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

[Puff]

Don't sleep on TJ Warren

True Shooting
Career - .565
This year - .576

Wasn't he a fan favorite like Mikal and Cam at one point?

If somehow, we can have them all available and healthy, we are going to be very difficult to beat. Damn

That is if we make the playoffs.

[thamadkant]

Thybulle would make sense as a stopper off the bench.

I still feel Suns need another PG or combo guard. I don't trust CP3's body anymore.

[POLI]

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.

What did he post?

I am reading all his twits and cannot find anything about that...

[bwgood77]

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...

Even if he's just decent he's surely worth the minimum next year. The only other thing we would have his the tax mle..maybe the bi annual one. But that's like $5-6 million. He might be worth that but I imagine we might target a 3D wing or guard first, but that much money probably doesn't get you a very good one anyway. Then again, we did get Lee for the minimum and he's been pretty solid.

[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.

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.

You mean his ESPN article?

I definitely felt that part about a 3 way trade with DET/ATL and us getting Collins was with Ayton going out. I don't see DET wanting anything else from us and it was clear we didn't want to trade Bridges...not for Collins at least.

[Frank Lee]

Well sorry Ghost…
We officially dont care about the draft. Guess we can save some money on the scouting staff. But Unprotected ? Yikes. Those have a way of festering into regretful sores. Think Puff is right… we got Zeked

MattyIsh pushing the chips right in tho. Better say a prayer to Joe Proski

[Saberestar]

Read on Twitter

The offensive power is RIDICULOUS. Crazy potential.

[bwgood77]

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...

As much as I HATE losing Mikal and sacrificing so many picks and perhaps our future, the way we looked in our 3 or so games before Booker went down, when our team was pretty healthy but we got crushed by DAL, BOS and NOP, it was scary with a healthy Book we looked that bad....he did come back and after a terrible game vs the Clips reserves he DID have that one 58 pt game and it took that for us to narrowly beat the Pelicans....

Thinking about that healthy stretch....with KD we know that would never happen. That is one positive.

We had looked really good lately even before Book got back, and he still struggled a bit, so if we get healthy, we should be able to avoid bad stretches like that.

[bwgood77]

Don't sleep on TJ Warren

True Shooting
Career - .565
This year - .576

Wasn't he a fan favorite like Mikal and Cam at one point?

If somehow, we can have them all available and healthy, we are going to be very difficult to beat. Damn

That is if we make the playoffs.

He definitely was not a fan favorite. I liked him a lot as did a few others. But the majority didn't like him.

[Saberestar]

This trade is crazy and I hate to lose Mikal...BUT the team is incredibly exciting now!

Player for player is basically Mikal and Cam Johnson for KD and Warren.

Crowder wasn't playing and he will be replaced by a buyout player. Not sure who will be available, but some decent veteran for sure.

What we lost are picks. 4 FRPs and a swap. Yeah, it's a huge package of picks but in the future we can get some picks via trade too. For now we don't need it.

IMO we are favorites to win it all this season. The roster looks amazing. LET'S GO!!

If we make the playoffs. We were terrible before Cam and CP3 came back. Now we have awhile without KD and still some players out and Book taking rest games.

A few days ago I read something about KD not coming back until a while after the all star break.

Today of course it says he should be ready soon after. I hope it's not too long.

Yeah, or if all the roster don't die in a plane crash...

Come on, KD will be back in a couple weeks AT MOST. People were saying just a few days ago that Book probably would be out until May and some people said that CP3 was out until May too a few weeks ago lol...pessimistic thoughts but not realistic thoughts.

KD probably is ready to go even now but he will take his time to be on perfect shape before the end of the RS.

[Saberestar]

Two open roster spots.

James Jones probably adds a veteran after being bought out and give Ish Wainright an official spot.

[bwgood77]

This trade is crazy and I hate to lose Mikal...BUT the team is incredibly exciting now!

Player for player is basically Mikal and Cam Johnson for KD and Warren.

Crowder wasn't playing and he will be replaced by a buyout player. Not sure who will be available, but some decent veteran for sure.

What we lost are picks. 4 FRPs and a swap. Yeah, it's a huge package of picks but in the future we can get some picks via trade too. For now we don't need it.

IMO we are favorites to win it all this season. The roster looks amazing. LET'S GO!!

If we make the playoffs. We were terrible before Cam and CP3 came back. Now we have awhile without KD and still some players out and Book taking rest games.

A few days ago I read something about KD not coming back until a while after the all star break.

Today of course it says he should be ready soon after. I hope it's not too long.

Yeah, or if all the roster don't die in a plane crash...

