Trade Deadline Countdown....What will we do? What should we do?

[bwgood77]

The good news is McDonough did well with his 2 picks in the last 2 seasons, which means conbuilding hasn't hurt us.

In 2014 - I don't think Wiggins or Parker are that much if at all ahead of Warren, when you take away reputation and expectation.

In 2015 - Towns is the only one who is a clear franchise player, and Porzingis is probably considered just ahead of Booker.

So unless we got the no.1 pick in 2015, we've done as well as any team in the draft during our 2 conbuilding years.

Len, Warren, Booker and hopefully 2016 is the year we cash in on our luck for Simmons.

If that happens we achieve as much as we realistically could hope for in 4 years of draft rebuilding.

Dude..lol. I really like Warren, too..but he's no Wiggins, let's Be real.

Maybe not Wiggins, but when it comes to the rest (getting the #1 pick is highly unlikely) but Parker, Embiid, Smart, Randle, Exum, etc....Warren seems better than most so far. Maybe not Smart overall, but we didn't need a PG that can't shoot either.

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

Some suggested earlier in the year that Knight may be best suited to the role of off-the-bench sparkplug. Jamal Crawford is a great comp, IMO. Don't think that contract of his would prevent it - $13M isn't that much when the cap reaches $90 or $100M. I don't think we're looking to trade him at this point - not at all. Nor should we - we bought high, why sell low? Especially when he's on a 5 year contract. Patience.

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

Hey, guys, Thunder fan here. Just popping into ask a few questions. Since Phoenix is having a fire sale, what kind of trade would you guys offer to get Payne & Kanter?

Also, I haven't been able to watch any Phoenix games except the one where you guys played those Thunder guys. How is Jon Leuer looking? Has he improved? How well can he guard 4s and 5s?

Edit: What about Augustin/McGary/Kanter? Singler/Kanter?

Leuer does fine against 4s and 5s as long as they're not real big, low-post types. Tough, mobile, but not very strong.

I'd be curious what Jeff has to say about Kanter, since he was on the Utah staff when they drafted him and worked with him. I'm not gonna lie, I have some interest, despite the fact that he's the worst defender in the league on a contract that makes no freaking sense.

To answer your question - Tucker, Keef and the CLE pick is the baseline offer you're likely to get from us under these scenarios. If Payne's coming our way, we'd add Archie. If McGary's coming our way, we'd add Leuer. You could keep the PGs if we kept the CLE pick - so Keef, Tucker and two second rounders for Kanter, straight up. If you sent us Payne, we'd add Archie and the CLE pick. If you add McGary, we'd add Leuer and maybe the CLE pick. If you want Chandler - well, that's a different story. I don't think Len and Kanter work all that well without the vet influence of Chandler on this squad. But maybe. Can't imagine we're interested in Singler, given his terrible play and 5 year deal.

I actually think this is pretty interesting. Chandler, Keef, Tucker, CLE pick, Archie - these are the assets we may have available for a Kanter deal, depending on who's being added on OKC's end.

[King4Day]

Serious question. Why would we want Kanter's contract? If he can't play D and has a pretty ugly deal, what would be the incentive?

[Saberestar]

Hey, guys, Thunder fan here. Just popping into ask a few questions. Since Phoenix is having a fire sale, what kind of trade would you guys offer to get Payne & Kanter?

Also, I haven't been able to watch any Phoenix games except the one where you guys played those Thunder guys. How is Jon Leuer looking? Has he improved? How well can he guard 4s and 5s?

Edit: What about Augustin/McGary/Kanter? Singler/Kanter?

I am interested in that Payne & Kanter trade. I would offer:

- Tyson Chandler, Price or Weems and Cavs pick.

Or

- Tyson Chandler, Markieff or Tucker ( and Oklahoma adds Novak or other filler to make the salaries work).

[Saberestar]

Serious question. Why would we want Kanter's contract? If he can't play D and has a pretty ugly deal, what would be the incentive?

He is not that bad defensively. He is not good, but he has improved this year.
Offensively he is one of the best rebounders and scorers at the PF/C position.

