Season Speculation, Trade Ideas & Discussion Pt. 2

[Qwigglez]

Spoiler:

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That's how you coach.

We have to be one percent better every day. If you add that up over time, that’s great momentum. Our biggest focus is no more going home in April. I’ve never been a fan of that. No one is. This season started in May. If we would’ve waited to come together recently in the last two weeks, that momentum would not be seen until maybe January. We wanted to get a head start on that. We wanted to turn the negativity of losing into motivation."

Context: From yoga to spin class to hiking, Watson helped organize team outings this offseason to develop a family atmosphere around the young team.

"We’re falling forward, and we’re so close. We are one summer away from saying ‘remember when?"

"We have to keep pounding the rock through the wall"

“Like I told the team, I love the opportunity to teach and to nurture and to love and create a program, establish a program. I’m not really into just winning games,” Watson said Monday. “I’m into changing lives, changing mindsets and as a staff, we want to change lives and change mindsets and create a movement.”

“The ultimate goal is always the destination of championships and to build a program that has that. Establishing the way we think, the way we act, the way we carry ourselves on-and-off the court, how we relate to the community. We can’t just worry about putting on jerseys and becoming champions. We’ve also got to be champions when we leave the arena and we put on regular clothes and we go in the community,” he said.

“The programs we establish and how we represent ourselves outside of basketball to me is more impactful than winning games.”

These are different Watson quotes...

[lilfishi22]

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That's how you coach.

Accountability is how bad habits go away

[Mulhollanddrive]

Keep in mind Triano was the lead assistant under Watson and led the league in worst Defensive Rating 2 out of 3 seasons in Toronto. Apart from a 1st quarter post-sacking bounce we played pretty similar to the Lakers game, but expectations are so low that a replication of Watson's 24 win season would be seen as a successful recovery.

[gaspar]

Hate for Chriss on this forum is really disturbing.

[NavLDO]

Gee, sounds like McD has the dream job. Every bad management decision he makes is absolved because Sarver exists.

I've been a supporter of McD since he got us Bledsoe for very little. But it's impossible to overlook his flaws and I don't think Sarver should get all the blame which seemingly some fans are putting on him. Ultimately it is Sarver who hired McD but I'd say a majority of fans (including myself) also gave McD a pass on many of the mistakes he's made.

I'm leaning towards moving on from McD for the first time in his tenure with the Suns.

I'm not a 'staunch' McD defender, but I fail to see how when a 'diva' player starts acting like a baby, how it's McD's fault. Sure, there were 'discussions' over the Summer about trading him, but obviously, Bledsoe didn't make mention of it then. Nor did Rich Paul.

I do not remember Bledsoe even making mention that he would prefer to be traded, now, out of the blue, like a little baby "I don't want to be here anymore!" Waaaa!!!

McD makes a masterful move during the draft to secure JJ during the draft; he seems to take the right players when available in Booker and Warren (Chriss and Bender are still babies...give it a chance). Len, if GIVEN a chance, instead of consistently starting Chandler, would likely succeed, as he's shown in his career when starting for more than 25 minutes per game.

Anyway, I'm not absolving McD completely, but yes, Sarver is an idiot, and yes, the coaching has sucked (which is on McD, I agree), but if we could get a coach in here that could, you know, coach, I think we'd see a vastly different team.

[Mulhollanddrive]

The good news in my opinion is that none of this will dictate when we win 50 games next. We are more leveraged to McDonough's ability to draft stars than possibly every other factor combined.

If Booker, Jackson, 2018 Pick are All-Star talents we can replicate the 2005-2010 era where we had Sarver selling picks for money and not paying stars, sacked coaches, player dramas, franchise worse trades, and roster and organisation mismanagment in preceeding years because Colangelo nailed the draft with Stoudamire, Marion, Johnson to give us multiple All-Stars to go with the Nash signing in FA.

