Season Speculation, Trade Ideas and Discussion

[DRK]

At this point, I'd swap Knight and Len for Oakfor.

Even if he curls up under the basket and naps for 24 seconds on defense, at least he can score on the offensive end and get us points in the paint. Len can't do that.

Okafor gets alot of bad flak for his defence. Last season has had the same defensive rating as KAT post- All star break.

I really like Okafor and would love him on our team.

Okafor for Len/Knight/ Protected 1st

[DirtyDez]

I like John Henson still...
Would trade a combo of Len, Tucker, Knight and a non lotto pick for him.

Thats too much for Henson i think.

How about Bledsoe to the Kings for WCS and SAC 2nd, then Len and Knight for NOP 1st? Then start Ulis the rest of the year. Just so we can get one of Fultz, Smith or Ntilikina beside Booker on the backcourt.

I don't think Ulis is ready to start or play significant minutes although some want every rookie thrown into the fire right away. It doesn't work like that.

If Bledsoe keeps up his usual 18/5/5/2 line McD's phone will definitely be ringing. I'd like to see WCS on this team.

[MrMiyagi]

At this point, I'd swap Knight and Len for Oakfor.

Even if he curls up under the basket and naps for 24 seconds on defense, at least he can score on the offensive end and get us points in the paint. Len can't do that.

Okafor gets alot of bad flak for his defence. Last season has had the same defensive rating as KAT post- All star break.

I really like Okafor and would love him on our team.

Okafor for Len/Knight/ Protected 1st

Don't offer a 1st. 76ers don't have enough minutes for Okafor, Noel, Saric, Simmons and Embiid. They're over the barrel.

[Zelaznyrules]

At this point, I'd swap Knight and Len for Oakfor.

Even if he curls up under the basket and naps for 24 seconds on defense, at least he can score on the offensive end and get us points in the paint. Len can't do that.

Okafor gets alot of bad flak for his defence. Last season has had the same defensive rating as KAT post- All star break.

I really like Okafor and would love him on our team.

Okafor for Len/Knight/ Protected 1st

Don't offer a 1st. 76ers don't have enough minutes for Okafor, Noel, Saric, Simmons and Embiid. They're over the barrel.

I just don't see the issue with including a first? They may be over the barrel but there are a lot of possible suitors, I find it hard to believe that 2 players that we hate would be enough to get their interest. I'm not at all sold on Okafor but if we really think he's our center of the future, 2 scrubs and a first round pick is a steal. And if he's good enough to be our center of the future, surely someone else is going to offer more than a backup center and a momentum killing shooter?

[bwgood77]

Okafor gets alot of bad flak for his defence. Last season has had the same defensive rating as KAT post- All star break.

I really like Okafor and would love him on our team.

Okafor for Len/Knight/ Protected 1st

Don't offer a 1st. 76ers don't have enough minutes for Okafor, Noel, Saric, Simmons and Embiid. They're over the barrel.

I just don't see the issue with including a first? They may be over the barrel but there are a lot of possible suitors, I find it hard to believe that 2 players that we hate would be enough to get their interest. I'm not at all sold on Okafor but if we really think he's our center of the future, 2 scrubs and a first round pick is a steal. And if he's good enough to be our center of the future, surely someone else is going to offer more than a backup center and a momentum killing shooter?

They won't want Len either. They are far more likely to trade Noel anyway.

[Zelaznyrules]

Don't offer a 1st. 76ers don't have enough minutes for Okafor, Noel, Saric, Simmons and Embiid. They're over the barrel.

I just don't see the issue with including a first? They may be over the barrel but there are a lot of possible suitors, I find it hard to believe that 2 players that we hate would be enough to get their interest. I'm not at all sold on Okafor but if we really think he's our center of the future, 2 scrubs and a first round pick is a steal. And if he's good enough to be our center of the future, surely someone else is going to offer more than a backup center and a momentum killing shooter?

They won't want Len either. They are far more likely to trade Noel anyway.

Yeah, my (limited) understanding is that Noel is gone almost no matter what. And I really doubt that anyone wants Len right now but even if there is someone out there that wants to take a gamble on him, I can't see him carrying any real trade value. So that deal would basically be Knight for Okafor and I'm pretty sure they'd rather just keep Jahlil rather than give him away like that. So I'd have no problem including a draft pick, even an unprotected draft pick IF we're convinced that Okafor has what we need. I don't know if I'd pursue Okafor as I worry about his defense, ball dominance and mediocre efficiency but he's still young and I'm just looking at stats, not really watching the player, which often leads to poor conclusions.

