Season Speculation, Trade Ideas & Discussion Pt. 4

[Qwigglez]

I can't believe there's playoff talk on here. Phx will not make the playoffs. They've had a creampuff schedule that's about to get tougher; let the blowouts commence.

I'm still in full tank mode. I just don't see the point of rooting for the suns to make the playoffs, only to end up in 10th or 11th place, n then only to say "had we won 4 more games, we'd have been in!". N then pick 9th or 10th in a draft where we could've been picking 1-4.

I don't think anyone genuinely thinks we are going to make the playoffs this season. I believe everyone wants us to be as competitive as possible and doesn't believe we are bad enough to get a top 3 pick. Booker and Warren are playing amazing ball and because of that our record reflects us being the 5th worst team in the Western Conference. Then you put the Hawks, Bulls, and even the Magic being worse too. We are likely going to pick 6-9 which is fine by me. We can't tank when we are already playing our young guys and winning games that we should be winning.
As tough as our schedule is going to be going forward we still got games against the Pacers twice, Grizzlies twice, Mavs twice, Jazz twice, Hawks, Knicks, Hornets, Kings, Magic, Heat. I still expect us to win maybe another 9-15 games. We also play the Warriors twice in April, and maybe if they already lock down the number 1 seat they may very well rest star players and those games could be winnable too. Some teams may deal with injuries and we steal a game or two, you never know. Point is, we aren't tanking purposely and we likely aren't going to finish bottom 3. If we do, great then maybe we'll pick in the top 5

[Saberestar]

I want to arrive to at least 30 wins this season.

That number, after winning just 24 games last season, would indicate that we are improving and our youngsters have a future in this league.

An step closer to being a .500 team and fight for the playoffs next season.

[Qwigglez]

I want to arrive to at least 30 wins this season.

That number, after winning just 24 games last season, would indicate that we are improving and our youngsters have a future in this league.

An step closer to being a .500 team and fight for the playoffs next season.

Agreed, I know we only beat the worst team in the league in the Hawks, but the fact that we were down by like 12 points with under 5 minutes to go and come away with a win is spectacular. Add in the game winner against the Grizzlies. Those games just didn't happen last year like this year. It's our young guys winning those games which keeps me hopeful for our team. We are learning to win games, and that will eventually lead to better production all around and more wins.
Even against the Nuggets, we were looking good in the first half, and it looked like we just ran out of gas in the 2nd half being on the 2nd night of a back to back. Also the team didn't catch their flight until midday before the game, that definitely probably had some kind of effect, not to mention the altitude difference being in Denver.

[Qwigglez]

Did we play Monroe last night to showcase him or to rest Chandler? I think if we were going to trade Monroe, I think McD is looking to trade him for a mid to late 1st round pick along with a contract that doesn't extend past next season.
I could see us making a deal with maybe the Jazz for Alec Burks, Raul Neto and their 2018 1st (lottery protected 1-14) for Greg Monroe. Though I'm sure the Jazz wouldn't trade their 1st round picks, but I could see them offering up their 2018 2nd round pick plus the Wizards 2021 2nd round pick they got. This deal gives the Jazz an inside scorer to maybe pair with Gobert in small stints on the court, but also gives them salary space this summer. Maybe they go for IT this summer since Rubio isn't working out that well. For us, we get more picks and Burks expires the following season, where we'd have 3 expiring contracts in Burks, Chandler, and Dudley.

[Saberestar]

Did we play Monroe last night to showcase him or to rest Chandler? I think if we were going to trade Monroe, I think McD is looking to trade him for a mid to late 1st round pick along with a contract that doesn't extend past next season.
I could see us making a deal with maybe the Jazz for Alec Burks, Raul Neto and their 2018 1st (lottery protected 1-14) for Greg Monroe. Though I'm sure the Jazz wouldn't trade their 1st round picks, but I could see them offering up their 2018 2nd round pick plus the Wizards 2021 2nd round pick they got. This deal gives the Jazz an inside scorer to maybe pair with Gobert in small stints on the court, but also gives them salary space this summer. Maybe they go for IT this summer since Rubio isn't working out that well. For us, we get more picks and Burks expires the following season, where we'd have 3 expiring contracts in Burks, Chandler, and Dudley.

It looks like we do not want to play Chandler on backs-to-backs. He is too old.

Even if we trade or agree on a buyout (more likely at this point) with Monroe, it seems that we are not gonna play Chandler on backs-to-backs. Bordow talked about that yesterday:

Read on Twitter

Alan Williams will be back on March and I expect him to play late in the season because he is part of our core moving forward.

