2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation 6 - The Playoff Quest for a Title

[lilfishi22]

Emotional side of Suns fans says trade anyone but Book. However rational side says Book should be the one to go, he's simply got the most value and plays the same position as Beal.

There is also a doomsday scenario in 2 years time when KD is old and broken and Book is here in his absolute prime carrying a bunch of minimums to fight for the 10th seed every season. If you really like Book you would not want that for him. Sometimes its just easier to say goodbye when the time is right

So IF you choose to move Booker, Keeping in mind that he's been the face of this franchise forever, is still in his prime, and is under contract for multiple seasons still, what exactly does your plan become? building around a 36 yr old Durant and a 30 yr old Bradley Beal that easily has the very worst contract in the entire league, is a shadow of his former 30+ points per game, only plays around half the season if you're lucky, and honestly is just a slightly worse fascimile of Booker?? How do you suppose the fans will recieve/ react to this plan? How much longer do you honestly expect KD to be able to be dominant into his late 30s? How do you expect a 53 million player that struggles with injuries so much, and has never really led his previous team anywhere and only scored 9 points before fouling out will be recieved by the fanbase here promoted as the chosen leaders of this team? Nah! KD is easily and obviously the one that you trade in order to pull a maximum value return to build out depth and return assets around a backcourt of Booker and Beal! I get that KD is truly great! I really do, but father time is undefeated, and you just don't trade your younger franchise player whose still in his prime and under contract for around at least 3-4 more years? And try to sell your fanbase on instead building around a 36 yr old aging superstar player and an oft injured lower tier version of your franchise star that coincedentally is really underperforming while also making excess of 50 million. You'd likely lose a large majority of your fanbase or Ishbia would be run out of town by a mob with pitchforks!

If you're st on moving Booker fine! But then you honestly just need to bite the bullet and blow it up completely and move KD too, and try to convince Beal to approve trades rather than endure a perennial 1st round exit until he retires or gets frustrated and leaves for a better situation.

Well since I brought this up, I'll answer. It's mostly due to multiple factors. Some of which include:


-We'll get WAY more for him as he's younger and locked up.
-There will be a wider net of teams that want him as KD is only feasible to small number of teams and those all need to be title contenders.
-KD+Beal should more or less be able to do what KD+Booker can while Beal+Booker CANNOT do the same. We would still have the weird pairing in our backcourt.
-KD is the best player out of the 3, age notwithstanding and as such it makes more sense to keep him and try for this with someone who is 1 of the 13 best players of all time.
-Beal and KD's deals both end before Booker's does, giving us a theoretical chance to get some cap room sooner.

That isn't everything, only a portion. I'd say the main bonus being, that we get more. Also since we're stuck with Beal it would help if we had a sensible team that fits. But FTR, I'm not 100% sure of this I just wanted to throw it out there for discussion. I'm fine with moving Durant too, I just feel the selection of teams and by extension the assets we can reap from a trade are more limited if we move him. As opposed to Book.

If fans hated this team now, I can't imagine what the reception would be with KD and Beal as the main guys after trading the franchise player.

[lilfishi22]

I think they will be a contender for years to come barring something crazy happening. My point with them was more so about the person they hired, Tim Connelly.

He replaced Masai Ujiri and turned the Nuggets into a contender with the moves he made including smart decisions like trading for role guys like Aaron Gordon to put around Jokic. Then he came to Minnesota in 2022 and turned them into a contender already including pulling off the sweep over the “superteam” Suns.

Point being a rebuild doesn’t have to take 10+ years. It took us that long because we had the likes of Lon Babby/Lance Blanks/Ryan McDonough as GM making decisions. Sarver wasn’t willing to pay for a top GM candidate but Ishbia has $$ to afford someone like Bob Myers and make an offer that Myers can’t refuse.

Yeah maybe. A lot of people said the same of the Pelicans as well. Maybe it's true but they aren't a perennial contender when this is their first year being a contender.

Not every rebuild is the same and not every rebuild is going to be smooth either.

Sure it’s not. Rebuild isn’t fun, it’s a lot of losing mostly. But if done properly with appropriate leadership, you can likely get rewarded with a mostly homegrown team at the end instead of trying to buy a cheap title with “stars” and zero quality players around them. And right now there’s a chance to get a proven guy for that “appropriate leadership” in the market.

