The 2020 NBA Draft

[BobbieL]

We need a veteran behind Paul and Booker badly. I just don't think it would be smart to expect a rookie to come in and carry the team if we lost either of those two to injury. That's why a rookie bigman made more sense. Use our MLE and BAE on backup guards to compete with Payne and Carter.

I agree. The third guard needs to be a veteran that has been there done that. You traded for Paul - win damn games

[Qwigglez]

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?s=19

So we either wanted Deni or Toppin I would imagine.

Yeah Deni. That's who I wanted if I remember correctly. I like Smith though.

[Kerrsed]

Precious Achiuwa is kinda taking a tumble.

[bwgood77]

Wait what? Is Rubio gonna be a backup there?

No, he will start with Russell and Edwards...and then probably Hernangomez..and obviously Towns.

But they also have Culver, Okogie, Spellman, Layman and James Johnson

So Edwards as the SF then? That’s gonna be interesting.

Well I don't know for sure. Maybe Edwards doesn't start at the beginning, but I would guess they'd start all 3.

[wheezy]

We need a veteran behind Paul and Booker badly. I just don't think it would be smart to expect a rookie to come in and carry the team if we lost either of those two to injury. That's why a rookie bigman made more sense. Use our MLE and BAE on backup guards to compete with Payne and Carter.

The only bummer here is that our starting C still acts like a child. So now we have two rookie C's.

[Sunsdeuce]

My three takeaways from this draft:

1) we can finally put Gambo to bed. He has no sources. His name should never be mentioned again here.

2) James Jones is trying to outsmart everyone when he is the one getting out smarted. Plenty of trades going on right now where the suns could have traded back. Jalen Smith was not a top 25 player. James Jones trying to get a nail into a board without using a hammer. I don’t care how much upside this kid has. Good GMs don’t reach for players. Ty Jerome was a reach and he is gone. I understand Cam has some fans but I am not one of them. He was also a reach of a pick.

3) 90% of suns fans are talking themselves into believing Jalen was a great pick. It’s definitely amusing!

[TheLogician]

There are a lot of stretch bigs in this draft. I like the added defensive upside but Smith is not putting the ball on the floor anytime soon.

[Saberestar]

Yeah, if you want a guy, pick him. Don't mess around, or as others would say, "Get cute". He fits a need, as a backup big...is a great defender and can hit the 3.

Draft for fit is always a mistake IMO.

I think Halliburton, Kira or Vassell are more talented and BPA at #10. But hopefully James Jones is right about Smith.

I didn't say they drafted for fit...it's probably the guy they liked most. I always thought Haliburton was the guy they needed most..even right before our pick and even said it would be hard to not take him over Toppin even though I liked Toppin.

I think a backup guard for Paul and Booker is our biggest need, so obviously they were not drafting based on need. We have Cam to start at 4, Ayton, and a backup 4/5 in Saric. We don't really have a backup 1/2...Payne and Carter are like 3rd stringers at best on a good team.

I hope that they drafted him thinking that he was BPA at #10.

James Jones did a great job drafting Cam at #11 so I will trust him in this one.

[BobbieL]

My three takeaways from this draft:

1) we can finally put Gambo to bed. He has no sources. His name should never be mentioned again here.

2) James Jones is trying to outsmart everyone when he is the one getting out smarted. Plenty of trades going on right now where the suns could have traded back. Jalen Smith was not a top 25 player. James Jones trying to get a nail into a board without using a hammer. I don’t care how much upside this kid has. Good GMs don’t reach for players. Ty Jerome was a reach and he is gone. I understand Cam has some fans but I am not one of them. He was also a reach of a pick.

3) 90% of suns fans are talking themselves into believing Jalen was a great pick. It’s definitely amusing!

I agree about 1

Maybe about 2 but Cam was good; Jerome wasn’t

Totally agree about 3 but why not - a fan of team

[Ghost of Kleine]

I have a feeling we trade in for Bane somehow

Would be nice but what do we have to trade anymore? Wish we got some 2nd rd picks or late 1sts when trading Warren and Oubre.

