2021-22 Season Discussion and Speculation

[Fo-Real]

Kevin Knox could use a fresh change of scenery and some Point god,, Monty Williams and J Crowder culture.

Definitely an interesting idea man!
Knox is actually from Phoenix. But is he really all that different than what we have with Nader currently though?? His defensive rating improved from 115 to 108. And he's established a role as a spot up shooter hitting around 38% from three. But can he do much else for us? I'd kind of like to trade for Brandon Clarke a bit more before his value improves again?

If we are looking at another piece for a run ( Thad Young, Craig, Nance etc), Knox is a freak wildcard!! If tapped into correctly, he is Mikal Bridges level chess piece but with more size. He has the length and athleticism to run small ball Pf and let Cam be free to be more of a platoon 3 instead of the physicality of the back up 4. Another person on the roster to put actual defensive pressure on a dude like Durant when Bridges goes to the bench. He is hybrid enough that when you bring guys off the bench like McGee, Johnson, Payne and add a long motivated guy like Knox on the floor maybe with Bridges still out there, they are **** SHARKS out there, giving effort on defense while all being offensively dangerous!! He is an upgrade to the roster over Nader, Hutchinson and Wainwright!!

[Mulhollanddrive]

The worse the player the higher the upside

[BobbieL]

The Bright Side (@BrightSideSun) Tweeted:
Potential Buyout and Trade Candidates for the Phoenix Suns

(via @ZonaHoops_) https://t.co/lLKncJI47I

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I have a few other names
Satoransky
DJ Augustin
I thought of Eric Gordon - but with two years left - the Rockets would have to pay out - but its a sunk cost
Gary Harris

of course Thad Young

If the Suns continue to be a top 3 team in the NBA - they will be a team players bought out will want to play for.

[BobbieL]

Kevin Knox could use a fresh change of scenery and some Point god,, Monty Williams and J Crowder culture.

Definitely an interesting idea man!
Knox is actually from Phoenix. But is he really all that different than what we have with Nader currently though?? His defensive rating improved from 115 to 108. And he's established a role as a spot up shooter hitting around 38% from three. But can he do much else for us? I'd kind of like to trade for Brandon Clarke a bit more before his value improves again?

If we are looking at another piece for a run ( Thad Young, Craig, Nance etc), Knox is a freak wildcard!! If tapped into correctly, he is Mikal Bridges level chess piece but with more size. He has the length and athleticism to run small ball Pf and let Cam be free to be more of a platoon 3 instead of the physicality of the back up 4. Another person on the roster to put actual defensive pressure on a dude like Durant when Bridges goes to the bench. He is hybrid enough that when you bring guys off the bench like McGee, Johnson, Payne and add a long motivated guy like Knox on the floor maybe with Bridges still out there, they are **** SHARKS out there, giving effort on defense while all being offensively dangerous!! He is an upgrade to the roster over Nader, Hutchinson and Wainwright!!

What would Knox cost - Jalen Smith and a future FRP pick

[sunsbg]

Definitely an interesting idea man!
Knox is actually from Phoenix. But is he really all that different than what we have with Nader currently though?? His defensive rating improved from 115 to 108. And he's established a role as a spot up shooter hitting around 38% from three. But can he do much else for us? I'd kind of like to trade for Brandon Clarke a bit more before his value improves again?

If we are looking at another piece for a run ( Thad Young, Craig, Nance etc), Knox is a freak wildcard!! If tapped into correctly, he is Mikal Bridges level chess piece but with more size. He has the length and athleticism to run small ball Pf and let Cam be free to be more of a platoon 3 instead of the physicality of the back up 4. Another person on the roster to put actual defensive pressure on a dude like Durant when Bridges goes to the bench. He is hybrid enough that when you bring guys off the bench like McGee, Johnson, Payne and add a long motivated guy like Knox on the floor maybe with Bridges still out there, they are **** SHARKS out there, giving effort on defense while all being offensively dangerous!! He is an upgrade to the roster over Nader, Hutchinson and Wainwright!!