I'm not entirely convinced he'd be interested even with a fat pay check. If I was a proven, multi-championship winning GM, I wouldn't be interested. Remember, he left the Dubs for a few reasons, one being that he (and most people) saw the limit of that team with that roster and the limited pathways that team could pivot to. Steph is still really good but who else, Klay is a shell of his former self, Dray on most nights is more bark than bite and all the lotto picks he took in the 2020's hadn't really turned out to be great (Kuminga has the most promise). They've got OK pieces around them but I don't think that core of Steph/Klay/Dray can carry a team like they used to anymore and I also don't think their younger guys with talent is ready to take their game to the next level.

I could envision him looking at our situation and see similar roster limitations. He's still a relatively young guy from a GM perspective and I think if he was to jump back into the mix, it'll be in a situation with considerable upward projections where he isn't expected to turn a team with no cap space/limited trade options into a legit contender in like 2 seasons.

[Slim Charless]

So IF you choose to move Booker, Keeping in mind that he's been the face of this franchise forever, is still in his prime, and is under contract for multiple seasons still, what exactly does your plan become? building around a 36 yr old Durant and a 30 yr old Bradley Beal that easily has the very worst contract in the entire league, is a shadow of his former 30+ points per game, only plays around half the season if you're lucky, and honestly is just a slightly worse fascimile of Booker?? How do you suppose the fans will recieve/ react to this plan? How much longer do you honestly expect KD to be able to be dominant into his late 30s? How do you expect a 53 million player that struggles with injuries so much, and has never really led his previous team anywhere and only scored 9 points before fouling out will be recieved by the fanbase here promoted as the chosen leaders of this team? Nah! KD is easily and obviously the one that you trade in order to pull a maximum value return to build out depth and return assets around a backcourt of Booker and Beal! I get that KD is truly great! I really do, but father time is undefeated, and you just don't trade your younger franchise player whose still in his prime and under contract for around at least 3-4 more years? And try to sell your fanbase on instead building around a 36 yr old aging superstar player and an oft injured lower tier version of your franchise star that coincedentally is really underperforming while also making excess of 50 million. You'd likely lose a large majority of your fanbase or Ishbia would be run out of town by a mob with pitchforks!

If you're st on moving Booker fine! But then you honestly just need to bite the bullet and blow it up completely and move KD too, and try to convince Beal to approve trades rather than endure a perennial 1st round exit until he retires or gets frustrated and leaves for a better situation.

Well since I brought this up, I'll answer. It's mostly due to multiple factors. Some of which include:


-We'll get WAY more for him as he's younger and locked up.
-There will be a wider net of teams that want him as KD is only feasible to small number of teams and those all need to be title contenders.
-KD+Beal should more or less be able to do what KD+Booker can while Beal+Booker CANNOT do the same. We would still have the weird pairing in our backcourt.
-KD is the best player out of the 3, age notwithstanding and as such it makes more sense to keep him and try for this with someone who is 1 of the 13 best players of all time.
-Beal and KD's deals both end before Booker's does, giving us a theoretical chance to get some cap room sooner.

That isn't everything, only a portion. I'd say the main bonus being, that we get more. Also since we're stuck with Beal it would help if we had a sensible team that fits. But FTR, I'm not 100% sure of this I just wanted to throw it out there for discussion. I'm fine with moving Durant too, I just feel the selection of teams and by extension the assets we can reap from a trade are more limited if we move him. As opposed to Book.

If fans hated this team now, I can't imagine what the reception would be with KD and Beal as the main guys after trading the franchise player.

See, I thought of that. Hence, why I brought in Grant Williams and LaMelo Ball. Plus, we get LaVar thrown in there for free.



On a serious note, that team fits much better and plays defense on occasion to boot.

[Ghost of Kleine]

Well since I brought this up, I'll answer. It's mostly due to multiple factors. Some of which include:


-We'll get WAY more for him as he's younger and locked up.
-There will be a wider net of teams that want him as KD is only feasible to small number of teams and those all need to be title contenders.
-KD+Beal should more or less be able to do what KD+Booker can while Beal+Booker CANNOT do the same. We would still have the weird pairing in our backcourt.
-KD is the best player out of the 3, age notwithstanding and as such it makes more sense to keep him and try for this with someone who is 1 of the 13 best players of all time.
-Beal and KD's deals both end before Booker's does, giving us a theoretical chance to get some cap room sooner.

