2020 Offseason Speculation, free agency, summer trades (keep draft prospect talk in draft thread)

[suns12345]

I can't seem to find it anymore, but I believe there was a tweet that mentioned before the trade deadline the Magic and Suns were discussing a trade involving Aaron Gordon. The Magic wanted Kelly Oubre, and the Suns were only offering Ty Johnson, Cam Johnson, and the Suns 2020 1st.

First off I want to say glad we didn't downgrade by trading Oubre for AG. The Suns counter offer seems a bit rich too and I'm surprised the Magic didn't accept that. Likely because Isaacs is out the rest of the season, I believe if he was healthy that offer would have been accepted. Also want to mention, glad we didn't sell 80 cents on the dollar. I believe this summer a lot of teams may want to retool or rebuild where they could potentially have a fire sale. The Suns front office was smart not to be so short-sighted (giving them too much credit here). Markkanen might be a lot cheaper as he enters the 2020-21 season with looming RFA in 2021, AG might be even cheaper (unless he plays well in the PO's).

*edit* found the tweet.

Read on Twitter

Thanks for posting

I personally think AG is terrible. Anytime i've watched him he just looks so clunky.

Some people around here seem to like him though and have probably watched a lot more than me, so happy to be proven wrong.

[TeamTragic]

Rookie shooter (that we need)
Expiring (don't need)
2020 1st (protected right?)

FOR

Gordon (MEH)

[Saberestar]

Read on Twitter

[Qwigglez]

I thought Mirotic went back overseas because he received a good offer over there? He just turned 29 a couple days ago.

[sunskerr]

Glad we didn’t budge on Oubre in discussing Aaron Gordon with the Magic. Oubre is a superior player. Aaron Gordon is also kinda overrated. I think he’s shown he’s not a star in the making so there was no need to give up a “package” for him

[Barkley6]

I can't seem to find it anymore, but I believe there was a tweet that mentioned before the trade deadline the Magic and Suns were discussing a trade involving Aaron Gordon. The Magic wanted Kelly Oubre, and the Suns were only offering Ty Johnson, Cam Johnson, and the Suns 2020 1st.

First off I want to say glad we didn't downgrade by trading Oubre for AG. The Suns counter offer seems a bit rich too and I'm surprised the Magic didn't accept that. Likely because Isaacs is out the rest of the season, I believe if he was healthy that offer would have been accepted. Also want to mention, glad we didn't sell 80 cents on the dollar. I believe this summer a lot of teams may want to retool or rebuild where they could potentially have a fire sale. The Suns front office was smart not to be so short-sighted (giving them too much credit here). Markkanen might be a lot cheaper as he enters the 2020-21 season with looming RFA in 2021, AG might be even cheaper (unless he plays well in the PO's).

*edit* found the tweet.

Read on Twitter

Would love a move for Markkanen. The PF we truly need. Wonder if we could work out a S&T with Saric to send him the other way (Obviously plus other assets)

[Barkley6]

Read on Twitter

He's an interesting prospect, but it would be for next season I imagine, not this one. Which makes me hesitant, because I don't want to throw big money at a guy who's been out of the NBA. Not that he can't play, but I just hope this isn't our big summer move. That would be quite a let down.

[Walt_Uoob]

After playing around with the capulator, I'm pleased with where we are post-trade-deadline. If we can re-sign Baynes (something in the $8-10m range, maybe three years with a team option on the third year?) and just let Saric walk (my preference unless he comes very cheap) and renounce a couple others, we can have around $12m in space this summer (that's after drafting and signing someone around #9). Not going to get too much in the weeds of specific trades or fits, but generally speaking, that gives us a few different paths we can follow if the opportunity arises (not in any particular order):
1) use that space on one or two free agents and forge on with our current core
2) make a draft-day trade where we package some combination of picks and players for a higher-priced player (e.g. Oubre and a pick for Jrue Holiday or Blake Griffin or someone like that; or, say, Cam Johnson and a pick for Aaron Gordon if the Magic change their minds on that one)
3) hold onto that cap space going into next season, after which we can:
3a) snag a draft pick or young player in exchange for absorbing a contract into our space
3b) trade Oubre, either to a team that wants his bird rights or a team looking to clear space for the following summer
3c) trade a combo for a higher-priced player as mentioned in option 2
4) hold onto the cap space all the way through next season so we have more wiggle room to re-sign Oubre and/or extend our other guys.

I know that's all very generic and the devil is in the details, but I like seeing that we have flexibility and options.

[bwgood77]

I can't seem to find it anymore, but I believe there was a tweet that mentioned before the trade deadline the Magic and Suns were discussing a trade involving Aaron Gordon. The Magic wanted Kelly Oubre, and the Suns were only offering Ty Johnson, Cam Johnson, and the Suns 2020 1st.