What would Knox cost - Jalen Smith and a future FRP pick

Knox numbers look like of someone who should be already out of the league, but he'll certainly help a title contender. First time I see a minus PIE for a player on nba.com. Maybe even more surprising is 19 for Jalen.

[BobbieL]

If we are looking at another piece for a run ( Thad Young, Craig, Nance etc), Knox is a freak wildcard!! If tapped into correctly, he is Mikal Bridges level chess piece but with more size. He has the length and athleticism to run small ball Pf and let Cam be free to be more of a platoon 3 instead of the physicality of the back up 4. Another person on the roster to put actual defensive pressure on a dude like Durant when Bridges goes to the bench. He is hybrid enough that when you bring guys off the bench like McGee, Johnson, Payne and add a long motivated guy like Knox on the floor maybe with Bridges still out there, they are **** SHARKS out there, giving effort on defense while all being offensively dangerous!! He is an upgrade to the roster over Nader, Hutchinson and Wainwright!!

What would Knox cost - Jalen Smith and a future FRP pick

Knox numbers look like of someone who should be already out of the league, but he'll certainly help a title contender. First time I see a minus PIE for a player on nba.com. Maybe even more surprising is 19 for Jalen.

Its an interesting name to think about. I wonder if the Knicks would give up on him that quickly. And second, would he really help

As with the way this team is set up now - they need a guy who will know the role, be able to sit for a game or two but come in and do their job.

[bwgood77]

The Bright Side (@BrightSideSun) Tweeted:
Potential Buyout and Trade Candidates for the Phoenix Suns

(via @ZonaHoops_) https://t.co/lLKncJI47I

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?s=20

I have a few other names
Satoransky
DJ Augustin
I thought of Eric Gordon - but with two years left - the Rockets would have to pay out - but its a sunk cost
Gary Harris

of course Thad Young

If the Suns continue to be a top 3 team in the NBA - they will be a team players bought out will want to play for.

My guess is that not all these guys expire and we don't have worthy trade capital..or to take a guy on for giving up a pick unless a second.

If get bought out, fine.

[bwgood77]

What would Knox cost - Jalen Smith and a future FRP pick

Knox numbers look like of someone who should be already out of the league, but he'll certainly help a title contender. First time I see a minus PIE for a player on nba.com. Maybe even more surprising is 19 for Jalen.

Its an interesting name to think about. I wonder if the Knicks would give up on him that quickly. And second, would he really help

As with the way this team is set up now - they need a guy who will know the role, be able to sit for a game or two but come in and do their job.

Knox sucks. If we are looking for a worthy addition to our current roster to help for playoffs he's the last guy you want. Plus, Knicks probably don't want to give up on him and can re-sign him in RFA for dirt cheap...and not pick up his option after a year if he still sucks (likely).

Did I see a first round pick as a suggestion? Do people not know he is shooting 28% this year and not once in 4 years was over 39% from entire field with about the worst D in the NBA? Career avg shooting under 37%.

He's worst than Okobo, Bender, Smith, Davon Reed, you name it.

[BobbieL]

The Bright Side (@BrightSideSun) Tweeted:
Potential Buyout and Trade Candidates for the Phoenix Suns

(via @ZonaHoops_) https://t.co/lLKncJI47I

Read on Twitter

?s=20

I have a few other names
Satoransky
DJ Augustin
I thought of Eric Gordon - but with two years left - the Rockets would have to pay out - but its a sunk cost
Gary Harris

of course Thad Young

If the Suns continue to be a top 3 team in the NBA - they will be a team players bought out will want to play for.

My guess is that not all these guys expire and we don't have worthy trade capital..or to take a guy on for giving up a pick unless a second.

If get bought out, fine.

Right, all buyout candidates. Not trading for any of them because nobody is taking Saric and Smith to get them.

As for Knox - I mentioned the FRP but the more I think about it, Knox was the 9th pick and Smith was the 10th pick - so on my part, that was crazy.

I think if the Suns get a player, will be a buyout player for sure. And I am good with that

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) Tweeted:
"They're not even on the same planet with the #Suns and the #Warriors."

Charles Barkley as he said #Lakers won't be top 4 seed in the West.