That isn't everything, only a portion. I'd say the main bonus being, that we get more. Also since we're stuck with Beal it would help if we had a sensible team that fits. But FTR, I'm not 100% sure of this I just wanted to throw it out there for discussion. I'm fine with moving Durant too, I just feel the selection of teams and by extension the assets we can reap from a trade are more limited if we move him. As opposed to Book.

If fans hated this team now, I can't imagine what the reception would be with KD and Beal as the main guys after trading the franchise player.

See, I thought of that. Hence, why I brought in Grant Williams and LaMelo Ball. Plus, we get LaVar thrown in there for free.



On a serious note, that team fits much better and plays defense on occasion to boot.

Can Lavar be the new coach.....lol

[lilfishi22]

If fans hated this team now, I can't imagine what the reception would be with KD and Beal as the main guys after trading the franchise player.

See, I thought of that. Hence, why I brought in Grant Williams and LaMelo Ball. Plus, we get LaVar thrown in there for free.



On a serious note, that team fits much better and plays defense on occasion to boot.

Can Lavar be the new coach.....lol

I probably wouldn't pay for league pass to watch the games but I sure as hell will watch ALL the interviews, post-game and pre-game

[lilfishi22]

Well since I brought this up, I'll answer. It's mostly due to multiple factors. Some of which include:


-We'll get WAY more for him as he's younger and locked up.
-There will be a wider net of teams that want him as KD is only feasible to small number of teams and those all need to be title contenders.
-KD+Beal should more or less be able to do what KD+Booker can while Beal+Booker CANNOT do the same. We would still have the weird pairing in our backcourt.
-KD is the best player out of the 3, age notwithstanding and as such it makes more sense to keep him and try for this with someone who is 1 of the 13 best players of all time.
-Beal and KD's deals both end before Booker's does, giving us a theoretical chance to get some cap room sooner.

That isn't everything, only a portion. I'd say the main bonus being, that we get more. Also since we're stuck with Beal it would help if we had a sensible team that fits. But FTR, I'm not 100% sure of this I just wanted to throw it out there for discussion. I'm fine with moving Durant too, I just feel the selection of teams and by extension the assets we can reap from a trade are more limited if we move him. As opposed to Book.

If fans hated this team now, I can't imagine what the reception would be with KD and Beal as the main guys after trading the franchise player.

See, I thought of that. Hence, why I brought in Grant Williams and LaMelo Ball. Plus, we get LaVar thrown in there for free.



On a serious note, that team fits much better and plays defense on occasion to boot.

If we're going to move Book, we might as well blow it the hell up. Move KD, move Nurk, move Beal (for anything), move everyone. Start over

[Hitachi77]

So IF you choose to move Booker, Keeping in mind that he's been the face of this franchise forever, is still in his prime, and is under contract for multiple seasons still, what exactly does your plan become? building around a 36 yr old Durant and a 30 yr old Bradley Beal that easily has the very worst contract in the entire league, is a shadow of his former 30+ points per game, only plays around half the season if you're lucky, and honestly is just a slightly worse fascimile of Booker?? How do you suppose the fans will recieve/ react to this plan? How much longer do you honestly expect KD to be able to be dominant into his late 30s? How do you expect a 53 million player that struggles with injuries so much, and has never really led his previous team anywhere and only scored 9 points before fouling out will be recieved by the fanbase here promoted as the chosen leaders of this team? Nah! KD is easily and obviously the one that you trade in order to pull a maximum value return to build out depth and return assets around a backcourt of Booker and Beal! I get that KD is truly great! I really do, but father time is undefeated, and you just don't trade your younger franchise player whose still in his prime and under contract for around at least 3-4 more years? And try to sell your fanbase on instead building around a 36 yr old aging superstar player and an oft injured lower tier version of your franchise star that coincedentally is really underperforming while also making excess of 50 million. You'd likely lose a large majority of your fanbase or Ishbia would be run out of town by a mob with pitchforks!

If you're st on moving Booker fine! But then you honestly just need to bite the bullet and blow it up completely and move KD too, and try to convince Beal to approve trades rather than endure a perennial 1st round exit until he retires or gets frustrated and leaves for a better situation.

