Season Speculation, Trade Ideas & Discussion Pt. 5

[Qwigglez]

Maybe if the Clippers blow it up and do trade DJ to the Cavs, I wonder if we could get Blake Griffin? I would throw Monroe, Dudley and the Miami picks, Bucks pick if it meant not giving up any of our own picks or any young players. Maybe Knight comes back playing like a stud, and we could be set.

PG: Knight / Ulis
SG: Booker / Daniels / Reed
SF: Warren / Jackson
PF: Griffin / Bender
C: Chriss / Chandler

Plus our 2018 pick

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

Spoiler:

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seriously... he is going to demand a bank breaker in 2020. I want some talent here, but holy smokes.... you really only get one good year of value from Kemba... then its up in the air.

Yep, you're right. We shouldn't sign any All-Stars. I'd much rather pay Kemba Walker than DeMarcus Cousins, DeAndre Jordan, the higher-level Max to 33-YO Chris Paul, or Blake Griffin, or any other 'Big'.

You know Booker is going to demand a Max, too. Should we not pay him? These guys won't play for cheap forever. I'll take my chances that he'll love playing next to Booker, and supplying Warren, as well. Not to mention our other young guys??? He'll love it here!

22/6/3 from our PG position?? Heck yeah, sign me up!

And, we got the Woj bomb, to boot! He's available. McD...go, go, go!!!

Exactly! Has everyone lost their ***damned mind here? When did losing for a decade became so palatable? Sickening to me.

Back to the dark side, eh ginobiliflops? What, was three bad losses too much for ya? Ya gone soft ginobiliflops??

I see we just won a game, and suddenly the rest of the board is dreaming of the playoffs. What wonders one game can achieve. Funny world. We're a funny species, I guess.

Fo real though this Kemba **** is stupid af.

[bwgood77]

Maybe if the Clippers blow it up and do trade DJ to the Cavs, I wonder if we could get Blake Griffin? I would throw Monroe, Dudley and the Miami picks, Bucks pick if it meant not giving up any of our own picks or any young players. Maybe Knight comes back playing like a stud, and we could be set.

PG: Knight / Ulis
SG: Booker / Daniels / Reed
SF: Warren / Jackson
PF: Griffin / Bender
C: Chriss / Chandler

Plus our 2018 pick

Why would the Clips blow it up? They are 1.5 games back of 5 seed. But trading for Griffin would take a ton...stars have been traded for less than people have expected, but not ones that are locked up on long term contracts. They may prefer Towns than him, but that's understandable. It makes sense they might consider trading Jordan with his pending free agency if they don't want to pay him but some of their fans think they would be not much worse with Willie Reed/Harrell filling in those minutes.

[Qwigglez]

Maybe if the Clippers blow it up and do trade DJ to the Cavs, I wonder if we could get Blake Griffin? I would throw Monroe, Dudley and the Miami picks, Bucks pick if it meant not giving up any of our own picks or any young players. Maybe Knight comes back playing like a stud, and we could be set.

PG: Knight / Ulis
SG: Booker / Daniels / Reed
SF: Warren / Jackson
PF: Griffin / Bender
C: Chriss / Chandler

Plus our 2018 pick

Why would the Clips blow it up? They are 1.5 games back of 5 seed. But trading for Griffin would take a ton...stars have been traded for less than people have expected, but not ones that are locked up on long term contracts. They may prefer Towns than him, but that's understandable. It makes sense they might consider trading Jordan with his pending free agency if they don't want to pay him but some of their fans think they would be not much worse with Willie Reed/Harrell filling in those minutes.

I haven't really been paying much attention to the standings just figured if they were to trade DJ then they would be blowing up.

[gaspar]

Interesting comparison....stats from a guy we once traded assets for near the deadline. The guy we traded for was a much better 3 pt shooter though. Better defender too.

http://bkref.com/tiny/O2EkN

It's even more interesting when you compare Kemba's 4th year stats to Knight's 4th year in Milwaukee before we traded for him.

[bwgood77]

Interesting comparison....stats from a guy we once traded assets for near the deadline. The guy we traded for was a much better 3 pt shooter though. Better defender too.

http://bkref.com/tiny/O2EkN

It's even more interesting when you compare Kemba's 4th year stats to Knight's 4th year in Milwaukee before we traded for him.

I know...that was actually my intent and thought and what I was looking at for the accurate comparison (since he was much better pre-trade), but didn't figure I could show that comparison from b-ref.

