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

[Crives]

Would be hilarious if Jae was double agent and returns after buyout

[bwgood77]

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...

He is on a 1 year minimum. I wonder what his market will be like and if we will try to keep him somehow. Not sure if we can..we won't have bird rights or anything so if he got a decent offer he's gone.

But last time he was here everyone (moreso on twitter) was bashing him and talking up Josh Jackson and then we drafted Bridges and signed Trevor Ariza...and of course we had Bender and Chriss.

and his coach was Kokoskov and his previous coach was Earl Watson. And the GM was McD and the owner was Sarver.


SOOOO...a slightly better position here now for him..he might like it a bit better.

[RedIndian]

As per Woj, we were negotiating for KD since yesterday, and were on the verge of pivoting towards a 3-team deal with Detroit and Atlanta which would have landed us John Collins, but Ishbia pushed James Jones to make a final swing at KD. What made the deal was replacing Saric with Crowder in the deal. Nets think they can get additional assets for Crowder.

Gotta think that we're going to deal Saric + 2nds for wing help now.

[Crives]

Wow, surprised they left this bit about suns wanting to send Dario with 2nds. Maybe we see a Dario trade tomorrow

Read on Twitter

?s=46&t=-FTLWFG3qift0bAXZrBbeQ

[bwgood77]

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.

Scoring should be easier without any double teams, sure..not sure his shots will go up at all..probably down a bit.

It has zero impact on rebounding though...his rebounding often increases with his offensive touches and scoring because he starts rolling and gets more and more engaged, like most players.

You may be talking about offensive rebounding but at the same time, we probably have a higher FG% (fewer missed shots) and even the league leader every year in offensive rebounding Steven Adams only averages like 4.5 and he is usually way ahead. After that it is like 3 offensive reb for the 2nd best..or a bunch of people avg 2 or 3.

I don't know if his defensive rebounding increases.

BUT, if he is more engaged because he is more involved it will help. KD is a very good passer and his height and long arms will definitely help him give great passes to Ayton in good position. Bridges was getting great at it. KD should be better at it.

[Qwigglez]

Interesting the Suns were actually close to a John Collins trade if the Durant thing fell through. Not sure what contract is out there that Dario can net the Suns. Should the Suns just take their chances and trade Dario and Shamet for Isaac? It’s not like Dario and Shamet were healthy either…

[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.

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.

Oh yeah in my initial response regarding George I didn't consider the fact that Kawhi wasn't coming until the George trade was nailed down.

Speaking of those two teams, it might be back to the Clips and Lakers as our biggest competition at this point...might depend on who is the healthiest...AD, Kawhi and KD all very injury prone.

[bwgood77]

As per Woj, we were negotiating for KD since yesterday, and were on the verge of pivoting towards a 3-team deal with Detroit and Atlanta which would have landed us John Collins, but Ishbia pushed James Jones to make a final swing at KD. What made the deal was replacing Saric with Crowder in the deal. Nets think they can get additional assets for Crowder.

Gotta think that we're going to deal Saric + 2nds for wing help now.

If that "NBA Central" tweet was right about Miami being interested in Dario (not sure why they would be), maybe we can get Caleb Martin.

[RedIndian]

Wow, surprised they left this bit about suns wanting to send Dario with 2nds. Maybe we see a Dario trade tomorrow

Read on Twitter

?s=46&t=-FTLWFG3qift0bAXZrBbeQ

It would make sense because he's on an expiring, and his departure in the offseason won't net us any cap space either with us being well over the tax-line. This might one of the few avenues left to add talent before CP3 comes off the books in 2024.

[sunsbum]

Kevin Durant







3







**** the haters
























**** your!

You apologized to flex yet?

[Qwigglez]

After reading the John Collins thing I wonder if the Suns might actually move Ayton and Shamet for Capela and Collins? It would be funny since we play the Hawks today. We’d just tell Ayton hey man we didn’t get you a return home ticket.

[Puff]

This trade has Isiah Thomas written all over it. Our new owners best buddy.

Who is our current GM?

[Mulhollanddrive]

Saric, 2nds for Thybulle, Korkmaz

Saric is actually playing well but we desperately need a wing stopper as good if not better than Mikal.

[RedIndian]

As per Woj, we were negotiating for KD since yesterday, and were on the verge of pivoting towards a 3-team deal with Detroit and Atlanta which would have landed us John Collins, but Ishbia pushed James Jones to make a final swing at KD. What made the deal was replacing Saric with Crowder in the deal. Nets think they can get additional assets for Crowder.

