The Official Jalen Suggs Thread

[pepe1991]

This is my gut feeling with what happened last night when Toronto selected Scottie Barnes. I do believe the Magic thought they had close to 0% chance of Suggs dropping to 5. Assuming that Toronto was going to draft Suggs, rumors/speculation started coming out of the Magic taking Barnes/ The Magic talking up Scottie Barnes. Than Toronto is listening about Barnes going #5 to Orlando and start to get torn between Suggs or Barnes. My believe is they took Barnes because Barnes is bigger and he can play guard and forward(positions 1-4). I don't know what was going on behind the scenes but Orlando probably did a beautiful job PLAYING Toronto to make Toronto BITE on taking Barnes over Suggs.

There are a bunch of lineups I want to see during the season

Lineup #1

Suggs
Fultz
Cole
Wagner
Isaac

Lineup #2

Suggs
Fultz
RJ
Wagner
Isaac

Lineup #3

Suggs
Cole
RJ
Wagner
Isaac

Lineup # 4 ( Suggs has to rest at some point)

Fultz
Cole
RJ
Wagner
Isaac

Lineup #5

Suggs
Fultz
Cole
Isaac
Bamba

Lineup #6

Suggs
Fultz
RJ
Isaac
Wendell

Lineup #7

Suggs
Cole
RJ
Okeke
Isaac

Lineup #8

Suggs
Fultz
Cole
Okeke
Wagner

Lineup #9

Suggs
Fultz
RJ
Okeke
Bamba

Lineup #10 (Another lineup with Suggs resting/foul trouble)

Fultz
Cole
RJ
Okeke
Wendell

The reason why the Raptors passed on Suggs is because Masai Ujiri believes he can turn Barnes into the next Giannis/Raptors Kawhi. He has been chasing the ghost of Giannis since he missed out on him in 2013. He picked Bruno with the 20th pick in 2014 which failed badly. Took Siakam with the 27th pick in 2016 and it paid off. He was also chasing SGA in 2018. He just loves tall players who are athletic, have long wingspan and know how to play defense.

90% of the Raptors fan didn't like the pick because the chance of Barnes turning into the next Giannis is close to 0. When you have a consensus top 4 pick in one of the best drafts in years, you obviously don't overthink it and pick one of them.

Masai clearly ****ed up and it cost the Raptors a potential superstar in Suggs.

poor take. if you think suggs has superstar potential, there are better reasons to believe Barnes has potential to become a superstar that wins championships. barnes is far from a finished product just like suggs, but suggs is a small boy when compared to barnes and he's way more versatile and has higher iq on the defensive end, he also has vision, ball handling and playmaking skills. how often do you find a guy who's 6'8 with a 7'4 wingspan that have these skills and attributes, let alone a 19 year old? you can't teach many of these things. you put him in the raptors development program, watch the **** out. he's more talented than OG and Siakam when they came out of college. most Raptors fans didn't like the pick initially because most were buying the media hype and this cOnSenSus toP 4 drivel. don't know how you can confidently say Masai clearly **** up when this man has drafted and developed studs in the past, has scouted these prospects since their mid teens, worked them out individually, extensively interviewed them, watched every single one of their games, has a better idea of what wins championships, and hasspoken to people who are plugged in to all these prospects. "He just loves tall players who are athletic, have long wingspan and know how to play defense." well yeah, you can't teach height, long wingspans, defensive versatility and athleticism and there is an abundance of smaller skilled guards. he's going for the home run and he has to if he wants to win more championships.

Barnes does not have clear "ballhandling or playmaking "skills.
He was ulitized at all levels as "big" whole his career. What he is capable of doing is making pass off pick&roll where he, as big ,sets screen and gets ball.
Most of the time he is ulitized as Julius Randle ( very similar measurments, minus wingspan).
He as " playmaker" is gimmicky crap made up by scouts and fan-fiction among fans. In only actual possessions where he was ballhandling playmaker, his pick&roll percentile was 49th. Clearly not even mediocre one.

