2024-25 Season Discussion and Speculation Part IV

[thamadkant]

Evan Sidery is the one of the biggest suns grifter out there. Next post he'll say "Ishiba will be disappointed if Suns don't make the playoffs and may consider another direction with KD".

Just the most useless information that a 14 year old can deduce just by having common sense. Flex is the worst, using Booker's brother as a source and pretending to be legit insider in the front office.

[dcoop]

You guys should join the discord bw made. I know it’s like an old dog learning new tricks but a better platform without ads and laginess of this site

I need to figure out what more you can do there, but glad to see a number of people are there. Don't know much about it, but much easier to post and discuss things quickly. Was reading some stuff but mainly people should at least bookmark it in case the forum goes down if they want to continue discussion. That earlier invite expires in 7 days so probably better if you would want to go there to accept it and then bookmark the page.

https://discord.gg/syxGs4GQ

You can add side chats for like
Off season, individual games, etc.

[TeamTragic]

Evan Sidery is the one of the biggest suns grifter out there. Next post he'll say "Ishiba will be disappointed if Suns don't make the playoffs and may consider another direction with KD".

Just the most useless information that a 14 year old can deduce just by having common sense. Flex is the worst, using Booker's brother as a source and pretending to be legit insider in the front office.

Did you see KD throw shade at Flex?

[thamadkant]

Suns should contact Bucks for a KD Giannis swap. I think Giannis' frustration will hit peak once Bucks gets eliminated first round this season. He'd want to leave and dictate to go to Lakers, who is priming Lebron's retirement to pair Giannis and Luka.

Well throw a spanner in that plan and get Giannis to pair with Booker and Beal, if Suns are really keen on trying to compete.

Maybe add the two first rounders Suns got recently to sweeten it.

[thamadkant]

Evan Sidery is the one of the biggest suns grifter out there. Next post he'll say "Ishiba will be disappointed if Suns don't make the playoffs and may consider another direction with KD".

Just the most useless information that a 14 year old can deduce just by having common sense. Flex is the worst, using Booker's brother as a source and pretending to be legit insider in the front office.

Did you see KD throw shade at Flex?

Deservingly so.

Booker surely got told to stop texting his brother FO information.

[dcoop]

Suns should contact Bucks for a KD Giannis swap. I think Giannis' frustration will hit peak once Bucks gets eliminated first round this season. He'd want to leave and dictate to go to Lakers, who is priming Lebron's retirement to pair Giannis and Luka.

Well throw a spanner in that plan and get Giannis to pair with Booker and Beal, if Suns are really keen on trying to compete.

Maybe add the two first rounders Suns got recently to sweeten it.

Milwaukee would never do that

[thamadkant]

Suns should contact Bucks for a KD Giannis swap. I think Giannis' frustration will hit peak once Bucks gets eliminated first round this season. He'd want to leave and dictate to go to Lakers, who is priming Lebron's retirement to pair Giannis and Luka.

Well throw a spanner in that plan and get Giannis to pair with Booker and Beal, if Suns are really keen on trying to compete.

Maybe add the two first rounders Suns got recently to sweeten it.

Milwaukee would never do that

Yes, under normal circumstances.

Giannis is way younger and Suns don't have good picks...

But anyone who's paying attention can see Lakers are going to try to get Giannis as a post LeBron target. Bucks will be left hanging with nothing..

How about KD instead. Still try to get another ring while Dame is able. It just means they have to trade Portis and Lopez for other fitting players.

Bucks sure can try to field trade offers, I can see Grizzlies offer Jaren Jackson Jr, Thunder offer Chet and maybe Raptors with a combination of players.... but if Bucks want to make the next 2 years a window to go deep in the playoffs... they'd need someone like KD who is still putting up 26ppg and elite shooting efficiencies. KD is literally the suns best player still.

[Slim Charless]

Well this is where I differ from you, BW and some others here. I think that every team that doesn't win the title will at least have talk about adding him in the summer. Probably half of those will at least call and make an offer.

So that means 15 different offers for Durant. Minimum.

My favorite teams for him? We've been through that already. I think OKC and HOU are the most obvious and the only ones that make sense. As far as offers from them:

OKC-

Best case is JDub/Hartenstein/low level picks/filler
Worst case is probably some combo of Dort/Dieng/Topic/Wallace/filler. We'd also get some higher quality picks like their Philly picks this year and that Dallas pick in 2028.

