2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation 3 - Post Free Agency Discussion

[enigmatics]

I like the fact that Nurk us more of a basketball player, good passing, moving and flow of the game, b ball iq. Also that at no point when he received a pass in the lane, did he BACK UP to the free-throw line, stop, pump fake, clog up the midrange and stop the ball!! He flowed toward the rim and put the ball up, got fouled or made a smart pass because people kept moving. Whenever ayton caught it, it became a jab step midrange jump shot, We already have midrange jump shooters, go do big man ****!!!

Exactly.

Nurkic knows how to play ball.

With him we can play a 5-out offense and he will be a connector for us similar to Saric when he played at 5 for our bench unit.

oh nice call, we basically just got a bigger Saric. Putting those dots together the trade makes even more sense.

Poor man's Jokic too. A true Euro big.

[Fo-Real]

Exactly.

Nurkic knows how to play ball.

With him we can play a 5-out offense and he will be a connector for us similar to Saric when he played at 5 for our bench unit.

oh nice call, we basically just got a bigger Saric. Putting those dots together the trade makes even more sense.

Poor man's Jokic too. A true Euro big.

I've thought the same, Jokic lite.

[enigmatics]

oh nice call, we basically just got a bigger Saric. Putting those dots together the trade makes even more sense.

Poor man's Jokic too. A true Euro big.

I've thought the same, Jokic lite.

I mean think about it from this angle - Nugs don't have a true PG. Murray is more a hybrid and Jokic executes a lot of the offense.

Suns bring in Bradley Beal who's play somewhat resembles Murray's. They have no true PG. See where this is going?

Theoretically the Big 3 should have a lot of room to attack the paint and they got a big with good big man handles who can execute the offense from all over half court not just the rubs and PnR/PnP from DA's NEVER increasing arsenal.

[SunsRback4Good]

How do you guys see the scoring distribution regarding our team? Last season the Suns have averaged roughly 113.5 ppg and now with 90% of our team gutted and gone, how will we fare offensively?

Booker- 27 ppg
KD- 27 ppg
Beal- 18 ppg
Gordon- 13 ppg
Nurkic- 15 ppg
Okogie 8 ppg
Watanabe- 10 ppg
Grayson- 10 ppg

That’s already 128 ppg which would set a new NBA record lol

I’d assume Nurkić averages less than 15 and KD might be okay with 25 ppg. Maybe even Gordon puts up just 10 ppg. Also, I only listed 8 players and there are still more. I believe on paper we have the best team offensively which will make difficult to defend us. Unfortunately we definitely took a step back defensively by losing Cam, Bridges, Ayton, & Paul.

[Crives]

Interesting ESPN article.. sounds like Josh was primary negotiator with Portland instead of Jones

[matt131]

Interesting ESPN article.. sounds like Josh was primary negotiator with Portland instead of Jones

Josh?

[Saberestar]

How do you guys see the scoring distribution regarding our team? Last season the Suns have averaged roughly 113.5 ppg and now with 90% of our team gutted and gone, how will we fare offensively?

Booker- 27 ppg
KD- 27 ppg
Beal- 18 ppg
Gordon- 13 ppg
Nurkic- 15 ppg
Okogie 8 ppg
Watanabe- 10 ppg
Grayson- 10 ppg

That’s already 128 ppg which would set a new NBA record lol

I’d assume Nurkić averages less than 15 and KD might be okay with 25 ppg. Maybe even Gordon puts up just 10 ppg. Also, I only listed 8 players and there are still more. I believe on paper we have the best team offensively which will make difficult to defend us. Unfortunately we definitely took a step back defensively by losing Cam, Bridges, Ayton, & Paul.

Players aren't gonna play 82 games, so these averages are pretty realistic and we wouldn’t score 128+ per game.

[Crives]

Interesting ESPN article.. sounds like Josh was primary negotiator with Portland instead of Jones

Josh?

Suns ceo

[SunsRback4Good]

Interesting ESPN article.. sounds like Josh was primary negotiator with Portland instead of Jones

Josh?

I assumed Josh Okogie for some odd reason. Hehe

[Crives]

Interesting ESPN article.. sounds like Josh was primary negotiator with Portland instead of Jones

Josh?

I assumed Josh Okogie for some odd reason. Hehe

From the article
To this end, the Suns could never know the third team in the trade. Cronin kept Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein on the line for months and weeks and days, and finally, hours on Tuesday and Wednesday

[Jsbath]

Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

[SunsRback4Good]

How do you guys see the scoring distribution regarding our team? Last season the Suns have averaged roughly 113.5 ppg and now with 90% of our team gutted and gone, how will we fare offensively?

