The Trade Thread: All Eyes Toward The Offseason

Walt_Uoob · Post #1261 » by **Walt_Uoob** » Wed May 4, 2016 3:09 pm

As much as I love dreaming up crazy trades and radical rebuilds, those are seeming increasingly unlikely to me, and it seems more and more that PF is the only position likely to change significantly. So here's an exercise that's not terribly exciting or inspiring but I found kind of fun:

What do you all think our season looks like with various combinations filling in X and Y in our rotation below?

Guards: Bledsoe, Knight, Booker
SF: Tucker and Warren
PF: X and Y
C: Chandler and Len

Maybe...
--Durant and Horford: Could fight for HCA in playoffs. I know, pointless.
--Teletovic and Leuer: Late lottery / playoff bubble. I think with health, improvement from within, and a little continuity we should be better than we were this year for sure. A 7-8 seed seems possible but a 9-10 finish is probably more realistic.
--Simmons and another rookie: Mid-lottery. Even great rookies rarely seem to actually result in winning seasons, and building around Simmons is reportedly going to be particularly difficult. This seems like the best outcome long-term for the franchise because we'd have Simmons and would get a good pick in 2017 too.

What are other possibilities and outcomes?
--Sullinger and a rookie?
--Horford and Leuer?
--Tucker and Len?

Post #1262 » by **bwgood77** » Wed May 4, 2016 4:32 pm

Walt_Uoob wrote:As much as I love dreaming up crazy trades and radical rebuilds, those are seeming increasingly unlikely to me, and it seems more and more that PF is the only position likely to change significantly. So here's an exercise that's not terribly exciting or inspiring but I found kind of fun:

What do you all think our season looks like with various combinations filling in X and Y in our rotation below?

Guards: Bledsoe, Knight, Booker
SF: Tucker and Warren
PF: X and Y
C: Chandler and Len

Maybe...
--Durant and Horford: Could fight for HCA in playoffs. I know, pointless.
--Teletovic and Leuer: Late lottery / playoff bubble. I think with health, improvement from within, and a little continuity we should be better than we were this year for sure. A 7-8 seed seems possible but a 9-10 finish is probably more realistic.
--Simmons and another rookie: Mid-lottery. Even great rookies rarely seem to actually result in winning seasons, and building around Simmons is reportedly going to be particularly difficult. This seems like the best outcome long-term for the franchise because we'd have Simmons and would get a good pick in 2017 too.

What are other possibilities and outcomes?
--Sullinger and a rookie?
--Horford and Leuer?
--Tucker and Len?

It will most likely be Telly and/or Leuer and our rookie PF. Possibly a mid tier defensive stretch 4 that is on the right side of 30 like Marvin Williams, but I imagine he stays in Charlotte (though they are loaded with bigs, so if they keep him they might be willing to deal someone else like Zeller, but I don't follow him that closely).

Bogyo · Post #1263 » by **Bogyo** » Wed May 4, 2016 5:13 pm

What I really don't understand is this: I've seen multiple times that we'll have a "good" lottery pick next year as well, and that we might be tanking next year as well. I think that even if we stay the same without injuries and 1 (maybe 2?) good rookies we'll only be late lottery 9th-14th pick. Is that really all that good?
Is it me overestimating our talent or is it others underestimating, or next years lottery is really that loaded?

KLEON · Post #1264 » by **KLEON** » Wed May 4, 2016 5:29 pm

Mulhollanddrive wrote:I think we'll absolutely throw the kitchen sink at the likes of DeMarcus Cousins, Jimmy Butler, Blake Griffin, Kevin Love.

No better time with our assets of 10 first round picks through 2021, 4 rookies, 4 experienced players.

McDonough under pressure and a weak draft.

All those guys are great players but I would give anything to get Paul George

MathiasPW · Post #1265 » by **MathiasPW** » Wed May 4, 2016 5:48 pm

I don't know much about Thad Young, but I'd guess the Nets would be willing to trade him for enough picks to start their rebuild.

