2024-25 Season Discussion and Speculation Part III

[bwgood77]

Still Luka should get blame for not staying in shape right. I was always sceptical about him reaching his ceiling because of this, especially for 2nd half of his career. Looks like an organization that knows him best felt the same way. Maybe this makes people feel a little bit better about passing on him. That said I'd still take him instead of any of our "Big 3" including all the draft capital lost in KD and Beal trades knowing our current state.

Luka is a generational talent, team should be patiently working with him on his health and conditioning. Luka is a competitor I don't see how they can't push him to work on his conditioning. What the hell? You don't trade your franchise player, the player you built your entire roster around that just went to the Finals because there's "concerns" on his conditioning

Well, there must be something behind the scenes. Luka is a hot head. Now, the trade was bad, but it seems obvious Mavs didn't have trust in him leading them to glory. Or NBA is just rigged.

He was an upcoming FA in a little over a year. Unrestricted. From the Mavs standpoint they should have gotten a lot more, but likely he (his agent) told them he was planning on signing with the Lakers and would let other teams know that. Everything about the way this went down points to this. The Mavs GM also says he knew he if wanted to trade Luka the one player he wanted was AD. I don't know much about that but apparently (according to Shams), AD and Kyrie are close, Kidd coached AD in LA, Nico Harrison knows AD through Nike, etc.

[KdoubleDees23]

Luka is a fatty and crying baby. Let the lakers have him

[bwgood77]

Ishbia has to win out on that shock factor. Getting Butler isn't enough now.


On the flip side of the things, he would take a lot less flack if he decided to rebuild right now. Luka to Lakers would trump anything the Suns do, so trading Booker, Beal, KD right now wouldn't be nearly as interesting.

Exactly! Now is the time to blow it up

Especially if SA gets Fox

Yeah, the Lakers were one of the teams that were in a similar position with us with age and future, now they have gotten a big kickstart. Meaning if we were to blow it up and rebuild, we would be like one of the only teams doing it. Utah is probably close to being finished now that they are a couple years removed from trading Rudy/Mitchell and will have a top pick this year. SA is done. Portland is trying. New Orleans has talent and assets.

We could be the bottom of the west meaning a top pick for years (oh wait, we don't any of our own picks until 2032). Gotta get Book to Houston (or KD if we could get our pick).

Ishbia is reckless with trades.

Wish he had the balls to make a smart big deal instead of one benefitting other teams every time.

[bwgood77]

Adelson ( Luka) and the Wolves owner ( Towns) traded their stars who were drafted for their own teams and stayed loyal to the franchise JUST TO SAVE MONEY primary probably can give you another point of view when analyzing what Ishbia is doing for the Suns.

You cannot be serious with this

Results aren't there but he is putting all (money and all resources) trying to build a great team.

Mavs and Wolves got to the Western Conference Finals and look at what their owners have done to their franchises JUST TO SAVE MONEY. I would hate that.

That's the worst part about it. He is putting a ton of money into it and trading all our assets, getting us into second apron, depleting or devaluing our picks, and it's not working.

I'm not sure why we should praise him for spending money and using asset recklessly. It's obvious he has not real smart long term view or knowledge on how to build a basketball team in the NBA because we seem to have gotten worse since he bought the team, while also accomplishing the following things:

Traded all but one of our solid young players (until we recently drafted one, but aside from that our 2nd youngest real rotation player is 28)
Made us the oldest team
Traded away as many picks as possible, even turning our one unprotected pick (the one chance at a shot at a generational player) into 3 late firsts
Made the team boring to watch given age and lack of athleticism.
Given us the highest payroll of any NBA team ever

However

Local fans can watch for free and there is a value menu, which, given the product, makes sense.

[bwgood77]

besides, this is not even about saving money for Dallas. It cannot be. It's shady as ****. If they wanted to get rid of Luka for WHATEVER reason, they could have got a much better return but instead he goes to the Lakers, of course

The Mavs, who were $5.1 million over the luxury tax before acquiring Davis, are now $628,000 under the tax, according to Bobby Marks of ESPN.

And they don't have to pay the supermax (biggest contract ever) to Doncic now.

You don't buy an NBA team not to pay one of the best players in the NBA the supermax. There is a salary floor. This theory of reasoning for trade doesn't hold water.