[DRK]

I would like to see Bender take some of Lens minutes at the backup Center, and have everyone crash the defensive boards.

Bender is great at switching onto the guards and would really help our pick and roll defence.

Hopefully Watson can make some changes to get Bender more action, because his value on D is too good to be left on the bench

[AtheJ415]

I don't see the point of giving up on Len. He's still got upside and it's not a foregone conclusion that he won't reach out. Particularly in these trades involving the 76ers that people are throwing out, why would we include Len? They are trading these guys because they have a glut of guys who can't play together. Taking back Len doesn't fix that issue for them. We'd be much more likely to throw in somebody like Tucker or a protected pick than Len imo.

[lilfishi22]

Okafor gets alot of bad flak for his defence. Last season has had the same defensive rating as KAT post- All star break.

I really like Okafor and would love him on our team.

Okafor for Len/Knight/ Protected 1st

Don't offer a 1st. 76ers don't have enough minutes for Okafor, Noel, Saric, Simmons and Embiid. They're over the barrel.

I just don't see the issue with including a first? They may be over the barrel but there are a lot of possible suitors, I find it hard to believe that 2 players that we hate would be enough to get their interest. I'm not at all sold on Okafor but if we really think he's our center of the future, 2 scrubs and a first round pick is a steal. And if he's good enough to be our center of the future, surely someone else is going to offer more than a backup center and a momentum killing shooter?

It's not happening without a first. Neither Len nor Knight have much, if any value at the moment. The Sixers have a glut at the 5 spot but they are in no hurry to move any of those players so they won't be lowballed into a deal.

[DirtyDez]

I don't see the point of giving up on Len. He's still got upside and it's not a foregone conclusion that he won't reach out. Particularly in these trades involving the 76ers that people are throwing out, why would we include Len? They are trading these guys because they have a glut of guys who can't play together. Taking back Len doesn't fix that issue for them. We'd be much more likely to throw in somebody like Tucker or a protected pick than Len imo.

I agree on not giving up on him... For now.

Three games isn't a large enough sample size to start throwing around trade deals. However if he doesn't take a significant step by mid-season I don't see anyway they don't explore deals because McD isn't letting him walk for nothing but he certainly isn't committing money long term either. You're already paying another mediocre center for 2.5 more years.

If he gets traded it's almost a throw in situation. Nobody is trading for Len to make them apart of their future unless he shows something we haven't seen yet.

[lilfishi22]

I don't see the point of giving up on Len. He's still got upside and it's not a foregone conclusion that he won't reach out. Particularly in these trades involving the 76ers that people are throwing out, why would we include Len? They are trading these guys because they have a glut of guys who can't play together. Taking back Len doesn't fix that issue for them. We'd be much more likely to throw in somebody like Tucker or a protected pick than Len imo.

I agree on not giving up on him... For now.

Three games isn't a large enough sample size to start throwing around trade deals. However if he doesn't take a significant step by mid-season I don't see anyway they don't explore deals because McD isn't letting him walk for nothing but he certainly isn't committing money long term either. You're already paying another mediocre center for 2.5 more years.

If he gets traded it's almost a throw in situation. Nobody is trading for Len to make them apart of their future unless he shows something we haven't seen yet.

I want to move him but I don't think we need to do it right away. I also don't think it's a three-game sample size. It's a three-season plus three game sample size. If we had the same conversation before the season started, I still would've been in favor of moving him.

He'll probably be included in some deal with Knight, hopefully

[letsgosuns]

I cannot believe some fans still want to give Knight a chance. When he first arrived here before he got injured, he sucked. I remember McDonough said oh he was just starting to get his rhythm and then he got injured, you will see how good is he when he gets healthy. Fast forward to last year, he sucked again, and actually was even worse than his short stint right when the Suns got him. Then he got injured for the second time and barely played the rest of the year. This season, he has a horrible preseason and and an equally bad first three games. The majority of fans are now begging for anybody to go in the game besides Knight. How much more of a sample size do you need to figure out that Knight sucks.

