sunsbg wrote:Ish getting more love than DA on this board lol.
Ish is trash! Ayton is our top 3 . Dude is a stud! Everyone just wants him to make highlight dunks, because they dont understand basketball
I don't understand basketball... just watch it on TV. Sometimes in person. Basketball is fun.
I suspect that Ayton gets crushed because of his lack of effort and heart. It's the little things that he does and doesn't do. You know... like when he doesn't box out or rebound. It would be super cool if he tried harder and pushed the little guys around. Maybe he can anticipate a jump shot and position himself better on the offensive side? To me, it seems like Ayton is always 8 feet from the basket and being boxed out by the opposing teams back-up point guard.
Better screens would be nice... I think it is year 5 for Ayton and he screens like a matador. WOOOSH. "Hey look I'm open!" Oh wait... I set a weak ass screen and the defender is still on you so you can't pass me the ball.
For someone who doesn't understand basketball, can someone explain to me why Ayton looks like he is afraid of contact? It seems odd for someone who is 7 feet 270lb.
I guess it's not just about the dunks... although a dunk every now and then would be an improvement over that dumb ass surprised look he gets when he is wide open under the basket. "whoa... lookie here! There's nobody around me... I better lay it in before somebody finds out... oh... whoops... I missed."
Ayton is good enough, the thing is that he COULD be great... and he isn't... and he doesn't have any plans or ambition to be great. I personally question his heart, work ethic, competitive fire and motivation. Ayton thinks he is good enough which isn't good enough for this basketball fan.
I try putting myself in a player's position when playing rec league ball. I'm a 'big man' (6'5") and there are some matchups where I am intimidated by who's guarding me or who I guard. Some where I feel super energized and will crash the glass every chance I get or run hard with the offense to exploit people slow to get back. Other days, I'm super sluggish and don't want to be bothered or feel lost on the court.
Unfortunately, it's not easy to get up for every game and while guys like Tucker and Butler seem to always be ready, other guys won't. DA seems to be the type that needs the motivation. When CP3 joined the team, Ayton started slow and, little by little, improved his production and effort through the year. With KD coming in, I fully expect us to see 2nd half & Playoff DA from 2021. Knowing who is on his team and what will now be expected of him, that should motivate him more than ever.
Will be interesting to see if Mat Ishbia follows up on some plans that were put in place before Robert Sarver was suspended. Those included a year-long effort to honor Jerry Colangelo. The central pavilion was to be renamed Colangelo Hall, with a video wall playing highlights of his role in nurturing professional sports in Arizona.
The project, which included a large video ring showing footage of the Suns’ Ring of Honor members was to be unveiled near the start of the season with the induction of Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion into the Ring.
Aldridge is finished Tyler Johnson is finito for like 3 years now John wall is donezo. I hope he made good investments Ibaka can start looking for vacation homes and a permanent residence in non NBA cities. Michael Carter Williams- seriously? Sterling Brown- see MCW Ellington, Whiteside- they should have already started selling life insurance if not they need to start
Barton is the only guy on that list who should be picked up. Stanley Johnson doesn’t seem to get the point.
Qwigglez wrote: I do think Suns are going to keep Ish. But they are weighing their options first to see who else is potentially available that fit the Suns needs. He's a great end of roster guy. I don't think there is an need to offer him a lucrative contract besides a vet minimum deal.
Yeah, I think they might if they think they need him. Is there a deadline to do this or could they wait as long as they wanted? If they stay healthy they could also stay at 14. You only have to have 13 and we are already way into the tax, so a minimum contract could still cost 4-5x the amount of the actual contract with tax.
DavidIVPoint play has written about using part of the TPMLE on Ish. He gets a bit more than the veteran minimium and they lock him to a contract when they will need cheap players this next summer. Maybe he is worth the extra 5m in actual costs that BWG mentions
One thing about the luxury tax - why are the Suns, as first time lux tax payers, penalized the same as the Clippers and Warriors - meaning 4x level. I think if you are in it, multiple years in a row - there should be an even higher % paid.
Repeat offenders is higher. However, the reason our's is so high on one extra player at this point is because of the dollar amount we are already over. Every $5 million you are over, your rate per extra dollar spent after that is higher. I believe we are between $20 and $25 million over, so we are at the $3.75 penalty rate per $1. So if we give Ish a $2 milllion contract, it is really a $7.5 million cost to us.
If we were to use our full Tax MLE and go over $25 million over, at that point it jumps 50 more cents per dollar to $4.25 penalty per $1 spent, and so on...
