Season Speculation, Trade Ideas and Discussion

[LacosteM]

Magic fans on their board seem to be fine doing a Knight/Len for Vucevic/Hezonja. I'm sure Suns fans would agree to that as well. So who do we have to call to make this trade happen?

*edit* on second thought, I don't want to give up our tank commander right now.

That would be a bad trade for both teams imo.

[Qwigglez]

Magic fans on their board seem to be fine doing a Knight/Len for Vucevic/Hezonja. I'm sure Suns fans would agree to that as well. So who do we have to call to make this trade happen?

*edit* on second thought, I don't want to give up our tank commander right now.

That would be a bad trade for both teams imo.

Yeah like I mentioned, I don't think I'd do it. Vucevic has some glaring issues on defense.

[LacosteM]

Magic fans on their board seem to be fine doing a Knight/Len for Vucevic/Hezonja. I'm sure Suns fans would agree to that as well. So who do we have to call to make this trade happen?

*edit* on second thought, I don't want to give up our tank commander right now.

That would be a bad trade for both teams imo.

Yeah like I mentioned, I don't think I'd do it. Vucevic has some glaring issues on defense.

Agreed. I also have some doubts about how the scoring distribution would look. Vucevic needs a lot of touches to be effective on offense, and I'm not sure how that would mesh with already dominant scorers in Booker and TJ. I also don't like that he's gradually distancing himself from the rim every year and becoming more mid-range oriented. Plus his FTr is really low for a big.

For the same defensive issues and ball- dominance on offense I'd stay away from Okafor. Don't think he'd fit the team at all.

[DRK]

Ild do that trade for Hezonja. loved the dude coming into the draft.

Booker/TJ/Hezonja is a great young wing core with loads of potential.
Add in Ulis/Bender/Chriss, and we got a great young core.

Adding Hezonja and moving Knight frees up time for Ulis, which I am ok with

[JDJ26]

What about trading for Willie Cauley-Stein? He fits in age-wise with the other young guys on the roster. Plus I read somewhere the Kings have him on the trade block.

[Zelaznyrules]

What about trading for Willie Cauley-Stein? He fits in age-wise with the other young guys on the roster. Plus I read somewhere the Kings have him on the trade block.

There's been a later report that claims he's not available so who knows? He's been a huge disappointment so far but I'd still make a deal if it didn't cost us more than Knight. He's young and could still improve and he plays a position of need. I would not consider moving Len for him though.

[bwgood77]

since I do not get to watch games

NavLDO, why don't you watch the games?

Nav, why don't you watch some of these the day after or something? You could watch the last four minutes or several of the parts they have. Surely watching a few of those clips would not take any longer than reading the game thread and typing up one of your posts, particularly several of your posts.

http://nbahd.net/

[LV-Suns]

Casspi is in the Kings dog house. I would love to swap Tuck for him. They get a rotational player. We get a shooter that we can desperately use. Plus he might be able to help Bender transition a little better to the NBA

[Saberestar]

Really interesting interview with Earl Watson.

Watson said something about possible changes in the roster moving forward, and remembered that when he was in Memphis they traded their #4 pick in the draft, Drew Gooden, an unusual trade but they were way better after that.

He has said some things that make me feel that he does not want one of our youngsters because his mindset. Probably Bender.

http://arizonasports.com/category/podcast_player/?a=327177&sid=1004&n=Doug+%26+Wolf

[bwgood77]

Really interesting interview with Earl Watson.

Watson said something about possible changes in the roster moving forward, and remembered that when he was in Memphis they traded their #4 pick in the draft, Drew Gooden, an unusual trade but they were way better after that.

He has said some things that make me feel that he does not want one of our youngsters because his mindset. Probably Bender.

http://arizonasports.com/category/podcast_player/?a=327177&sid=1004&n=Doug+%26+Wolf

Man that would blow unless it was for a major piece, but that would suck to give up on him this quickly. I wonder if he seems upset or just doesn't really fit in.

