2023-24 Season Discussion and Speculation - Free Agency Begins

[BobbieL]

I know people get attached to draft prospects but I'd rather keep Wainright ahead of Camara (if we need to open up a roster spot)

Camara already looks better than Wainright.

I would agree. Would rather have traded Ish with the Orlando pick swap to clear the spot

[kennydorglas]

Why would we keep an open spot to a 32% 3pt shooter who really doesnt add anything to this team?

[WeekapaugGroove]

I know people get attached to draft prospects but I'd rather keep Wainright ahead of Camara (if we need to open up a roster spot)

Camara already looks better than Wainright.

I would agree. Would rather have traded Ish with the Orlando pick swap to clear the spot

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?s=20

I think this played a big part of that decision.

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[starbosa10]

Why would we keep an open spot to a 32% 3pt shooter who really doesnt add anything to this team?

He's still a candidate to go down the road, plenty of time til the season starts

[KdoubleDees23]

Suns need to sign Eugene German to a two way contract

[King4Day]

Camara already looks better than Wainright.

I would agree. Would rather have traded Ish with the Orlando pick swap to clear the spot

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?s=20

I think this played a big part of that decision.

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A million percent. This had to be a big reason.
I do think if a deal comes along with the TPE that's too good to be true, they'll take it, but I wouldn't be surprised if we let Dario's TPE expire unless we have an injury and need it.
But then we'll reset next offseason and use this one before it expires.

[Mulhollanddrive]

We also can't participate in the buyout market would need to trade.

[WeekapaugGroove]

We also can't participate in the buyout market would need to trade.

I don't think that rule goes into place until next season.

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[enigmatics]

Im against Okogie as a starter... I think people get hung up on that stretch of 7 games in February where he averaged 16 points on 51% fg and 46% from three... but outside of February.. he was ass... Hes a role player and bench player... We need to find our 5th starter...

Dude wasn't just ass he was SWAMP ass outside of that little regular season run he had.

His athleticism is very misleading of who he actually is as a player.

[sunsbg]

Biggest difference when comparing KD/Kyrie/Harden trio, which had great results in the 20 games they played together, against KD/Book/Beal trio is Harden's playmaking. He's underrated as a playmaker with his multiple 10+ apg seasons. In Beal Suns doubled on Book's skillset. 6-7 apg max seasons, but also not great A/T ratio, <2 for both. I imagine Suns offense will be mostly ISOs and PnRs with Ayton.

[bigfoot]

Biggest difference when comparing KD/Kyrie/Harden trio, which had great results in the 20 games they played together, against KD/Book/Beal trio is Harden's playmaking. He's underrated as a playmaker with his multiple 10+ apg seasons. In Beal Suns doubled on Book's skillset. 6-7 apg max seasons, but also not great A/T ratio, <2 for both. I imagine Suns offense will be mostly ISOs and PnRs with Ayton.

I think Eddie Johnson was saying Book is ready to up his game in the assists department. EJ believed Book could average over 10 per game. Just comparing Harden's and Westbrook's early career numbers they were similar to Books and then they both jumped above 10 per game in their late 20's. Every year Booker adds a new wrinkle to his game so I would not be surprised.

[SunsRback4Good]

Why would we keep an open spot to a 32% 3pt shooter who really doesnt add anything to this team?

What player are you talking about?

[Hitachi77]

Payne deal is incredibly stupid if the don’t get another player down the road, will see what happens. A lot of faith in players who haven’t played for us yet.

And I don’t like Okogie starting. He was scared to shoot in the playoffs. Reg season he will be fine, but that’s the scary part. Hopefully we don’t have to scramble to find players who can make open shots in the playoffs, again.

Btw Payne is the only guy who showed up in game 6 vs the Nuggets. I get that he has been injured and inconsistent, but playoff production can’t be taken for granted.

A one game sample isn't enough. He sucked last playoffs as playoffs as well if you recall and he just wasn't healthy most of last season. The guy just hasn't been trustworthy or frankly good enough to stick with this roster and while I really like him as a person and what he brought off the court, I totally get why we needed to take this risk and move on.

With something like 5-6 new 2nd round picks in our offers, we're far from done.

I get what you are saying but at least we know he CAN produce in the playoffs. We did take 2 games off Denver with him as PG, and we can’t just cite his stats and say he sucked in those games.