[Kerrsed]

http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=yd6dvv2f

Cleveland gets: Bledsoe/Chandler
Detroit gets: Thompson/Chriss/Miami 1st/Cleveland 1st
Suns get: Drummond/IT/Shumpert

IT/James/Ulis
Booker/Shumpert/Daniels
Jackson/Warren/DJJ
Bender/Warren/Dudley
Drummond/Len/Sauce

[lilfishi22]

I'm not a 'staunch' McD defender, but I fail to see how when a 'diva' player starts acting like a baby, how it's McD's fault. Sure, there were 'discussions' over the Summer about trading him, but obviously, Bledsoe didn't make mention of it then. Nor did Rich Paul.

I do not remember Bledsoe even making mention that he would prefer to be traded, now, out of the blue, like a little baby "I don't want to be here anymore!" Waaaa!!!

McD makes a masterful move during the draft to secure JJ during the draft; he seems to take the right players when available in Booker and Warren (Chriss and Bender are still babies...give it a chance). Len, if GIVEN a chance, instead of consistently starting Chandler, would likely succeed, as he's shown in his career when starting for more than 25 minutes per game.

Anyway, I'm not absolving McD completely, but yes, Sarver is an idiot, and yes, the coaching has sucked (which is on McD, I agree), but if we could get a coach in here that could, you know, coach, I think we'd see a vastly different team.

The problem with your premise is that it's happened before. If this was an isolated incident then I'd give McD the benefit of the doubt. But this has happened before, multiple times. At some point you have to stop pointing fingers at everyone and start looking at yourself. I blamed McD for his mishandling of the Kieff situation. I blamed McD for holding onto Dragic when he was not happy and privately asked for moves to be made. I have to blame McD for not making a move in the offseason when Bledsoe's value had peaked. These are all situations where McD mishandled and mismanaged player expectations and he had the ability and time to make moves such that it didn't become public. I'll give McD full credit for the haul he got back for Dragic and Kieff but the damage to our reputation is done. This is an era where stars are dictating their own moves more so than ever and the stars want to be treated right. Two of our stars in the last 3 seasons have now wanted out.

[lilfishi22]

Keep in mind Triano was the lead assistant under Watson and led the league in worst Defensive Rating 2 out of 3 seasons in Toronto. Apart from a 1st quarter post-sacking bounce we played pretty similar to the Lakers game, but expectations are so low that a replication of Watson's 24 win season would be seen as a successful recovery.

Triano wasn't known as a defensive coach. But I also think, with some basic direction, we could probably be a better defensive team than we were under Watson.

[Kerrsed]

I do have to say that Mudiay has some slick passes.

Watch on YouTube

He is a true PG that has high BBALL IQ, flashy passes, very quick and athletic, and decent defense (Being 6'5 helps). If only he could work on his shooting (Takes bad shots, off balance fade away shots) and learn that not all passes have to be flashy, sometimes the simple one is the correct one (Has high Turnover to Assist ratio).

I think that one of the things that bugs me the most when looking at trades is the fact that we pretty much have to send out the same amount of players as we receive, and with our players its difficult (Specially with a team like Denver). I mean if we are moving Bledsoe it only makes sense to move Chandler as well, but thats like $28M in Salary. Looking at the Nuggets roster of non-untouchable players that i might have interest in of course theirs Mudiay, Lyles could be interesting (and is a former Kentucky teammate of Booker and Ulis), Hernangomez (I dont know much about besides he is a stretch 4 who's brother has been good in NY), and......thats about it. Faried is kinda eh. But still, the issue is that in order for them to take on Chandler, we would have to take back like 6 guys. Hell, just for Bledsoe it would have to be like Mudiay/Lyles/Faried. Pretty much we have to take on Faried no matter who else is involved, just to make the money work. And once you do that (1 for 3), now you have to look at cutting our own guys.

Maybe Peters? But he is a 2 way player and not really counted against us for the 15 man roster. DJJ? Its difficult and like i said, that would be just for Bledsoe. If we arnt getting back a player that we are enamored with, i could see the FO trying to tack on Chandler or Knight so we could benefit a bit more, but for a lot of teams, that just means double the amount of players coming back in return.

