 3 has looked like Big 1.5. Vogel being gone is a good start to improve the offense. Still Suns should look at a PG in the draft to address the playmaking issue like Mavs did to address their problems in the post. Lively has helped in that regard, maybe someone like Kolek can do the same for Suns next season. Trading Nurkic, who's been exposed in the playoffs, for athleticism/defense/depth is also a good idea IMO.

[Bob8]

I agree that trading for an over the hill KD was the bigger error (sticking with Bridges and co. + plus the picks was obviously the best route for them) but doubling down on it was a mistake as well, so we disagree on that. Beal had at the time (imo) one of the worst contracts in the league, dude will earn 57m in 2027!

once you acquire Beal on that contract (and he's also got the only NTC in th league!) - you're stuck with him.
no1 will touch that with a 10 ft. pole, so even if it means having to punt a season - that would have been a better choice

there are always things you can do, maybe you bring a guy up from the g-league and he ends up being a keeper. Miami seems to find a couple of these every year lol. you can hope for something to happen around the league leading up to the trade deadline, you can usually do something

I'm not a fan of Booker or his game at all and I consider him generally overrated (before these playoffs, this just adds to that) but to his credit he has publically accepted the reduction in his role for the good of the team etc and it's not his fault he seems to be more effective playing a high volume style than a middling volume style - that's on the front office and the coaching staff

with that said, like I said - they are kinda forced now to trade him, because Beal is a negative asset and KD isn't worth much..

It was Beal or corpse of CP3 for 61.5 mio. It looks pretty solid gamble, knowing that they were all in anyway.

This is very simplistic way of looking at things done by Suns fans too. It's a team sport. Players need to fit together. Beal's back injury set the tone for the Suns season. KD burned out early because he had to carry the team with Booker missing significant time too. Main problem is they never showed good chemistry though. All of them are scorers. There is no place for all three of them. Booker and KD played like Big 3 against Denver in last playoffs with same washed out CP3 before he got injured. Now against supposedly good matchup in Wolves the so called Big 3 has looked like Big 1.5. Vogel being gone is a good start to improve the offense. Still Suns should look at a PG in the draft to address the playmaking issue like Mavs did to address their problems in the post. Lively has helped in that regard, maybe someone like Kolek can do the same for Suns next season. Trading Nurkic, who's been exposed in the playoffs, for athleticism/defense/depth is also a good idea IMO.

My point is that trading everything for KD was a mistake and you were basically pushed to trade for Beal, because you couldn't get anyone better for CP3 and you couldn't realistically expect to win something with having invested 61.5 mio in CP3. Trading Ayton for Nurkic was bad too, but that story goes back to 2018 draft. Booker no wanting competition for alpha position was importing reason for drafting beta. Funny enough he's far from Alpha. And even more funny Luka and Booker should be pretty good fit, because Luka is actually Pg, what no one from your big 3 isn't.

[sunsbg]

It was Beal or corpse of CP3 for 61.5 mio. It looks pretty solid gamble, knowing that they were all in anyway.

This is very simplistic way of looking at things done by Suns fans too. It's a team sport. Players need to fit together. Beal's back injury set the tone for the Suns season. KD burned out early because he had to carry the team with Booker missing significant time too. Main problem is they never showed good chemistry though. All of them are scorers. There is no place for all three of them. Booker and KD played like Big 3 against Denver in last playoffs with same washed out CP3 before he got injured. Now against supposedly good matchup in Wolves the so called Big 3 has looked like Big 1.5. Vogel being gone is a good start to improve the offense. Still Suns should look at a PG in the draft to address the playmaking issue like Mavs did to address their problems in the post. Lively has helped in that regard, maybe someone like Kolek can do the same for Suns next season. Trading Nurkic, who's been exposed in the playoffs, for athleticism/defense/depth is also a good idea IMO.

My point is that trading everything for KD was a mistake and you were basically pushed to trade for Beal, because you couldn't get anyone better for CP3 and you couldn't realistically expect to win something with having invested 61.5 mio in CP3. Trading Ayton for Nurkic was bad too, but that story goes back to 2018 draft.

Doubling on a mistake is never good thing. KD trade and Beal's contract have basically the same effect - no flexibility, no plan B if things go wrong. Ayton issues started with not offering him the max and he had to go. Nurkic and Allen were actually big in the regular season, but non factors in the playoffs. It's what it is.

In retrospect drafting Luka would have been better obviously. Suns had a chance at Haliburton too. Now a decent PG will do the job too with current roster construction.

[VicG]

Wolves are an insanely good team. Congrats to that fanbase. They deserve it.

Nuggets/Wolves will be an incredible series. They match up better with Denver than anyone else does.

I said so before the playoffs, Wolves are the only team that can beat Denver in the West and I even think they're slight favorites. the Nuggets don't really have a big men rotation, DAJ is ancient and cooked, Nnaji is worthless (and doesn't have the size to battle actual 7 footers anyway) and AG as small ball Center can work in a pinch against some teams but not against the Wolves

it's not just Gobert\KAT and Naz, Mcdaniels is also 7 feet tall. the Nuggets have one legit Center in Jokic and that's it. every game that Jokic is in foul trouble is basically a loss and it'd be very hard for him to defend ANT inside + the bigs without fouling, so he'll be forced to concede baskets and hope to make up for it at the other end

that works against the rest of the league but Minny's defense is too good (best in the league) and it's hard to really put points on their head, even if u are the offensively oiled machine that is the Denver Nuggets

this is the real WCF, between the two best teams in the West and whoever wins the series will go to the finals

I became a believer after watching their regular
season games against the nuggets. This is the WCF for sure. For the wolves to win Ant will have to deliver. Jokic is the best player in the series and will bring his A game. Ant had a few duds in the last month which obvs happens as a young player. But he can’t do that in the next series. It’s gonna be awesome. Overall, I still think the nuggets big game experience will win out and the Wolves may rue that final game loss to give Denver HCA for a game 7

[hauntedcomputer]

I think theyll market Ant more as superstar, next Mj type of stuff

Yeah right after fining him for the crotch chop

I get Subway Jared vibes with this guy, you invest in him as a Face and then he gets permanent Bell's Palsy. An icky dude if you're trying to appear as some kind of moral beacon like the NBA does.