Playoffs: Suns @ Nuggets Saturday game thread 4-29-2023- Game 1

wagonmound464

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A clinic by Denver.....after the first five minutes the Suns were never in this game.
Denver's 3 pt hits killed the Suns.
Until the garbage time in the last 4 minutes...think the Sun's bench had only 10 points
plus a few free throws. This isn't going to cut it.
 

GoldGloveschmidt

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I thought the Suns were doing fine until Monty decided to change the rotation again, putting DA back in the game late in the 1st quarter when Jokic went to the bench. It was a super dumb move, created new lineups that never played together, ruined chemistry and flow of the game. The playoffs is not the time to be experimenting with hair brained ideas. Ayton is not a good enough player to punish the smaller defenders. You don't build your game plan around feeding him in the post. He will either turn it over or settle for a weak fadeaway against a small defender.


Oh, and the idiot is still playing Shamet first off the bench. I very much do not like Monty as a coach for this team.
 

Covert Rain

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Shamet is how Monty gets fired this off season
To me this isn’t really a Shamet issue. This is a larger symptom of Monty‘s lack of adjustments during games and bizarre rotation decisions game to game with certain players. This is something that has been problematic with different players for the past 3 seasons. Shamet is just currently the player with the blackmail photos of Monty.

Strangely enough, when he does make adjustments, it’s to play guys that have not played together leading up to the playoffs and making those changes prior to the last series.

Monty just sucks at it sometimes. I don’t remember the last time I have seen a coach make such bizarre rotation decisions over and over.
 

Finito

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You kind of missed the point. Go back and read the gameday threads and you'll see that there was a frequent complaint about Monty's offense, that all we did was jack up threes. Now the complaint is that Monty's offense is all about us shooting from midrange. Anyway, we used to shoot a lot more 3's until the 4th quarter and now we shoot a lot of 2's. It isn't Monty's offense, it's CP3 and the mix of talent we have.

We were ridiculously heavy in the mid range. Anybody saying we just jacked up 3s has no clue what they were watching. You can go listen to Russillo talk about us last year going into the playoffs saying we had no chance because we don’t shoot 3s
 

Raindog

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The Monty/Shamet issue is all ego on Monty's part (and probably some on Jones, too). Monty insisted on bringing him here for whatever reason ("good son-in-law" material, etc.), and even worse, giving him a big contract, and now he is hellbound to not do anything that makes it look like he would be admitting to that being a mistake.

Actually, a lot of the other coaching blunders he makes come from the same stubborn egotism. Monty isn't going to do anything that looks like conceding to being wrong about anything. He'll Captain Queeg the ship to the bottom of the ocean if need be.
 

Chris_Sanders

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I was super lucky with this awful game.

I took my 7 year old to the 40th anniversary movie showing of Return of the Jedi. It's the first non cartoon movie she has seen in the theater.

She brought Baby Yoda and scrunched into my seat for half the movie.

So I missed the entire 1st quarter. I turned on the 2nd quarter and watched that. I felt an amazing day turning in my head and I said "nope" and flipped over to the Dbacks

Sometimes you can't let the crap that is Arizona sports ruin your Saturday
 

mjb21aztd

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I was super lucky with this awful game.

I took my 7 year old to the 40th anniversary movie showing of Return of the Jedi. It's the first non cartoon movie she has seen in the theater.

She brought Baby Yoda and scrunched into my seat for half the movie.

So I missed the entire 1st quarter. I turned on the 2nd quarter and watched that. I felt an amazing day turning in my head and I said "nope" and flipped over to the Dbacks

Sometimes you can't let the crap that is Arizona sports ruin your Saturday
Yup least dbacks won! And im going to rigatonis with special someone tom will still be solid weekend .... atleast
 

TJ

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To me this isn’t really a Shamet issue. This is a larger symptom of Monty‘s lack of adjustments during games and bizarre rotation decisions game to game with certain players. This is something that has been problematic with different players for the past 3 seasons. Shamet is just currently the player with the blackmail photos of Monty.