[Saberestar]

Really interesting interview with Earl Watson.

Watson said something about possible changes in the roster moving forward, and remembered that when he was in Memphis they traded their #4 pick in the draft, Drew Gooden, an unusual trade but they were way better after that.

He has said some things that make me feel that he does not want one of our youngsters because his mindset. Probably Bender.

http://arizonasports.com/category/podcast_player/?a=327177&sid=1004&n=Doug+%26+Wolf

Man that would blow unless it was for a major piece, but that would suck to give up on him this quickly. I wonder if he seems upset or just doesn't really fit in.

Yeah, I think the same.

It can be just my imagination, but I think he is angry with one of our youngsters. Tell me what you think after hearing the interview please.

[bwgood77]

Really interesting interview with Earl Watson.

Watson said something about possible changes in the roster moving forward, and remembered that when he was in Memphis they traded their #4 pick in the draft, Drew Gooden, an unusual trade but they were way better after that.

He has said some things that make me feel that he does not want one of our youngsters because his mindset. Probably Bender.

http://arizonasports.com/category/podcast_player/?a=327177&sid=1004&n=Doug+%26+Wolf

Man that would blow unless it was for a major piece, but that would suck to give up on him this quickly. I wonder if he seems upset or just doesn't really fit in.

Yeah, I think the same.

It can be just my imagination, but I think he is angry with one of our youngsters.

Listening to now. It's hard to say who he was talking about. When he says 4th pick, and trading that guy in Memphis, that would be pretty ridiculous to mention that if you were thinking about YOUR 4th pick. Earning playing time sounds like Bender. It would be hard to determine based on the season so far that Bender doesn't care about winning. That sounds like something like Knight. Financial situation? Bender? From everything we've always read about Bender is that he is a VERY HARD worker.

Chriss seems way more like he doesn't care on the floor at times, but Watson talks him up huge, mentioning the Draymond Green comparison.

Maybe he was talking in generalities.

Part of it seems like Knight. I just can't imagine that McD would want to trade Bender as much as he loved him in the draft. But if he keeps getting DNPs, who knows?

If you want to trade Bender this early, what could you get for him? Once guys are drafted, those guys are worth far less than when you could trade the 4th pick, especially if they've gotten DNPs.

It's scary.

[LacosteM]

Really interesting interview with Earl Watson.

Watson said something about possible changes in the roster moving forward, and remembered that when he was in Memphis they traded their #4 pick in the draft, Drew Gooden, an unusual trade but they were way better after that.

He has said some things that make me feel that he does not want one of our youngsters because his mindset. Probably Bender.

http://arizonasports.com/category/podcast_player/?a=327177&sid=1004&n=Doug+%26+Wolf

Man that would blow unless it was for a major piece, but that would suck to give up on him this quickly. I wonder if he seems upset or just doesn't really fit in.

You think there could possibly be a rift between Bender and Watson? If that's the case I hope the organization decides to stick with Bender. It would be really dumb to give him up so quickly just because a mediocre rookie coach who'll probly only stay for year is not happy with him.

[bwgood77]

Really interesting interview with Earl Watson.

Watson said something about possible changes in the roster moving forward, and remembered that when he was in Memphis they traded their #4 pick in the draft, Drew Gooden, an unusual trade but they were way better after that.

He has said some things that make me feel that he does not want one of our youngsters because his mindset. Probably Bender.

http://arizonasports.com/category/podcast_player/?a=327177&sid=1004&n=Doug+%26+Wolf

Man that would blow unless it was for a major piece, but that would suck to give up on him this quickly. I wonder if he seems upset or just doesn't really fit in.

You think there could possibly be a rift between Bender and Watson? If that's the case I hope the organization decides to stick with Bender. It would be really dumb to give him up so quickly just because a mediocre rookie coach who'll probly only stay for year is not happy with him.

