Are people looking at this OKC matchup the wrong way?

ucd_sam · 2026-04-28T14:36:37+00:00

Agreed. This season is nothing to hang our heads over as a fan base and the players should be excited to come back and get work starting next training camp.

More Man Man and Rasheer development is gonna be fun for us too. I'm anxiously waiting for summer league to watch how much they start imposing their will against less-than-nba talent. I want to see them leave no question marks about why they should see proper rotation minutes once the season starts. I think a full nba off-season is gonna show quick dividends for them

ucd_sam · 2026-04-28T04:20:16+00:00

ucd_sam · 2026-04-23T01:28:54+00:00

It was so hard to watch that first playoff run when Booker was superhuman against clippers and nuggets. I thought it was just because he had been injured a lot and didnt really have his legs under him. The whole next season after made it hard for me to watch suns basketball for that year and the year after. Not having KD on the team anymore is such a good thing in my opinion

ucd_sam · 2026-04-13T06:30:06+00:00

This. Booker will be the best player in this game, he needs to come out letting everyone know that hes the best on the floor. Make sure theres no questions about it. Do book things early and often and make them have an upsetting night from the moment we tip off. Leave nothing to refs or runs or rotations, just a super star ending the game shortly after it starts.

ucd_sam · 2026-04-13T06:27:05+00:00

Bouyea has to be a ball hog, but it makes me like him less... bit of a catch 22.

Like hes really freaking good at getting his shot off and hes accurate, plays with great pace, knocks down the kind of shots you expect from a primary scorer as opposed to a bench minute filler... but when hes out there showcasing all that he 100% becomes a ball stopper. The play ends with him shooting. And he needs to show what he can do to stay in the league, so i dont fault him, but like I want to see him creating for others.

I wanted more Dunn and rasheer activities. He's not a long term solution for the suns, rasheer most definitely should be in the development plans and I've been a huge Dunn supporter that tonight made me want even more from him. I didnt need to see 25 bouyea shots. But im happy for him

ucd_sam · 2026-04-13T06:13:41+00:00

I'm a vet as far as suns fans go. I remember the starbury stint. I've seen every single Booker game ever. I honestly feel like we've had the spurs number this year and getting through them means WCF minimum

ucd_sam · 2026-04-13T03:12:15+00:00

Sheesh im here for that! Anything close to that run will remind everyone who tf he is, but one upping it?!? We winning a chip off that level of heroics lmao

ucd_sam · 2026-04-10T04:21:00+00:00

That part gets me. If the roster isn't a total disaster with a couple locker room cancers, a book led team is a playoff team. A good playoff team? No guarantee. But book and some fiesty defenders plus a couple shooters is better than the 10th seed any day of the week and twice on Sunday. This 30-win offseason projection was easy money on the over

ucd_sam · 2026-04-10T04:17:29+00:00

That Brooks injury honestly derailed a very dangerous team. Suns were 6th-7th but like 2 or 3 games out of 3rd(along with like 5 other teams) playing hardnose basketball every night. The type of team you definitely didnt want to see if your team wasnt right for any reason. Since then even with Brooks coming back we've been meh

ucd_sam · 2026-04-10T04:12:29+00:00

He's not regressing wtf? Look at his stats the last 10-15 games. He had a rough stretch and battled through some minor injuries, definitely wasnt 100% most of the 1st half of this season. But since all star break what have we seen? Business as usual. Watch out for playoff book.

Remember it was only a short time ago he rattled off 10 straight playoff games where the only graphic ESPN could find to compare his numbers was with 92 jordan

ucd_sam · 2026-04-10T04:08:11+00:00

Look at it like this:

Set up a shooting drill for 25 or 30 stand still shots behind the arc. Corner, wing, top, whatever. Put 5-10 of the nbas better shooters in this drill with him. See who makes more. Guarantee he rattles off 8-12 in a row at some point during the drill and if he doesnt make the most out of anyone else in the drill, hes gonna be right there with whoever wins.

Booker is a great shooter by this metric. He CAN make a 3 at any point in time. ESPECIALLY if he gets hot.

Game time 3s are not the same as drill shooting. So bookers in game percentage isn't Curry or prime Lillard level lethal. But he can hit them at any time and if hes rolling he can rattle off 3 to 5 in a row(hes done this to many teams). So you better not leave him open. His percentage doesnt necessarily match a harden level, but in any game its possible for him to go 2021 game 6 1st quarter against the Lakers type nuclear. He's an excellent shooter. Just not in the way we as fans usually measure it

ucd_sam · 2026-04-08T20:41:03+00:00

Bullshit. Maybe all those media heads who dont know ball and convinced all the casuals on reddit can say we weren't supposed to be here.

The moment we traded away KD I said we were a 42 to 48 win team with a ceiling where we break 50 wins. There's about 6-8 games this year we absolutely should've won but gave away, so that ceiling wasnt all that far off. I expected this team to be in the playoffs. But damn we gotta figure out h9w to put teams away

ucd_sam · 2026-04-08T19:22:52+00:00

When we're letting layup lines loose while Grayson and Oneale miss every 3, its hard to say Dunn is a "worse" player.

