2022-23 Season Discussion and Speculation 5 - The KD era begins

[TeamTragic]

How soon until KD starts posting here?

Hello. It's me. Kevin Durant.

I heard you were hating.

[NavLDO]

Tonight has me remembering how mad some of ya’ll were about trading Rubio and Oubre for Chris Paul

I'll admit...I was one who felt that was a bad trade, but bringing in CP took us to the finals, and now, 2 years later, we traded a gut-wrenching package, but my goodness, we've got a Big 4. 2 x top 15 players in the league, and CP is no slouch.

I'll say this though, I was also heartbroken about losing Warren, so I'm happy he's back, tbh. He just had a pretty darn good game against us the other night

MIN--FG--3PT--FT--TRB - PF +/- PTS
22 6-10 1-2 4-4 - 2 -- 0 - +6 - 17

...and looks as though he's getting healthy, with not a bad Dec & Jan...

https://www.espn.com/nba/player/gamelog/_/id/2982334/tj-warren

And we have to assume he's goign to get starter minutes now, or at worst, 6th-man, right? As they say, time will tell...

Overall, initially, this makes me feel 'sick' about losing Bridges and CamJo, but if those two are replaced with KD and Warren, you gotta like that production over what we lost...at least for the next couple of years...

[bwgood77]

Ayton will prob drop 20-15 nightly now.

He can’t handle the pressure. Now that you have 2 future hofer and Booker. He won’t **** his pants when come game time.

Kd will probably lob city Ayton at least 3 times a gm. Who can stop 2 mobile 7 footers

Yeah, at least the passes should never be low.

[bwgood77]

Ayton will prob drop 20-15 nightly mow.

He can’t handle the pressure. Now that you have 2 future hofer and Booker. He won’t **** his pants when come game time.

DA can sleepwalk to get 20/15 with KD. It will be so much easier for him to get position, there won't be any help defense. Defense is going to have to pick their poison.

Why do you guys think the acquisition of KD increases Ayton's rebounding by 50%?

[Crives]

Time for josh Jackson’s return lol

[spanishninja]

Ayton will prob drop 20-15 nightly now.

He can’t handle the pressure. Now that you have 2 future hofer and Booker. He won’t **** his pants when come game time.

Kd will probably lob city Ayton at least 3 times a gm. Who can stop 2 mobile 7 footers

Yeah, at least the passes should never be low.

I swear if DeAndre **** Jordan could be first team all NBA playing with ONLY CP3 and Blake Griffin, DA better become **** Kareem playing alongside Book/CP/KD.

[spanishninja]

Ayton will prob drop 20-15 nightly mow.

He can’t handle the pressure. Now that you have 2 future hofer and Booker. He won’t **** his pants when come game time.

DA can sleepwalk to get 20/15 with KD. It will be so much easier for him to get position, there won't be any help defense. Defense is going to have to pick their poison.

Why do you guys think the acquisition of KD increases Ayton's rebounding by 50%?

since the start of January he's been averaging 12+ rebounds so it's not even asking for a huge jump. And also, teams really can't double team anymore with KD around. hopefully this frees up room for him to do damage down low.

[bwgood77]

So we have 13 hours to see what our final team will look like.

Paul, Booker, SF, Durant, Ayton
Payne, Lee, Craig, Warren, Biyombo

I think that SF spot is going to determine whether we can win the title or not

With that lineup Craig can start. You just need defense and 3pt shooting there. And his scrappiness rebounding is fine. I am curious to see how TJ looks. Obviously if he was ever back to his peak he could start.

If he gets back to 75% of his peak, he'll be awesome offense off the bench. Would love to see that bubble 3 point shooting, but a lot of players had inflated stats from that bubble

It wasn't just the bubble. In his last year with us he shot 43%..remember his summer with David West (or his brother helping him shoot all summer)? Then he was over 40% with Indy...then he missed 2 years.

He just came back a couple months ago so he should be healthy. It isn't really that far fetched to think he could get back to where he was if he can stay healthy. I know that's a big if but you can say that about everyone on our team pretty much except a couple bench guys.

[Saberestar]

Crazy thing is now that Suns previous owner is done. Phx will get more FAs now because everybody wanna be in phx anyway. One of the dopest places to live. Body be feeling good all year because of the weather LOL

Read on Twitter

[bwgood77]

Would you guys be willing to eat the contract of Cody Martin to get Jalen McDaniels for Dario Saric? What other deals could we possibly make?

Sure, it's not my money.

[bwgood77]

This guy isn't even a suns fan, its just his new toy. He has zero attachment to anything, that's what this feels like. DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHO NEGALE NIGHT IS BRO?