Where Barnes gets exposed as ballhandler is half court. He was complete no treat to score. His shooting in half court ranked him among 20% worst in whole college basketball. In general, only effective way for Barnes to score was him pushing transition. We know for fact that in playoffs transition basketball is first thing that stops.

Saying Barnes has more star potential than Suggs because he is taller is like saying Taco Fall has more potential than Doncic because you can't teach 7'5. Sure in perfect world you prefer "Lebron" over " John Wall" but Barnes is so far away from being what he is advertised he will become. He kind a reminds me of Josh Jackson. For all "playmaking" and "defense" and "versitality" he was advertised for, once he had no jumpshot to keep defenders honest and not treat him like he is MKG, there was nothing left. You can't be elite in nba if you have no jumpshot pass 5 feet. And Barnes simply does not have it.

His saving grace on Raptors will be fact that Vleet, Lowry and OG can make open jumpers so he won't get shut down and exposed. That still doesn't change fact that him and Siakam will shrink floor for Raptors ( if Siakam stays).

Where i respect and like Ujiri, let's be honest, if Durant or Curry ( or both) stayed healthy , he would still have "no rings" added to his name. Lucking into 2 of worst , most devastating injuries of two of opponents best players in nba finals is something that never happend before and probably will never after.

[fateis007]

poor take. if you think suggs has superstar potential, there are better reasons to believe Barnes has potential to become a superstar that wins championships. barnes is far from a finished product just like suggs, but suggs is a small boy when compared to barnes and he's way more versatile and has higher iq on the defensive end, he also has vision, ball handling and playmaking skills. how often do you find a guy who's 6'8 with a 7'4 wingspan that have these skills and attributes, let alone a 19 year old? you can't teach many of these things. you put him in the raptors development program, watch the **** out. he's more talented than OG and Siakam when they came out of college. most Raptors fans didn't like the pick initially because most were buying the media hype and this cOnSenSus toP 4 drivel. don't know how you can confidently say Masai clearly **** up when this man has drafted and developed studs in the past, has scouted these prospects since their mid teens, worked them out individually, extensively interviewed them, watched every single one of their games, has a better idea of what wins championships, and hasspoken to people who are plugged in to all these prospects. "He just loves tall players who are athletic, have long wingspan and know how to play defense." well yeah, you can't teach height, long wingspans, defensive versatility and athleticism and there is an abundance of smaller skilled guards. he's going for the home run and he has to if he wants to win more championships.

Must suck when the only thing you can come up with is that a 6'4, 200lb point guard is a small boy compared to your big boy forward. He must be better then Trae, Curry, Lilliard because they are so tiny!

By pretty much every single metric, Suggs was a superior player.

Per 36 mins that small guard out rebounded barnes and got more steals then "this defensive phenom" and has a much better defensive rating.

http://www.tankathon.com/players/compare?players=scottie-barnes--jalen-suggs

I mean look at the advanced stats, it's not even close. It's a shut out.

I know you're trying to sell yourself on Barnes, but why dont you keep it on your own forum, hating on Suggs on the group that drafted him is going to get you no where. Do you want us going to your group talking about how great Suggs is and poking at the 90% of the raptor fanbase that has been trying to sell themselves on the pick, even saying he could somehow be a pointguard. That dude is not running an offense beyond being a point forward. LOL.... just stop. He would get eatin alive by all those small guards in the NBA with his ball handling. Why don't you let him actually show he can shoot the ball atleast, or better yet let them play some games before declaring him the next Ben Simmons with a broken jump shot.

[HKBOY]

This is my gut feeling with what happened last night when Toronto selected Scottie Barnes. I do believe the Magic thought they had close to 0% chance of Suggs dropping to 5. Assuming that Toronto was going to draft Suggs, rumors/speculation started coming out of the Magic taking Barnes/ The Magic talking up Scottie Barnes. Than Toronto is listening about Barnes going #5 to Orlando and start to get torn between Suggs or Barnes. My believe is they took Barnes because Barnes is bigger and he can play guard and forward(positions 1-4). I don't know what was going on behind the scenes but Orlando probably did a beautiful job PLAYING Toronto to make Toronto BITE on taking Barnes over Suggs.