Maybe Aaron Baynes in a signn' trade, If there's a capped out team late in the lottery, Or perhaps taking back some salary into our MLE. Perhaps Philly? If we were to trade Baynes for Richardson? Equal salary? We also could package any combination of Kaminsky/ Diallo/ Okobo and some 2nds to a team for a 2nd round pick that falls?

[thamadkant]

Smith is strictly a 5 in the NBA. I know a lot of guys on here think he can play the 4, but he's fairly limited in putting the ball on the floor, nor is he quick enough laterally to guard wings.

I think he'll be fine at the 5. Think of him as a shorter Myles Turner or maybe a defensively better version of Thomas Bryant. My only concern with young bigs is that they take time. Smith is pretty thin, and will need to bulk up before he can handle regular NBA minutes. I'm really not expecting much more than 15 mins from him this year.

I don't like the fact that we passed up on Haliburton and Vassell. Both guys would have contributed more straight off the bat.

If we're not using him at the 4 then this pick, a 10th pick as a strict backup of your #1 overall pick who is a borderline all star at the same position, is a tire fire of inexcusability. He has to be able to play the 4 for us at least a little. A backup 5 is easy to find in FA. Hell, re-sign Baynes and use the pick on the best dude (Vassell or Haliburton) then.

I would much rather have re-signed Baynes and taken one of Haliburton or Vassell.

Baynes is a veteran bruiser and pretty skilled offensively as well. Smith is a young green kid. He's fairly athletic and has a nice stroke, but I wouldn't expect him to do any effective screening or bruising, which is exactly what you need from your backup big.

I do expect us to put him at the 4, but I think we'll realise that that's not a position he can effectively defend at in the NBA.

Baynes is DONE as far as heavy minutes go. He's still reliable to back up other bigs, but as someone to help score 10-12 points a game and grab 7+ rebounds?... he will break down again.

Jalen Smith can play the 4 and will only do so when Suns are against a big front court team like the Lakers who field Davis and another big player.

But in small ball situation, he can be a backup 5 to play along Saric.

The best thing about Jalen is that we no longer have to see Bridges or Saric protecting the paint against a big man when Ayton switches up top to cover a wing player.... now if the team is crashing the boards, Jalen can slot next to Ayton and protect the paint.

[Saberestar]

My three takeaways from this draft:

1) we can finally put Gambo to bed. He has no sources. His name should never be mentioned again here.

2) James Jones is trying to outsmart everyone when he is the one getting out smarted. Plenty of trades going on right now where the suns could have traded back. Jalen Smith was not a top 25 player. James Jones trying to get a nail into a board without using a hammer. I don’t care how much upside this kid has. Good GMs don’t reach for players. Ty Jerome was a reach and he is gone. I understand Cam has some fans but I am not one of them. He was also a reach of a pick.

3) 90% of suns fans are talking themselves into believing Jalen was a great pick. It’s definitely amusing!

He had Smith on his seven names. Not even one mock had Smith going around #10.

[bigfoot]

My three takeaways from this draft:

1) we can finally put Gambo to bed. He has no sources. His name should never be mentioned again here.

2) James Jones is trying to outsmart everyone when he is the one getting out smarted. Plenty of trades going on right now where the suns could have traded back. Jalen Smith was not a top 25 player. James Jones trying to get a nail into a board without using a hammer. I don’t care how much upside this kid has. Good GMs don’t reach for players. Ty Jerome was a reach and he is gone. I understand Cam has some fans but I am not one of them. He was also a reach of a pick.

3) 90% of suns fans are talking themselves into believing Jalen was a great pick. It’s definitely amusing!

This draft really didn't have a great pick. Would have much rather seen us trade the pick for a good vet to bolster our bench. Any rookie we picked this year would have probably gotten scraps for minutes.

[Crives]

I have a feeling we trade in for Bane somehow

Would be nice but what do we have to trade anymore? Wish we got some 2nd rd picks or late 1sts when trading Warren and Oubre.