Well since I brought this up, I'll answer. It's mostly due to multiple factors. Some of which include:


-We'll get WAY more for him as he's younger and locked up.
-There will be a wider net of teams that want him as KD is only feasible to small number of teams and those all need to be title contenders.
-KD+Beal should more or less be able to do what KD+Booker can while Beal+Booker CANNOT do the same. We would still have the weird pairing in our backcourt.
-KD is the best player out of the 3, age notwithstanding and as such it makes more sense to keep him and try for this with someone who is 1 of the 13 best players of all time.
-Beal and KD's deals both end before Booker's does, giving us a theoretical chance to get some cap room sooner.

That isn't everything, only a portion. I'd say the main bonus being, that we get more. Also since we're stuck with Beal it would help if we had a sensible team that fits. But FTR, I'm not 100% sure of this I just wanted to throw it out there for discussion. I'm fine with moving Durant too, I just feel the selection of teams and by extension the assets we can reap from a trade are more limited if we move him. As opposed to Book.

If fans hated this team now, I can't imagine what the reception would be with KD and Beal as the main guys after trading the franchise player.

Agreed with both of you. Booker does make the most sense all things considered. But man oh man, I fear there would be riots if this were to happen.

[Slim Charless]

Well since I brought this up, I'll answer. It's mostly due to multiple factors. Some of which include:


-We'll get WAY more for him as he's younger and locked up.
-There will be a wider net of teams that want him as KD is only feasible to small number of teams and those all need to be title contenders.
-KD+Beal should more or less be able to do what KD+Booker can while Beal+Booker CANNOT do the same. We would still have the weird pairing in our backcourt.
-KD is the best player out of the 3, age notwithstanding and as such it makes more sense to keep him and try for this with someone who is 1 of the 13 best players of all time.
-Beal and KD's deals both end before Booker's does, giving us a theoretical chance to get some cap room sooner.

That isn't everything, only a portion. I'd say the main bonus being, that we get more. Also since we're stuck with Beal it would help if we had a sensible team that fits. But FTR, I'm not 100% sure of this I just wanted to throw it out there for discussion. I'm fine with moving Durant too, I just feel the selection of teams and by extension the assets we can reap from a trade are more limited if we move him. As opposed to Book.

If fans hated this team now, I can't imagine what the reception would be with KD and Beal as the main guys after trading the franchise player.

Agreed with both of you. Booker does make the most sense all things considered. But man oh man, I fear there would be riots if this were to happen.

This is my point about the whole thing. With moving Booker, we're gonna get win now pieces; ie another star player. You guys are caught up on the Melo thing. It doesn't have to be him, there's any number of others that might become available in the next 90 days.

If we move KD, seeing as we're limiting ourselves to OKC, NYK, ATL and then maybe Miami/Boston, there's just not as good of a ROI. In other words, we will be getting younger players that fit Booker's timeline-very young as those teams won't wanna touch their core guys. So, we get early 20s dudes and picks. I'm fine with that, but then we have to rely on our scouting dept.

I just think there's more opportunity with Booker being moved is all. Also, I'm not picking either side on this, I'm just saying.

1 of them needs to go in order for this thing to move forward. Unless there's a major change in the lockerroom and how players/coaches think.

[Ghost of Kleine]

I'm gonna go on record that this whole doubling down and running it back as is, is a horrible mistake that'll end in possibly even worse fashion than this last season did and will set us back even further, resulting in an even longer and more painful drawn out rebuild! However, IF it's actually true that Ishbia and the suns front office are staunchly commited to this "fools errand" then as a near 50 yr suns fan, I'll help out some with their lack of responsible or even coherent planning!

So to give this team the very best and most realistic chance for improvement even without any cap flexibilty or assets, I've come up with this outline list for them to miraculously find improved depth and shore up some of our glaring weaknesses creatively!

1- Find a trade for Nurkic and Nassir Little (this is important if we can find a more athletic and mobile option while hopefully picking up an additional pick in the draft. Now there will be some teams out there with little to no center options, that'll still want to try and be competitive and need a legit starting level center. And for better or worse, Nurkic is still that as a productive playmaking double/double contributor with size! The primary teams that I'd aggressively call are:

Brooklyn
Now this team doesn't really have picks to offer which kinda sucks for our needs, BUT still, they have pieces we can use for depth. And in any situation wherein we aren't getting a pick back, I'd look to the UDFA range to fill that need reasonably well. Anyways:
Nurkic for Schroder/ Day'ron Sharpe. Schroder would help immensely as a backup point guard with some playmaking ability. And Sharpe is not as polished as Nurkic is yet, But he has very similar size, moves better, and is a good playmaker too.

