Season Speculation, Trade Ideas & Discussion Pt. 4

[Mulhollanddrive]

I think McDonough will want to draft first to see if he can get Doncic or Young.

No point trading for Dragic then having him disgruntled again lol.

[RaisingArizona]

Booker is 21 and still on his rookie contract. He will sign new deal with the Suns soon. He is many years away from being free agent so why worry about him leaving already? Suns needs to worry about being great team in few years. They don't need to be good right now.

We had Morris locked up and on a good contract, didn't stop him from being unhappy and forced his way out of Phoenix. Bledsoe was locked up for another two seasons on a reasonable contract, that didn't stop him from being unhappy and forced his way out of Phoenix either.

Don't be naive and think that just because a young guy is locked up that means they are happy to play on a crap team.

Yup. Our number 1 priority should be appeasing Booker. Waiting will lead to further repercussions down the road. Not a risk I'm willing to take.

[lilfishi22]

Booker is 21 and still on his rookie contract. He will sign new deal with the Suns soon. He is many years away from being free agent so why worry about him leaving already? Suns needs to worry about being great team in few years. They don't need to be good right now.

We had Morris locked up and on a good contract, didn't stop him from being unhappy and forced his way out of Phoenix. Bledsoe was locked up for another two seasons on a reasonable contract, that didn't stop him from being unhappy and forced his way out of Phoenix either.

Don't be naive and think that just because a young guy is locked up that means they are happy to play on a crap team.

Yup. Our number 1 priority should be appeasing Booker. Not waiting 50 years to be relevant.

I wouldn't say it's about appeasing Booker. It's about capitalizing on the star we have, not the ones we don't have or may never become.

[Blonde]

We need to make sure we don't end up like New Orleans by putting the wrong players around Booker and throwing away draft picks. New Orleans traded 2 high first rounders for Holiday, another first for Asik and Caspi, then Buddy and a first for Cousins. They had Eric Gordon, Tyreke, and Anderson who were constantly injured, and now Cousins who is somewhat of a strange fit. After all that they're barely a playoff team due to some fortunate circumstances with the Clippers/Jazz losing their stars.

I think we are already doing much better than they did in building around a young star.

That said, next year we should be in playoff contention. With the amount of assets we have we can afford to cash a few of them in without mortgaging our future.

[Frank Lee]

'cash in'....yes indeed mr blonde




we will hear shortly from McD about how he tried/looked for a player to not only help this year but fit in the next. Im guessing we will have to continue watching Tyny Ulis... but I do hope we get some burn from Reed. It would also be good to see Williams come back for 20 or so games.

[Frank Lee]

got ahold of Bookers most recent message to KAT

Phoenix
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[Cutter]

A lot of people believe that, on the business side of basketball, Booker loves being the man and the face of the franchise and is committed to being a Sun for the long haul. That we can take our time tanking year after year and Booker will not request a trade even if we are a continual bottom feeding team.

I think we need to be very careful with this assumption. OKC Thunder fans thought it is was impossible that Kevin Durant would ever leave. Thunder were at one time a tanker's paradise: having a horrible record year after year and drafting stud Kevin Durant, stud Russell Westbrook, stud James Harden, and semi-stud Serge Ibaka. The Thunder for a while were the poster boys for tanking. Yet they could never get the team to a position where they could be perennial contenders for a title even with all that talent. Eventually ego and salary demands forced the trade of Harden and Durant left a couple of years later. Their tank experiment ultimately failed.

Suns need to build around Booker, bring in some young-vets (24-28 years old) via trading of existing talent and draft picks, and bring in some older-vets for stability. Get the team good enough for the 6th-8th spot in the playoffs, then an superstar might consider joining the Suns in trade or FA (see Charles Barkley traded to the Suns). That we are going to somehow tank-and-draft our way to a championship (like the Thunder tried to do) requires a leap of faith that I just can't accept. Suns better be careful about not alienating Booker with this current #timeline silliness.

You make it sound like Durant left because OKC used to tank. They went to the finals once and his last year they got to game 7 of the Western Conference Finals. Hell, they had a 3-1 lead in that series. Durant was there for at least 8 years. We don't need to bring anyone in yet. Booker is only in his third year. This is not an apt comparison in my opinion. OKC made the mistake of not resigning Harden because they didn't want to pay him. We aren't destined to make the same mistake. If we get to the finals once and WCF another time and are a perennial playoff team I don't see why Booker wouldn't stay.

