Almost off-season discussion! Trades/Free Agency Ep. 9

[Villalobos]

please stop posting Rachel Nichols stuff. she/her trash show is gonna keep hating on the Suns until they get good for a while or another trainwreck team takes their place at the bottom of the NBA. no point getting mad at it and definitely no point in focusing on it

actually with Amin there even if the Suns get good they'll still hate on em

Spoiler:

(half-decent chance that show doesn't exist by the time the Suns finally get good anyway)

[mcscotty]

This is what we are up against people. Good god Lakers fans are delusional!!!!!

From the Lakers Forum. Their trade thread. Ball is a decent talent with a major weakness (shooting) that is (one of)most important parts of being a PG. he is no where near Simmons talent as well. Madness from that fan base. He’s got trade value but no where near what they think and with his family also not helping his cause, going to be tough getting much back for Ball.

I’d be hesitant to trade the #16 pick for Ball.

I see Lonzo as a Ben Simmons level talent. It would take something collasal for the Lakers to ever consider parting ways with him, and if any team is lucky enough to acquire him, they almost certainly won't regret it. The Spurs might be saying they have no interest in Ball, but I'm not buying that for one minute.

Simmons can't shoot, either.

[thamadkant]

I think the Suns should stick to being the team of the future along a few other teams. So stick to potential star youth rather than long term veterans... Win with youth

[Cutter]

And I'll just keep reminding everyone that year after year of tanking, being atrocious in order to garner high draft picks, and not signing solid veterans to help increase the number of wins and improve team competitiveness guarantees Booker asks for a trade in the near-term coming years.

I had a feeling this board, after drafting Ayton #1 this year, was going to turn into a "one more year of tanking to get the top player we need to make a 10 year run" type of mentality.

[NapoleonII]

And I'll just keep reminding everyone that year after year of tanking, being atrocious in order to garner high draft picks, and not signing solid veterans to help increase the number of wins and improve team competitiveness guarantees Booker asks for a trade in the near-term coming years.

I had a feeling this board, after drafting Ayton #1 this year, was going to turn into a "one more year of tanking to get the top player we need to make a 10 year run" type of mentality.

We need Booker, Jackson and Ayton to defend, gel with each other and win games.

Every single game I'll be rooting for a W.

Any picks in the future need to just be contributors, defenders, specialists.

[Kerrsed]

Gambo throwing shots at Alex Len. Used that same Pic for Bledsoe.

Read on Twitter

[darealjuice]

Gambo throwing shots at Alex Len. Used that same Pic for Bledsoe.

Read on Twitter

Lol this is for Alex Avila of the DBacks not Alex Len

[Kerrsed]

Gambo throwing shots at Alex Len. Used that same Pic for Bledsoe.

Read on Twitter

Lol this is for Alex Avila of the DBacks not Alex Len

Well it fits Len as well!

[Hesh]

Gambo used it for Markieff too

[King4Day]

Read on Twitter

Saw this on the main board. Interesting that we are ahead of Philly

[jcsunsfan]

nvm

[Hesh]

Just because we have the #1 pick we're high up on the board for Kawhi destinations.

[AtheJ415]

And I'll just keep reminding everyone that year after year of tanking, being atrocious in order to garner high draft picks, and not signing solid veterans to help increase the number of wins and improve team competitiveness guarantees Booker asks for a trade in the near-term coming years.

I had a feeling this board, after drafting Ayton #1 this year, was going to turn into a "one more year of tanking to get the top player we need to make a 10 year run" type of mentality.

This is simply not true, delusional, and also meaningless. Booker is about to hit RFA, and he isn't going to be stupid enough to sign a QO, so he has no say in anything yet. Also, we aren't going to tank next year for the 1st pick. We can still win more next year without expensive vets who are overpaid. We will probably finish like 8th-12th in the reverse standings. Vegas has us 9th or 10th. That is about right. Scrambling overpriced vets to finish 12th would be moronic.

[King4Day]

Read on Twitter

Nice to see he was enjoying it and didn't look like he didn't wanna be bothered

[lilfishi22]

I don't think Booker is looking to leave in the short term especially now that he has an exciting #1 pick to play with but I think it's negligent to not consider the power NBA players have these days, even when signed to an NBA contract. Kawhi Leonard is the perfect example, the guy is an MVP level player on one of the best run and most successful franchises in the NBA and he's the go-to guy but something as 'little' as trust is all it took for him to start thinking a certain way and now he's on his way out.

McD has not proven to be a great GM and we have not proven to be a competitive team in almost a decade. There's hope in that the players we have might turn this ship around but that's pretty much all we have to go on right now. Winning cures everything but winning is not a guarantee, especially for a team that's won three more game than the Houston Rockets, in the past 3 seasons combined. Let's remember, the past few seasons has been about trying to win with the youth (aka tanking) and each season was expected to be an incremental improvement of the previous based on internal development of those youth on the roster and talent injection from each draft. This draft is expected to be the biggest injection of talent we've seen in recent Suns history so that could really give us a boost in the W/L column but it's hard to expect a great improvement until they prove they can win as a group.