San Antonio
Nurkic for Zach Collins and the 35th and 48th picks. IF that is just too much returning value for San Antonios' tastes, I'm willing to instead do Nurkic for Devonte Graham/ Charles Bassey/ 35th and 48th picks. Bassey and the two 2nds are the most important inclusion to this deal for me! Bassey is more versatile than it appears. He's a good shotblocker, can hit the three, is mobile and athletic, and can playmake some too. Devonte Graham is a salary filler for value exchange, but is only partially guaranteed, and can be cut at a discount. The 35th and 48th picks are important because in those ranges, we can add legit impact positional cost controlled depth pieces.
35- Ryan Dunn (if he somehow falls) otherwise Jaylon Tyson or Dillon Jones.
48- Ajay Mitchell or Tristin Newton.

New York
Nurkic for Robinson/Mcbride/ 38th pick (Baylor Schiermann or Keshad Johnson)?

A trade for Little
- Orlando for the 47th pick ( Alex Karaban or Peyton Sandfort)
OR
- Detroit for the 53rd pick ( Keshad Johnson or Trevon Brazile).
Undrafted Range gems for our two ways
- JT Toppin ( 6'9 High level versatile lockdown jumbo wing alternative to Dunn) Or Jalen Bridges (a 6'9 version of Crowder).
- Joel Soriano (Nurkic replacement with size and physicality).
- Ariel Huktpori ( a 7'0 254 lb athletic version of Capela- defensive rim protecting big).

Free agency signings

Backup Point Guard (1st option = red/ 2nd option = blue)
1- Ask Chris Paul if he's willing to come back for a chance to win a title?? And pray he says YES!!! Otherwise immediately pivot to Kyle Lowry as our 2nd option.

Small Forward options
- Kelly Oubre.
- Kenyon Martin Jr.
- Naji Marshall.

backup Power Forward
- Bol Bol.
- Dario Saric.
- Thad Young.

Backup Center
- Goga Bidatze.
- Bismack Biyombo.
- Damion Jones.

Lastly, Offseason adaptations!!
1- Have Beal concentrate the entire offseason on his playmaking skills and court vision along with Booker and KD. He will eventually become a competent playmaking combo guard next to Booker.IF Paul accepts, he can help mentor Beal on being a floor general! IF Beal succeeds, this is how he reestablishes his value.

2- Booker will no longer concentrate on playmaking duties and go back fully to being a killer elite shooting guard.

3-Durant will focus solely on being an elite, clutch offensive closer playing off of the other two, and roaming defensively. And IF everything goes according to plan, Our new and improved opening night roster will look something like:

Beal/ Booker/O'neale/ Durant/ Bidatze.
Paul/ Allen/ KMart Jr/ Bol Bol/ Sharpe.
Schroder/ D Lee/JT Toppin/ Soriano/ Huktpori.

- Bidatze- 6'11 250 lbs.
-Bol Bol- 7'3 220 lbs.
- Sharpe- 6'11 265 lbs.
- JT Toppin- 6'9 236 lbs.
- Soriano- 6'11 265 lbs.
- Huktpori- 7'0 254 lbs.
That's a significant size increase with tons of strength and physicality.

[Hitachi77]

If fans hated this team now, I can't imagine what the reception would be with KD and Beal as the main guys after trading the franchise player.

Agreed with both of you. Booker does make the most sense all things considered. But man oh man, I fear there would be riots if this were to happen.

This is my point about the whole thing. With moving Booker, we're gonna get win now pieces; ie another star player. You guys are caught up on the Melo thing. It doesn't have to be him, there's any number of others that might become available in the next 90 days.

If we move KD, seeing as we're limiting ourselves to OKC, NYK, ATL and then maybe Miami/Boston, there's just not as good of a ROI. In other words, we will be getting younger players that fit Booker's timeline-very young as those teams won't wanna touch their core guys. So, we get early 20s dudes and picks. I'm fine with that, but then we have to rely on our scouting dept.

I just think there's more opportunity with Booker being moved is all. Also, I'm not picking either side on this, I'm just saying.

1 of them needs to go in order for this thing to move forward. Unless there's a major change in the lockerroom and how players/coaches think.

Yeah I agree with you. Moving Booker could ironically make us better now and in the future. Moving KD will make us worse now 100% of the time. Moving Beal has a chance to make us better now, with our future likely being a wash.