First off I want to say glad we didn't downgrade by trading Oubre for AG. The Suns counter offer seems a bit rich too and I'm surprised the Magic didn't accept that. Likely because Isaacs is out the rest of the season, I believe if he was healthy that offer would have been accepted. Also want to mention, glad we didn't sell 80 cents on the dollar. I believe this summer a lot of teams may want to retool or rebuild where they could potentially have a fire sale. The Suns front office was smart not to be so short-sighted (giving them too much credit here). Markkanen might be a lot cheaper as he enters the 2020-21 season with looming RFA in 2021, AG might be even cheaper (unless he plays well in the PO's).

*edit* found the tweet.

Read on Twitter

I don't know if I'd trust that info. That guy just started that account about a year ago. I remember when he was just some random guy.

He's trying to get people to subscribe to his draft profiles now, which is crazy since you have guys like Mike Schmitz, Givony and The Stepien guys (all of which REALLY do scouting), for free. I think he said he had like 180 guys in there too.

I think he's just trying to get followers. If he does have a source, then he probably won't get any more info from whoever it is (I doubt they told him and said "go ahead and let everyone know") because the Suns wouldn't want it out there that they put Cam on the table. Jones respects the players. I think they keep things air tight if they go through (and doubt he has a Magic source). I have had and have sources and would never say anything I was told in confdience, at least not publicly.

[bwgood77]

Glad we didn’t budge on Oubre in discussing Aaron Gordon with the Magic. Oubre is a superior player. Aaron Gordon is also kinda overrated. I think he’s shown he’s not a star in the making so there was no need to give up a “package” for him

I'm not a big Aaron Gordon fan but in his last two games he had a combined 51 points, 18 rebounds, 13 assists, and was 5/8 from 3.

He's a great passing PF. He has regressed a little bit from last year though, particularly in shooting. Last year he was 35% from 3 and now he's at about 31% for the season. Still over 3 assists per game.

At AZ he was a defensive specialists, but also could hit the 3 ok and had some monster rebounding games. Decent passer too.

[bwgood77]

After playing around with the capulator, I'm pleased with where we are post-trade-deadline. If we can re-sign Baynes (something in the $8-10m range, maybe three years with a team option on the third year?) and just let Saric walk (my preference unless he comes very cheap) and renounce a couple others, we can have around $12m in space this summer (that's after drafting and signing someone around #9). Not going to get too much in the weeds of specific trades or fits, but generally speaking, that gives us a few different paths we can follow if the opportunity arises (not in any particular order):
1) use that space on one or two free agents and forge on with our current core
2) make a draft-day trade where we package some combination of picks and players for a higher-priced player (e.g. Oubre and a pick for Jrue Holiday or Blake Griffin or someone like that; or, say, Cam Johnson and a pick for Aaron Gordon if the Magic change their minds on that one)
3) hold onto that cap space going into next season, after which we can:
3a) snag a draft pick or young player in exchange for absorbing a contract into our space
3b) trade Oubre, either to a team that wants his bird rights or a team looking to clear space for the following summer
3c) trade a combo for a higher-priced player as mentioned in option 2
4) hold onto the cap space all the way through next season so we have more wiggle room to re-sign Oubre and/or extend our other guys.

I know that's all very generic and the devil is in the details, but I like seeing that we have flexibility and options.

Even if we keep our players and exceed the cap we'd have the mid level which would be almost as much money probably.

[Walt_Uoob]

After playing around with the capulator, I'm pleased with where we are post-trade-deadline. If we can re-sign Baynes (something in the $8-10m range, maybe three years with a team option on the third year?) and just let Saric walk (my preference unless he comes very cheap) and renounce a couple others, we can have around $12m in space this summer (that's after drafting and signing someone around #9). Not going to get too much in the weeds of specific trades or fits, but generally speaking, that gives us a few different paths we can follow if the opportunity arises (not in any particular order):
1) use that space on one or two free agents and forge on with our current core
2) make a draft-day trade where we package some combination of picks and players for a higher-priced player (e.g. Oubre and a pick for Jrue Holiday or Blake Griffin or someone like that; or, say, Cam Johnson and a pick for Aaron Gordon if the Magic change their minds on that one)
3) hold onto that cap space going into next season, after which we can:
3a) snag a draft pick or young player in exchange for absorbing a contract into our space
3b) trade Oubre, either to a team that wants his bird rights or a team looking to clear space for the following summer
3c) trade a combo for a higher-priced player as mentioned in option 2
4) hold onto the cap space all the way through next season so we have more wiggle room to re-sign Oubre and/or extend our other guys.

I know that's all very generic and the devil is in the details, but I like seeing that we have flexibility and options.

Even if we keep our players and exceed the cap we'd have the mid level which would be almost as much money probably.

True but that's only relevant for scenario 1, right? I don't think we can, for example, trade Oubre's $15m deal for Holiday's $26m unless we have $11m of actual cap space.

