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When we drafted them, how good would the suns have been then and if we kept all of them and never traded them, and I mean never,where would be now and how do you think our roster would be different? I know some people here are thinking "don't live in the past" but this has been bugging me for MONTHS, so I just really want to know what you guys think.

I swear we just had a thread or twenty on this.

TheIdiotGamer wrote:When we drafted them, how good would the suns have been then and if we kept all of them and never traded them, and I mean never,where would be now and how do you think our roster would be different? I know some people here are thinking "don't live in the past" but this has been bugging me for MONTHS, so I just really want to know what you guys think.

...or further. What might have been if the Spurs had kept some '08 2nd round pick (Goran Dragic) and not traded him to the Suns?

ChrisInAZ wrote:

TheIdiotGamer wrote:When we drafted them, how good would the suns have been then and if we kept all of them and never traded them, and I mean never,where would be now and how do you think our roster would be different? I know some people here are thinking "don't live in the past" but this has been bugging me for MONTHS, so I just really want to know what you guys think.

...or further. What might have been if the Spurs had kept some '08 2nd round pick (Goran Dragic) and not traded him to the Suns?

Or Barbosa, and Scola?

TheIdiotGamer wrote:When we drafted them, how good would the suns have been then and if we kept all of them and never traded them, and I mean never,where would be now and how do you think our roster would be different? I know some people here are thinking "don't live in the past" but this has been bugging me for MONTHS, so I just really want to know what you guys think.

If we hadn't traded away our 05 pick and not signed Q, I think there is a good chance we win a championship or two.

I thought trading away our draft picks in subsequent years were terrible moves, and would hurt us in the long run for a long time, but I'm surprised at how fast we were able to rebound post Nash, but it's due to great coaching and some nice moves by management. We are VERY lucky to have McD and Hornacek right now. Otherwise, I think we could have been at the bottom for years.

We still need to make shrewd moves going forward to make deep runs in the playoffs, and in the NBA it also takes some luck, but with these guys running things, I feel pretty good.

bwgood77 wrote:We are VERY lucky to have McD and Hornacek right now. Otherwise, I think we could have been at the bottom for years.

I hear ya. Still, I don't think luck had much to do with it...just a brilliant GM hire followed by a great head coach fill. Good ownership calls.

I don't think the Suns would have selected the same guys had they kept the picks. It's an attractive what if, but a flawed one in my opinion.

If I had a vagina I'd be a girl. I hate hindsight, reflect once learn and move on! We have reflected a billion times.

JMac1 wrote:If I had a vagina I'd be a girl. I hate hindsight, reflect once learn and move on! We have reflected a billion times.

And if I cared about what you said, I'd be no longer interested in seeing what people think. But I don't care about what you said, so I still want to know what people think about the topic.

The list is almost endless, but at least it seems like it's finally over.

It started with the two picks wasted on the Googs trade. That summer we also used the #13 to unload Jahidi on the Bobcats. Then the #7. And that #21 to trade for KT. Sergio and Rudy. The two picks sent to the Sonics. Even second rounders, like the #57 where Gortat was picked by the Magic.

RondoSchmondo.... the biggest mistake this franchise ever made was trading away Dennis Johnson. All other deals pale in comparison to that assraping by a bald cigar chomping BBall genius. Red patted Jerry's fanny and sent him limping home.

Every team has a closet of skeletons. But ours is a walk in.

Had we kept Rondo then Rondo wouldn't be the Rondo that he is today. He wouldn't of played behind Nash, he wouldn't of played in D'Antonis system. And that's even assuming we would of still drafted him.

There are PLENTY of mistakes to go through when it comes to trading picks, but every team has those stories. Our are just bunched together because of the Owner/Coach we had. Rudy and Sergio aren't even in the league any more and I don't think those two hurt us. The two picks we sent with KT to the Sonics( one of which became Ibaka) and the infamous Iguodala trade(which I still don't understand why we followed through with it) are the only ones that really mattered. And even then Ibaka may not of even been our pick or developed the way he has.

You can't just assume the player that was drafted would of been our pick and would be the same exact player. Not how things work.

Phystic wrote:Had we kept Rondo then Rondo wouldn't be the Rondo that he is today. He wouldn't of played behind Nash, he wouldn't of played in D'Antonis system. And that's even assuming we would of still drafted him.

There are PLENTY of mistakes to go through when it comes to trading picks, but every team has those stories. Our are just bunched together because of the Owner/Coach we had. Rudy and Sergio aren't even in the league any more and I don't think those two hurt us. The two picks we sent with KT to the Sonics( one of which became Ibaka) and the infamous Iguodala trade(which I still don't understand why we followed through with it) are the only ones that really mattered. And even then Ibaka may not of even been our pick or developed the way he has.

You can't just assume the player that was drafted would of been our pick and would be the same exact player. Not how things work.

My question was if we didn't trade them away, so obviously I'm saying if we drafted them and we kept them. You can't really say "you don't know if they would have drafted them" because I said "if we were to keep them and not trade the, what would we look like now." I never said they WOULD draft them if we weren't going to trade them, I said IF we did, then what would the suns be like" it's a what if, NOT an opinion, NOT a fact, but a WHAT IF. Now, your to me would be your opinion, but I'm not stating an opinion or a fact.

Frank Lee wrote:RondoSchmondo.... the biggest mistake this franchise ever made was trading away Dennis Johnson. All other deals pale in comparison to that assraping by a bald cigar chomping BBall genius. Red patted Jerry's fanny and sent him limping home.

Every team has a closet of skeletons. But ours is a walk in.

Big "and 1" on the greatest Suns trade mistake.

Though Jerry did a good job of stealing a nice cigar from Red a few years before with the C.Scott for Westy and picks exchange.

