Phoenix Suns, Chris Paul trade...

[basketballwacko2]

The Suns have the best record in the West! How much of that do you think is due to the acquisition of Chris Paul? A lot of people said he was washed up 2 years ago, but seems like he's still going strong, could his leadership be what has elevated the Suns?

[Dan Z]

I think Chris Paul has a lot to do with it, but the development of various players on the team helped too. Specifically Mikal Bridges.

[ken6199]

Nobody said he was washed. It's just he isn't worth 4/160 at that age, and was playing a brand of basketball not to his / his body's liking. He has been playing more comfortably in OKC and Phoenix.

For any athlete at this age their worthiness cannot be judged by 1 season, but the whole duration of their contract. If they snap a hammy or having to sit out 30 games a season due to load management, then you end up with something like:
- one healthy season, of which they play slightly under their contract, or at most, barely up to it
- followed by one unhealthy season, of which they significantly under-perform their contract while holding up the cap space

The latter was exactly what's concerning Houston two years ago. But for Houston, if you look at that two year span, including the 18-19 season where they were that close to a championship, I think overall it's a successful try luck aside.

[Phreak50]

You seriously think this is worthy of a new thread given there are multiple Suns and CP threads active?

[basketballwacko2]

Nobody said he was washed. It's just he isn't worth 4/160 at that age, and was playing a brand of basketball not to his / his body's liking. He has been playing more comfortably in OKC and Phoenix.

For any athlete at this age their worthiness cannot be judged by 1 season, but the whole duration of their contract. If they snap a hammy or having to sit out 30 games a season due to load management, then you end up with something like:
- one healthy season, of which they play slightly under their contract, or at most, barely up to it
- followed by one unhealthy season, of which they significantly under-perform their contract while holding up the cap space

The latter was exactly what's concerning Houston two years ago. But for Houston, if you look at that two year span, including the 18-19 season where they were that close to a championship, I think overall it's a successful try luck aside.

Well some said it but most said he was not worth the money. Clearly Paul is worth more than Westbrook who was traded for him and seems to me the Suns got a bargain when they got him.

[slicedbread2]

I say that last year was the best thing that could happen for Phoenix. They finally got a starting calibre pg in Rubio who showed James Jones that Devin Booker was best used as a scoring guard instead of being a combo guard which wasn't working out. The talent getting more experience under their belt helped a lot especially after their near-miss but successful run in the bubble.

Getting CP3 was a great get for them combined with signing a quality vet in Jae Crowder for 3/30M. I don't think he was washed, but it was fair to say that Father time isn't kind to those approaching their mid-thirties and CP3 wasn't gonna opt out of $44M considering that factor esp. on a 4/160M. It's a shame CP3 and Harden couldn't work out their differences in Houston despite bringing out the best in each other which resulted in Harden running to the owner who overrode his b-ball ops and had CP3 traded with 2 1sts+2 swaps for Russ who got dealt for a worse player(health wise), but managed to salvage a 1st out of it. Those 2 should've taken their frustration out on the cheapskate owner but that's for another topic.

He's the perfect guy to round out your starting 5 at this stage of his career plus he's a great leader who can be a stopgap. The price the Suns paid wasn't too bad. All they gave up was Rubio, Oubre Jr. who was deemed expendable with the emergence of Cam Johnson and Mikal Bridges being way better along with Saric's play. The other 2 guys were Ty Jerome and Jalen Lecque+a protected 1st that'll convey in 22.

Either way the Phoenix has risen from the ashes and the sun's never been brighter in the valley(pun intended).

[iLLmatic860]

They wouldn't even be top 5 in west when Rubio

Numbers may be similar to last season but Cp3 is one of the best leaders all time

[spanishninja]

I say that last year was the best thing that could happen for Phoenix. They finally got a starting calibre pg in Rubio who showed James Jones that Devin Booker was best used as a scoring guard instead of being a combo guard which wasn't working out. The talent getting more experience under their belt helped a lot especially after their near-miss but successful run in the bubble.

Getting CP3 was a great get for them combined with signing a quality vet in Jae Crowder for 3/30M. I don't think he was washed, but it was fair to say that Father time isn't kind to those approaching their mid-thirties and CP3 wasn't gonna opt out of $44M considering that factor esp. on a 4/160M. It's a shame CP3 and Harden couldn't work out their differences in Houston despite bringing out the best in each other which resulted in Harden running to the owner who overrode his b-ball ops and had CP3 traded with 2 1sts+2 swaps for Russ who got dealt for a worse player(health wise), but managed to salvage a 1st out of it. Those 2 should've taken their frustration out on the cheapskate owner but that's for another topic.

