2021 Playoff and Offseason Speculation - the playoffs. PLAYOFFS????

[NapoleonII]

Wait why would we want to replace Crowder as the starting 4? He's a great fit with this group.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

Oh, damn, I thought Crowder was like 33 or 34 years old. He's 30?! Yeah, I agree that he's our starting 4 for the time being.

Crowder can stretch the 4 and defend well enough, but he's kind of a tweener and not really quick enough to guard 2-3 or tall enough to guard the big forwards. A healthy AD would have destroyed him.

If his 3 ball doesn't keep falling off a cliff like it's been prone to do for 2-3 games, roll with Crowder for sure.

[darealjuice]

Crowder definitely gets the job done at the 4 for us for now. Hopefully Jalen Smith can start to earn some minutes at the 4 next year too. I think the focus should be on bringing back the 9-10 guys in the playoff rotation, signing more of a bruiser/rim protector back-up center, and filling out the roster with strong depth similar to this year. I'm curious how aggressive we can be trying to improve the team knowing that CP3, Ayton, and Bridges have paydays coming up.

[dremill24]

I think we should use our BAE and MLE before the Ayton/Bridges extensions kick in. At that point we might be taxpayers, making adding salary harder and willingness to use them less likely

[darealjuice]

I think we should use our BAE and MLE before the Ayton/Bridges extensions kick in. At that point we might be taxpayers, making adding salary harder and willingness to use them less likely

Agreed. CP3 isn't getting younger. If not this year, next year could be his best shot at winning a championship with continuity through the offseason and continued development out of Booker, Ayton, Bridges, and Cam. We should be sparing no expense to try to bring one home while we're not worrying about money as much.

[Saberestar]

No to Derozan.

We literally had an 80-85% DD (minus the passing) in TJ Warren and it never really worked out here.

We need a big man 5 to backup Ayton, a real starting 4, a backup PG to let CP3 get some rest in the regular season, and a resigned Cam Payne.

Where is Demar going to find 28-34 minutes?

Not from the 3 or 4 spot with Bridges/Jae/a healthy Cam Johnson/Saric (who plays well against a ton of teams).

Not from the backup 2.

Crowder is a real starting 4. We are set for years to come.

[dmastro32]

I think we should use our BAE and MLE before the Ayton/Bridges extensions kick in. At that point we might be taxpayers, making adding salary harder and willingness to use them less likely

Agreed. CP3 isn't getting younger. If not this year, next year could be his best shot at winning a championship with continuity through the offseason and continued development out of Booker, Ayton, Bridges, and Cam. We should be sparing no expense to try to bring one home while we're not worrying about money as much.

Can you use the MLE in consecutive years?

[darealjuice]

I think we should use our BAE and MLE before the Ayton/Bridges extensions kick in. At that point we might be taxpayers, making adding salary harder and willingness to use them less likely

Agreed. CP3 isn't getting younger. If not this year, next year could be his best shot at winning a championship with continuity through the offseason and continued development out of Booker, Ayton, Bridges, and Cam. We should be sparing no expense to try to bring one home while we're not worrying about money as much.

Can you use the MLE in consecutive years?

Yeah you can use it once per year

[King4Day]

Agreed. CP3 isn't getting younger. If not this year, next year could be his best shot at winning a championship with continuity through the offseason and continued development out of Booker, Ayton, Bridges, and Cam. We should be sparing no expense to try to bring one home while we're not worrying about money as much.

Can you use the MLE in consecutive years?

Yeah you can use it once per year

I could be wrong but I think the amount you can use for your MLE is based on if you are a tax team or not.

Does anyone know how that works?

[WeekapaugGroove]

Can you use the MLE in consecutive years?

Yeah you can use it once per year

I could be wrong but I think the amount you can use for your MLE is based on if you are a tax team or not.

Does anyone know how that works?

Yes, it's about half if you're in the tax.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

[dmastro32]

Can you use the MLE in consecutive years?

Yeah you can use it once per year

I could be wrong but I think the amount you can use for your MLE is based on if you are a tax team or not.

Does anyone know how that works?

It goes down to 5.7 and can only be used for 3 years vs 4 years with under tax teams and starts around 9.7 million

[King4Day]

Yeah you can use it once per year

I could be wrong but I think the amount you can use for your MLE is based on if you are a tax team or not.

Does anyone know how that works?

It goes down to 5.7 and can only be used for 3 years vs 4 years with under tax teams and starts around 9.7 million

Are we in the tax do you know? Will we be impacted?

[King4Day]

Way off topic but happy Paul Coro is recovering. This would have been a big loss.
I'm sure people remember him when he wrote for the Suns. Got himself in trouble and lost his job and did work with GCU I believe.
I got to meet him a couple of times when the Suns came to Charlotte. Very nice guy.

One thing I thought was cool is, Dragic commented his well wishes on that tweet thread. Players liked him.

Read on Twitter

[dremill24]

I could be wrong but I think the amount you can use for your MLE is based on if you are a tax team or not.

Does anyone know how that works?

It goes down to 5.7 and can only be used for 3 years vs 4 years with under tax teams and starts around 9.7 million

Are we in the tax do you know? Will we be impacted?