And if we don't win with this group or at least see considerable improvement over the next season or two, I don't think it's impossible to think that seed of doubt begin to be implanted in Booker's mind.

[LukasBMW]

Read on Twitter

I wonder who throws worse temper tantrums at bedtime. The kid in the purple shirt or the kid in the orange shirt?

[TOO]

This is what we are up against people. Good god Lakers fans are delusional!!!!!

From the Lakers Forum. Their trade thread. Ball is a decent talent with a major weakness (shooting) that is (one of)most important parts of being a PG. he is no where near Simmons talent as well. Madness from that fan base. He’s got trade value but no where near what they think and with his family also not helping his cause, going to be tough getting much back for Ball.

I’d be hesitant to trade the #16 pick for Ball.

I see Lonzo as a Ben Simmons level talent. It would take something collasal for the Lakers to ever consider parting ways with him, and if any team is lucky enough to acquire him, they almost certainly won't regret it. The Spurs might be saying they have no interest in Ball, but I'm not buying that for one minute.

Simmons can't shoot, either.

Simmons doesn't have to though, he can get to the rim at will.

[lilfishi22]

This is what we are up against people. Good god Lakers fans are delusional!!!!!

From the Lakers Forum. Their trade thread. Ball is a decent talent with a major weakness (shooting) that is (one of)most important parts of being a PG. he is no where near Simmons talent as well. Madness from that fan base. He’s got trade value but no where near what they think and with his family also not helping his cause, going to be tough getting much back for Ball.

I’d be hesitant to trade the #16 pick for Ball.

Simmons can't shoot, either.

Simmons doesn't have to though, he can get to the rim at will.

The problem with Ball is more than his shooting. He doesn't really possess advance level dribble moves and what moves he has is pretty elementary. For a lead guard to not be able to shoot or have an above average ball handling, that just isn't good enough. BUT those skills including his shooting are definitely something that should project to improve and combined with his elite vision, passing abilities, size and defense, he's worth a #16 pick. He's not Ben Simmons level talent though. Simmons has elite athleticism and elite guard skills (minus the shooting) for a guy that's 6'10.

The baggage is a whole 'nother thing to consider though.

[lilfishi22]

please stop posting Rachel Nichols stuff. she/her trash show is gonna keep hating on the Suns until they get good for a while or another trainwreck team takes their place at the bottom of the NBA. no point getting mad at it and definitely no point in focusing on it

actually with Amin there even if the Suns get good they'll still hate on em

Spoiler:

(half-decent chance that show doesn't exist by the time the Suns finally get good anyway)

They are all just talking heads and only have value if you don't mind a super hot take.

[AtheJ415]

I don't think Booker is looking to leave in the short term especially now that he has an exciting #1 pick to play with but I think it's negligent to not consider the power NBA players have these days, even when signed to an NBA contract. Kawhi Leonard is the perfect example, the guy is an MVP level player on one of the best run and most successful franchises in the NBA and he's the go-to guy but something as 'little' as trust is all it took for him to start thinking a certain way and now he's on his way out.

McD has not proven to be a great GM and we have not proven to be a competitive team in almost a decade. There's hope in that the players we have might turn this ship around but that's pretty much all we have to go on right now. Winning cures everything but winning is not a guarantee, especially for a team that's won three more game than the Houston Rockets, in the past 3 seasons combined. Let's remember, the past few seasons has been about trying to win with the youth (aka tanking) and each season was expected to be an incremental improvement of the previous based on internal development of those youth on the roster and talent injection from each draft. This draft is expected to be the biggest injection of talent we've seen in recent Suns history so that could really give us a boost in the W/L column but it's hard to expect a great improvement until they prove they can win as a group.

And if we don't win with this group or at least see considerable improvement over the next season or two, I don't think it's impossible to think that seed of doubt begin to be implanted in Booker's mind.

Kawhi is not the perfect example. Kawhi is about to be UFA, so he has a ton of power. Booker is not. Booker would have to sign the QO to get that type of power, which comes with a ridiculous loss of money to do so. Booker has power over the org in that it obviously wants to have a good relationship with the star player, but he cannot force Phoenix to trade him anytime soon. He is a good 4 years away from that threat being meaningful. Booker has the power of Joe Johnson way back when. As long as ownership learned its lesson and chooses not to relent, we would be fine. We can match any offer and will max him, and while the talent next year will be much improved we aren't making the playoffs even though Book wants to, but I think all of this is moot regardless because he will be quite happy playing with Ayton, Jackson, Warren, Bender, Chriss, and the PG we add, or Zhaire Smith or whoever with 16 if we don't trade the pick. The talent and coaching upgrade will result in more wins and he will be able to look at that and see we are heading in the right direction with a young core that is very good.