He's the perfect guy to round out your starting 5 at this stage of his career plus he's a great leader who can be a stopgap. The price the Suns paid wasn't too bad. All they gave up was Rubio, Oubre Jr. who was deemed expendable with the emergence of Cam Johnson and Mikal Bridges being way better along with Saric's play. The other 2 guys were Ty Jerome and Jalen Lecque+a protected 1st that'll convey in 22.

Either way the Phoenix has risen from the ashes and the sun's never been brighter in the valley(pun intended).

yeah, I think not making the play-in or even the play-offs was a blessing in disguise. I don't think we make any huge moves if we had snuck in.

[spanishninja]

Nobody said he was washed. It's just he isn't worth 4/160 at that age, and was playing a brand of basketball not to his / his body's liking. He has been playing more comfortably in OKC and Phoenix.

For any athlete at this age their worthiness cannot be judged by 1 season, but the whole duration of their contract. If they snap a hammy or having to sit out 30 games a season due to load management, then you end up with something like:
- one healthy season, of which they play slightly under their contract, or at most, barely up to it
- followed by one unhealthy season, of which they significantly under-perform their contract while holding up the cap space

The latter was exactly what's concerning Houston two years ago. But for Houston, if you look at that two year span, including the 18-19 season where they were that close to a championship, I think overall it's a successful try luck aside.

the salary is somewhat irrelevant in the case of the Suns, as they were probably best positioned to take in Paul's contract since Booker was the only guy on their core that makes significant money. They could fit 40M a year without losing valuable pieces.

[Saberestar]

The Suns have the best record in the West! How much of that do you think is due to the acquisition of Chris Paul? A lot of people said he was washed up 2 years ago, but seems like he's still going strong, could his leadership be what has elevated the Suns?

He is amazing, easily one of the best PGs in the history of the game.

He is one of the biggest reasons why the Suns are #1 in the league, but I think James Jones is the biggest one. He has nailed so many moves since taking over as a GM.

[jsierra1985]

The emergence of the guys that were drafted is the biggest upgrade

ayton/bridges/cam....**** even booker are just getting so much better

CP3 is great and i think he has a big part of the success obviously but the suns front office/draft scouts deserve all the credit

[dhsilv2]

Nobody said he was washed. It's just he isn't worth 4/160 at that age, and was playing a brand of basketball not to his / his body's liking. He has been playing more comfortably in OKC and Phoenix.

For any athlete at this age their worthiness cannot be judged by 1 season, but the whole duration of their contract. If they snap a hammy or having to sit out 30 games a season due to load management, then you end up with something like:
- one healthy season, of which they play slightly under their contract, or at most, barely up to it
- followed by one unhealthy season, of which they significantly under-perform their contract while holding up the cap space

The latter was exactly what's concerning Houston two years ago. But for Houston, if you look at that two year span, including the 18-19 season where they were that close to a championship, I think overall it's a successful try luck aside.

Nah, he was legit done with the way he was playing on the rockets. Turns out after that trade Paul decided to actually get himself into shape. Paul is leaner and is taking much better case of himself in terms of diet. That's been a MASSIVE help in these last two seasons. Had he not done that he would be dragging his teams down.

[Fo-Real]

Short answer... HELL YES!!!

[SnoopDub]

Shoutout to all people who said this is a bad trade

[Forte IV]

I think its mainly due to the fact the Suns have been the healthiest team in the NBA. Their 4 best players have missed a combined 5 games. Their 5th best player missed 9 games and the majority of that was recently. Compare that to the other best teams in the West and you'll have your answer. Before Donovan the Jazz were even relatively healthy compared to everyone else (Obviously Conley missed some time but no one else did).

[matt6715]

Young teams sometimes discount the importance of true top-end veteran talent. I think my Mavericks are going through that right now - they have completely handed over the franchise to Luka (as they should have) but that also has made him the de facto leader at only 22 years old. A guy like Chris Paul allows every other young player around him to feel more confident and understand what it really takes to win

[Sicnarf]

I think the evolution of the Phoenix Suns is due to several factors, it is not fair to give the credit exclusively to CP3, of course he is one of the main reasons, but Monty Williams as a coach is doing a hell of a job too (as we already started to see in the Orlando bubble), James Jones as a GM is also giving his two cents putting good pieces into the puzzle like Crowder or Craig recently, and don't forget either about the improvement of young guys like Ayton and Mikal specially... Everything together makes possible this really rising and promising Suns...

[Harry Garris]

The emergence of the guys that were drafted is the biggest upgrade

ayton/bridges/cam....**** even booker are just getting so much better

CP3 is great and i think he has a big part of the success obviously but the suns front office/draft scouts deserve all the credit

I'm over here still holding out hope for Jalen Smith

[Adelheid]

Phoenix Suns medical staff magic working wonders for CP3's health.

[cpower]

they also got rid of Oubre.. imagine Oubre playing big mins.. they would be battling for 6th seed right now