52 Comments

How sustainable is it to expect Ayton to play as well as he did yesterday

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What is the biggest area in which the Suns can improve and how do you expect the Lakers to adjust?

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Where was Torrey Craig? He only got 3mins.

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AD has history being disengaged in certain playoff games and that's what it looked like in game 1. How much do you attribute his poor performance to checking out mentally vs the collective defensive effort of the Suns?

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What's your biggest fear for game 2 other than Paul not being fully healthy?

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We can all agree the Lakers played poorly no matter for the reasoning. I think many would argue their defensive game plan was extremely vanilla and not well thought out. They will make changes.

All that said, Mikal and CP weren’t effective on offense. What defensive coverage changes are you predicting the Lakers make and how do you see Mikal and a hopefully healthy CP play into that counter?

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Game 1 was the Ayton Game (+ Book), I would expect CP to win us a game as well. Where do you think the other 2 wins we need are most likely to come from, Mikal & Jae, Book or the Bench?

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The playoffs are all about adjustments, what adjustments do you see the Lakers making against us?

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If you could add any non-starter from a non-playoff team to this roster just for this series, who are you adding?

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Really glad I listen to the pod you and Max did ahead of the game, your comments on putting AD in the action and forcing him to fight through physicality on both ends really proved prescient. How much do you think do you think we can continue to throw him off kilter with physicality. Also, what can we do to get Mikal going on offense?

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Do you think we’ll see any minutes with Craig or Kaminsky at the 5? Dario stayed afloat during his minutes game one but I wonder how sustainable that will be.

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Do you think Mikal and Jae will bounce back and have better games later in the series? I feel like we really need them on the offensive end, but I think their legs might be worn out from guarding AD and Bron all game.

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Thanks for doing this David. What is the Lakers next move, other than more AD at the 5?

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If you’re like me, you’re kind of just waiting for LeBron to turn on the jets and motivate the rest of the Lakers to actually show up.

What needs to happen for the Suns to try and neutralize the “LeBron effect” moving forward?

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God Forbid CPs still hampered similarly to how he was in game 1, would you expect the rotation to lean towards more Payne minutes OR go with more Book, 3 wings, and Ayton? Or do you think with CPs IQ/toughness they’d still put him out there 35+minutes?

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If the Suns lose game 2, in 1-word, what is the reason?

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We have all heard the rumblings from Lakers’ circles that Davis was disengaged and low effort in Game 1, that he has had similar quiet performances last year in the Bubble, and then bounced back big. I’m of the mind that at least some of his struggles were forced by Ayton particularly.

That being said, how much do you think any of the following factors could affect Davis’ ability to bounce back with a big 35+ point type game in Game 2:

1. The Lakers starting Davis at the 5, and playing him there almost exclusively.

2. The Suns running doubles and traps at him early and often.

3. The Suns dropping into a zone.

My thoughts are that the Lakers playing Davis at the 5 has significant ramifications for both teams. First, it allows Ayton to match him. I think that is our best match-up against him, but it also vastly increases Ayton’s foul trouble risk. A double-edged sword. Second, it limits the Lakers’ ability to collapse the offensive glass, but I think that is actually a benefit for the Lakers. They got a fair amount of offensive rebounds (Drummond), at the expense of space for Davis and LeBron and Schroeder to operate. Third, and most importantly, if Davis plays all the 5 minutes, the Suns cannot target Drummond if the Lakers decide to switch pick and roll (which I suspect they may incorporate into their defensive coverage, given how badly they got burned by trapping).

The Lakers’ shooters don’t scare me as much as allowing Davis to hit his rhythm. Doubling him hard has a logic to it, but I think the greater concern is opening up Schroeder and especially LeBron to attack second side actions with late rotating defense. Doubles will mitigate Ayton’s foul risk, so I think the Suns should run them (but perhaps mainly when LeBron sits).

The zone seemed to work well in Game 1, and may be a decent option if we are having foul trouble and/or containing penetration (and none of the wings on LA are knocking down threes.

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Do you think it was already expected pre-game that Booker was gonna be around 45 minutes or it had more to do with CP3 going down? Do you foresee Booker doing 45 plus for the long run now? Is it sustainable?

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Excellent discussion below. I will add to it the following: what is your prediction about game 2? Would be curious to get your perspective on how you think teams approach it and who comes out on top. Thank you!

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founding

How do the Suns combat a switch everything defensive scheme? (Especially if the Lakers decide to stop trying to double Booker and play straight up)

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How worried are you about big Marc Gasoline minutes to suck Ayton out of the paint?

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Can the bunnies that Mikal missed be attributed to having no legs because he's on Lebron or just nervousness on his part?

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So, a lot of the Suns being great hinges on Booker's playmaking. It was on point in the bubble, pretty good during the season but not where we would love, and he DESTROYED the Lakers game 1. Do we think he can just flip a switch with this shit or was it just thriving in this game with how it went and how the Lakers couldn't stop him at all?

Also am I crazy for not hating the idea of us making Davis into 2019 Brook Lopez on switches? I know he's technically very mobile but...they did it to Bam during the season and Cam Payne did score on him in isolation at the rim.

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founding

How would you divide minutes up between a non-shooting CP3 (assuming he's basically as effective as he was in G1) and Cam Payne?

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