There are a bunch of lineups I want to see during the season

Lineup #1

Suggs
Fultz
Cole
Wagner
Isaac

Lineup #2

Suggs
Fultz
RJ
Wagner
Isaac

Lineup #3

Suggs
Cole
RJ
Wagner
Isaac

Lineup # 4 ( Suggs has to rest at some point)

Fultz
Cole
RJ
Wagner
Isaac

Lineup #5

Suggs
Fultz
Cole
Isaac
Bamba

Lineup #6

Suggs
Fultz
RJ
Isaac
Wendell

Lineup #7

Suggs
Cole
RJ
Okeke
Isaac

Lineup #8

Suggs
Fultz
Cole
Okeke
Wagner

Lineup #9

Suggs
Fultz
RJ
Okeke
Bamba

Lineup #10 (Another lineup with Suggs resting/foul trouble)

Fultz
Cole
RJ
Okeke
Wendell

The reason why the Raptors passed on Suggs is because Masai Ujiri believes he can turn Barnes into the next Giannis/Raptors Kawhi. He has been chasing the ghost of Giannis since he missed out on him in 2013. He picked Bruno with the 20th pick in 2014 which failed badly. Took Siakam with the 27th pick in 2016 and it paid off. He was also chasing SGA in 2018. He just loves tall players who are athletic, have long wingspan and know how to play defense.

90% of the Raptors fan didn't like the pick because the chance of Barnes turning into the next Giannis is close to 0. When you have a consensus top 4 pick in one of the best drafts in years, you obviously don't overthink it and pick one of them.

Masai clearly ****ed up and it cost the Raptors a potential superstar in Suggs.

poor take. if you think suggs has superstar potential, there are better reasons to believe Barnes has potential to become a superstar that wins championships. barnes is far from a finished product just like suggs, but suggs is a small boy when compared to barnes and he's way more versatile and has higher iq on the defensive end, he also has vision, ball handling and playmaking skills. how often do you find a guy who's 6'8 with a 7'4 wingspan that have these skills and attributes, let alone a 19 year old? you can't teach many of these things. you put him in the raptors development program, watch the **** out. he's more talented than OG and Siakam when they came out of college. most Raptors fans didn't like the pick initially because most were buying the media hype and this cOnSenSus toP 4 drivel. don't know how you can confidently say Masai clearly **** up when this man has drafted and developed studs in the past, has scouted these prospects since their mid teens, worked them out individually, extensively interviewed them, watched every single one of their games, has a better idea of what wins championships, and hasspoken to people who are plugged in to all these prospects. "He just loves tall players who are athletic, have long wingspan and know how to play defense." well yeah, you can't teach height, long wingspans, defensive versatility and athleticism and there is an abundance of smaller skilled guards. he's going for the home run and he has to if he wants to win more championships.

Barnes isn't going to be a superstar, the dude shot 27% from 3 and 62% from the free throw line. Yes, he is a good defender, has vision and he can handle the ball but so does Draymond and Pascal. Are they superstars? Can you count on them to take the last shot in game 7 of the playoff?

You don't waste a top 4 pick in a deep draft on a high end role player, you use it on a potential star like Suggs.

[drsd]

Highest rated guard that we have drafted since Penny. I couldn't be happier with this pick. He has the potential to be the best player in this draft.

Someone is unhappy with you.

[drsd]

Ok.. any of you think there is some substance to the "conspiracy" theory that Suggs tanked his workout with the Raps because he didn't wanna go to Canada?

No? Suggs is a baller and a winner. He’s also from Minnesota and went to Gonzaga. Occam’s razor is.. Toronto just liked Barnes better. No tin foil hat needed. And no, billion dollar organizations don’t make their decision based on one 1 on 0 workout.

Also: the 4 pick should make 33.1M in a rookie deal and the 5 pick 30.0M. A player does not tank 3M off of the table.

[drsd]

Barnes isn't going to be a superstar, the dude shot 27% from 3 and 62% from the free throw line. Yes, he is a good defender, has vision and he can handle the ball but so does Draymond and Pascal. Are they superstars? Can you count on them to take the last shot in game 7 of the playoff?