Houston-

Best case is Amen, FVV and all our picks back.
Worst case is Jalen Green, Jabari Smith and some of our picks back. I think that we're more likely to get them to bit on Booker as he fits their team better.

I hope you are right about Durant - if so keep this and I will buy you lunch

I expect for Durant
A couple FRPs
One solid prospect
Cap filler

Yeah, I definitely Slim's trade expectations the best! I think it's probably more likely to see someone like Minnesota or maybe Dallas be serious about him. OKC has such great chemistry and joy and such a long window I don't know if I'd mess with it. Especially if they have to give up a key player. I wouldn't. Houston does make sense, but Booker makes a ton more sense for them and I think they give up A LOT more for him, being like 8-9 years younger and playing a position they are thinner at with good players. But OKC has far more assets so they could still make a pitch like his second one without disrupting the core much and give Chet injury insurance. When Chet is out they have to play the other Jaylin Williams, who sin't as good (maybe Slim means this guy..would make more sense).

Got another one....Booker to ORL for Franz/his brother/KCP/3 FRPs lol

They have De Silva to fill in at SF now who's on a rookie deal. Get a SG to pair with Suggs

Spoiler:

who you hated

and they have a great team going forward.

[garrick]

How are we good at talent acquisition? By trading one of the most massive hauls in history for 34 year old KD? They have made what look like decent fringe moves getting Royce, Jones, Morris, etc. I don't really think the Ayton/Camara for Nurkic/Allen was a great trade. I understand why they wanted to get off of Ayton, but still don't think it was good.

I don't really view Martin, Richards, or any of these other moves as great talent acquisitions.

I'm really glad we passed on Luka to draft Ayton... only to trade him eventually (+ Toumani and another frp) for Grayson Allen....

It'll be really interesting to hear what Nurk has to say about the suns locker room. Doesn't really seem like he was the issue so much as he (probably) loudly had an issue.

I would really like to know too. I used to get the feeling people don't like playing with KD, and you know he's gone onto social media and complained about his OKC teammates pretending to be a fan "What's KD gonna do playing with those cats" and then he did to reporters about his Brooklyn teammates. There is probably some unwritten rule about what happens in locker rooms stays in locker rooms but I'd really like to know. Espo was asking Legler in an interview I watched on youtube about how someone described our locker room is toxic and asked if he was ever in a toxic locker room in the NBA and if once you are, if it ever gets better, and Legler said "no".

Yeah he's a locker room cancer because he's a passive aggressive personality and we've seen him be totally disengaged in huddles during time outs and coaches let him get away with it because of his status.

If a coach is too hard on him he goes through management to lead a coup like in Brooklyn to get rid of the coach and never places the failures on himself for not winning.

[NapoleonII]

Video game BOOK tonight.

I actually like what I see building around JUST Booker.

Trade KD this summer, let Beal expire in 2 years.

I always thought Booker was a 2009/10 version of Kobe, he just needs defenders/cutters/passers/big men and he's a whole force onto himself. He's NOT good at playing 1b or 1a with other players IMO.

Booker
Dunn
Allen

Surround them with shooters, a FAST PG, defenders, and at least 2 big men that can defend/rebound and 1 that can shoot.

[Slim Charless]

Should've let Micic play tonight

[TeamTragic]

Should've let Micic play tonight

Dude wants to play overseas.

[thamadkant]

I hope you are right about Durant - if so keep this and I will buy you lunch

I expect for Durant
A couple FRPs
One solid prospect
Cap filler

Yeah, I definitely Slim's trade expectations the best! I think it's probably more likely to see someone like Minnesota or maybe Dallas be serious about him. OKC has such great chemistry and joy and such a long window I don't know if I'd mess with it. Especially if they have to give up a key player. I wouldn't. Houston does make sense, but Booker makes a ton more sense for them and I think they give up A LOT more for him, being like 8-9 years younger and playing a position they are thinner at with good players. But OKC has far more assets so they could still make a pitch like his second one without disrupting the core much and give Chet injury insurance. When Chet is out they have to play the other Jaylin Williams, who sin't as good (maybe Slim means this guy..would make more sense).

