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

[Crives]

Who is your current favorite Suns Player?

Not the best but your favorite.

Mikal was the fan favorite and mine.

Cam Payne, I guess. He showed me a lot when he talked **** about the Lakers whenever that was.

Yeah, same here I think now that Mikal is go e

[Crives]

Read on Twitter

hell no

Craig will start. TJ will really help bench scoring

[bwgood77]

Oof, what a day. Happy to have Durant, but he was EXPENSIVE. I will thoroughly miss Cam and Mikal as will we all. They gave everything for PHX. A title will mean less without them on the team. That said KD is a big get.

I think the move might be to leverage Shamet, Dario, Payne, Biyombo into something.

Maybe include them and off-year pick swaps for Derozan, Dragic and Drummond. Sign Russ. Get an enormous tax bill-don't care.

Paul/ Russ/ Dragic
Booker/ Lee/Lee
DeRozan/ Okogie
Durant/ Warren/ Wainright
Ayton/ Drummond/ Londale

Just spit-balling but if we pulled that off, would that be the best offensive team in history? Mid-range, 3pt shooting. Good shooting big man and the Point God. Legit the team could have 5-6 HOF'ers on it. We probably don't have what we would need to pull it off...but interesting to think about.

I doubt off year pick swaps hold much value. I imagine those swaps would never come to fruition.

BKN made sure to get the 2028 one though.

I don't think we need someone like DeRozan now and especially those other guys.

We need a wing stopper and another solid backup guard.

[lilfishi22]

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Just when Ja and the Grizzlies really started to become the big villain in the NBA and this happens. Really helps that villain narrative

[lilfishi22]

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hell no

Craig will start

With how little TJ plays, Craig is probably starting

[Ghost of Kleine]

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[Mulhollanddrive]

So assume we go with a 9 man playoff rotation:

Paul, Booker, Craig, Durant, Ayton
Payne, Lee, Warren, Biyombo

[sunsbum]

TBH if I could at this point I'd split him into a serviceable center and 3&D wing if the value was equal.

I think we are keeping DA for sure now. CP3, DA pick and rolls, with Book or KD on the weakside corner.... nobody one stopping that. If DA gets his head right, he'll be unstoppable

That would be a huge plus if Ayton really grows while playing in a stacked lineup like this with enormous threats. That over the next couple years he punishes...would be awesome for the future.

If he's still here.

Well, we know DA can ball when motivated so here's to hoping. As much as I don't care for him as a player I think its pretty important he stays at this point.

[TeamTragic]

So assume we go with a 9 man playoff rotation:

Paul, Booker, Craig, Durant, Ayton
Payne, Lee, Warren, Biyombo

I'm not going to lie. This looks pretty damn amazing.

[Qwigglez]

Ayton will prob drop 20-15 nightly mow.

He can’t handle the pressure. Now that you have 2 future hofer and Booker. He won’t **** his pants when come game time.

DA can sleepwalk to get 20/15 with KD. It will be so much easier for him to get position, there won't be any help defense. Defense is going to have to pick their poison.

[bwgood77]

Do the Twins get rings from us still if we win it all this year?

Yes, pretty sure they do. Be kind of bittersweet for them.

[Saberestar]

Acquiring Kevin Durant raises the Suns' ceiling to levels not even matched in the year they made the NBA Finals. The West is wide open, but much less so now pairing KD with Devin Booker and Chris Paul. Phoenix is the best in the West.

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[Crives]

So assume we go with a 9 man playoff rotation:

Paul, Booker, Craig, Durant, Ayton
Payne, Lee, Warren, Biyombo

I'm not going to lie. This looks pretty damn amazing.

Shamet was playing really well, if healthy I think he’s in. We going to need okogie point of attack defense at times as well

[TeamTragic]

Read on Twitter

[Ghost of Kleine]

Oof, what a day. Happy to have Durant, but he was EXPENSIVE. I will thoroughly miss Cam and Mikal as will we all. They gave everything for PHX. A title will mean less without them on the team. That said KD is a big get.

I think the move might be to leverage Shamet, Dario, Payne, Biyombo into something.

Maybe include them and off-year pick swaps for Derozan, Dragic and Drummond. Sign Russ. Get an enormous tax bill-don't care.

Paul/ Russ/ Dragic
Booker/ Lee/Lee
DeRozan/ Okogie
Durant/ Warren/ Wainright
Ayton/ Drummond/ Londale

Just spit-balling but if we pulled that off, would that be the best offensive team in history? Mid-range, 3pt shooting. Good shooting big man and the Point God. Legit the team could have 5-6 HOF'ers on it. We probably don't have what we would need to pull it off...but interesting to think about.

I doubt off year pick swaps hold much value. I imagine those swaps would never come to fruition.

BKN made sure to get the 2028 one though.

I don't think we need someone like DeRozan now and especially those other guys.

We need a wing stopper and another solid backup guard.

That's why they were inquiring about Thybulle and then Gordon and Je' Sean Tate. Personally, I think they should consider Josh Richardson for the matching expiring and two 2nds? Or maybe look at what it'd take to get Justin Holiday from Atlanta?

[bwgood77]

So we have 13 hours to see what our final team will look like.

Paul, Booker, SF, Durant, Ayton
Payne, Lee, Craig, Warren, Biyombo

I think that SF spot is going to determine whether we can win the title or not

With that lineup Craig can start. You just need defense and 3pt shooting there. And his scrappiness rebounding is fine. I am curious to see how TJ looks. Obviously if he was ever back to his peak he could start.

[matt131]

Acquiring Kevin Durant raises the Suns' ceiling to levels not even matched in the year they made the NBA Finals. The West is wide open, but much less so now pairing KD with Devin Booker and Chris Paul. Phoenix is the best in the West.

Read on Twitter

We need to see our moves tomorrow, but the West is pretty wide open.

[Saberestar]

So assume we go with a 9 man playoff rotation:

Paul, Booker, Craig, Durant, Ayton
Payne, Lee, Warren, Biyombo

I would add Saric to the bench rotation.

[matt131]

So we have 13 hours to see what our final team will look like.

Paul, Booker, SF, Durant, Ayton
Payne, Lee, Craig, Warren, Biyombo

I think that SF spot is going to determine whether we can win the title or not

With that lineup Craig can start. You just need defense and 3pt shooting there. And his scrappiness rebounding is fine. I am curious to see how TJ looks. Obviously if he was ever back to his peak he could start.

If he gets back to 75% of his peak, he'll be awesome offense off the bench. Would love to see that bubble 3 point shooting, but a lot of players had inflated stats from that bubble

[bwgood77]

I think this is Ishbia. I think he wanted it done SO badly, taking over today, to make a big splash, that we had no choice.

I bet if we wait until right up the deadline though we could have at least top 4 protected them each for a year though.

I can't find the quote, but I could have sworn Mat said yesterday to the fans "I know what you want, and I want it too."

This guy isn't even a suns fan, its just his new toy. He has zero attachment to anything, that's what this feels like. DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHO NEGALE NIGHT IS BRO?

Do you EFFIN know who Paul Shirley is? Do you know what Lou Admundson did for this team? Negele Knight...lol.