For what it's worth, I like Kemba way more than I did Knight at that time, but obviously I'm not up for giving up the type of asset we did for Knight for Kemba or taking more bad contracts.

It seems like every time we try to fast forward the rebuild it backfires in a big way. There will be a time when it is right to a move when it comes up. I don't think it's right now.

[RedIndian]

Why do people think we have a shot at Young or Doncic? They're both likely going to go top 3, and the Suns pick is probably going to be in the 6-8 range unless we sit Booker and blatantly start tanking.

Realistically, the chances of Young or Doncic falling to us are low. We're probably looking at the chance to draft a Jackson Jr, Sexton, or Bamba in the best case.

In my view, Kemba is an excellent player, even if not the kind of star who'll make us a bona fide playoff team immediately.

Yet he's a far better player than Bledsoe or Knight, and I have the feeling he has some potential to get even better if surrounded by better talent.

He's a very likeable, high character guy as well who plays good, winning basketball. I think that's the kind of veteran that Booker would benefit a lot from.

Kemba/Booker should I think be at par with Lowry/Derozan and Lillard/CJ as a backcourt.

Pick up a good center in free agency (Boogie or Capela), and you could easily become a top 5 team in the West.

As long as we control our own pick this year, and the Miami 2021 pick, we're good to keep growing from within as well.

It's definitely a move worth seriously considering.

[Revived]

How dumb would the Suns look if they pass on Kemba because they want Trae Young or Donicic....but guess what?! The suns will get screwed in the lottery and end up with no Kemba and some fridge rotation prospect.

This poll is biased. Change it to “Do you think the Suns will have get good luck in the lottery and be able to draft either Young or Donicic”.

Because that’s the real question here.

[bwgood77]

Why do people think we have a shot at Young or Doncic? They're both likely going to go top 3, and the Suns pick is probably going to be in the 6-8 range unless we sit Booker and blatantly start tanking.

Realistically, the chances of Young or Doncic falling to us are low. We're probably looking at the chance to draft a Jackson Jr, Sexton, or Bamba in the best case.

In my view, Kemba is an excellent player, even if not the kind of star who'll make us a bona fide playoff team immediately.

Yet he's a far better player than Bledsoe or Knight, and I have the feeling he has some potential to get even better if surrounded by better talent.

He's a very likeable, high character guy as well who plays good, winning basketball. I think that's the kind of veteran that Booker would benefit a lot from.

Kemba/Booker should I think be at par with Lowry/Derozan and Lillard/CJ as a backcourt.

Pick up a good center in free agency (Boogie or Capela), and you could easily become a top 5 team in the West.

As long as we control our own pick this year, and the Miami 2021 pick, we're good to keep growing from within as well.

It's definitely a move worth seriously considering.

Good post. As far as the draft, obviously it depends on the lottery balls. Who knows where we end up if we don't jump top 3. It's awfully close, despite winning against some good teams. Tied for 6th worst record now but 5 is only a half game worse.

Chances of Doncic are obviously extremely slim. Who knows where Young will go? The poll question isn't that one or the other will happen...it's just a poll asking who people would prefer on the team.

I like Kemba. I think it would be fun to have him on the team, even though I think if we added him now and took that bad contract and gave up our first rounder it would result in somewhat of a treadmill.

I want to build a long term sustainable solid team around Booker and not a makeshift hope we can make a little splash next year move that sets us back long term, and I imagine what it would take to trade for him would result in that.

If we traded for him we would ultimately max out our cap space, take on a terrible contract, give up some picks or young players, get ourselves out of range for a potential star player we control for a long time and at minimum cost for a while, and probably top out at a low playoff seed for a while if lucky.

[Hesh]

For all you tankers out there, one question. Do you all agree this should/will be the last season that we tank?

[TOO]

For all you tankers out there, one question. Do you all agree this should/will be the last season that we tank?

That depends, does the roster drastically improve in the off-season? Also, this team isn't tanking, they are bad sure, tanking, nah.

[bwgood77]

For all you tankers out there, one question. Do you all agree this should/will be the last season that we tank?

I don't think we are intentionally trying to lose. We are rebuilding. I don't think anyone right now is thinking about having a bad record next year so we can get a high pick in 2019. I think when it's clear we have started off too poorly and/or are too young to make the playoffs and make noise, many people would rather see player development than playing older guys to be a little better. If putting our young players in games for long minutes to give them time to get better for our long term future results in losses now, it is good for the long term.

