2019 season speculation including trade ideas

[Saberestar]

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This sucks

A right ankle sprain sounds pretty serious

Bad news, but at least they are out just for the start of the season and they probably would not play even staying healthy.

We have the rotation set for tomorrow.

[darealjuice]

With Memphis officially not picking up JJ's 4th year option (no surprise) that would be 3 straight McD lottery picks who didn't even make it to the end of their rookie contract

What a disappointment. McDonough really **** up. Not only did he strike out drafting busts on all of his valuable draft picks, but he couldn't establish an environment for them to develop into barely passable players with the constant coaching carousal, poorly executed roster shuffling, and general turmoil around the team. Can't imagine he runs another front office again.

[lilfishi22]

With Memphis officially not picking up JJ's 4th year option (no surprise) that would be 3 straight McD lottery picks who didn't even make it to the end of their rookie contract

What a disappointment. McDonough really **** up. Not only did he strike out drafting busts on all of his valuable draft picks, but he couldn't establish an environment for them to develop into barely passable players with the constant coaching carousal, poorly executed roster shuffling, and general turmoil around the team. Can't imagine he runs another front office again.

To miss on one lottery pick is tough but to miss on 3 (one which was a double down in the same draft) is disastrous. The disappointing thing is that the guy that essentially endorsed McD by keeping him around and allowing him to make these major franchise changing decisions, is Sarver and he's still around.

The ONLY way it could've been worse is if we had been saddled with more unproductive players on long term deals.

[Blonde]

With Memphis officially not picking up JJ's 4th year option (no surprise) that would be 3 straight McD lottery picks who didn't even make it to the end of their rookie contract

I put near equal blame on Earl Watson. His player development stunted all those guys in a pretty serious way. Hiring Earl was probably my least favorite McD decision, both at the time and in hindsight.

Edit: McDonough’s drafting sucked, but I’d rather have taken Bender or Josh and let him go for nothing than drafted Jaylen Brown and paid him nearly $30 million a year. There’s some value in taking boom/bust picks even if they bust.

[lilfishi22]

With Memphis officially not picking up JJ's 4th year option (no surprise) that would be 3 straight McD lottery picks who didn't even make it to the end of their rookie contract

I put near equal blame on Earl Watson. His player development stunted all those guys in a pretty serious way. Hiring Earl was probably my least favorite McD decision, both at the time and in hindsight.

Edit: McDonough’s drafting sucked, but I’d rather have taken Bender or Josh and let him go for nothing than drafted Jaylen Brown and paid him nearly $30 million a year. There’s some value in taking boom/bust picks even if they bust.

Watson was a horrible hire and I agree, one of the worst McD decisions.

I don't agree with your last point about rather have taken busts and not have to pay them then have a productive but (quiet) overpaid player. There's value in taking boom/bust type picks but I don't think I can be convinced it's better to have wasted a pick and all that development time than not wasting a pick, develop a legitimately good player and having to overpay to keep that player.

At worst, Brown is a young guy who can get even better and will be moveable because he's young and can get better. I'd rather have that asset in hand than essentially have gone through 3 seasons of tanking with absolutely nothing positive to come out of it. Maybe I'm wrong in terms of Brown's career trajectory but there really is no positives in taking 3 straight busts and not having to pay them.

[darealjuice]

With Memphis officially not picking up JJ's 4th year option (no surprise) that would be 3 straight McD lottery picks who didn't even make it to the end of their rookie contract

What a disappointment. McDonough really **** up. Not only did he strike out drafting busts on all of his valuable draft picks, but he couldn't establish an environment for them to develop into barely passable players with the constant coaching carousal, poorly executed roster shuffling, and general turmoil around the team. Can't imagine he runs another front office again.

To miss on one lottery pick is tough but to miss on 3 (one which was a double down in the same draft) is disastrous. The disappointing thing is that the guy that essentially endorsed McD by keeping him around and allowing him to make these major franchise changing decisions, is Sarver and he's still around.

The ONLY way it could've been worse is if we had been saddled with more unproductive players on long term deals.

Salaries certainly aren't in great shape when we're paying $20M for Tyler Johnson, but then again McDonough was happy paying about that much for Ryan Anderson last offseason lol.

You're not wrong about Sarver. I guess you just gotta hope he finally got it right this time.

[lilfishi22]

What a disappointment. McDonough really **** up. Not only did he strike out drafting busts on all of his valuable draft picks, but he couldn't establish an environment for them to develop into barely passable players with the constant coaching carousal, poorly executed roster shuffling, and general turmoil around the team. Can't imagine he runs another front office again.

