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2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins

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Re: 2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins 

Post#2041 » by Slim Charless » Thu Jul 20, 2023 8:35 am

lilfishi22 wrote:
Slim Charless wrote:
lilfishi22 wrote:If you can pick and choose who you want to assign credit then so can anyone


Facts are facts. I don't deal in opinions.

You literally wrote "imo" on your post and which stands for in my opinion. What ISN'T an opinion is Booker's first season as an all-star in 2019-2020 was under Monty and before CP3.

Facts are facts. I don't deal in opinions


Supposed to be green. Apologies. That being said I'm still right lol. Monty is a fool
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Re: 2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins 

Post#2042 » by garrick » Thu Jul 20, 2023 9:00 am

The Oklahoma City Thunder have waived Rudy Gay.

The Thunder acquired Gay via the Atlanta Hawks, who previously traded for him as part of the John Collins trade with the Utah Jazz.

Gay appeared in 56 games last season, averaging 5.2 points and 2.0 rebounds in 14.6 minutes with the Jazz.


Always loved Rudy Gay, to be honest I would rather have Gay play limited minutes than Bol Bol who I would not dare trust with any meaningful playing time.
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Re: 2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins 

Post#2043 » by lilfishi22 » Thu Jul 20, 2023 9:02 am

Slim Charless wrote:
lilfishi22 wrote:
Slim Charless wrote:
Facts are facts. I don't deal in opinions.

You literally wrote "imo" on your post and which stands for in my opinion. What ISN'T an opinion is Booker's first season as an all-star in 2019-2020 was under Monty and before CP3.

Facts are facts. I don't deal in opinions


Supposed to be green. Apologies. That being said I'm still right lol. Monty is a fool

Ya still not though :dontknow:
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Re: 2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins 

Post#2044 » by handsome salary » Thu Jul 20, 2023 12:45 pm

WeekapaugGroove wrote:Ayton is criticized because he was the SUNS only EVER number one pick and is on a max contract extension yet objectively hasn't lived up to either thing.


So many reasons Suns fans had over the the moon hopes after 50 years of drafts and no championships.

Its not hard to see why Ayton is dropped to 5th on 18 redrafts. Can he reclaim the number one pick status? I hope so.
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Re: 2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins 

Post#2045 » by sunskerr » Thu Jul 20, 2023 1:18 pm

Its on Ayton to prove it now. Not on us to believe him this off season. That means the evidence is higher against him than for him. Which makes sense, because we don't see everything that happens behind closed doors. But Im optimistic about the season with this new roster so I hope he does well.
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Re: 2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins 

Post#2046 » by bigfoot » Thu Jul 20, 2023 1:49 pm

The Suns and WNBA Phoenix Mercury have hired JEFF CHIENG as the teams' new CMO, according to Duane Rankin of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC. Chieng previously worked for Gatorade as Head of Global Sports Marketing for basketball, baseball, hockey, motorsports and Olympic portfolio. During his more than two decades working for Gatorade he “played a major role in global marketing strategies and multi-million dollar contract negotiations.” Chieng will replace former Chief Marketing Communications Officer DEAN STOYER, who was with the Suns from September 2019 to December 2022 after “serving as vice president of brand communications at Under Armour for two years” (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 7/18).

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2023/07/19/People-and-Pop-Culture/phoenix-suns-jeff-chieng-gatorade-executive.aspx
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Re: 2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins 

Post#2048 » by enigmatics » Thu Jul 20, 2023 2:09 pm

Frank Lee wrote:Fact is this
You draw the line with DA right now
No more Monty to blame
No more CP to blame

Motor? I dont even know what that is.


Frank - you know damn well there will always be a contingent of blame. That's the nature of this kind of player who's a unicorn physically (formerly drafted #1), but a potato bug mentally. It's always going to be about what other individuals did or did not do to "unlock him" than what Ayton did to reach max potential.

We're now six years into this thing and in that video yesterday he still sounded like a rudderless rookie who's unsure of himself. He gave some generalized platitude about working this summer in the lab to overcome, but what does that mean? It was more about how everyone hates him and he doesn't know why. Aside from a few histrionic mentally unwell people - I don't think even the biggest detractors truly hate him on a personal level. What they hate is watching physical freaks like him waste talent and dogging it in important moments of the Suns franchise.