I do not think the Jazz agree on that trade.
They have Favors, who is similar to Monroe.

[King4Day]

Did we play Monroe last night to showcase him or to rest Chandler? I think if we were going to trade Monroe, I think McD is looking to trade him for a mid to late 1st round pick along with a contract that doesn't extend past next season.
I could see us making a deal with maybe the Jazz for Alec Burks, Raul Neto and their 2018 1st (lottery protected 1-14) for Greg Monroe. Though I'm sure the Jazz wouldn't trade their 1st round picks, but I could see them offering up their 2018 2nd round pick plus the Wizards 2021 2nd round pick they got. This deal gives the Jazz an inside scorer to maybe pair with Gobert in small stints on the court, but also gives them salary space this summer. Maybe they go for IT this summer since Rubio isn't working out that well. For us, we get more picks and Burks expires the following season, where we'd have 3 expiring contracts in Burks, Chandler, and Dudley.

I think a lot of small market teams, like Utah, will make a run at Thomas. Add him to that team and they are suddenly contenders in the west.
If he plays well and stays healthy the rest of the season, he'll get close to the contract he wants. I could see a team giving him 4 years 120.

[King4Day]

Staying on the IT talk, how would people feel about adding him this summer? We wouldn't burn any assets and while our D would suffer, he could be a player, along with Book, that helps us land another star the following year or 2.

He might be the most realistic to acquire due to his injury situation and if we're going to finally start competing, he and Booker would be dynamic on offense. They would be our Curry/Thompson (only poor on D). I think that just adding IT would get us into the playoffs again.
With our trove of picks, we'd still have enough to look to deal for a star in the next season or 2.

The heat and our training staff would probably be good for his hip. It would also show Booker that we're doing whatever we can to win.

[WeekapaugGroove]

The fact the Suns are showing some promise probably increases the chances that Monroe is bought out after the deadline and not traded. The most realistic Monroes deals were always one where the Suns would take back a bad 2 year contract and get an asset along with it for Monroes expiring contract. The better the Suns play the more likely they are to want to use the cap space this summer on an actual player who can help them next season and not take a salary dump along with a pick.

I know some think they could get an expiring and a pick back for Monroe; while it's not impossible I find that unlikely. There just aren't many expirings of that size of guys who aren't playing on contending teams. If he made like $9M a year it would be much easier.

[Biff]

This is the one draft where it would make the most sense to tank and we're headed in the wrong direction. It's good to develop a winning culture but with the talent we have, we're never going to be better than a first round exit type of team. We really need another all-star talent next to Booker. Booker and a bunch of roleplayers isn't going to cut it. We need to land in the top 5-6, otherwise I think we should think about packaging the pick with some other assets and getting a young player with more potential.

I've heard this same thing for the last five years ... Len, Chriss, Bender, Jackson hyped same as this years crop of 18 year olds.

I say trade our draft picks and a few players for a legit star. Pick up a legit free agent this summer too.

I don't think anyone thought any of these guys we've drafted were slam dunks. Last years draft was known as a deep draft but none of them were expected to be superstars (maybe a handful of analysts thought Fultz or Lonzo would be but it wasn't anywhere near a consensus). Bender and Chriss were both project picks. Len was as well. This years draft is expected to be a draft with quite a few guys that have legit star potential; Bagley, Doncic, Ayton, Porter and now it looks like Young as well. Bamba maybe not but he still projects to be a Gobert kind of impact player (even though Texas lost he had a huge game against Kansas 22/15/8). After those 6 it's more up in the air. Sexton wouldn't be a terrible pick for us either but he's a SG in a PG's body and we'd need Booker to play more of the facilitator then. Not really ideal.

So unless we fall in the top 6 we should package some of these assets and try to get a legit star to pair with Booker. Warren isn't bad but because he can't shoot 3's worth a damn his upside is limited. His TS% isn't great even though he's a great mid-range shooter. I think we need him to be our 3rd or 4th best player, not our 2nd.

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

This is the one draft where it would make the most sense to tank and we're headed in the wrong direction. It's good to develop a winning culture but with the talent we have, we're never going to be better than a first round exit type of team. We really need another all-star talent next to Booker. Booker and a bunch of roleplayers isn't going to cut it. We need to land in the top 5-6, otherwise I think we should think about packaging the pick with some other assets and getting a young player with more potential.

