Grade the Suns Offseason

[TASTIC]

Would've been an A if we drafted Kyle Anderson instead of Bogdan Bogdanovic

We'll see in 5 years who you prefer to have from these 2.

Agreed - I think Bogdan is our starter in 3yrs.

He was a gun at Fiba - no fear, strong on both ends and has a real cockiness about his play.

[Kyler Murray]

Would've been an A if we drafted Kyle Anderson instead of Bogdan Bogdanovic

We'll see in 5 years who you prefer to have from these 2.

Agreed - I think Bogdan is our starter in 3yrs.

He was a gun at Fiba - no fear, strong on both ends and has a real cockiness about his play.

He has some Peja in his shooting, and his defense when focused is excellent. But the most impressive char is his fearlessness, for a 19yo it's pretty extraordinary.

[DRK]

Re-Signing Bledsoe - A. No question, we needed this guy. Without him we'd be stuck on the treadmill for years to come. With him, we're the best backcourt in the league, no question. Fair contract as well.

Signing Thomas: A. Loved the move. Steal of a price, and he fits right into the system. Runs the pick and roll well, and can really create his own shot. Love Love Love the signing

Draft - C+. Hated the Ennis pick. (D) I like Warren, but he wasnt my first choice at 14. (B) And not choosing Kyle Anderson just blows my mind. (F)

Re-signing Morri: No question, right up there with the best move of the offseason. We needed these guys back, and we locked them up long term. A

PJ Resigning: B. Not much of a need now, but the contract is fair.

Not resigning Frye: A+. 8million a year for a one-trick pony? Yous gots to be joking.

Not fixing the interior defence- D. I really dont like how our big man rotation looks going into next season. We have the worst center rotation on the league my a mile, and I expect our bigs to be outrebounded and abused every night. As Miklo said, hopefully there is a trade coming to fix this issue, as it was our biggest one last season as well, and it seems nothing was done to rectify it.


Overall - Gets a solid B from me.

[Sunsdeuce]

To me an A involves adding an all-star. But all in all, solid offseason. A solid B(+) for solid (re)signings. Had we signed a legit big would have been an easy A.
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Funny you give it a better grade than me, when you constantly seem to talk negatively about not signing bigs, and I defend our offseason.

I think B is a solid grade, but an A doesn't seem to be deserved unless you do something crazy good.

Honestly I think the best move McD has made is hiring Hornacek and I credit him with turning the players and chemistry into what it's become. The wrong coach with unproven players and everyone so down on the team could have turned at MUCH differently.

The Bledsoe trade was a great move too, but that wasn't really his concoction, so it's hard to give him full credit.

Most of the other moves were kind of no brainers as some predicted the trades to Indy and Washington for first rounders. I predicted the Indy trade for Green but didn't consider Plumlee, so that was another very nice insistence of McD.

I'm still pretty pissed Pop won coach of the year over Hornacek. I think Hornacek FAR exceeded expectations more than Pop. Is he a better coach? Not right now. Was he a better rookie coach with FAR less talent? Without a doubt.

Im not gonna lie, up to a week ago, I thought This off season "was" pretty bad. I was pretty upset with the Tucker resigning (which multiplied with the info of the DWI coming out). Felt we needed to upgrade the SF desperately. And now with a lot of positive talk of warren being an upgrade and possibly the steal of the draft, I have eased up on that. Also seeing that Tucker is now a great possibility to be traded, it has helped. Am not and will not ever be a Bledsoe fan, but it doesnt mean I am not going to cheer for my suns. The bledsoe signing does two things, it makes for quality depth and a high quality trade asset, if nothing else. And I was worried about losing Marcus and Markieff next summer so with the new contracts, that is one less thing on the plate. Although I am still not happy with the front court and major lack of depth, I can give it another year " for now."

Still very weak up front which is going to be evident when we go against teams like Sac, Memphis, Houston, San Antonio, chicago, etc. If I am an opposing coach, i see a very small team in the suns, I game plan to slow down the pace of the game and work the ball inside alot. The suns are going to have to double team more than an average team due to the lack of size. Small ball just doesnt work (especially if you make it to the playoffs). But we have a lot of assets and young players so it doesnt mean we cant address this issue in the near future.

Summed up, up to last week, the off season was not good. Changed alot with the signings and re-signings.

[aIvin adams]

Not fixing the interior defence- D. I really dont like how our big man rotation looks going into next season. We have the worst center rotation on the league my a mile, and I expect our bigs to be outrebounded and abused every night. As Miklo said, hopefully there is a trade coming to fix this issue, as it was our biggest one last season as well, and it seems nothing was done to rectify it.

miles plumlee is OK. below-avg for a starting C but not a complete poo pile. but yah.. unless Len improves significantly, I expect the Suns to get killed inside.

BUT HE WILL IMPROVE I KNOW IT IN MY HEART

[carey]

If I am an opposing coach, i see a very small team in the suns, I game plan to slow down the pace of the game and work the ball inside alot.