Not once in that video did we hear him go, "well I've heard the concerns about my effort/consistency and I want to let Suns fans know I've got to come out this year showing it every single night. It's not about scoring points, it's about winning titles." I mean could he at least acknowledge something like that? He'd be doing himself tremendous favors.

On that note, does he not have a management team to coach him on giving interviews? I get a sense he doesn't.
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Re: 2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins 

Post#2049 » by wheezy » Thu Jul 20, 2023 2:24 pm

garrick wrote:
The Oklahoma City Thunder have waived Rudy Gay.

The Thunder acquired Gay via the Atlanta Hawks, who previously traded for him as part of the John Collins trade with the Utah Jazz.

Gay appeared in 56 games last season, averaging 5.2 points and 2.0 rebounds in 14.6 minutes with the Jazz.


Always loved Rudy Gay, to be honest I would rather have Gay play limited minutes than Bol Bol who I would not dare trust with any meaningful playing time.

He lives in Scottsdale, so may be more willing to come here for a tiny bench role.
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Re: 2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins 

Post#2050 » by Fo-Real » Thu Jul 20, 2023 2:47 pm

I hate all of the visceral hate for Ayton and hope to god he figures it out here. But even this last interview reiterates how his main problem is he is a mental midget when we need an alpha. "Everybody hates me"..... An alpha gives two ****, comes out with a chip on his manly shoulder and gets after it, respect and love will work itself out, OR WONT....... TWO ****!!!
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Re: 2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins 

Post#2051 » by Iceman36 » Thu Jul 20, 2023 3:32 pm

Man, what a ride the last 6 months!
After the Durant trade, I felt a great depression after loosing Mikal and Cam, my two favorite players. After that I was really pissed on Ishbia for doing that and had no fun watching Suns games anymore. It was hard to look, even in the playoffs because we had absolutely no depth left.
Than came the free agency and shortly before the trade for Beal. If you told me last Christmas, we are gonna get Bradley Beal for this team as a gift for nearly free (for dumping CP3 with a newly guaranteed year instead of waiving him for nothing!!!!), I would have called you insane! Free agency afterwards was an masterpiece in building a well rounded team together. Rolling out, with only Book and DA left, a team of Durant, Beal, Gordon, Watanabe, Bates Diop and high class youngsters on minimum deals, getting a G-League team back, installing a great championship proven coach and hight class assistant coach staff AND have an owner who cares is way beyond, what I expected with after Sarver was forced to sell the team. Mat did a fantastic job in just 6 months. Period!
My fire is back, burning more than ever, and I can´t wait the season to start.
Let´s go guys and get us finally that damn chip!
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Re: 2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins 

Post#2052 » by NavLDO » Thu Jul 20, 2023 3:39 pm

bwoolf2 wrote:
TOO wrote:
bwoolf2 wrote:
Mcgee has been played out of the league and it remains to see what Jock will do he played decent but when he had to start he got played off the court pretty quickly

Everybody loves the backup until he isn't the backup


Right, but the point was under Monty they played as well or better than they ever have. -- Ahh...gotta love revisionist history.


Jock was a rookie that never played before and McGee had some pretty damn good years for the Warriors and Lakers

Just looked at Mcgee career stats and for minutes played it was an avg year for him had some better years Lakers, Denver...


Actually, Jock regressed in a lot of areas from his rookie season on the Spurs, and only made very mild improvements in just a very few areas.

And BTW...I can't "+1" enough the following post by BW...
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Re: 2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins 

Post#2053 » by Calvin Klein » Thu Jul 20, 2023 7:58 pm

enigmatics wrote:
Frank Lee wrote:Fact is this
You draw the line with DA right now
No more Monty to blame
No more CP to blame

Motor? I dont even know what that is.


Frank - you know damn well there will always be a contingent of blame. That's the nature of this kind of player who's a unicorn physically (formerly drafted #1), but a potato bug mentally. It's always going to be about what other individuals did or did not do to "unlock him" than what Ayton did to reach max potential.