Agreed though that something needs to change, but I do think coaching can be that something. We had flashes of brilliance this year, just didn’t have the consistency or belief.

[Hitachi77]

I'm gonna go on record that this whole doubling down and running it back as is, is a horrible mistake that'll end in possibly even worse fashion than this last season did and will set us back even further, resulting in an even longer and more painful drawn out rebuild! However, IF it's actually true that Ishbia and the suns front office are staunchly commited to this "fools errand" then as a near 50 yr suns fan, I'll help out some with their lack of responsible or even coherent planning!

So to give this team the very best and most realistic chance for improvement even without any cap flexibilty or assets, I've come up with this outline list for them to miraculously find improved depth and shore up some of our glaring weaknesses creatively!

1- Find a trade for Nurkic and Nassir Little (this is important if we can find a more athletic and mobile option while hopefully picking up an additional pick in the draft. Now there will be some teams out there with little to no center options, that'll still want to try and be competitive and need a legit starting level center. And for better or worse, Nurkic is still that as a productive playmaking double/double contributor with size! The primary teams that I'd aggressively call are:

Brooklyn
Now this team doesn't really have picks to offer which kinda sucks for our needs, BUT still, they have pieces we can use for depth. And in any situation wherein we aren't getting a pick back, I'd look to the UDFA range to fill that need reasonably well. Anyways:
Nurkic for Schroder/ Day'ron Sharpe. Schroder would help immensely as a backup point guard with some playmaking ability. And Sharpe is not as polished as Nurkic is yet, But he has very similar size, moves better, and is a good playmaker too.

San Antonio
Nurkic for Zach Collins and the 35th and 48th picks. IF that is just too much returning value for San Antonios' tastes, I'm willing to instead do Nurkic for Devonte Graham/ Charles Bassey/ 35th and 48th picks. Bassey and the two 2nds are the most important inclusion to this deal for me! Bassey is more versatile than it appears. He's a good shotblocker, can hit the three, is mobile and athletic, and can playmake some too. Devonte Graham is a salary filler for value exchange, but is only partially guaranteed, and can be cut at a discount. The 35th and 48th picks are important because in those ranges, we can add legit impact positional cost controlled depth pieces.
35- Ryan Dunn (if he somehow falls) otherwise Jaylon Tyson or Dillon Jones.
48- Ajay Mitchell or Tristin Newton.

New York
Nurkic for Robinson/Mcbride/ 38th pick (Baylor Schiermann or Keshad Johnson)?

A trade for Little
- Orlando for the 47th pick ( Alex Karaban or Peyton Sandfort)
OR
- Detroit for the 53rd pick ( Keshad Johnson or Trevon Brazile).
Undrafted Range gems for our two ways
- JT Toppin ( 6'9 High level versatile lockdown jumbo wing alternative to Dunn) Or Jalen Bridges (a 6'9 version of Crowder).
- Joel Soriano (Nurkic replacement with size and physicality).
- Ariel Huktpori ( a 7'0 254 lb athletic version of Capela- defensive rim protecting big).

Free agency signings

Backup Point Guard (1st option = red/ 2nd option = blue)
1- Ask Chris Paul if he's willing to come back for a chance to win a title?? And pray he says YES!!! Otherwise immediately pivot to Kyle Lowry as our 2nd option.

Small Forward options
- Kelly Oubre.
- Kenyon Martin Jr.
- Naji Marshall.

backup Power Forward
- Bol Bol.
- Dario Saric.
- Thad Young.

Backup Center
- Goga Bidatze.
- Bismack Biyombo.
- Damion Jones.

Lastly, Offseason adaptations!!
1- Have Beal concentrate the entire offseason on his playmaking skills and court vision along with Booker and KD. He will eventually become a competent playmaking combo guard next to Booker.IF Paul accepts, he can help mentor Beal on being a floor general! IF Beal succeeds, this is how he reestablishes his value.

2- Booker will no longer concentrate on playmaking duties and go back fully to being a killer elite shooting guard.

3-Durant will focus solely on being an elite, clutch offensive closer playing off of the other two, and roaming defensively. And IF everything goes according to plan, Our new and improved opening night roster will look something like:

Beal/ Booker/O'neale/ Durant/ Bidatze.
Paul/ Allen/ KMart Jr/ Bol Bol/ Sharpe.
Schroder/ D Lee/JT Toppin/ Soriano/ Huktpori.