Here are the rules for tax penalties per dollar over"
Spoiler:
The exact tax rates depend on a few different factors. For starters, and rather obviously, how far above the salary cap a team’s roster is:
For teams between $0 and $4,999,999 over the cap, the tax rate is $1.50 for every dollar over the cap. The incremental maximum for this level is $7.5 million. For teams between $5,000,000 and $9,999,999 over the cap, the tax rate is $1.75 for every dollar over the cap. The incremental maximum for this level is $8.75 million. For teams between $10,000,000 and $14,999,999 over the cap, the tax rate is $2.50 for every dollar over the cap. The incremental maximum for this level is $12.5 million. For teams between $15,000,000 and $19,999,999 over the cap, the tax rate is $3.25 for every dollar over the cap. The incremental maximum for this level is $16.25 million. And for teams $20,000,000 over the cap or above, the tax rate is $3.75 for every dollar over the cap, and increasing $0.50 for each additional $5,000,000 over $20,000,000.
For repeat offenders, it is much higher...
Additionally, there’s a higher tax for teams known as repeat offenders. Repeat offenders are defined as teams that have paid luxury taxes in at least three of the prior four seasons.
For repeat offenders, the luxury tax breaks down as follows:
Spoiler:
For teams between $0 and $4,999,999 over the cap, the tax rate is $2.50 for every dollar over the cap. The incremental maximum for this level is $12.5 million. For teams between $5,000,000 and $9,999,999 over the cap, the tax rate is $2.75 for every dollar over the cap. The incremental maximum for this level is $13.75 million. For teams between $10,000,000 and $14,999,999 over the cap, the tax rate is $3.50 for every dollar over the cap. The incremental maximum for this level is $17.5 million. For teams between $15,000,000 and $19,999,999 over the cap, the tax rate is $4.25 for every dollar over the cap. The incremental maximum for this level is $21.25 million. And for teams $20,000,000 over the cap or above, the tax rate is $4.75 for every dollar over the cap, and increasing $0.50 for each additional $5,000,000 over $20,000,000.
So given how high these taxes are depending on how much you are over, it exponentially goes up, but even moreso with a repeater tax...
Unless Ish is willing to fork over an enormous tax bill that increases exponentially every year, it's hard to bring back the only players you definitely can, like Payne and Shamet, but they can. They also should bring back Craig since they can pay him a similar amount or little more because I believe they have early bird rights.
But on top of those, expecting to use our Tax MLE every year...I am not sure that it something you can take for granted, because Book, Ayton and KD's contracts are all escalating quite a bit, so our tax bill is going to increase regardless, just if we keep the core 4, Payne, Shamet and Craig along with minimums. If we keep adding exception guys, spending like $7 mill on the tax MLE is going to add like $4.25 in a tax penalty per dollar of that $7 million so a $7 million guy woul cost us an additional $30 million or so in taxes.
That is just a guess...with minimums and all..that is if we are $25+ over and are not on the repeater tax. I can't remember if we paid any tax last year, and it has to be 3 in 4 years.
I imagine we will have to move on from Paul at least after next year unless he is willing to pay whopping repeater tax bills. He could save a lot of tax by cutting Paul in the summer and maybe get under it but he'd probably have to get rid of one of the other salaries too and not use any exceptions since Paul still has the $15 million hit. The following year, when Paul is a team option, it will be a lot more manageable if we move on.
But no, for those who think if we don't pick up a Paul option we would suddenly have tons of space to pursue a big name replacement, we will still be over the cap. A replacement will likely be Payne, Booker at 1 with like Okogie/Craig/KD or an Ayton trade for a PG/C combo. I think we probably keep Paul next year though.
BobbieL wrote: DavidIVPoint play has written about using part of the TPMLE on Ish. He gets a bit more than the veteran minimium and they lock him to a contract when they will need cheap players this next summer. Maybe he is worth the extra 5m in actual costs that BWG mentions
One thing about the luxury tax - why are the Suns, as first time lux tax payers, penalized the same as the Clippers and Warriors - meaning 4x level. I think if you are in it, multiple years in a row - there should be an even higher % paid.
I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure there is a repeater tax
Oh okay - thanks for that. As its fine if the Suns go above a certain level and are hit with 4x. But if you are not penalized further - seems kind of unfair. Or if a team jumps in and out of the lux tax.
I came up with 4x not because of repeater tax but because of the thresshold we are over, as I posted about in my last post. We are sitting in the $3.75 penalty per dollar range just for being over $20 million over. If we get to $25 million over, the penalty per dollar goes up 50 cents per dollar to $4.25.
