2023 General Offseason/PostSeason League News

[Superbone]

That's the best one. Holding the L.

Yep, I hope every time we play the Lakers they’re left holding the L after we meet.

[pickle]

I guess this goes here. I’m so sad it doesn’t go in the other thread. Love the nimble footwork. Despite his relative short tenure Mikal may be my favorite Sun ever.

[In2ition]

It was a sad day when Mikal and Cam were traded away. It was also a sad day when Jones decided to pick Stix instead of Haliburton. Seeing them all play together and play well together on this team doesn't help that either.

[JeremyG]

It was a sad day when Mikal and Cam were traded away. It was also a sad day when Jones decided to pick Stix instead of Haliburton. Seeing them all play together and play well together on this team doesn't help that either.

I truly believe that we could have won a championship with a “homegrown” starting five of Haliburton, Booker, Bridges, Johnson, and Ayton. There would have been no need to make any trades.

[In2ition]

It was a sad day when Mikal and Cam were traded away. It was also a sad day when Jones decided to pick Stix instead of Haliburton. Seeing them all play together and play well together on this team doesn't help that either.

I truly believe that we could have won a championship with a “homegrown” starting five of Haliburton, Booker, Bridges, Johnson, and Ayton. There would have been no need to make any trades.

Yeah, they could have kept their picks and still have either dropped Chris for cap space relief, or still make the trade of CP3 for Beal. I also think they could have traded for KD or another great piece this summer instead and gotten a much better deal on it, while keeping those five.

[Mori Chu]

That core could probably have won a title. But almost every team could have won a ring if they'd nailed a few more draft picks. A lot of teams whiffed on Halliburton, Jokic, Giannis, Draymond Green, Devin Booker, countless others.

[pickle]

Interesting list. I probably would gladly swap Beal for Dejounte, contract and age notwithstanding.

[JeremyG]

[Superbone]

You can't swing a chair in the NBA. It's not the WWE.

[Carno]

Interesting list. I probably would gladly swap Beal for Dejounte, contract and age notwithstanding.

It wasn't that long ago that Beal was at the top of this list. 8 is way too low for him. He should at least be 5, and I could argue he's better than Edwards, Mitchell and Brown as well. Booker is the easy pick for #1 though.

[In2ition]

That core could probably have won a title. But almost every team could have won a ring if they'd nailed a few more draft picks. A lot of teams whiffed on Halliburton, Jokic, Giannis, Draymond Green, Devin Booker, countless others.

You're technically correct, but it wasn't a reach to say that the Suns should have taken Haliburton. I think the majority of Suns fans that knew anything about the draft at the time were screaming from the rooftops to take Haliburton. So, I reject the premise of this line of thinking. No vast majority of Suns fans were calling for drafting Giannis at 5, nor Jokic at any of the 3 picks before he was taken. There might have been a few people that wanted Draymond Green, but he was taken far after the Suns pick. And I think most of us all agreed that Stix was a reach at 10, when he was expected to go in the 20's.

[Superbone]

The Haliburton draft (2020) was the same year we acquired Paul later that year. Suns probably knew they were pursuing Paul during the draft and it may be a reason they didn't select Haliburton. Didn't want him languishing behind Paul. Plus, the idea that we would have won a championship with Haliburton is a nice thought and a possibility but let's not pretend we know that would have been the outcome. Maybe but probably not. Fun to think about though.

But yeah, .net had come to a rare consensus that we should draft Haliburton when he fell to us. We'll never know what may have been. But we all agree losing the Twins was a gut punch. If we don't win it all in the next two years, it will have been a mistake in my book although I don't fault Ishbia for going for it.

This upcoming year will hopefully be one of our most exciting ever. I feel that the supporting cast is the deepest yet. Of course, injuries could derail all of it. I hope Ishbia paid the toll to cast out the OGW forever more. Burn her!

[In2ition]

I agree that there was some thinking and strategies involved in not taking him and instead going after Stix. I think that both Jones and Monty thought that Payne was the young PG that they wanted to be future replacement for Paul, but I think more than a few of us knew that it was foolish to think that. Payne is nothing more than a weak backup pg, and it was only a matter of time before he just couldn't produce. It's not like he makes others better. He is either a threat on the court or he isn't, and most of the time he isn't.

We can all agree that we want this next year to be the Suns best and most exciting seasons ever. If they come away as the last team standing with the trophy, then it was all worth it. I just contend that what could have been, could have been with Mikal, Cam and Haliburton too.

[Superbone]

I agree that there was some thinking and strategies involved in not taking him and instead going after Stix. I think that both Jones and Monty thought that Payne was the young PG that they wanted to be future replacement for Paul, but I think more than a few of us knew that it was foolish to think that. Payne is nothing more than a weak backup pg, and it was only a matter of time before he just couldn't produce. It's not like he makes others better. He is either a threat on the court or he isn't, and most of the time he isn't.

We can all agree that we want this next year to be the Suns best and most exciting seasons ever. If they come away as the last team standing with the trophy, then it was all worth it. I just contend that what could have been, could have been with Mikal, Cam and Haliburton too.

I agree with your thinking on Payne. Plus, we've all heard that best drafting strategy is to choose the best player available and figure out the rest later. Jones always appears to draft for need.

[Split T]

I think we already had Paul before the Haliburton draft

[pickle]

And Paul was already in his mid 30s with a history of injuries so it actually made more sense to draft an understudy to him who could take over in 2 years … which would be now.

[JeremyG]

And Paul was already in his mid 30s with a history of injuries so it actually made more sense to draft an understudy to him who could take over in 2 years … which would be now.

2 years would have been last season, but that’s when we needed him to take over because Paul fell off a cliff.

[pickle]

[TOO]

Some pretty surprising names on this list.

[pickle]

I think a better explanation of how this metric is measured is in order.