- Bidatze- 6'11 250 lbs.
-Bol Bol- 7'3 220 lbs.
- Sharpe- 6'11 265 lbs.
- JT Toppin- 6'9 236 lbs.
- Soriano- 6'11 265 lbs.
- Huktpori- 7'0 254 lbs.
That's a significant size increase with tons of strength and physicality.

Here’s the thing with Nurk, he’s literally the perfect matchup for Joker. If the Nuggets make the finals again I don’t think there’s any way we can let him go.

We just can’t be afraid to bench him if the matchup dictates it. He doesn’t have much value against the Thunder / Wolves / Celtics. It took Vogel too long to realize this.

[Frank Lee]

Y’all don’t have to worry about Booker… Durant will grumble his way out of here. It’s what he does.

[lilfishi22]

Agreed with both of you. Booker does make the most sense all things considered. But man oh man, I fear there would be riots if this were to happen.

This is my point about the whole thing. With moving Booker, we're gonna get win now pieces; ie another star player. You guys are caught up on the Melo thing. It doesn't have to be him, there's any number of others that might become available in the next 90 days.

If we move KD, seeing as we're limiting ourselves to OKC, NYK, ATL and then maybe Miami/Boston, there's just not as good of a ROI. In other words, we will be getting younger players that fit Booker's timeline-very young as those teams won't wanna touch their core guys. So, we get early 20s dudes and picks. I'm fine with that, but then we have to rely on our scouting dept.

I just think there's more opportunity with Booker being moved is all. Also, I'm not picking either side on this, I'm just saying.

1 of them needs to go in order for this thing to move forward. Unless there's a major change in the lockerroom and how players/coaches think.

Yeah I agree with you. Moving Booker could ironically make us better now and in the future. Moving KD will make us worse now 100% of the time. Moving Beal has a chance to make us better now, with our future likely being a wash.

Agreed though that something needs to change, but I do think coaching can be that something. We had flashes of brilliance this year, just didn’t have the consistency or belief.

Outside of trading for a 32yo CP3, a coaching changeis the single most effective move we can make to upgrading the team.

[Hitachi77]

This is my point about the whole thing. With moving Booker, we're gonna get win now pieces; ie another star player. You guys are caught up on the Melo thing. It doesn't have to be him, there's any number of others that might become available in the next 90 days.

If we move KD, seeing as we're limiting ourselves to OKC, NYK, ATL and then maybe Miami/Boston, there's just not as good of a ROI. In other words, we will be getting younger players that fit Booker's timeline-very young as those teams won't wanna touch their core guys. So, we get early 20s dudes and picks. I'm fine with that, but then we have to rely on our scouting dept.

I just think there's more opportunity with Booker being moved is all. Also, I'm not picking either side on this, I'm just saying.

1 of them needs to go in order for this thing to move forward. Unless there's a major change in the lockerroom and how players/coaches think.

Yeah I agree with you. Moving Booker could ironically make us better now and in the future. Moving KD will make us worse now 100% of the time. Moving Beal has a chance to make us better now, with our future likely being a wash.

Agreed though that something needs to change, but I do think coaching can be that something. We had flashes of brilliance this year, just didn’t have the consistency or belief.

Outside of trading for a 32yo CP3, a coaching changeis the single most effective move we can make to upgrading the team.

No doubt, and that should happen regardless.

[King4Day]

Read on Twitter

This could mean we want to bump value for someone like KD for teams who may want him but think they can get him for cheap. We tell them we aren't looking to move him and they add more.

Or, they really do plan on just running it back with moves around the edges and see what happens.
If they do that, they will lose a lot of fans next year. Season ticket prices will need to drop because it'll feel like an away game a lot of the time.

Reality is, it's a can't win situation. Run it back. Fans are pissed. Trade KD (or Book), and fans are pissed.

I pray we don't trade our 2031 pick for a bandaide move or to get off Nurk's contract. I'll be so angry.

