Turkoglu and Dragic Dominate; Give Phoenix Suns A Preview of Upcoming Season
by Alex Laugan on Sep 5, 2010 4:38 PM MDT
in Phoenix Suns News
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PrintQuick update:
Phoenix Suns players dominated the World Championships today in Turkey.
Paul Coro has a nice writeup as well here.
First, Goran Dragic had a very good all-around game (10 points, 8 assists, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 turnovers) but moreso was clearly the best player on the court. With regard to the scouting report on Goran (force him right), Australia did that and often stymied him. But he quickly passed out of trouble and never seemed flustered. He just found the open man (ie. mismatch) created by the overplay.
Watching this Slovenian team is such deja-vu to the Phoenix Suns' style. Their whole game is based on guard play creating from each side of the court. They either end up with an open 3 (and 3-4 players at a time can hit it) or a garbage finish at the basket. Very few isolations, except at the start of the play to get the mismatches off and rolling. Crisp passing and clean shooting (16 of 33 from 3-pt land today) rule the day.
Then later, Turkey killed France. The game wasn't even close, with Turkey blowing it open to start the third quarter on a 10-0 run after leading by a wide margin already. The run was fueled by a pair of Turkoglu 3s from each angle (for the game: 20 pts in 25 minutes, 4-7 form 3, 6-11 overall, plus 3 assists and 4 rebounds).
Hedo Turkoglu was brilliant. If you watched this game, you could envision how he can help the Suns this year. Oh he's definitely a perimeter player. No posting up from Hedo. He will drive, dish and shoot from the outside. Fine, we know this. His offense will create offense for others, and we'll either love him when he hits the fallaway 3s or hate him when he doesn't.
But also, Turkey dominated defensively using a 2-3 half-court zone in which Hedo played the lower baseline spot. The same spot Amare played in the Suns' zone. And Turkey's defense was stifling. Just sayin'.
Next up:
Slovenia and Turkey face off in the next round on Wednesday. One of them will move on. One will go home to rest before training camp.
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Dragich & Turk
I wathed the turkey game and it makes me excited for the season, if hedo plays like the orlando hedo as he did today we should be as fun to watch as ever.Now im going to catch the replay of gorans game.
I agree
Can’t wait for all these guys to get into training camp together. If they gell and the the chemistry is good, this could be a very good team thats exciting and fun to watch play.
Turkey looks like the best team in the tourney right now
I was also thinking Hedo’s knowledge of the zone and playing zone as a 4 will be nice to have coming into next season.
Way to go Turk, It'll be sad to see either dragic or hedo's tourney end.
"Remember this sh*t at christmas!"-Terry Crews, The Expendables
True..
I gotta root for Dragic though, hes been with us longer haha.
Either way it should be a great game!
I agree, I was thinking along the same lines, and also because turkey has a better chance of beating team USA
"Remember this sh*t at christmas!"-Terry Crews, The Expendables
I believe winning the World Championship would do Turk or Dragic a favor. If they can lead their team all the way I would expect them to feel much more confident going into this NBA season.
I really think Turkey has got a shot at beating USA. They’ve got the Home-court behind them. They’re big, can play good defense and can score.
Don't trade Dudley!
If Slovenia beats Turkey they may also be able to challenge USA if they can get their heads on straight and believe. Last game they weren’t in it mentally because they were expecting to lose. They even said they didn’t care about playing USA before the game because they knew they were going to lose. That’s not a very good attitude. I think they’re a better team than they realize. Hopefully, they are beginning to realize that. Brazil came close and I hope that other teams have received that message that USA isn’t invincible.
Don't trade Dudley!
Hey, anybody know where I can get some Armaini sunglasses?
Watched the Turkey/France game. The announcers used the hard ‘G’ in Turkoglu’s name – that was amusing. They also thought a lot of Diaw – until the second half. Turkey is at least the 3rd best team in the tourney – haven’t seen Spain much, but they are the champs. I’ll probably root for Slovenia – can’t break the underdog habit.
Auntie Em: Hate you, hate Kansas, taking the dog.
Dorothy
Not Armani, Armaini.
I guess the moderators removed the GoLady ad. It was supposed to be funny – but when you have to explain…
Auntie Em: Hate you, hate Kansas, taking the dog.
Dorothy
I lol'd
not sure if that counts for much though
No way
Turkey beats the usa I think the turks will struggle with quicker slashing players.Actualy look for slovenia to give them a real test if they can rebound.