I've heard this same thing for the last five years ... Len, Chriss, Bender, Jackson hyped same as this years crop of 18 year olds.

I say trade our draft picks and a few players for a legit star. Pick up a legit free agent this summer too.

I don't think anyone thought any of these guys we've drafted were slam dunks. Last years draft was known as a deep draft but none of them were expected to be superstars (maybe a handful of analysts thought Fultz or Lonzo would be but it wasn't anywhere near a consensus). Bender and Chriss were both project picks. Len was as well. This years draft is expected to be a draft with quite a few guys that have legit star potential; Bagley, Doncic, Ayton, Porter and now it looks like Young as well. Bamba maybe not but he still projects to be a Gobert kind of impact player (even though Texas lost he had a huge game against Kansas 22/15/8). After those 6 it's more up in the air. Sexton wouldn't be a terrible pick for us either but he's a SG in a PG's body and we'd need Booker to play more of the facilitator then. Not really ideal.

So unless we fall in the top 6 we should package some of these assets and try to get a legit star to pair with Booker. Warren isn't bad but because he can't shoot 3's worth a damn his upside is limited. His TS% isn't great even though he's a great mid-range shooter. I think we need him to be our 3rd or 4th best player, not our 2nd.

Literally the reasoning provided every year. Revisionist history bull****.

[hollywood6964]

I can't believe there's playoff talk on here. Phx will not make the playoffs. They've had a creampuff schedule that's about to get tougher; let the blowouts commence.

I'm still in full tank mode. I just don't see the point of rooting for the suns to make the playoffs, only to end up in 10th or 11th place, n then only to say "had we won 4 more games, we'd have been in!". N then pick 9th or 10th in a draft where we could've been picking 1-4.

I don't think anyone genuinely thinks we are going to make the playoffs this season. I believe everyone wants us to be as competitive as possible and doesn't believe we are bad enough to get a top 3 pick. Booker and Warren are playing amazing ball and because of that our record reflects us being the 5th worst team in the Western Conference. Then you put the Hawks, Bulls, and even the Magic being worse too. We are likely going to pick 6-9 which is fine by me. We can't tank when we are already playing our young guys and winning games that we should be winning.
As tough as our schedule is going to be going forward we still got games against the Pacers twice, Grizzlies twice, Mavs twice, Jazz twice, Hawks, Knicks, Hornets, Kings, Magic, Heat. I still expect us to win maybe another 9-15 games. We also play the Warriors twice in April, and maybe if they already lock down the number 1 seat they may very well rest star players and those games could be winnable too. Some teams may deal with injuries and we steal a game or two, you never know. Point is, we aren't tanking purposely and we likely aren't going to finish bottom 3. If we do, great then maybe we'll pick in the top 5

I would tend to believe that, but Homer glasses can be so thick, people get caught up in the moment. Maybe before last night's stomping. But if we can squeeze another couple wins against the dwellers of the league, you'll start hearing questions of possible ticket prices in the lower bowl for a first matchup against gsw.

I still like the idea of tanking more than this. And we could've tanked harder, why sign Canaan, who helped us win a couple games? The guy is not starter material and in the end will do nothing for phx. But he's hungry, so he helped us win a couple, thus far, and put us back a pick or two, potentially. Mike james helped a couple as well.

Players like that, helping us to a handful more wins a year against the bottom feeders does nothing but swing the wins n losses of these bottom teams, and had we not signed the league junk, we would've been in prime position for a top 4 right now. I'll take that over signing a bunch of free agents to claw out an extra win here n there against our fellow tanking compadres. This is why I say we can't even tank correctly. And we should be.

[Biff]

I've heard this same thing for the last five years ... Len, Chriss, Bender, Jackson hyped same as this years crop of 18 year olds.

I say trade our draft picks and a few players for a legit star. Pick up a legit free agent this summer too.

I don't think anyone thought any of these guys we've drafted were slam dunks. Last years draft was known as a deep draft but none of them were expected to be superstars (maybe a handful of analysts thought Fultz or Lonzo would be but it wasn't anywhere near a consensus). Bender and Chriss were both project picks. Len was as well. This years draft is expected to be a draft with quite a few guys that have legit star potential; Bagley, Doncic, Ayton, Porter and now it looks like Young as well. Bamba maybe not but he still projects to be a Gobert kind of impact player (even though Texas lost he had a huge game against Kansas 22/15/8). After those 6 it's more up in the air. Sexton wouldn't be a terrible pick for us either but he's a SG in a PG's body and we'd need Booker to play more of the facilitator then. Not really ideal.

