The Official 2025 Offseason Thread #4 Free Agency Opens!

[Fo-Real]

Actually I think the rotation becomes:

Green/ Gillespie/ Goodwin or Butler.
Booker/ Allen/ Brea.
Brooks/ Dunn/ O'neale.
Davis/ Fleming/ Ighodaro.
Williams/ Richards/ Maluach.

J Green as the PG because he's the much better ballhandler and driver, and he can't really shoot well yet, so putting him at SG wouldn't create any gravity. Also, Booker could excel in his natural role at SG and be an exceptional secondary playmaker.

Oso would be the 3rd rotation 4 because Maluach can hit the three. Fleming pairs with Richards as he's able to faceup and hit the three to compliment Richards as a non spacing center option.

Hayes Davis is going to shock you! He wants this more than anything and is going to be a great signing

Wouldn't be surprised to see him get a starting nod. He'll easily accept a 3-D role and can handle it. However, it's more than likely he will be the primary sixth-man coming off the bench for offense. You have to ask when Book and Green are resting who has the green light to attack the basket. It's pretty thin for offense so I would expect Hayes-Davis and Gillespie to led the charge. I could see him playing at both SF/PF positions and earning 25+ minutes a game.

Ya, his skillset looks/seems more Small Forward-ish

[Fo-Real]

Damn people. It's amazing the point Book crying and whining out here. Kobe was a shooting guard but the primary ball handler for all the Lakers championships during his tenure.

Career average for Kobe 25p 5.2r 4.7a 3.0to .329 3pt%, .447fg%, .826ft%
Career average for Book 24.4p 4.0r 5.2a 3.0to .354 3pt% .464fg% .873ft%

Fact is, you should always put the ball into the hands of your best player and live or die with it.

I'm just glad I don't have to watch the entire team try to adjust to playing around Kevin Durant. His superstar days have passed him by as far as being a ice cold killer scorer (he was good but was a turnover machine). On defense, there were dudes who who nobody has ever heard of that if they looked up and saw him defending them, basically gave them the green light to attack. We were the most boring team on offense and the least athletic overall in the league. This year there SHOULD be ball movement, we have athletes and defenders and hopefully energetic competitive dawgs. The fight in our team can only improve with the personalities we had left over in Dunn and Oso, along with the high energy guys we brought in with trades and draft. Booker has been known to adopt the personality of his teammates, hopefully **** Devin Booker reappears.

[Sunsdeuce]

Damn people. It's amazing the point Book crying and whining out here. Kobe was a shooting guard but the primary ball handler for all the Lakers championships during his tenure.

Career average for Kobe 25p 5.2r 4.7a 3.0to .329 3pt%, .447fg%, .826ft%
Career average for Book 24.4p 4.0r 5.2a 3.0to .354 3pt% .464fg% .873ft%

Fact is, you should always put the ball into the hands of your best player and live or die with it.

Derek Fischer never existed?

[sunsbum]

Damn people. It's amazing the point Book crying and whining out here. Kobe was a shooting guard but the primary ball handler for all the Lakers championships during his tenure.

Career average for Kobe 25p 5.2r 4.7a 3.0to .329 3pt%, .447fg%, .826ft%
Career average for Book 24.4p 4.0r 5.2a 3.0to .354 3pt% .464fg% .873ft%

Fact is, you should always put the ball into the hands of your best player and live or die with it.

I think if we are playing loose and fast, getting the ball up the court SSOL style and pushing passes up to half court etc it won’t matter too much if book is playing point. Now if we make the playoffs and things start to slowdown or we end up not playing breakneck it’ll be a different story.

[Sunsdeuce]

I have very realistic expectations for this team. It’s not going to be a good team!

BUT I want to see Jordan Otts world famous ability to mentor and improve players. I want to see a huge jump from Dunn and some impactful play from our draft picks. I already know what expect from Booker. I don’t know what to expect from Jalen Green. Houston fans wanted him gone so again I want to see that Jordan ott turn him into a star. Want to see is Mark Williams is capable of playing more than 50% of the season. Dude is only 23 years old with the body of a 47 year old. I want to see if the growth if these players are stagnant, that’s gonna be no fun.

[Saberestar]

Damn people. It's amazing the point Book crying and whining out here. Kobe was a shooting guard but the primary ball handler for all the Lakers championships during his tenure.

Career average for Kobe 25p 5.2r 4.7a 3.0to .329 3pt%, .447fg%, .826ft%
Career average for Book 24.4p 4.0r 5.2a 3.0to .354 3pt% .464fg% .873ft%

Fact is, you should always put the ball into the hands of your best player and live or die with it.

Derek Fischer never existed?

Derek Fisher defended PGs but he was never a primary ball handler. He played off the ball as a spot-up shooter.

His USG% in those years were usually around 15.

[WeekapaugGroove]

Damn people. It's amazing the point Book crying and whining out here. Kobe was a shooting guard but the primary ball handler for all the Lakers championships during his tenure.