Booker- 27 ppg
KD- 27 ppg
Beal- 18 ppg
Gordon- 13 ppg
Nurkic- 15 ppg
Okogie 8 ppg
Watanabe- 10 ppg
Grayson- 10 ppg

That’s already 128 ppg which would set a new NBA record lol

I’d assume Nurkić averages less than 15 and KD might be okay with 25 ppg. Maybe even Gordon puts up just 10 ppg. Also, I only listed 8 players and there are still more. I believe on paper we have the best team offensively which will make difficult to defend us. Unfortunately we definitely took a step back defensively by losing Cam, Bridges, Ayton, & Paul.

Players aren't gonna play 82 games, so these averages are pretty realistic and we wouldn’t score 128+ per game.

Yes, I agree the days where players play that many games are over. But I figure our most important players play anywhere between 67-70 games. As for the scoring take away 2 points from KD, 3 from Nurkic, 2 from Gordon, and maybe 2 from Yuta and you get 118-119 ppg. Kings led the league in scoring 120.7 last season.

[matt131]

Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

Dang so it sounds like we might not even have plans for Grayson Allen at this point and were 100% sold on Nurkic and Little for Ayton.

Wow, now if we trade Allen for TJ McConnell I will not be surprised at all.

I can’t believe we essentially lucked into Allen. lol we legit did no negotiating during this trade. We just said “gimme dat” and the Blazers were lucky AF someone was willing to take Nurkic of their hands.

Whether he’s a good fit or not, to me this story makes the whole situation sound a lot worse on the end of the Suns. Also makes us a little less guilty of helping a contender get better since we were unaware of who the third team was.

I wonder if the suns go through with this knowing Dame goes to the Bucks and there’s a possibility of Jrue going to a west contender. I say, honestly, probably not.

Also why be involved in a trade where there’s a required 8 million that needs to come back to you but you’re not allowed to know who the player is or ask for anyone specific or even a specific size/position. That’s awful.

Edit: maybe I am missing something:

Read on Twitter

“Grayson Allen’s inclusion as the final piece made Phoenix a “resounding yes” to make the trade.”

I guess I don’t know what the whole article said. Anyway, oh well haha

[bigfoot]

How do you guys see the scoring distribution regarding our team? Last season the Suns have averaged roughly 113.5 ppg and now with 90% of our team gutted and gone, how will we fare offensively?

Booker- 27 ppg
KD- 27 ppg
Beal- 18 ppg
Gordon- 13 ppg
Nurkic- 15 ppg
Okogie 8 ppg
Watanabe- 10 ppg
Grayson- 10 ppg

That’s already 128 ppg which would set a new NBA record lol

I’d assume Nurkić averages less than 15 and KD might be okay with 25 ppg. Maybe even Gordon puts up just 10 ppg. Also, I only listed 8 players and there are still more. I believe on paper we have the best team offensively which will make difficult to defend us. Unfortunately we definitely took a step back defensively by losing Cam, Bridges, Ayton, & Paul.

Players aren't gonna play 82 games, so these averages are pretty realistic and we wouldn’t score 128+ per game.

Yes, I agree the days where players play that many games are over. But I figure our most important players play anywhere between 67-70 games. As for the scoring take away 2 points from KD, 3 from Nurkic, 2 from Gordon, and maybe 2 from Yuta and you get 118-119 ppg. Kings led the league in scoring 120.7 last season.

The starters are going to get theirs (Book, Beal, KD, Nurk, plus one) and will easily put up 85+ per game. Suns bench scoring was pretty bad last year. That is where the Suns made great strides this offseason: Any of Gordon, Watanabe, Grayson, Eubanks, Bates-Diop, and Little along with one of KD, Beal, or Book is going to be strong.

[SunsRback4Good]

Players aren't gonna play 82 games, so these averages are pretty realistic and we wouldn’t score 128+ per game.

Yes, I agree the days where players play that many games are over. But I figure our most important players play anywhere between 67-70 games. As for the scoring take away 2 points from KD, 3 from Nurkic, 2 from Gordon, and maybe 2 from Yuta and you get 118-119 ppg. Kings led the league in scoring 120.7 last season.

The starters are going to get theirs (Book, Beal, KD, Nurk, plus one) and will easily put up 85+ per game. Suns bench scoring was pretty bad last year. That is where the Suns made great strides this offseason: Any of Gordon, Watanabe, Grayson, Eubanks, Bates-Diop, and Little along with one of KD, Beal, or Book is going to be strong.

Agreed. well said.

