Keep or Trade Devin Booker in the off season?

[BobbieL]

For me, the 3 best trade options (teams) to trade Booker to for young players and picks would be: ( centerpiece value)

1- Houston
Booker for J Green/ landale/ Whitmore/ PHX 25' 1st/ PHX 27' 1st/ PHX 29' 1st.

2- Detroit
Booker for Stewart/ Ivey / Thompson or Holland/ DET 27' 1st/ DET 29' 1st/ DET 31' 1st.

3- Utah
Booker for Collins/ Sexton/ Hendricks/ UTA 27' 1st/ UTA 29' 1st/ PHX 31' 1st.
** Trade Collins/ Milicic 8 million expiring/ 2 CLE 1sts to Portland for J Grant/ Camara/ Reath?
** Trade Sexton to Orlando for Bidatze/ Black/ Houston/ ORL 26' 2nd/ WAS 28' 2nd.

You have them in the right order
Suns might have to take Dillon Brooks as cap filler to make the math work.... better y et, be nice to get under Apron 2 if possible with either the Durant or hopefully Booker trade

Thompson is by far my favorite asset out of that bunch. Makes them my favorite option, sending Booker east is a bonus as is the fact that they are WAY under the cap, so we can have them take Royce or Greyson as well.

Booker->Pistons for Ivey, Stewart, Thompson++
Durant-> Houston for our picks++

Works for me

Don't the Suns have to be under the second apron to combine players? If so that means a Durant trade would need to be first to get under the apron level to add a player like Allen or Royce

[Ghost of Kleine]

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[lilfishi22]

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Well before my time but how does a 36-46 team make the playoffs??

[Ghost of Kleine]

Read on Twitter

Well before my time, but how does a 36-46 team make the playoffs??

Less teams to compete against back then, I believe? Like around only 23 or so at the time.

[Ghost of Kleine]

For me, the 3 best trade options (teams) to trade Booker to for young players and picks would be: ( centerpiece value)

1- Houston
Booker for J Green/ landale/ Whitmore/ PHX 25' 1st/ PHX 27' 1st/ PHX 29' 1st.

2- Detroit
Booker for Stewart/ Ivey / Thompson or Holland/ DET 27' 1st/ DET 29' 1st/ DET 31' 1st.

3- Utah
Booker for Collins/ Sexton/ Hendricks/ UTA 27' 1st/ UTA 29' 1st/ PHX 31' 1st.
** Trade Collins/ Milicic 8 million expiring/ 2 CLE 1sts to Portland for J Grant/ Camara/ Reath?
** Trade Sexton to Orlando for Bidatze/ Black/ Houston/ ORL 26' 2nd/ WAS 28' 2nd.

You have them in the right order
Suns might have to take Dillon Brooks as cap filler to make the math work.... better y et, be nice to get under Apron 2 if possible with either the Durant or hopefully Booker trade

I'd love to take back Dillon Brooks ( in a KD trade premise), but in Booker to Houston trade, there's just no way that Houston would keep Green at 33 million and also have Booker at 54 million. That's almost 90 million tied up redundantly in one position.

No, for sure J Green would be coming back, and I'd be very happy to get him in the trade because contrary to some people's inaccurate assessment of him, I have no doubts he'll be a star player. Maybe not a super star, but definitely somewhere between Bradley Beal and Clyde Drexler perhaps? Getting him back would be a great value get for us!

And I'm not as worried about using Booker or KD to get under the 2nd apron because we'll absolutely have other mechanisms to accomplish that in

1- Martin and Milicics' team options we can decline for around 17 million in cap reduction. 2- Then say if we do a trade of Allen for Bidatze and Harris ( 7.5 million expiring) that saves us another 7 million or so. Finally, we trade O'neale to San Antonio for 2 future 2nds (they need shooting at the SG/ SF because neither Castle nor Sochancan really shoot). That shaves off another 9 million.

