|
It’s time. You all know what this is. Do a big post. I dare you. Funny pictures are not mandatory but are definitely recommended. If your team is Back, let us know. Include fun facts, real or pretend. Do NOT post meaningless workout videos of Ben Simmons. The word Asset is banned in this thread. This thread is about people. Hoopers, ballers, chuckers, and otherwise. I’ll start for everyone, but if reading this makes you get a Hankerin for some ball, consider joining the Preseason GDT thread linked here as well. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4043563 ——————————— THE PHOENIX SUNS…BABY  Last season the suns started off hot, had some injury issues, fell apart for a bit, and started to recover before the all star break as Mikal Bridges started to break out as a scorer in addition to his consistently elite defensive performance. Then kyrie Irving demanded a trade to a city with less Jewish people and everything changed. Kevin Durant was traded for Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, and a zillion picks. Oh, and the BOSSMANN too. KD was out with a nagging injury until a few games after the allstar break, but when he came back the suns won every game he played. He twisted his ankle in warmups and ended up only playing like eight games in the regular season, which came back to bite them later. After waxing the heavily injured Clippers behind a “spiritual” performance from booker in round one, the suns ran into the nuggets buzzsaw and lost in six games despite another incredible series from booker; their relatively unsettled roster, inflexible coaching, a diminished or unavailable Chris Paul, and a borderline unplayable deandre ayton were too much to overcome. They got cooked on their home court in an elimination game for the second straight season, but nobody was really too upset about it this time. It helped that the nuggets ended up going the distance, and it didn’t go unnoticed that the suns played Denver a lot closer than either the Lakers in the conference finals or the heats in the finals. As a thank you for getting them to the playoffs three years in a row, the team fired Monty Williams and then overhauled the roster entirely, with six total players returning from last year’s squad. Lol.   Monty Williams, you were a good coach and would probably still be here if the team did not have a new owner. It was time. you brought the team back not only to relevancy, but had them excelling within two years of your arrival.  Chris Paul, thank you for your service. You had two incredible seasons and one that was a bit of a letdown. Wish we had won that finals for you.  Cam Payne, I’ll miss you dearly, you were fun to watch and would have fit in well with what this year’s team will be doing. I’m glad you were able to get your career back on track here.  Torrey Craig, you busted your rear end here last season and were a great piece on the finals team. Get that money.   Jock landale and Bismack Biyombo, thank you for being professionals and giving a ton of effort.  Other bench guys who I’m forgetting because it was so long ago, good luck with what you’re doing.  Landry shamet, you had approximately one good game as a Sun and were a total waste of a roster spot otherwise. Good riddance.  Alejandro Ayton, enjoy Portland. Try hard there and you might get to be the first option on another bad team when you get moved alongside anfernee simons or something. Idk  Josh Ayton, enjoy Portland. Try hard there and you might get to be the first option on another bad team when you get moved alongside anfernee simons or something. Idk  Deandre Ayton, I’m glad I don’t have to talk about or think about you in the context of playing for the suns any more. The valley oop was awesome and so was the rest of the finals run but it was all downhill from there. MEET THE 2023-24 SUNS  Frank Vogel is the new coach of the Suns. After firing Monty Williams a number of names, ranging from nightmarish (doc rivers, mark Jackson) to young up and comers (Kevin young, jordi Fernandez) were bandied about; they settled on a guy with a resume for good defense and the ability to manage high level players. I think most suns fans are basically fine with this hire, especially since they were able to retain Kevin young, presumably to run the offensive side of things. The Big 3  Devin Booker leveled up yet again in the playoffs last year, and before a lackluster games five and six against the nuggets he had an insane bball fugue that was rivaled only by jokic. Pretty good! He has a very good signature shoe coming out soon. Favorite food: chicken Bradley Beal is new to the suns after spending his whole career in DC before forcing a trade here. He has had some injury issues as of late but is still an excellent scorer who can play well on or off ball. Favorite food: chicken Kevin Durant had one of the best midrange shooting seasons of all time last year. He is still very excellent at basketball when he is on the court. Favorite