So unless we fall in the top 6 we should package some of these assets and try to get a legit star to pair with Booker. Warren isn't bad but because he can't shoot 3's worth a damn his upside is limited. His TS% isn't great even though he's a great mid-range shooter. I think we need him to be our 3rd or 4th best player, not our 2nd.

Literally the reasoning provided every year. Revisionist history bull****.

It's not revisionist bull at all. 2017 was expected to be strong 1-14 but 2018 is expected to be extremely top heavy with a steeper talent drop off after the top 5-6. Some people have compared it to the 2003 draft.

[bwgood77]

Will Warren go back to his previous level once we have a 3rd scorer or can he maintain similar to 20/6.

It would probably impact everyone, and his raw scoring numbers don't matter as much...I imagine with another scorer his efficiency would improve. He scores more this year, and has every year, but his efficiency as dropped a bit every year (TS%/eFG%) but with another scorer less attention would be on him and if people's efficiency goes up, so should his. Booker as well. They may both get fewer shots, but with another option, both of their efficencies may go up and their points may stay near consistent or even drop a little but overall efficiency improving will only benefit the team and put less pressure on the guys and they will probably have fewer shooting slumps like last night.

[bwgood77]

More than Lavine, I like Terry Rozier from the Celtics. Look at his recent game logs and he has some serious potential. Great defender that would be a good fit next to Booker.

Boston apparently wants bigs so I'd definitely part with one of Chandler, Len or Monroe for him. Maybe throw in Tyler Ulis too if Booker won't pull a Markieff over it.

I like Rozier too. 3/1 ast/to ratio, decent from 3, a positive on defense. Nothing not to like, but I doubt he's going anywhere. If he does, we should definitely try and get him if we can't get a guy like Young, or perhaps Sexton in the draft (though still not totally sold on Sexton, but I wouldn't complain if we end up 8th or something and take him).

He's a luxury for Boston behind Irving and Smart. His role would be even further decreased once they get Hayward back next season.

Boston's bigs are all trash outside Horford so they can look to upgrade their with one of ours which could be enticing for them.

Possibly, but I think he is the primary back up PG. Smart is more of a defensive role player for certain positions, best with Curry because Curry is not a great defender and can do all the backcourt scoring. I think Rozier will be their main primary ball handler when starters rest, even with Hayward. Smart will be good to play with starters at times when any of Brown/Hayward/Tatum sit.

I think he's kind of an Ainge and Steven's favorite and that he will be cheap to keep, but I'd love to be wrong. I'd rather get Young, or maybe Sexton but wouldn't mind going after Rozier. He still has another year on his cheap rookie deal, so they probably wouldn't deal him until next year though if they even considered it. It's not like they really need anything else except maybe a C, but I doubt they are interested in any of ours and probably hope to get one with the Lakers pick we traded, like Ayton or Bamba or Jackson, if that pick lands between 2 and 5.

[bwgood77]

I can't believe there's playoff talk on here. Phx will not make the playoffs. They've had a creampuff schedule that's about to get tougher; let the blowouts commence.

I'm still in full tank mode. I just don't see the point of rooting for the suns to make the playoffs, only to end up in 10th or 11th place, n then only to say "had we won 4 more games, we'd have been in!". N then pick 9th or 10th in a draft where we could've been picking 1-4.

It's fine to root for them or against them..it's not like it impacts the games...but I imagine the bottom of the standings will tighten up a bit more down the stretch....with 6 of the teams in the tank race in the 8 toughest schedules, and 7 out of 10.

Current SOS (as defined by records of teams people have played for those who were not sure)...

[bwgood77]

I don't think anyone thought any of these guys we've drafted were slam dunks. Last years draft was known as a deep draft but none of them were expected to be superstars (maybe a handful of analysts thought Fultz or Lonzo would be but it wasn't anywhere near a consensus). Bender and Chriss were both project picks. Len was as well. This years draft is expected to be a draft with quite a few guys that have legit star potential; Bagley, Doncic, Ayton, Porter and now it looks like Young as well. Bamba maybe not but he still projects to be a Gobert kind of impact player (even though Texas lost he had a huge game against Kansas 22/15/8). After those 6 it's more up in the air. Sexton wouldn't be a terrible pick for us either but he's a SG in a PG's body and we'd need Booker to play more of the facilitator then. Not really ideal.