So altogether it breaks down as:
1- Decline Milicic and Martin= 17 million.
2- Allen for Bidatze/ Harris expiring buyout) 7 million.
3- Trade O'neale into cap space for 2nds= 9 million saved. That's a total of 33 million in cap reduction. So currently we're over the 2nd apron by 34 million. Next season the 2nd apron is set at 208 million. In doing these simple fringe trades, we cut 33 million and before trading KD at all, we're now only 1-2 million over the 2nd apron.

All we'll need to do to get under is to trade KD and get any player ( filler) back with a small expiring of more than 2 million to be under the 2nd apron. So KD doesn't at all need to be used as a salary dump at all.

[Ghost of Kleine]

You have them in the right order
Suns might have to take Dillon Brooks as cap filler to make the math work.... better y et, be nice to get under Apron 2 if possible with either the Durant or hopefully Booker trade

Thompson is by far my favorite asset out of that bunch. Makes them my favorite option, sending Booker east is a bonus as is the fact that they are WAY under the cap, so we can have them take Royce or Greyson as well.

Booker->Pistons for Ivey, Stewart, Thompson++
Durant-> Houston for our picks++

Works for me

Don't the Suns have to be under the second apron to combine players? If so that means a Durant trade would need to be first to get under the apron level to add a player like Allen or Royce

Yes you're absolutely right. We're currently over the 2nd apron by 34 million. So we just need to decline Milicic and Martin's team options for 17 million in cap savings and then trade Allen and O'neale in cap saving moves taking back less salary or no salary at all just future picks?

We could get within 1 million of the 2nd apron after doing these moves.

[Frank Lee]

https://www.spotrac.com/nba/apron/_/year/2025/sort/cap_total2

you sure about your numbers Einstein? This year is done

just asking for clarity. pun intended


and then there is this....

An extra $4 million over a three-year span might not sound like a lot, but again, the cap will be increasing at the same percentage each year as well. While the second apron is $188.9 million in 2024-25, it's projected to jump to $207.8 million in 2025-26 and nearly $228.6 million in 2026-27.Aug 26, 2024

[Frank Lee]

I hope y'all aren't too butthurt if/when we keep Book. You know it will be his choice. he's earned that.

[thamadkant]

I hope y'all aren't too butthurt if/when we keep Book. You know it will be his choice. he's earned that.

Suns FO and GM are horribly delusional or under the impression that Suns fans prefer a horrible decade and keep Booker rather than cashing out.

[Frank Lee]

wrong thread.

[Puff]

It is a shame that Booker has to go. While I question his leadership with this current team he did have a great friendship with our team
prior to KD and it started in the bubble with Ricky Rubio. Then FCK Head bought our team and it has been nothing but down hill ever since. How can you build friendship with new minimum level players joining the team every summer. If he does stay who will be his teammates next year? I really question what KD will bring in return. Bottom line I think he and the fans need a break from the mess that FCK Head created.

I still go back to the term that Nurkic used "CHAOS".

Could Fizdale be a problem? I have never been a fan of his. I think his only claim to fame was when Lebron and Wade were in Miami.

[Saberestar]

I hope y'all aren't too butthurt if/when we keep Book. You know it will be his choice. he's earned that.

At this point and with the results that we have had this season I am pretty sure that Ishbia will sit with Booker and ask him what do you think about retooling around him next year.

Like you said Booker will decide about staying or leaving. I would bet that he is 50/50 about it. We will see.

If he decides to stay I think we will trade KD for a good package and we will try HARD to trade Beal getting at least a couple guys with smaller contracts for him.

Without Beal on the roster we would have more flexibility and much more options to create a different roster. Atlanta and Wizards were the only 2 teams open to add him at the deadline, we would need to evaluate the price of get him out of town.

[Calvin Klein]

This is where we are. The minute Ishbia traded for KD, he basically guaranteed Booker would be eventually traded. Because the outcome was inevitable. There was no path to a long term good team going that way. Good one, clown.