[BurningHeart]

It is **** beyond the reaches of the English language infuriating that Luka Doncic should be a Sun for life and he's not....and now he's a **** Laker.

[Calvin Klein]

Luka is a fatty and crying baby. Let the lakers have him

That fatty and crybaby keeps humiliating us game after game. And he's going to do it now in a Lakers jersey.

[BobbieL]

You cannot be serious with this

Results aren't there but he is putting all (money and all resources) trying to build a great team.

Mavs and Wolves got to the Western Conference Finals and look at what their owners have done to their franchises JUST TO SAVE MONEY. I would hate that.

That's the worst part about it. He is putting a ton of money into it and trading all our assets, getting us into second apron, depleting or devaluing our picks, and it's not working.

I'm not sure why we should praise him for spending money and using asset recklessly. It's obvious he has not real smart long term view or knowledge on how to build a basketball team in the NBA because we seem to have gotten worse since he bought the team, while also accomplishing the following things:

Traded all but one of our solid young players (until we recently drafted one, but aside from that our 2nd youngest real rotation player is 28)
Made us the oldest team
Traded away as many picks as possible, even turning our one unprotected pick (the one chance at a shot at a generational player) into 3 late firsts
Made the team boring to watch given age and lack of athleticism.
Given us the highest payroll of any NBA team ever

However

Local fans can watch for free and there is a value menu, which, given the product, makes sense.

All of your last two posts are why I am serious when I think trading for Butler at the cost of the 3FRPs puts the team farther from a championship than blowing it up.

Granted, Ishbia would need to hire the right GM and be very patient. But if you trade KD and Book, dump Tyus for whatever, Allen, and get picks and young players - you might be good in 4 or 5 years. And by good -- basically where the Suns are - in that 8-12 range like they are now

If you overpay for Butler, it will be a slow regression without any hope until 2035

I wonder if the Mavs call on Butler now

[sunsbum]

It is **** beyond the reaches of the English language infuriating that Luka Doncic should be a Sun for life and he's not....and now he's a **** Laker.

on the flip side, if it’s true he wanted to be in LA we’d be on suicide watch.

Reading everything that’s out so far, it’s just not adding up. The Lakers should be bone dry of picks for years or as some said AR should have been included. Never forget the 1984 draft, where the league briefly revealed its true colors. I’ll be passing out tinfoil hats in the break room, come find me.

[Sunsdeuce]

Luka and Lebron are redundant. Both of them are lazy (one because of age the other it comes naturally). Both are average/below average on defense. Both suck at the 3 point shot but both can get hot. Both really need the ball in their hands. Both are high maintenance ego driven entitled babies. Gonna be super interesting.

Even if Luka was the biggest pain in the rear end, as Dallas GM, you shoot for the moon and stars. We ain’t in the back office and we don’t see what’s going on behind the scenes but it’s tough to come up with a scenario that defends this horrible trade for Dallas.

[side note: we done. Suns ain’t winning a championship and no trade is going to outshine that trade. Ishbia hates not having attention. And now we are in his nightmare. No one is talking about the Suns]

[sunsbg]

Luka is a generational talent, team should be patiently working with him on his health and conditioning. Luka is a competitor I don't see how they can't push him to work on his conditioning. What the hell? You don't trade your franchise player, the player you built your entire roster around that just went to the Finals because there's "concerns" on his conditioning

Well, there must be something behind the scenes. Luka is a hot head. Now, the trade was bad, but it seems obvious Mavs didn't have trust in him leading them to glory. Or NBA is just rigged.

He was an upcoming FA in a little over a year. Unrestricted. From the Mavs standpoint they should have gotten a lot more, but likely he (his agent) told them he was planning on signing with the Lakers and would let other teams know that. Everything about the way this went down points to this. The Mavs GM also says he knew he if wanted to trade Luka the one player he wanted was AD. I don't know much about that but apparently (according to Shams), AD and Kyrie are close, Kidd coached AD in LA, Nico Harrison knows AD through Nike, etc.