You want more? Just look at what Knight did with the Pistons and Bucks before he was on the Suns. This guy is terrible. Do I need to spell it out? T-e-r-r-i-b-l-e. I wish I was wrong but c'mon. If anyone thinks he can turn it around, you have not been watching him since he was a rookie. I watched him on the Pistons and Bucks and he is exactly the same player today that he was then. If you cannot improve upon your weaknesses at least a little bit by your sixth season, chances are you never will.

McDonough lives in the past sometimes. He still recently brought up on the radio how the Suns started 7-5 last year. Then he talks about how Knight almost made the all-star team a couple seasons ago. Who cares. Gerald Green had an incredible season with the Suns in 2013-14 and looked like a bona-fide shooting guard. How long did that last? If you still think at this point that Knight is ever going to contribute to this team, Idk what to tell you.

[AtheJ415]

I don't see the point of giving up on Len. He's still got upside and it's not a foregone conclusion that he won't reach out. Particularly in these trades involving the 76ers that people are throwing out, why would we include Len? They are trading these guys because they have a glut of guys who can't play together. Taking back Len doesn't fix that issue for them. We'd be much more likely to throw in somebody like Tucker or a protected pick than Len imo.

I agree on not giving up on him... For now.

Three games isn't a large enough sample size to start throwing around trade deals. However if he doesn't take a significant step by mid-season I don't see anyway they don't explore deals because McD isn't letting him walk for nothing but he certainly isn't committing money long term either. You're already paying another mediocre center for 2.5 more years.

If he gets traded it's almost a throw in situation. Nobody is trading for Len to make them apart of their future unless he shows something we haven't seen yet.

Tyson should be irrelevant in this decision imo. You can commit long-term money to Len imo so long as the amount isn't insane. In this market he is worth 8 figures though. That's just the reality of it unfortunately. But Tyson shouldn't matter because this team's window isn't going to start for 2.5 more years anyways. This team shouldn't be building to win next year or the year after imo absent some huge FA wins (like Hayward and Cousins, pretty please).

[letsgosuns]

The Suns have an extremely solid foundation of Booker, Warren, Chriss, Bender, and even Ulis. I would take that young core right now over the majority of every roster in the league outside of the Warriors, Cavaliers, and maybe a few other teams. If the Suns can get a young center like Okafor, I challenge anyone to say another team has more young talent than the Suns. Then factor that the Suns will most likely battle for the worst record in basketball this season, they will add another top five talent for next year's team. Let's say the Suns can hypothetically trade Knight for Okafor, draft a top flight point guard in the 2017 draft, and trade Bledsoe and Tucker for whatever, look at this potential lineup for the 2017-18 season:

New PG/Ulis
Booker/someone
Warren/Bender
Chriss/Bender
Okafor/Len

That looks pretty exciting to me. An entire roster filled with huge young talent. What fan would not want that.

[bwgood77]

I cannot believe some fans still want to give Knight a chance. When he first arrived here before he got injured, he sucked. I remember McDonough said oh he was just starting to get his rhythm and then he got injured, you will see how good is he when he gets healthy. Fast forward to last year, he sucked again, and actually was even worse than his short stint right when the Suns got him. Then he got injured for the second time and barely played the rest of the year. This season, he has a horrible preseason and and an equally bad first three games. The majority of fans are now begging for anybody to go in the game besides Knight. How much more of a sample size do you need to figure out that Knight sucks.

You want more? Just look at what Knight did with the Pistons and Bucks before he was on the Suns. This guy is terrible. Do I need to spell it out? T-e-r-r-i-b-l-e. I wish I was wrong but c'mon. If anyone thinks he can turn it around, you have not been watching him since he was a rookie. I watched him on the Pistons and Bucks and he is exactly the same player today that he was then. If you cannot improve upon your weaknesses at least a little bit by your sixth season, chances are you never will.

McDonough lives in the past sometimes. He still recently brought up on the radio how the Suns started 7-5 last year. Then he talks about how Knight almost made the all-star team a couple seasons ago. Who cares. Gerald Green had an incredible season with the Suns in 2013-14 and looked like a bona-fide shooting guard. How long did that last? If you still think at this point that Knight is ever going to contribute to this team, Idk what to tell you.

FYI - the posts prior to this one were not about not giving up on Knight, but were about Len. I don't think you find many Knight supporters anymore. The few that were around decided not to post yet maybe to wait for a good game.

