Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Martin ( C ) -- Disappinting outing. As anticipated, in the first half the uptempo allowed Kevin to get up and down the court and score points. But he really wasn't very hot, and there were a lot of misses and turnovers mixed in. Added a few good rebounds for us, but ended with only 3. And the second half was more struggle than anything special, and Kevin may have just been running out of gas. In any case, I would have thought that Kevin could have run up and down and gotten 20 no problem in this one. But he was finally sat down for good with a rather pedestrian 14 instead.
Salmons ( B- ) -- Meet your new PF...
Despite that bit of silliness had a pretty decent first half. Was shooting a lot for a John Salmons, but actually hitting those shots was another question. Was at least in the game for some of our finer moments (its all relative) and providing some defense (again, all relative when the other team drops 127 on you). But overall this was a marginal game for John. Kind of caught up in the tempo, shot a lot, but did not hit a lot.
Thomas ( D ) -- meet your new center. Sigh. Not surprisingly was completely unable to shut down the middle in that first quarter, and finished with an empty first half. Helped with hustle a little in the third, but still we are talking about 4pts 3rebs in 19 minutes with no impact.
Price ( C ) -- an experiment gone horribly wrong as we tried to start Ronnie Price vs. the Phoenix Suns in a brilliant bit of matchup strategy. After the predictable early obliteration that resulted it was off to the bench for Ronnie, and into the game for...a shocker...an actual center (Brad). Woohoo! Ronnie came back in the second quarter and provided one balls to the wall aggressive drive, but that was really it for his contribution tonight. Actually another player I would have thought might benefit from the tempo, but...nope.
Bibby ( B- ) -- scored well in the first quarter, but we had no control of tempo while he was out there. Then sat for a long time before finally reentering in the late 2nd quarter for a brief stint. Ran the team pretty well in the second half on offense (on the other end we won't talk about Nash's 20 assists as that was a lot of Kevin or Price, or about Marion's 7-7 first quarter when our brillaint strategy left Mike guarding a 6'7" jumping jack part time PF on many plays), and had a good long chance to run it too as for some completely mysterious reason Muss ran his beaten up struggling starter right to the bitter end of garbagetime in a 25pt blowout. Would have been just grand to see Mike get hurt being clobbered by an inadvertent Pat Burke flailing elbow or some such.
Miller ( C+ ) -- came off the bench this time behind...Ronnie Price. Only marginally effective in the first half, but just having a big body, even Brad's sluggish groundbound one, did slow down the layup parade somewhat. After half came in for Reef -- who had been maybe our most effective offensive player -- and once again was played to the bitter end of the bleeping game. Why I do not know. He and Bibby out there checking Pat Burke and Marcus Banks was ridiculous. And even moreso since Brad really wasn't doing much other than occassionally marginally impeding somebody, and grabbing a fair number of boards as the biggest guy out the court. On the other hand it took Pat Burke, Phoenix's 13th man, all of three minutes to double up former All Star Brad Miller in points. So in the first half we put him in for a failed midget starter, in the second half for a big having success. Then we run him into garbagetime for no apparent reason. Just bizarre. Anyway, did give us 9 boards and made things a little tougher on Amare than Kenny Thomas or John Salmons could.
Cisco ( B ) -- unremarkable first half stint -- tempo didn't seem to help him the way I thought it might. But played well in the extended pseudo-garbagetime of the second half, and hit a number of jumpers while falling down on his butt. Not sure what was up with that -- trying to draw the foul, just bad balance on his shot or what, but it was kind of funny. Anyway, they went in, and so maybe a confidence building session even though it had absolutely no bearing on the outcome of this one.
Hart ( B ) -- managed to actually add something after coming in, and did as much to help control the tempo as any King in the first half. Picked up fouls, but at least was playing defense and we looked more intense while he was out there. If there was a player who helped stablize us when we looked to be headed toward blowout city early, it was Jason Hart of all people. After half did not have the same impact, and was somewhat mysteriously removed at the 6:00 mark of the 4th quarter for Quincy Douby. Nothing so odd about that...except that Mike Bibby was still out on the floor along with him and stayed in the game. More duh.
Reef ( B+ ) -- had a couple of inside hoops in there after finally getting in in the first half -- interesting that Muss would bench our best post player in a game where slowing it down and controlling tempo would seem to be key. And in the smallball game looked more like a real big, grabbed some boards, and was able to be effective as a defender against guys in his general size range. And in the third, while he wasn't dominant, he was able to consistently score inside. This was the matchup that he did well against last year if you recall -- he's too small to beat big centers and big shotblockers bother him, but the Suns have neither, and Reef has shown the ability to score in there against the Suns and help control the pace. If of course the coaching staff is smart enough to recognize it. Duh.