Got another one....Booker to ORL for Franz/his brother/KCP/3 FRPs lol

They have De Silva to fill in at SF now who's on a rookie deal. Get a SG to pair with Suggs

Spoiler:

who you hated

and they have a great team going forward.

They are not trading Franz for Booker.

They would want Banchero, Wagner and Booker if anything. Wagner is a utility knife offensive player so he can play make and facilitate.


It would be Isaac, Anthony, Suggs, 3 first Rounders

[Saberestar]

That's not what Gambo said.

When I listened to the live broadcast of their coverage of the final day before the deadline he mentioned Nurk was a locker room favorite and the schism between he and the head coach was posing a problem. In order to rectify it they shipped him away.

I am talking about yesterday's show and he said that Nurkic was a problem in the locker room and we need it to trade him. I don’t know what he said on a different day.

Listen to Hour 1: What the Phoenix Suns look like after the trade deadline at https://pds.cdnstream1.com/p/bonneville/burns-gambo-show/hour-1-what-the-phoenix-dc6ccf/audio.mp3

Yes he was a problem "in the locker room" because he was close with the players, but Bud was freezing him out. We know this because he openly told reporters a few weeks ago that that's what was going on.

Naturally - if you want control over a locker room (or at least an attempt at it) you can't have that in the midst. It's really not rocket science here.

We are about to find out a lot more whether in the next few weeks or in the offseason. From the surface this beef is one of the more bizarre things Bud has chosen and a distraction from the trash job he's done as HC.

Suns are going to end up eating yet another bad HC contract. It's an inevitability.

What are you gonna do as HC if your starting C is playing like **** and you put him of the bench and he starts talking **** ("life is not fair" lol) and continue to play terrible as a backup?

Budenholzer did a great job adjusting and putting Beal and Nurkic on the bench. Beal was a profesional and kept playing giving his all and Nurkic was immature and started crying when he needed to recognize that he was **** on the court for months. He deserved those DNPs.

[TeamTragic]

Per the WT Durant was informed on January 31 that the Warriors were interested in trading for him.

Therefore all this talk about how it was done in the shadows is not true.

[SunsRback4Good]

I'm every woman, it's all in me
Anything you want done, baby
I'll do it naturally
I'm every woman, it's all in me
I can read your thoughts right now
Every one from A to Z

[Fo-Real]

Is there a roster cut out there that can replace Plumlee? He is awful at times!!

[BobbieL]

Read on Twitter

Looking forward to him leaving in FA or us deciding what to do when he's 41 with no picks.

And this is exactly what will happen

Sorry, the decision shouldn't be Devin Bookers. It should be about whats best for the organization moving forward. If that means trading Devin Booker, so be it.

Booker will be happy making $60m per year....

[BobbieL]

Evan Sidery is the one of the biggest suns grifter out there. Next post he'll say "Ishiba will be disappointed if Suns don't make the playoffs and may consider another direction with KD".

Just the most useless information that a 14 year old can deduce just by having common sense. Flex is the worst, using Booker's brother as a source and pretending to be legit insider in the front office.

Did you see KD throw shade at Flex?

Didn't read it but this trading deadline, Flex had one story - and that was Jimmy butler to Phoenix... didn't have anything else. Not even Nurkic

Flex also thought Jimmy Butler wanted to come to Phoenix to "win"

When its basically been proven that Butlers goal for Phoenix was the $111/2 and if the Suns win, thats good too

[NavLDO]

Give Micic a chance. I have watched him for years in Europe. If utilized right he could be a spark from the bench.

I hope they do. I know he is in negotiations with some Euro teams, and since he didn't get to be traded to Denver, to pair with Jokic, he's mostly likely heavily favoring being bought out, but I hope he gives the Suns a fair shot, to show them what he can provide, and the Suns, in turn, give him a fair shot to show his full potential, playing alongside Book and Durant. He's proven the level of talent he can bring to an NBA team, but he truly only wants to play for teams that he feels has an actual shot at a championship.

Of course, I'm basing this all on that video that was shared earlier in the thread...it's possible, that a lot of that is just bunk, but it seems to fit reality, so I suspect it's at least close...