We're now six years into this thing and in that video yesterday he still sounded like a rudderless rookie who's unsure of himself. He gave some generalized platitude about working this summer in the lab to overcome, but what does that mean? It was more about how everyone hates him and he doesn't know why. Aside from a few histrionic mentally unwell people - I don't think even the biggest detractors truly hate him on a personal level. What they hate is watching physical freaks like him waste talent and dogging it in important moments of the Suns franchise.

Not once in that video did we hear him go, "well I've heard the concerns about my effort/consistency and I want to let Suns fans know I've got to come out this year showing it every single night. It's not about scoring points, it's about winning titles." I mean could he at least acknowledge something like that? He'd be doing himself tremendous favors.

On that note, does he not have a management team to coach him on giving interviews like that? I get a sense he doesn't.


summed it up perfectly.
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Re: 2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins 

Post#2054 » by suns12345 » Thu Jul 20, 2023 10:50 pm

Iceman36 wrote:Man, what a ride the last 6 months!
After the Durant trade, I felt a great depression after loosing Mikal and Cam, my two favorite players. After that I was really pissed on Ishbia for doing that and had no fun watching Suns games anymore. It was hard to look, even in the playoffs because we had absolutely no depth left.
Than came the free agency and shortly before the trade for Beal. If you told me last Christmas, we are gonna get Bradley Beal for this team as a gift for nearly free (for dumping CP3 with a newly guaranteed year instead of waiving him for nothing!!!!), I would have called you insane! Free agency afterwards was an masterpiece in building a well rounded team together. Rolling out, with only Book and DA left, a team of Durant, Beal, Gordon, Watanabe, Bates Diop and high class youngsters on minimum deals, getting a G-League team back, installing a great championship proven coach and hight class assistant coach staff AND have an owner who cares is way beyond, what I expected with after Sarver was forced to sell the team. Mat did a fantastic job in just 6 months. Period!
My fire is back, burning more than ever, and I can´t wait the season to start.
Let´s go guys and get us finally that damn chip!


Yep agree. I was probably gonna ditch my league pass this year and not watch every game since I was a bit fed up with the CP3/Monty style team. Felt like we were going nowhere fast.

But my interest has been stirred up again :D
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Re: 2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins 

Post#2055 » by sunskerr » Thu Jul 20, 2023 11:11 pm

Yeah if you are a fan of basketball there is nothing more boring than a team with no depth and a bunch of old dudes like we had last year.

I absolutely hate it when teams give up the farm for stars. Kept an open mind last year about the KD trade and assumed we'd be following up in the off-season, but it was pretty brutal. We are pretty lucky the off-season went so well.

One trade I remember actually hating was the Melo to Knicks trade. That Knicks team was pretty fun with Chandler, Felton, and Gallinari all hooping. And surprise surprise the Nuggets rebounded with a super cool team pairing those guys with Lawson, McGee, Iggy, etc.. whilst the Knicks had a rapidly declining Amare and zero other players. They had no future even though they made a conference finals and were no fun to watch.
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Re: 2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins 

Post#2056 » by Saberestar » Thu Jul 20, 2023 11:26 pm

On @AZSports, James Jones reacts to Deandre Ayton's interview in The Bahamas:

"I do know he's been in the gym relentlessly this summer, working on all those things he talked about. He's like all the rest of us. We have a chip on our shoulders."

"We felt like last year we had an opportunity that we didn't capitalize on. ... He understands what's in front of us and I think that's him maturing and understanding that in order for us to be an elite team, he has to take another step forward."

Read on Twitter
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Re: 2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins 

Post#2057 » by SkyBill40 » Fri Jul 21, 2023 12:28 am

SunsRback4Good wrote:
sunsbum wrote:
SkyBill40 wrote:
Yeah, no. He finished 12th in the regular season last year. In the post season, he was out rebounded by two small forwards, where he finished 12th again. Only if you look at him positionally does your point hold any merit and even then, it's weak.

There's the requested substance. Dude has the tools but doesn't utilize the talent.


Right? I mean we all remember Jock getting subbed into the denver games and just going to work, pretty sure we were all collectively picking our jaws off the floor like "wtf, who is this guy...this is what we need" If you got that feeling watching the game, imagine what the dudes playing with him felt like. DA gotta figure it out. He'll never be an energy guy like that but man bring the effort and people will see it.