Durant left because he didn't want to play with Westbrook and he's a bitch. Booker is an alpha. Durant is not.

I'm not against bringing in talent and getting better. I just don't agree with your comparison. I think with Durant and Westbrook they WERE actually perennial contenders.

Very nice post Jarlaxle (your a great poster!), that's sort of the point I'm trying to make. Durant had Westbrook, Harden and Ibaka as running mates, and still ended up walking away from OKC. Booker does not have anything near an equivalent Westbrook, Harden or Ibaka to keep him grounded in Phoenix. From his perspective, what is the harm in walking away from the Phoenix Suns? I'm not saying Booker will request a trade tomorrow, but we have a star in Booker, and have not really added much talent to support his talent level. Some posters keep expecting that we will somehow draft this high level talent to compliment Booker, but I call BS on that assumption. Next year will be Booker's 4th year. Exactly when are we going to add high level talent to the team to keep Devin focusd on staying in Phoenix? McD says "Hey Devin, next year we are going to draft an 18 year old stud with our #8 pick to help win championships with you!". Booker says (at some point) "I don't want to be here". The #Timeline is BS!

[Frank Lee]

Perhaps we should call it 'Timelyin'

[Cutter]

Perhaps we should call it 'Timelyin'

You are the best poster on this board!

[Cutter]

Booker is 21 and still on his rookie contract. He will sign new deal with the Suns soon. He is many years away from being free agent so why worry about him leaving already? Suns needs to worry about being great team in few years. They don't need to be good right now.

We had Morris locked up and on a good contract, didn't stop him from being unhappy and forced his way out of Phoenix. Bledsoe was locked up for another two seasons on a reasonable contract, that didn't stop him from being unhappy and forced his way out of Phoenix either.

Don't be naive and think that just because a young guy is locked up that means they are happy to play on a crap team.

Yet another great post.

[bwgood77]

A lot of people believe that, on the business side of basketball, Booker loves being the man and the face of the franchise and is committed to being a Sun for the long haul. That we can take our time tanking year after year and Booker will not request a trade even if we are a continual bottom feeding team.

I think we need to be very careful with this assumption. OKC Thunder fans thought it is was impossible that Kevin Durant would ever leave. Thunder were at one time a tanker's paradise: having a horrible record year after year and drafting stud Kevin Durant, stud Russell Westbrook, stud James Harden, and semi-stud Serge Ibaka. The Thunder for a while were the poster boys for tanking. Yet they could never get the team to a position where they could be perennial contenders for a title even with all that talent. Eventually ego and salary demands forced the trade of Harden and Durant left a couple of years later. Their tank experiment ultimately failed.

Suns need to build around Booker, bring in some young-vets (24-28 years old) via trading of existing talent and draft picks, and bring in some older-vets for stability. Get the team good enough for the 6th-8th spot in the playoffs, then an superstar might consider joining the Suns in trade or FA (see Charles Barkley traded to the Suns). That we are going to somehow tank-and-draft our way to a championship (like the Thunder tried to do) requires a leap of faith that I just can't accept. Suns better be careful about not alienating Booker with this current #timeline silliness.

OKC isn't really the best example. They had a bad year while they still had Ray Allen and got the #2 pick and took Durant and traded Allen for the 5th pick (Jeff Green) so they started a rebuild. Had a bad year in Durant's rookie year and took Westbrook, and then another bad year and took Harden and that year made it as an 8th seed.

They were then in the mix every year and one of the best teams shortly thereafter but faced some devastating blows with Westbrook going out in round one when they were the 1 seed, Durant being out an entire year another year and then Ibaka being injured the next year (they took Ibaka with one of our picks we gave away to deal Kurt Thomas actually). They let Harden go to avoid the cap.

Sure the Suns need to get good...in 3-4 years if we still are not good Booker might want out, but we should add on this draft and see where we are this summer, next season and that summer and make those moves then. I don't think anyone wants to tank next season. I think everyone is on board and hopes next season we make a big step forward. Hopefully it's because of the guys we already have or will draft this summer, but if not, hopefully we add or trade for the right pieces.

[bwgood77]

Booker is 21 and still on his rookie contract. He will sign new deal with the Suns soon. He is many years away from being free agent so why worry about him leaving already? Suns needs to worry about being great team in few years. They don't need to be good right now.

We had Morris locked up and on a good contract, didn't stop him from being unhappy and forced his way out of Phoenix. Bledsoe was locked up for another two seasons on a reasonable contract, that didn't stop him from being unhappy and forced his way out of Phoenix either.

