Saberestar wrote:lilfishi22 wrote:Saberestar wrote:And do you believe that we are gonna be able to sign a FA better than Dragic?
Dragic is NOW an All Star player. He has played terrific basketball this last season, first with his national team being MVP of the tournament that Slovenia won and then with the Heat being their best player and putting them in the playoffs.
I think it is strange that some fans do not care about signing a role player like Ariza when he is 33 years old but do not want to trade for an All Star PG who has roots with the team and loves our new HC because he is 32 years old.
Those are completely different situations. The reason why Ariza's signing was inconsequential is because he's only on a one year deal and our plan of being players in the 2019 FA market still stands. The point of the 2019 FA market is to get a piece that will have a real impact for at least the medium term future. I think Dragic will be a near all-star level player next season but if the difference is signing a PG who is still young, still has potential and will impact the game or Dragic who may be declining and doesn't really have a long term future with the Suns (turns 33 shortly before the end of the season), I'd take my chances on the market. I'd be totally against the Ariza signing even if it was a 2yr deal just because it takes away our last opportunity to have substantial cap space. If you have a look at the list of FA PG's next season, we're talking about Rubio, Lin, Walker, Collison, Cory Joseph, Rozier, Delon Wright, Tyus Jones, Brogdon, TJ McConnell, Dinwiddie and Trey Burke to name a few.
I'm not against Dragic coming back, I really like his fit and him as a player and individual but looking long term, I don't think he makes sense especially if he doesn't really have a future with us AND he takes away our likely last opportunity to get a piece that WILL (hopefully) have a future with us.
The thing is that every "next year" we are gonna try to sign a big time FA, but we can not sign anyone because we are not a FA market or contender.
So we sign players like Chandler, Dudley or Ariza. Veteran solid role players that renounce to play for contenders because their salary is much bigger on the Suns.
I would prefer to trade for Dragic now and stay away of that dreaming of chasing great FAs next season.
Look that list of PGs that you wrote...who is better than Dragic? Probably only Kemba, and I am not sure about it.
I would offer to the Heat our 2019 pick (Top #3 protected), Melton and Chandler.
We do not need more young players and we would have the Bucks pick yet.
I think if you trade any picks, even if you think you will make the playoffs, you should still top 4 protect them every year until it conveys (at a minimum). With the lottery being 4 spots, top 3 needs to change to top 4.
Ideally I would do like top 10 next year, top 7 the following year, and top 4 for as long as they wanted until it changes into 2 seconds. (That's not really ideally though...ideally it would be like top 10 until it conveyed but that's less realistic.)
I think Rubio could easily be better than Dragic going forward especially if his shot is fixed. I won't buy it until I see it for a full year, but he's a guy where it makes sense now that he played for coaches who encouraged him to shoot and he shot 47% from 3 after that, because he was always a very very good FT shooter. And he's a much better passer and defender than Dragic. I don't know if he'd leave Utah but we could offer him a lot and there would be no reason not to because we won't have cap space going forward regardless of how much we pay him...again, I only offer him a lot if his shooting held up this coming year.
And I think Collison is a better fit and probably almost as good as Dragic going forward, but I think Indy may try and keep him since they have a good thing going and a ton of cap space. I know they drafted Holiday, but why give up on success, especially if it happens two years in a row?
I'd go for Tyus Jones too if his numbers hold up. He has one of the best RPMs in the league. He's WAY better than people think. Not sure if Minnesota would let him go, especially if they lose Butler, considering Teague only would have a year left and they play better with Jones, but he's good.
Brogdon's really good, but I don't think they will let him get away. TJ would be a guy you could get if you overpaid, but I do expect our prospects to get to his level. Next summer if our prospects don't look good and we can't sign any bigger names, I might give TJ a decent contract, but he's not probably a starter on a solid playoff team. Maybe though. I have always really liked him, ever since his days at AZ.