If DA brings the effort, will you finally acknowledge him as the top 3 center in the NBA?
Top 3? No. He's not even top 5 if he goes hard all the time. He's have to move into the DPoY conversation to be considered top 3 and he doesn't have that in him.

Look... I'm all for having him succeed and giving the naysayers crow to eat, but I don't personally feel he's that dude. He could be really nice for us and justify his first overall position if he can turn this mess around before he hits the ten year mark.

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Re: 2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins 

Post#2058 » by garrick » Fri Jul 21, 2023 12:44 am

suns12345 wrote:
Iceman36 wrote:Man, what a ride the last 6 months!
After the Durant trade, I felt a great depression after loosing Mikal and Cam, my two favorite players. After that I was really pissed on Ishbia for doing that and had no fun watching Suns games anymore. It was hard to look, even in the playoffs because we had absolutely no depth left.
Than came the free agency and shortly before the trade for Beal. If you told me last Christmas, we are gonna get Bradley Beal for this team as a gift for nearly free (for dumping CP3 with a newly guaranteed year instead of waiving him for nothing!!!!), I would have called you insane! Free agency afterwards was an masterpiece in building a well rounded team together. Rolling out, with only Book and DA left, a team of Durant, Beal, Gordon, Watanabe, Bates Diop and high class youngsters on minimum deals, getting a G-League team back, installing a great championship proven coach and hight class assistant coach staff AND have an owner who cares is way beyond, what I expected with after Sarver was forced to sell the team. Mat did a fantastic job in just 6 months. Period!
My fire is back, burning more than ever, and I can´t wait the season to start.
Let´s go guys and get us finally that damn chip!


Yep agree. I was probably gonna ditch my league pass this year and not watch every game since I was a bit fed up with the CP3/Monty style team. Felt like we were going nowhere fast.

But my interest has been stirred up again :D


It should still be a concern since our bench is full of players on one year deals and most of the free agents we signed for this year are likely going to want more than a veteran minimum contract next year, are we able to resign or get equal talent next year and the year after? It's a probaly Mat Ishbia is willing to kick the can down the road and deal with it then.

Hopefully our stars stay relatively healthy the next couple years.
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Re: 2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins 

Post#2059 » by Slim Charless » Fri Jul 21, 2023 1:52 am

lilfishi22 wrote:
Slim Charless wrote:
lilfishi22 wrote:You literally wrote "imo" on your post and which stands for in my opinion. What ISN'T an opinion is Booker's first season as an all-star in 2019-2020 was under Monty and before CP3.

Facts are facts. I don't deal in opinions


Supposed to be green. Apologies. That being said I'm still right lol. Monty is a fool

Ya still not though :dontknow:


Monty is dumb, that's why he was fired. Both times.
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Re: 2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins 

Post#2060 » by Qwigglez » Fri Jul 21, 2023 3:55 am

sunskerr wrote:Yeah if you are a fan of basketball there is nothing more boring than a team with no depth and a bunch of old dudes like we had last year.

I absolutely hate it when teams give up the farm for stars. Kept an open mind last year about the KD trade and assumed we'd be following up in the off-season, but it was pretty brutal. We are pretty lucky the off-season went so well.

One trade I remember actually hating was the Melo to Knicks trade. That Knicks team was pretty fun with Chandler, Felton, and Gallinari all hooping. And surprise surprise the Nuggets rebounded with a super cool team pairing those guys with Lawson, McGee, Iggy, etc.. whilst the Knicks had a rapidly declining Amare and zero other players. They had no future even though they made a conference finals and were no fun to watch.


I agree. I always like the idea of trading for a star, but the overpay is usually massive.
Getting Bradley Beal was such a brilliant move. Especially since Beal suggested not having the Suns include DA in the trade as he is likely our only bargaining chip left (when the trade went down). Goodwin is definitely the cherry on top.

I'm glad the only old player we have added was Eric Gordon who is 34 years old. Bradley Beal just turned 30, KD turns 35 in a couple of months, and Damion Lee will be 31 in early October. Getting guys that aren't washed up like KBD, Watanabe, Eubanks, and Goodwin makes me feel confident going into the upcoming season.

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