2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins

[bwoolf2]

I've been saying over and over I doubt Ayton is traded but after the Payne trade an Ayton for Turner deal is an easy path to get under the 2nd apron this coming season.

If I had to bet money on it I'd still say DA stays but that has my antenna up a little.

Getting under this year isn't a big deal initially but it does help if they end up over in future years. The 3 times in 5 years is where the real penalties kick in and should be avoided even if you had infinite money.

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Like him or hate him Gambo has been spot on all year and he has been adamant Ayton is staying, until he changes his tune I just don't see it.

[SunsRback4Good]

Crazy ish went from 8th to 9th guy on this roster to clearly the last man, and I wouldn't be surprised if his spot isn't replaced here in the next few days.

The only players remaining on last year's roster that started the team with the Suns will be book and ayton were that to happen, pretty sure no roster has been turned over that much in a single year ever.

Agreed! Even when horrendous teams do an overhaul they at least leave 3-4 current players in roster while losing everyone else. In Phoenix’ situation a playoff team who is also contending lost 95% of their roster. This is a unique situation but Matt Ishbia is not playing around he knows bball and wants a winner badly. This new owner could get us a couple of chips in next 5 years don’t be surprised. I know we have one of the longest title droughts, but the bright side is approaching steadily.

[matt131]

Really hope GOK is just taking a short break.

Yeah, once he stopped posting for like 3 days and I checked his last sign in date, I figured something happened, since he usually wasn't gone for more than 10 minutes. I hope he's ok.

Hope he’s okay too.

There were some fairly mean comments toward him and his posting style the past few weeks, which is completely rude and unjustified, so I wouldn’t doubt if he just wanted a break from the board.

[Blonde]

Trevor Bukstein has been the CBA expert in the front office for a while now. I’d be willing to bet he’s been the mind behind some of these more creative deals and he’ll be able to navigate the 2nd apron better than most. Unless he left the team/was dismissed but I never saw any news of that.

[bwgood77]

Really hope GOK is just taking a short break.

Yeah, once he stopped posting for like 3 days and I checked his last sign in date, I figured something happened, since he usually wasn't gone for more than 10 minutes. I hope he's ok.

Hope he’s okay too.

There were some fairly mean comments toward him and his posting style the past few weeks, which is completely rude and unjustified, so I wouldn’t doubt if he just wanted a break from the board.

He usually shrugs those off pretty well. Hopefully he did just decide to take a break though and he's ok.

[bwgood77]

Trevor Bukstein has been the CBA expert in the front office for a while now. I’d be willing to bet he’s been the mind behind some of these more creative deals and he’ll be able to navigate the 2nd apron better than most. Unless he left the team/was dismissed but I never saw any news of that.

I thought he was dismissed, and remember I thought it was unfortunate, but I may have just made an assumption...can't really remember.

[KdoubleDees23]

Yeah, once he stopped posting for like 3 days and I checked his last sign in date, I figured something happened, since he usually wasn't gone for more than 10 minutes. I hope he's ok.

Hope he’s okay too.

There were some fairly mean comments toward him and his posting style the past few weeks, which is completely rude and unjustified, so I wouldn’t doubt if he just wanted a break from the board.

He usually shrugs those off pretty well. Hopefully he did just decide to take a break though and he's ok.

No more trades are going to be done. He is taking a hiatus for a little

[sunsbg]

Expected Payne to have a good showing in contract year so a bit sad to see him traded.

[SunsRback4Good]

.

[Qwigglez]

Expected Payne to have a good showing in contract year so a bit sad to see him traded.

I figured Payne was going to end up losing his backup PG duties to Goodwin anyway with Vogel perhaps wanting a more defensive-minded PG.

[bigfoot]

Beal/Okogie/Goodwin
Booker/Gordon/D.Lee
Durant/Bates-Diop/Camara
Ayton/Watanabe/Wainwright
Eubanks/Metu/Bol-Bol

Be prepared

[SunsRback4Good]

Beal/Okogie/Goodwin
Booker/Gordon/D.Lee
Durant/Bates-Diop/Camara
Ayton/Watanabe/Wainwright
Eubanks/Metu/Bol-Bol

Be prepared

[Sunsdeuce]

Beal/Okogie/Goodwin
Booker/Gordon/D.Lee
Durant/Bates-Diop/Camara
Ayton/Watanabe/Wainwright
Eubanks/Metu/Bol-Bol

Be prepared

Ayton isn’t playing the 4, Vogel has made that crystal clear in his interviews.

