Official Free Agent Thread: What to do with our cap space

Saberestar · Post #701 » by **Saberestar** » Tue Apr 7, 2015 12:20 pm

I prefer Danny Green over Knight to pair him with Bledsoe. He is a better fit and probably around 4-5 millions per year cheaper.

Post #702 » by **Qwigglez** » Tue Apr 7, 2015 4:28 pm

I do like the idea of having a Green SG rotation (Danny & Gerald). We need players who can stretch the floor, badly.

RunDogGun · Post #703 » by **RunDogGun** » Tue Apr 7, 2015 5:42 pm

Do Spurs players do well when they leave the Spurs?

gaspar · Post #704 » by **gaspar** » Tue Apr 7, 2015 6:18 pm

I highly disagree with Danny Green being a better fit to pair with Bledsoe than Knight. IMO Bledsoe and the Suns play much better when Eric is paired in the backcourt with a guy who can handle the ball.

Damkac · Post #705 » by **Damkac** » Tue Apr 7, 2015 9:08 pm

Qwigglez wrote:I do like the idea of having a Green SG rotation (Danny & Gerald). We need players who can stretch the floor, badly.

Knight was shooting over 40% for 3 this year with Bucks

Saberestar · Post #706 » by **Saberestar** » Tue Apr 7, 2015 10:37 pm

gaspar wrote:I highly disagree with Danny Green being a better fit to pair with Bledsoe than Knight. IMO Bledsoe and the Suns play much better when Eric is paired in the backcourt with a guy who can handle the ball.

Well, I think that Danny Green is a better fit because he is great at three things that we are lacking this year:
-Decision making. He selects his shots very well, not a chucker by any mean. Knight pull the trigger quickly too often with defenders in front of him, he has to be better at that.
-High basketball IQ. He knows how to move the ball around and is a good passer for a SG, something that we really need. Very good defender, he really knows how to fight screens.
-Pure Shooter. He is a really really great 3p shooter. Knight is not such a sure thing in that regard like Danny Green because Green has been all his career the typical pure SG who can knocks down threes when he is open or moving without the ball.

I know that Knight is a better ball handler and he can create his shot better than Green, but his decision making is average at best and he sometimes is lost directing fastbreaks, so I don't think he is way better than Green at that, only slightly.
But, at the end of the day, I will be happy with a Bledsoe/Knight backcourt if McDonough and Hornacek think that is the best for us.

Post #707 » by **lilfishi22** » Tue Apr 7, 2015 11:01 pm

Qwigglez wrote:I do like the idea of having a Green SG rotation (Danny & Gerald). We need players who can stretch the floor, badly.

More importantly, a player from that has developed under Pops with a BBIQ of over 10 would already make him one of the smartest players on this team.

letsgosuns · Post #708 » by **letsgosuns** » Tue Apr 7, 2015 11:08 pm

I would love to have Danny Green, however I do not know why anyone would ever want to leave the Spurs organization for the Suns organization. The Suns would have to dramatically overpay Green for him to consider playing here. I do not see it. As of right now, I see zero things on the Suns that are attractive to free agents. The team is not good and the coach is not good. So outside of money and great weather during the season, what the hell is attractive about the team? Not much that I can see, unfortunately.

Some people forget that the team has not pulled in a big free agent since Colangelo was still connected to the team and he got Steve Nash. It was him, his son Bryan, and a plethora of other people that wooed Steve Nash. And no, signing a 35 year old Grant Hill who had barely played in seven seasons with the Magic is absolutely not reeling in a big time free agent. Neither was signing Dragic in 2012. Or anyone else.

Do not ever forget that the Nash-Amare-Marion teams were originally put together by the Colangelo family. Colangelo drafted all three of them and it was his doing that brought Nash back. The Colangelo's are the ones that put in place the playoff teams from 2005, 2006, and 2007. Sure Bryan Colangelo left before the 2007 playoffs but all the main players from that team were acquired while he was still working for the Suns. Now I like Robert Sarver, but there is no doubt that Colangelo was the one that could come through when it comes to big free agent signings. Look at the Diamondbacks. Colangelo is the one that signed and traded for every one of those players from 1998-2004. Who the hell have the Diamondbacks signed since Colangelo left. Certainly no hall of famers. All their good players the past ten years were drafted or traded for, not signed through free agency. In fact they have struck out again and again in free agency since Colangelo left.