We're not in the tax right now but will probly get there pretty easy once Ayton/Bridges start their new deals, with Booker and probly Paul. Plus another $20+million with Crowder/Saric. This team will get expensive pretty quick so we'll see how Sarver handles it. I could see us not using the full MLE salary (MAYBE partial) this off season and just using BAE + minimums.

[Calvin Klein]

Way off topic but happy Paul Coro is recovering. This would have been a big loss.
I'm sure people remember him when he wrote for the Suns. Got himself in trouble and lost his job and did work with GCU I believe.
I got to meet him a couple of times when the Suns came to Charlotte. Very nice guy.

One thing I thought was cool is, Dragic commented his well wishes on that tweet thread. Players liked him.

Read on Twitter

What do you mean by he got himself in trouble? Last I knew he was working as a beat writer for the Lakers...is that correct?

Glad to know he's well now.

[bwgood77]

I could be wrong but I think the amount you can use for your MLE is based on if you are a tax team or not.

Does anyone know how that works?

It goes down to 5.7 and can only be used for 3 years vs 4 years with under tax teams and starts around 9.7 million

Are we in the tax do you know? Will we be impacted?

Not right now, but I think we are within about $10 million or so, and there is a chance we get into it next year depending on Payne and Paul's contracts. If Paul's contract reduces, we should be ok, unless we use the full MLE (and still could be ok if we move other players like Saric).

The bigger problem will be the following year with the extensions kicking in...if Paul is still here, and making a decent chunk, we will almost certainly be in the tax, which I think Sarver would be fine paying, but a repeater tax the next year? That cost is astronomical so I think we'd want to wiggle under it somehow at that point.

This is part of the reason I was hoping for a team option on Saric and maybe Crowder.

But we could probably easily trade either or both with 1 year left on their contracts and maybe squeeze under. This is why those late rookie picks will be nice cheap contracts...with 4 years to develop 1st round picks...if we can hit on them or at least 1 of them.

[bwgood77]

Way off topic but happy Paul Coro is recovering. This would have been a big loss.
I'm sure people remember him when he wrote for the Suns. Got himself in trouble and lost his job and did work with GCU I believe.
I got to meet him a couple of times when the Suns came to Charlotte. Very nice guy.

One thing I thought was cool is, Dragic commented his well wishes on that tweet thread. Players liked him.

Read on Twitter

What do you mean by he got himself in trouble? Last I knew he was working as a beat writer for the Lakers...is that correct?

Glad to know he's well now.

Details were not public but it seemed like maybe an inappropriate relationship at work or something.

[King4Day]

Way off topic but happy Paul Coro is recovering. This would have been a big loss.
I'm sure people remember him when he wrote for the Suns. Got himself in trouble and lost his job and did work with GCU I believe.
I got to meet him a couple of times when the Suns came to Charlotte. Very nice guy.

One thing I thought was cool is, Dragic commented his well wishes on that tweet thread. Players liked him.

Read on Twitter

What do you mean by he got himself in trouble? Last I knew he was working as a beat writer for the Lakers...is that correct?

Glad to know he's well now.

Details were not public but it seemed like maybe an inappropriate relationship at work or something.

According to his twitter, seems he still works for GCU:

Lopes Insider for Grand Canyon University. http://GCULopes.com writer/editor.
@GCU_MBB
radio analyst. Proud pop. In west Phoenix, born and raised, on the playground...

[sasquatchBob]

This series has been such a pleasure to watch. Suns annihilating Nuggets. What a team this is. Everyone chips in and does their part with max effort.

I think next game we win too. Nuggets have no answer for CP3 pick n roll. Jokic looks gassed. MPJ is injured and can't make shots while being a defensive liability. Rivers and Campazzo back court is invisible. I can't see them winning a game. They look done. Suns in 4!

Edit:
Somehow managed to post in the wrong thread

[Mr Puddles]

Can you use the MLE in consecutive years?

Yeah you can use it once per year

I could be wrong but I think the amount you can use for your MLE is based on if you are a tax team or not.

Does anyone know how that works?

It really depends on the situation as well as what type of MLE you're referring to. There's a non-tax MLE, a pre-pax MLE and a post-tax MLE. Let's say that for instance the Suns decide to use the pre-tax MLE on Dwight Howard, and then decide to re-sign Ayton and Bridges, the Suns could use the PRAC LLUB provision to give CP3 an extention because he's been with the team for one or more season. This is similar to how the Mavericks re-signed Antoine Walker, although that was under a different type of CBA.

Now let's say that the Suns instead use the post-tax MLE, to sign Javelle McGee, because McGee has been in the NBA for more than a decade this would make the Suns a so called "penalty+ team" - sometimes refered to as the Pooh Richardson provision. In theory the Suns could re-sign both Ayton and Bridges as a penalty plus team but it would require the team to move Taco night to Thursday and both Ayton and Bridges have to swear allegiance to the communist party. Did you guys know that the Chinese have invented a cookie that can predict the future? Wild stuff.

Anyway, hope that answers your question.

[SuperSunsFan]

Sarver better look at the Nuggets and learn from their mistakes and not do the same this summer. the biggest mistake the nuggets made was letting grant go, which caused them to lose a main piece for nothing and subsequently they had to lose another main piece in Harris just to get a power forward back, see how one bad business money pinching move started the domino effect that destroyed that championship contending team. with Harris they could have survive injury problems much better.