Unfortunately, the preseason game between the Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings is not on TV.
Those of us in the Valley can listen to the game on KTAR, but that's not going to happen in my house. No matter though. We will learn very little about the Suns from tonight's game.
Some guys' minutes will be higher than expected, some will be lesser.
Matt Janning will make more than half his shots, and we'll collectively have dreamy visions of an all-Luke-Skywalker backcourt of Dragic and Janning.
Earl Clark will make some shots, and miss some others and we'll be wondering what the misses looked like more than the makes.
Gani Lawal will throw down a couple dunks. Robin Lopez will sink a couple jumpers. And Dwayne Jones will likely lead the team in rebounds.
Yet all those developments will likely have zero impact on the regular season rotation. That's the nature of the first preseason game.
But there ARE storylines. There's always a couple good storylines.
Since we can't watch the game, we'll have rely on the boxscore and second-hand reports from local reporters.
Storyline #1 -
Earl Clark will likely get some serious run tonight, for a few reasons. (1) He's talented player who needs time on the court to sort out his niche, (2) he's the most prototypical PF on the roster, with decent potential in all areas, and (3) in the worst case scenario, the Suns need to showcase him for potential inclusion in a trade later this season.
I've heard what Phoenix reporters think of Earl. What interests me is the postgame review on sactownroyalty.com, to see if Earl made an impression. If he plays 30 minutes but gets no mention outside Phoenix, that will be telling. Conversely, if he gets kudos, that's a plus.
Storyline #2 -
Dwayne Jones vs. Garret Siler. I'm curious who will get more minutes. I think Jones will pull down more rebounds, while Siler will score more points. But in my mind, which player gets more minutes could be telling.
If Siler gets significantly more run, in my mind it's not really a slight on Jones as much as an extended evaluation of Siler. Siler must not have convinced them enough in training camp to have made a decision yet.
If Jones get significantly more run, then that's a death nell for Siler. Jones is the "known" quantity. So if he's getting a lot more minutes than Siler, Gentry has moved past the eval phase and onto the "who can Jones play with, if given regular season minutes?"
Storyline #3 -
I'm not feeling the 3 possible backup-to-the-backup PGs on the roster. How can all of them get minutes in a real game?
I'm thinking Gentry will give each of them (Janning, Atkins, Dowdell) one game each of good run with the second or third unit, just to see what happens.
The question is who gets first dibs on the "real" minutes, those played with actual rotation players. My guess is Matt Janning.
So, those are my storylines from tonight. What do YOU want to see?