Maybe Aaron Baynes in a signn' trade, If there's a capped out team late in the lottery, Or perhaps taking back some salary into our MLE. Perhaps Philly? If we were to trade Baynes for Richardson? Equal salary? We also could package any combination of Kaminsky/ Diallo/ Okobo and some 2nds to a team for a 2nd round pick that falls?

Can’t S&T on draft night. Have to wait for FA.

[bwgood77]

Read on Twitter

?s=19

So we either wanted Deni or Toppin I would imagine.

Yeah Deni. That's who I wanted if I remember correctly. I like Smith though.

Gambo listed Deni as one of the two guys they'd take if they dropped (along with Okoro) and then listed Smith among the other possibilities if one of those two don't drop. I don't think Flex mentioned Smith...he mentioned 4 guys too..Vassell, Bey, Banes and someone else..Nesmith maybe?

[Slim Charless]

Wait. I think they're skipping over the fact that precious has a brother named God's gift wayyyy to quickly.

[Jesus_H_Macy]

We need a veteran behind Paul and Booker badly. I just don't think it would be smart to expect a rookie to come in and carry the team if we lost either of those two to injury. That's why a rookie bigman made more sense. Use our MLE and BAE on backup guards to compete with Payne and Carter.

This makes some sense. I definitely felt like the MLE money should go towards that 1/2 backup slot.

I just looked up Jalen Smith highlights and he looks good. Passes the eye test on O and looks like a good weakside shot blocker. Regular and advanced stats also look good for him. I couldn't find any clips of his defense though, aside from the blocks. I agree with what some others said that he looks like a 5, not a 4. I think we could still use him, and if Jones thought he was BPA then he probably did the right thing, but the parallel between picking Cam is very strong... I'm willing to give Jones the benefit of the doubt that it's a smarter pick than it looked, but we're picking a guy 10 spots earlier than he was projected again. If it turns out he can defend well out in space then I think he'll be really great for us. If not then it looks like he could still give us some nice bench minutes, but how many of those will we really need at 5 if Saric comes back and Ayton doesn't hit the juice again?

[bwgood77]

My three takeaways from this draft:

1) we can finally put Gambo to bed. He has no sources. His name should never be mentioned again here.

2) James Jones is trying to outsmart everyone when he is the one getting out smarted. Plenty of trades going on right now where the suns could have traded back. Jalen Smith was not a top 25 player. James Jones trying to get a nail into a board without using a hammer. I don’t care how much upside this kid has. Good GMs don’t reach for players. Ty Jerome was a reach and he is gone. I understand Cam has some fans but I am not one of them. He was also a reach of a pick.

3) 90% of suns fans are talking themselves into believing Jalen was a great pick. It’s definitely amusing!

We talked about Jalen Smith a lot, and thought he might be the pick. He was in the teens on big boards. We took him a little higher than where people had him, but there really isn't much separation between anyone in this entire draft...and guys are going nowhere near their projections...outside of a few.

[Kerrsed]

3) 90% of suns fans are talking themselves into believing Jalen was a great pick. It’s definitely amusing!

My post from about a month ago:

I like Smith a lot, and thats why i have him as high as i do on my big board (While he is ranked way way lower on most other Big Boards and Mocks). I have him as the 3rd best PF in the draft behind Okongwu (Who is elite defensively but has ZERO range from 3) and Toppin (Elite offense with lackluster defense). Smith is the best of both worlds, just not as elite in either category. High motor, high IQ player with a great all-around skillset.

The only area he lacks in is passing/assists.

[matt131]

My three takeaways from this draft:

1) we can finally put Gambo to bed. He has no sources. His name should never be mentioned again here.

2) James Jones is trying to outsmart everyone when he is the one getting out smarted. Plenty of trades going on right now where the suns could have traded back. Jalen Smith was not a top 25 player. James Jones trying to get a nail into a board without using a hammer. I don’t care how much upside this kid has. Good GMs don’t reach for players. Ty Jerome was a reach and he is gone. I understand Cam has some fans but I am not one of them. He was also a reach of a pick.

3) 90% of suns fans are talking themselves into believing Jalen was a great pick. It’s definitely amusing!

Ty Jerome was a reach at 24?