Season Speculation, Trade Ideas & Discussion 3: About Last Knight

[krakdol]

So you're telling me he has pretty big injury concerns (back AND knee!)... So we shouldn't trade for him... Thanks! Didn't want him anyways.

If he had no injury concerns, the price would be a lot higher. Favors was considered as a borderline allstar before his injuries. He was a 20/10 guy on a regular basis (and like top 5 rim protectors)

Your team probably tries to get him for cheap hoping he recovers.

[LukasBMW]

http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine/?tradeId=h4of5g6

Utah wants Lou
We want Favors
Lakers can have Knight.

Oh god...the thought of Knight chucking the Lakers into the lottery for the next 3 years makes me smile.

[Qwigglez]

Thanks for the input. I hope Lyles pans out for you guys. I have him in my dynasty league.
Favors is underrated IMO. I'm not sure if Jazz utilize him as much as they could over the past couple of seasons. I'm wondering if he can play the 5 consistently though?

Ah ah thanks, but I'm kinda worried about Lyles. I didn't see much progress in his game recently...

Favors definitely can play the 5 consistently. Utah uses him a lot as Gobert's backup (nobody plays with 2 rim protectors nowadays anyway) and it works fine. Favors can play both 4 and 5 pretty well.

Favors is definitely underrated if we're talking about last year's Favors, before the injuries. That's the gamble. If I'm Utah, I'm waiting for next year to see where Favors gets before selling him. Then again, I'm no GM so maybe there's something I don't understand here.

Unfortunately I didn't see his game progress either. I don't watch many Jazz games, but his numbers are atrocious for a stretch 4. I thought he'd be like a hybrid of Channing Frye. He still has some years to grow, but man, I thought he was going to be a stud early.

It makes sense to trade Favors since you guys are doing so well this year without him and you need the cap space. I would hope the Suns take him as long as we didn't offer anything substantial. I know as a Jazz fan you would want something, likely a 1st round pick, but I don't think the market is there for him this year.

[GetYourPHX]

I'd like Favors in PHX.

I just don't see what we have that Utah would want.

[LukasBMW]

Ainge is the only GM that is sneakier then McDonough.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him offer up a projected mid-late first rounder for Tucker...only to ask for TJ or Knight as well at the last minute.

[gaspar]

You don't get it at all. Favors was a borderline allstar last year until he started getting injuries (back and knee).

Now he's trying to get back from it and get last year's numbers. Health is the only problem with Favors. He's the perfect teammate, he's got power, great defense, great rim protection, blocks, can score like 25 pts on a regular basis, can pass. But right now, he lost part of his lift and agility because of injuries.

1. Favors scored 25+ points in 13 games in 7 years.
2. He never averaged more than 1.5 assists per game.
3. Favors' defensive rating with Gobert on/off court:

2016/17
Gobert on 95.7
Gobert off 104.9

2015/16
Gobert on 102.2
Gobert off 104.2

2014/15
Gobert on 96.2
Gobert off 106.0

2013/14
Gobert on 102.2
Gobert off 110.3

[TOO]

I'd like Favors in PHX.

I just don't see what we have that Utah would want.

They'd probably take Len and magically turn him into Gobert 2.0.

[krakdol]

Unfortunately I didn't see his game progress either. I don't watch many Jazz games, but his numbers are atrocious for a stretch 4. I thought he'd be like a hybrid of Channing Frye. He still has some years to grow, but man, I thought he was going to be a stud early.

It makes sense to trade Favors since you guys are doing so well this year without him and you need the cap space. I would hope the Suns take him as long as we didn't offer anything substantial. I know as a Jazz fan you would want something, likely a 1st round pick, but I don't think the market is there for him this year.

I agree with you on Lyles. I'm afraid he's a bust now. No shot, no defense. Now he can create his shot and he has a good BB IQ, but that's not enough to make him valuable...

I'm not sure Jazz is looking for a 1st round pick for Favors, they're in "buy players / win now" mode now. Young players don't fit that well anymore. They're probably looking for stretch bigs or scoring wings like Lou Williams.

[WeekapaugGroove]

Thanks for the input. I hope Lyles pans out for you guys. I have him in my dynasty league.
Favors is underrated IMO. I'm not sure if Jazz utilize him as much as they could over the past couple of seasons. I'm wondering if he can play the 5 consistently though?

Ah ah thanks, but I'm kinda worried about Lyles. I didn't see much progress in his game recently...

Favors definitely can play the 5 consistently. Utah uses him a lot as Gobert's backup (nobody plays with 2 rim protectors nowadays anyway) and it works fine. Favors can play both 4 and 5 pretty well.