Yes, that would be absolutely ridiculous. Watson talks like he will be here for years, and the sky is the limit with Bender.

[Villalobos]

If that idiot gets Bender traded I'm going to lose my ****.

[LacosteM]

Man that would blow unless it was for a major piece, but that would suck to give up on him this quickly. I wonder if he seems upset or just doesn't really fit in.

You think there could possibly be a rift between Bender and Watson? If that's the case I hope the organization decides to stick with Bender. It would be really dumb to give him up so quickly just because a mediocre rookie coach who'll probly only stay for year is not happy with him.

Yes, that would be absolutely ridiculous. Watson talks like he will be here for years, and the sky is the limit with Bender.

I wonder what Ryan's stance is in this. Bender collecting dnp's certainly isn't a good look for the organization. Perhaps he'll have to intervene if Watson continues his mistreatment towards Bender. IMO it takes a certain amount of arrogance for a rookie coach to treat a 4th pick like that, especially if there are personal reasons behind this.

[OnceUponADime]

Bender has done very well every time he's had an opportunity. He's done than Chris's who gets starts while Bender gets DNPs.

So yea I think there is some kind of rift between Bender and Watson. Kinda stupid because didn't McD check with Watson before drafting Bender?

[OnceUponADime]

At this point I think I would trade the top 8 protected Heat pick to get rid of Knight and Tucker. Yea the pick could be a late lotto pick but getting rid of Knight/Tucker is too important.

I don't know if anyone else has noticed but Booker is starting to pick up on a lot of Knight's habits. Bad shots, turn down open teammates, inefficient etc.

Every day their on the team is a day that they ruin the kids mindset.

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

Man that would blow unless it was for a major piece, but that would suck to give up on him this quickly. I wonder if he seems upset or just doesn't really fit in.

Yeah, I think the same.

It can be just my imagination, but I think he is angry with one of our youngsters.

Listening to now. It's hard to say who he was talking about. When he says 4th pick, and trading that guy in Memphis, that would be pretty ridiculous to mention that if you were thinking about YOUR 4th pick. Earning playing time sounds like Bender. It would be hard to determine based on the season so far that Bender doesn't care about winning. That sounds like something like Knight. Financial situation? Bender? From everything we've always read about Bender is that he is a VERY HARD worker.

Chriss seems way more like he doesn't care on the floor at times, but Watson talks him up huge, mentioning the Draymond Green comparison.

Maybe he was talking in generalities.

Part of it seems like Knight. I just can't imagine that McD would want to trade Bender as much as he loved him in the draft. But if he keeps getting DNPs, who knows?

If you want to trade Bender this early, what could you get for him? Once guys are drafted, those guys are worth far less than when you could trade the 4th pick, especially if they've gotten DNPs.

It's scary.

I didn't think he was talking about moving guys. I thought he was talking about the importance of having a winning attitude.

Also, he said they trade Gooden in November. They traded him at the deadline. FWIW.

[Villalobos]

Zach Lowe mentions the Blazers might want to give Tyson Chandler a look (if they can't get younger guys like Nurkic). I'm not sure how that would work money-wise since the Blazers paid those mediocre guys a zillion dollars.

Portland has long been my favorite Vucevic landing spot, though the Magic should probably just stop taking Olshey's calls after gifting him Harkless for nothing. Just about everyone is overstocked with centers. Portland might call Denver about Jusuf Nurkic, and it wouldn't stun me if they expressed some interest in Tyson Chandler -- even though Chandler is a decade older than some core Blazers, with two years left on a bloated contract. (Related: It still looks unlikely that the new collective bargaining deal will include an amnesty provision, though you never know what crazy stuff might happen in those addled final hours of negotiation.)

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/18106035/zach-lowe-portland-trail-blazers-damian-lillard-cj-mccollum-nba

I have no idea why he's recommending Vucevic when they already have terrible defense.