To miss on one lottery pick is tough but to miss on 3 (one which was a double down in the same draft) is disastrous. The disappointing thing is that the guy that essentially endorsed McD by keeping him around and allowing him to make these major franchise changing decisions, is Sarver and he's still around.

The ONLY way it could've been worse is if we had been saddled with more unproductive players on long term deals.

Salaries certainly aren't in great shape when we're paying $20M for Tyler Johnson, but then again McDonough was happy paying about that much for Ryan Anderson last offseason lol.

You're not wrong about Sarver. I guess you just gotta hope he finally got it right this time.

It's not great but McD left Jones with really only 1 bad contract which was the Ryan Anderson one which we turned into Tyler Johnson who has been fairly solid in the games he's played for us so far. And he's an expiring contract now too so we weren't cuffed to any really long term deals. We could've been in worst shape financially is what I'm getting at I suppose

[WeekapaugGroove]

It's hard to blame Jacksons failure on Watson since he coached him for a like 5 games. That one was a scouting failure through and through. They ignored the red flags with his character and drafting a wing who can't shoot that high is super risky in today's NBA. You basically need to be elite at everything else if you can't shoot and Jackson struggled with plenty of other things. I got worried about him by like December of his rookie year, with some guys you can just tell that they can't play.

Bender and chris are ones that environment hurt the most. But I'm not sure it was going to work out for either guy right away no matter where they went because Bender wasn't physically ready and chris wasn't mentally ready. They both probably would have been better served being drafted in the 20s to a good team that buried them on the bench for 2-3 years.

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[bwoolf2]

Lakers might be good but they lack quality 3 point shooters outside of danny green, they will have to do it old school with size and rebounding.

[darealjuice]

Clippers are scary. So much strong depth on that roster, and PG isn't even playing yet.

[NE1Care]

LA vs LA was a good game. It looks like James is no longer the King of the NBA let alone LA.
Watching the game, it reminded me that I have no idea what to expect from our Suns this year. I hope that this year the preseason hype and excitement last all year. Go Suns. Less than 24 hours.

[Christine-In-AZ]

(I'll just put this here)

At the end of last season I posted an observation/question on BSotS-- Basically that I thought that Booker's handle was only average, and further, that it seemed to me that it had regressed in its quality from '17-'18. While it appeared to me that his ball handling skills served him adequately in one-on-one match-ups and certainly against lesser defenders, that equation would often quickly go south when defensive pressure, especially double teams were thrown at him. One game that really stuck in my head, where I thought his loose handle was exposed, was the end of the Suns victory over the Warriors. It probably wasn't as bad as my memory replays it, but I remember the Warriors doubling him repeatedly just inside the half court line, and with Devin unable to dribble out of pressure or dribbling himself into a corner, he turned it over like 3 or 4 times in the last couple minutes.

Anyway! My observation on Booker @ BSotS was rather soundly rebuffed by 4 or 5 comebacks with the general theme-- "Booker has a good (or plus) but not top end handle" and that I was also wrong in that "...he had probably if not clearly improved that skill last season". I let it go without any further comment...perhaps my observations had deceived me.

IDK? It still seems a bit of a weakness for him to me. That is of course grading it on a curve versus the other top echelon scoring guards. But by no means am I a true "in the weeds" BBall skills assessor. Hopefully he'll make this post by me look real stupid starting tomorrow night.

So what say you on Booker's ball handling? Weapon? Weakness? Weasonable?

[DirtyDez]

Clippers are scary. So much strong depth on that roster, and PG isn't even playing yet.

If Shamet can turn into a Danny Green it’s basically over for everyone.

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

Clippers are scary. So much strong depth on that roster, and PG isn't even playing yet.

If Shamet can turn into a Danny Green it’s basically over for everyone.

The Clippers looked great. Kawhi was incredible. Lebron and Danny Green were also very good for the Lakers - it was AD who, to my surprise, failed to carry the weight he needs to carry for the Lakers to get on that elite level.

Both are playoff teams, though. I dare say the Clips look like a lock for the WCF.

[Mr Puddles]

Clippers are scary. So much strong depth on that roster, and PG isn't even playing yet.

If Shamet can turn into a Danny Green it’s basically over for everyone.

The Clippers looked great. Kawhi was incredible. Lebron and Danny Green were also very good for the Lakers - it was AD who, to my surprise, failed to carry the weight he needs to carry for the Lakers to get on that elite level.

