Post#2433 » by JMac1 » Fri Jun 1, 2018 5:20 am
Welp. Just returned from the Suns Draft Sneak Peek event, glad I missed the game....dumbass JR, choking Hill and refs. Appears the BBall Gods are giving GS Lakers type love.
Anyways, there were four questions asked of the Panel which consisted of Jones and Jake the analytics guy. Tom Leander hosted. I got to ask the first question.
I didn’t ask who are we gonna draft and explain why I wanted Ayton. Tom picked me first because he thought I was going to do that. Before the Q and A started, we had a big debate about Ayton and Bagley, who he liked. Also, I had a conversation with Jake the analytics guy, who loves JJJ. He said he had guard types handles?!? I let both guys know Ayton was my guy. I told Tom Ayton could do what Bagley does and more. Tom said Ayton could slow down the offense, although he went back and forth on the two. My question was “is it the system or player?” And I cautioned that if some believes it’s the system, they might be fooled into replicating GS without Curry Durant and Klay, and fail badly. My question was in reference to who we might pick. I thought if JJ gave me some good info there, I could try to figure out who best suited his answer. He didn’t fall for it.
JJ said both....he was very coy all night. He stated that the NBA does run in cycles though, which I liked. You have to have a system and players that fit the system. Tom then said, aloud, that I disappointed him because he thought I was going to go all in and beat them up about Ayton. He also told the crowd I was going to be the Suns new strength and conditioning coach, because I was in incredible shape lol! It was a cool shot out to the crowd. I guess I could have said I held that position for this board.
One fan let JJ have it about Sarver (mgmt). Said he should be here. He stated that he spent 7k on season tix and we haven’t had any leadership. He also stated Booker is gonna leave. He was heated. JJ said we have to win before we could get what he was looking for. He used Lebron goIng to Cleveland as an example and he following. He did a good job of relating to the guy and accommodating his emotions. They took a lot of heat from him, and rightfully so.
Jake, to the chagrin of JJ provided a lot more insight. He said that we were looking to move those later picks, create cap space and bring in TWO vets. I was like dang, this guy is making JJ uncomfortable.
They spoke about leverage we had to get just about anyone to come in for a workout, because we had a top middle and late pick. He said we could manipulate Agents that way, JJ immediately stated we wouldn’t do that, lol. Again, I was like dang Jake.
Most fans I spoke to said Ayton. A few came up to me and said they liked my question and thought we shouldn’t buy into the system and not skip on Ayton. Surprising, no Doncic talk, and a couple other guys didn’t like him, because he wasn’t an explosive athlete. Tom Leander spoke on his winning and the guys did acknowledge he was seasoned.
I took a picture with JJ and said “I want a picture with the man who is drafting Ayton.” He just laughed and said he’ll let me know on draft night.
I talked with Tom a lot about diet, lol. He is a very nice guy. A know a lot here don’t like his broadcast, but he is very cool. He invited me to come see him and Tom Chambers when they are hanging out doing the pre and post game shows.
Also, Tom talked about moving back in the draft to three and Jake might have ( don’t know for sure) said something to the fact. I spoke with him for about 2-3 minutes and had no idea who he was until the show started. If I knew who he was prior, I would have asked more questions instead of debate him....Tom told me to talk to him because I was into analytics, lol. I told him I hated analytics but I knew so much because of this board Tom and Jake was impressed with my knowledge, lmao. I can imagine if they had talked to BW about all the analytics lol.
Jake majored in math at Northwestern and he was attending MIT Business school and met someone from the Suns, that’s how he got hooked up. A Nerd Basketball junkie. So there’s hope for you analytic guys. Major in math, watch a ton of basketball and network.