[bwgood77]

After playing around with the capulator, I'm pleased with where we are post-trade-deadline. If we can re-sign Baynes (something in the $8-10m range, maybe three years with a team option on the third year?) and just let Saric walk (my preference unless he comes very cheap) and renounce a couple others, we can have around $12m in space this summer (that's after drafting and signing someone around #9). Not going to get too much in the weeds of specific trades or fits, but generally speaking, that gives us a few different paths we can follow if the opportunity arises (not in any particular order):
1) use that space on one or two free agents and forge on with our current core
2) make a draft-day trade where we package some combination of picks and players for a higher-priced player (e.g. Oubre and a pick for Jrue Holiday or Blake Griffin or someone like that; or, say, Cam Johnson and a pick for Aaron Gordon if the Magic change their minds on that one)
3) hold onto that cap space going into next season, after which we can:
3a) snag a draft pick or young player in exchange for absorbing a contract into our space
3b) trade Oubre, either to a team that wants his bird rights or a team looking to clear space for the following summer
3c) trade a combo for a higher-priced player as mentioned in option 2
4) hold onto the cap space all the way through next season so we have more wiggle room to re-sign Oubre and/or extend our other guys.

I know that's all very generic and the devil is in the details, but I like seeing that we have flexibility and options.

Even if we keep our players and exceed the cap we'd have the mid level which would be almost as much money probably.

True but that's only relevant for scenario 1, right? I don't think we can, for example, trade Oubre's $15m deal for Holiday's $26m unless we have $11m of actual cap space.

I don't know...maybe a team over the cap wants Saric so we trade him for something they have and re-sign Baynes, and stay over the cap or something. Then we could use the MLE.

[sunskerr]

Glad we didn’t budge on Oubre in discussing Aaron Gordon with the Magic. Oubre is a superior player. Aaron Gordon is also kinda overrated. I think he’s shown he’s not a star in the making so there was no need to give up a “package” for him

I'm not a big Aaron Gordon fan but in his last two games he had a combined 51 points, 18 rebounds, 13 assists, and was 5/8 from 3.

He's a great passing PF. He has regressed a little bit from last year though, particularly in shooting. Last year he was 35% from 3 and now he's at about 31% for the season. Still over 3 assists per game.

At AZ he was a defensive specialists, but also could hit the 3 ok and had some monster rebounding games. Decent passer too.

He is massively inconsistent in that regard, and so those two recent games he had are irrelevant. He has his games where he strings together a few good ones, but he's never sustained it (as evidenced by his career averages plateauing for three years straight).

If there's one thing I think could be improved, is that maybe the Magic haven't used him properly. I think NBA offenses are now mostly four-out (four three point shooters), and so Gordon could be the guy who isn't a floor stretcher. We can't pull that off with him, having Rubio and Ayton clogging up the floor though.

The Magic also might be using him too much as an offensive option when that's simply not in his repertoire to be that high in the offensive pecking order. That might account for why it seems like his stats are so up-and-down, although I never watch the Magic, so don't take my word on that. In that regard, maybe being behind Booker, Ayton, and Kelly would do him a lot of good so he can just focus on his defensive game. Although he'd still have to contend with our trashy floor spacing, where I think using him, Rubio, and Ayton would be a disaster.

[Blonde]

Thoughts on Aaron Gordon: If you want to trade for him it’s because you expect him to improve in a new situation. I believe he would take a similar leap to the one that Oubre took when he left Washington. Oubre was not as good as Gordon is now when we traded for him, so if you expect Gordon to take that leap, then you’ve got a good player on a good contract for a few more years.

I’m less interested in a deal now than I once was, but if you start Gordon and Bridges together with Oubre off the bench that’s a nice rotation. If you’re trading Oubre for Gordon then it’s probably a wash unless we expect Oubre to get paid through the roof next summer.

[sunsbum]

This guy also claimed when he was a kid he housed an extra terrestrial in his closet. Must be his source.

[Frank Lee]

Yall are dreaming on Holiday.

And if Gordan is/was available now.... he'll be available come this summer

[Wilber85]

We should get Nikola Mirotic.... how can we get him here?

Whats up with Baynes, Kaminsky, and Saric? Update on return?

[Barkley6]

I'd like to see us go after someone like Markkanen this offseason. Saric, and our 1st probably gets that done. Chicago would probably rather pay Saric what he'll command this offseason (likely less than 10m per) than Markkanen who will be looking to net a contract in the high teens per year next offseason when everyone wants to spend big. I'd love to see if we could get them to throw in Valentine as well.

By doing so, we'd essentially solve our two biggest needs (PF and a backup guard) in one move. After signing and trading Saric (probably for around $8-10m) to Chicago, the Suns would still have around $13m to spend if they renounced cap holds on all their free agents, which should be pretty close to the right number to throw at Jerami Grant.

Our lineup would look like this:
Rubio-Okobo-Jerome
Booker-Valentine
Oubre-Bridges-Cam
Markkanen-Grant
Ayton-Kaminsky

I'd be pretty happy with that and I'd think that would be a team that could easily compete for the playoffs, while still being young and continue to get better.

[Frank Lee]

I think Denver will match 13-14 mill for Grant. We'll have to over pay him to get him to leave that squad. I mean... where would you rather be? And I just cant grasp why Chi would give away Markky ? Hes kind of like a guy everyone needs. If hes on the table, we wont be the only ones eating.