Favors is definitely underrated if we're talking about last year's Favors, before the injuries. That's the gamble. If I'm Utah, I'm waiting for next year to see where Favors gets before selling him. Then again, I'm no GM so maybe there's something I don't understand here.

Unfortunately I didn't see his game progress either. I don't watch many Jazz games, but his numbers are atrocious for a stretch 4. I thought he'd be like a hybrid of Channing Frye. He still has some years to grow, but man, I thought he was going to be a stud early.

It makes sense to trade Favors since you guys are doing so well this year without him and you need the cap space. I would hope the Suns take him as long as we didn't offer anything substantial. I know as a Jazz fan you would want something, likely a 1st round pick, but I don't think the market is there for him this year.

To me Favors is a 5 and I think Utah playing him at the 4 has hurt his numbers (along with the injuries).

[carey]

I'd like Favors in PHX.

I just don't see what we have that Utah would want.

They tried to sign Dudley in the offseason. Dudley said it was down to Phoenix & Utah and he went where he felt the most comfortable with his role. I'm not sure what else would need to be added. Maybe Tucker and some sort of pick also goes.

[krakdol]

1. Favors scored 25+ points in 13 games in 7 years.
2. He never averaged more than 1.5 assists per game.
3. Favors' defensive rating with Gobert on/off court:
(...)

I corrected 25 to 20 long ago. And saying "13 games in 7 years" is stupid. Guy was 24 last year so of course he didn't score 25 in hundreds of games -_-

Your stat only show the impact of Gobert. What you need to look at is Favors on / Favors off, and it was pretty great too before injuries, less so this year of course.

He was never an assist guy, never said that either. He's a willing passer but was usually the conclusion of the offense so of course he won't rack assists.

Favors was the best Utah player for a long stretch last year and the year before...

[TheFire]

Favors is a solid player when healthy, but is injury problems are a big concern. As of right now, he's not much better than Kyle O'Quinn.

[thamadkant]

I doubt Suns get Favors.

But rather have him than Len. Len will cost so much money and he has shaped himself to be a backup center by being foul prone and unreliable to make smart plays... Per 36 is redundant for him.... Per 20 is more accurate.


Suns need to bottom out.... Get another franchise player from the draft and then gun for playoffs.
The playoff picture right now has too many teams with much bigger guns and Suns have butter knives for weapons.

[darealjuice]

I like Favors as a player and think he's being underrated a bit here, but I don't see a reason for us to go after him. We just invested in 2 very young power forwards that will hopefully have some positional versatility as they develop, so why would we want another slightly older one that is really more of a center in a power forward body? Unless he can be successful playing significant minutes at center and we can see him as our center of the future, he would be redundant.

I'm not sure what his value is right now either. Jazz are probably in the market for players more than picks, and I can't see any of our available players having value similar to him without adding a pick, which we should avoid doing unless it's for a young prospect that's more in our timeline than Favors, and even then the Miami 2018 pick should be the only one on the table because ours are too valuable and we don't know the value of the Miami 2021 unprotected pick yet.

[bigfoot]

We need to definitely trade Tucker. We are 18-39, Lakers are 19-39. Trade Tucker for Shabazz if the deal is still there! I know... Shabazz sucks, I DONT CARE. I hope he sucks a big fat one. We need to lose games. I don't want to trade Bledsoe just yet, and if anything we can just rest him end of March for the rest of the season.

Please, if we are going to tank, don't allow us to win meaningless games and end up leafrogging the Lakers in the standings. Looking at the Lakers schedule, it'll be tough for them to win more than 5 games, they got 3 games against the Wolves, one against the Kings, and one against the Sixers. The rest of their games I chalk up to automatic losses. They might only win 2-3 games!

The Suns got the Bulls, Magic, Heat, Hawks, and Pistons left. We already beat those teams. Fortunately, only one of those games is a home game. We got the Lakers again, but we just smashed on them last game. I believe that was our franchises biggest scoring differential. Got the Nets, Hornets, and Celtics. You know we have a winning record against the Eastern Conference right? And lastly, we play the Mavs and our very last game is against the Kings. We may very well end up picking 5th-7th. Need to play our cards right if we want to get a high draft pick.

