randymoss1881
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We doing this again
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How are the Suns sooo BAD!
- Thread starter BiGZD
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We doing this again
Well, unlike the Cavs, the Suns actually have a lot of lineups consisting mostly (or even entirely) of 20-22 year olds. That makes them much more comparable to a really talented college team.
BigZ94
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And have the same record we shouldn’t be laughing
To be clear, I'm talking about the Suns without Devin Booker. The Suns are 0-6 without Devin Booker, losing by an average of 18.5 points in those games. Even with Love out and Hill hobbled I don't think the Cavs are nearly that bad.
Jstock12
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Normally, I'd say it's still a stretch to compare them to a really talented college team, because most of the guys on that college team will never even sniff the NBA, but given they likely have all of the top3 picks on their roster... It might not be that crazy of a comparison.
Zion is special. Anyone who disagrees is a turd!
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It's not just Zion/Barrett/Reddish either...Tre Jones may go lottery too, and he may be better than either of the Suns' point guards (both rookies, picked 31st and 46th in last year's draft). I still think the Suns would be favored, but maybe only by 10 points or so, close enough that a Duke win could realistically happen.
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I don't know when this became a thing. Just no. You can say, "Hey don't for get Duke has like three future NBA players!"
Know how many NBA players the Sun's have? Take a look at the efficiency numbers all these 19 and 20 year old college players are putting up as rookies. It's a steep, steep learning curve from NCAA to the NBA.
As soon as Phoenix gets a point guard, they will look a lot better.
I pretty much agree...to be clear, the whole point of my comparison is that a ton of the Suns' players are on that steep learning curve. I don't think it's a stretch to say that the quartet of Jones, Reddish, Barrett, and Zion is about as good as Okobo, Bridges, Jackson, and Ayton (four of the Suns' five starters vs the Kings, when I made my initial post).
The Cavs in contrast, while bad, have an experienced veteran-led rotation that would almost certainly crush any college team.
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Grown men who know the game vs. boys learning the game. End of discussion, really. Two Duke players look like they might end up impactful. Two others look like they have role player upside in the NBA. Everyone else on the roster will be applying to fortune 500 sales jobs in a few years.
You're calling Okobo, Bridges, Jackson, and Ayton "grown men who know the game"? They're not...which is my whole point with this comparison. You can count on one hand all the players on the Suns' roster who're grown men who know the game.
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You can count on a mule's hand how many grown men are on Duke's roster. By the time the Duke kids have a little more experience, young Sun's players would have quantified their experience as well. This line of fantastic theorizing about a good college program and bad pro team is just asinine, yet the last ten years or so I've heard it used a lot. Just no. It wouldn't be close.
This'll be my last post because I think this is a silly argument that we're not really that far apart on...I'm just trying to draw the distinction between a pro team that's bad (e.g. the Cavs) and a pro team that's both bad and woefully inexperienced (the Suns). Both would obviously be favorites against the best college team, but the former would be an enormous favorite (some Vegas guy said he'd have Cavs -24 over Duke) while the latter would be a small enough favorite that it might resemble a normal basketball game*.
*(to be clear, still talking about the injury-depleted Suns here)
randymoss1881
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Suns beat duke 99 times out of 100 thinking otherwise is illusions.
randymoss1881
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No it doesn’t nobody but Zion/Barret/Reddish even sniff a roster spot.
Again, their point guard rotation consists of two 2018 2nd rounders (and an utterly washed up Jamal Crawford approaching his 39th birthday, if you want to call him a point guard). I don't think there's any significant gap between Tre Jones and those guys...in fact, the Suns would probably be happy to waive any of them and add Jones given the option.
EDIT: Also, just want to re-emphasize that this is a uniquely Suns thing. They have a wild obsession with throwing a ton of inexperienced players together in the starting lineup, virtually always with terrible results. Last year they made headlines for having a younger starting lineup than many NCAA teams. They are in many ways the living, breathing answer to the question "what if a super-talented college team played in the NBA?"
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...est-nba-history-several-ncaa-tournament-teams
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