[Saberestar]

Interesting

Read on Twitter

I like Beal at initial ballhandler!!

Booker, Beal, Goodwin, Gordon, Lee, who I liked better than Payne, no issues at pg in my opinion...

I agree.

I love the idea of Bradley Beal as our "PG" and I think he is gonna do a terrific job.

I wouldn't be surprised if Beal averages next year just 18 points but adding 9 assists per game.

[lilfishi22]

Balmer would have been nuts to guarantee 21 mil for Gordon, he wasn't worth that. The Clippers also have younger guys that they should want to be more involved, like Mann, Hyland, Powell and even KJ Martin even though he is a tweener. Paying Gordon 21 mil would have been a terrible business move!!

the bad move the clippers made wasn't not paying him the last year of his contract it was trading for him in the first place, they traded the 20th pick in this draft who was Whitmore for about 20 games of Gordon

They thought he would be the difference maker on an already stacked team, it failed because their two stars main game uniforms are street cloths!!

Pretty clear they lost real guard depth by moving on from Gordon. They would rather have Gordon than not. But from a financial point of view, he definitely wasn't worth it but that also goes to my point that having more money than God doesn't mean you just spend willy-nilly.

[lilfishi22]

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Not gonna lie, I love the idea of Goodwin but it does make me feel uneasy about leaning heavily on him especially with Gordon being the only other guy off the bench. I am excited for Goodwin though and I think he can be a really solid fit as a defensive guard with 3PT shooting

[lilfishi22]

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

All those people crying about how Point Book doesn't work must think Book hasn't improved immensely since the early days where he had to play point

[lilfishi22]

Heat didn’t have a traditional pg and went to the final this year. I mean they had Lowry but he’s 35+ yo not the prime 19 finals Lowry. Suns should be fine even if we don’t land another pg since Booker, Beal, KD, Lee can all contribute in that area.

Murray isn't a traditional point guard Joker ran point 80 percent of the time, very few teams have a traditional pg anymore.

Can't really use Jokic/Nuggets as an example because Jokic is a better PG than 99% of the league. Agreed you don't need a traditional PG but having a guy who can handle the ball confidently, shoot 3's and defend off the bench and look good stepping into the starting line up when required is still something highly sought after. Not saying Cam shouldn't have been traded but just the idea of relying on Gordon and a very young and inexperienced Goodwin could be a problem. If Book or Beal or Gordon gets injured, it's next man up and Goodwin will be playing real minutes with no other guard off the bench outside of Saben Lee who I have even less confidence in.

The roster isn't done yet so we'll see what else we come up with but salary dumping a player who's been in the rotation for the past 3-4 seasons is something that we'll feel if we don't patch up that gap.

[lilfishi22]

Not comfortable with the only true point guards on the roster being Goodwin and Lee!!

I’d rather keep Ayton than try to add a pg at his expense. Point Book/Point Beal it is… and this cat Goodwin i think will be more than adequate. Have read nothing but good things and of course, hes here at the insistence of BBeal.

Not worried at all. Payne was expendable.


Dont know who exactly is behind all this creative roster finagling, but it sure seems beyond Jones’ conservative ways/history. Its almost remarkable to see where we are now, compared to just a few months ago…. With the challenges/limitations faced to get here. Hats off to someone(s)

Maybe now since Sarver is gone, Jones has more wiggle room to expand on different types of trades/ideas. Would be interesting if Jones is somehow responsible for 1/3rd of the roster moves or does everything fall on our new owner? Jones did have two seasons to make changes and decided to stay put hurting us in the process. But if Jones was that responsible for roster management why didn’t Ishbia get rid of him? Hmm

JJ did say in the most recent ESPN interview that his role and I think the breadth of what he's able to do has expanded under Ishbia. Got the impression that he was fairly restricted by Sarver when he came down to making bigger moves. CP3 was kinda his one and done big move under Sarver really.

[lilfishi22]

Crazy ish went from 8th to 9th guy on this roster to clearly the last man, and I wouldn't be surprised if his spot isn't replaced here in the next few days.

The only players remaining on last year's roster that started the team with the Suns will be book and ayton were that to happen, pretty sure no roster has been turned over that much in a single year ever.

Ish Wainwright? I never thought he was more than an end of the bench vibes guy. He definitely didn't earn himself any sort of reliable minutes. His deal is only guaranteed for the full amount after 10th of Jan so he's ripe to be waived before then.