The Official 2025 Offseason Thread Part 1

[Ghost of Kleine]

Read on Twitter

[BobbieL]

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

That was a terrible

I wonder if he even knows about the second apron

Gregory mentioned the cap and tax apron. Chill out dude.

Actually - he was asked about it - he didn't bring it up. It was a terrible press conference. And again, might not mean a thing.

[Ghost of Kleine]

https://youtu.be/UzvXQNbaXBo?si=KjMQbebjECHlh-c1

PHOENIX SUNS Brian Gregory Full Introductory Press Conference ( 37 minutes).

[Revived]

Read on Twitter

Lol what even is Bartestein’s qualification to be “involved in "every single aspect" of basketball operations”? Being the right sperm cell from a rich and well-connected daddy?

[Revived]

Mat and I are a team. We are completely aligned....I report to Mat Ishbia. Mat is an owner that is involved, and I like that. But he has also empowered me to build this team.

I'm never going to shy away from the fact that the reason I'm sitting up here is because of my relationship with Mat Ishbia.

So contrary to Ishbia trying to say he isn’t involved and doesn’t make the decisions…it’s obvious now that he does.

[Calvin Klein]

I gotta say. To finally see some Ishbia backlash in social media gives me a tiny bit of hope. Unfortunately, it'll mean absolutely nothing.

[KdoubleDees23]

What’s the appetite to get Ben Simmons or Westbrook for minimum

[wheezy]

What’s the appetite to get Ben Simmons or Westbrook for minimum

Westbrook takes some of the most boneheaded shots but at least he hustles and puts his heart out there. Would love him off the bench, unfortunately there's no way he comes here unless KD is traded first.

[thamadkant]

Read on Twitter

What a bunch of **** Booker simps.

Booker has not done enough for this ownership and front office to put all their eggs in one basket.

Pathetic.

[thamadkant]

This conference with the new Suns GM is useless, he's useless, his boss is useless and whomever props this disgrace of a front office is useless.

[bwgood77]

It just comes down to defining success and expectations. Being 'relevant' (i.e., competing for the post-season) with some level of star power is a minimum goal that many organizations will have. Some dont believe in tearing it all the way down. Teams like Indiana, Chicago, Sacramento, etc. are examples of this. This avoids one of the more straightforward approaches to building a true contender, but even that is no guarantee.

Sure, they want championshipS, but they have a different plan on how they want to get there and a floor they dont want to dip below. Is it the best path to getting there? Probably not, but there is a significant difference between the number of teams who are actually in championship or bust mode (only be a contender or tanking) and the number of teams whose fanbases want that for them.

Thats a reasoned response and when put that way - it does sound reasonable.

But I just am not sure they can get the right team around Booker to build up to even being in the play-in game with short sighted moves. It is going to take patience and discipline from Ishbia - I think the next two years should be rough But it sounds like Ishbia would rather stretch Beal to use the MLE (short term move), plus "on the edges" trades that are just moving players not really improving the roster.

I get its no guarantee blowing it up gets you a title but if you want to build around Booker - the next two years should be lean years

The reason we won't trade Booker is simple. To trade Booker is to tank, and we can't tank because we don't own our picks.

Houston is the only team that can give us any value back in a Booker deal, since our remainder of WAS's swap rights have been re-swapped by us into worthlessness - WAS couldn't give us our pick back if they wanted to! If we try to tank without first getting a substantial amount of our picks back, we destroy any leverage to get them back in the future as they would become too valuable. In other words, we have to try to win as much as possible to maintain at least some leverage in negotiations to get our picks back, which is a precondition for rebuilding.

I don't think an NBA franchise has ever been as stuck as the Phoenix Suns are right now.

I still can't believe we traded our '31 to the Jazz for three borderline SRPs. I lost a lot of faith in the organization that day - and in so many strangers online who seemed to think it was a good deal.

Booker breaking all kinds of Suns records will be the only thing for us to cheer for over the next several years.