They just don't have another way to go. Brook and Young won't take them anywhere, and they don't have pieces for trades nor picks to start something from scratch.

Post #1266 » by **bwgood77** » Wed May 4, 2016 6:42 pm

Bogyo wrote:What I really don't understand is this: I've seen multiple times that we'll have a "good" lottery pick next year as well, and that we might be tanking next year as well. I think that even if we stay the same without injuries and 1 (maybe 2?) good rookies we'll only be late lottery 9th-14th pick. Is that really all that good?
Is it me overestimating our talent or is it others underestimating, or next years lottery is really that loaded?

Who knows? It's easy to think we were competing fairly closely with a lot of teams at the end and were missing Bledsoe and a legit PF.

I don't think we will purposely "tank" as some suggest, because ownership wouldn't allow it, but it's hard to see how many teams we will be better than in the west.

There is no guarantee Bledsoe will be healthy all year either. I'd guess we would have a pretty good chance of being better than LAL, SAC, DEN, and maybe Dallas if they can't make a major signing? Though Denver has some pretty good talent too. They are mostly just missing a PF and everyone else is pretty young and should improve. Maybe Memphis if they lose Conley or trade Gasol, but they were firmly in 5th before they got injuries so if they come back they should still be good.

And then in the east we should be better than Philly and Brooklyn and honestly after that, I have no idea how we will stack up against any of the other east lottery teams. Many are kind of in the same boat as us with maybe even more promising young guys. Like Orlando has Gordon, Hezonja, Payton, Oladipo (I know some are kind of giving up on him) but those are four pretty high lottery picks as opposed to our three (two of which were lower than any of them). NY? How much will Porzingis improve?

I mean we could improve quite a bit and still struggle to get into the top 10 or 11 in the west. And the east just seems like more of their teams are stuck somewhat close to the 32-48 win range (and the ones below 41 wins which are Orlando (35), MIL (33) and NY (32) all should get better due to youth except maybe NY).

So lets say we improve to 35 wins. We will probably get about the 5th or 6th pick and if we can get to 40 or so, we will probably be more like 8-11.

Hopefully if we start off really badly and still have vets we begin to unload them and go super young though like we should have probably done this year. I'm just scared we will try SO hard to get the 8th seed with an avg veteran PF that we will end up picking 13th or 14th again next year and the cycle continues.

Or, of course, Booker, Warren and Len all break out into superstardom and we advance deep in the playoffs.

ImNotMcDiSwear · Post #1267 » by **ImNotMcDiSwear** » Wed May 4, 2016 6:49 pm

I think Warren will be the biggest difference next season. If Watson will simply let him off his leash, I think he can be one of the league's premier scorers. Now that he's added the 3, he can score from anywhere on the court in any variety of ways. But will Bledsoe and Knight feed him the ball?

Post #1268 » by **bwgood77** » Wed May 4, 2016 6:54 pm

cosmofizzo wrote:I think Warren will be the biggest difference next season. If Watson will simply let him off his leash, I think he can be one of the league's premier scorers. Now that he's added the 3, he can score from anywhere on the court in any variety of ways. But will Bledsoe and Knight feed him the ball?

I hope so. Yes, if he can become the x factor, our Carmelo Anthony or something, then perhaps we make a big jump. For defensive purposes when him and Booker play, we may need PJ at the 4 though so he can switch on the opposing team's best perimeter player.

Jdiddy701 · Post #1269 » by **Jdiddy701** » Wed May 4, 2016 7:54 pm

Bledsoe and Knight working out today at the Suns arena with training staff and Watson. I smell a fine. Lol

I love to see that though.

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Saberestar · Post #1270 » by **Saberestar** » Wed May 4, 2016 10:34 pm

Jdiddy701 wrote:Bledsoe and Knight working out today at the Suns arena with training staff and Watson. I smell a fine. Lol

I love to see that though.