This is a great snippet for Jerry Colangelo's wikipedia page: Colangelo has been known for a no-nonsense ownership style. Players like the Suns' Dennis Johnson and Jason Kidd and the Diamondbacks' Bobby Chouinard have been traded or released after their personal problems became public.

Think Colangelo would have ever signed a guy like Michael Beasley, or put up with the stuff that Tucker or the Morris brothers have pulled? No way. He probably would not even put up with what happened to Goodwin in the offseason and that was supposedly really minor. The days when the Phoenix Suns were a prime free agent destination are long gone. It is sad.

RunDogGun · Post #709 » by **RunDogGun** » Wed Apr 8, 2015 12:59 am

Um, Sarver owned the team before Nash signed.

Next if JC didn't put the team in so much debt, he wouldn't have needed another owner to bail him out. It's tough to separate the business part of things. There were tons of mistakes made when Jerry owned the team, one has to bring those up. Trade for McDyss only to have him bail, twice. Rush out and sign Googs, only to use a pick that would become Hayward to dump his contract.

Didn't Colangelo sign Luk Longley to a pretty big contract, and he did squat for our team. Then there was that whole drug scandal during his ownership. The DJ trade was probably the worst trade the Suns ever made. We traded Kidd for Marbury, enough said there.

Sarver has made some bad choices of running the team. We've had some bad GMs over his ownership, and then there is the whole $200 million debt he had to figure out that was left for him.

letsgosuns · Post #710 » by **letsgosuns** » Wed Apr 8, 2015 1:19 am

RunDogGun wrote:Um, Sarver owned the team before Nash signed.

Next if JC didn't put the team in so much debt, he wouldn't have needed another owner to bail him out. It's tough to separate the business part of things. There were tons of mistakes made when Jerry owned the team, one has to bring those up. Trade for McDyss only to have him bail, twice. Rush out and sign Googs, only to use a pick that would become Hayward to dump his contract.

Sarver has made some bad choices of running the team. We've had some bad GMs over his ownership, and then there is the whole $200 million debt he had to figure out that was left for him.

Robert Sarver bought the team in Spring, 2004. Nash signed a few months later. You really think that Sarver had anything to do with it? Nash re-signed because of his relationship with all of the people that come to his house to recruit him, not Sarver. Remember this:
"Nash had met with Cuban in Dallas on Wednesday morning and then was greeted by a traveling Suns delegation that included chairman Jerry Colangelo, son and team president Bryan Colangelo, new owner Robert Sarver, coach Mike D'Antoni, former NBA player and Suns minority owner Steve Kerr, former Suns player and current scout Rex Chapman and forward Amare Stoudemire, a client of Duffy's." http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1833028

I remember Bryan Colangelo also presented Nash with a booklet that was specifically made just for him that showed how Nash could lead the Suns to becoming an elite team. I do not remember what it was called. It had some title like "The Beginning" or something. Sarver really had no impact on it besides being the one that paid Nash. Obviously that is important, but Sarver was a very small piece in the entire situation at the time.

Let me say this again, I like Sarver. I do not think Colangelo is perfect at all. However I say confidently that Colangelo was far superior to anyone the Suns organization has had since him when it comes to signing free agents. They have not signed a marquee free agent since Jerry Colangelo went to Steve Nash's house in 2004. That is a fact.

RunDogGun · Post #711 » by **RunDogGun** » Wed Apr 8, 2015 1:34 am

Neither of us were there, though, so saying Sarver had little impact on the first deal of his ownership seems silly to me. Everyone likes to give the Deng pick trade on Sarver, when he didn't take over the team until a week later.

We really haven't had cap money to spend on big named FAs, a fact that seems to escape many. Wasn't Hill a good player, and FA?

Mr Puddles · Post #712 » by **Mr Puddles** » Wed Apr 8, 2015 1:59 am

^^
Archie Goodwin has shown enough to earn him the back-up 2 spot next year. If gerald green doesn't mind being the 3rd SG/SF off the bench, then I'm OK with bringing him back but he should not be ahead of Goodwin in the SG rotation. Also, there is no way we let Knight walk this offseason - McD parted with a huge bargaining chip to get him and would look ridiculous if we let him walk for nothing.

I wouldn't be surprised if we made a splash this offseason (McD has been one of the most active GMs in the league since taking the helms at the Suns GM spot), but more than anything I'm hoping we're not going to make a panic move like throwing a bag of money at Bargnani in desperate pursue of the 8th spot.