[DrSublime]

I'm cool w/ Mudiay+Faried for Bledsoe, works for both teams, moves a guy they both don't want (Bled/Faried).

[King4Day]

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[King4Day]

Listening to NBA radio yesterday, everyone was in agreement that the Bucks would benefit the most from Bledsoe.
Apparently they don't agree though.

I think Mudiay and the unprotected (like protection really matters?) will be the best we can get. But if I'm McD, I'd ask for 2 firsts. Might sound like a lot, but with EB, the Nuggets are cracking the top 10 teams in the league IMO.

[Mulhollanddrive]

First 3 seasons:

Brandon Knight 41 FG%
Emmanual Mudiay 37 FG%

[batsmasher]

I'm a bit perplexed by all the MJ love I've seen all over. This is the same MJ we were piling it onto for not being able to run a SL offense.

He can pass but he's not a passer. He can create offense but he can't run an offense. And he doesn't look like he has a chance defensively. He certainly isn't going to be a surprise packet.

With all that being said, I'm happy he's producing and he's shown he deserves an NBA roster spot.

[Foliohattu]

I think Mudiay and the unprotected (like protection really matters?) will be the best we can get. But if I'm McD, I'd ask for 2 firsts. Might sound like a lot, but with EB, the Nuggets are cracking the top 10 teams in the league IMO.

With how tough West is, the protection actually matters imo. While highly unlikely that Denver both misses the playoffs and wins in the lottery, the higher upside scenarios of that trade's outcomes depend on it.

[garrick]

I'm a bit perplexed by all the MJ love I've seen all over. This is the same MJ we were piling it onto him for not being able to run a SL offense.

He can pass but he's not a passer. He can create offense but he can't run an offense. And he doesn't look like he has a chance defensively. He certainly isn't going to be a surprise packet.

With all that being said, I'm happy he's producing and he's shown he deserves an NBA roster spot.

He's like Eddie House, very good offensive player but really a 2 guard in a PG body and shouldn't be starting.

Going back to McD I have to say I don't agree with his handling of Bledsoe, publicly stating he will no longer be with the team puts the Suns in a bind as the rest of the league know they can low ball the Suns.

It would have been better if they suspended him for a few games and reevaluated the situation after several games, seems McD just takes things way too personal and ends up antagonizing his players in public.

That being said you have to admire how Nash handled himself post Amare and never publicly demanded a trade and gave every game 100 percent despite being on a crappy team.

[bhawk]

Here's feel good post... because, ya know, I'm feeling good (or better) after watching the game on TV. What a difference a day makes. Wow. The team played with fire and energy from opening tip to the closing seconds. There was spacing, extra passes, dunks, threes and little patience for mediocrity. I noticed players getting pulled when they made bone-headed plays. Warren got pulled at one point. The telling thing for me was that it looked like the players were having fun. There was a close up of Jackson and he actually cracked a smile... didn't know he could do that!

I first thought that this game... this win... was a big middle finger pointed at Watson and Bledsoe. It was validation that Watson sucked as a coach. Good yoga. Bad coach. It was validation that Bledsoe is an entitled baby who sucked the life out of our young players...

NOPE. This game was the turning point for a franchise that hit ROCK bottom Sunday up until game time. Watson didn't get fired. He quit. He quit on the team, the players and the franchise that gave him an awesome opportunity. Bledsoe quit too. It was a T-O-X-I-C environment and I was waiting for the next shoe to drop. Who was going to quit next? My expectations for the game last night were very, very low.

Instead our team competed. We had a coach that in only ONE FREAKING GAME gave the players some semblance of organization and structure. We WON the game… and there is HOPE. There is renewed hope for this franchise, the future, and these players growing and winning together.

Disclaimer: I know the win was against the lowly Kings, but man it felt good to see Fox, Skal and Bogdan get beat.

Chriss – I was stunned that he played so well. Where was this Chriss over the summer and in the first 3 games? If he keeps playing like this, I promise to stop calling him fat and lazy.

