Offseason Thread 7: A Tale Of Two Dragons

[Kerrsed]

Selfish, yet still totaled and averaged more Assists than Dragic and Bledsoe. He was ranked in the top 20 for assists in the entire league (#17).

[Saberestar]

Phoenix Suns' basketball...here we go!

Markieff Morris:"Coach told me I'll play the five a lot when we need to speed it up."

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-bas ... nter-a-lot

[LukasBMW]

Phoenix Suns' basketball...here we go!

Markieff Morris:"Coach told me I'll play the five a lot when we need to speed it up."

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-bas ... nter-a-lot

IT
Bledsoe
Dragic
Green
Markieff

LOL. No one will stop us on offense. Our defense though will be dependent on zone defense and double teams.

[NTB]

Bledsoe
Dragic
Green
Tucker
Markieff

more realistic.

[lilfishi22]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Isaiah_Thomas/status/517503415211929600[/tweet]

Of course he has to respond...

IT deleted the tweet at Boogie haha

Celebs deleting tweets is worse than leaving the actual tweet most of the time.

[aIvin adams]

Selfish, yet still totaled and averaged more Assists than Dragic and Bledsoe. He was ranked in the top 20 for assists in the entire league (#17).

you can be selfish and get assists

they're not mutually exclusive

in fact they go together. you get assists if you have the ball a lot

[Kerrsed]

Selfish, yet still totaled and averaged more Assists than Dragic and Bledsoe. He was ranked in the top 20 for assists in the entire league (#17).

you can be selfish and get assists

they're not mutually exclusive

in fact they go together. you get assists if you have the ball a lot

You also have the ball a lot when you play PG.

[RunDogGun]

Bledsoe
Dragic
Green
Tucker
Markieff

more realistic.

Even more realistic would be Bled, Dragic, Tucker, Morris, Morris or Toliver at the four.

[NavLDO]

So, where do you all think we need to upgrade the most? I'm looking at our depth chart and I just don't see any holes to really speak of.

I'm not trying to go "full homer" here, but with our current roster, I'm just not seeing where we could fit more talent.

If I HAD to rank the positions, it would be as so...

C - But with Plumlee we have an athletic hustle guy, and now we have a top 5 pick in Len ready to contribute. If offered a C in a trade, who would you want and would you package Len in on said trade? Plumlee?

SF - Tucker could definitely be upgraded, but we just got a potential stud in Warren. Yes, he'll take a year to contribute, but who would you bring in to replace Tucker as a starter without sacrificing minutes/development for Warren. Warren showed quite well in the SL, and yes, I know it was SL, but still, he may be ready sooner than we think. And if we did trade for a SF, who would you trade? Green? Tucker? Warren?

SG - this one is tough due to how we play the 2 PG position, but if there was a lights out SG that could come in and fit in our system, who would that be? Would you trade Green? Goodwin? I'd personally hate to trade Goodwin before we really see how he develops. He could be an absolute stud, or a dud--one of those high-ceiling, low-floor guys. Then we just brought in Zoran, to play, I assume, SG, but wouldn't be surprised to see him at the 3 position as well. He shouldn't get a ton of minutes this year.

PF - I think Kieff is the real deal, and wouldn't be surprised to see Marcus get extended minutes as well when Kieff is playing the 5. Would you consider trading the Morii? I wouldn't! This is the year where we see what we really have in them. And I honestly see Kieff as a potential top 10 PF in this league. Tolliver seems like an ideal guy to spell Kieff, so would you trade him? (Can we this year?)

PG - Obviously, we are swimming in PG talent, so no upgrade required here. EB and Dragic are top 8 PGs, in my view. Lillard, Irving, and Wall seem a bit overhyped, IMO, and would place our guys ahead of any of them. And what about IT? we don't know yet, but he's easily a top 15 PG in this league.

Guys I view as untouchable in any trade scenario:

Dragii, or is it Dragics
EB
IT
Morii
Warren

Guys that I'd assume would take an incredible deal to trade:

Len
Goodwin

Guys that are on the table:

Green
Tucker
Ennis
Tolliver
Plumlee
Bogdan (or rather, rights to him)

And then the rest who nobody would want:

Randolph

So, what PFs would you see as an upgrade to the Morii that you would consider trading them for:

Giannis
Aminu
Batum
Faried
Gibson
Tobias Harris
Kanter
T. Thompson
Henson
Horford
LMA

Any others?

And how about at the 5? Would you trade Len for any other 5, not counting the All Stars of, but an established, decent C in the mold of Gortat (but not him, obviously), with the goal of increasing our chances this year? you know, kind of like we were looking at Pau Gasol last year.

Are we done making major moves until the trade deadline timeframe? Or do you see a potential blockbuster still on the horizon?

Sorry for the long post from the newbie here, but I'm starting to get excited about the season now that all the signings have taken place with EB, the Morii, Zoran, IT, Warren, and Tucker (and my Steelers stinking up the joint in the NFL!). I know the West is tough, but at some point, age has to eventually catch up with the Spurs and Mavs type of teams, right?

What do you give our Playoff chances, as is? 50-50? 70-30? 20-80?

I just think we have a young, exciting team that can do some damage this year. I can't see how Plumlee, Len, Goodwin, EB, Kieff, and Marcus don't improve on last year's performance. And I don't see how the additions of IT, Warren, Zoran and Tolliver don't improve upon Ish, Dionte, and Frye. And I can't see how our 3-headed PG monster isn't going to win us some games late ion the 4th when other teams' players are sucking wind.

I CAN see a potential for regression from Green and Tucker, but not by much.

So, now that I've asked about 20 questions, what say you?!?!?