Do you EFFIN know who Paul Shirley is? Do you know what Lou Admundson did for this team? Negele Knight...lol.

I loved Paul Shirley's blog. Does anyone else remember reading it?
https://www.nba.com/suns/news/shirley_playoff_blog.html

I always read it. I meant to read his book. I don't think I ever did.

[Ghost of Kleine]

The top 5 POA defenders currently in the nba are:
1- Jrue Holiday.
2- Marcus Smart.
3- Matisse Thybulle.
4- Gary Payton 2nd.
5- Alex Caruso.

With our best odds of addressing that by trading for one of Payton 2nd or Thybulle obviously. Alex Caruso would cost us two 1sts which we no longer have. And Payton 2nd or Thybulle would likely cost us 1st or at least 2 nds and a decent filler!

We also might look to the GLeague and undrafted/ unsigned pool for solid defensive options such as Andre Roberson, Kris Dunn, PJ Dozier, etc?

[DRK]

The top 5 POA defenders currently in the nba are:
1- Jrue Holiday.
2- Marcus Smart.
3- Matisse Thybulle.
4- Gary Payton 2nd.
5- Alex Caruso.

With our best odds of addressing that by trading for one of Payton 2nd or Thybulle obviously. Alex Caruso would cost us two 1sts which we no longer have. And Payton 2nd or Thybulle would likely cost us 1st or at least 2 nds and a decent filler!

Hope we make a move for Thybulle, and Eric Gordon (buyout?)

Hell bring back Dragic for another stint in the Suns uni as 3rd string PG.

[bwgood77]

Even the 2025 pick is scary to me....That's when CP3 is done and KD will be 36? Like there's real questions as to what this team will look like then.

I also expect to have a better scouting department and hopefully not both all our picks. Yes, the 25 pick is even pretty scary. Heck, this year's still could be. We already watched Book re-aggravate his groin after coming back and CP3 has had multiple injuries and KD is only healthy about half the time the last 3 years after he sat out a year.

Hopefully everyone is healthy after the all star break and we have a killer record after that.

Need to hit on all those 24, 26, 28 picks...hopefully that improved scouting department pays dividends.

2023 I'm fine with but 2025 is when it starts to get real sketchy. Who knows how good this team would be in 2025 and even if we continue to be good, what about replenishing the well for the future? Giving up two former late lotto picks who actually became legit NBA staters is a big gamble and we lost a lot of that depth going forward.

Yes, really need to hit those, do well adding pieces, even hit some 2nds or UDFAs. We cannot let those 25.27.29 picks be top 4 picks.

[dremill24]

How do people view this trade package compared to the likes of Gobert, Paul George, and Anthony Davis? We’ll see how the picks play out but my initial reaction is we paid the least out of these recent blockbusters.

I'd say we paid more than Minny for Gobert. Picks are the same but Mikal + Cam + Jae probably better than the player package from Minny.

Paid less than the George/AD packages but they were young/in their prime and also PG came with Kawhi so they paid for that too.

[dremill24]

At least now we have some rim protection besides Bizzy

[bwgood77]

How do people view this trade package compared to the likes of Gobert, Paul George, and Anthony Davis? We’ll see how the picks play out but my initial reaction is we paid the least out of these recent blockbusters.

Were those all 4 unprotected picks and a late swap?
m
We probably did pay the least unless you consider Bridges better than Ingram. There is no SGA...who OKC has rights to forever (or did at the time).

However, AD was 27 and George was 29 in their first full seasons. KD will be 35 in his so those picks WAY out into the future are far more risky.

Also AD agreed on a 5 year extension with 1 year left so he was locked in for 6 years and George a 4 year one with 2 years left, so he was also 6 years. Giving picks 6 years into the future when you have them for 6 years isn't as big of deal. We have KD for 3 more, if he stays healthy. I guess it's possible he could play at age 38 and beyond though. If he can play at a high level until he's 40 we are golden.

[bwgood77]

How soon until KD starts posting here?

We had a guy in our fantasy league named KD354MVPBOI. Maybe he will show up again.

[POLI]

So we have 13 hours to see what our final team will look like.

Paul, Booker, SF, Durant, Ayton
Payne, Lee, Craig, Warren, Biyombo

I think that SF spot is going to determine whether we can win the title or not

With that lineup Craig can start. You just need defense and 3pt shooting there. And his scrappiness rebounding is fine. I am curious to see how TJ looks. Obviously if he was ever back to his peak he could start.

The lineup should be with Craig and then saying that KD or Craig are a SF or a PF is difficult.

[Slim Charless]

Kevin Durant







3







**** the haters
























**** your!