Suns Preseason News 2018

[Aztec Sunsfan]

If the FO is trying to get out of the hostage situation in the PG trade front, sounds good in principle. “I rather sign Crawford that sent you an unprotected first...”, I’m pretty sure that up to this point, teams are managing two prices for their PGs: the general asking price and the Suns price. So I’m fine with riding a veteran for at least a couple months, until a better scenario develops.

[JCSunsfan]

If the FO is trying to get out of the hostage situation in the PG trade front, sounds good in principle. “I rather sign Crawford that sent you an unprotected first...”, I’m pretty sure that up to this point, teams are managing two prices for their PGs: the general asking price and the Suns price. So I’m fine with riding a veteran for at least a couple months, until a better scenario develops.

It might be worth signing a vet minimum contract and then cutting him just to get a negotiation advantage. Crawford couldn’t complain. A million bucks for doing nothing.

[Superbone]

Crawford's vet minimum is 2.4 million!

[JCSunsfan]

Crawford's vet minimum is 2.4 million!

my mistake

[Nodack]

Crawford wouldn’t be our future pg. He would be a stop gap at the vet minimum. Yes he can’t play a ton of minutes. We have guys we want to give time to like Okobo anyway. Crawford is an old vet who could teach the noobs a few things. It would be a step up this season from what we have going on now at the pg position and at the vet minimum. Not a home run but, an improvement hopefully.

I still believe the Suns will be looking to the next off season in free agency or some draft trade to get the pg of our future.

[England Sun]

My take exactly Nodak.

What also has been missed by some is Jones talking about the character of Crawford and being his friend. I think he may also be able to give an added insight to the new GM, I mean acting GM of a few things and also be another locker room guy to give experience. 1 year at 2.4 mil and better than all of the 4 points we currently have will help us out over the year until we make a big move either January or next off season.
I really want to see Okobo get those supporting minutes and watch him grow learnig from Crawford than picking up after the other guys we have trying to not turn it over in double digits every game.

[Ring_Wanted]

The problem is not that we are signing a vet PG. That's ok. The issue is the specific player we are targeting. Jamal is a shoot first (and second) guard that loves to play hero ball. We had that in Knight.

Really, if there is nothing better than an almost retired vet, at least go for one whose style fits what this team needs. It is imperative to feed Ayton when he gets in position down low and when he rolls to the basket, and I am afraid Jamal is not going to have that in mind when he is on the court.

[Wormwood]

I am really unenthusiastic about Crawford. He is literally the worst defensive player in the NBA. His defensive RPM was the lowest of the 521 NBA players tracked by ESPN last year.

Ouch.

Oh, he also doesn't pass the ball, and his TS% is meh as well. Statistically, our existing PGs are about as good in terms of total on-court net effect as him because they play some defense and pass the ball on occasion.

Other than that, he's great.

[Indy]

Phoenix Suns offer guard Jamal Crawford the veterans minimum

http://arizonasports.com/story/1696952/ ... -crawford/

If Crawford accepts, the Suns have to cut two players. I assume Canaan and maybe Bender. If we do not extend Bender, we need to cut him.

I think Troy Daniels should be a candidate to get waived, although I think he could be used in a trade. I don't know if cutting Bender is a good move; he is really the only other PF on the roster besides Anderson.

I would assume if we cut anyone, it will be guys on non-guaranteed deals... We won't cut bender when we still owe him 4.6M this year.

What difference does it make about Bender if we are not going to play him anyway? I never got this reasoning. If we are done with him, we are done with him. Move on already. If we want to keep him, then extend him and play him.

What INF said. If you needed to free up a roster spot to bring in a different stretch 4, sure, waive him. But to just get down to your max roster size it doesn't give you any benefit. Free up a wing or one of the 4 PGs you have that you know shouldn't be on an NBA roster.

[Indy]

The problem is not that we are signing a vet PG. That's ok. The issue is the specific player we are targeting. Jamal is a shoot first (and second) guard that loves to play hero ball. We had that in Knight.

Really, if there is nothing better than an almost retired vet, at least go for one whose style fits what this team needs. It is imperative to feed Ayton when he gets in position down low and when he rolls to the basket, and I am afraid Jamal is not going to have that in mind when he is on the court.

