Official Free Agent Thread: What to do with our cap space

[letsgosuns]

If I had to guess what the Suns are going to do, I would say they are going to make minor changes, re-sign Knight, and throw the max at Kevin Love. Not the way that I would necessarily do things but based on what they have said for a while, that seems like the most realistic scenario. Whether or not they actually land a top tier free agent remains to be seen.

[bwgood77]

If I had to guess what the Suns are going to do, I would say they are going to make minor changes, re-sign Knight, and throw the max at Kevin Love. Not the way that I would necessarily do things but based on what they have said for a while, that seems like the most realistic scenario. Whether or not they actually land a top tier free agent remains to be seen.

I didn't realize we could throw the max at Love. If they can, no reason not to go for it.

[RunDogGun]

With cap holds, I don't think we have enough to throw a max at Love. And after last year, would we really want to?

[letsgosuns]

I expect the Suns to renounce the rights for Green, Wright, and Thornton. All of their cap holds are big and dramatically limit the Suns available cap space. They will obviously hold onto Knight as he is a restricted free agent and they can go over the cap to sign him later. However, they will still need to free up more cap space to offer Love or anyone else a max but I fully believe they will do that. They will probably need to clear out about ten million more and that means some combination of Marcus, Markieff, and/or Tucker might get traded to teams that can absorb them and no salary will be coming back to the Suns. Most likely all of this will be completed on draft night. Although I think the Suns can still do a sign and trade for a max free agent instead of trading players for nothing in return. The salaries do not have to be equal. Just as long as the Suns send out enough salary in order to have enough space for the player on the way in.

[letsgosuns]

With cap holds, I don't think we have enough to throw a max at Love. And after last year, would we really want to?

I think the Suns are obsessed with the idea of stretching the floor and want Kevin Love. Obviously he is not a great defender and not an elite athlete but he is a great shooter and rebounder. I guess if Alex Len can begin to dominate inside and him and Love grab all the rebounds, they should improve. Unless the Suns can trade for one of the top five players in the league, a team of Bledsoe, Knight, Warren, Love, and Len sounds great on paper. The Goodwin, maybe a re-signed Wright, and a few veterans off the bench is not bad at all.

[Revived]

Hope Phil Jackson listens to his fan base and poaches away Gerald from us...

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1388498#start_here

That link doesn't work for me. What does it say?

Basically NYK fans wanting Gerald Green.

[RunDogGun]

With cap holds, I don't think we have enough to throw a max at Love. And after last year, would we really want to?

I think the Suns are obsessed with the idea of stretching the floor and want Kevin Love. Obviously he is not a great defender and not an elite athlete but he is a great shooter and rebounder. I guess if Alex Len can begin to dominate inside and him and Love grab all the rebounds, they should improve. Unless the Suns can trade for one of the top five players in the league, a team of Bledsoe, Knight, Warren, Love, and Len sounds great on paper. The Goodwin, maybe a re-signed Wright, and a few veterans off the bench is not bad at all.

You'd have to start Tucker then, because Warren isn't close to being the defender you'd need. I still find it strange that in some arguments people say defense wins championships,yet find any way they can from excluding one of our best defenders but add mainly offense oriented players (I'm not saying you Letsgo).

[RunDogGun]

Has Kevin opted out of his contract?

[Cutter]

With cap holds, I don't think we have enough to throw a max at Love. And after last year, would we really want to?

This.

I like Kevin Love, I am just strongly convicted that he is not a super star who will win you a championship, and is not worth any vet max type of offer. He is a perfect #3 option on a championship team (like Cleveland), but is not good enough to be a #1 option on a championship team. He really is in a perfect position as the #3 in Cleveland. They will offer him a max (I think), and he will be their prototypical stretch 4.

A little out there, but maybe McD could sign Love, then package him and some of our other assets for a true super star. I'm not a very good rosterbater but if this happened I would be ok with it.

[lilfishi22]

In my opinion, this team will not take a step forward until a few changes are made. First and foremost, tucker absolutely has to go or be sent to near end of the bench. There simply isnt any improvement with tucker as an individual as well as helping the team to be had. He is what he is, a bench player. He is overpaid and does not render Ws.

Baffling. Absolutely baffling. I really don't understand the Tucker hate on this board. The guy is the best or 2nd best defender on this team, he's a consistent rebounder and he doesn't' take away offensive possessions from guys who are suppose to be scorers. The guy is far from overpaid, he understands his role and he brings it every night. In short, he's the least of our issues on this team.