Great Review!
I was up in Flagstaff this weekend, so I didn’t get a chance to watch either game. But reading this makes me feel so much better about Turkoglu. I have just felt like I don’t know much about his game and that worried me, but this makes me feel a lot more confident. Plus, any good news about Goran just makes me happy. :)
Wednesday’s game should be very interesting! I think I’ll be supporting Slovenia, though.
"If the Suns can shock the world
Goran Dragic is the name."
by Dragic_is_Magic on Sep 5, 2010 8:17 PM MDT via mobile reply actions
according to this article Turk was the one who sent his entire nation into a frenzy today
http://espn.go.com/blog/TrueHoop/post/_/id/19707/turks-delight-singing-home-crowd-by-beating-france
but dragic is so awesome, isnt there any way we can cheer and have both of them win??
oh wait, there is. is called PHOENIX SUNS 2010-2011!!!!!
"One deep fried avocado, please." = famous last words
Im proud of them both!
Steve Nash can only give 100 percent. The other 10 percent he donates to his families.
I believe in the destiny of the Suns. We can prevail.
Watching the replay of Turkey/France now
The play by play guy is pronouncing his name HAY-do Tur-COAG-loo. I’ve always heard it pronounced HEE-do TURK-ah-loo. Does anyone know which is correct?
And now he just commented that France seems to be over-passing
Don’t ever change, Doris Meow.
by East Bay Ray on Sep 5, 2010 11:19 PM MDT up reply actions
In Boris's defense
He played a good game today. I’m showing so much respect to his 21pt, 5rb, 4ast performance that I’m even calling him “Boris.”
by East Bay Ray on Sep 6, 2010 12:24 AM MDT up reply actions
The letter one
The ‘g’ in ‘oglu’ should be a soft/silent one. Actually, it is not even the letter ‘g’ in Turkish but ‘ğ’ and written as “…oğlu”.
A cat playing basketball? With LeBron, Pau Gasol and Ginobili? Sorry but I have to see it, to believe it.
letter -> latter
A cat playing basketball? With LeBron, Pau Gasol and Ginobili? Sorry but I have to see it, to believe it.
Yeah, that's what I thought. Thanks
I was just surprised to hear a professional TV announcer butcher his name so badly. It’s not like Hedo is new on the scene or anything.
goran played well
but australia is a crappy team… he still struggles against better teams… it will be interesting to see him play against turkey in hot and unfrendly atmosphere…
haven’t seen turk play still, but remembering the reports, this is his first good game on the tournament…
I am getting really anoyed
by everyone (now even Coro) saying something like ‘it is incredible Slovenia is playing so well without Udrih and Vujacic’.
I can understand the notion of Udrih playing, but not the Udrih who wants to be the mean. He would destroy the chemistry.
As for mentioning Vujacic in the same sentence. At what point did he actually become a good player? I don t care who he plays fors, who he dates, how many rings he wings, he for me never was and still is not a good player. Combine that with the fact that he is a dick, i would not want him on the team even if he was good.
Anyway i am really happy for the team, game against Australia was suprisingly easy, so i m pretty sure game on Wednesday will be nothing like that.
Blaz
+100000000!!
actually, I think Erazem Lorbek is a much bigger loss than either of the guards. Becirovic is providing so much in his minutes, I can’t imagine either of those missing guards providing more than that.
I think Americans just like to throw out NBA names because we’ll recognize them.
Blogging Suns Basketball at Bright Side of the Sun
are there any fans in Slovenia who actually like Vujacic?
They say "don't swim with the sharks", but I'm faster than sharks so it's not a big deal...
I wish i could say no :)
But they probably are. If not thruout the country, then surely in Maribor, where he was born.
Blaz
On Hedo Turkoglu
I’ve never put much stock in the talk that Hedo is a bad teammate, lazy slug, etc, after his one awful season in Toronto. He hadn’t shown that in his other NBA stops, and he certainly shows none of that in playing with his Turkish national team. The Turks play like a cohesive team, a real TEAM and Hedo looks great as one of their leaders. The situation with the Raptors last year, when the pressure was on to win to keep Bosh, yet Bosh most likely had no interest in staying there regardless, had to be nothing like his previous teams. Seems like an organizational fail by Toronto last year more than what you can blame individual players for.
All of which is to say, in case people had doubts, I think we’ll see the best Hedo has to offer this year. He’s going to love the team environment on the Suns, and thrive in it. How good is his best:? We’ll see.