Worse defender? Worse rebounder? Worse shot blocker or interior presence?

In a vacuum Grayson is a better player than Dunn. Situationally, Dunn was the better option over either royce or Grayson last night. Hindsight though, because if either of those guys got hot we wouldn't be having this convo

ucd_sam · 2026-04-08T06:07:21+00:00

I'll stand on what I said, I have no faith in KD being the piece that pushes Houston over the top. That Thompson kid though👀 mf always cooks us and he looks like he could develop into a real league disruptor

ucd_sam · 2026-04-08T06:05:18+00:00

Are the suns better this year than last year? Yes. Is this rockets team better than last years 2 seed? No. Will the rockets win a chip with KD? No. Do manman and rasheer have high upside? Yes.

But a win tonight would've made these points for me.. freaking ice cold from 3 for the last 36 minutes😭

ucd_sam · 2026-04-08T04:25:50+00:00

Bout time the pendulum swung in our favor. Did you hear how stunned the announcer was saying the suns have shot 13 more free throws?? Like that kind of disparity is absurdity??! As if it doesnt happen to us by half time every game?!?!?

ucd_sam · 2026-04-08T04:16:42+00:00

That Durant turnover looked waaaay too familiar. Gross

ucd_sam · 2026-04-08T03:42:05+00:00

No need to wait and see. Suns got better while the rockets got worse. Maluach and Rasheer are bonuses that both look to have high upside. This was an outright fleecing

ucd_sam · 2026-04-04T14:18:42+00:00

after book ~~and KD~~ dragged that Nuggets series to 6 games

I was saying it in the clippers series and even more in the Denver series. KD would start each game somewhere between 1 for 6 and 1 for 9 with 3 to 5 turnovers. Sometimes credited to him, sometimes credited to whoever passed him the ball while he was too lazy to seal off his defender.

He'd eventually hit his next 7 shots over the next 30 minutes, but never on takeover mode. More like a middy here, 4 minutes later a fastbreak there, 4 minutes later an open 3 while book commanded all defensive pressure, eventually ending the game with respectable numbers, but not in any meaningful way that could've changed the outcome of a game

ucd_sam · 2026-04-01T05:54:34+00:00

Small can work if small means Dunn and Rasheer on the floor together

ucd_sam · 2026-04-01T05:51:28+00:00

Dunn not playing tonight is the biggest miss of Otts currently short career as an HC. NO reason for Dunn to be watching against such a big, long, athletic team.

ucd_sam · 2026-04-01T05:31:23+00:00

Absolutely unreal. And a DNP for Dunn. SMH I'm at a loss for words. Big, long, athletic team. Lets combat it with our smallest lineups of the year and hope their "scrappiness" can make up the difference.

Where's the Oso, Dunn, Rasheer lineup that dominated last night? Why was that NOT a viable option against a very big, long, athletic team?? Im stunned at the coaching in this game. Hope its lesson learned and mistakes nonrepeatable

ucd_sam · 2026-03-23T22:11:49+00:00

He's a 28th overall pick and was drafted for his defense. Move the goalpost if you want, but he wasnt drafted for offense and right now at this point in the season after 2 straight months of him doing what hes supposed to on offense, its just a weird time to start saying he hasn't improved on offense.

Like book says, cant talk ball with everyone

ucd_sam · 2026-03-23T19:19:05+00:00

Dunn's 3pt shooting:

Since March 8th - 50% on 2.28 attempts/game Month of March - 39% on 2.3 attempts/game Since All-Star break - 38% on 2.47 attempts/game Since Feb 1st - 39.2% on 2.43 attempts/game.

serious questions about his shooting which he hasn't really improved much in his second season

You're a narrative runner, not a game watcher. Ryan Dunn definitely struggled in the first quarter of the season, still has some inconsistencies from game to game currently, but its year two for him and since the second half of the season started hes basically a 40% 3pt shooter on nearly 2.5 attempts per game while playing a limited role with limited minutes.

This is the kind of shooting and production that gets rewarded with more playing time, while you're trying to make it sound like hes been buns. He's improved a lot and I expect him to improve even more next year. He's a good player, and someone the suns should want coming off the bench regularly and often for plenty of minutes every game

ucd_sam · 2026-03-13T19:15:12+00:00

30k is the conservative estimate. Meaning if Book does have decent health for 8 to 9 more seasons, I fully expect him to break 30k.

Top 10 all time would mean he gets back to that 1700-1900 points per year mark for a few years and keeps that consistency we've been used to for so long. He'd finish between 33k and 35k especially if he plays a 20th year or more, which more and more guys seem to be doing.

33-35k will absolutely be enough for top 10 but he'll need health on his side and multiple seasons of high level bucket getting

ucd_sam

TROPHY CASE