You don't waste a top 4 pick in a deep draft on a high end role player, you use it on a potential star like Suggs.

Green is a probable Hall of Famer. I take those over superstars. Siakam is nearly at the Super-star level. He just needs to shift into one more gear and he is a top-10 player in the NBA. Right now, he is a top-20 player. Orlando would be happy with one of those as well.


That said: I think Barnes is a very poor pick and I did not have in the top-10 of my draft board.

..

[RookieStar]

Ok.. any of you think there is some substance to the "conspiracy" theory that Suggs tanked his workout with the Raps because he didn't wanna go to Canada?

No? Suggs is a baller and a winner. He’s also from Minnesota and went to Gonzaga. Occam’s razor is.. Toronto just liked Barnes better. No tin foil hat needed. And no, billion dollar organizations don’t make their decision based on one 1 on 0 workout.

Also: the 4 pick should make 33.1M in a rookie deal and the 5 pick 30.0M. A player does not tank 3M off of the table.

Again i ask to compute tax-free orlando with the taxes we have in Canada.

[drsd]

No? Suggs is a baller and a winner. He’s also from Minnesota and went to Gonzaga. Occam’s razor is.. Toronto just liked Barnes better. No tin foil hat needed. And no, billion dollar organizations don’t make their decision based on one 1 on 0 workout.

Also: the 4 pick should make 33.1M in a rookie deal and the 5 pick 30.0M. A player does not tank 3M off of the table.

Again i ask to compute tax-free orlando with the taxes we have in Canada.

Players in Canada get a pay bump. It is not 100% of lost taxes, but that money does go to services, and time in the USA is not computed to Canadian taxes. The bigger difference is that Florida has no state tax. The players in California and New York have the highest chunk ripped from their pay check. So clearly those are the two states NBA players look to avoid (sarcasm).

On average an NBA player takes home about 45% net of their gross salary. In Orlando it is closer to 55%. That should make the Magic attractive for FAs. What is more attractive? Wining.

..

[RookieStar]

Also: the 4 pick should make 33.1M in a rookie deal and the 5 pick 30.0M. A player does not tank 3M off of the table.

Again i ask to compute tax-free orlando with the taxes we have in Canada.

Players in Canada get a pay bump. It is not 100% of lost taxes, but that money does go to services, and time in the USA is not computed to Canadian taxes. The bigger difference is that Florida has no state tax. The players in California and New York have the highest chunk ripped from their pay check. So clearly those are the two states NBA players look to avoid (sarcasm).

On average an NBA player takes home about 45% net of their gross salary. In Orlando it is closer to 55%. That should make the Magic attractive for FAs. What is more attractive? Wining.

..

So 14.9 versus 15m if i follow your 33.1 45% and 30 55%.

So.... he actually gets more from us as the 5th pick in Orlando? over the 4th pick in Toronto???

[drsd]

So.... he actually gets more from us as the 5th pick in Orlando? over the 4th pick in Toronto???

That is probable, from a net-salary level. Of course public services in Florida are poor by Toronto standards. Whether a multi-mialionar needs public services is another question (does Suggs care what health care costs and quality given that his is free and world's best as an NBA athlete?, as one example).

..

[RookieStar]

So.... he actually gets more from us as the 5th pick in Orlando? over the 4th pick in Toronto???

That is probable, from a net-salary level. Of course public services in Florida are poor by Toronto standards. Whether a multi-mialionar needs public services is another question (does Suggs care what health care costs and quality given that his is free and world's best as an NBA athlete?, as one example).

..

You are working in the NBA, you better believe they have medical insurance and what not so they don't care about public service. ( I mean seriously, you can get an MRI in the next 30mins without appointment or thinking of the costs if the team even suspects you have an ACL? Also, public transport? With the rides these guys buy?

Yes trust me, I know Canada's public service is top-notch, I remember the taxes to prove it. But these guys are the 1%. You better believe they don't care about anything "public".

[drsd]

I mean seriously, you can get an MRI in the next 30mins without appointment or thinking of the costs if the team even suspects you have an ACL?