Euro players are generally loyal and Mavs were in the finals just last year, so it's not like Doncic doesn't have the roster to compete. So it makes little sense to me to ask for a trade. All reports so far confirm he didn't. He's getting to a worse situation basketball wise for the short term and while he'll make more money off court, it sounds like he's losing a lot from next contract and state taxes. Now he's not the typical Euro - whiny, entitled, even his style of play and mindset is selfish and closest to someone like Harden then Jokic. I don't think that's the case, but I won't completely dismiss him forcing his way to Las Vegas. If a story like that comes out Mavs fans will be pissed. It's a lot worse then a historical loss in Gm7. Hardcore Mavs fans are cancelling League Pass and claim to stop following the team/NBA. I can't imagine a player/his agent will do that to a fanbase with no reason, but could be just me.

[Sunsdeuce]

How the Lakers and Mavs kept this secret has to be applauded. Everyone leaks now. AND NO ONE had info of this. This is the way trades should go down and use to go down. Now everyone wants attention and 5 minutes of fame for breaking trades before they happen.

Wish Ishbia would take note

[AtheJ415]

There was a play yesterday where Beal shot a 3, and no Suns went for the rebound. All 4 dropped back in transition. No Blazers leaked out (one of my biggest critiques is running back in transition when no offensive players have leaked out, but so be it). When the Blazers got the ball, the Suns had all 5 players behind them. Beal was between 3 point and midcourt, and the other 4 suns were between mid court and FT line on D.

Despite all of this, we gave up a TRANSITION LAYUP. I think it was Coumara who ran up the right side, and then 2 Suns defenders saw him but continued to jog back / not run, Coumara sprinted and got hit with a 20 foot bounce pass for a layup.

That is the level of halfassed effort that this team is known for.

A team with Mikal and Cam never plays with so little effort.. I despise what Isbhia and KD have done to this team.

I don't care if KD still shoots well or puts forth effort in specific situations. He is super lazy a ton of the game. We play with 0 intensity unless we have the ball.

Both KD and Book are **** wreckless passing the ball. KD opened the game up by rushing a pss to Richards who wasn't even across half court, with 0 ball pressure necessitating it. Later he made a pass cross court ut f bounds 15 feet away from any suns player.

I am tired of the role players getting all the blame. Coaches too. It's BS. Budenholzer is poven as one of the best in the business. We have completely revamped our role players. And Tyus, Beal, Allen, Dunn, Monte as your bench and role playing starter is damn good.

The star players need to start playing hard and leading the team, and that means focus and intensity / giving a ****.

KD is on his **** phone laughing abut the Luka trade while we're getting blown out by scrubs.

I used to blame Russ for the OKC Durant issues, but now I really question whether KD would have ever had a real chance of winning a title if he didn't go to GSW. He is the worst leader imagineable. You can't pay $50+ Mil to a guy who is going to just be a specialist performer. He needs to lead the team.

Same for Book. You see moments of fire from Book but he used to not be this way.

[sunsbg]

Luka is a fatty and crying baby. Let the lakers have him

That fatty and crybaby keeps humiliating us game after game. And he's going to do it now in a Lakers jersey.

Do you know Luka's record against Suns ? Game after game. Ok.

[bullsaficianado]

With all this Luka talk what about what really matters trying to trade for Jimmy Butler. If Fox gets traded to Spurs perhaps Sacramento will take Beal if both Suns and Miami get in on it.

[SkyBill40]

With all this Luka talk what about what really matters trying to trade for Jimmy Butler. If Fox gets traded to Spurs perhaps Sacramento will take Beal if both Suns and Miami get in on it.

I don't see Beal waiving his NTC to go to... SACRAMENTO.

Sent from my SM-F936U using RealGM mobile app

[JDJ26]

Possibly the next trade in a few days

[SideSwipe]

I know it'll be a completely unpopular take, but Dallas was smart here. I have never seen Doncic as a winner. He has always seemed more interested in his own performance than team success. It's honestly what I didn't like about him during the draft, and while he has been more talented at it overall, this has played out in his career. He can always change and this trade might be the wake-up call he needs to focus but personally I would not have touched even a Booker for Doncic trade.

That said his hype was higher, so in the business side I would have pushed for more assets in return. If I were DAL, I would be after the exact assets the Suns are after and push for a 3 year window.

[bigfoot]

I would loved to watch Booker, Bridges, Cam Johnson, and Luka play together.

[Slim Charless]

With all this Luka talk what about what really matters trying to trade for Jimmy Butler. If Fox gets traded to Spurs perhaps Sacramento will take Beal if both Suns and Miami get in on it.

If the Mavs wanna go all in, then they need to go after JImmy to pair with AD and KY