[sashaturiaf]

So IF you choose to move Booker, Keeping in mind that he's been the face of this franchise forever, is still in his prime, and is under contract for multiple seasons still, what exactly does your plan become? building around a 36 yr old Durant and a 30 yr old Bradley Beal that easily has the very worst contract in the entire league, is a shadow of his former 30+ points per game, only plays around half the season if you're lucky, and honestly is just a slightly worse fascimile of Booker?? How do you suppose the fans will recieve/ react to this plan? How much longer do you honestly expect KD to be able to be dominant into his late 30s? How do you expect a 53 million player that struggles with injuries so much, and has never really led his previous team anywhere and only scored 9 points before fouling out will be recieved by the fanbase here promoted as the chosen leaders of this team? Nah! KD is easily and obviously the one that you trade in order to pull a maximum value return to build out depth and return assets around a backcourt of Booker and Beal! I get that KD is truly great! I really do, but father time is undefeated, and you just don't trade your younger franchise player whose still in his prime and under contract for around at least 3-4 more years? And try to sell your fanbase on instead building around a 36 yr old aging superstar player and an oft injured lower tier version of your franchise star that coincedentally is really underperforming while also making excess of 50 million. You'd likely lose a large majority of your fanbase or Ishbia would be run out of town by a mob with pitchforks!

If you're st on moving Booker fine! But then you honestly just need to bite the bullet and blow it up completely and move KD too, and try to convince Beal to approve trades rather than endure a perennial 1st round exit until he retires or gets frustrated and leaves for a better situation.

Well since I brought this up, I'll answer. It's mostly due to multiple factors. Some of which include:


-We'll get WAY more for him as he's younger and locked up.
-There will be a wider net of teams that want him as KD is only feasible to small number of teams and those all need to be title contenders.
-KD+Beal should more or less be able to do what KD+Booker can while Beal+Booker CANNOT do the same. We would still have the weird pairing in our backcourt.
-KD is the best player out of the 3, age notwithstanding and as such it makes more sense to keep him and try for this with someone who is 1 of the 13 best players of all time.
-Beal and KD's deals both end before Booker's does, giving us a theoretical chance to get some cap room sooner.

That isn't everything, only a portion. I'd say the main bonus being, that we get more. Also since we're stuck with Beal it would help if we had a sensible team that fits. But FTR, I'm not 100% sure of this I just wanted to throw it out there for discussion. I'm fine with moving Durant too, I just feel the selection of teams and by extension the assets we can reap from a trade are more limited if we move him. As opposed to Book.

If fans hated this team now, I can't imagine what the reception would be with KD and Beal as the main guys after trading the franchise player.

It'll be a tough sell, but if they're winning and playing well it's better than running it back and playing the same lame uninspired ball as this season. There won't even be the hope for flipping the switch that we forced ourselves into believing this season

[sunsbg]

Fire Vogel. He's best at massaging star players ego and seems they still don't like him. He doesn't have the balls to move Beal to the bench if that's the best for the team.

Trade Nurk for defensive C. Robinson has been brought up but he's super injury prone and his FT% looks like 3PFG%. Pass. Any chance we convince Nets to give us Claxton by including the pick ? They can also take Beal for Simmons + another of their bad contracts. Maybe Cam J is seen as one now. Nets owe us some help after the fleecing that was the KD trade.

[Calvin Klein]

Y’all don’t have to worry about Booker… Durant will grumble his way out of here. It’s what he does.

I hope so. At this point if Booker doesn't ask out it's a win.

[Slim Charless]

Fire Vogel. He's best at massaging star players ego and seems they still don't like him. He doesn't have the balls to move Beal to the bench if that's the best for the team.

Trade Nurk for defensive C. Robinson has been brought up but he's super injury prone and his FT% looks like 3PFG%. Pass. Any chance we convince Nets to give us Claxton by including the pick ? They can also take Beal for Simmons + another of their bad contracts. Maybe Cam J is seen as one now. Nets owe us some help after the fleecing that was the KD trade.

The Nets owe us nothing and will give us nothing for free. This is the real world here, there's no sweetheart deals we'll be getting from BRK.

[sunskerr]

Fire Vogel. He's best at massaging star players ego and seems they still don't like him. He doesn't have the balls to move Beal to the bench if that's the best for the team.

Trade Nurk for defensive C. Robinson has been brought up but he's super injury prone and his FT% looks like 3PFG%. Pass. Any chance we convince Nets to give us Claxton by including the pick ? They can also take Beal for Simmons + another of their bad contracts. Maybe Cam J is seen as one now. Nets owe us some help after the fleecing that was the KD trade.

The Nets owe us nothing and will give us nothing for free. This is the real world here, there's no sweetheart deals we'll be getting from BRK.

Yeah. In fact the GM most likely to do sweetheart deals is James Jones, which he did already multiple times with the Warren and KD trades lol, always attaching a bunch of picks.