2022-23 Season Discussion and Speculation 5 - The KD era begins

[sunsfan1o1]

Here's something I never thought about (re: Jock):

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I honestly don't get the love Jock gets. imo he's not that good.

Not that good? He’s not good at all. He’s not an NBA player. He’s not anything.

[Puff]

Why hasn't Bazley got any minutes?

I thought he was a young PF that can rebound and make threes Isn't that what Love's calling card is?

I would think he could have helped last night. Oh, by the way Bazley can defend 1 thru 5 so they have said.

[Ghost of Kleine]

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Well, This would suck considering Ishbia's and Gilbert's contentious feuding!

[TOO]

Here's something I never thought about (re: Jock):

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I honestly don't get the love Jock gets. imo he's not that good.

Not that good? He’s not good at all. He’s not an NBA player. He’s not anything.

I don't agree with a lot of your stuff but you're spot on here. Jock shouldn't be getting rotation minutes on a playoff team. He's roster fodder for bad teams at best. Same goes for Ish.

[TOO]

Why hasn't Bazley got any minutes?

I thought he was a young PF that can rebound and make threes Isn't that what Love's calling card is?

I would think he could have helped last night. Oh, by the way Bazley can defend 1 thru 5 so they have said.

He's just a guy, okc wouldn't have thrown him away if he were worth anything.

[King4Day]

Why hasn't Bazley got any minutes?

I thought he was a young PF that can rebound and make threes Isn't that what Love's calling card is?

I would think he could have helped last night. Oh, by the way Bazley can defend 1 thru 5 so they have said.

My prediction on him is, given he'll be a RFA this summer, we will work to keep him very cheap and try to develop him next year.
For now, he'll be most impactful during practice. The trade was strictly to save money and take a flier. Keeping him on the QO or something like a 2-year deal (if allowed) for cheap will allow us to have another trade asset.
Other than that, we probably only see him during blowouts

[WeekapaugGroove]

Wouldn't surprise me if Bazley only played a little garbage time and gets non tendered this summer. I think that trade was mostly saving $10 mil after increasing the tax by like $40 mil with the KD trade. They probably figured Dario wasn't going to be anywhere close to the playoff rotation anyway.

Even owners who are willing to spend will try to save some cash when possible.

Now maybe they also want to get a look at Bazely in practice and even if he's non tendered he could come back in a minimum deal. I can't see there being some big market for him this summer. Especially since I assume the Thunder were basically willing to move him for anything once they determined they weren't going to tender him after the season.
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[Frank Lee]

Play Bazely, he does well, he costs more to keep.

Same two edged sword with Okogie. He’s having some good games. Good enough to earn more playing time. How does that affect our ability to keep him next year. He’s an UFA right?

This relates to the symptoms of the Durant trade. We are over the cap with four guys. Are we sentenced to a MLE and a bunch of vet mins and two ways for the duration? Y’all gloat on Phnx being a FA destination… when reality says money talks. Don’t know how this will play out next yr, but we are going to have 7+ spots to fill.

Better get it this yr.

[WeekapaugGroove]

Play Bazely, he does well, he costs more to keep.

Same two edged sword with Okogie. He’s having some good games. Good enough to earn more playing time. How does that affect our ability to keep him next year. He’s an UFA right?

This relates to the symptoms of the Durant trade. We are over the cap with four guys. Are we sentenced to a MLE and a bunch of vet mins and two ways for the duration? Y’all gloat on Phnx being a FA destination… when reality says money talks. Don’t know how this will play out next yr, but we are going to have 7+ spots to fill.

Better get it this yr.

They were equally capped out before the KD trade and actually would be more capped out after had they paid Cam. Nothing really changed on that front.

Okogie could make a little cash if he continues to play well and it could be a scenario where the Suns use their MLE on him this summer. But I think we tend to overblow what these small sample runs by guys do to there free agent value. Too many past Jerome James experiences taught GMs a lesson. Okogie was viewed by the league as a minimum contract guy last summer and I doubt thats changed much.

Look at two years ago, Reggie Jackson was absolutely awesome in the playoffs after signing as a buy out guy. All he got was the MLE the next summer. Pat Connington and Bobbie Portis were huge contributors on cheap contacts to the bucks championship run and barely got raises the following year. They both got a little better raises the following season after their bird rights kicked in.

About half the players in the league are on minimum contracts.