Come on, KD will be back in a couple weeks AT MOST. People were saying just a few days ago that Book probably would be out until May and some people said that CP3 was out until May too a few weeks ago lol...pessimistic thoughts but not realistic thoughts.

KD probably is ready to go even now but he will take his time to be on perfect shape before the end of the RS.

What makes you think KD is ready right now? I read something from something reputable the other day before any Suns talk that he might not be back right after the all star break.

I do have real worry that Book aggravates his hamstring.

And Paul staying healthy will always be a concern. He seems to usually time it for the playoffs though.

I mean all these guys have missed A LOT of time this season so I don't feel it's unreasonable to have concern.

I like the optimisim but injuries happen, especially to these guys, and Booker already re-aggravated his groin once.

[bwgood77]

Two open roster spots.

James Jones probably adds a veteran after being bought out and give Ish Wainright an official spot.

Do you expect Love to get bought out and do you think we add him if he does? I haven't heard too much about buyouts other than Westbrook.

[Saberestar]

If we make the playoffs. We were terrible before Cam and CP3 came back. Now we have awhile without KD and still some players out and Book taking rest games.

A few days ago I read something about KD not coming back until a while after the all star break.

Today of course it says he should be ready soon after. I hope it's not too long.

Yeah, or if all the roster don't die in a plane crash...

Come on, KD will be back in a couple weeks AT MOST. People were saying just a few days ago that Book probably would be out until May and some people said that CP3 was out until May too a few weeks ago lol...pessimistic thoughts but not realistic thoughts.

KD probably is ready to go even now but he will take his time to be on perfect shape before the end of the RS.

What makes you think KD is ready right now? I read something from something reputable the other day before any Suns talk that he might not be back right after the all star break.

I do have real worry that Book aggravates his hamstring.

And Paul staying healthy will always be a concern. He seems to usually time it for the playoffs though.

I mean all these guys have missed A LOT of time this season so I don't feel it's unreasonable to have concern.

I like the optimisim but injuries happen, especially to these guys, and Booker already re-aggravated his groin once.

Yeah, I understand the concern but you can see that injuries happen all the time and young players have about the same risk to get injured at any time than old players.

These "small" injuries can be great in the long run. All three have less miles in their bodies this season and when players are back after a mild level injury and they get their rhythm back they usually are physically in a better place than before the injury.

[sunsfan1o1]

Read on Twitter

The offensive power is RIDICULOUS. Crazy potential.

Teams can’t put their wing defenders on CP3 anymore. They’re gonna have to guard him with their pg again.
This is gonna open up CP3 midrange again, DA post play etc etc.
Bench is still trash and concerning. Hopefully we get more.
Sad to see Mikal and Cam go, but scared money don’t make money.

[Frank Lee]

Don't sleep on TJ Warren

True Shooting
Career - .565
This year - .576

Wasn't he a fan favorite like Mikal and Cam at one point?

If somehow, we can have them all available and healthy, we are going to be very difficult to beat. Damn

That is if we make the playoffs.

The original Tony Buckets


Going to miss Bridges and Camjo. Ill be a closet Nets fan till the sting wears off



The training staff sure leaped ahead in importance.

[sunsfan1o1]

I assume teams will be putting their best wing defenders on KD now. Meaning Booker will get to go offfff. No more double teams. No more full court press on CP3. No more crowding the paint to prevent Ayton from getting touches.
Except for teams with defensive minded pg like Pelicans and Lakers.
Nuggets can’t see us. Mavs have no chance.
If we can pickup Westbrook and move some other pieces who play defense and can make a wide open shot we should have enough to win it all.

Maybe something like Saric for Duncan Robinson. We need a new sniper after losing Cam.

[Saberestar]

Two open roster spots.

James Jones probably adds a veteran after being bought out and give Ish Wainright an official spot.

Do you expect Love to get bought out and do you think we add him if he does? I haven't heard too much about buyouts other than Westbrook.

Not sure about it. I don't think so.

I expect Wainright's contract to be convert it in a regular contract on a minimum salary.

The other spot for a veteran. Not sure who will be available, it could be Love, but I think that James Jones would prefer a perimeter player. Saric is on the team and he plays that role for us.

[Sunlight]

What makes me happy is that AYTON will play with the best player in the league for the next 3.5 years. Haters gonna hate.

[bwgood77]

Talk about a deep lineup and plenty of players and picks to trade for a star...

Spencer Dinwiddie / Seth Curry / Patty Mills
Cam Thomas / Joe Harris / Edmund Sumner
Mikal Bridges / Royce O'Neale / Jae Crowder
Dorian Finney-Smith / Cam Johnson / Yuta Watanabe
Nic Claxton / Ben Simmons / Day'Ron Sharpe