Suns sign Eric Gordon

[INFORMER]

EG is a true combo guard.

He really isn't. He pretty much is only a shooting guard. He can bring the ball up the floor, but he really only moonlighted as a point guard early in his career, and even then, he wasn't particularly good at it.

[INFORMER]

Credit where credit's due. It's Ishbia's money but Jones has executed well and changed the team around pretty significantly.

Jones has just about made all the right signings this offseason.

Still wished we had passed on Damion Lee though, especially now that we have Gordon.

[INFORMER]

The pessimistic outlook is that we’re still relying heavily on a certain someone to perform at a level that he only feels like performing at sporadically. I think we’ve got enough talent to offset that now, for the most part. But the West does go though Jokic now and that certain someone can’t let him run roughshod on us.

I don't think it is necessary to stop Jokic. I think you have to make him work on the defensive end, and you have to contain the guys around him, which isn't that hard. The problem with a lot of these teams that Denver faced is that they weren't good offensively. Miami was basically just Jimmy Butler surrounded by role players who needed to be hot from 3. That isn't a very sustainable offensive attack. Bam can't be relied on to be a scorer night in and night out.

The Suns weren't running an offense. They were just letting Durant and Booker go one on one. That's not a championship offensive attack.

The Lakers were decent offensively, but once Denver figured out they could play D'Angelo Russell off the floor, the Lakers just didn't have enough. And Anthony Davis being unable to put two great games together in a row didn't help.

But back to the Suns, setting the part-timer aside, I think it may be an issue having nearly the entire roster made up of one-year deal guys. That can be tricky because are they going to fully buy-in to concepts that may not play into how they want to market themselves for their next deal.

I also don't think it is a given that a Beal-Booker backcourt is going to actually work.

[Mori Chu]

Where are the perpetual Debbie Downers and Negative Nancy's of .net? I want to get your takes on the FA signings, including Gordon. Looking for some hard negative takes to offset the optimism.

I'm not feeling negative at all; basically A+ offseason if you ask me. I think we're well positioned to compete for a title next year. If I had to come up with negatives, here would be some of them:

• We don't have a real PG, which may diminish the effectiveness of several players, including Ayton.
• We aren't sure that Book and Beal will actually mesh well together as a starting backcourt. They probably will, but who knows? There is definitely an "only one ball" problem potential with this big 3.
• We are still relying a lot on Ayton to anchor our interior defense and expecting him to deliver against the Jokics of the world if we really want to win a title. And you just never know what you'll get when you rely on DeAndre Ayton, especially when he's just endured another summer full of rumors that he'd be traded (and may continue to hear those rumors during the coming season).
• We have a bunch of new guys, many on 1-year minimum contracts, and there could be a bit of competition and jealousy between them based on who gets minutes and who doesn't.
• We have a new coach who is sometimes abrasive and not known for bringing out the best from his teams offensively. We don't know if he'll mesh with this interesting and unique roster.
• Off the bench, despite all our nice additions we're weak at the 1 and the 5, so we may struggle with offensive flow or interior defense against good/deep teams. May need to stagger minutes of the Big 3 to make sure >= 1 is on the floor at all times.
• We're in salary cap/tax hell for years to come, with almost no interesting draft assets to our name for a decade. If this team doesn't win a title, we'll be paying for it for a long, long time.
• Isiah Thomas is associated with our team.

[pickle]

Nice list Mori. Only thing missing is maybe injuries.

[JJ Slim]

Nice list Mori. Only thing missing is maybe injuries.

And the Suns' curse

[Sunsfanatic76]

Cool stat, but it's pretty funny of them to include Eubanks with his 0.2 3PA per game.

Most likely just a hype/excitement thing to soften the blow of rescinding Landale perhaps? or just to hype more excitement in general maybe?

[Superbone]

OK, Kellan Olson reads .net. He stole my "cherry on top" phrase I used about the Gordon signing after all our other gets.

https://arizonasports.com/story/3527250 ... ee-agency/

Eric Gordon signing cherry on top of Suns’ outstanding free agency

[Wally_West]

I really hope to see a KD at 5 line up that looks like Book-Beal-Yuta-KBD-KD. The size and and shooting of those 5

I don't understand this fascination with wanting lineups with KD playing the 5.