Still, Red's revenge with the DJ heist was wicked indeed.

(add sound of creaking rocking chairs)

TheIdiotGamer wrote:

Phystic wrote:Had we kept Rondo then Rondo wouldn't be the Rondo that he is today. He wouldn't of played behind Nash, he wouldn't of played in D'Antonis system. And that's even assuming we would of still drafted him.

There are PLENTY of mistakes to go through when it comes to trading picks, but every team has those stories. Our are just bunched together because of the Owner/Coach we had. Rudy and Sergio aren't even in the league any more and I don't think those two hurt us. The two picks we sent with KT to the Sonics( one of which became Ibaka) and the infamous Iguodala trade(which I still don't understand why we followed through with it) are the only ones that really mattered. And even then Ibaka may not of even been our pick or developed the way he has.

You can't just assume the player that was drafted would of been our pick and would be the same exact player. Not how things work.

My question was if we didn't trade them away, so obviously I'm saying if we drafted them and we kept them. You can't really say "you don't know if they would have drafted them" because I said "if we were to keep them and not trade the, what would we look like now." I never said they WOULD draft them if we weren't going to trade them, I said IF we did, then what would the suns be like" it's a what if, NOT an opinion, NOT a fact, but a WHAT IF. Now, your to me would be your opinion, but I'm not stating an opinion or a fact.

After reading this about 6 times I think I understand what it says.

My point still stands, had we kept some of the picks, the player in question(IE Rondo) would not of developed into the player he is today because he wouldn't of played as much behind Nash or for D'Antoni. If you are saying if we kept the pick and got the ACTUAL player they became then ok but that is a pretty dumb hypothetical game to play because it means absolutely nothing and there are far better hypothetical/memory lane games to play with this franchise. Not to mention it doesn't make a lot of sense to say if we kept these players because WE didn't draft them the other team did. So, if you really wanted to play this game it would be better to just say had we kept the pick and selected a player ourselves. But that's a very different conversation.

Bottom line the only picks that really mean anything had we kept them(and drafted the exact player that was drafted by the other team) are the Rondo and Ibaka picks. If you want to lump the Iguodala/Deng fiasco into that then ok. But again, they wouldn't be the player they are today and there is no saying how they would of developed on the team we had at the time. Your question asks how our roster would look now, well obviously is would be VERY VERY different as would many other things in the league. For instance, would the Celtics have that championship without Rondo? Would they still have traded for RayRay and/or KG? If not, do the Wolves/Sonis still get Love/Durant? Domino game is more fun that trying to guess what our franchise would look like had we kept a player we didn't actually draft for ourselves.

ChrisInAZ wrote:(add sound of creaking rocking chairs)

Nice one

You don't want to play this game....it hurt for me......and my team....

How would you like to trade 3 1st round picks, for the leading scorer from Lakers last Championship, from about 3 years ago, aka for Gail Goodrich, who plays 3 years for you and doesn't take you to 1 playoff, in the late 70's....

Then 1 of those 1st rounders you gave to Lakers, ends up drawing for the #1 overall, and so Lakers draft Magic Johnson, which is like 3 years later after the trade! Were talking a man who won 5 NBA Championships and 3 MVP's (plus 3 finals MVPs)......Not only would he help us, but Lakers wouldn't have had him to beat us in playoffs all those many times....

Not only that, but Jazz then draft Dominique "The Human Highlight Reel" Wilkins about 4 years later after Magic's draft year, about 2 years after drafting rookie of the year Griffith who we got to keep from #2 overall, yet Wilkins thought we were too "small of market", and some places say we also did't "have enough money" so we "had" to trade him to ATL!


Could you imagine what a team like: Magic - Griffith - Wilkins - Malone - Eaton, could do, especially with Stockton, Dantley and Bailey, coming off the bench?

JazzMatt13 wrote:You don't want to play this game....it hurt for me......and my team....

How would you like to trade 3 1st round picks, for the leading scorer from Lakers last Championship, from about 3 years ago, aka for Gail Goodrich, who plays 3 years for you and doesn't take you to 1 playoff, in the late 70's....

Then 1 of those 1st rounders you gave to Lakers, ends up drawing for the #1 overall, and so Lakers draft Magic Johnson, which is like 3 years later after the trade! Were talking a man who won 5 NBA Championships and 3 MVP's (plus 3 finals MVPs)......Not only would he help us, but Lakers wouldn't have had him to beat us in playoffs all those many times....

Not only that, but Jazz then draft Dominique "The Human Highlight Reel" Wilkins about 4 years later after Magic's draft year, about 2 years after drafting rookie of the year Griffith who we got to keep from #2 overall, yet Wilkins thought we were too "small of market", and some places say we also did't "have enough money" so we "had" to trade him to ATL!


Could you imagine what a team like: Magic - Griffith - Wilkins - Malone - Eaton, could do, especially with Stockton, Dantley and Bailey, coming off the bench?

Wow, so you traded Magic (and who else was taken with those other picks?) for Gail Goodrich. What did you get for Dominique?

It's interesting to hear other horror stories...I'm sure die hard fans remember their own for years and years but don't remember many details of other teams that made bad trades. The Suns have some trades that turned out badly, but not quite that badly...trading Dennis Johnson to the Celtics for Rick Robey and Majerle for Hot Rod Williams....but more the fact that we have had bad luck....a coin flip between us and the Bucks to see who got Lew Alcindor...we lost. And when David Robinson came out, we got the second pick again that year. NEVER had the first pick. Traded picks and stuff for McDyess, only to have him leave us in free agency and return to Denver. Traded Kidd for Marbury....I'm sure there are many I'm forgetting.

JMac1 wrote:We have reflected a billion times.

Isn't this the fan motto for the Phoenix Suns?