Shaquille O'Neal says Lakers will be 4 or 5 to avoid Phoenix and Golden State.

"They don't want that 7th or 8th spot come playoff time."
Gotta say it's nice to finally hear them talking about us like this!!!

Gotta believe this doesn't sit well with Le'diva and the Flakers bandwagoners!

if 1-2 hold, theoretically the preferred spot would be 6th right? 7th you run the chance of falling to 8th and facing the Warriors, and even if you stay at 7th you would face the Suns. 6th would mean you avoid both in the first round and face the "easier" Suns in the second if you make it.

It will be interesting. I think the top 3 are probably set, even though I know it's way too early and with injuries things could change. After that is where it gets interesting.

I think there is a good chance Memphis is a top 5 or 6 seed. Then you have Dallas, LAC and Denver. Sometimes those teams look really good and sometimes bad. Same with the Lakers. Theoretically it should be those 8 in the playoffs with Portland as a longer shot.

Actually I forgot Minnesota. I think they have a good shot and the Kings have a long shot. So the 7-10 play in games might be interesting.

And how has Houston won 7 straight? They beat the Nets by 10 tonight. The Nets did rest KD but Kevin Porter Jr or Jalen Green didn't play for the Rockets either. They were 1-16 and now are 8-16. They are like the Suns...1 win and all losses then suddenly they go on a long winning streak.

Minny was my bet for surprise team in the west this year. They have the talent to compete with anyone, but putting things together is hard for a young team. If Paul and Russell switched places, we'd be them and they'd be us.

Rockets are winning games in part because Kevin "T.O." Porter's been out, but one can't help but notice that the streak began with Jalen "Mason" Green's injury. The way Gordon's played has made me think a little harder about adding him to our group - not possible, really, since we can't deal Shamet, and besides, Monty wants Landry to date his daughter so fat chance.

Justin Holiday is by far the best, most realistic name that's been thrown around these parts. Jalen and a 2nd at the deadline might just do it. I know you've said we won't add salary for next season, so... add Bitadze and Saric to the deal? Doesn't seem likely, given how Monty has spoken about Dario as well. He would need to be included in pretty much any trade where we're taking salary back.

I know it's a pipe dream, but if we could get TJ Warren back in here to be a mercenary for the back half of the season... that just might put us over the top. In crunch time against the Bucks, we couldn't buy a bucket. Even if he isn't 100%, the one thing I know about TJ Warren is that he gets buckets. Always loved him. Shame things haven't worked out for him. IMO, he's an all-star level talent. It's just that girlfriend of his....

[WeekapaugGroove]

I've heard/read that it's scheme related in that our focus is to get back on defense rather than offensive rebounding. But that's not reflected in the stats since we give up the 10th highest opponents fast break points. As for the blocks, McGee is the only one that's historically a good shot blocker, Ayton doesn't block a ton of shots but just plays solid defense.

It's definitely scheme driven, their guards and wings very rarely crash the boards.

I'm looking at NBA.com stats right now and if you break down the offensive rebounding numbers even more you'll see the suns are actually last in the league in offensive rebounding chances per game (likely due shooting well from both the floor and line). The suns actually rank pretty high in getting contested offensive rebounds. As far as chances Memphis leads the league with about 30 ORB chances a game and the Suns are last with a about 19.

On pure ORB per game the entire league is between 9-13 with basically everyone except 4 teams (Min, Tor, Memphis, and NO) being under 11 per game. It's not like those 4 teams are using their orb superiority to win more than others. In fact pretty much all the good teams are at the bottom in ORB (partly due to good teams making more of their shots). But overall it's just not a stat that really tells you much because everyone is bunched pretty closely.

In that Milwaukee series I thought it was defense rebounding that hurt the suns far more than their own ORB. A big part of that is Giannis, you need to send help when he drives which leaves their players free to hit the boards. Plus they shoot a lot of 3s and misses on 3s tend to be long rebounds that can come down to dumb luck on who it bounces to.