Like last season Aaron Holiday would have a good game and peeps would start saying he's getting $10 mil as a RFA. Yeah dude got non tendered and signed a cheap deal in ATL.

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[bigfoot]

Kevin Love as a backup center is the right move. He is better offensively than Jock and a better rebounder. Waiving Landale makes sense to get Love. Sign Wainwright as his defense is his calling card. Bench offensive would be covered by Payne, TJ, Ross, and Love

[sunskerr]

Kevin Love as a backup center is the right move. He is better offensively than Jock and a better rebounder. Waiving Landale makes sense to get Love. Sign Wainwright as his defense is his calling card. Bench offensive would be covered by Payne, TJ, Ross, and Love

Agree. Love could easily get 20-22 mpg on our team if his shooting can get back to where it was last year. He's so far below his normal this year you have to think positive regression is coming.

Also, what's up with TJ's minutes? Monty playing favorites or is he just playing like ****?

[Ghost of Kleine]

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[Slim Charless]

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It'd be funny if it's just cause Cam Payne is returning back to the line-up. He started his career in OKC you know?

[SunsRback4Good]

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It'd be funny if it's just cause Cam Payne is returning back to the line-up. He started his career in OKC you know?

Nopeeee, both Payne and KD should be playing against Thunder that’s why game was moved to TNT.

[SunsRback4Good]

Suns will sign Kevin Love a close friend told me the deal is 80% done. This would be huge as Love has playoff experience and would be a huge piece coming off the bench.

[Ghost of Kleine]

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[Ghost of Kleine]

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I had to share this because it's just so hilariously accurate!

[BobbieL]

Suns will sign Kevin Love a close friend told me the deal is 80% done. This would be huge as Love has playoff experience and would be a huge piece coming off the bench.

Hope your friend has a good source though I would be good with Ish too

Whatever it takes to win it all

[bwgood77]

Why hasn't Bazley got any minutes?

I thought he was a young PF that can rebound and make threes Isn't that what Love's calling card is?

I would think he could have helped last night. Oh, by the way Bazley can defend 1 thru 5 so they have said.

Bazley is not very good. He's athletic and young, but he barely played on the Thunder and they basically gave him to us. He's kind of like Josh Jackson...pretty disappointing. Given we have no developmental players, though, and are not athletic, and he is young, it might be worth keeping him in RFA since he is unlikely to get much, so we could probably keep him for around the minimum, mabe sign him for like 3/$10 with a team option in year 3 or something...but it will depend on whether he shows anything in practice. He's not a guy that you want playing minutes if you are a contender though. So he may go the way of Jalen Smith, but not get anything in return. May be worth a 15th roster spot next year though.

[bwgood77]

Play Bazely, he does well, he costs more to keep.

Same two edged sword with Okogie. He’s having some good games. Good enough to earn more playing time. How does that affect our ability to keep him next year. He’s an UFA right?

This relates to the symptoms of the Durant trade. We are over the cap with four guys. Are we sentenced to a MLE and a bunch of vet mins and two ways for the duration? Y’all gloat on Phnx being a FA destination… when reality says money talks. Don’t know how this will play out next yr, but we are going to have 7+ spots to fill.

Better get it this yr.

Yeah, all we have is a tax MLE and maybe a BAE. But aside that, minimums. Bazley might be worth signing a contract too for a tad more than the minimum given he's a RFA and we have rights..maybe 3/$10 with a team option in year 3 as kind of our developmental player. Sure Ishbia wants to save tax where possible but you have to fill your roster anyway so giving him a little more than the minimum with 2 years guaranteed might be incentive to stay if he would only get a minimum elsewhere.

Okogie will only get the Tax MLE from us, but if he keeps up anywhere near his current level of play he is certainly a goner. With his D and his current 55% 3 pt shooting and 21ppg, he'd be worth more than Cam Johnson. He obviously won't keep that up but even at 10-15 ppg and 37% 3pt shooting and that D, those are almost Bridges' #s when he got his contract. I imagine he'd get like 4/$50 or something. He is only 24 and tons of rebuilding teams have a ton of cap space.

We are way over the cap with only a few players, even if we were to let Paul go we'd be over, so we don't have any wiggle room for awhile, so we have to hope to continue to find minimum players every year like Lee and Okogie....may be hard to do.

If Okogie is gone, which is likely if he keeps up his play, we could use the tax MLE on Lee maybe, but he could get paid more too. He's probably more likely to be around that price though.