Strangely enough, when he does make adjustments, it’s to play guys that have not played together leading up to the playoffs and making those changes prior to the last series.

Monty just sucks at it sometimes. I don’t remember the last time I have seen a coach make such bizarre rotation decisions over and over.
At first, it’s on Shamet, but if Monty doesn’t realize that it’s a lost cause, he has to pivot
 

BirdGangThing

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I remember one time when Shamet was shooting a free throw (back when he used to shoot free throws) and his name popped up on the screen. My wife asked how pronounce it. I said like damn it.
 

sdscard4

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I'm not worried...we went up 2-0 to Dallas and saw that movie. I'm definitely worried about Monty though. I've never seen a coach become absolutely clueless and then rationalize afterwards 'Kingsbury'
 

GatorAZ

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A good coach would realize Shamet is in his head and save him from himself. This is strictly a stubbornness issue with Monty if he doesn’t change it for game 2. Luckily we were dominated so thoroughly it wouldn’t have mattered. I’m not freaking out until game 2.
 

SirStefan32

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Bad game, and plenty of things to be concerned about, but I am not overly worried just yet. Denver had a great game and the Suns were very sloppy. I think the Suns will do much better in the next game. With that said, Monty has got to stop playing Shamet. He is an awful player who contributes nothing. Additionally, the Suns have got to stop turning the ball over and they have to get those rebounds. You can't let the other team take 17 more shots.
 

TJ

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This all started when our head coach went into the opponents locker room to lift then up after beating us. I'm convinced Monty coaches for the cameras nothing else
That has nothing to do with Monty’s coaching ability. Montys a great guy and that was a very respectful thing he did. Now, had he known how to adjust, he would be doing that in victory and not defeat
 

TJ

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Bad game, and plenty of things to be concerned about, but I am not overly worried just yet. Denver had a great game and the Suns were very sloppy. I think the Suns will do much better in the next game. With that said, Monty has got to stop playing Shamet. He is an awful player who contributes nothing. Additionally, the Suns have got to stop turning the ball over and they have to get those rebounds. You can't let the other team take 17 more shots.
I cant see a situation in which we play just as bad as tonight in game 2. Kudos to Denver delivering the first blow. Now, who’s going to front Jamal Murray, who seems to channel his inner Michael Jordan when he plays us? Like dude, I know we picked Dragan Bender over you, but it’s been seven years, dude.
 

Joe Mama

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It's not just Shamet. It's Shamet and Lee. When I saw 15 in the game at the very end I almost let loose with a Clark Griswold tirade in front of my niece and nephews. Is it just my imagination or did TJ Warren look quite good off the bench the last handful of regular season games? His defense was at least acceptable, and he can put the ball in the basket and grab some timely rebounds. For the life of me I don't understand why Monty is doing this.

I did not want to lose Deandre Ayton for nothing last summer, but at this point I don't ever want to watch him in the Phoenix Suns jersey again. I can't take it. Even when he looks good here and there all I can think about is how much and down better he should be. I really just think he has a complete lack of testosterone. If he would just go strong to the basket every time his stupid instinct is to kick the ball out he will put the other team in foul trouble in the referees would start rewarding him more and more. I've said it before, but he is he even more French version of Boris Diaw. No, Boris Diaw is like Mike Tyson compared to DA. I really just hate watching him.

All that said yeah, I don't think Denver can shoot like this the whole series. I'm hoping some of the calls swing our way a little more at least when we get home. That's about all the hope I have because I know the puzzling rotations are going to continue, and I don't see DA growing a pair anytime soon.

Joe
 
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Raindog

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My strong feeling is that much of Ayton's problems have to do with too much mary j. I am only speculating, mind you, but he sure shows the signs with the way he wanders the court almost mindlessly sometimes and the oh so sloooow reactions to stuff.

I have to wonder if he has performance anxiety before games and that's how he chooses to deal with it. I expect we may discover as much some day after the Suns move on from him.
 
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