2014 Official FA Thread

[McStunna]

yeah worked wonders on Penny, Amare and so on..

can't read about our training staff anymore, they are not magicians

[bwgood77]

I prefer Frye to Pau. Plain and simple.

Edit: You know what, not plain and simple. I'd rather play Frye, Markieff, Plumlee, or Len any minutes that would be given to Pau. Not interested. Pau is a terrible fit.

Yeah, since Frye and Dragic were the most effective pick n roll duo in the league, he is obviously important, unless you can replace him with another guy who can hit long range shots and play that type of game AND add something else that Frye's missing, like getting 12 boards a game. Otherwise adding a guy who can't play that type of game with Dragic will likely move us two steps back before moving us forward any.

If we did get Pau, he should play center. But McD won't go after Pau. Just as Gaspar noted, he isn't just old, he's already been declining for like 6 years.

[Kerrsed]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Al_Iannazzone/status/480017451816480770[/tweet]

Sounds like Riley is getting desperate. I mean "Challenging" Lebron to stay?? Challenging him to help build a dynasty in Miami???

That reeks of desperation and sounds like the reports of the big 3 splitting up and getting paid are true. They already took a huge paycut to build the 1st dynasty and there is no way Miami can afford all 3 without them taking an even bigger paycut this time around.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT-I8jQDQ7c[/youtube]

Not 3..... Not 4..... Not 5..... Not 6..... Not 7.....

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

Sounds like Riley is getting desperate. I mean "Challenging" Lebron to stay?? Challenging him to help build a dynasty in Miami???

I agree. Would it really be that much fun to return to Cleveland? Maybe LAC. But COME ON LEBRON!! YOU WOULD HAVE SO MUCH FUN RUNNING WITH OUR GAZELLES IN PHOENIX!!!

If there were one guy I'd want from this draft to build this team for Lebron, I suppose it would be Stauskas. Lebron excels when surrounded by shooters.

Fantasy, I know. But I'm starting to see some appeal, despite sharing a conference with juggernauts.

[spanishninja]

Sounds like Riley is getting desperate. I mean "Challenging" Lebron to stay?? Challenging him to help build a dynasty in Miami???

I agree. Would it really be that much fun to return to Cleveland? Maybe LAC. But COME ON LEBRON!! YOU WOULD HAVE SO MUCH FUN RUNNING WITH OUR GAZELLES IN PHOENIX!!!

If there were one guy I'd want from this draft to build this team for Lebron, I suppose it would be Stauskas. Lebron excels when surrounded by shooters.

Fantasy, I know. But I'm starting to see some appeal, despite sharing a conference with juggernauts.

And nobody would criticize him of ring-chasing if he joined the Suns, since we are still under the radar in terms of next year's expectations. He would have a chance to start over without becoming a villain again.

[King4Day]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Al_Iannazzone/status/480017451816480770[/tweet]

Sounds like Riley is getting desperate. I mean "Challenging" Lebron to stay?? Challenging him to help build a dynasty in Miami???

That reeks of desperation and sounds like the reports of the big 3 splitting up and getting paid are true. They already took a huge paycut to build the 1st dynasty and there is no way Miami can afford all 3 without them taking an even bigger paycut this time around.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT-I8jQDQ7c[/youtube]

Not 3..... Not 4..... Not 5..... Not 6..... Not 7.....

For anyone still questioning why LeBron still gets hate nowadays, they need look no further than that video.
He's celebrating talking about winning rings while his abandoned fans had to watch.

I get it's a business and all that but as we all know, it could have been handled differently.

[bigfoot]

Pau and Deng are role players at this point in their careers.

Sent from my SM-N900V using RealGM Forums mobile app

Gasol at 17pts 10rbds 3.5ast 1.5blks is a role player. So Tim Duncan is a role player too? SMH.

Mike D'Antoni. Pau's stats last year were meaningless. The Lakers were better on both ends of the court with Gasol on the bench. He's 34 and declining fast. Just look at his performance in the playoffs in 2011-2013 or his efficiency in last couple years.

Pau's TS% in last 7 years:
.639
.617
.593
.589
.547
.512
.522

The trend is clear. Pau IS a role player at this point in his career. He is a terrible defender, and I mean TERRIBLE. And besides passing his offense isn't that great either. On a good team he's a 10-12 ppg guy. We have plenty of them on the roster for much cheaper.

He also made it clear that he doesn't want to play on a running team. All this talk about signing Pau makes me wanna club baby seals.

Do you even realize Tim Duncan never had TS% numbers like those first four years you listed. The fifth year under coach Mike Brown, Gasol goes .547 which is around Duncan's career average true shooting percentage. Then in D'Antoni's tenure Gasol is forced to take 10% more of his shots from the outside. Sure his TS% is going down. We don't need Gasol as an outside threat. Put him in as center with Frye or Kief at PF. Now we have a real low post game which we need for the playoffs. Neither the Thunder or Heat had a serious post threat and got beaten easily by a team with a superior post presence. Hell Duncan is 38 years old. Big men with post games last longer in the league. Just a two or three year contract until Len is ready to take over.

