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

[TOO]

Love to teach Ayton how to box out.

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lol this reminds me of how corny those ESPN sports science episodes were

But yeah, simply having Love in practice grabbing every single one of DA's boards is gonna make DA work harder and harder not to get embarrassed by an old guy at the Y

Nah, Ayton gets routinely embarrassed by smaller players out rebounding him, no way he'd care about an old dude getting rebounds over him.

[Gorilla Warfare]

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Technically we have both those things plus the TPMLE, right?

[Gorilla Warfare]

If we’ve been trying to get Eric Gordon and Kevin Love for the past 10 years and we end up with neither of them that would be pretty funny.

[BobbieL]

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Technically we have both those things plus the TPMLE, right?

Suns should just sign Ish.
I think use part of the TPMLE to sign him to a 3rd year deal - -maybe this year and next guaranteed... have it so might as well use it

[Slim Charless]

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Technically we have both those things plus the TPMLE, right?

Suns will sign Kevin Love a close friend told me the deal is 80% done. This would be huge as Love has playoff experience and would be a huge piece coming off the bench.

Hope your friend has a good source though I would be good with Ish too

Whatever it takes to win it all

I hope it happens but Miami makes so much more sense if minutes are a big deal for him. They can offer him a starting spot probably, that team is devoid of many good players. Somehow they're still winning games. Spo is 1 hell of a coach.

I don't know how Cleveland can stop him from signing where he wants to. Unless they just keep him.

Miami always made more sense. They can even match Phoenix in the weather, night life and hot girl department too if he cares about that.

We just need to get healthy and get everyone on the same page.

[Gorilla Warfare]

I’d prefer Love’s rebounding and playoff experience to Ish’s average defense. And I really like Ish.

[Saberestar]

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Technically we have both those things plus the TPMLE, right?

Suns should just sign Ish.
I think use part of the TPMLE to sign him to a 3rd year deal - -maybe this year and next guaranteed... have it so might as well use it

Wainright isn't good enough to deserve a 3-year deal from the Suns.

Okogie, Warren and Damion Lee are playing on minimum contracts...that can give you an idea about it.

We can use in the offseason the full TPMLE on a GOOD player. For example Terrence Ross or Okogieif he keeps playing well.

[Saberestar]

I’d prefer Love’s rebounding and playoff experience to Ish’s average defense. And I really like Ish.

Love probably is the better player but he wants guaranteed minutes, that's why he wanted out of Cleveland.

We don't have too many minutes available for him. He will go to the Heat.

[NavLDO]

Well, better do whatever it takes this yr as we are hamstrungly screwed for the next. Outside of trading Ayton, there are no moves to acquire anybody but a $10 mil MLE and a $5mil BAE. The Sham has no value except if you wrap some picks around him. Got to keep Payne because of elderly GrandPaul. We are going to recycle in 6-7 scrapheaping guys on minimum deals. Junkyard Jones going to really earn his name.

Do whatever it takes. If Love is an upgrade, get him. Hes got to be right??

The ‘All In’ mentality has but two outcomes… three if you allow for a Buy in, but we just exercised that

Thing is, however, there are other 'benefits', one of which, we've already witnessed; without KD, we don't sign Ross. He's the 1st, but he certainly will not be the last. Remember when we had players Dragic, the Morii, Bledsoe, Len, etc.?? How many All-Star FAs chose to come our way, via agreeing to, or even pursuiing, a trade to come our way...but thanks to Booker breaking out, and with a little luck of drafting 1st overall, we were able to trade for CP3, and it's snowballed from there, and we finally got our 'big name' dude in KD. But not only that, we have control for 3+ years.

I've mentioned it once last week, I believe, but I'm not worried about our draft picks--anytime we decide to abandon the 'Big 4' concept, we can get those back, and then some. But for the remainder of this, and next season, we'll have 2 opportunities bring in a Championship, and I'm pretty sure we'll be able to sway at least one quality FA to come our way in the offseason, on a 'cheaper' deal, if not more. And as long as Ishbia is willing to spend, which he appears to be willing to do, I'm confident there will be ways to work through the Cap/Tax, and be able to continue to be successful.

So I'm not worried about how we'll deal with individual issues like Shamet, or how to retain Okogie if he continues to breakout...we've accomplished the hardest part; the remainder, while maybe not simple, is a heck of a lot easier than bringing in a talent like Durant...

[bullsaficianado]

I’d prefer Love’s rebounding and playoff experience to Ish’s average defense. And I really like Ish.

Love probably is the better player but he wants guaranteed minutes, that's why he wanted out of Cleveland.

We don't have too many minutes available for him. He will go to the Heat.

Phoenix will play him likely 10 to 15 minutes a game possibly. In Cleveland he might as well just done the work for the ball boy they never played him. I think he should choose Suns over Heat.

[BobbieL]

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Technically we have both those things plus the TPMLE, right?

Suns should just sign Ish.
I think use part of the TPMLE to sign him to a 3rd year deal - -maybe this year and next guaranteed... have it so might as well use it

Wainright isn't good enough to deserve a 3-year deal from the Suns.

Okogie, Warren and Damion Lee are playing on minimum contracts...that can give you an idea about it.