I would say it is even more than that. Every training facility now has a medical clinic within that is basically a low end emergency room in quality. There is a permanent doctor on call with about 5 physio-staff there to give instant medical opinions. And that is before we consider the cognitive and circulatory care these athletes get within the facility. Even health issues that have nothing to do with being an athlete receive immediate attention, where cancer treatments are very high on this list as a prime example.

NBA players receive the health care that Billionaires would expect. Their health care is far above the salary line of "just" millionaires.


..

[KillMonger]

I mean seriously, you can get an MRI in the next 30mins without appointment or thinking of the costs if the team even suspects you have an ACL?

I would say it is even more than that. Every training facility now has a medical clinic within that is basically a low end emergency room in quality. There is a permanent doctor on call with about 5 physio-staff there to give instant medical opinions. And that is before we consider the cognitive and circulatory care these athletes get within the facility. Even health issues that have nothing to do with being an athlete receive immediate attention, where cancer treatments are very high on this list as a prime example.

NBA players receive the health care that Billionaires would expect. Their health care is far above the salary line of "just" millionaires.


..

And when the new facility is done constructing this goes to an even higher level....If you read up on what the amenities and cutting edge technology that's going to be available to these athletes? world class doesn't do it justice

[drsd]

I mean seriously, you can get an MRI in the next 30mins without appointment or thinking of the costs if the team even suspects you have an ACL?

I would say it is even more than that. Every training facility now has a medical clinic within that is basically a low end emergency room in quality. There is a permanent doctor on call with about 5 physio-staff there to give instant medical opinions. And that is before we consider the cognitive and circulatory care these athletes get within the facility. Even health issues that have nothing to do with being an athlete receive immediate attention, where cancer treatments are very high on this list as a prime example.

NBA players receive the health care that Billionaires would expect. Their health care is far above the salary line of "just" millionaires.


..

And when the new facility is done constructing this goes to an even higher level....If you read up on what the amenities and cutting edge technology that's going to be available to these athletes? world class doesn't do it justice

Do Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates have a portable MRI following them around? Probably not. So in that sense, there are aspects of NBA player's health care that is well above "world class".


..

[fendilim]

Detailed breakdown

https://hashtagbasketball.com/nba-draft/content/scouting-report-film-review-jalen-suggs

[ORLMagicGirl15]

I hope this kid has love for the game. Some of the things he said in interviews are off putting. The NBA season is long and hard, he will get burned out if the only reason he’s playing is to build generational wealth. If he truly wants that wealth he has to put in the work.

I remember Mo Bamba spending money (buying his friend a car) before his first NBA game. I felt he had no motivation in the past 2 years. He seemed like he was playing for the money. Not that there exclusive but money is not an incentive if you can just make it off guaranteed contracts for two years, being satisfied with that with no motivation in improving your skills. I hope he can turn it around. He was better at the end of last season with Vuc being traded but he seriously need to turn it around.

We don’t need money hungry players, we need a player who has love for the game and have a “must win” healthy mentality that can drive him and the team to be better. I don’t watch college basketball so I don’t know Suggs-some of you are better equip to access his abilities and ignore his interviews, but I wish him all the best. Welcome to the team.

[p0peye]

Oh i can finally not hold back what i actually think about Barnes and Kuminga without being too bothered by not hurting feeling of some fans

Just to touch on people Magic missed on first.

Barnes is simply overhyped due existence of Draymoond Green and Ben Simmons, despite it's clear that one of them is pure product of superteams around him, where he is just role player, and other is way better player Barnes will ever be.
Barnes does not have jumpshot. Barnes does not have offense in general. His playmaking is him passing ball to offball action ( cutter or curling of screens). He is last person to pass ball to player who almost does everything by himself to score, yet due "assists" nowdays being counted as joke, he was getting credits via APGs . That's not playmaking, that's ballpassing.
In actual playmaking situations, where ballhandler gets pick&roll on set defense and has to make something, Barnes was worst than majority of college playmakers. All his true "Playmaking" stats proved he is mediocre at best.
This also has strong roots into fact he can't create any offense for himself and because of it he is easy to guard. There is something to be said about player who can't shoot pass 5 feet , has no floater, struggles to FTs . I basically described bulkier Michael Carter Williams. And i simply don't think Barnes will ever be ulitized all that much in nba as passer nor he will ever be ballhandler. He will play "point forward" and probably be 1/5th player on offense Kevin Love is ( can pass, but no post moves, can't shoot, can't turn both shoulders, does not know how to bait fouls nor can make FTs ).