Worked well for Indiana last year against us.

[Sunsdeuce]

If I am an opposing coach, i see a very small team in the suns, I game plan to slow down the pace of the game and work the ball inside alot.

Worked well for Indiana last year against us.

Don't know if using the pacers as an example is the best way to prove a point. They were hyped up to be great only to be crap, kinda like in the nfl. The saints got a lot of hype, only to turn out to be crap.

Sorry couldn't help myself with the saints reference.


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[Wannabe MEP]

A ton of youth/inexperience -- that played major roles last season -- returns. So a lot of those players will be better. There'll also be a bump from more time playing together and learning Hornacek's system. I'm breaking this down by position.

Guards: Major upgrade

Depth was a major, major concern that IT effectively eliminates. We can cover an injury now. If we’re healthy, we can throw a ridiculous amount of quickness/craftiness/shooting from both guard positions for 48 minutes. That’s a nightmare to guard. The chemistry between Dragic and Bledsoe is going to continue to improve, especially with Bled’s future now stable. I’m hopeful that the subtleties in Bled’s offense will keep gradually improving. Ridiculous group of guards.

Small Forward: Upgrade

Kept the same young/inexperienced guys, who held their own a year ago and only project to improve. Added an intriguing rookie, and also could pull minutes from our guards at the 3 (e.g., Green) with all that depth at guard.

Non-Frye Bigs: Slight upgrade

Same guys as last year, but they’re also young and inexperienced. Last season was huge for gaining experience. It takes time for bigs to adjust to the NBA, especially defensively.

Frye-Replacement Bigs: ?????

This is the massive, massive question mark. Once Frye was gone, Tolliver was a great signing. But I'm quite sure how we'll use Tolliver. Are we gonna run Tolliver-Markieff lineups? Marcus-Markieff lineups? Has Markieff been working on his quick-release 3 all summer? A lot of this comes down to coaching. I trust Hornacek, but there may also be some front office demands at play here in minutes distribution.

[jcsunsfan]

Plumlee is an athletic energy guy but his consistency and skill set are suspect. He is beginning to look like a "Birdman" type of player. Maybe a Steven Hunter. Had the athleticism but just could not put it together.

[MrMiyagi]

Would've been an A if we drafted Kyle Anderson instead of Bogdan Bogdanovic

We'll see in 5 years who you prefer to have from these 2.

Agreed - I think Bogdan is our starter in 3yrs.

He was a gun at Fiba - no fear, strong on both ends and has a real cockiness about his play.

In three years?! You think he'll beat out Bledsoe or Dragic for a starting spot? Archie has a better chance in my opinion. At least he will have been with the team for longer.

[NavLDO]

I never got around to answer in this thread, so seeing this back toward the top reminded me to finally present my take on our offseason. I gave it B+ overall

Drafting Warren - A+ - The worst kept secret the last couple days leading up to the draft. If he was there, we were taking him. I was very happy with this choice, myself, and honestly didn't understand why he fell to the end of the lottery. He's not a liability on D, he's a high volume scorer, he has good size for the position, and is athletic enough. I had him higher rated than Payton, Saric, or Lavine.

Drafting Ennis - B - Still not sure why we took him. Yes, he was projected to go about where he went, but I almost feel like he was drafted purely as a backup plan for EB, and wish we would have taken Harris, Adams, or Hood, because if we didn't sign EB, would it have been that terrible to run a normal offense with a good SG? I think any of these three will develop into a solid SG...and sooner than Goodwin?

Drafting Bogdanovic - B - I like Bogdanovic, and even more so learning more about him. And the fact that he's not likely to come over for 2 years is fine. So this grade, BTW, is tied to the Ennis grade, for me. Since we didn't grab one of the 3 SGs (Hood, Harris, or Adams), I'm marking this down a bit. We could have had one of the SGs, then taken Anderson, Stokes or O'Bryant at 27.

Drafting Brown - C - "C" is an average grade, so that's what this pick gets. Not good, not bad, just "meh".

Picking up Isiah Thomas - A- Great deal, and an actual "good" tactic to use in negotiations with EB, as he is ready to start day one, where Ennis, is not. We would have been just fine had EB not signed. Of course, I'll address that further, later in the post.

Resigning Tucker - B- - Tucker is fine, but think we overpaid, a tad, for longer than necessary. Would have preferred a 2 year deal at $5M, especially now with Marcus re-signed.

Picking up Tolliver - B - "A" price and length for a "C" talent player, so, a "B" grade overall.

Resigning Bledsoe - A- - Very happy to have him back for 5 years, but would have earned an "A" grade had he been signed for $65M.

Extending the Morri - A+ - My favorite move in the offseason. And we got them on a very reasonable deal, IMO.

Picking up Zoran - A- - Initially I thought "B", but when taking into account that this can have nothing but a favorable impact on our ability to re-sign Goran next offseason bumps it up a half grade.