[thamadkant]

Kevin Love has no incentive to join a team that will be similar to the Wolves he once played for.

Secondly, Kevin Love as a 1st option puts up 26/12 easily. Thats star level number.

Before Dirk Nowitski had playoff success, he also got many questions whether he is better off as a 2nd option star. Then Mavs surrounded him with a good team and the rest are history.


Kevin Love with a rim protector next to him offsets his defensive woes inside the paint.
Kevin Love with another player who can score from the perimeter and carry scoring loads will allow the team to be less predictable down the stretch.


Kevin Love with a Brandon Knight or Eric Bledsoe and a Warren/Goodwin/Len/Wright as team mates would be a good base... add and trade some more players depending on needs and you can have a playoff team and a contender eventually when a significant player is added or developed.




Sadly thats not the case, he'll join Lakers before Suns and maybe 3-4 other teams first.



So Suns need to change course a bit.

Last season I thought the Suns were in great shape and just needed another major star to push top 4.... I seriously thought Suns had a chance to add a Lebron, Melo etc.

But since Suns failed to court any stars, and after seeing Warriors improve and how other young teams picked up "gems" from the draft... and Suns hitting the rough seas this season with Dragic/Thomas etc... I think they've dug themselves into a hole... and first thing to do is stop digging.

- Re-sign Knight
- Shop Bledsoe for top picks
- Shop Morris brothers for picks or similarly aged players that arent head aches are better role models
- Develop the youth ASAP
- Target 2016+ with the highest possible salary space.

[bwgood77]

With cap holds, I don't think we have enough to throw a max at Love. And after last year, would we really want to?

I would, especially if Kieff was on the table. But I'd rather keep Kieff and have him come off the bench. Love would solve a few problems, such as rebounding, spacing and shooting. Our bench would suddenly be tough. Perhaps he could be a leader. He's never really shown that but he is a vet that works hard.

Is he going to bring us a championship? Unlikely, but he would allow us to be competitive and would make our guards better and give Warren more room to operate? Yes. Clear the lane for Len to develop more of an offensive game? Yes. Give us a better probability of getting more top tier free agents to come? Yes.

I don't think he will come to Phoenix though. It's not like we have a load of options on the table. I'd throw some money Millsap's way too, as he does everything well.

I think any big we draft can learn some very good things from a player like Love or Millsap. Kieff could too.

I know some want to tear it down and go really young and get really high picks, but it simply is not going to happen. It's pretty unlikely we will be bad enough to get a really high pick regardless, so we might as well do what we can to become competitive, give our players space inside, and make us more attractive for free agents as we get back to playing fun.

[RunDogGun]

In my opinion, this team will not take a step forward until a few changes are made. First and foremost, tucker absolutely has to go or be sent to near end of the bench. There simply isnt any improvement with tucker as an individual as well as helping the team to be had. He is what he is, a bench player. He is overpaid and does not render Ws.

Baffling. Absolutely baffling. I really don't understand the Tucker hate on this board. The guy is the best or 2nd best defender on this team, he's a consistent rebounder and he doesn't' take away offensive possessions from guys who are suppose to be scorers. The guy is far from overpaid, he understands his role and he brings it every night. In short, he's the least of our issues on this team.

+1000 I really don't understand why people want to get rid of our best defenders, and it's usually for a guy who is not as good of a defender.

[bwgood77]

Kevin Love has no incentive to join a team that will be similar to the Wolves he once played for.

Well we were a 48 win team two years ago, and while we lost some good players since then, even last year with huge roster turnover and a season ending injury to the near all star we traded for, we finished just below 500.

The Wolves finished around 500 WITH Love, and then after trading him (and even adding #1 pick Wiggins and Thaddeus Young) they finished with the worst record in the league.

We were basically a better team without him than the Wolves were with him, and they absolutely stink without him even after adding Young and Wiggins, who are both pretty good players.

[bigfoot]

If I had to guess what the Suns are going to do, I would say they are going to make minor changes, re-sign Knight, and throw the max at Kevin Love. Not the way that I would necessarily do things but based on what they have said for a while, that seems like the most realistic scenario. Whether or not they actually land a top tier free agent remains to be seen.

I didn't realize we could throw the max at Love. If they can, no reason not to go for it.