I'm not a "tanker" but I wanted to rebuild and hope we are competing for the playoffs next year.

[Mulhollanddrive]

I only care about wins when it adds up to 50.

[Hesh]

Right now, we're not tanking, yet. Too early. But a lot of people here are trying to get a head start on it.

We're already sitting the vets with Chandler being the exception, but he's only taking minutes away from Len when there's a good chance that we're gonna lose him anyway and I'm not even sure if we want to keep him at this point.

I'm all for development whether it means wins or losses. Progress is all I want out of this season so that we can further evaluate our players going forward. Even if it means falling fairly low in the draft, as long as significant strides are being made.

[darealjuice]

I'd like to think that this will be our last season being this bad and that we'll take a step toward this playoffs this offseason/next season. With how much room for growth and improvement he has, I have a hard time seeing Booker not taking another step forward in attempt to drag us to the playoff. One would hope that TJ finally adds the threat of a 3 point shot, but I'd at least hope he can build on this level of play next year. A full offseason for Josh to get stronger along with a training camp that isn't being run by a Yogi will be big for him, and I'm banking on that desire to be great that was a big selling point to drive him toward making a big second year leap that hopefully starts to manifest after the All Star Break. Bender and Chriss are still long term projects that I'll remain patient with (unless they really start sucking or don't show the potential transitioning to production by the end of their contract), but I'd think that 2 full seasons in the league and this season with a coach that actually teaches them to play the NBA game will help them show some encouraging results next year. I'm also personally confident that we will end up in the 4-6 range when it's all said and done considering our remaining schedule, and adding any of Ayton/Bagley/Bamba/Doncic/Porter/Young would be a big talent infusion for this team that we have under our control long term.

I don't see us as actively tanking right now though, just genuinely bad. We're not actively trying to improve our chances at winning games now by making roster moves, but I don't necessarily think we're going out of our way to lose games. I'm honestly not sure what we could do to tank either, and after seeing how it backfired with Bledsoe I have a hard time seeing us benching Booker and TJ to lose games we shouldn't even consider benching them.

[ATTL]

For all you tankers out there, one question. Do you all agree this should/will be the last season that we tank?

I do. I don't think we have enough talent on our team to be legitimate contenders. I believe the top of this draft will have the last piece of our next great team.
Draft well, make a good signing this summer, and we make the playoffs next year. Playoffs this year is unrealistic and making a "splashy" trade mid season just depletes our coffers and diminishes the value of our draft pick.

[Frank Lee]

Spoiler:

Yep, you're right. We shouldn't sign any All-Stars. I'd much rather pay Kemba Walker than DeMarcus Cousins, DeAndre Jordan, the higher-level Max to 33-YO Chris Paul, or Blake Griffin, or any other 'Big'.

You know Booker is going to demand a Max, too. Should we not pay him? These guys won't play for cheap forever. I'll take my chances that he'll love playing next to Booker, and supplying Warren, as well. Not to mention our other young guys??? He'll love it here!

22/6/3 from our PG position?? Heck yeah, sign me up!

And, we got the Woj bomb, to boot! He's available. McD...go, go, go!!!

Exactly! Has everyone lost their ***damned mind here? When did losing for a decade became so palatable? Sickening to me.

Back to the dark side, eh ginobiliflops? What, was three bad losses too much for ya? Ya gone soft ginobiliflops??

I see we just won a game, and suddenly the rest of the board is dreaming of the playoffs. What wonders one game can achieve. Funny world. We're a funny species, I guess.

Fo real though this Kemba **** is stupid af.

I think McD had his eyes set on drafting this year, else he would have picked up a PG earlier on. As it is, we stand a real good chance of drafting in the top 8... and that would yield at least Porter, Sexton, or Jackson. May be someone else falls, but if McD has his eyes on Sexton or piping for Young, I dont think there is anyway he makes an all out attempt at Kemba. If he can steal him then may be , but he'd have to feel he wins that deal as his last attempt for a PG blew up in his face. McD is stingy.

I think both Young and sexton have NBA skills and would fit in nicely from the get go. And both would cause a rippling excitement for the organization. I'd like to see more of Sexton... the more I read, the better he sounds. I shied away initially with the Bledsoe comparison from one site... but the dude seems to be a tenacious baller.