[bwgood77]

Hey, guys, Thunder fan here. Just popping into ask a few questions. Since Phoenix is having a fire sale, what kind of trade would you guys offer to get Payne & Kanter?

Also, I haven't been able to watch any Phoenix games except the one where you guys played those Thunder guys. How is Jon Leuer looking? Has he improved? How well can he guard 4s and 5s?

Edit: What about Augustin/McGary/Kanter? Singler/Kanter?

I am interested in that Payne & Kanter trade. I would offer:

- Tyson Chandler, Price or Weems and Cavs pick.

Or

-Markieff Morris, Tyson Chandler ( and Oklahoma adds Novak or other filler to make the salaries work).

I like Payne. He would be a huge upgrade from Goodwin for backup pg.

[TASTIC]

Hey, guys, Thunder fan here. Just popping into ask a few questions. Since Phoenix is having a fire sale, what kind of trade would you guys offer to get Payne & Kanter?

Also, I haven't been able to watch any Phoenix games except the one where you guys played those Thunder guys. How is Jon Leuer looking? Has he improved? How well can he guard 4s and 5s?

Edit: What about Augustin/McGary/Kanter? Singler/Kanter?

How about this one:

Kanter + Novak to Pelicans

Chandler + Tucker + Weems to Thunder

Payne + Gordon + Gee to Suns

Pels get a big body who can defend Cs while Davis can stay at PF like he wants to. Waive Novak.

Thunder get veteran defenders at two key spots with Tucker and Weems at low costs for guys who would fit on a vet squad.

Suns get EG's big expiring and a scoring tank commander the rest of the way. Payne's the prize for us though as he's a young talent who could really develop if given an opportunity.

Gee and Novak just fillers...

I'd then follow this up with Kieff + Archie for TJones + Brewer. Maybe send Price to a playoff team who needs a defensive back-up third PG like the Wizards or Pacers.

Finish out the season in full on tank mode with all our picks, a couple of expirings, RFAs and this line-up:

Len / Leuer
TJones / Teletovic
Warren / Brewer / Gee
Booker / Gordon
Knight / Payne / Brown

[Sunsdeuce]

Hey, guys, Thunder fan here. Just popping into ask a few questions. Since Phoenix is having a fire sale, what kind of trade would you guys offer to get Payne & Kanter?

Also, I haven't been able to watch any Phoenix games except the one where you guys played those Thunder guys. How is Jon Leuer looking? Has he improved? How well can he guard 4s and 5s?

Edit: What about Augustin/McGary/Kanter? Singler/Kanter?

Just popping into ask a few questions. Since when is Phoenix having a "fire Sale?' What would it take for the Thunder to Keep Kanter? He has little to no value EVEN if the suns were having a "fire Sale!"

[thamadkant]

[YouTube][/YouTube]

Serious question. Why would we want Kanter's contract? If he can't play D and has a pretty ugly deal, what would be the incentive?

He is not that bad defensively. He is not good, but he has improved this year.
Offensively he is one of the best rebounders and scorers at the PF/C position.

Yeah Kanter is hard to keep off the boards.
Notice Suns big men struggling to keep him from getting to the boards. He is big and physical.

Not a shot blocker though hence the bad defensive reputation.

[alphagorilla]

TJ, Knight, cavs pick for Gordon Hayward. Like me most of us are high on warren but Hayward and Booker at 2 and 3 sounds so wonderful and right

[jcsunsfan]

TJ, Knight, cavs pick for Gordon Hayward. Like me most of us are high on warren but Hayward and Booker at 2 and 3 sounds so wonderful and right

Sideways move at best. Why do it?


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[TeamTragic]

TJ, Knight, cavs pick for Gordon Hayward. Like me most of us are high on warren but Hayward and Booker at 2 and 3 sounds so wonderful and right

Giving up on Warren for Hayward? Interesting. I'd say go with youth for now

[phnart]

When was the last time an "okay" defender came to the Suns and got better? I'm struggling to think of an example.

[bwgood77]

I'm surprised two people wouldn't do the Hayward deal. I really like Warren, but my response to that, if I responded was that Utah would never trade Hayward. At least not for that.

[bwgood77]

When was the last time an "okay" defender came to the Suns and got better? I'm struggling to think of an example.