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Week - I think the original stat that Fish copied here talks about percentage, not the pure counting stat. So while you are right that there is not a huge difference in that as everybody is bunched up between 9 and 11 offensive rebounds per game, the original stat means that out of the 30 teams if everybody has 100 offensive rebounding chances than 28 will do better than us ie: get more offensive rebounds out of a 100 chances than we would. That is not good at all.
While some of it can be explained with the things you write up here, it's not just that. We are not a very good rebounding team outside of our C's for whatever reason. That is why we are ranked similarly weakish in Defensive rebounding % too in the original quote. You pointed some of this out in your last paragraph, and rightly so. Definatley a point of concern, and place to improve, especially in the playoffs against the tougher/bigger teams. Especially if we plan on winning this dmn thing finally! So JJ should do his job, and get us that upgrade, and Monty should tweak his schemes a tiny bit so we should at least get a better % of our defensive rebounding chances. If we can improve a tiny bit on the offensive rebounding % too that is just gravy.

I think that original stat is offensive rebounds per 100 possessions, so that would be downgraded because per 100 possessions the suns have the least amount chances to get offensive rebounds. The stats I brought up show the suns do alright with the chances they get. By no means am I saying the suns are a good rebounding team it's just they aren't as bad that number would indicate.

Overall I also think offensive rebounding doesn't really matter that much. The difference between the best and worse teams at it is pretty slim and there doesn't seem to be any real correlation between being a good offensive rebounding team and actually winning.

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[bwgood77]

if 1-2 hold, theoretically the preferred spot would be 6th right? 7th you run the chance of falling to 8th and facing the Warriors, and even if you stay at 7th you would face the Suns. 6th would mean you avoid both in the first round and face the "easier" Suns in the second if you make it.

It will be interesting. I think the top 3 are probably set, even though I know it's way too early and with injuries things could change. After that is where it gets interesting.

I think there is a good chance Memphis is a top 5 or 6 seed. Then you have Dallas, LAC and Denver. Sometimes those teams look really good and sometimes bad. Same with the Lakers. Theoretically it should be those 8 in the playoffs with Portland as a longer shot.

Actually I forgot Minnesota. I think they have a good shot and the Kings have a long shot. So the 7-10 play in games might be interesting.

And how has Houston won 7 straight? They beat the Nets by 10 tonight. The Nets did rest KD but Kevin Porter Jr or Jalen Green didn't play for the Rockets either. They were 1-16 and now are 8-16. They are like the Suns...1 win and all losses then suddenly they go on a long winning streak.

Minny was my bet for surprise team in the west this year. They have the talent to compete with anyone, but putting things together is hard for a young team. If Paul and Russell switched places, we'd be them and they'd be us.

Rockets are winning games in part because Kevin "T.O." Porter's been out, but one can't help but notice that the streak began with Jalen "Mason" Green's injury. The way Gordon's played has made me think a little harder about adding him to our group - not possible, really, since we can't deal Shamet, and besides, Monty wants Landry to date his daughter so fat chance.

Justin Holiday is by far the best, most realistic name that's been thrown around these parts. Jalen and a 2nd at the deadline might just do it. I know you've said we won't add salary for next season, so... add Bitadze and Saric to the deal? Doesn't seem likely, given how Monty has spoken about Dario as well. He would need to be included in pretty much any trade where we're taking salary back.

I know it's a pipe dream, but if we could get TJ Warren back in here to be a mercenary for the back half of the season... that just might put us over the top. In crunch time against the Bucks, we couldn't buy a bucket. Even if he isn't 100%, the one thing I know about TJ Warren is that he gets buckets. Always loved him. Shame things haven't worked out for him. IMO, he's an all-star level talent. It's just that girlfriend of his....

Well I'd love a healthy TJ Warren but he's a starter quality player.

As I've said, personally, I think we are set with our 9 man rotation and emergency players after them.

Though I would love it if we had Desmond Bane (if not Tyrese Haliburton).

