Grades Game 16- Suns

[60WinTim]

I knew Aaron Gordon was out in Denver’s last night loss to the Kings. I did not know that he is out 4 to 6 weeks with a grade 2 hamstring strain. That’s quite the blow to Denver. Gordon was really playing great basketball.

[AussieWolf3]

This team, as constructed, isn’t getting out of the 1st round. Unless something changes soon, I think finch needs to go. His knucklehead GM didn’t give him anything resembling a starting PG and expects him to produce a contender. His knucklehead GM also gave up a bunch of assets for a bust in Dillingham. If we still had those assets now we could use them to acquire the starting PG that TC forgot to add this offseason. I think this year was always meant to be a lower expectation year. We had one legit conference finals run and one that was gifted to us with curry injury last year. The fact that we didn’t acquire a starting PG is proof that the unspoken expectations in the organization for this year are 1st round exit and let the young guys develop. I mean we haven’t beaten a winning team yet this year guys… we simply ain’t that good. Once our schedule gets tougher I’m seeing more of a 43-39 team. We’ve only played one game so far against the wests big 3 and we got smoked.

First- I'm genuinely curious, but who was the team supposed to acquire as their starting PG that would make a significant difference?

Second- you do you, but I see absolutely no value in trying to forecast playoff outcomes right now. What's the point in predicting this? Is the team playing like a first round exit? Well I'd say that depends on the matchup/seeding. The reality is that their 6th in Net rating, 6th in offensive rating and 7th in defensive rating. Randle and Jmac are off to career years and Dante is low key having a GREAT start to the season.

You can talk all you want about the WCFs run being fake cause Curry got hurt, but the reality is they beat them 4-1 and there is literally no way to prove what would have happened if Curry had been healthy. Is he worth extra three wins and one less lost? Very possible, but that's a hard ask for me.

Idk, let the season play out some more and get back to me after new years, cause last year at this time the team looked awful. Only to finish winning what like 27-4 or something like that at the end of the year, and then waltz into the WCF with 8-2 playoff record.

They're underperforming, but it's just so silly to be so declarative at this point.

If Ant starts playing up to his abilities every game then this team can basically go as far as OKC lets them -cause they're not getting past them without significantly bad injury luck for them. If Ant continues to be inconsistent, doesn't step as a rebounder and maintains what is essentially a 1:1 ast/to ratio they're in trouble.

If Naz can't build off his improved stretch of games, and Shannon can't regain his WCF form.... They're in trouble.

Id rather watch the story of the season play out before counting this team out

[FNG]

This team, as constructed, isn’t getting out of the 1st round. Unless something changes soon, I think finch needs to go. His knucklehead GM didn’t give him anything resembling a starting PG and expects him to produce a contender. His knucklehead GM also gave up a bunch of assets for a bust in Dillingham. If we still had those assets now we could use them to acquire the starting PG that TC forgot to add this offseason. I think this year was always meant to be a lower expectation year. We had one legit conference finals run and one that was gifted to us with curry injury last year. The fact that we didn’t acquire a starting PG is proof that the unspoken expectations in the organization for this year are 1st round exit and let the young guys develop. I mean we haven’t beaten a winning team yet this year guys… we simply ain’t that good. Once our schedule gets tougher I’m seeing more of a 43-39 team. We’ve only played one game so far against the wests big 3 and we got smoked.

My memory isn't as good as it used to be, so I can't remember who the starting PG was who got us to the conference finals each of the past two seasons, and why TC let him go.

[Wolvesfan21]

This team, as constructed, isn’t getting out of the 1st round. Unless something changes soon, I think finch needs to go. His knucklehead GM didn’t give him anything resembling a starting PG and expects him to produce a contender. His knucklehead GM also gave up a bunch of assets for a bust in Dillingham. If we still had those assets now we could use them to acquire the starting PG that TC forgot to add this offseason. I think this year was always meant to be a lower expectation year. We had one legit conference finals run and one that was gifted to us with curry injury last year. The fact that we didn’t acquire a starting PG is proof that the unspoken expectations in the organization for this year are 1st round exit and let the young guys develop. I mean we haven’t beaten a winning team yet this year guys… we simply ain’t that good. Once our schedule gets tougher I’m seeing more of a 43-39 team. We’ve only played one game so far against the wests big 3 and we got smoked.

First- I'm genuinely curious, but who was the team supposed to acquire as their starting PG that would make a significant difference?

Second- you do you, but I see absolutely no value in trying to forecast playoff outcomes right now. What's the point in predicting this? Is the team playing like a first round exit? Well I'd say that depends on the matchup/seeding. The reality is that their 6th in Net rating, 6th in offensive rating and 7th in defensive rating. Randle and Jmac are off to career years and Dante is low key having a GREAT start to the season.

You can talk all you want about the WCFs run being fake cause Curry got hurt, but the reality is they beat them 4-1 and there is literally no way to prove what would have happened if Curry had been healthy. Is he worth extra three wins and one less lost? Very possible, but that's a hard ask for me.

Idk, let the season play out some more and get back to me after new years, cause last year at this time the team looked awful. Only to finish winning what like 27-4 or something like that at the end of the year, and then waltz into the WCF with 8-2 playoff record.

They're underperforming, but it's just so silly to be so declarative at this point.

If Ant starts playing up to his abilities every game then this team can basically go as far as OKC lets them -cause they're not getting past them without significantly bad injury luck for them. If Ant continues to be inconsistent, doesn't step as a rebounder and maintains what is essentially a 1:1 ast/to ratio they're in trouble.

If Naz can't build off his improved stretch of games, and Shannon can't regain his WCF form.... They're in trouble.

Id rather watch the story of the season play out before counting this team out

It was 17-4 to finish the year but I'm with you.

If anything that might be a good loss in the long run. Make them buckle down and work even harder in general and to close out games. A little learning experience for them and Finch.

If they blew the lead but still won say little dude misses last shot, maybe not as good of a learning experience.