Well said
As being from Turkey, I have been following Hedo since his rookie days at SAC. Last year was a fluke and he didn’t deserve all the negativity coming from Toronto fans. He was very upset about how the team handled his so-called night out. He explained in an Turkish channel interview what really happened and it sure looks as overblown (there was an English translation but I couldn’t find).
Anyway, I think Suns and Nash will be a better fit for Turkoglu than Raptors. He was always an emotional player. He doesn’t perform the same whereever whenever. Circumstances affect his game a lot. His Magic performance was mostly because of the confidence he got from his coach. If he can start the season good and he feels the trust of his teammates and his coach he will offer his A game. If he hits some adversity, it is important that people around him, the fans, the media would not let him lose focus and interest. I believe that’s what happened in Toronto last year.
A cat playing basketball? With LeBron, Pau Gasol and Ginobili? Sorry but I have to see it, to believe it.
Love that input
I hope fans who read this don’t think he’s weak-minded though. The dude has only had 1 experience out of 4 NBA organizations.
I see no problem with Hedo thriving here. There’s no better game-builders than Nash, Hill and Gentry.
Blogging Suns Basketball at Bright Side of the Sun
To be fair,
Hedo had a terrible year and the organization can’t take all the blame. Hedo is responbsible for his individual play, which was pathetic for someone of his talents.
That being said, I do expect him to bounce back and be a good teammate.
Loser goes home
Not quite. I think both teams stay till the end, the loser also plays 2 more games to determine the 5-8 places.
Actualy
Im pretty sure only the losers of the final four will play again for the bronze,Till then lose and you go home.Will do some checking on that
That's true
5-8 placements will effect the FIBA rankings the countries will have in the future. So those matches are somewhat still competitive. It is also prestigious to be 5th at the World Championship for teams who don’t have any medals yet at this level of play.
A cat playing basketball? With LeBron, Pau Gasol and Ginobili? Sorry but I have to see it, to believe it.
Hedo
Toronto was a “lame duck” organazation last year.They were counting down the days till bosh was gonna jet,Otherwise relativley poor players that hedo couldnt even make look good and a questionable scheme ran by triano.I dont see how the finger can be pointed at hedo for the raptors 09-10 season.
can Dragic start going to the right?
So everyone wants to force Dragic to the right, because he likes going to the left. Can he solve that by simply making himself go to the right, or is that easier said than done?
Well, he's left-handed.
He definitely needs to work on his moves to the right – he’s already a good passer when he goes right, but he needs to be a scoring threat, too. It’s something that needs to be developed, and it won’t happen overnight. He can shoot with his right hand, but not against bigs. I’d like to see him develop a Tony Parker-like tear-drop runner from the right side – but he’ll find his stroke.
Auntie Em: Hate you, hate Kansas, taking the dog.
Dorothy
well the fact that a lefty can't go as strong to his right than left
is not unique to Dragic. Just as you rarely see any right-handed players drive left. Notice even Tony parker’s teardrop is always from the right-half of the court because he’s right handed.
I haven’t seen a single dipsy-do from dragic (“he got Dragic’d!”) this WC, so maybe he doesn’t want to show off. And since his team is winning, he probably doesn’t feel he needs to. He’s always been more about team than individual plays.
having said all that, Dragic just needs to make sure it never goes to his head. It got him frustrated against Team USA and Brazil, but not Australia.
This is a guess, but I don’t think it will affect him against any teams EXCEPT USA and Brazil. IMO, he got himself frustrated because he had a personal stake against those teams. USA has Rose, Westbrook and even Odom. Plus the fact that they are a team full of NBA players, where he’s trying to prove himself. And Brazil has LB, who he likes a lot yet was forced to try to beat one-on-one.
So I bet we see a controlled, exciting Dragic against Turkey and later against Serbia or Spain, as those are Euro teams he’ faced many times before (and has had success against).
Blogging Suns Basketball at Bright Side of the Sun
by Alex Laugan on Sep 6, 2010 11:01 AM MDT up reply actions 1 recs
I’m watching the Russia/New Zealand game right now and Russia reminds me of my basketball team a couple years ago. They play intense D, but can’t score worth nothing.
Don't trade Dudley!
It's great seeing both Dragic and Turkoglu playing well...
But I’m definitely rooting for Slovenia to win in their match-up on Wednesday. Hedo is older and can use the rest before the season starts, whlie Dragic is still young and can use the extra playing time to further refine his game
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