I think we are more in need of another ballhandler that can defend and shoot than a wing or big or PF. If we could get both or someone who had size and could playmake (Thad started doing this last year), that is ideal, but my biggest fear is an injury to CP3, Book or Payne. If we have to rely on another current guard, we are SOL in the playoffs. Having to play a few minutes of Nader isn't as bad and we can always just play more Cam at PF if Crowder gets hurt or Cam at SF if Bridges gets hurt, or our starters more if Cam gets hurt, with an emergency lineup of Book at the 3 with CP3 and Payne or Shamet.

Obviously if Ayton gets injured we are in big trouble too so that is where Thad could come in and start at C or at least come in for JaVale and play more minutes and likely finish games.

[WeekapaugGroove]

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Good to keep in mind when we make fake trades, having a role that the player will be happy with matters more than some people realize. I see a lot of 'lets upgrade the PF spot with this 20pt a game scorer' and I always think yeah 'is that dude cool with taking Jaes dirty work role player spot'?

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[BobbieL]

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Good to keep in mind when we make fake trades, having a role that the player will be happy with matters more than some people realize. I see a lot of 'lets upgrade the PF spot with this 20pt a game scorer' and I always think yeah 'is that dude cool with taking Jaes dirty work role player spot'?

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Well if he went to the Warriors - he would be the third or fourth option on offense behind Curry, Klay and possibly Poole

Evan Sidery -not sure he is with Bright Side anymore - but suggested the HOrnets with Hayward maybe going back to the Pacers

You are right though - the Suns do not need more stars - they might just need some depth - especially with Saric out and Smith not really doing anything.

[darealjuice]

Turner would be a nice pickup for Charlotte if they could swing it

[BobbieL]

Turner would be a nice pickup for Charlotte if they could swing it

Here is the tweet from Sidery -he is with basketball news now.

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[ImNotMcDiSwear]

I know it's a pipe dream, but if we could get TJ Warren back in here to be a mercenary for the back half of the season... that just might put us over the top. In crunch time against the Bucks, we couldn't buy a bucket. Even if he isn't 100%, the one thing I know about TJ Warren is that he gets buckets. Always loved him. Shame things haven't worked out for him. IMO, he's an all-star level talent. It's just that girlfriend of his....

Well I'd love a healthy TJ Warren but he's a starter quality player.

As I've said, personally, I think we are set with our 9 man rotation and emergency players after them.

Though I would love it if we had Desmond Bane (if not Tyrese Haliburton).

I think we are more in need of another ballhandler that can defend and shoot than a wing or big or PF. If we could get both or someone who had size and could playmake (Thad started doing this last year), that is ideal, but my biggest fear is an injury to CP3, Book or Payne. If we have to rely on another current guard, we are SOL in the playoffs. Having to play a few minutes of Nader isn't as bad and we can always just play more Cam at PF if Crowder gets hurt or Cam at SF if Bridges gets hurt, or our starters more if Cam gets hurt, with an emergency lineup of Book at the 3 with CP3 and Payne or Shamet.

Obviously if Ayton gets injured we are in big trouble too so that is where Thad could come in and start at C or at least come in for JaVale and play more minutes and likely finish games.

TJ's returning from being injured for a year and half, heading into free agency. I don't think we'd keep him beyond this season - hence the mercenary label. We'd bring him in to get his legs back and show what he can do on potentially the biggest stage. We get a ring, then he jets off to get his bag this summer. Win-win. That's my thought, at least, if the Pacers were willing to accept just draft considerations and a year of Dario's salary on the books. A rebuilding team might be down with that. IDK. Might be a daydream, but if Sabonis lands with Golden State, we'll need to upgrade to compete, and Thad Young just ain't it.

I don't know if a big playmaker is what I'd be looking for. I think we could really use another long perimeter defender who can knock down perimeter shots, like Justin Holiday. Booker's got the longest wingspan of our rotation guards. Mikal's the only long perimeter defender we have on the roster. I'd like another.

I guess you say big playmaker since we're not imagining a future that doesn't involve Cam Payne, and none of our forwards are playmakers unless you count Saric - and I don't, since his feet are stuck in mud, making him an undersized C who is only useful when he's hitting the 3 ball, which he only ever did for us in the bubble. Kaminsky if healthy might be the better player at this point. Which is why I'm down to trade Dario along with draft assets if necessary to get an upgrade, even if it's just for one season.