Williamson ( B ) -- last of our top 10 to get in, and after arriving added a little offense with 6 points in 6 first half minutes. Not much else before half though. But came back and was effective in the 4th quarter in the long stretch of not quite garbagetime. Game was still on. We were just down by 20. Anyway, hit some shots, and got on the glass as well.
Douby ( B- ) -- got in with 6 minutes to go, replacing Hart for some reason, and running with two should be starters in Mike and Brad. Finally got a three to fall on his first shot, but then came back and promptly clanked one off the side of the backboard on the next trip down. Rounded out his evening with a little runner in the lane to show his natural scoring instincts. Not much, but at least something this time out to make him feel more like a real NBAer.
Potapenko ( INC ) -- a Potapenko sighting! Yay! Okay..now that we've got that out of our system, let's move along. Looked sluggish and bad out there. Only a couple of minutes of course, but when your coach seems allergic to those nasty "big people", it would behoove you as one of said nasties not to totally suck in your first audition for him. You might not get another.
Muss ( F ) -- oh lord, we just started Ronnie Price in an NBA game as our strategy for winning it, and gee, what a shocker that the Suns responded by hitting 7 straight layups or dunks to open the game, and had dropped 41 on us by the end of the first quarter. Talk about a coaching staff outsmarting itself. Our coach Ran through the entire 10 man rotation in the first half and generally looked like a chicken with his head cut off searching for answers. But at least found a few. Kinda. Shows that Muss is still learning his team. Unfortunately for a guy who was supposed to have studied all the game tapes, he apparently missed the Reef in Phx game from last year. Just flawed strategy -- you want to control tempo.,..then take out your bigs to play small and run with them? Then to add insult to injury after being well on the way toward a complete blowout you decide to play your most banged up starter and major piece (Bibby) right to the bitter end of garbagetime? WHY? Ok, this was a loss before we ever stepped on the floor. We ain't that good. But Muss seemed to be trying his best to turn it into a debacle. And so here we are, back below .500. But back below .500 on a sour note and with a real question whether our coaching staff has a clue how they want to right this thing. At least when Rick was struggling last year you knew what he wanted to do, whether it was getting done or not. Right now with Muss? No idea. Its a constant ad lib. And not a very good one either.
Salmons ( B- ) -- Meet your new PF...
Despite that bit of silliness had a pretty decent first half. Was shooting a lot for a John Salmons, but actually hitting those shots was another question. Was at least in the game for some of our finer moments (its all relative) and providing some defense (again, all relative when the other team drops 127 on you). But overall this was a marginal game for John. Kind of caught up in the tempo, shot a lot, but did not hit a lot.Thomas ( D ) -- meet your new center. Sigh. Not surprisingly was completely unable to shut down the middle in that first quarter, and finished with an empty first half. Helped with hustle a little in the third, but still we are talking about 4pts 3rebs in 19 minutes with no impact.
Price ( C ) -- an experiment gone horribly wrong as we tried to start Ronnie Price vs. the Phoenix Suns in a brilliant bit of matchup strategy. After the predictable early obliteration that resulted it was off to the bench for Ronnie, and into the game for...a shocker...an actual center (Brad). Woohoo! Ronnie came back in the second quarter and provided one balls to the wall aggressive drive, but that was really it for his contribution tonight. Actually another player I would have thought might benefit from the tempo, but...nope.
Bibby ( B- ) -- scored well in the first quarter, but we had no control of tempo while he was out there. Then sat for a long time before finally reentering in the late 2nd quarter for a brief stint. Ran the team pretty well in the second half on offense (on the other end we won't talk about Nash's 20 assists as that was a lot of Kevin or Price, or about Marion's 7-7 first quarter when our brillaint strategy left Mike guarding a 6'7" jumping jack part time PF on many plays), and had a good long chance to run it too as for some completely mysterious reason Muss ran his beaten up struggling starter right to the bitter end of garbagetime in a 25pt blowout. Would have been just grand to see Mike get hurt being clobbered by an inadvertent Pat Burke flailing elbow or some such.