Career average for Kobe 25p 5.2r 4.7a 3.0to .329 3pt%, .447fg%, .826ft%
Career average for Book 24.4p 4.0r 5.2a 3.0to .354 3pt% .464fg% .873ft%

Fact is, you should always put the ball into the hands of your best player and live or die with it.

I think if we are playing loose and fast, getting the ball up the court SSOL style and pushing passes up to half court etc it won’t matter too much if book is playing point. Now if we make the playoffs and things start to slowdown or we end up not playing breakneck it’ll be a different story.

Yeah looking at their roster I'd guess they play super agressive D to try and create turnovers and run. Half court wise this roster looks more like spam pick and rolls vs some complicated motion offense.

[NavLDO]

TheIVpointplay is great analyzing the Suns and he is all in about Book at PG. Here is what he said about that in X:

Just my opinion but being critical of what Devin Booker is set to earn over next 5 years while simultaneously stating he should play as a traditional SG next to a full-time PG - seems a bit disingenuous or something?

Margin for error to *earn* that $ is much slimmer if you put him in that box. & there is more than enough evidence that going the other route is certainly worth it.

Especially if you consider the limitations PHX have right now & how much a move like that would limit elsewhere.

Yes, the Suns were GREAT with CP3. But it dictated the rest of the roster in a way that they had to thread a needle & they still almost did.

How many guys are out there that can do what that version of CP3 did? And how many can PHX realistically add?

Not afraid to be wrong & welcome different opinions. But I will tell you one thing for damn sure. Zero reason to start Tyus Jones next to Book just to keep some BS convention. List of players who can create advantages for a team better than Book is A LOT shorter than you think.

I've been waiting for this for 3 years. Hell, I've been talking about it in some capacity for nearly 7.

Right or wrong, I am excited the tea leaves are suggesting we are going to finally find out.

I'll be honest, and have said as much recently, that from my limited scope of knowledge, it seemed to make more sense, as @Ghost of Kleine has been debating, to use Green more in a PG role. Green seems to be the more talented driver with at least as good of handles as Booker. And yes, with Booker being our premier point getter, he should be left off-ball to maximize his abilities, and 'open' catch-n-shoot opportunities.

That said, I'm happy to be wrong in this instance. We better have at least two pure shooting threats in the line-up, to give Booker more chances to operate, without being accosted by three defenders. I still believe that Green should have a good % of opportunities, to bring the ball up, even if that means just handing back to Booker once he gets back to within a few feet from the top of the key, because at least then, there's the options that opposing defenses will have to account for--will Green drive? pull-up and shoot the 3? or hand the ball to Booker?

Regardless, if 'Point Book' ends up being a wild success, I'll hardly complain about being dead wrong!

[Saberestar]

TheIVpointplay is great analyzing the Suns and he is all in about Book at PG. Here is what he said about that in X:

Just my opinion but being critical of what Devin Booker is set to earn over next 5 years while simultaneously stating he should play as a traditional SG next to a full-time PG - seems a bit disingenuous or something?

Margin for error to *earn* that $ is much slimmer if you put him in that box. & there is more than enough evidence that going the other route is certainly worth it.

Especially if you consider the limitations PHX have right now & how much a move like that would limit elsewhere.

Yes, the Suns were GREAT with CP3. But it dictated the rest of the roster in a way that they had to thread a needle & they still almost did.

How many guys are out there that can do what that version of CP3 did? And how many can PHX realistically add?

Not afraid to be wrong & welcome different opinions. But I will tell you one thing for damn sure. Zero reason to start Tyus Jones next to Book just to keep some BS convention. List of players who can create advantages for a team better than Book is A LOT shorter than you think.

I've been waiting for this for 3 years. Hell, I've been talking about it in some capacity for nearly 7.

Right or wrong, I am excited the tea leaves are suggesting we are going to finally find out.

I'll be honest, and have said as much recently, that from my limited scope of knowledge, it seemed to make more sense, as @Ghost of Kleine has been debating, to use Green more in a PG role. Green seems to be the more talented driver with at least as good of handles as Booker. And yes, with Booker being our premier point getter, he should be left off-ball to maximize his abilities, and 'open' catch-n-shoot opportunities.

That said, I'm happy to be wrong in this instance. We better have at least two pure shooting threats in the line-up, to give Booker more chances to operate, without being accosted by three defenders. I still believe that Green should have a good % of opportunities, to bring the ball up, even if that means just handing back to Booker once he gets back to within a few feet from the top of the key, because at least then, there's the options that opposing defenses will have to account for--will Green drive? pull-up and shoot the 3? or hand the ball to Booker?

Regardless, if 'Point Book' ends up being a wild success, I'll hardly complain about being dead wrong!

Yeah, but the latest from Gambo is that the plan will likely be Jalen Green starting at PG, not Book.
Then Gillespie as a backup and Goodwin and Jalen Butler battling for 3rd PG.

I am open minded about it. We will start that way but I am pretty sure that we will adjust to whatever is needed to win games.

[Calvin Klein]

Damn people. It's amazing the point Book crying and whining out here. Kobe was a shooting guard but the primary ball handler for all the Lakers championships during his tenure.