[Qwigglez]

Booker - 28 ppg
KD - 26 ppg
Beal - 23 ppg
Nurkic - 13 ppg
Allen - 12 ppg
Gordon - 11 ppg
KBD - 9 ppg
Eubanks - 6.5 ppg

Those will be the core 8 players taking the majority of minutes. Realistically I don't see Booker putting up 28, but it is more hopeful numbers. I think the Suns will be getting at least 75 from the big 3. I know the Kings just broke the record for most PPG average in a season but I think this team could surpass that if they wanted. I am just unsure if the team wants to They might want to slow the pace more than anything.

[SunsRback4Good]

Booker - 28 ppg
KD - 26 ppg
Beal - 23 ppg
Nurkic - 13 ppg
Allen - 12 ppg
Gordon - 11 ppg
KBD - 9 ppg
Eubanks - 6.5 ppg

Those will be the core 8 players taking the majority of minutes. Realistically I don't see Booker putting up 28, but it is more hopeful numbers. I think the Suns will be getting at least 75 from the big 3. I know the Kings just broke the record for most PPG average in a season but I think this team could surpass that if they wanted. I am just unsure if the team wants to They might want to slow the pace more than anything.

With Chris Paul now gone would you actually want us to continue to slow the pace down or embrace it and run a little more. We never had that opportunity with Paul handling the ball, but now it’s different. I don’t remember Vogul’s Pacers team did they play with a slower pace or faster?

[Mulhollanddrive]

Wow does sound like Allen was an after thought.

I'd say let's see how we look and we can always pull the trigger during season.

I am really curious how good this 2nd unit can be it should be the best in the NBA (start of 2nd and 4th quarters) :

Beal, Gordon, Allen, Watanabe, Nurkic

[matt131]

https://x.com/protectedpick/status/1708179755034636397

[Saberestar]

Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

Dang so it sounds like we might not even have plans for Grayson Allen at this point and were 100% sold on Nurkic and Little for Ayton.

Wow, now if we trade Allen for TJ McConnell I will not be surprised at all.

I can’t believe we essentially lucked into Allen. lol we legit did no negotiating during this trade. We just said “gimme dat” and the Blazers were lucky AF someone was willing to take Nurkic of their hands.

Whether he’s a good fit or not, to me this story makes the whole situation sound a lot worse on the end of the Suns. Also makes us a little less guilty of helping a contender get better since we were unaware of who the third team was.

I wonder if the suns go through with this knowing Dame goes to the Bucks and there’s a possibility of Jrue going to a west contender. I say, honestly, probably not.

Also why be involved in a trade where there’s a required 8 million that needs to come back to you but you’re not allowed to know who the player is or ask for anyone specific or even a specific size/position. That’s awful.

Edit: maybe I am missing something:

Read on Twitter

“Grayson Allen’s inclusion as the final piece made Phoenix a “resounding yes” to make the trade.”

I guess I don’t know what the whole article said. Anyway, oh well haha

To this end, the Suns could never know the third team in the trade. Cronin kept Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein on the line for months and weeks and days, and finally, hours on Tuesday and Wednesday. Bartelstein, general manager James Jones and owner Mat Ishbia could go days without hearing from Portland, but Cronin would always circle back and keep them abreast.

When Cronin and Horst went to sleep on Tuesday night, they were confident that they had a trade to complete on Wednesday. The Blazers and Bucks just needed to close out terms with the Suns, and they had a deal.

Here's what made that delicate, though: If the deal fell apart, Horst didn't want another team to know how far along these Blazers-Bucks talks had gotten. The Suns knew they were getting Portland's Nurkic, Nassir Little and Keon Johnson in a three-team trade, but the Suns had to get one more asset to make this deal workable. In almost all cases, Cronin would've told Bartelstein that he was getting Milwaukee guard Grayson Allen, but Horst's insistences on secrecy made this different.

Cronin did tell Bartelstein the general salary and position of the mystery player, so the Suns were able to deduce that it was one of two players -- Allen and Oklahoma City's Victor Oladipo, who is recovering from a serious leg injury. The Thunder are sometimes on the periphery of these big deals, so the Suns thought that was a possibility. Of course, the Thunder were nowhere near this trade.

Cronin kept telling Bartelstein: Just trust me. You're going to like the mystery player. Trust me.

Around 2:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Cronin confirmed Bartelstein's suspicions and told him that, yes, they were getting Allen in the trade. After the Suns confirmed it was Allen, Bartelstein, Jones and Ishbia briefly huddled and returned a resounding yes to Cronin. Done, Bartelstein told him. And that was that. The three teams agreed on the trade, and immediately started calling the players and agents involved to inform them of the blockbuster.

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/insider/story/_/id/38527348/inside-damian-lillard-trade-how-bucks-blazers-suns-got-finish-line

It was already said that we were interested in him when talking to the Bucks last season.