Frank Lee · Post #713 » by **Frank Lee** » Wed Apr 8, 2015 3:15 am

gaspar wrote:I highly disagree with Danny Green being a better fit to pair with Bledsoe than Knight. IMO Bledsoe and the Suns play much better when Eric is paired in the backcourt with a guy who can handle the ball.

You mean like a Point Guard ?

nevetsov · Post #714 » by **nevetsov** » Wed Apr 8, 2015 3:46 am

It's becoming glaringly obvious that Bled doesn't have the capability to be the solo lead dog on an NBA calibre team. As most others have noted, he needs to be paired with another playmaker/ shot creator so he doesn't have the defensive focus entirely on him. This is why he thrived next to Goran - now, he's being forced into Goran's old alpha-playmaker role and he's struggling. Doesn't help that his former assistant-playmaking role is being filled by PJ (who should NEVER be asked to make a basketball play).

Knight could be that guy, sure, but then we are again put in a position where we start an undersized SG.

I like TJ as a complementary, do-it-all SF more than I like any SG on the roster, so unless we chase a put-the-ball-in-my-hands PF (how many of these are actually available anyway?) I'd be more inclined to pair Bled with a star SG. One with actual SG size.

Never liked Jimmy Butler that much, but considering the other available options he's probably the best complement to Bled there is on the market. We'd have to throw the farm at CHI to let him go in a s&t though. But if we could get a pick for Knight in a 3 teamed, it might be a start.

ShawnBronald · Post #715 » by **ShawnBronald** » Wed Apr 8, 2015 3:52 am

I'm not sure where to post this, but I remember this being discussed earlier this season and now, apparently, it's official....
[tweet]https://twitter.com/azcentral/status/585663429576359937[/tweet]

RunDogGun · Post #716 » by **RunDogGun** » Wed Apr 8, 2015 4:50 am

ShawnBronald wrote:I'm not sure where to post this, but I remember this being discussed earlier this season and now, apparently, it's official....
[tweet]https://twitter.com/tram_mai/status/585648250868408320[/tweet]

Vague, that could come down to them knowing the guy who beat up the other guy. So did anyone watch the news report?

RaisingArizona · Post #717 » by **RaisingArizona** » Wed Apr 8, 2015 5:48 am

Whatever could have gone wrong this year did go wrong.

Knight is so hard to assess. He looked really bad with us until the game he gets hurt. Now he misses nearly 20 games with a sprained ankle? That scares me a bit, tbh.

SarcasticSun · Post #718 » by **SarcasticSun** » Wed Apr 8, 2015 5:51 am

RunDogGun wrote:
ShawnBronald wrote:I'm not sure where to post this, but I remember this being discussed earlier this season and now, apparently, it's official....
[tweet]https://twitter.com/tram_mai/status/585648250868408320[/tweet]

Vague, that could come down to them knowing the guy who beat up the other guy. So did anyone watch the news report?

I happened to see it, nothing new really. Just much of the same stuff that we already know.

RunDogGun · Post #719 » by **RunDogGun** » Wed Apr 8, 2015 5:54 am

SarcasticSun wrote:
RunDogGun wrote:
ShawnBronald wrote:I'm not sure where to post this, but I remember this being discussed earlier this season and now, apparently, it's official....
[tweet]https://twitter.com/tram_mai/status/585648250868408320[/tweet]

Vague, that could come down to them knowing the guy who beat up the other guy. So did anyone watch the news report?

I happened to see it, nothing new really. Just much of the same stuff that we already know.

I thought it would be.

SarcasticSun · Post #720 » by **SarcasticSun** » Wed Apr 8, 2015 6:08 am

ginobiliflops wrote:Whatever could have gone wrong this year did go wrong.

Knight is so hard to assess. He looked really bad with us until the game he gets hurt. Now he misses nearly 20 games with a sprained ankle? That scares me a bit, tbh.

I actually don't think it was that bad. I would say the worst thing that happened was Len aggravating his ankles+Morris twins assault case. I view the Dragic and IT trades as positives but I'm not about to rehash those debates. I do agree about Knight being difficult to assess.
Overall I think we have some solid pieces though. We just need a star. I don't think Len will ever be a number 1 option. Warren I think can be a number 1 option eventually, but I'm just really high on Warren, have been for a long time.
Here's an idea, trade Morris Twins for David West+Ind 1st round pick. David West would be the perfect mentor/leader for this team.