CoolBreeze's 2 Things I Didn't Like Tonight Plus 1

[Coolbreeze44]

Winning is more fun than losing eh? Interesting game tonight with the new pieces. Fun to see how things might fit together eventually. Here is tonight's post all star week winning version of the 2 + 1:

1) Pek simply has to play better. We know he can, but for some reason he has these nights where nothing seems to go in. As Jim Pete said he needs to pass the ball out to the open shooter when he has 2 shot blockers covering him. Those missed shots that have virtually no chance to go in are the same as turnovers. C'mon Pek, you're better than this.

2) 10 minutes simply isn't enough for Zach. Flip is making a mistake by not getting him some time at the wing. To solely give him backup PG minutes is a disservice to Zach, and a disservice to the team. We now have Neal who I thought looked like he could be a positive factor, but Zach HAS to get some time out of the PG position. Or, I could just have more patience and let this take care of itself. I'm sure you guys will tell me that.

Plus 1 - We have to be the most talented 12 win team I have ever seen. 12 win teams are supposed to look like the Knicks or Philly. We don't appear to be anything like that. You factor in KG's expected contributions, the young player's natural growth, and another high lottery pick, this might be one of the shortest rebuilds on record. Watching this group and realizing we could add Okafor, Towns, Mudiay, etc is almost too good to be true.

One other thing that hasn't been said about Andrew: Do you guys notice how naturally soft his shot is? He's not always accurate, but nothing ever comes off hard. I've coached a lot of girls teams and his shot reminds of a lot of my female players. Girls shots are naturally soft, which is a good thing. And Andrew seems to have the same quality.

And that's CoolBreeze's 2 things I didn't like tonight Plus 1.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Wiggins shoots like a girl. LMBAO!!!

[AbeVigodaLive]

I MIGHT have been a bit facetious in the previous post.

1. Pekovic struggles against size. He always has. Len is a nice defensive presence for the Suns. I think that every time I see him.

2. Phoenix went from 3 quality PGs to 1. That was a big part of the game tonight. Although the backup (Goodwin?) didn't seem awful. But, Thomas and especially Dragic are legit. The Suns are punting on the season... I wonder how that affected them tonight...

3. Very disappointing game from Bledsoe. He finally gets the shackles off from sharing PG duties and he was so passive. I didn't expect that. Kudos to Rubio in part for helping with that though.

4. Gorgui Dieng played a nice game. Good to see him find a place on the court with Pekovic. If he can hit those 17 footers like that consistently...?

5. Rubio sucks shooting the basketball. Let's stop sugarcoating it. He sucks. But he's such a good player anyways. He's so much fun to watch. The team is so much better with him on the court. Don't know if he an be THE guy... but he's a great guy to set up THE guy.

6. We saw both aggressive and passive Wiggins tonight. Sometimes, I think he should be more of a stat sheet filler across the board with that athleticism... other times, he shows us that 20 ppg is going to come easy for this guy. He disappeared for big stretches... and came up huge in others. He's 19. That happens. Part of the journey. Glad to be part of it.

7. Ummm... well, there are 28 more games for Payne.

[TAFKASP]

Only one comment, how could success in year 12/13 of the rebuild process be the shortest ever? I think they have to have been built before you can rebuild!!

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

I MIGHT have been a bit facetious in the previous post.

1. Pekovic struggles against size. He always has. Len is a nice defensive presence for the Suns. I think that every time I see him.

2. Phoenix went from 3 quality PGs to 1. That was a big part of the game tonight. Although the backup (Goodwin?) didn't seem awful. But, Thomas and especially Dragic are legit. The Suns are punting on the season... I wonder how that affected them tonight...

3. Very disappointing game from Bledsoe. He finally gets the shackles off from sharing PG duties and he was so passive. I didn't expect that. Kudos to Rubio in part for helping with that though.

4. Gorgui Dieng played a nice game. Good to see him find a place on the court with Pekovic. If he can hit those 17 footers like that consistently...?

5. Rubio sucks shooting the basketball. Let's stop sugarcoating it. He sucks. But he's such a good player anyways. He's so much fun to watch. The team is so much better with him on the court. Don't know if he an be THE guy... but he's a great guy to set up THE guy.

6. We saw both aggressive and passive Wiggins tonight. Sometimes, I think he should be more of a stat sheet filler across the board with that athleticism... other times, he shows us that 20 ppg is going to come easy for this guy. He disappeared for big stretches... and came up huge in others. He's 19. That happens. Part of the journey. Glad to be part of it.

7. Ummm... well, there are 28 more games for Payne.

Have you watched Ricky this year? He has had more good looking shooting games than bad. 1 game is not enough to say he's reverted back to crappy shooting and he's just done.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I MIGHT have been a bit facetious in the previous post.

1. Pekovic struggles against size. He always has. Len is a nice defensive presence for the Suns. I think that every time I see him.