Also, as much as many may want Bledsoe gone, I think there is almost zero chance McD is even thinking about moving him. And not sure why you think Knight could net us Okafor. You're talking about one of the top center interior scorers to come out of the draft in a while for a guy..well, I think you know what Knight provides.

[batsmasher]

Honestly, it's pretty impressive that someone as terrible as BK (by letsgosuns accord) could manage to be borderline All-Star.

Maybe, just maybe, he isn't actually that bad? His game is awful to look at (particularly when nothing is working for him), but he's a 3 pt shooter who isn't terrible defensively and has decent (but not great) passing skills. Those are all good things to have in the modern NBA.

My biggest gripe is more with how we're using him. THE MAN DOES NOT NEED ANY CREATIVE LICENSE. He shouldn't be a primary decision maker, let alone responsible for creating our entire bench's offense. The solution is either:

1. Get Earl to stop telling him to yolo freestyle and actually start running a rigid offensive system. ISO's get you benched. We need the ball moving more. The more the ball moves, the easier the decision making is. The same issues came about with Horny. His system was designed for super high IQ players who could identify situations to take advantage of quickly.

2. Start him. This won't sit well with most fans. The caveat is BK would play solely off the ball as a 2 guard. Have him as a shooter. That's it. Keep it simple. No fancy ball handling. No sets where BK is the primary ball handler. We could then give Book the yolo freestyle keys to the second unit and also play him with Bled.

I actually believe the success of BK is a good barometer for the success of our offense. If he's being asked to create, it's an indication that we're not running our offense properly.

So yeah, you can blame BK for being bad. But you should also blame Earl for making him look bad.

PS. The long term plan is to trade him. Book can do what BK and more. But we can still pump up his trade value in the mean time.

[lilfishi22]

Honestly, it's pretty impressive that someone as terrible as BK (by letsgosuns accord) could manage to be borderline All-Star.

Maybe, just maybe, he isn't actually that bad? His game is awful to look at (particularly when nothing is working for him), but he's a 3 pt shooter who isn't terrible defensively and has decent (but not great) passing skills. Those are all good things to have in the modern NBA.

My biggest gripe is more with how we're using him. THE MAN DOES NOT NEED ANY CREATIVE LICENSE. He shouldn't be a primary decision maker, let alone responsible for creating our entire bench's offense. The solution is either:

1. Get Earl to stop telling him to yolo freestyle and actually start running a rigid offensive system. ISO's get you benched. We need the ball moving more. The more the ball moves, the easier the decision making is. The same issues came about with Horny. His system was designed for super high IQ players who could identify situations to take advantage of quickly.

2. Start him. This won't sit well with most fans. The caveat is BK would play solely off the ball as a 2 guard. Have him as a shooter. That's it. Keep it simple. No fancy ball handling. No sets where BK is the primary ball handler. We could then give Book the yolo freestyle keys to the second unit and also play him with Bled.

I actually believe the success of BK is a good barometer for the success of our offense. If he's being asked to create, it's an indication that we're not running our offense properly.

So yeah, you can blame BK for being bad. But you should also blame Earl for making him look bad.

PS. The long term plan is to trade him. Book can do what BK and more. But we can still pump up his trade value in the mean time.

I'd strongly consider bringing back Knight into the starting line up if nothing changes with Knight off the bench (12p/3a .29fg% )and Booker starting (15p/2a 0.39fg%). I'm just hoping it's these two players getting used to playing with a different line up they weren't used to playing with last season. Knight was playing with better talent (starting line up) last season and Booker is getting less open looks with teams game planning for him now.

Still on the fence on Earl being a good coach.

[OnceUponADime]

I wonder if Suns GM Ryan McDonough would entertain an offer like this from the Hornets for Brandon Knight

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1486824

It's almost like getting rid of Brandon Knight for nothing.

[lilfishi22]

I wonder if Suns GM Ryan McDonough would entertain an offer like this from the Hornets for Brandon Knight

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1486824

It's almost like getting rid of Brandon Knight for nothing.

His salary is probably the only thing that is of value. He's still a decent but undersized SG and he's locked into a pretty good contract for the next few years. I don't know if I would give him up for nothing.

[Damkac]

I wish Suns just trade Knight for anything and end that chapter. Geting him was mistake but it happens. Needs to move on.
I don't want Okafor. Suns have enought scorers, don't needs more players who are useless when not scoring. Especially for center defense is more important than offense. And Okafor is thug. Do we want another Morris on this team?