[BobbieL]

I hope y'all aren't too butthurt if/when we keep Book. You know it will be his choice. he's earned that.

Suns FO and GM are horribly delusional or under the impression that Suns fans prefer a horrible decade and keep Booker rather than cashing out.

There is a segment of the fan base that wants to keep Booker at all costs. The "Booker deserves to decide whether he stays or not. The team owes him that."

I think that argument is nonsense. Do what is best for the team

[Ghost of Kleine]

Read on Twitter

Good to hear Booker saying these things because it means that he's realizing it for himself. But as we've talked about for multiple seasons now this team needs tough physical enforcers, to hold players accountable.

They need vocal leaders, and yes! They need a serious culture change from the top down. We're just soft as babysh** with a very fragile mentality. I personally don't care about getting more vets on this team unless it's a Dillon Brooks, Draymond Green, or an Isiah Stewart type of "take no crap" mentality.

Heck we could get Crowder back for a vet minimum and Paul too like myself and others have mentioned many times before. People may want a culture change too, but it starts with bringing in the right people to set the tone!

[thamadkant]

I hope y'all aren't too butthurt if/when we keep Book. You know it will be his choice. he's earned that.

Suns FO and GM are horribly delusional or under the impression that Suns fans prefer a horrible decade and keep Booker rather than cashing out.

There is a segment of the fan base that wants to keep Booker at all costs. The "Booker deserves to decide whether he stays or not. The team owes him that."

I think that argument is nonsense. Do what is best for the team

Those fans are in love with Booker.

CP3 led the culture change that gave Suns best 3 year run since Nash era and those same fans praised Booker and disrespected CP3... if anyone deserves to decide where to go it was CP3 and yet Suns FO traded him to Washington, a rebuilding team. Disrespect big time. Ishiba is a scumbag for that.

My point is, Booker brought the CP3 era to end when he really pushed for KD and green lighting the trade of Bridges, Cam Johnson and Suns entire immediate and medium term future to bring in his buddy KD.


Then Booker yelled at Ayton while he himself missed defensive plays constantly and then called out Ayton on the media when he should have kept it under wraps as leaders do. Then he and KD pushed Ayton away along with Monty.

Booker then insist he plays a Harden role which has yielded losses after losses, but it don't matter to him if he gets his stats up.


Booker is Carmelo Anthony version 2 as far as I can tell.

[Puff]

Without trading KD and Book this is who will probably return unless we can or will trade them.

Book
KD
Beal - The only guaranteed return
Dunn
Oso???
Allen - unless we can trade him
O'Neal - unless we can trade him
Bol Bol??
Gillespie??
Ty Ty??

Nick Richards is a marginal NBA center at best but he probably will return.

Just imagine - we could go from Booker being the last man standing to Beal being the last man standing. FCK HEAD has no plan to build team unity and a winning culture. NONE!!!!!! He is the Elon Musk of the NBA.

I think we could have survived the trade for KD even though I hated it. The trade for Beal and Nurkic/Allen has basically sealed our doom for this year and the future. The only way out is to trade Booker for a surprisingly good package in return.

Some thought that the contracts we gave to Allen and O'Neale was pure genius as we could use them as trade pieces. How is that working out. They are every bit as untradeable as Beal.

Please give me a good decision that FCK HEAD has made for the improvement of our roster.

Hell, he even traded Sophie Cunningham, damn I liked her.

[BobbieL]

Without trading KD and Book this is who will probably return unless we can or will trade them.

Book
KD
Beal - The only guaranteed return
Dunn
Oso???
Allen - unless we can trade him
O'Neal - unless we can trade him
Bol Bol??
Gillespie??
Ty Ty??

Nick Richards is a marginal NBA center at best but he probably will return.

Just imagine - we could go from Booker being the last man standing to Beal being the last man standing. FCK HEAD has no plan to build team unity and a winning culture. NONE!!!!!! He is the Elon Musk of the NBA.