Gotta think that we're going to deal Saric + 2nds for wing help now.

If that "NBA Central" tweet was right about Miami being interested in Dario (not sure why they would be), maybe we can get Caleb Martin.

Yeah, Caleb Martin, Tate, Josh Richardson should all be targets.

[bwgood77]

Interesting the Suns were actually close to a John Collins trade if the Durant thing fell through. Not sure what contract is out there that Dario can net the Suns. Should the Suns just take their chances and trade Dario and Shamet for Isaac? It’s not like Dario and Shamet were healthy either…

I love a theoretical healthy Isaac but I think it would probably be a good idea to try and get someone without a history of injury problems at this point.

[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...

He is on a 1 year minimum. I wonder what his market will be like and if we will try to keep him somehow. Not sure if we can..we won't have bird rights or anything so if he got a decent offer he's gone.

But last time he was here everyone (moreso on twitter) was bashing him and talking up Josh Jackson and then we drafted Bridges and signed Trevor Ariza...and of course we had Bender and Chriss.

and his coach was Kokoskov and his previous coach was Earl Watson. And the GM was McD and the owner was Sarver.


SOOOO...a slightly better position here now for him..he might like it a bit better.

Well, he has a third of a season to get a taste of what his future here would hold, but like so many others out there, he may be willing to take a bit of a cheaper deal to stay on a championship contender, especially if he's healthy, and contributing 25-30 minutes each game. If I were the 'Suns', I'd want to see how he holds up playing those kind of minutes, and whether he'd be worth keeping or not. He arguably had his best season, his first season in Indiana; if he gets back close to anywhere how he played his last year with us and 1st with the Pacers, he could really be an important piece to our success, gvien our apparent lack of a bench, currently...

[Mulhollanddrive]

I like that Ishbia went for the home run swing regardless of how it turns out, win big or die trying.

[Qwigglez]

Interesting the Suns were actually close to a John Collins trade if the Durant thing fell through. Not sure what contract is out there that Dario can net the Suns. Should the Suns just take their chances and trade Dario and Shamet for Isaac? It’s not like Dario and Shamet were healthy either…

I love a theoretical healthy Isaac but I think it would probably be a good idea to try and get someone without a history of injury problems at this point.

I’m actually paranoid Suns are going to trade Ayton and Shamet for Collins and Capela after reading what Woj posted. The Suns might not be done.

[RedIndian]

I don't think Ayton gets dealt. With the amount of draft equity that has gone out of the door, we need to absolutely keep Book + Ayton long-term. 2024 might allow some small re-tooling since Paul, Shamet and Payne would all expire with the cap going up. Not sure we'll be able to generate a ton of cap room, but something may be possible.

Plus we'll have our 2024 pick which we'll absolutely have to nail.

Realistically, Durant gives us another 2-3 year window, but JJ needs to be smart with how he retools after Paul.

The immediate priority has to be get wing help if we need to maximize our chances of a title this year.

[POLI]

I cannot decide whether I like the trade or not.

On the one hand, it was obvious that we were not going to win a ring with the roster we had just a few hours ago. Booker has to carry a lot on his shoulders, which is the reason to get so many muscular injuries.
Paul is too old and bumped up to be a main player, which does not mean he cannot be a good one.

Obviously we have lost depth (a little bit) and we have lost a big part of our future by sending out so many picks. This could mean that Ishbia trusts JJ's work, or that he and his team has not have the time to see over his work, as everything has developed so quickly. I am pretty sure some of these decisions will have a deep impact on the future of the team, but he wants to make an early impact. Many times money and cahones are not the best way to build a business/team.

Well, what we have now is a roster with two aging players. One of them in the declining part of his career and the other one still at a very good level. Plus Booker, who could be reaching his top potential now or in 1/2 years, and Ayton, who was getting his things together these last games and seemed to be a very good player, finally.

Well, there will be time to think about the future and it is pointless to think about the past. KD and TJ are here. I only wish we could have landed Ibaka and Hill/Nwora or a separate trade, as I believe we still need someone who could play PF/C at a better level than Landale/Biyombo. If you play Bismarck, then we do not have any shooting. If we play Landale, then we lack defense and rim protection, as well as toughness.

We now obviously need a couple of players to round the roster. Maybe we can use Saric to get us a better, more physical PF (so, anyone).

Then we could probably explore the Carmelo/Aldridge/whoever way...