So, I see why you're interested in a big playmaker. I just don't see an available player who fits that description who is also good at basketball. I don't think Thad Young can play C at all unless the other team's going small - and even then, I'd just go with Crowder or Cam or Frank if you don't like the way McGee matches up.

I haven't brought it up because I doubt we'd consider it, but there's a little corner of my mind that wonders if dealing Ayton for Sabonis isn't totally bonkers. We lose continuity and defense, add scoring and playmaking, but don't lose anything in terms of rebounding. The real gain would be the roughly $17 million we'd save each year... and keeping Sabonis out of the Bay Area. Ayton, Saric and Smith for Sabonis and Warren or Holiday works under the cap. Hard to imagine, but I'm not sure this doesn't make us a better team. Sabonis is a helluva player.

[Bogyo]

It's definitely scheme driven, their guards and wings very rarely crash the boards.

I'm looking at NBA.com stats right now and if you break down the offensive rebounding numbers even more you'll see the suns are actually last in the league in offensive rebounding chances per game (likely due shooting well from both the floor and line). The suns actually rank pretty high in getting contested offensive rebounds. As far as chances Memphis leads the league with about 30 ORB chances a game and the Suns are last with a about 19.

On pure ORB per game the entire league is between 9-13 with basically everyone except 4 teams (Min, Tor, Memphis, and NO) being under 11 per game. It's not like those 4 teams are using their orb superiority to win more than others. In fact pretty much all the good teams are at the bottom in ORB (partly due to good teams making more of their shots). But overall it's just not a stat that really tells you much because everyone is bunched pretty closely.

In that Milwaukee series I thought it was defense rebounding that hurt the suns far more than their own ORB. A big part of that is Giannis, you need to send help when he drives which leaves their players free to hit the boards. Plus they shoot a lot of 3s and misses on 3s tend to be long rebounds that can come down to dumb luck on who it bounces to.

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Week - I think the original stat that Fish copied here talks about percentage, not the pure counting stat. So while you are right that there is not a huge difference in that as everybody is bunched up between 9 and 11 offensive rebounds per game, the original stat means that out of the 30 teams if everybody has 100 offensive rebounding chances than 28 will do better than us ie: get more offensive rebounds out of a 100 chances than we would. That is not good at all.
While some of it can be explained with the things you write up here, it's not just that. We are not a very good rebounding team outside of our C's for whatever reason. That is why we are ranked similarly weakish in Defensive rebounding % too in the original quote. You pointed some of this out in your last paragraph, and rightly so. Definatley a point of concern, and place to improve, especially in the playoffs against the tougher/bigger teams. Especially if we plan on winning this dmn thing finally! So JJ should do his job, and get us that upgrade, and Monty should tweak his schemes a tiny bit so we should at least get a better % of our defensive rebounding chances. If we can improve a tiny bit on the offensive rebounding % too that is just gravy.

I think that original stat is offensive rebounds per 100 possessions, so that would be downgraded because per 100 possessions the suns have the least amount chances to get offensive rebounds. The stats I brought up show the suns do alright with the chances they get. By no means am I saying the suns are a good rebounding team it's just they aren't as bad that number would indicate.

Overall I also think offensive rebounding doesn't really matter that much. The difference between the best and worse teams at it is pretty slim and there doesn't seem to be any real correlation between being a good offensive rebounding team and actually winning.

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Fair enough. I guess we agree on that we are not a good rebounding, and we should improve, either by adding someone or tweaking our strategies a bit. We need all the help and improvement we can get to skew the odds of winning it all in our favor.

[Slim Charless]

Kevin Knox could use a fresh change of scenery and some Point god,, Monty Williams and J Crowder culture.

Definitely an interesting idea man!
Knox is actually from Phoenix. But is he really all that different than what we have with Nader currently though?? His defensive rating improved from 115 to 108. And he's established a role as a spot up shooter hitting around 38% from three. But can he do much else for us? I'd kind of like to trade for Brandon Clarke a bit more before his value improves again?