FYI

Projected salary cap is $67M.
Suns have guaranteed salaries of $44M.

So $23M of cap space.
Knight cap hold is roughly $9M
Rookie cap hold is $1.5M
So $23M - $10.5M is about $12M of working cap space

Guessing Love is out of the question since he will command a full max contract unless we can move Tucker and the Morri.

[RunDogGun]

With cap holds, I don't think we have enough to throw a max at Love. And after last year, would we really want to?

I would, especially if Kieff was on the table. But I'd rather keep Kieff and have him come off the bench. Love would solve a few problems, such as rebounding, spacing and shooting. Our bench would suddenly be tough. Perhaps he could be a leader. He's never really shown that but he is a vet that works hard.

Is he going to bring us a championship? Unlikely, but he would allow us to be competitive and would make our guards better and give Warren more room to operate? Yes. Clear the lane for Len to develop more of an offensive game? Yes. Give us a better probability of getting more top tier free agents to come? Yes.

I don't think he will come to Phoenix though. It's not like we have a load of options on the table. I'd throw some money Millsap's way too, as he does everything well.

I think any big we draft can learn some very good things from a player like Love or Millsap. Kieff could too.

I know some want to tear it down and go really young and get really high picks, but it simply is not going to happen. It's pretty unlikely we will be bad enough to get a really high pick regardless, so we might as well do what we can to become competitive, give our players space inside, and make us more attractive for free agents as we get back to playing fun.

I like his rebounding as well, but he is just above what Keif can do in spacing. Love didn't really draw FAs to Minny, so I don't know what he could do for us in that regards. Plus we still don't know if he is opting out, do we? So he may not even be an option. He also just had shoulder surgery, so it may be rough expecting three of our guys to recover from injuries.

[bwgood77]

With cap holds, I don't think we have enough to throw a max at Love. And after last year, would we really want to?

I would, especially if Kieff was on the table. But I'd rather keep Kieff and have him come off the bench. Love would solve a few problems, such as rebounding, spacing and shooting. Our bench would suddenly be tough. Perhaps he could be a leader. He's never really shown that but he is a vet that works hard.

Is he going to bring us a championship? Unlikely, but he would allow us to be competitive and would make our guards better and give Warren more room to operate? Yes. Clear the lane for Len to develop more of an offensive game? Yes. Give us a better probability of getting more top tier free agents to come? Yes.

I don't think he will come to Phoenix though. It's not like we have a load of options on the table. I'd throw some money Millsap's way too, as he does everything well.

I think any big we draft can learn some very good things from a player like Love or Millsap. Kieff could too.

I know some want to tear it down and go really young and get really high picks, but it simply is not going to happen. It's pretty unlikely we will be bad enough to get a really high pick regardless, so we might as well do what we can to become competitive, give our players space inside, and make us more attractive for free agents as we get back to playing fun.

I like his rebounding as well, but he is just above what Keif can do in spacing. Love didn't really draw FAs to Minny, so I don't know what he could do for us in that regards. Plus we still don't know if he is opting out, do we? So he may not even be an option. He also just had shoulder surgery, so it may be rough expecting three of our guys to recover from injuries.

I'm just saying he'd be one of the better guys to go for. He is the arguabley the best stretch four in the league and arguably the best rebounder in the league but the two together makes him special. People tend to focus on guy's weaknesses and not strengths for whatever reasons. You get guys with different strengths and find others to compensate for their weaknesses with their own strengths. We currently just have a bunch of random players not necessarily complementing each other.

As for attracting free agents, it's probably easier to attract guys to Phx than Minnesota, but I now you are a Minnesota guy, so maybe you prefer it there.

[NoKneeBledsoe]

We have zero chance at kevin love!

I will bet my mortgage on it!

So stop with the proposals

[NoKneeBledsoe]

I say we offer Greg Monroe or Kantar

Trade Bledsoe and future pick for sac kings 1st and mclemore

Knight
Mcklemore
Warren (sac draft johnson)
Monroe Or Kantar
Len

Offer max to butler as well then we are set

Knight
MClemons
Butler
Monroe or Kantar
Len

Still with two draft pics

Trade morri for second rounders to stash

[thamadkant]

We have zero chance at kevin love!

I will bet my mortgage on it!

So stop with the proposals

Why would someone want to take on your mortgage? Its debt.
If you owned your house, then I can see someone willing to bet with you.