Don't be naive and think that just because a young guy is locked up that means they are happy to play on a crap team.

That's ridiculous. Morris was pissed because his brother was traded and they had signed that joint deal and Bledsoe wanted an early extension and likely close to or max deal which is why he wanted out...and obviously wasn't happy we sat him. Booker will get a max and won't be sitting. The guy is the face of the franchise. It's pretty unbelievable to me people are worried about a guy who will almost certainly agree to a 5 year max deal this summer to add to his existing 1 year are worried about him leaving at this point.

[Cutter]

I'm not immune to sexy drafts thoughts at all. I frequently get wrapped up in drafting the next NBAdraft.net stud like Donic, Young, Embiid, Simmons etc. It is easy to get in 'tanker mode" lusting after these players. But to somehow put the entire Suns franchise future in the hands of drafting random 18-20 year old kids is not a good business model.

[bwgood77]

We need to make sure we don't end up like New Orleans by putting the wrong players around Booker and throwing away draft picks. New Orleans traded 2 high first rounders for Holiday, another first for Asik and Caspi, then Buddy and a first for Cousins. They had Eric Gordon, Tyreke, and Anderson who were constantly injured, and now Cousins who is somewhat of a strange fit. After all that they're barely a playoff team due to some fortunate circumstances with the Clippers/Jazz losing their stars.

I think we are already doing much better than they did in building around a young star.

That said, next year we should be in playoff contention. With the amount of assets we have we can afford to cash a few of them in without mortgaging our future.

And they WERE a playoff team a few years ago with AD, and the started trading picks for stars and now have next to no young talent. While I think the Boogie trade was obviously a good move given where they were at after getting rid of Gordon, Anderson, etc, they already had a bunch of good shooters around him before they got where they were prior to the Boogie trade..they regressed by trying to accelerate quickly.

As have we by trading the Lakers pick for Knight and giving him a huge contract to accelerate our timeline in the midst of a rebuild.

[bwgood77]

The #Timeline is BS!

I agree with this...but that hashtag was created by BSoTS twitter people...McD has specifically mentioned that isn't something that comes from the Suns.

[bwgood77]

I'm not immune to sexy drafts thoughts at all. I frequently get wrapped up in drafting the next NBAdraft.net stud like Donic, Young, Embiid, Simmons etc. It is easy to get in 'tanker mode" lusting after these players. But to somehow put the entire Suns franchise future in the hands of drafting random 18-20 year old kids is not a good business model.

Well I don't think the team is trying to intentionally lose or be bad for them. They are pulling out wins. The young guys are improving. I just don't know what exact player/avenue people expect to make us instantly a playoff team. It takes time and we just had two all stars migrate west this summer after already having a ton of all stars and stacked teams in the west.

It's awesome Booker took a major step forward this year in his 3rd year but it seems like people expect the others to do the same in their 1st or 2nd year. Or that we need to scramble to somehow appease him immediately.

Honestly, if I were him I would rather grow with the team and the draft picks they bring in and build it than watch them reshuffle the roster trying to make things good quickly as they have the prior 4-5 years before the last two. Constant reshuffling seemed to lead to nowhere for quite some time.

[Mulhollanddrive]

We've essentially forfeited 3 seasons to get top draft picks so once that's done I think McDonough will be looking to the 2 Max Players he's talked about to go with those picks.

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

We've essentially forfeited 3 seasons to get top draft picks so once that's done I think McDonough will be looking to the 2 Max Players he's talked about to go with those picks.

I dunno. We're gonna need that money to keep this crew. We have to be smart about these things, not put ourselves in a position of having to dump assets to move bad contracts - especially if we're talking about trading some of those assets to get those bad contracts.

It's gotta be the right player. I don't see that out there right now. I'm not sure it'll be out there this summer, either.

I just don't hear that clock ticking.

[Kerrsed]

Did i just see a Booker/Morris Comparison? LOL.

Yes, lets act like he wanted out due to not having a good team around him, and not for the fact that we traded his twin away, while also trying to trade for a better player at his position, thus turning him from a starter to a bench asset.

And lets also act like they have the same temperament and mind frame. A easy going kid who is always smiling, compared to an asshat with multiple offcourt (And on court) issues with violence and pouting.

[Mulhollanddrive]

Booker said he could understand why Bledsoe wanted to win at his stage of his career (after 7 seasons in the NBA).

So I wouldn't want to get to Booker's season 7 and be having this discussion though that's in 2022.