Maybe the three that came in the Nance trade. KJ, Corbin and West.

[Grots]

Serious question. Why would we want Kanter's contract? If he can't play D and has a pretty ugly deal, what would be the incentive?

He is not that bad defensively.

He is though. He has the third worst DRPM among centers. The only guys worse than him are Okafor and Bargnani, and Bargnani isn't actually a center. He's so bad at defense that even with his ridiculous scoring and rebounding he's still a net negative overall.

btw, Zach Lowe just called Kanter's contract the worst in the league a few days ago in his podcast.

[AtheJ415]

Serious question. Why would we want Kanter's contract? If he can't play D and has a pretty ugly deal, what would be the incentive?

He is not that bad defensively. He is not good, but he has improved this year.
Offensively he is one of the best rebounders and scorers at the PF/C position.

I'm not certain he's improved this year. His DRating is 2 points better, which would suggest improvement, but his defensive box plus minus is worse, and is significantly worse than his career average at-2.6 compared to -2.0 (probably because he may be on a better defensive team now in OKC, but still).


His WS/48 this year is really good, but he's also on a team that gets a lot of wins, which inflates that number. His VORP is okay but still lower than most max guys, at 0.2, but for his career he's a negative across the board on plus minus and value above replacement. I've seen very smart analysts call him the worst defender in basketball and throw out a lot of stats to justify it, particularly rim protection, so even if It has improved, it's likely still really bad.

I like Kanter for some teams. I don't think he's worth anywhere close to his deal, but we have the cap space to make it work going forward. I just would rather go a different direction. There is only 1 ball, and we have a bunch of future offensive guys at the 1-3. Even if we move Knight and Bledsoe like some here want, and draft a PG like Dunn or some other guy, Booker and Warren are going to get a lot of shots as the future offensive keys to this team. I would rather add a 2 way big to play next to Len and help protect the rim. A guy who can get a few post touches a game, along with Len getting a few, and with both protecting the rim.

Spacing and rim protection is so important, I don't want to invest a lot of money in any guy who is awful at both relative to their position.

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

Serious question. Why would we want Kanter's contract? If he can't play D and has a pretty ugly deal, what would be the incentive?

He is not that bad defensively. He is not good, but he has improved this year.
Offensively he is one of the best rebounders and scorers at the PF/C position.

I'm not certain he's improved this year. His DRating is 2 points better, which would suggest improvement, but his defensive box plus minus is worse, and is significantly worse than his career average at-2.6 compared to -2.0 (probably because he may be on a better defensive team now in OKC, but still).


His WS/48 this year is really good, but he's also on a team that gets a lot of wins, which inflates that number. His VORP is okay but still lower than most max guys, at 0.2, but for his career he's a negative across the board on plus minus and value above replacement. I've seen very smart analysts call him the worst defender in basketball and throw out a lot of stats to justify it, particularly rim protection, so even if It has improved, it's likely still really bad.

I like Kanter for some teams. I don't think he's worth anywhere close to his deal, but we have the cap space to make it work going forward. I just would rather go a different direction. There is only 1 ball, and we have a bunch of future offensive guys at the 1-3. Even if we move Knight and Bledsoe like some here want, and draft a PG like Dunn or some other guy, Booker and Warren are going to get a lot of shots as the future offensive keys to this team. I would rather add a 2 way big to play next to Len and help protect the rim. A guy who can get a few post touches a game, along with Len getting a few, and with both protecting the rim.

Spacing and rim protection is so important, I don't want to invest a lot of money in any guy who is awful at both relative to their position.

You've persuaded me. While we need young talent, we're not really that desperate for offensive talent.

I hereby rescind any and all prior offers made by me on behalf of the Phoenix Suns.

[AtheJ415]

TJ, Knight, cavs pick for Gordon Hayward. Like me most of us are high on warren but Hayward and Booker at 2 and 3 sounds so wonderful and right

Sideways move at best. Why do it?


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Why would Utah do that? I don't think either team agrees to that. Utah needs a PG, but they want to build around Favors and Hayward. They also still have Exum. The truth is they just need to draft better or find a way to get one in FA, but I see no way they trade one of Hayward or Favors to get one.