Miller ( C+ ) -- came off the bench this time behind...Ronnie Price. Only marginally effective in the first half, but just having a big body, even Brad's sluggish groundbound one, did slow down the layup parade somewhat. After half came in for Reef -- who had been maybe our most effective offensive player -- and once again was played to the bitter end of the bleeping game. Why I do not know. He and Bibby out there checking Pat Burke and Marcus Banks was ridiculous. And even moreso since Brad really wasn't doing much other than occassionally marginally impeding somebody, and grabbing a fair number of boards as the biggest guy out the court. On the other hand it took Pat Burke, Phoenix's 13th man, all of three minutes to double up former All Star Brad Miller in points. So in the first half we put him in for a failed midget starter, in the second half for a big having success. Then we run him into garbagetime for no apparent reason. Just bizarre. Anyway, did give us 9 boards and made things a little tougher on Amare than Kenny Thomas or John Salmons could.
Cisco ( B ) -- unremarkable first half stint -- tempo didn't seem to help him the way I thought it might. But played well in the extended pseudo-garbagetime of the second half, and hit a number of jumpers while falling down on his butt. Not sure what was up with that -- trying to draw the foul, just bad balance on his shot or what, but it was kind of funny. Anyway, they went in, and so maybe a confidence building session even though it had absolutely no bearing on the outcome of this one.
Hart ( B ) -- managed to actually add something after coming in, and did as much to help control the tempo as any King in the first half. Picked up fouls, but at least was playing defense and we looked more intense while he was out there. If there was a player who helped stablize us when we looked to be headed toward blowout city early, it was Jason Hart of all people. After half did not have the same impact, and was somewhat mysteriously removed at the 6:00 mark of the 4th quarter for Quincy Douby. Nothing so odd about that...except that Mike Bibby was still out on the floor along with him and stayed in the game. More duh.
Reef ( B+ ) -- had a couple of inside hoops in there after finally getting in in the first half -- interesting that Muss would bench our best post player in a game where slowing it down and controlling tempo would seem to be key. And in the smallball game looked more like a real big, grabbed some boards, and was able to be effective as a defender against guys in his general size range. And in the third, while he wasn't dominant, he was able to consistently score inside. This was the matchup that he did well against last year if you recall -- he's too small to beat big centers and big shotblockers bother him, but the Suns have neither, and Reef has shown the ability to score in there against the Suns and help control the pace. If of course the coaching staff is smart enough to recognize it. Duh.
Williamson ( B ) -- last of our top 10 to get in, and after arriving added a little offense with 6 points in 6 first half minutes. Not much else before half though. But came back and was effective in the 4th quarter in the long stretch of not quite garbagetime. Game was still on. We were just down by 20. Anyway, hit some shots, and got on the glass as well.
Douby ( B- ) -- got in with 6 minutes to go, replacing Hart for some reason, and running with two should be starters in Mike and Brad. Finally got a three to fall on his first shot, but then came back and promptly clanked one off the side of the backboard on the next trip down. Rounded out his evening with a little runner in the lane to show his natural scoring instincts. Not much, but at least something this time out to make him feel more like a real NBAer.
Potapenko ( INC ) -- a Potapenko sighting! Yay! Okay..now that we've got that out of our system, let's move along. Looked sluggish and bad out there. Only a couple of minutes of course, but when your coach seems allergic to those nasty "big people", it would behoove you as one of said nasties not to totally suck in your first audition for him. You might not get another.
Muss ( F ) -- oh lord, we just started Ronnie Price in an NBA game as our strategy for winning it, and gee, what a shocker that the Suns responded by hitting 7 straight layups or dunks to open the game, and had dropped 41 on us by the end of the first quarter. Talk about a coaching staff outsmarting itself. Our coach Ran through the entire 10 man rotation in the first half and generally looked like a chicken with his head cut off searching for answers. But at least found a few. Kinda. Shows that Muss is still learning his team. Unfortunately for a guy who was supposed to have studied all the game tapes, he apparently missed the Reef in Phx game from last year. Just flawed strategy -- you want to control tempo.,..then take out your bigs to play small and run with them? Then to add insult to injury after being well on the way toward a complete blowout you decide to play your most banged up starter and major piece (Bibby) right to the bitter end of garbagetime? WHY? Ok, this was a loss before we ever stepped on the floor. We ain't that good. But Muss seemed to be trying his best to turn it into a debacle. And so here we are, back below .500. But back below .500 on a sour note and with a real question whether our coaching staff has a clue how they want to right this thing. At least when Rick was struggling last year you knew what he wanted to do, whether it was getting done or not. Right now with Muss? No idea. Its a constant ad lib. And not a very good one either.
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. Basically I said that Ron Artest would be even better with a shotblocker. Even Ron Artest has noted the benefits of having a Jermaine O'neal at the basket and how he has to change his game up a bit now. 
