Phoenix Suns Practice Report: Limit the Turnovers and 2nd Chance Points

The Suns practiced for the second day in a row this Sunday going for about an hour. The highlight I saw after we were let in was Jarron Collins "taking a charge" when he was trying to set a pick on Grant Hill coming across the lane. Grant ran into him and Collins flew back. Grant just looked at him with those WTH eyes (as pictured).

Dan Majerle got a mention from Charles Barkley on Saturday Night Live last night. Thunder Dan didn't see it but got a few texts last night and heard about it this morning from the team.

"Charles is good that way. I've given him enough free burgers and beer to get some pay back, so that's good," said the owner of the popular Majerle's Restaurant in downtown Phoenix.

The rest of the guys left pretty quick after practice with many of them headed to the Cardinals game.

Coach Gentry stuck around warning us that he only had two minutes to talk. He talked for almost 9 minutes and then stayed even longer shooting the shit about all sorts of topics.

Coaches Notes:

• The Bucks haven't won in Phoenix since 1987 (21 games) but Gentry said they are playing well and need to be taken seriously (the Bucks are the only franchise that's never won in the "new" US Airway Center which opened in 1993 and according to Suns notes 2 players on each team hadn't been born when the Bucks last won in Phoenix: Earl Clark and Robin Lopez and Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova)
• Keys are to defend the Bucks bigs. Bogut played well against us and deal with Jennings - he's very capable and can do a lot of things and get back in transition
• And have to not give up second shots and not turn the ball over
• Nash has career high 30 turnovers in last five games (h/t to John Schuhmann). Gentry's not worried about that since Nash has the ball in his hands so much and the Suns run a high risk offense
• Gentry does want to see turnovers limited to 12 - 15. He said when you give up 20 that's 8 empty offensive possessions which is about 8 points per game lost
• Wants to limit the careless turnovers - bad passes. If anything, that's a lack of focus per Gentry although sometimes things are being forced
  
• LB is still getting back into the flow and he's not playing extended minutes. He will have a big game at some stage (LB has 8 turnovers and 2 assists in his last 4 games in which he played around 15 minutes per game)
  
• LB is back to coming off the bench first so he gets minutes with Nash. Gentry said they had Dragic doing that to get his confidence but he's been playing with as much confidence as he's had since he's gotten to Phoenix.
• The Suns are trying to get LB going by having him play with Steve and get some easy buckets (like on that baseline corner cut)
• Talking about Brandon Jennings, Gentry said that Skiles has been flexible with him (something Skiles isn't known for) and "let the kid be who he is" which is pretty darn good