Just thinking of ways to punish teams offensively. Having 5 players on the floor at the same time that many would consider are either good, or great or even elite shooters, 3 of which are elite offensive players, is quite the weapon to be able to deploy. Of course it’s matchup dependent but I really like the offensive potential of this team.

[Split T]

Just trade Ayton for Turner and you can have a Booker, Beal, Gordon, KD, Turner lineup. Spacing for days.

[ShelC]

I'd love to see a smallball lineup of Beal, EG, Book, Yuta and KD. That'd be a death lineup in the right matchup.

[Wally_West]

Even something simple as running Yuta with Book-Beal-KD and Ayton has the potential to be quite insane. The amount of open looks Yuta will get is going be nightmare for teams.

That’s why it wouldn’t surprise me if he ends up in the starting lineup. He hustles, a sniper and attack close outs. It’s unlikely but there’s a chance.

I think it’s 60/35/5 that KBD, Okogie or Yuta will start.

[SunnyOrange]

[...]
But back to the Suns, setting the part-timer aside, I think it may be an issue having nearly the entire roster made up of one-year deal guys. That can be tricky because are they going to fully buy-in to concepts that may not play into how they want to market themselves for their next deal.
[...]

I do agree, but by the same token, having multiple players on one-year deals on our team might be a positive: Those guys playing for a new contract have an additional motivation to prove themselves and make on court recommendations to get the next deal / (first) true payday. So for the upcoming season, I see those deals at least as a neutral trait.

[Split T]

We will be able to pay Okogie if he breaks out this year. We’ll have early bird rights and could give him a deal starting around 12-13 million next summer. I feel like Gordon already passed up more money so he probably stays for both seasons. Metu will probably be a minimum guy next summer anyways. Yuta, KBD, and Eubanks are the tricky ones. If those 3 do what we are expecting them to do, they’ll all be worthy of a payday and since they haven’t really been paid yet, they’ll definitely take it.

Feels like our only hope is if they are TPMLE or BAE type guys and we convince them they’re better off sticking with us for 3ish million(1.5-2 million less than they could get) and we take care of them the next summer when we have early bird and can give them up to 13 million a year.

If any have a Bruce Brown breakout and can make 10 million +, they’re gone for sure.

[ShelC]

KBD and Yuta don't strike me as "me first" guys looking to get theirs for a lucrative contract. Yuta's gotta shoot 40% from 3 to get noticed. KBD has to be a swiss army knife to have value. If KBD wasn't looking for his own on the Spurs last year, he's not going to pull that on a team with Beal, Book and KD. EG's made his money and is a known quantity so he's playing to win. Either way they're not going to be looking off our Big 3.

I really can't think of many guys like that around the league in that kind of situation. It's something JR Smith or Ricky Davis would be prone to doing. Or maybe Jerami Grant in Denver before they were really good and he was their best player and cashed out to go to Detroit.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Remember when a lot of us thought Okogie would get a decent offer in the middle of the season? Then he disappeared in the playoffs and now he's back on a cheap deal.

If any of these minimum guys "break out" it means the Suns are in the Finals at a minimum, and at that point, it's completely worth the cost of losing them in the Summer.

[SunnyOrange]

[...]
If any of these minimum guys "break out" it means the Suns are in the Finals at a minimum, and at that point, it's completely worth the cost of losing them in the Summer.

This might be optimistic, but I do like that approach.

[Superbone]

I feel like Gordon already passed up more money so he probably stays for both seasons.

Yeah, I think he's going to want to be a part of defending our first NBA Championship.

[Flagrant Fowl]

[...]
If any of these minimum guys "break out" it means the Suns are in the Finals at a minimum, and at that point, it's completely worth the cost of losing them in the Summer.

This might be optimistic, but I do like that approach.

My point is Bruce Brown doesn't get $20M/year if the Nuggets don't make the Finals.

[SunnyOrange]

[...]
If any of these minimum guys "break out" it means the Suns are in the Finals at a minimum, and at that point, it's completely worth the cost of losing them in the Summer.

This might be optimistic, but I do like that approach.

My point is Bruce Brown doesn't get $20M/year if the Nuggets don't make the Finals.

Ok, that's true. Point taken.