Career average for Kobe 25p 5.2r 4.7a 3.0to .329 3pt%, .447fg%, .826ft%
Career average for Book 24.4p 4.0r 5.2a 3.0to .354 3pt% .464fg% .873ft%

Fact is, you should always put the ball into the hands of your best player and live or die with it.

Derek Fischer never existed?

Derek Fisher defended PGs but he was never a primary ball handler. He played off the ball as a spot-up shooter.

His USG% in those years were usually around 15.

Those teams played triangle offense though.

Very different from today's offenses.

[bigfoot]

Damn people. It's amazing the point Book crying and whining out here. Kobe was a shooting guard but the primary ball handler for all the Lakers championships during his tenure.

Career average for Kobe 25p 5.2r 4.7a 3.0to .329 3pt%, .447fg%, .826ft%
Career average for Book 24.4p 4.0r 5.2a 3.0to .354 3pt% .464fg% .873ft%

Fact is, you should always put the ball into the hands of your best player and live or die with it.

Derek Fischer never existed?

Derek Fischer had a career avg of 3.0 assists. He was not a pure point guard. He was a combo guard.

[Frank Lee]

PG … SG…. PF….SF….

semantics … meaningless labels

Bigger question may be who can dribble?
Who can shoot? Let’s hope Ott puts the kibosh on excessive ISO-ing. This team better run, else that may be the half court game.

[bigfoot]

PG … SG…. PF….SF….

semantics … meaningless labels

Bigger question may be who can dribble?
Who can shoot? Let’s hope Ott puts the kibosh on excessive ISO-ing. This team better run, else that may be the half court game.

Book and Green plus a couple of these guys need to step up:

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

[TeamTragic]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/ObPQPTCKsn

[John Gambadoro] Adjustment here on the Suns plans this year:

Green will be the PG. Gillespie is the backup.

Point Book wears him down too much.

[Sunsdeuce]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/ObPQPTCKsn

[John Gambadoro] Adjustment here on the Suns plans this year:

Green will be the PG. Gillespie is the backup.

Point Book does not work due to double/triple teams.

From that Reddit post

I have seen most of the games Jalen played in his Houston career, maybe he will get better but him as a ball handler is just not it. He is capable of thinking like 3 different things. One is “I am just going to go towards the basket, not even try to score or jump or find a gap to make the pass, and I will dribble back and hand it back to Sengun effectively wasting time”, 2 is “I will just shoot this contested shot” which he occasionally makes if its his day, and I guess 3 is “I will just hand hand it back to FVV who will hand it to Sengun”. I think he is actually becoming underrated these days but he didn’t show us a lot of potential to be a good PG

[TeamTragic]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/ObPQPTCKsn

[John Gambadoro] Adjustment here on the Suns plans this year:

Green will be the PG. Gillespie is the backup.

Point Book does not work due to double/triple teams.

From that Reddit post

I have seen most of the games Jalen played in his Houston career, maybe he will get better but him as a ball handler is just not it. He is capable of thinking like 3 different things. One is “I am just going to go towards the basket, not even try to score or jump or find a gap to make the pass, and I will dribble back and hand it back to Sengun effectively wasting time”, 2 is “I will just shoot this contested shot” which he occasionally makes if its his day, and I guess 3 is “I will just hand hand it back to FVV who will hand it to Sengun”. I think he is actually becoming underrated these days but he didn’t show us a lot of potential to be a good PG

I just read above that Book bringing the ball up is bad news.

We need to see what we get from Green which I think will be a better result.

[Saberestar]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/ObPQPTCKsn

[John Gambadoro] Adjustment here on the Suns plans this year:

Green will be the PG. Gillespie is the backup.

Point Book does not work due to double/triple teams.

From that Reddit post

I have seen most of the games Jalen played in his Houston career, maybe he will get better but him as a ball handler is just not it. He is capable of thinking like 3 different things. One is “I am just going to go towards the basket, not even try to score or jump or find a gap to make the pass, and I will dribble back and hand it back to Sengun effectively wasting time”, 2 is “I will just shoot this contested shot” which he occasionally makes if its his day, and I guess 3 is “I will just hand hand it back to FVV who will hand it to Sengun”. I think he is actually becoming underrated these days but he didn’t show us a lot of potential to be a good PG

Ok, that's the opinion from one Rockets fan in Reddit. Not a big deal.

What is a big deal IMO is that Udoka (one of the best HCs in the league) played him on every game 33 mpg and when FVV was out last year he was their primary ball handler next to Amen (limited on offense yet) on the perimeter and he was rock solid.

IF Udoka would not trust him he would have started Aaron Holiday or Reed Sheppard.

With one more year of experience and Book next to him he can be very good at that role.

[TeamTragic]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/CjWdzxfZoq

[Charania] Jonathan Kuminga is not accepting Warriors’ current contract offers. The Suns and Kings have made “concrete” offers for Kuminga over the last week.

[Saberestar]

Shams:

“I’m told the Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings are two teams who have made concrete offers in the last week or so (for Kuminga). They are two of the more aggressive teams.”

Read on Twitter

[Ghost of Kleine]

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Go figure??