[gaspar]

Gasol at 17pts 10rbds 3.5ast 1.5blks is a role player. So Tim Duncan is a role player too? SMH.

Mike D'Antoni. Pau's stats last year were meaningless. The Lakers were better on both ends of the court with Gasol on the bench. He's 34 and declining fast. Just look at his performance in the playoffs in 2011-2013 or his efficiency in last couple years.

Pau's TS% in last 7 years:
.639
.617
.593
.589
.547
.512
.522

The trend is clear. Pau IS a role player at this point in his career. He is a terrible defender, and I mean TERRIBLE. And besides passing his offense isn't that great either. On a good team he's a 10-12 ppg guy. We have plenty of them on the roster for much cheaper.

He also made it clear that he doesn't want to play on a running team. All this talk about signing Pau makes me wanna club baby seals.

Do you even realize Tim Duncan never had TS% numbers like those first four years you listed. The fifth year under coach Mike Brown, Gasol goes .547 which is around Duncan's career average true shooting percentage. Then in D'Antoni's tenure Gasol is forced to take 10% more of his shots from the outside. Sure his TS% is going down. We don't need Gasol as an outside threat. Put him in as center with Frye or Kief at PF. Now we have a real low post game which we need for the playoffs. Neither the Thunder or Heat had a serious post threat and got beaten easily by a team with a superior post presence. Hell Duncan is 38 years old. Big men with post games last longer in the league. Just a two or three year contract until Len is ready to take over.

Do you even realize that last season Gasol was significantly less efficient in the post than Markieff?

PPP on post-ups:
Markieff 0.94 (360 plays)
Pau 0.83 (435 plays)

Again, Pau Gasol said that he doesn't want to play in a running system. Not to mention that he makes our interior defense even worse than it was last year. He's a bad fit for the Suns and he won't sign with Phoenix.

[asudevil]

yeah worked wonders on Penny, Amare and so on..

can't read about our training staff anymore, they are not magicians

Penny and Amare are unfixable. There is absolutely nothing that could have been done for Penny and nothing that can be done for Amare. Both had Microfracture. Hence why Amare was never resigned. The list goes on and on with players whom the suns medical staff rejuvenated. Besides Nash/Hill/Shaq/McDyess you also have Jermaine/Redd.

And oddly enough almost everyone of those players fell apart once they were out of our staff's hands.

[Sunsdeuce]

yeah worked wonders on Penny, Amare and so on..

can't read about our training staff anymore, they are not magicians

Penny and Amare are unfixable. There is absolutely nothing that could have been done for Penny and nothing that can be done for Amare. Both had Microfracture. Hence why Amare was never resigned. The list goes on and on with players whom the suns medical staff rejuvenated. Besides Nash/Hill/Shaq/McDyess you also have Jermaine/Redd.

And oddly enough almost everyone of those players fell apart once they were out of our staff's hands.

+1

[JDLAW]

yeah worked wonders on Penny, Amare and so on..

can't read about our training staff anymore, they are not magicians

Penny and Amare are unfixable. There is absolutely nothing that could have been done for Penny and nothing that can be done for Amare. Both had Microfracture. Hence why Amare was never resigned. The list goes on and on with players whom the suns medical staff rejuvenated. Besides Nash/Hill/Shaq/McDyess you also have Jermaine/Redd.

And oddly enough almost everyone of those players fell apart once they were out of our staff's hands.

+1

Actually Amare was a player who benefitted greatly from the Suns training and medical staff. Hardaway first year was under another trainer - Proski and he was damaged goods when he was brought in. Unfixable is a good way to describe him. I believe Amare would have fared better with the Suns training staff - possibly given 3-4 good years had he stayed. As it is he has been able to give NYK about 1/2 a year out of five. His problem has not been the micro fracture surgery, but a variety of other problems, back, routine knee debrisments, etc… His comebacks have been slow and labored and he looks unbalanced.

[toucansma]

Penny and Amare are unfixable. There is absolutely nothing that could have been done for Penny and nothing that can be done for Amare. Both had Microfracture. Hence why Amare was never resigned. The list goes on and on with players whom the suns medical staff rejuvenated. Besides Nash/Hill/Shaq/McDyess you also have Jermaine/Redd.

And oddly enough almost everyone of those players fell apart once they were out of our staff's hands.

+1

Actually Amare was a player who benefitted greatly from the Suns training and medical staff. Hardaway first year was under another trainer - Proski and he was damaged goods when he was brought in. Unfixable is a good way to describe him. I believe Amare would have fared better with the Suns training staff - possibly given 3-4 good years had he stayed. As it is he has been able to give NYK about 1/2 a year out of five. His problem has not been the micro fracture surgery, but a variety of other problems, back, routine knee debrisments, etc… His comebacks have been slow and labored and he looks unbalanced.

Agreed, the Suns trainers seem to be able to deal with the whole body and how each injury affects it (ex: Nash, Shaq, Hill, etc). I don't think Amare would have be 100%, but I think he would have been in better shape in Phoenix.