Len – What’s up the hoodie? He was the only one on the bench wearing it. It felt like he was disconnected and did not want to be there.

James / Ulis – Both played great! Were they happy to be out of Bledsoe’s shadow? Ulis was hanging with Fox – btw. Dare I say, that Ulis is as good as Fox?

Jackson – Missed some 3’s, but plays hard. Love him so far.

Booker – He was Bookering and I loved him cheering for Tyler. He did crank up some bricks. Needs to hit those.

Bender – Didn’t notice him too much. Doing the little things… I guess…

Blesdoe – Get the best deal you can. Get someone with potential.

McD – Please don’t blame McD for the Bledsoe situation. He has really been trying to trade this guy all summer long, but there were no good offers. I would rather have a patient GM, then someone who accepts medocre offers. I am all for McD pulling a rabbit out of his hat, but, sadly, there are too many teams with too many good guards. There is a point guard surplus and we should not expect a great return on Bledsoe.

Go Suns. There are better days ahead!

[Son of Ra]

Here's feel good post...

Spoiler:

because, ya know, I'm feeling good (or better) after watching the game on TV. What a difference a day makes. Wow. The team played with fire and energy from opening tip to the closing seconds. There was spacing, extra passes, dunks, threes and little patience for mediocrity. I noticed players getting pulled when they made bone-headed plays. Warren got pulled at one point. The telling thing for me was that it looked like the players were having fun. There was a close up of Jackson and he actually cracked a smile... didn't know he could do that!

I first thought that this game... this win... was a big middle finger pointed at Watson and Bledsoe. It was validation that Watson sucked as a coach. Good yoga. Bad coach. It was validation that Bledsoe is an entitled baby who sucked the life out of our young players...

NOPE. This game was the turning point for a franchise that hit ROCK bottom Sunday up until game time. Watson didn't get fired. He quit. He quit on the team, the players and the franchise that gave him an awesome opportunity. Bledsoe quit too. It was a T-O-X-I-C environment and I was waiting for the next shoe to drop. Who was going to quit next? My expectations for the game last night were very, very low.

Instead our team competed. We had a coach that in only ONE FREAKING GAME gave the players some semblance of organization and structure. We WON the game… and there is HOPE. There is renewed hope for this franchise, the future, and these players growing and winning together.

Disclaimer: I know the win was against the lowly Kings, but man it felt good to see Fox, Skal and Bogdan get beat.

Chriss – I was stunned that he played so well. Where was this Chriss over the summer and in the first 3 games? If he keeps playing like this, I promise to stop calling him fat and lazy.

Len – What’s up the hoodie? He was the only one on the bench wearing it. It felt like he was disconnected and did not want to be there.

James / Ulis – Both played great! Were they happy to be out of Bledsoe’s shadow? Ulis was hanging with Fox – btw. Dare I say, that Ulis is as good as Fox?

Jackson – Missed some 3’s, but plays hard. Love him so far.

Booker – He was Bookering and I loved him cheering for Tyler. He did crank up some bricks. Needs to hit those.

Bender – Didn’t notice him too much. Doing the little things… I guess…

Blesdoe – Get the best deal you can. Get someone with potential.

McD – Please don’t blame McD for the Bledsoe situation. He has really been trying to trade this guy all summer long, but there were no good offers. I would rather have a patient GM, then someone who accepts medocre offers. I am all for McD pulling a rabbit out of his hat, but, sadly, there are too many teams with too many good guards. There is a point guard surplus and we should not expect a great return on Bledsoe.

Go Suns. There are better days ahead!

Whew, after your first sentence I was worried you got carried away following one game/victory

[WeekapaugGroove]

If NY is really intersted and the suns love french frank there are some possible paths to make something work. The suns could sweeten the pot by doing things like taking the noahs contract back. Or they could attach the miami pick take back lee and get french frank and a guy like hernangomez.

I know people are confused as to why ny would want bledsoe my guess is the motivation is they are legitimately afraid porzingis won't sign an extension unless hes surrounded with better players.

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