We can use in the offseason the full TPMLE on a GOOD player. For example Terrence Ross or Okogieif he keeps playing well.

Unless I am mistaken, the Suns cannot carry over another TPLME this summer. So if they have to use it or lose it - why not give Ish like a three year 7m contract. They will need players on the roster. I think they will get another TPMLE this summer

Now if the rule is they can't use in back to back years, not using it on Ish. But if its use or lose - why not add a player to your bench for part of the TPMLE. I am not giving Ish the whole thing.

[Ghost of Kleine]

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[Ghost of Kleine]

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[Ghost of Kleine]

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[lilfishi22]

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Our reserve big rotation rivals these teams in terms of being underwhelming.

[bwgood77]

The Los Angeles Lakers are among the teams interested in signing Kevin Love. Love has previously been linked with the Phoenix Suns and Miami Heat.

"I think the Lakers are definitely kicking the tires there and looking," said Brian Windhorst on the Dan Patrick Show.

The Cavaliers may be unwilling to let Love sign with the Heat if he is bought out, which is something they are currently discussing.

Windhorst says the Lakers may not be a good fit, while the Suns could be limited in the minutes they offer Love. Love has fallen out of Cleveland's rotation, which is what started the buyout talks.

If we do use our entire remaining tax mle on a player, Love or someone else, David mentioned it would cost over $25 million with the tax. Obviously no player out there is worth that.

I'm not sure if that is 100% correct though considering that open roster spot costs us some sort of open roster spot charge, likely the minimum. My guess is we give another player the minimum, so the cost stays the same an if we do use part or all of our remaining tax mle it wouldn't be quite that much since it likely is only the incremental difference in an open roster spot charge.

Edit: I guess we don't have an open roster spot charge as long as you have at least 13 players. In that case, I won't be surprised if we don't use the 15th spot. Seems not worth the cost for a bench warmer. Whatever the salary is, you are paying 4-5x that in tax. Save that for tax mle next year.

Can most of that tax be avoided by not signing a player until the very end of the season? Or in Ish’s case, keeping him on his two-way deal (knowing he can’t play any more games) and only converting it to a standard contract at the end?

I am not sure. There may be a deadline for converting 2 way players as well. But yes, if it was 1/82 of the minimum and some sort of proration for the playoffs, it wouldn't be much.

[Saberestar]

Suns should just sign Ish.
I think use part of the TPMLE to sign him to a 3rd year deal - -maybe this year and next guaranteed... have it so might as well use it

Wainright isn't good enough to deserve a 3-year deal from the Suns.

Okogie, Warren and Damion Lee are playing on minimum contracts...that can give you an idea about it.

We can use in the offseason the full TPMLE on a GOOD player. For example Terrence Ross or Okogieif he keeps playing well.

Unless I am mistaken, the Suns cannot carry over another TPLME this summer. So if they have to use it or lose it - why not give Ish like a three year 7m contract. They will need players on the roster. I think they will get another TPMLE this summer

Now if the rule is they can't use in back to back years, not using it on Ish. But if its use or lose - why not add a player to your bench for part of the TPMLE. I am not giving Ish the whole thing.

I am not sold on Wainright.

I would try to add someone better than him in the offseason.

[bwgood77]

Funny as soon as we got Durant we immediately have new posters like JPHX, GreatSunnyNorth, sashaturiaf, KdoubleDees23, wordsenuff.

I'm not sure if you are joking about wordsenuff, but he's been posting here forever, and is in our fantasy leagues and stuff. GreatSunnyNorth has been posting here quite a bit longer too. POLI is new though.

[BobbieL]

Wainright isn't good enough to deserve a 3-year deal from the Suns.

Okogie, Warren and Damion Lee are playing on minimum contracts...that can give you an idea about it.

We can use in the offseason the full TPMLE on a GOOD player. For example Terrence Ross or Okogieif he keeps playing well.

Unless I am mistaken, the Suns cannot carry over another TPLME this summer. So if they have to use it or lose it - why not give Ish like a three year 7m contract. They will need players on the roster. I think they will get another TPMLE this summer

Now if the rule is they can't use in back to back years, not using it on Ish. But if its use or lose - why not add a player to your bench for part of the TPMLE. I am not giving Ish the whole thing.

I am not sold on Wainright.

I would try to add someone better than him in the offseason.

I am sure they will and who knows - with Durant, they might get a lot of veteran minimums like the Warriors did for many years

I wonder how hard they chased Love - what is cursory or high level. Maybe waiting for another buyout

[Ghost of Kleine]

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Our reserve big rotation rivals these teams in terms of being underwhelming.

So If no Love (poor decision by him I think), We traded Saric for Bazely who we'll likely not play/develop much this season anyways. That leaves our big rotation as .......................................... Ayton/ Biyombo/ Landale. And our possible 4 rotation as KD/Warren/ Ish/ Craig/ Bazely???? We're gonna get destroyed by teams in the playoffs. Aside from maybe KD himself, not sure if any of those can reasonably defend the plethora of much bigger dominant postseason frontcourts we'll be facing in strategic matchups? We desperately need another quality frontcourt big who could rebound, provide weakside defense, and moderately space the floor. Love would've been great! But apparently he wants to prioritize lesser options to hopefully play with Westbrook? His loss obviously!