I think we could have survived the trade for KD even though I hated it. The trade for Beal and Nurkic/Allen has basically sealed our doom for this year and the future. The only way out is to trade Booker for a surprisingly good package in return.

Some thought that the contracts we gave to Allen and O'Neale was pure genius as we could use them as trade pieces. How is that working out. They are every bit as untradeable as Beal.

Please give me a good decision that FCK HEAD has made for the improvement of our roster.

Hell, he even traded Sophie Cunningham, damn I liked her.

First, what I know of the WNBA - the trade to move on from Cunningham was necessary. But like the Suns they back themselves into a corner with the Copper trade. They had a top 3 pick - granted, they wouldn't have traded it if they had the 1st pick... Mercury are leveraged too but I think in better spot

As for the Suns - you nailed it. They extended those players as those were the best options - and the players knew it so they got 4 year deals as Ishbia didn't have better options

I understand the CBA was ratified after the Durant trade - but he really put the team in a bind. Somebody didn't read the fine print! As if they did - they probably shouldn't have made the Beal trade.

The only way for the Suns is what has been discussed. And I think by the end of the year, more fans will be of the same opinion that it will be time to blow it up

[thamadkant]

Read on Twitter

Good to hear Booker saying these things because it means that he's realizing it for himself. But as we've talked about for multiple seasons now this team needs tough physical enforcers, to hold players accountable.

They need vocal leaders, and yes! They need a serious culture change from the top down. We're just soft as babysh** with a very fragile mentality. I personally don't care about getting more vets on this team unless it's a Dillon Brooks, Draymond Green, or an Isiah Stewart type of "take no crap" mentality.

Heck we could get Crowder back for a vet minimum and Paul too like myself and others have mentioned many times before. People may want a culture change too, but it starts with bringing in the right people to set the tone!

The issue is his been saying it for years and we know he doesn't the tools to bea big dog because he just doesn't have the personality or physical abilities to be a dominant guard when shot is off.


Booker is going to be on 60M a year on a sub 35 win team.. eventually he will force his way out and dictate where to go. It's best to trade him to the team where suns benefit.

[Puff]

Without trading KD and Book this is who will probably return unless we can or will trade them.

Book
KD
Beal - The only guaranteed return
Dunn
Oso???
Allen - unless we can trade him
O'Neal - unless we can trade him
Bol Bol??
Gillespie??
Ty Ty??

Nick Richards is a marginal NBA center at best but he probably will return.

Just imagine - we could go from Booker being the last man standing to Beal being the last man standing. FCK HEAD has no plan to build team unity and a winning culture. NONE!!!!!! He is the Elon Musk of the NBA.

I think we could have survived the trade for KD even though I hated it. The trade for Beal and Nurkic/Allen has basically sealed our doom for this year and the future. The only way out is to trade Booker for a surprisingly good package in return.

Some thought that the contracts we gave to Allen and O'Neale was pure genius as we could use them as trade pieces. How is that working out. They are every bit as untradeable as Beal.

Please give me a good decision that FCK HEAD has made for the improvement of our roster.

Hell, he even traded Sophie Cunningham, damn I liked her.

First, what I know of the WNBA - the trade to move on from Cunningham was necessary. But like the Suns they back themselves into a corner with the Copper trade. They had a top 3 pick - granted, they wouldn't have traded it if they had the 1st pick... Mercury are leveraged too but I think in better spot

As for the Suns - you nailed it. They extended those players as those were the best options - and the players knew it so they got 4 year deals as Ishbia didn't have better options

I understand the CBA was ratified after the Durant trade - but he really put the team in a bind. Somebody didn't read the fine print! As if they did - they probably shouldn't have made the Beal trade.

The only way for the Suns is what has been discussed. And I think by the end of the year, more fans will be of the same opinion that it will be time to blow it up

I just wanted Sophie to replace Drysdale as our color announcer. She looks and sounds a whole lot better. Hopefully she comes back after the WNBA season and gets that job.