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Yeah, good to know that they're working on their bodies.

http://www.nba.com/suns/gallery/suns-workout-back-it

Saberestar · Post #1271 » by **Saberestar** » Thu May 5, 2016 8:57 am

Summer agenda: Phoenix Suns.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/summer-agenda--phoenix-suns-211838005.html

jcsunsfan · Post #1272 » by **jcsunsfan** » Thu May 5, 2016 10:15 am

Jdiddy701 wrote:Bledsoe and Knight working out today at the Suns arena with training staff and Watson. I smell a fine. Lol

I love to see that though.

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Why a fine?

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Damkac · Post #1273 » by **Damkac** » Thu May 5, 2016 10:17 am

Eric Bledsoe, center

It's confirmed. We're drafting Dunn and Ulis and starts all-pg squad next season.

Frank Lee · Post #1274 » by **Frank Lee** » Thu May 5, 2016 11:30 am

moved to draft thread....

Post #1275 » by **Qwigglez** » Thu May 5, 2016 1:15 pm

Jdiddy701 wrote:Bledsoe and Knight working out today at the Suns arena with training staff and Watson. I smell a fine. Lol

I love to see that though.

Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

Why isn't Booker there?!?!

Djedefre · Post #1276 » by **Djedefre** » Thu May 5, 2016 4:24 pm

With Vogel departure and another 'short' season for George with the Pacers, do you see him being traded, and then could we actually pull it off?

NTB · Post #1277 » by **NTB** » Thu May 5, 2016 4:29 pm

Djedefre wrote:With Vogel departure and another 'short' season for George with the Pacers, do you see him being traded, and then could we actually pull it off?

There are some rumors about Lakers trying to trade George with their draft pick + Russell.

Djedefre · Post #1278 » by **Djedefre** » Thu May 5, 2016 4:48 pm

NTB wrote:
Djedefre wrote:With Vogel departure and another 'short' season for George with the Pacers, do you see him being traded, and then could we actually pull it off?

There are some rumors about Lakers trying to trade George with their draft pick + Russell.

If that package is satisfactory for Bird, we definitely wouldn't be outsiders in project George. But i'm sure C's are (again) a few steps ahead of both.

Post #1279 » by **bwgood77** » Thu May 5, 2016 6:34 pm

Djedefre wrote:
NTB wrote:
Djedefre wrote:With Vogel departure and another 'short' season for George with the Pacers, do you see him being traded, and then could we actually pull it off?

There are some rumors about Lakers trying to trade George with their draft pick + Russell.

If that package is satisfactory for Bird, we definitely wouldn't be outsiders in project George. But i'm sure C's are (again) a few steps ahead of both.

Seriously doubtful. I don't know that they'd give up Russell and I don't think that's enough anyway. Bill Simmons started those rumors so that will get them going fast. But he even said he doesn't think Indy would take that.

Indy fans (and fans of other teams) mentioned that they wouldn't trade George for ANY pick in this draft, and that there is little likelihood anyone will ever end up as good as him.

George is probably a top 8 player. He can just do everything and plays both ways.

Also, if THAT package WAS acceptable, than the only package we could probably do that MIGHT be better is our pick and Booker, but I think they'd turn that down too. But I see no reason Larry Bird would trade Paul George. You just don't trade guys like that, and teams like Indy are kind of like the Suns...have always been competitive so a full rebuild wouldn't fly very well and a small market team like that will always have a very hard time coming across a superstar.

Saberestar · Post #1280 » by **Saberestar** » Thu May 5, 2016 11:20 pm

Babby is ending his association with the Suns at the end of this week. He had spent the past season as a part-time senior adviser after having a five-year run as Suns president of basketball operations.

“I’m very appreciative for the opportunity to come to Phoenix, be part of a wonderful community and see and learn a lot of things that have been very gratifying,” Babby said. “I look forward to staying involved here in the community and being more involved with my family. I turned 65 in February and consider myself a full-fledged snowbird.”

http://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nba/suns/2016/05/05/lon-babby-ends-tenure-phoenix-suns/83985994/