The repeater tax is higher. It's $4.75 per dollar penalty if you are over $20 million and $5.25 per dollar if over $25 million...$5.75 per dollar if over $30 million, etc.
It exponentially grows and is like snowball effect.
sunsbg wrote:Ish getting more love than DA on this board lol.
Ish is trash! Ayton is our top 3 . Dude is a stud! Everyone just wants him to make highlight dunks, because they dont understand basketball
I don't understand basketball... just watch it on TV. Sometimes in person. Basketball is fun.
I suspect that Ayton gets crushed because of his lack of effort and heart. It's the little things that he does and doesn't do. You know... like when he doesn't box out or rebound. It would be super cool if he tried harder and pushed the little guys around. Maybe he can anticipate a jump shot and position himself better on the offensive side? To me, it seems like Ayton is always 8 feet from the basket and being boxed out by the opposing teams back-up point guard.
Better screens would be nice... I think it is year 5 for Ayton and he screens like a matador. WOOOSH. "Hey look I'm open!" Oh wait... I set a weak ass screen and the defender is still on you so you can't pass me the ball.
For someone who doesn't understand basketball, can someone explain to me why Ayton looks like he is afraid of contact? It seems odd for someone who is 7 feet 270lb.
I guess it's not just about the dunks... although a dunk every now and then would be an improvement over that dumb ass surprised look he gets when he is wide open under the basket. "whoa... lookie here! There's nobody around me... I better lay it in before somebody finds out... oh... whoops... I missed."
Ayton is good enough, the thing is that he COULD be great... and he isn't... and he doesn't have any plans or ambition to be great. I personally question his heart, work ethic, competitive fire and motivation. Ayton thinks he is good enough which isn't good enough for this basketball fan.
While Ayton's screens don't knock people over and he was terrible at them his first couple of years, he has become a VERY effective screener and regularly is around the top in screen assists. He constantly gets in front of defenders and they have to try and run around him and the ball handler ends up with a shot because Ayton has delayed the defender. He may not knock people under or have them run into him but his screen game has become solid.
Boxing out has been a weakness but he has improved on that this year. He does have lapses in rebounding games. This is the biggest issue for me.
There are times he could dunk and doesn't and I wish he would, but despite no one thinking he dunks, he's 13th in the NBA in dunks per game...and most ahead of him don't move far from the rim and can't do much but dunk...outside of Giannis and AD. So he could and maybe should be higher. If he dunked 1 more time per game he'd essentially be tied for 4th.
He does still freeze sometimes in games and starts to overthink and it gets into his own head, which leads to some people assuming he doesn't have heart or doesn't care or whatever, but he's gotten better as of late, and in the last couple of weeks before the break had the consecutive 31-35 pt/15-16 reb games....along with a 29/11 and 22/11. He has also shot over 61% in his last 6 games. If you take out the last 61.5% game, his lowest in those six was 64.3%. He had 3 games out of those six shooting over 76%, and those were his high volume scoring 35, 31 and 29 pt games. So he's been looking good as of late and I figured he'd look better when he was playing with more starters and scoring threats. Of course his 35/15 game was when all of our starters were finally healthy and started before the trade.....vs Brooklyn. Went to the line 8x in that one as well.
Pretty unfortunate. I worry that if we lose these games that he is not playing and resting Booker in the final two B2Bs in the rest of the season that we will put a ton of effort at the end of the season to remain in the top 6 in the West. Hopefully it works out for us.
Good news is that he will not debut in those disgusting turquoise jerseys!
yikes. i'm all for him being healthy and ramping up slowly, but pressure is on. we have to not only gel together but we actually need to keep winning games.
Oh man, what a surprise. He couldn't beat Windhorst to the punch. Just came in right behind him..
Yeah but he confirmed! Which is basically as good as breaking news
Yeah, but he confirmed it would likely be on the road trip, which ends March 5th. So there is a lot of leeway there. And with the "likely" and not "definitely", all bases are certainly covered. lol
bwgood77 wrote: Oh man, what a surprise. He couldn't beat Windhorst to the punch. Just came in right behind him..
Yeah but he confirmed! Which is basically as good as breaking news
Yeah, but he confirmed it would likely be on the road trip, which ends March 5th. So there is a lot of leeway there. And with the "likely" and not "definitely", all bases are certainly covered. lol
You guys continue to diss Flex for no reason. I don’t get it. Just ignore it if you have a problem with his tweets. I was skeptical at first too but he’s done enough for me to trust him. Is he a Woj or Sham, no but still gives information that us fans would not know. Same with Gambo.