I'd l love to grab Clarke. I still think he's a great fit for us.

[Slim Charless]

I know it's a pipe dream, but if we could get TJ Warren back in here to be a mercenary for the back half of the season... that just might put us over the top. In crunch time against the Bucks, we couldn't buy a bucket. Even if he isn't 100%, the one thing I know about TJ Warren is that he gets buckets. Always loved him. Shame things haven't worked out for him. IMO, he's an all-star level talent. It's just that girlfriend of his....

Well I'd love a healthy TJ Warren but he's a starter quality player.

As I've said, personally, I think we are set with our 9 man rotation and emergency players after them.

Though I would love it if we had Desmond Bane (if not Tyrese Haliburton).

I think we are more in need of another ballhandler that can defend and shoot than a wing or big or PF. If we could get both or someone who had size and could playmake (Thad started doing this last year), that is ideal, but my biggest fear is an injury to CP3, Book or Payne. If we have to rely on another current guard, we are SOL in the playoffs. Having to play a few minutes of Nader isn't as bad and we can always just play more Cam at PF if Crowder gets hurt or Cam at SF if Bridges gets hurt, or our starters more if Cam gets hurt, with an emergency lineup of Book at the 3 with CP3 and Payne or Shamet.

Obviously if Ayton gets injured we are in big trouble too so that is where Thad could come in and start at C or at least come in for JaVale and play more minutes and likely finish games.

TJ's returning from being injured for a year and half, heading into free agency. I don't think we'd keep him beyond this season - hence the mercenary label. We'd bring him in to get his legs back and show what he can do on potentially the biggest stage. We get a ring, then he jets off to get his bag this summer. Win-win. That's my thought, at least, if the Pacers were willing to accept just draft considerations and a year of Dario's salary on the books. A rebuilding team might be down with that. IDK. Might be a daydream, but if Sabonis lands with Golden State, we'll need to upgrade to compete, and Thad Young just ain't it.

I don't know if a big playmaker is what I'd be looking for. I think we could really use another long perimeter defender who can knock down perimeter shots, like Justin Holiday. Booker's got the longest wingspan of our rotation guards. Mikal's the only long perimeter defender we have on the roster. I'd like another.

I guess you say big playmaker since we're not imagining a future that doesn't involve Cam Payne, and none of our forwards are playmakers unless you count Saric - and I don't, since his feet are stuck in mud, making him an undersized C who is only useful when he's hitting the 3 ball, which he only ever did for us in the bubble. Kaminsky if healthy might be the better player at this point. Which is why I'm down to trade Dario along with draft assets if necessary to get an upgrade, even if it's just for one season.

So, I see why you're interested in a big playmaker. I just don't see an available player who fits that description who is also good at basketball. I don't think Thad Young can play C at all unless the other team's going small - and even then, I'd just go with Crowder or Cam or Frank if you don't like the way McGee matches up.

I haven't brought it up because I doubt we'd consider it, but there's a little corner of my mind that wonders if dealing Ayton for Sabonis isn't totally bonkers. We lose continuity and defense, add scoring and playmaking, but don't lose anything in terms of rebounding. The real gain would be the roughly $17 million we'd save each year... and keeping Sabonis out of the Bay Area. Ayton, Saric and Smith for Sabonis and Warren or Holiday works under the cap. Hard to imagine, but I'm not sure this doesn't make us a better team. Sabonis is a helluva player.

You sure you're not really McD?

I think Ayton is a much better player than Sabonis, at least for this team. The only guy I'd consider trading him for is KAT-and even there I'd be hesitant. I don't think that we have to worry about him going to the GS. Wiseman is of no use to Indy and I'm not sure Moody and Kuminga (who they don't even wanna trade) gets it done.

I think Pacers ship off Turner to Charlotte for Hayward and stuff instead.

We do need another body. I'd like Nance if PDX is having a fire sale and I'd also take back Warren if can as well. Brandon Clarke finally accepting his manifest destiny and coming here would also be cool.

Trading DA mid-season for someone who's never really won and who has crappy defense does little good imo.