[phrazbit]

Our front court is weak on paper. At best you can say its unproven. None of our options at PF are strong on the glass or defensively. At center, IMO, we will be, at best, an average team. I like Plumlee but he ran out of gas fast last year, hopefully that wont be the case this year. Its nice that everyone is saying rosey things about Len, but this kind of fluff is the norm from franchises during camp. Even with improvement Len likely still has a long way to go before he becomes a reliable player.

The only untouchable guys on our roster should be Goran and Bledsoe. They're a top 5 back-court pairing in the league. If a legit front court guy who fit in with our system became available I would not think twice about putting combinations including dudes like Len, Goodwin and even the Morrii on the table.

[No-Man]

Ennis is a ticket to next year's draft, I think. Better way to preserve value than trading #18 for a future pick. If he were in this draft class, how high do you think he'd be projected right now? Roll it forward.

the same as in this year for me, late first
he is what he is, a back-up guard

[lilfishi22]

Our front court needs talent depth. Kieff is not a proven starter yet and Plumlee is ideally the first big off the bench.

[Saberestar]

Ennis is a ticket to next year's draft, I think. Better way to preserve value than trading #18 for a future pick. If he were in this draft class, how high do you think he'd be projected right now? Roll it forward.

the same as in this year for me, late first
he is what he is, a back-up guard

If we have to trade Ennis I would attach him in a package for a big time player...no more mid picks or bench players.

[lilfishi22]

Ennis is a ticket to next year's draft, I think. Better way to preserve value than trading #18 for a future pick. If he were in this draft class, how high do you think he'd be projected right now? Roll it forward.

the same as in this year for me, late first
he is what he is, a back-up guard

He needed another year or two in college to really develop his game. He's still a much better prospect than Marshall though since he's more athletic, is a better shooter and is totally clueless defensively. I think he has potential to be a starting PG on an average team.

[NaturalBuns]

Our front court is weak on paper. At best you can say its unproven. None of our options at PF are strong on the glass or defensively. At center, IMO, we will be, at best, an average team. I like Plumlee but he ran out of gas fast last year, hopefully that wont be the case this year. Its nice that everyone is saying rosey things about Len, but this kind of fluff is the norm from franchises during camp. Even with improvement Len likely still has a long way to go before he becomes a reliable player.

The only untouchable guys on our roster should be Goran and Bledsoe. They're a top 5 back-court pairing in the league. If a legit front court guy who fit in with our system became available I would not think twice about putting combinations including dudes like Len, Goodwin and even the Morrii on the table.

Yeah I like Plumlee but the way he plays is more like a bench energy guy.
I don't have any expectations for Len..

I think kief will survive at PF I preferred him over frye last year

[bigfoot]

Selfish, yet still totaled and averaged more Assists than Dragic and Bledsoe. He was ranked in the top 20 for assists in the entire league (#17).

you can be selfish and get assists

they're not mutually exclusive

in fact they go together. you get assists if you have the ball a lot

You also have the ball a lot when you play PG.

A selfish ball hog is a guy who jacks up shots at 40% clip. Last year Thomas had a better true shooting percentage than Cousins and amazingly a better 2pt percentage than Cousins. A center should be better than 50% for their 2pts shots. In fact Thomas took the third most shots behind Cousins and Gay. Usage Perentage wise Cousins was 1st for Sac (32.7% of plays) and Thomas 3rd (26.3%). Not sure how Cousins can claim Thomas was a ball hog.

[Sun Scorched]

you can be selfish and get assists

they're not mutually exclusive

in fact they go together. you get assists if you have the ball a lot

You also have the ball a lot when you play PG.

A selfish ball hog is a guy who jacks up shots at 40% clip. Last year Thomas had a better true shooting percentage than Cousins and amazingly a better 2pt percentage than Cousins. A center should be better than 50% for their 2pts shots. In fact Thomas took the third most shots behind Cousins and Gay. Usage Perentage wise Cousins was 1st for Sac (32.7% of plays) and Thomas 3rd (26.3%). Not sure how Cousins can claim Thomas was a ball hog.

Wow. Actual statistics. Imagine that!

Again - to beat an expired equine - I'm still totally thrilled to have a 20ppg/6apg guy, who loves the city of PHX and has said so, who is a family man and committed to winning basketball, leading our bench mob. Thomas is going to carve other bench units up.

Since I doubt that Dragic and Thomas will get a ton of burn together, I think you can expect something like the following:

Bledsoe/Dragic (18mpg)
Thomas/Bledsoe (12mpg)
Thomas/Dragic (4mpg)
Thomas/??? (8mpg)
Dragic/??? (8mpg)

That's 30 minutes for both Dragic and Bledsoe, 24 for Thomas and 16 for whomever else at the two.

[bigfoot]

you can be selfish and get assists

they're not mutually exclusive

in fact they go together. you get assists if you have the ball a lot

You also have the ball a lot when you play PG.

A selfish ball hog is a guy who jacks up shots at 40% clip. Last year Thomas had a better true shooting percentage than Cousins and amazingly a better 2pt percentage than Cousins. A center should be better than 50% for their 2pts shots. In fact Thomas took the third most shots behind Cousins and Gay. Usage Perentage wise Cousins was 1st for Sac (32.7% of plays) and Thomas 3rd (26.3%). Not sure how Cousins can claim Thomas was a ball hog.

Of course this post was directed at Double A. Kerrsed and I are in one of our rare agreement modes.

[Kerrsed]

Of course this post was directed at Double A. Kerrsed and I are in one of our rare agreement modes.

[bigfoot]

Of course this post was directed at Double A. Kerrsed and I are in one of our rare agreement modes.

And I still didn't get an And'1 from you.