Phx-Suns.Net

My top six falls into two distinct tiers.

Tier one:

Ayton
Doncic
Young

Tier two:

Porter
Bagley
Bamba

I am tempted to drop Bamba down into tier three, but he seems distinctly better than any other players I currently have ranked in that tier.

I really wish we could have seen Porter this year. I'm a little concerned about his back injury that he will have to manage the rest of his life.

I've never been huge on Porter, mostly cuz we have two young pf's and I think guys like Ayton and Doncic are better prospects anyways. Still, seeing the success of guys like Tatum and kuzma this year has me intrigued. Porter is bigger and more athletic than them and would make quite the potent duo with Booker. I think we'd have to move either Chriss or Bender as they don't seem to be capable of playing much 5.

JCSunsfan wrote:
Take a look at Landry Shamet out of Wichita St. 6-4 pg with a 7 foot wingspan. Averages 16 pts and 5 assists. Shoots 58% from the field and 52% from the 3 (with 70 taken so far). He is supposed to be a very good defender. Reminds me a lot of Brogdon. He is a very efficient offensive player and a pretty good passer.

I think we could get him with the Miami pick.

Great find. Thanks, JCS.

Split T wrote:I've never been huge on Porter, mostly cuz we have two young pf's and I think guys like Ayton and Doncic are better prospects anyways. Still, seeing the success of guys like Tatum and kuzma this year has me intrigued. Porter is bigger and more athletic than them and would make quite the potent duo with Booker. I think we'd have to move either Chriss or Bender as they don't seem to be capable of playing much 5.

Doesn't Porter project to be a SF? If I were Bender/Chriss, I'd be much more worried about Bagley.

So what do we like more?
Booker-Ayton
Booker-Doncic
Booker-Young
Booker-Bagley
Booker-Porter
Booker-Bamba

I think Bagley and Bender could play together in the frontcourt.

My biggest concern with Porter and Bender/Chriss in the frontcourt is the lack of rebounding and lack of a true rim protector. Bagley will rebound so wouldn't be as big of an issue with Bender/Chriss. We'd still have some rim protection issues. They can all block shots, but more as weakside help, not true rim protectors.

Right now I think I'd rank the combos:
Booker-Ayton
Booker-Doncic
Booker-Bagley
Booker-Young
Booker-Bamba
Booker-Porter

Young reads defenses distributes the ball and makes everyone better. No center is dominating the league right now. But pg’s are. Free agents are more likely to want to be here because of pg play than center play. Good centers are obtainable. Give me Trae.

JCSunsfan wrote:Young reads defenses distributes the ball and makes everyone better. No center is dominating the league right now. But pg’s are. Free agents are more likely to want to be here because of pg play than center play. Good centers are obtainable. Give me Trae.

Cousins, Davis, Porzingis, KAT, Embiid, Jokic. I don't think saying no center is dominating the league right now is accurate. If anything, freakish big men and big wings(LeBron, Durant, Antetekounmpo) are dominating the league. Curry and Harden are really the only little guys dominating the league. Maybe include Westbrook and Kyrie.

JCSunsfan wrote:Young reads defenses distributes the ball and makes everyone better. No center is dominating the league right now. But pg’s are. Free agents are more likely to want to be here because of pg play than center play. Good centers are obtainable. Give me Trae.

Pretty much.

Split T wrote:

JCSunsfan wrote:Young reads defenses distributes the ball and makes everyone better. No center is dominating the league right now. But pg’s are. Free agents are more likely to want to be here because of pg play than center play. Good centers are obtainable. Give me Trae.

Cousins, Davis, Porzingis, KAT, Embiid, Jokic. I don't think saying no center is dominating the league right now is accurate. If anything, freakish big men and big wings(LeBron, Durant, Antetekounmpo) are dominating the league. Curry and Harden are really the only little guys dominating the league. Maybe include Westbrook and Kyrie.

I think your choices make my point. None of those bigs you mention are on contending teams, not one. Most are on horrible teams. LeBron, Durant, and the Freak are all oversized wing, no one consideres them centers. Oversized wings are admittedly a commodity in this league. Centers are not. PG's are dominanting this league: Curry, Westbrook, Kyrie, Harden, Paul (Houston plays a 2 pg system), Dragic, Wall, Oladipo (playing pg in Indy), Lowry. There are probably more. All of those are the best players on their team. With Houston, its the two best.

I'd agree with you if we didnt already have a great young guard, but we have Booker. I'd rather pair him with an elite big man. And almost all those big men are 22 and under, that has more to do with why they aren't contending yet, and I'd argue that Minny is pretty close.

Toronto would be much better off pairing Derozan with one of those 6 bigs I listed than with Lowry.

Curry, Harden, Kyrie, Westbrook are the only guards I'd consider to be dominating the league.

Oladipo is not on a contender and also doesn't play point. Collison does.
Dragic isn't on a contender
Wall isn't on a contender
Lowry is not the best player on his team, Derozan is.
Westbrook isn't on a contender
Kyrie may be the best player on the Celtics, but he has a lot of help.