Both are playoff teams, though. I dare say the Clips look like a lock for the WCF.

The Lakers look more top heavy than Salma Hayek though. Supporting cast is pretty weak and the team construction is questionable as well. LAL are lucky that they fell ass backwards into two of the best players in the world - if either AD or LBJ misses significant time , they basically turn into last year's pelicans with Danny Green instead of Jrue.

[lilfishi22]

(I'll just put this here)

At the end of last season I posted an observation/question on BSotS-- Basically that I thought that Booker's handle was only average, and further, that it seemed to me that it had regressed in its quality from '17-'18. While it appeared to me that his ball handling skills served him adequately in one-on-one match-ups and certainly against lesser defenders, that equation would often quickly go south when defensive pressure, especially double teams were thrown at him. One game that really stuck in my head, where I thought his loose handle was exposed, was the end of the Suns victory over the Warriors. It probably wasn't as bad as my memory replays it, but I remember the Warriors doubling him repeatedly just inside the half court line, and with Devin unable to dribble out of pressure or dribbling himself into a corner, he turned it over like 3 or 4 times in the last couple minutes.

Anyway! My observation on Booker @ BSotS was rather soundly rebuffed by 4 or 5 comebacks with the general theme-- "Booker has a good (or plus) but not top end handle" and that I was also wrong in that "...he had probably if not clearly improved that skill last season". I let it go without any further comment...perhaps my observations had deceived me.

IDK? It still seems a bit of a weakness for him to me. That is of course grading it on a curve versus the other top echelon scoring guards. But by no means am I a true "in the weeds" BBall skills assessor. Hopefully he'll make this post by me look real stupid starting tomorrow night.

So what say you on Booker's ball handling? Weapon? Weakness? Weasonable?

hmm maybe I'll play the Booker apologist this time around but I think it's more than adequate in about 95% of situations.

Last season we had basically no offensive creation aside from what we got inconsistently from Oubre and more consistently with Booker. Essentially If the ball wasn't in Booker's hands, it was likely going to be a poor offensive possession. Teams focused on him on a nightly basis and for the most part he does do fairly well at either beating the double before it comes ( or he passes it off . It's really in those situations where either the clock is winding down or it's a particularly important possession do we see the ball sticking to Booker's hands a little more because he wants to score it or because he was just the only good option, that we see he's not able to handle the increased defensive pressure.

It can always be better since it's not quite at the level of say a Chris Paul or Harden or Steph where they know how to not only get great shots in iso but also handle and punish the double team. So for the most part, I think he's pretty good but far from elite.

[sunskerr]

Lakers need better depth. I think a role player stretch 4 with Davis moving to the 5 would be good for them. It allows them to move McGee to the bench (increasing their depth) so he can soak up all the backup center minutes, and they don't have to play Howard who isn't good anymore.

[MathiasPW]

Lakers need better depth. I think a role player stretch 4 with Davis moving to the 5 would be good for them. It allows them to move McGee to the bench (increasing their depth) so he can soak up all the backup center minutes, and they don't have to play Howard who isn't good anymore.

They have the premium role player stretch 4 of the NBA on Jared Green Font Dudley

[Jarlaxle0204]

Booker's handle is adequate. It is by no means elite and it can use some work but it's fine. He does lose it a bit when being trapped or doubled but it's usually less about his dribble and instead he tries to pass it off and it gets stolen. I'd honestly prefer Booker shoot more than he does than try to pass so much. That's where the majority of his turnovers come from and he's a natural born scorer.

[NavLDO]

Some things I'm really looking forward to this year:

Rubio winning Most Improved Player
Booker and Ayton making the all star team--...over Klay, McCollum, Harden and KAT, Jokic, Gobert, and AD (depending upon position listed)
Booker winning the 3 point competition......again
Making the playoffs and upsetting the Lakers in round 1--there are 10 West teams...minimum, more talented than the Suns this season
Monty getting coach of the year
Both rookies balling out
Shutting up the naysayers--...and this will NOT happen for many seasons to come, I'm afraid...

Oh, my friend...why do you continue to do this to yourself, haha...

I will give you the benefit of the doubt on some of those...but...

...and not that these can NOT happen, but when you factor the above, I just do not see those as a possibility--heck, we can;t even convince our own fans that Ayton is that good...and you think there's a chance to convince non-Suns fans??

But you know me, my enthusiasm for our dear team always wins out, so if even 1/3 of those come true, I will consider it a win for our season...