bwgood77 wrote:I doubt Aaron Gordon is traded any time soon, particularly with Vucevic now out a month. Now he's off to a bad start, so they could want to trade him, but it's likely just a bad start to the season....however, if, for some reason it wasn't, he doesn't appear to be an upgrade, and shoots 28% from 3. Even his best year was under 35%, where Saric's best year is over 39% and he's just a tad under that this year.
Saric is a better fit next to Ayton.
Now I am not a huge fan of Saric, and if Gordon is a good player his contract isn't all that bad, but if they did want to get out of it, would they want to have to pay Saric? Now of course they could say, like I am saying, that Saric is the better 3 pt shooter and is better, and could be cheaper.
I just personally don't know that Gordon is the answer on a team with Ayton, and especially if we keep Baynes.
As far as a guy like Tristan Thompson, I kind of like Diallo, and would like to see how he continues to do in our other C's absence. He could be a very cheap nice option to keep, and maybe a steal. I'd like to see if he can improve his rebounding.
I want to keep some consistency for once on the team, and continuity, instead of guys always wondering if they will get traded. Tyler had a couple of bad games, but he's still overall a fairly solid player, tries hard on defense, shoots 35% from 3, and has over a 2/1 ast/to ratio (and usually better). We at least need him until we feel Jerome and Rubio are injury free.
I don't know that a team wants to trade for DeMar DeRozan either, though I guess the Magic make more sense than most. They do need outside shooting, but could also use a playmaker, and he is underrated there. But I doubt those GMs would be an overall fan of his.
Really good points to consider overall as always Bgood. Now to reiterate, Ideally, Bigger trades using Tyler's expiring would preferably be considered around the trade deadline in order to give us more time to see what we have with the te'lam at full strength, and with some actual continuity as well. I like that Monty Williams is bringing certain concepts from his San Antonio days to Phoenix. And actual continuity and roster chemistry would definitely be a refreshing change of pace from what we've become accustomed to in the valley.
Now with respect to the proposed players inclusive to the trades:
With Aaron Gordon, The line of thinking was in that with Aaron Gordon having a poor start to the year, And with the magic being hard capped, The expiring contract of Tyler Johnson would be of value to them for the purpose of getting back in line with the cap. And I was also considering that yes, as Bgood said, Aaron Gordon hasn't yet had a really good season. But I ( may be wrong of course) believe that with a superior passing point guard and a change of scenery, He could be a really good pick in roll threat and defensive compliment for us. My hope is that he could play in more of a marion defensive type role, whilst also making energizing plays for us similar to how marion would do in skying in for monstrous dunks. I also believe that with his speed and athleticism, he could be a great positional defender for us. Now having said that, I really have been impressed with Sarics' most recent game, I loved his effort. And that he actually plays with defensive intensity, as I truly think that'll be key to our team's success and sustainability. And he might not be available, But in the right situation, I'd definitely inquire about him. This team is achieving pretty good results with cast off players and players that might have something to prove and have had mediocre careers so far, yet still offer potentially valuable individual skillsets. And Monty is supposedly really good at player development too. So Aaron Gordon could develop into a potential steal for us in that regard I suspect.
With respect to Diallo, He's been great in my opinion and for his price as well. This is mainly due to the defensive energy that he brings, as well as his length, athleticism and shooting consistency. And we should definitely resign him IF POSSIBLE with a small yet reasonable increase if he maintains his play and production throughout the rest of the season for us. And with Tristan Thompson, I'm notbeven suggesting trading ( losing Saric) to accomplish acquiring him. It theoretically in this proposal would only cost us Tyler's expiring and a future 2nd round pick. Also, its important to remember that he's also a comparable expiring to Tyler, So he wouldn't really become much of a risk to us at all. And also wouldn't affect our cap space plans either. But what he would do is address one of our most critical issues in our rebounding and post presence, which can be easily argued that both issues are large contributors to a number of our losses. And he'd give us another dynamic in our rotation and more quality veteran depth in our frontcourt, should Baynes be out longer than expected or should we suffer any more unfortunate injuries. Saric could still start, keeping his shooting for us, with Thompson at center ( whilst Baynes is out) and Then we play Kaminsky at the 4, and Diallo at the 5, or vice versa off the bench with Kaminsky at the 5, and Diallo at the 4, whatever.
And once Ayton and Baynes return, we can have numerous variations and supreme depth carrying us throughout the season, and helping to ensure our hopeful playoff appearance this year. Then review and resign the top performing players using our bird rights?
Once Ayton and Baynes return, We might try something like this as our primary rotation:
Rubio/ Jerome/ Carter.
Booker/ Bridges/Okobo.
Oubre/ Cam Johnson/ Bridges.
Saric/ Thompson/ Diallo.
Baynes/ Kaminsky/ Thompson.
With this particular rotation, Our starters would be very solid, and our bench would have a very nice mixture of actual great shooting with Jerome, Cam Johnson, and (even possibly?)Kaminsky? Whilst providing solid defense and rebounding with Bridges and Thompson both in the lineup. And again, Thompson is still an expiring, and won't affect us in terms of cap space. Essentially we are just exchanging expiring contracts for their positional skillset, and to address some imminent critical issues that are contributing to our losses. That's what good teams do anyways.
