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

[Calvin Klein]

So many ice cold takes in this thread tell me again about James Jones not doing anything.

New suns owner Ishbia pushed Jones to get on the phone with Marks. Reports say Ishbia wanted a deal done last night.
Ishbia got on the phone with Tsai and a deal was made.
There you go. Jones does nothing.

That's for sure Ishbia is the main force behind the deal, but do you really think there was any chance of doing anything until we got a new owner? What's the point if this new guy was going to go all in as soon as he took over?

[bwoolf2]

Why lol? You have said that we have nothing off the bench and that's not true.

Who do you want coming off the bench? Luka and Anteto?

Payne, Lee, Warren, Saric and Landale/Biyombo looks a very good second unit.

Warren is a starter, and no that's a terrible 2nd unit. Has been all year.

I think Warren coming off the bench would be likely. His minutes were being managed on the team this year and I think a limited role off the bench would be most effective for him on the Suns now. Also not much of a defender and I think that's what you'll need.

Craig and Okogie seem like two players that could start now.

They both aren't good and would be 12 or 13 th guys on pretty much any team in the league

I mean they wouldn't even make the Nets current roster.

[sunsfan1o1]

Am I the only skeptic about this trade? I just hate these kind of moves where you mortgage your entire future for an aging, highly paid, super injury prone superstar. Yeah, he is an all time great and it might work for a year, but it's so incredibly risky.

I'm excited, but also so scared about the future. Even this season looks shaky with all the injuries.

The future is Ayton and Booker. As long as they’re on the team we didn’t mortgage anything.
Teams who “mortgage their future” win championships. See Heat, Warriors, Cavs.

From ESPN:
Talks had progressed and stalled, and the Suns appeared to be pivoting toward a three-way deal that might've landed them Atlanta's John Collins sometime Thursday morning, sources said. On the direction of his new owner, Mat Ishbia, general manager James Jones texted Nets GM Sean Marks sometime after 11 p.m. ET -- and it wouldn't be long until Ishbia and Nets owner Joe Tsai had cobbled together the final elements of the blockbuster trade, sources said.
So tell us again how James Jones does anything?

[Sunlight]

I like it. Mikal is a very nice player but also overrated especially as some Gary Payton type defender. He wasn't pushing this team to another level like having Durant does.

Yes, If he is something really that special, he would have stopped Luka last year like Ayton did against Jokic.
It didn't happen so he got to go. Simple as that. The Twins completely froze in the Mavs series and that's why Durant is here now. They had a chance, but the Sun's championship window isn't open forever.

[handsome salary]

The biggest question of this trade...who's starting for the Nets, Cam or Jae?

[Fo-Real]

Read on Twitter

Scorer off the bench. Craig is a defender hustle guy. Until we see what we do with Saric's expiring at the deadline and the buyouts. There are also still a few vet names that might float around who are or were playing aboard.

[Tha King]

The biggest question of this trade...who's starting for the Nets, Cam or Jae?

wouldn't be surprised if both are not on the roster in the end. Right now I'd have it:

Dinwiddie
Thomas
Bridges
DFS
Claxton

[bwoolf2]

Am I the only skeptic about this trade? I just hate these kind of moves where you mortgage your entire future for an aging, highly paid, super injury prone superstar. Yeah, he is an all time great and it might work for a year, but it's so incredibly risky.

I'm excited, but also so scared about the future. Even this season looks shaky with all the injuries.

The future is Ayton and Booker. As long as they’re on the team we didn’t mortgage anything.
Teams who “mortgage their future” win championships. See Heat, Warriors, Cavs.

From ESPN:
Talks had progressed and stalled, and the Suns appeared to be pivoting toward a three-way deal that might've landed them Atlanta's John Collins sometime Thursday morning, sources said. On the direction of his new owner, Mat Ishbia, general manager James Jones texted Nets GM Sean Marks sometime after 11 p.m. ET -- and it wouldn't be long until Ishbia and Nets owner Joe Tsai had cobbled together the final elements of the blockbuster trade, sources said.
So tell us again how James Jones does anything?

I'll be surprised if Ayton is still here.

[Calvin Klein]

Also not looking forward to this board discussions going forward The toxicity going through the roof

[Calvin Klein]

Read on Twitter

The offensive power is RIDICULOUS. Crazy potential.

They photoshopped Durant but couldn't just get an old TJ picture in a Suns uniform?

[melocuse15]

Can’t believe Suns championship odds jumped up to +450. It’s going to take some time for the team to build chemistry. Only 26 games left and 9 games behind Denver, don’t see Suns catching Den or Mem.

[Sunlight]

With Book, KD and DA those 23' and 25' are likely Okobo and Jerome. So in reality we gave up 27' and 29' and 28' swap.

[Jesus_H_Macy]

Another Jones special. 5 **** picks for a 35yo???? Horrible trade.

That being said - I’ve always thought to myself that I would take 10yrs of suckitude in exhange for one championship. Guess I’ll get to see if I really believed that or not. Health is our boogeyman but if we are miraculously healthy we’re probably the favorites this year right? But if we don’t win it this year that’s basically it for us for the rest of the decade

EDIT - Maybe I should blame Ishbia for the value on this one

[Mulhollanddrive]

If Paul was Durant's age we'd be so happy

[Saberestar]

Watch on YouTube

[Fo-Real]

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.

TJ proved he can still just score in bunches when we played the Nets a couple days ago. He and Book embraced and talked after the game, wonder if they knew??

[starbosa10]

Massive overpay. Gave up Mikal and Cam plus basically 5 picks?? KD better get healthy

[Fo-Real]

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.

We need to add a more athletic backup pf. Tj can be a backup Sf really.

[Jesus_H_Macy]

Another Jones special. 5 **** picks for a 35yo???? Horrible trade.

That being said - I’ve always thought to myself that I would take 10yrs of suckitude in exhange for one championship. Guess I’ll get to see if I really believed that or not. Health is our boogeyman but if we are miraculously healthy we’re probably the favorites this year right? But if we don’t win it this year that’s basically it for us for the rest of the decade

EDIT - Maybe I should blame Ishbia for the value on this one

2nd EDIT - The more I think about this our D is going to suck. But it might not matter

[POLI]

I cannot believe they could not keep Crowder out of the deal so we could get other players for him, as the Bucks had agreed some weeks ago to trade Ibaka, Nwora or Hill and another player for Crowder.
I would have included another pick if that would have meant to keep Crowder.
Crowder will land a pick or a couple of good role players for the Nets this evening.

Ibaka is a very useful player, still 33, who can play PF and C and has a nice touch, even from 3.

We need to add some quality players. Our bench is almost garbage out of Payne and Warren. Shamet sometimes is not that bad.

The player I was in love with was Anunoby, with VanVleet after him. If Toronto has landed Poetl is because they are going to trade one of Siakam, Anunoby, etc.

Do we have any assets to trade for another good role player? Paul for VanVleet would be awesome...