Phoenix Suns Fall To The New Jersey Nets Without Steve Nash Or Grant Hill; Lose 110-103

Nothing much to say but the Suns have to play better and get wins where they can. I believe they can do it, just need a spark to arise in them to bring it out…

Losing 2 games at home to New Jersey and Cleveland is not good on the resume. We are losing to some garbage at home and the Suns will not have a good season if this continues.

Yeah, I was really impressed with Price. Didn’t see Telfair’s first stint, but the second stint stunk.
Loving Frye’s game.
I think all the starters tonight did really well. It was the bench that let us down in the 2nd half. And, also, the end of the game decisions. Why not go into Gortat more- or Frye for that matter?

I think Brown was improved too. But, lots of other players had really bad games: Lopez, Morris, Hak. I would have rather had Dowdell than Telfair tonight. And I think Redd’s game will come. Ups and downs for a couple of weeks before he gets in a rhythm.

And the team did do much better in the rebounding in the 2nd half. Although it helped that the nets didn’t miss a shot. Overall, the defense wasn’t as good, and they still looked lost pretty often on rebounding.

This would be a really bad loss if Nash and Hill hadn’t been out. As it is, it felt like a preseason game. I’ll chuck it out. But, as Gentry says, there is little room for error, and we’ve seen a whole lotta errors so far this season. If they don’t start clicking soon, it’ll be over.

With Nash and Hill out due to injury. And still Childress didn’t get off the bench. This makes him our 13th man then, I suppose. And the Suns needed perimeter D, which the long, athletic Childress should be able to provide. If there was any game in which he should get minutes, this was it. Yet, bubkes. Apparently, Gentry has completely given up on him.

That has to hurt. Shout out to Seth, discuss Chilly on the next podcast. Also some good recipes for chili.

I’m up for lowering the bar to the ground. Let us just embrace the suck. Brightside of a lottery team.

i hope we can make enough good moves to convince nash to a 2 year deal.
landing Hardin/westbrook/batum/ or any any other of those 2nd tier star to future superstar guys would instanly help this team contend. we have all the intangibles that are required for a good run. but we need str8 up ballers and shot callers to get through the easy part which is just edging out wins with pure talent and aggression. we need a star on this team dubbed the “Suns” to revolve around

But still disappointed in the loss.

Knowing this team though, we could lose to CLE and NJ at home and somehow take 4 out of these next 6. Then leave us all scratching our heads by losing 5 in a row promptly afterward.

We still don’t have a consistent go to guy. Gortat has been great but there is still that feeling of “we’ll get a bucket and one” that’s missing in the clutch like STAT would bring. I hope we find time to work Morris’ post game. We’re likely to be needing that in the future.

And we are F.U.B.A.R,

but to lose back to back to the Cavs and Nets at home, well this does not bode well for the rest of the year let alone of this up coming road trip.
This front office should be geared to be getting another 1st round pick in next years draft. Of course this front office ( Sarver) has the track record of getting rid of them instead of acquiring them.
This team needs young legs.

The Suns are who we thought they were, before the season started. Struggling to stay at .500, bouyed by 2 leaders in their late 30s who have been progressively losing the battle with father time over the past few years.

Decisions, decisions…

Yes I’m keeping track.

from the trade talk, cap structure analysis, and bemoaning and attempt to rouse a little basketball discussion….

I didn’t get to see the game except for the last 5 minutes. How did Price look?

From the box score it looks like he had a pretty good game:

7-11 fg 18 points 8 assists 4 rebounds 2 steals (4 to) in 32 minutes

Plus the team scored 103 points, which is their second highest total this season, so it doesn’t look like the offense stalled with him out there.

I know a box score doesn’t tell the whole story, but I’d speculate (without confirmation) that there are probably only 2 or 3 point guards in the league averaging over 18 and 8 a game.

Maybe giving Price a chance to get significant exposure will end up paying dividends as the season progresses… A performance like this could help him build confidence and translate into more productive back-up minutes.

Any thoughts or ananlysis?

(then I’ll get back to the off the court discussion)

What does everybody think about Nash and Hill sitting last night? (I’m looking at this from the angle that they probably COULD have played)

I’ve been pontificating for a while on the merits of resting players via mandatory days off, shortening the bench, and getting players out there for significant stretches to build cohesion together and get in the groove of the game.

I think this strategy succeeds in:

1. Keeping players rested and
2. Complies with the D’Antoni principle that it is best to play your best players as much as possible in the game.

Best of both worlds.

Yes, the Suns lost a home game to the lowly Nets, but it seems that Nash’s contribution might not have tipped the scales. The team still scored enough to win in his absence, they just didn’t play well enough defensively. Likewise, if Hill would have been there to bolster the defense, maybe he would have gone 1-12 again and the team wouldn’t ha scored enough to win.

DWill just had one of those nights. Now it has happened to the Suns in 2 of the last 3 games, but to be fair Kobe has gone for 40 and 42 since he torched the Suns for 48, so maybe the Suns get a little bit of a pass there.

Last night, with Nash sitting, Price was given extended minutes and he appeared to play well (judging from the box score). Maybe this pays dividends down the line. The same dynamic could hold true for other players. When Frye sits, Morris can play 30+ and we would see how he does. When Dudley sits, more minutes for Warrick and maybe a chance for Redd to wrestle away the starting job…

I think that it would be a little delusional to come into this season with the belief that Hill and Nash would actually play all 66 games. I just don’t think that Gentry is looking at the reality of the situation and implementing a strategy to maximize his advantages and work around his limitations.

Or maybe he started to last night?

Any thoughts?

One more.

What was the deal with Morris last night? 3 points, 1 rebound, and 3 turnovers in 18 minutes… Yikes.

We’ve all seen the Morris roller coaster now.

One game he looks like he needs to start and the next game he looks like, well, last night.

Do people still think he should be given an opportunity to start and move Frye to the bench (an experiment that would be easy to employ if Gentry was giving days off) on at least a feeling out basis?

Do people think that this kind of fluctuation is going to be the status quo due to Morris’s rookie status?

Do people think that the rookies this year, including Morris, are likely to struggle as the season progresses based on a schedule where they play so many games and do so much travelling in a short period of time? It seems to me this season would be especially hard on rookies…

that maybe the Suns management maybe thinking that this season isn’t going anywhere and maybe starting to move accordingly… The resignation I heard in Dudz interview regarding the rebounding kinda stuck with me..What if our players are feeling that management isn’t really that committed to this season…?It could be affecting some of their thought processes and play on the court…

Barbosa has expiring contract and won’t hesitate to score. Bryan owes us for Hedo trade.

we were without our two best players, so it doesn’t count for much. I was actually encouraged to see that Channing could run the high post rather well, and Price did better than I thought as well.