food: chicken Everybody Else  Jusif Nurkic has been hurt a lot over the last few seasons. The suns acquired him in the Deandre ayton trade and are hoping that just having somebody who actually wants to be here will be a positive at the position since there won’t be a ton of shots to go around for him. Favorite food: chicken  Josh Okogie is one of the remaining guys from last season. An undersized but tenacious defender, looked good in the regular season but fell apart offensively in the playoffs. His shot is super streaky at best and he got run off the floor. Started the first preseason game with the previously listed four dudes, is probably gonna start unless the next guy shows him up. Favorite food: chicken  Keita Bates-Diop is on a minimum having come over from the Spurs. A long athletic guy with a crazy wingspan. He seems like exactly the kind of player frank Vogel would want to fill that last spot but we’ll see. Favorite food: chicken  Eric Gordon finally is a sun. He’ll get to just come off the bench and shoot like crazy. Perfect role player for this team as constructed. Favorite food: chicken  Grey/Gray Son Allen also came over in the ayton trade. Could start if booker or Beal misses time but will probably be coming off the bench. Another 3&D fit for what you want around the stars. Favorite food: chicken  Drew eubanks was in line to back up Ayton, now he’s backing up nurkic again. Will probably play a lot given nurk’s injury history. Favorite food: chicken  Yuta watanabe is here because KD wanted him here. His corner 3 is good and he’s another guy with a huge wingspan. Has not been good defensively BUT if vogel can get any improvement out of him on that side of the ball then he will be extremely valuable. Favorite food: chicken At this point we get into the guys who probably won’t play much. Bol Bol, chimezie metu, nassir little, Keon Johnson, Saben lee, ish wainright, and Jordan Goodwin. I think at least two of these guys will get cut. Jordan Goodwin will probably see the most time out of the bunch if I had to guess, but if nurkic misses extended time I bet metu will play over Bol. Damion lee was here last season and was a high percentage 3 point shooter, apparently he hurt his knee and probably will not be playing. These guys all like chicken too Qs And As Can this team play defense? They should be ok, best case scenario they are top 10 but I think 12-15 is more realistic. Beal is the worst defender of the starters but booker and Durant are both good defenders. Nurkic might have some issues. Either okogie or KBD will probably be the fifth starter and they’re both good. They could be better than I’m thinking off the strength of the coach but I’m gonna wait and see on that. I think the construction before moving ayton definitely seemed intended to collect big guys with big wingspans who have the potential to be plus defenders with a coach who knows what he’s doing. We’ll see. I’m not overly concerned because… There’s only one ball. Why team construct this way? Each one of the big three are excellent both as ball dominant scorers or off ball shooters, Beal and booker will likely both be primary ball handlers. It looks like the coaching staff is wanting to push the tempo and attack which makes sense when you have three elite shooters who can create their own shot, create for others, and catch and shoot all at allstar levels. This team is going to score a shitload of points, and has the potential and star power to score so much and so efficiently that it doesn’t matter if the defense is just ok. Can these guys stay healthy? I mean…probably not? Beal has been shut down for tanking reasons a few times and has had some injury history. Durant has well documented injury history and booker has occasional hamstring issues. That being said, there’s enough scoring firepower that I don’t think the team suffers much with one of them out. From the look of things the rotation will have enough capable bodies that they don’t need to overload any of the big three. Should be fine unless they all get hurt. Booker is the youngest and healthiest, as long as he’s out there it should be fine. Prognosis The suns are going to loving shred, hard. If not the favorite to win the finals they should at least be a favorite to make it there. This team is stacked and has solid guys around the big three. They are gonna be so fun to watch. Ok bye.
|
#
¿
Oct 10, 2023 23:39
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 9, 2024 13:03 |
|
|
You’d have to ask them. I do not have the answers you seek. Good night
|
|
#
¿
Oct 11, 2023 00:49
|
|
|
Generally, I root for the bulls to either be miserable dog poo poo bad or just good enough to get out the hopes of the bulls posters before eating poo poo in the playoffs. Bonus points awarded when a mediocre roleplayer like Derrick rose gets hyped up because they are from chicago
|
|
#
¿
Oct 11, 2023 18:34
|
|
|
Kat sucks Good writeups by all parties tho
|
|
#
¿
Oct 24, 2023 20:25
|
|