For the playoffs last year, the only other role players that did anything at all were Craig vs the Clippers, and Shamet in game 4 vs the Nuggets. It was terribleness across the board other than that. So it’s a bit scary that essentially all of our role players are unproven, except Gordon who was obv a great pickup.

[WeekapaugGroove]

Payne deal is incredibly stupid if the don’t get another player down the road, will see what happens. A lot of faith in players who haven’t played for us yet.

And I don’t like Okogie starting. He was scared to shoot in the playoffs. Reg season he will be fine, but that’s the scary part. Hopefully we don’t have to scramble to find players who can make open shots in the playoffs, again.

Btw Payne is the only guy who showed up in game 6 vs the Nuggets. I get that he has been injured and inconsistent, but playoff production can’t be taken for granted.

A one game sample isn't enough. He sucked last playoffs as playoffs as well if you recall and he just wasn't healthy most of last season. The guy just hasn't been trustworthy or frankly good enough to stick with this roster and while I really like him as a person and what he brought off the court, I totally get why we needed to take this risk and move on.

With something like 5-6 new 2nd round picks in our offers, we're far from done.

I get what you are saying but at least we know he CAN produce in the playoffs. We did take 2 games off Denver with him as PG, and we can’t just cite his stats and say he sucked in those games.

For the playoffs last year, the only other role players that did anything at all were Craig vs the Clippers, and Shamet in game 4 vs the Nuggets. It was terribleness across the board other than that. So it’s a bit scary that essentially all of our role players are unproven, except Gordon who was obv a great pickup.

Payne had some awesome moments for the suns but I do think teams with length like the Pels and Bucks really got to him. Seemed to get in his head and render him almost unplayable.

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[matt131]

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If that’s truly the plan, I feel like offloading Payne so soon was kinda dumb. He’s a better player than Bol Bol and serves as a backup to two of our oft-injured stars.

Bol Bol would have to wait for injuries to KD, KBD, Ayton, Eubanks, and Metu before seeing the floor.

[enigmatics]

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?s=46

If that’s truly the plan, I feel like offloading Payne so soon was kinda dumb. He’s a better player than Bol Bol and serves as a backup to two of our oft-injured stars.

Bol Bol would have to wait for injuries to KD, KBD, Ayton, Eubanks, and Metu before seeing the floor.

An oft-injured backup.

I brought this up a long time ago - but they knew they were never going to get a 1:1 replacement for CP3 at PG. The KD trade was the Suns officially moving away from that traditional PG role - much like what the Lakers do. They made it even clearer with the addition of Beal.

[bigfoot]

Read on Twitter

?s=46

If that’s truly the plan, I feel like offloading Payne so soon was kinda dumb. He’s a better player than Bol Bol and serves as a backup to two of our oft-injured stars.

Bol Bol would have to wait for injuries to KD, KBD, Ayton, Eubanks, and Metu before seeing the floor.

Gordon is the backup to Beal and Booker. By far a better option than Payne and so much cheaper.

[WeekapaugGroove]

This is the biggest suns time in a while (ever maybe). Lots of height and length across the roster. No real little guys.

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[bwgood77]

Everyone has a source

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Flex and DubSuns are each other's sources, so they "legitimize" each other.

[bwgood77]

So a Beal, Booker, Okogie, Durant, Ayton starting 5 would just be Beal replacing Paul.

Given all the talk about high turnover, lack of depth, and massive taxes none seem to be actually true.

Depth was an issue to start last year, so when we made the trade mid season and people argued it didn't hurt our depth because we got KD and TJ for Mikal and Cam, it didn't deepen it, and it gave us TJ who was barely a rotation player at that point, and KD, who plays about half his games. For Mikal who plays them all, and Cam, who is up and down.

So it hurt a little bit but our depth was bad to start with once Crowder decided to sit out.

This year depth may not be worse but it isn't strong after our starters.

But despite having said that, we have the best starting lineup probably, at least offensively, and I think we did extremely well with minimum contracts, especially the Eric Gordon one.

Of course it remains to be seen how good KBD, Okogie, Yuta, Eubanks, Goodwin, etc, will play.Will they be better than minimum players? Probably a couple will,or each will at times and each will look awful at times.

I think our biggest issues will be defensive and turnovers. Possibly rebounding some, but I think with KD being a better rebounding PF than anyone else we'd have next to Ayton will help in that regard.