So unless we fall in the top 6 we should package some of these assets and try to get a legit star to pair with Booker. Warren isn't bad but because he can't shoot 3's worth a damn his upside is limited. His TS% isn't great even though he's a great mid-range shooter. I think we need him to be our 3rd or 4th best player, not our 2nd.

Literally the reasoning provided every year. Revisionist history bull****.

It's not revisionist bull at all. 2017 was expected to be strong 1-14 but 2018 is expected to be extremely top heavy with a steeper talent drop off after the top 5-6. Some people have compared it to the 2003 draft.

Yeah, 2017 was said to have potentially 8-9 all stars, but many said this year's draft have about 5 guys that would have went #1 last year and have legit chance to be superstars. It's a bit different. More top heavy with a big drop off. The 8-9 from last year fall right around the #7-8 guys from this year..Miles Bridges would have been in that group last year too. The year before it was a huge drop off after the top 2 and that next group of six was a step below even last year's top 8.

[bwgood77]

I want to arrive to at least 30 wins this season.

That number, after winning just 24 games last season, would indicate that we are improving and our youngsters have a future in this league.

An step closer to being a .500 team and fight for the playoffs next season.

Even if we win less than 30 our team is improving. Bledsoe was probably our best player last year, or at least right there with Booker, and he is gone and our PG rotation is horrid. No Williams who was solid. We still seem to be playing better even with that glaring hole at PG. Some thought Bledsoe was all star caliber.

[thamadkant]

The fact the Suns are showing some promise probably increases the chances that Monroe is bought out after the deadline and not traded. The most realistic Monroes deals were always one where the Suns would take back a bad 2 year contract and get an asset along with it for Monroes expiring contract. The better the Suns play the more likely they are to want to use the cap space this summer on an actual player who can help them next season and not take a salary dump along with a pick.

I know some think they could get an expiring and a pick back for Monroe; while it's not impossible I find that unlikely. There just aren't many expirings of that size of guys who aren't playing on contending teams. If he made like $9M a year it would be much easier.

He's playing way to well to be bought out. If subs continue this way they might as well play Monroe all season and hope he can be signed decently when Len walks.

[Saberestar]

I don't think anyone thought any of these guys we've drafted were slam dunks. Last years draft was known as a deep draft but none of them were expected to be superstars (maybe a handful of analysts thought Fultz or Lonzo would be but it wasn't anywhere near a consensus). Bender and Chriss were both project picks. Len was as well. This years draft is expected to be a draft with quite a few guys that have legit star potential; Bagley, Doncic, Ayton, Porter and now it looks like Young as well. Bamba maybe not but he still projects to be a Gobert kind of impact player (even though Texas lost he had a huge game against Kansas 22/15/8). After those 6 it's more up in the air. Sexton wouldn't be a terrible pick for us either but he's a SG in a PG's body and we'd need Booker to play more of the facilitator then. Not really ideal.

So unless we fall in the top 6 we should package some of these assets and try to get a legit star to pair with Booker. Warren isn't bad but because he can't shoot 3's worth a damn his upside is limited. His TS% isn't great even though he's a great mid-range shooter. I think we need him to be our 3rd or 4th best player, not our 2nd.

Literally the reasoning provided every year. Revisionist history bull****.

It's not revisionist bull at all. 2017 was expected to be strong 1-14 but 2018 is expected to be extremely top heavy with a steeper talent drop off after the top 5-6. Some people have compared it to the 2003 draft.

McDonough said in May in various interviews that 2017 draft was probably the best since 2003.

Every year is the same story BEFORE the draft.

[bigfoot]

I still like the idea of tanking more than this. And we could've tanked harder, why sign Canaan, who helped us win a couple games? The guy is not starter material and in the end will do nothing for phx. But he's hungry, so he helped us win a couple, thus far, and put us back a pick or two, potentially. Mike james helped a couple as well.

Players like that, helping us to a handful more wins a year against the bottom feeders does nothing but swing the wins n losses of these bottom teams, and had we not signed the league junk, we would've been in prime position for a top 4 right now. I'll take that over signing a bunch of free agents to claw out an extra win here n there against our fellow tanking compadres. This is why I say we can't even tank correctly. And we should be.

Hmmm ... what you are proposing is we shouldn't have signed either Canaan or James because they got us extra wins and hurt the tank. So your logic says we should only run with Ulis as the sole PG on the team. According to you, James and Canaan are "junk" so how could we find NBA players to fill out the roster that are "worse" than those two and would guarantee losses you obviously desire. The logic is just doesn't make a bit of sense.