Yeah, the rationale why we can't tank is right, which is why i only bring up Houston. Mainly because I know they have heavy interest in Book and they have our unprotected picks. At least this year, in 27 and 29.

I would trade him for those three, a couple prospects and filler (FVV or Brooks or maybe Green) or even the latter 2 and one of Houston's. However, if we don't trade with Houston, unless we had some crazy good package elsewhere I can see holding onto Book next year, since we don't have our 26 pick (nor does Houston). So even a trade with Houston wouldn't get us our pick. But if we are terrible next year, or even just borderline play in, I would see if Houston would do the 27/29/Houston 1st/ and the players...maybe whoever they get this year, Eason or maybe Smith and Whitmore or Reed Sheppard plus the big filler contract. Though I think FVV might be expiring so it would have to be at the deadline or he couldn't be part of it. That would give us a ton of cap space though...get us under the apron, get picks, players, etc plus whatever we get for KD and with our late picks.

[BobbieL]

Thats a reasoned response and when put that way - it does sound reasonable.

But I just am not sure they can get the right team around Booker to build up to even being in the play-in game with short sighted moves. It is going to take patience and discipline from Ishbia - I think the next two years should be rough But it sounds like Ishbia would rather stretch Beal to use the MLE (short term move), plus "on the edges" trades that are just moving players not really improving the roster.

I get its no guarantee blowing it up gets you a title but if you want to build around Booker - the next two years should be lean years

The reason we won't trade Booker is simple. To trade Booker is to tank, and we can't tank because we don't own our picks.

Houston is the only team that can give us any value back in a Booker deal, since our remainder of WAS's swap rights have been re-swapped by us into worthlessness - WAS couldn't give us our pick back if they wanted to! If we try to tank without first getting a substantial amount of our picks back, we destroy any leverage to get them back in the future as they would become too valuable. In other words, we have to try to win as much as possible to maintain at least some leverage in negotiations to get our picks back, which is a precondition for rebuilding.

I don't think an NBA franchise has ever been as stuck as the Phoenix Suns are right now.

I still can't believe we traded our '31 to the Jazz for three borderline SRPs. I lost a lot of faith in the organization that day - and in so many strangers online who seemed to think it was a good deal.

Booker breaking all kinds of Suns records will be the only thing for us to cheer for over the next several years.

Yeah, the rationale why we can't tank is right, which is why i only bring up Houston. Mainly because I know they have heavy interest in Book and they have our unprotected picks. At least this year, in 27 and 29.

I would trade him for those three, a couple prospects and filler (FVV or Brooks or maybe Green) or even the latter 2 and one of Houston's. However, if we don't trade with Houston, unless we had some crazy good package elsewhere I can see holding onto Book next year, since we don't have our 26 pick (nor does Houston). So even a trade with Houston wouldn't get us our pick. But if we are terrible next year, or even just borderline play in, I would see if Houston would do the 27/29/Houston 1st/ and the players...maybe whoever they get this year, Eason or maybe Smith and Whitmore or Reed Sheppard plus the big filler contract. Though I think FVV might be expiring so it would have to be at the deadline or he couldn't be part of it. That would give us a ton of cap space though...get us under the apron, get picks, players, etc plus whatever we get for KD and with our late picks.

The rockets just pushed back the option to pick up FVV. It’s 44m .. club option.

What about FVV Smith and a couple FRPs for Durant

FVV gets his 44m and a huge expiring

Granted Rockets might be looking at other options

[TeamTragic]

The reason we won't trade Booker is simple. To trade Booker is to tank, and we can't tank because we don't own our picks.

Houston is the only team that can give us any value back in a Booker deal, since our remainder of WAS's swap rights have been re-swapped by us into worthlessness - WAS couldn't give us our pick back if they wanted to! If we try to tank without first getting a substantial amount of our picks back, we destroy any leverage to get them back in the future as they would become too valuable. In other words, we have to try to win as much as possible to maintain at least some leverage in negotiations to get our picks back, which is a precondition for rebuilding.