Trae may end up a better player than Ayton, neither of us really know, but It would be a mistake to write off Ayton because he's a big man. We need more perimeter talent, but we desperately need good bigs.

JCSunsfan wrote:

Split T wrote:

JCSunsfan wrote:Young reads defenses distributes the ball and makes everyone better. No center is dominating the league right now. But pg’s are. Free agents are more likely to want to be here because of pg play than center play. Good centers are obtainable. Give me Trae.

Cousins, Davis, Porzingis, KAT, Embiid, Jokic. I don't think saying no center is dominating the league right now is accurate. If anything, freakish big men and big wings(LeBron, Durant, Antetekounmpo) are dominating the league. Curry and Harden are really the only little guys dominating the league. Maybe include Westbrook and Kyrie.

I think your choices make my point. None of those bigs you mention are on contending teams, not one. Most are on horrible teams. LeBron, Durant, and the Freak are all oversized wing, no one consideres them centers. Oversized wings are admittedly a commodity in this league. Centers are not. PG's are dominanting this league: Curry, Westbrook, Kyrie, Harden, Paul (Houston plays a 2 pg system), Dragic, Wall, Oladipo (playing pg in Indy), Lowry. There are probably more. All of those are the best players on their team. With Houston, its the two best.

JCCunsfan is 100% correct. Becasue of the way fouls are called with so little contact allowed, an A+ big is less important than a B+ small guy.

Let me put it another way. Size and strength are a luxury in the NBA right now. Speed is the most important athletic skill, with balance and coordination right behind. Lebron has all of it, but if you have to draft a guy with two of those qualityie, you don't pick size and strength. You pick speed and coordination.

Look at the scoring leaders from the '17 playoffs. Where are the dominant bigs?

http://bkref.com/tiny/sq8TB

Hmm no offense, I just don't agree with you guys. If I'm starting from scratch, then ya I'll take the quick, perimeter oriented guy, but we already have Booker.

Why is Washington just a middling team? They've got a top 5 PG and a top 5 SG. With decent wings and competent bigs.

Same question with Portland?

Is booker/Young any better than wall/Beal or Lillard/McCollum?

Let's look at the contenders

Golden State has two of the 5 best players in the league, including a 7'0 freak. But they did win built around Curry. Still, if you're counting on Trae becoming Curry, you're probably going to be disappointed. He might be more like Kemba.

Houston is also built around a top 5 player in the league, a top 5 PG, a very promising big man and lots of shooting.

Spurs have popovich and Aldridge and a bunch of role players. Add Kawhi if he ever gets healthy.

Minny is Butler and Towns.

Boston has Kyrie, but they also have Horford.

Toronto has Derozan and Lowry.

Cavs have LeBron.

That list doesn't convince me that guards rule the NBA nowadays.

Would Trae help Booker? Of course, teams wouldn't be able to shift their defense to stop Booker as much as they do and he'd be able to take over some ball handling and creation responsibility. I think you're ignoring how much a freaky athletic 7 footer would help Booker though. Imagine a young Dwight in Chandler's role setting screens and diving to the rim. Do you help on Booker and let Ayton have a free run to the rim or do you stay at home and let Booker have a free run at the rim? Put some shooters around them and you've got the makings of an elite offense.

That doesn't even include the defensive benefits. Young is going to be a poor defender and we already have a poor defender in our backcourt. Ayton, in theory, should become a great defensive anchor and allow us to focus on putting the right offensive pieces around him and Booker.

Anyways, I do feel the need to state that I do like Trae Young, I'd be happy to have him, I'm just not taking him first overall and definitely not over Ayton. You could possibly talk me into #2 over Doncic and Bagley, but right now I'll keep him at 4.

I love Trae Young and think he would be great next to Booker, but my #1 is Bagley. Just out works everyone. I love his mentality.

In2ition wrote:I love Trae Young and think he would be great next to Booker, but my #1 is Bagley. Just out works everyone. I love his mentality.

I love Bagley too. I do have some concerns about his shot and his defense. But no reason he can't be young Amare. He's got the athleticism and the motor. He's also definitely more skilled than young Amare and could turn into a mega star.

Our team has only like 3-4 NBA caliber players on it. You draft the best guy available. Just because we have one (very) good guard doesn't mean you stop drafting guards.

True. That's not what I meant. I'd just prefer an elite big over an elite guard. I think there are some pretty good guard prospects with the Miami pick.

Excluding OG Isiah Thomas, championships are won by players 6'6 and over. And PGs are a dime a dozen. Give me Doncic, Ayton, or Bagley over Young.

Don't look now guys, but with Miami's victory over Milwaukee, the Buck's pick is now at #16 and comes to us.

Miami is currently #23.

PHX is still #8 (three wins away from a top3 pick).

According to tankathon, we also have #37, #41, #49 and #57.

We really need to be doing something this trade deadline.