Nuts I tell you nuts. We gain nothing from trading Tucker for a piece crap player like Shabazz. With Bender out Tucker is not taking any minutes away from the youngsters. Warren and Chriss are both getting decent minutes. He is taking Dudley minutes. This team needs to stand pat (with the exception of moving Knight). Let them learn to play with each other. Hell I would be happy if they split their games and went .500 over the next two months as it means they are starting to come together as a team. These two blowout wins against the Bulls and Lakers are good signs. I hate pot stirrers

Are you serious? You want us to go .500, miss the playoffs and then what, pick 7th-10th in the draft? As opposed to finishing with the 2nd worst record and landing a top 3 pick? I know we are capable of being a good team, we got potential on this squad, but we need more. A lot more. It would be a complete waste of a season if we ended up going .500 over the next two months.

At that point, we should have just ponied up and offered our 2017 1st, 2 Miami picks for Boogie.

Yes I would not be upset if we went .500 the rest of the way. It's absurd to think that your team is going to work its way into the playoffs by losing. You seem to forget that Utah never hit rock bottom and never drafted a star player in the top 3. Yet here they sit with young players and are squarely in the playoff picture with a very bright future. One thing for sure ... there are more Beasley types in the top-3 than Lebron types. And more gems (Curry, Marion, Leonard, Stoudemire, Nash, Booker, etc) to be found in the draft outside the top 5. Top 3 doesn't guarantee you squat. Look at our top 5 pick with Len ... most folks are disappointed.

Your suggestion to move Tucker for Shabazz doesn't move the needle for our team. The blind hate for Tucker and calls to move him do not address the internal team issues it can cause. Simply put it destroys the culture and trust in the front office. These young players need to see stability and family first attitude in the organization. If Tucker asks for a trade ... sure then move him. Otherwise let Tucker, Chandler, Dudley, and Barbosa be the veterans who show the young guys the way.

[bwgood77]

Cousins, frankly, scares the hell out of people. Four weeks ago, one highly regarded Western Conference executive told me the Kings would be lucky to get two quality players in return. Two weeks later, an Eastern Conference GM said he appreciated Cousins’ talent but wouldn’t touch the player, let alone a long-term extension. Another GM suggested Cousins needed to be paired with an alpha male, then noted that few of the elite teams possess what Divac coveted: young players and draft choices.

That left about a handful of potential partners. The Orlando Magic refused to part with any of their promising youth. The Lakers reportedly declined to include draft picks. The Phoenix Suns shook their heads at swapping Devin Booker. The Boston Celtics, who are laden with picks, never entered the conversation. That left the Pelicans, who turned their attention in recent days from Philadelphia’s Jahlil Okafor to Cousins, a former Kentucky Wildcat and friend of Pelicans power forward Anthony Davis.

http://www.sacbee.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/ailene-voisin/article133948829.html#storylink=cpy

We'll never know what was really demanded of by the Kings but if it was Booker or bust, then we def made the right call.
And these articles that are slowly trickling out suggesting he's a bad locker room guy, it's no wonder MCD was asking them to take back Knight.
I have a feeling that, over the next few weeks, we'll learn more and more of why the Pels deal might have actually been the best deal they were going to get.

Of course they wanted Booker. We didn't have assets that made sense for them otherwise. So we COULD have trumped their deal with Booker, and I'm sure as many Boogie fans as there are here, many would have made the trade with Booker in it, a top 3 protected first this year and our 2nd rounder, because they view Boogie as a much bigger star than what Booker is or can be, and are desperately eager to win now (even though I don't know if Boogie would have pushed the needle much without Booker).

[bigfoot]

Favors doesn't move the needle. He does not fit the bill for a stretch PF or C. He can't shoot the 3. He can't make free throws. He takes time away from Chriss and Bender. Why would we want him? Such a weird rumor.

[bwgood77]

Read on Twitter

That "sunsinsider" account is kind of crap. With that said I could see the suns having interest in Favors as their long term answer at C.

It's just Kerrsed.

[bwgood77]

Read on Twitter

That "sunsinsider" account is kind of crap. With that said I could see the suns having interest in Favors as their long term answer at C.

Read on Twitter

Doesn't sound like insider news does it then, looking at the time of the tweets.

[WeekapaugGroove]

Favors doesn't move the needle. He does not fit the bill for a stretch PF or C. He can't shoot the 3. He can't make free throws. He takes time away from Chriss and Bender. Why would we want him? Such a weird rumor.

My assumption is they view him as a 5 and any move to bring him in would coincide with Chandler going out. Since he's been down this year and Utah probably doesn't see him as a long term fit with Gobert I could see the suns viewing him as a buy low candidate who could be the long term answer at the 5.

Now I tend to think Utah waits until this summer to trade Favors because they don't want to do anything to weaken their team for a playoff run this year and it would give Lyles a little more time before being thrown into a bigger role.