I don't think an NBA franchise has ever been as stuck as the Phoenix Suns are right now.

I still can't believe we traded our '31 to the Jazz for three borderline SRPs. I lost a lot of faith in the organization that day - and in so many strangers online who seemed to think it was a good deal.

Booker breaking all kinds of Suns records will be the only thing for us to cheer for over the next several years.

Yeah, the rationale why we can't tank is right, which is why i only bring up Houston. Mainly because I know they have heavy interest in Book and they have our unprotected picks. At least this year, in 27 and 29.

I would trade him for those three, a couple prospects and filler (FVV or Brooks or maybe Green) or even the latter 2 and one of Houston's. However, if we don't trade with Houston, unless we had some crazy good package elsewhere I can see holding onto Book next year, since we don't have our 26 pick (nor does Houston). So even a trade with Houston wouldn't get us our pick. But if we are terrible next year, or even just borderline play in, I would see if Houston would do the 27/29/Houston 1st/ and the players...maybe whoever they get this year, Eason or maybe Smith and Whitmore or Reed Sheppard plus the big filler contract. Though I think FVV might be expiring so it would have to be at the deadline or he couldn't be part of it. That would give us a ton of cap space though...get us under the apron, get picks, players, etc plus whatever we get for KD and with our late picks.

The rockets just pushed back the option to pick up FVV. It’s 44m .. club option.

What about FVV Smith and a couple FRPs for Durant

FVV gets his 44m and a huge expiring

Granted Rockets might be looking at other options

What is a better option for them?

[SunsRback4Good]

Read on Twitter

What a bunch of **** Booker simps.

Booker has not done enough for this ownership and front office to put all their eggs in one basket.

Pathetic.

Agreed! Booker as a first option looks completely lost on the court. He needs an alpha like CP3 or Jimmy to push his buttons and get him playing at a high level. The sooner we trade Booker the better our team will be.

[Ghost of Kleine]

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

[BobbieL]

Yeah, the rationale why we can't tank is right, which is why i only bring up Houston. Mainly because I know they have heavy interest in Book and they have our unprotected picks. At least this year, in 27 and 29.

I would trade him for those three, a couple prospects and filler (FVV or Brooks or maybe Green) or even the latter 2 and one of Houston's. However, if we don't trade with Houston, unless we had some crazy good package elsewhere I can see holding onto Book next year, since we don't have our 26 pick (nor does Houston). So even a trade with Houston wouldn't get us our pick. But if we are terrible next year, or even just borderline play in, I would see if Houston would do the 27/29/Houston 1st/ and the players...maybe whoever they get this year, Eason or maybe Smith and Whitmore or Reed Sheppard plus the big filler contract. Though I think FVV might be expiring so it would have to be at the deadline or he couldn't be part of it. That would give us a ton of cap space though...get us under the apron, get picks, players, etc plus whatever we get for KD and with our late picks.

The rockets just pushed back the option to pick up FVV. It’s 44m .. club option.

What about FVV Smith and a couple FRPs for Durant

FVV gets his 44m and a huge expiring

Granted Rockets might be looking at other options

What is a better option for them?

Good question. I would have to look who has a player better than KD . Plus 44m - tough to match

[SunsRback4Good]

Should Brian Gregory be trusted?

[lilfishi22]

Should Brian Gregory be trusted?

Doesn't really matter does it? He's still in the GM seat whether we trust him or not

[TeamTragic]

Should Brian Gregory be trusted?

When he hires a coach and we see trades then you should have a pretty good idea.

[bigfoot]

Key difference I see right away ... Gregory is a coach's GM and Jones was a player's GM. Under Jones, did the players hold power over the coaches or vice versa. Did Jones castrate Vogel and Bud and Monty by allowing star players too much latitude? I can understand defining and establishing identity and values of the Suns. Owner, GM, coach should expect players to live by and execute identity and those values. Otherwise you're not playing regardless of your salary.