Now if both are gone, the consolation prize isn't bad either. This draft seems to have guys who have good BBall IQ and not heavy with projects like Len, Chris, and Bender. Of course then we'd need to get a PG... or would we ? There is no way McD shelves BKnight and just eats that deal. Ideally, a rookie PG would play behind Knight till he takes over. Competition would be good for both. We are set at SG and SF...and Im betting Chandler sticks around. I wouldn't cry if we got Bamba and then picked up one of Shai G-A, Milton, or TBrown with a later pick... those guys are long good athletes who I think would pair well with Book. Thats the main thing... all additions need to compliment Booker.

of course, come March (and the madness) is when the drafters start drooling and guys rise and fall. But not getting Kemba isn't such a blow.... not at what he'll likely cost up front and more so the 25-30 mill a year he'll demand/wants. Why do you think Charlotte is dealing him ? Its not his play, its his upcoming paycheck.

[gaspar]

Yet he's a far better player than Bledsoe or Knight, and I have the feeling he has some potential to get even better if surrounded by better talent.

He's better than Knight, but he's not better than Bledsoe. Kemba is also exactly the type of player the Suns fans hate: mediocre assist rate, pounds the air out of the ball and shoots a lot of pull-up jumpers with mediocre efficiency.

[Hesh]

I'd like to think that this will be our last season being this bad and that we'll take a step toward this playoffs this offseason/next season. With how much room for growth and improvement he has, I have a hard time seeing Booker not taking another step forward in attempt to drag us to the playoff. One would hope that TJ finally adds the threat of a 3 point shot, but I'd at least hope he can build on this level of play next year. A full offseason for Josh to get stronger along with a training camp that isn't being run by a Yogi will be big for him, and I'm banking on that desire to be great that was a big selling point to drive him toward making a big second year leap that hopefully starts to manifest after the All Star Break. Bender and Chriss are still long term projects that I'll remain patient with (unless they really start sucking or don't show the potential transitioning to production by the end of their contract), but I'd think that 2 full seasons in the league and this season with a coach that actually teaches them to play the NBA game will help them show some encouraging results next year. I'm also personally confident that we will end up in the 4-6 range when it's all said and done considering our remaining schedule, and adding any of Ayton/Bagley/Bamba/Doncic/Porter/Young would be a big talent infusion for this team that we have under our control long term.

I don't see us as actively tanking right now though, just genuinely bad. We're not actively trying to improve our chances at winning games now by making roster moves, but I don't necessarily think we're going out of our way to lose games. I'm honestly not sure what we could do to tank either, and after seeing how it backfired with Bledsoe I have a hard time seeing us benching Booker and TJ to lose games we shouldn't even consider benching them.

Yup, in a nutshell this is what we've come away with so far this season.

I'm still perplexed with the roster construction in regards to TJ and Warren, Bender and Chriss, and Ulis. We've done it to ourselves again (well McD has). TJ has been great and all he needs to add to his game is a 3ball or elite defense to round off his game. Not necessarily adding both but just one of these would be enough to call him a surefire starter for any NBA team. But if he does improve in any of these categories, what will become of the starting SF situation for us since we drafted JJ with the 4th pick that we tanked for. No way we're giving up on him.

Then there's Bender and Chriss, another clash at the same position. McD was under the assumption that they could play multiple positions but it looks like both are pure power forwards.

Then there's Ulis. Trading away the best buddy of our franchise star (probably inevitable, who may not even find another NBA team) right after the Morri situation, as if he didn't learn from the previous mistake of pairing people who are close.

I know this has all been discussed before, but it's actually what worries me the most going forward.

[bwgood77]

Yet he's a far better player than Bledsoe or Knight, and I have the feeling he has some potential to get even better if surrounded by better talent.

He's better than Knight, but he's not better than Bledsoe. Kemba is also exactly the type of player the Suns fans hate: mediocre assist rate, pounds the air out of the ball and shoots a lot of pull-up jumpers with mediocre efficiency.

The good thing that shows, if we do somehow end up with Kemba, is that if/when he does have it more than 6 or 7 dribbles or seconds, he is far better at finishing than the other two.

But I love how Triano has gotten our team to move the ball. The ball is moving a lot lately. Even though you want the ball in Booker's hands the most, I love the he also participates big time in whipping that ball around...the whole team has bought in with that.

I think that is huge on making our team better. I love to see that ball movement and finding the open shooter...it pays off. Triano seems to really be making the team buy into team ball, even when we have a clear cut best player in Booker, and I think it will make everyone better and the team better, and Booker will ultimately get better shots and be continue to get better because of it. And when he needs to take over, he will.