As for Kuminga. Guy is fool's gold. Teams will be wasting 2,3 ,4 years to teach him how to play basketball, while paying him $20M to do so. And his inflated ego will probably think he is "too good " after year and half. There is lot of Gordon in him.
Right now he is terrible in every aspect of a game, but that probably won't stop him from hoisting 10-14 shots a game regardless.
His realistic comparison is worst shooting Jeff Green. Witch says a lot.


We got Suggs and thank God for it, it probably signals that Fultz will never figure out and is from now on projected nba backup at best. Thankfully Cole Anthony won't be starting any more.
Suggs is athletic , fast , good at reading defense, can get anywhere on the floor and is't terrible shooter. There are aspects of his game that will need improvments, mainly shooting with consistancy, but those things should come way smoother for him than likes of Kuminga and Barnes with broken jumpshots.
I like Wagner, i think he was solid pick too.

In general i'm happy front office pulled heads out of their A holes and stopped drafting gimmicky wingspan and lenght.

Well said and good scouting, pepe.

Going forward, let's see if Jamahl Mosley has what it takes to set proper roles for each guard on our roster so we can develop them. If done right, I hope for Suggs to be the keeper and future star on this team with another as 6th man, rest can be traded or let go.

[Skybox]

This is my gut feeling with what happened last night when Toronto selected Scottie Barnes. I do believe the Magic thought they had close to 0% chance of Suggs dropping to 5. Assuming that Toronto was going to draft Suggs, rumors/speculation started coming out of the Magic taking Barnes/ The Magic talking up Scottie Barnes. Than Toronto is listening about Barnes going #5 to Orlando and start to get torn between Suggs or Barnes. My believe is they took Barnes because Barnes is bigger and he can play guard and forward(positions 1-4). I don't know what was going on behind the scenes but Orlando probably did a beautiful job PLAYING Toronto to make Toronto BITE on taking Barnes over Suggs.

There are a bunch of lineups I want to see during the season

Lineup #1

Suggs
Fultz
Cole
Wagner
Isaac

Lineup #2

Suggs
Fultz
RJ
Wagner
Isaac

Lineup #3

Suggs
Cole
RJ
Wagner
Isaac

Lineup # 4 ( Suggs has to rest at some point)

Fultz
Cole
RJ
Wagner
Isaac

Lineup #5

Suggs
Fultz
Cole
Isaac
Bamba

Lineup #6

Suggs
Fultz
RJ
Isaac
Wendell

Lineup #7

Suggs
Cole
RJ
Okeke
Isaac

Lineup #8

Suggs
Fultz
Cole
Okeke
Wagner

Lineup #9

Suggs
Fultz
RJ
Okeke
Bamba

Lineup #10 (Another lineup with Suggs resting/foul trouble)

Fultz
Cole
RJ
Okeke
Wendell

The reason why the Raptors passed on Suggs is because Masai Ujiri believes he can turn Barnes into the next Giannis/Raptors Kawhi. He has been chasing the ghost of Giannis since he missed out on him in 2013. He picked Bruno with the 20th pick in 2014 which failed badly. Took Siakam with the 27th pick in 2016 and it paid off. He was also chasing SGA in 2018. He just loves tall players who are athletic, have long wingspan and know how to play defense.

90% of the Raptors fan didn't like the pick because the chance of Barnes turning into the next Giannis is close to 0. When you have a consensus top 4 pick in one of the best drafts in years, you obviously don't overthink it and pick one of them.