2. Phoenix went from 3 quality PGs to 1. That was a big part of the game tonight. Although the backup (Goodwin?) didn't seem awful. But, Thomas and especially Dragic are legit. The Suns are punting on the season... I wonder how that affected them tonight...

3. Very disappointing game from Bledsoe. He finally gets the shackles off from sharing PG duties and he was so passive. I didn't expect that. Kudos to Rubio in part for helping with that though.

4. Gorgui Dieng played a nice game. Good to see him find a place on the court with Pekovic. If he can hit those 17 footers like that consistently...?

5. Rubio sucks shooting the basketball. Let's stop sugarcoating it. He sucks. But he's such a good player anyways. He's so much fun to watch. The team is so much better with him on the court. Don't know if he an be THE guy... but he's a great guy to set up THE guy.

6. We saw both aggressive and passive Wiggins tonight. Sometimes, I think he should be more of a stat sheet filler across the board with that athleticism... other times, he shows us that 20 ppg is going to come easy for this guy. He disappeared for big stretches... and came up huge in others. He's 19. That happens. Part of the journey. Glad to be part of it.

7. Ummm... well, there are 28 more games for Payne.

Have you watched Ricky this year? He has had more good looking shooting games than bad. 1 game is not enough to say he's reverted back to crappy shooting and he's just done.

Ricky Rubio is shooting under 40%. Again. He's never shot above 40% in 3+ seasons.

But you know what... that's ok. He has such a unique skillset that he's still a very valuable player despite being a crappy shooter. He is what he is... we just have to embrace it, warts and amazingness and all.

[zigzag22 [enjin:6591633]]

If you watched or attended the game tonight, Rubio's shot looked like his shot from old, not his new (and hopefully improved) one. His feet weren't set and his shot was flat. Hopefully it was rust from a week off.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Very good 2+1, cool...and of course I share the optimism.

Even though he ended up 16 and 11, Pek was very frustrating and almost cost us a very winnable game. His low basketball IQ was on display last night...I thought Jim Pete was going to have a conniption fit after Pek got blocked for the 5th time! We have seen Pek pass well at times this year, and he simply has to recognize when he is not in a position to get a shot off and dish instead. I'm not convinced he can learn, but it would make us so much better if he did.

On the positive side, Pek has never showed so much emotion as he did last night. At times, I have felt that Pek has had a "just happy to be here" attitude. I think it's more likely just his manner and that he really does want to win, but it was nice to see him show it last night. I don't know if the wild gesturing he did to fire up the fans during a Morris free throw is legal, but it sure was fun to see...very uncharacteristic for Pek! And you could tell that nobody was angrier than himself for missing those easy shots. Tim suggested Pek's changed demeanor last night could be the first indicator of the KG effect...I don't know, but it could be. If Pek plays with that kind of passion, and stays healthy (he seemed to play without pain last night), he can be a force in the middle.

I struggle with your second point, cool. Part of me wants to give Zach more minutes too, but I also want to win games. And it's pretty clear to me that we absorbed as much Zach last night as we could if we still wanted to win. We only won by 2, and Ricky was a plus 14 and Zach a minus 12. It's easy to argue that we lose the game if Zach plays another 5 minutes. So, what about playing Zach at SG? How? Whose minutes do you cut back among Martin, Wiggins and Neal at SG...we don't win without their combined 54 points last night (I recognize some of those points were scored by Wig at SF). I'm all about wins right now, and frankly Zach doesn't help with that. But I recognize that he has some unique talents that need to be developed. It's a conumdrum, but Flip will have to find the right balance. Unfortunately, injuries always seem to make his rotation decisions easier.

I hope AB's injury isn't serious. What a difference to start the game with a PF who can control the boards...I don't think it's coincidental that he had 4 rebounds in the first 7 minutes as we built a nice early lead. That's what PFs are supposed to do. It was also heartening to see him make his first jumper, especially knowing he was in the gym at 10:30 the night before working on it. Payne and Gorgui filled in the best they could, but we weren't as dominant on the boards after AB went down. Flip raved about Payne's defense last night, but I have to admit I didn't really notice (except for the 2 blocks, which are not generally part of his game). He looked lost on offense, but that is to be expected. I liked his energy though.

I'm not going to make a big deal out of this, but I don't know why KG couldn't have been there last night...and even worse, he's not going to be in Houston either. One of the narratives about the KG acquisition is changing the culture, and frankly I don't see this as a good example.

Overall, a nice start to the final 29 games.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

AP guy echoing your plus one, cool.

https://twitter.com/APkrawczynski/status/568995757912694784

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

One amendment to my minor criticism above about KG not showing up until Wednesday. Youngblood says in his game write up this morning that KG will be in Houston on Monday, but won't play until Wednesday. If so, I withdraw my criticism. I am puzzled though why he won't play Monday against Houston if he's there anyway. I know Flip likes his players to at least practice with the team before playing, but with KG's high basketball IQ and familiarity with Flip's system, I don't see why this should be an issue. He should play...especially if AB isn't able to go.