[Qwigglez]

Good post Kerrsed, it definitely sounds like Riley is getting desperate. I hope Bledsoe is having conversations with Lebron about coming here. Would we be able to offer Lebron and Bosh max contracts, if Frye opted out or we traded him? And then give Bledsoe the max.

[Kyler Murray]

Good post Kerrsed, it definitely sounds like Riley is getting desperate. I hope Bledsoe is having conversations with Lebron about coming here. Would we be able to offer Lebron and Bosh max contracts, if Frye opted out or we traded him? And then give Bledsoe the max.

The PHX Heat? I like how our team is full of gutsy warriors who hustle and give it everything they got every night, no need to mess the team spirit with divas.

[bigfoot]

Mike D'Antoni. Pau's stats last year were meaningless. The Lakers were better on both ends of the court with Gasol on the bench. He's 34 and declining fast. Just look at his performance in the playoffs in 2011-2013 or his efficiency in last couple years.

Pau's TS% in last 7 years:
.639
.617
.593
.589
.547
.512
.522

The trend is clear. Pau IS a role player at this point in his career. He is a terrible defender, and I mean TERRIBLE. And besides passing his offense isn't that great either. On a good team he's a 10-12 ppg guy. We have plenty of them on the roster for much cheaper.

He also made it clear that he doesn't want to play on a running team. All this talk about signing Pau makes me wanna club baby seals.

Do you even realize Tim Duncan never had TS% numbers like those first four years you listed. The fifth year under coach Mike Brown, Gasol goes .547 which is around Duncan's career average true shooting percentage. Then in D'Antoni's tenure Gasol is forced to take 10% more of his shots from the outside. Sure his TS% is going down. We don't need Gasol as an outside threat. Put him in as center with Frye or Kief at PF. Now we have a real low post game which we need for the playoffs. Neither the Thunder or Heat had a serious post threat and got beaten easily by a team with a superior post presence. Hell Duncan is 38 years old. Big men with post games last longer in the league. Just a two or three year contract until Len is ready to take over.

Do you even realize that last season Gasol was significantly less efficient in the post than Markieff?

PPP on post-ups:
Markieff 0.94 (360 plays)
Pau 0.83 (435 plays)

Again, Pau Gasol said that he doesn't want to play in a running system. Not to mention that he makes our interior defense even worse than it was last year. He's a bad fit for the Suns and he won't sign with Phoenix.

Simply put I would rather have Gasol or Deng than gut our team making crazy azz trades for Love or Horford. Obviously I'd much rather have Lebron or Bosh or Melo as free agents. This keeps our team intact with only a minor change but a significant addition.

[bwgood77]

Well Horford isn't getting traded and we don't have the assets to get Love. It's possible we do on December 15th if McD would make Bledsoe available (if we sign him outright this offseason), but that still doesn't seem like a player they would really want if they are going to keep Rubio around.

We are young and SHOULD improve with what we have, so adding declining veterans only subtract to the growth of our young guys and they are not going to lead us anywhere...possibly to the 2nd round but that would then be our ceiling.

If we can't get a guy that really moves the needle enough to put us into contention, we should be patient and not blow big money on a guy that doesn't certainly take the team to a different level.

I know people talk about how we will be capped out next summer with the Dragic cap hold and won't be able to sign someone, but if we sign a guy like Deng or Pau we will make it more difficult to maneuver and relieve cap space if we feel we could add someone or make a trade then.

McD seems to be good at finding underutilized talent in the league that people may have given up on, and Hornacek seems to be able to extract max value out of guys. I don't even know if McD valued Green (know he wanted Plumlee) but Hornacek put him in the right position to succeed.

Instead of blowing big money on guys that don't make us a contender, if we are going to add guys, we should add younger overlooked guys that might blossom under our regime.

[Qwigglez]

Good post Kerrsed, it definitely sounds like Riley is getting desperate. I hope Bledsoe is having conversations with Lebron about coming here. Would we be able to offer Lebron and Bosh max contracts, if Frye opted out or we traded him? And then give Bledsoe the max.

The PHX Heat? I like how our team is full of gutsy warriors who hustle and give it everything they got every night, no need to mess the team spirit with divas.

Yeah and with those two coming, most likely Ray Ray would show up too

Dragic/Bledsoe/Lebron/Bosh/Plumlee
Archie/Shuttlesworth/Green/Markieff/Len/Marcus/rookies

[TASTIC]

Frye opts in, move him, Marcus and 27 for Millsap.

Boom.

[NTB]

Frye opts in, move him, Marcus and 27 for Millsap.

Boom.

Sorry but do you believe that Atlanta would give Millsap for Marcus + 27?

[TASTIC]

Frye opts in, move him, Marcus and 27 for Millsap.

Boom.

Sorry but do you believe that Atlanta would give Millsap for Marcus + 27?

He's in the last year of a contract - if Frye opts in we can trade him, so the trade would be:

Frye
Marcus Morris
27

for

Millsap

Might take more than 27, maybe the 18?

Frye fits their mould as a true stretch 4 who would be nice next to Horford.