Masai clearly ****ed up and it cost the Raptors a potential superstar in Suggs.

poor take. if you think suggs has superstar potential, there are better reasons to believe Barnes has potential to become a superstar that wins championships. barnes is far from a finished product just like suggs, but suggs is a small boy when compared to barnes and he's way more versatile and has higher iq on the defensive end, he also has vision, ball handling and playmaking skills. how often do you find a guy who's 6'8 with a 7'4 wingspan that have these skills and attributes, let alone a 19 year old? you can't teach many of these things. you put him in the raptors development program, watch the **** out. he's more talented than OG and Siakam when they came out of college. most Raptors fans didn't like the pick initially because most were buying the media hype and this cOnSenSus toP 4 drivel. don't know how you can confidently say Masai clearly **** up when this man has drafted and developed studs in the past, has scouted these prospects since their mid teens, worked them out individually, extensively interviewed them, watched every single one of their games, has a better idea of what wins championships, and hasspoken to people who are plugged in to all these prospects. "He just loves tall players who are athletic, have long wingspan and know how to play defense." well yeah, you can't teach height, long wingspans, defensive versatility and athleticism and there is an abundance of smaller skilled guards. he's going for the home run and he has to if he wants to win more championships.

This is an absolutely absurd take...I like Barnes but this sounds a lot like American politics of the last few years...now that you made your choice and you're stuck with it, you can talk yourself into believing anything and your guy can do no wrong...why not just say "Barnes is a better fit for what TOR is doing"? "TOR's roster is fairly complete already, we can afford to take a risk on an unconventional player"? Attacking Suggs, who is perhaps the most complete player in the entire draft, perhaps the highest floor in the draft, likely the safest pick in the entire draft is just silly. Masai's gambling big on Barnes-credit to him but that's no reflection on Suggs. Cade, Green, Mobley, Kuminga, maybe even Barnes, arguably, could have higher ceilings- but Suggs is as close to a sure thing as I've seen in a long time...I'd be willing to bet Masai wouldn't even agree with you - he knows he's taking a big risk by passing on Suggs and taking Barnes. He simply decided the potential reward could be there. When I see Barnes as your new PG, I'll eat crow. What I see is Dennis Rodman without rebounding...which is still an interesting weapon to deploy on a complementary team.

[Ducklett]

Also: the 4 pick should make 33.1M in a rookie deal and the 5 pick 30.0M. A player does not tank 3M off of the table.

Again i ask to compute tax-free orlando with the taxes we have in Canada.

Players in Canada get a pay bump. It is not 100% of lost taxes, but that money does go to services, and time in the USA is not computed to Canadian taxes. The bigger difference is that Florida has no state tax. The players in California and New York have the highest chunk ripped from their pay check. So clearly those are the two states NBA players look to avoid (sarcasm).

On average an NBA player takes home about 45% net of their gross salary. In Orlando it is closer to 55%. That should make the Magic attractive for FAs. What is more attractive? Wining.

..

I have never been to Toronto myself, I plan on going eventually. I have a good friend who is a government official up there and he says that the infrastructure is 30+ years old and feels it. He suggested that I-4 looked nice compared to some parts of the roads up there, which made me laugh audibly in his face.

I also find it interesting that his Canadian friends like to joke on Torontonians calling them the US of Canada (that is a insult I am told).

[zaymon]

I hope this kid has love for the game. Some of the things he said in interviews are off putting. The NBA season is long and hard, he will get burned out if the only reason he’s playing is to build generational wealth. If he truly wants that wealth he has to put in the work.

I remember Mo Bamba spending money (buying his friend a car) before his first NBA game. I felt he had no motivation in the past 2 years. He seemed like he was playing for the money. Not that there exclusive but money is not an incentive if you can just make it off guaranteed contracts for two years, being satisfied with that with no motivation in improving your skills. I hope he can turn it around. He was better at the end of last season with Vuc being traded but he seriously need to turn it around.

We don’t need money hungry players, we need a player who has love for the game and have a “must win” healthy mentality that can drive him and the team to be better. I don’t watch college basketball so I don’t know Suggs-some of you are better equip to access his abilities and ignore his interviews, but I wish him all the best. Welcome to the team.

I have the same worry. It looks like he loves football but chose basketball for money. On the other side he seems to be natural competitor and loves sports overall. Micheal Jordan played golf in his free time and left basketball for baseball for a while also. Those natural competitors find a way to be special in every field they want to.