I don't get why we are trying to fill our giant need at PG with a guy that hasn't played PG since Steve Nash was still on our team. He isn't a PG. We just added another 2 to our team. Last I checked, I think we had something like 47 2/3s on our team. Why go out and get another? If we are going with a washed up vet, in addition to the 3 on our team already, we might want to get one that actually plays (played) a position of need.

[O_Gardino]

My take exactly Nodak.

What also has been missed by some is Jones talking about the character of Crawford and being his friend. I think he may also be able to give an added insight to the new GM, I mean acting GM of a few things and also be another locker room guy to give experience. 1 year at 2.4 mil and better than all of the 4 points we currently have will help us out over the year until we make a big move either January or next off season.
I really want to see Okobo get those supporting minutes and watch him grow learnig from Crawford than picking up after the other guys we have trying to not turn it over in double digits every game.

I'm not opposed to the Crawford signing, but I'm certainly not excited about getting the pg version of Anderson. He can shoot, he knows ow to play, he physically incapable of playing defense, and he's physically incapable of playing heavy minutes. OK.

What I don't like about the signing is Jones talking about being his friend and all the lovey dovey talk around Jones' communication skills and connections around the nba. You don't sign guys because they are your friends, and you dno't count on the GM having inside connections with free agents.

[O_Gardino]

The problem is not that we are signing a vet PG. That's ok. The issue is the specific player we are targeting. Jamal is a shoot first (and second) guard that loves to play hero ball. We had that in Knight.

Really, if there is nothing better than an almost retired vet, at least go for one whose style fits what this team needs. It is imperative to feed Ayton when he gets in position down low and when he rolls to the basket, and I am afraid Jamal is not going to have that in mind when he is on the court.

I don't get why we are trying to fill our giant need at PG with a guy that hasn't played PG since Steve Nash was still on our team. He isn't a PG. We just added another 2 to our team. Last I checked, I think we had something like 47 2/3s on our team. Why go out and get another? If we are going with a washed up vet, in addition to the 3 on our team already, we might want to get one that actually plays (played) a position of need.

He's friends with James Jones and that will help out player/gm relationship numbers quite a bit!

[Indy]

The problem is not that we are signing a vet PG. That's ok. The issue is the specific player we are targeting. Jamal is a shoot first (and second) guard that loves to play hero ball. We had that in Knight.

Really, if there is nothing better than an almost retired vet, at least go for one whose style fits what this team needs. It is imperative to feed Ayton when he gets in position down low and when he rolls to the basket, and I am afraid Jamal is not going to have that in mind when he is on the court.

I don't get why we are trying to fill our giant need at PG with a guy that hasn't played PG since Steve Nash was still on our team. He isn't a PG. We just added another 2 to our team. Last I checked, I think we had something like 47 2/3s on our team. Why go out and get another? If we are going with a washed up vet, in addition to the 3 on our team already, we might want to get one that actually plays (played) a position of need.

He's friends with James Jones and that will help out player/gm relationship numbers quite a bit!

Ah. Makes so much sense!

[In2ition]

I don't understand how so many think that Jamal Crawford is being brought in as the answer at pg. That makes no sense, and I'm pretty positive that the front office isn't looking at it that way either. He's being brought in for bench help at the sg position. They are still going to do their best to find a starting pg to round out the roster. We all need to stop the hand wringing over Jamal freaking Crawford.

[The Bobster]

He didn't cost much money and the player they waive to make room for him isn't much of a prospect (Daniels? Canaan? Harrison?), if he doesn't work out they can waive him.

[Split T]

Unless I'm missing something, we also haven't signed him yet. We just offered the contract

[Cap]

Unless I'm missing something, we also haven't signed him yet. We just offered the contract

What’s he gonna do, shop around for a better offer? Good luck with that, Jamal.

[Split T]

Well he hasn't signed it yet. He might just wait it out until injuries start happening and another team offers him a deal.

[Indy]

I don't understand how so many think that Jamal Crawford is being brought in as the answer at pg. That makes no sense, and I'm pretty positive that the front office isn't looking at it that way either. He's being brought in for bench help at the sg position. They are still going to do their best to find a starting pg to round out the roster. We all need to stop the hand wringing over Jamal freaking Crawford.

Why are you positive the FO doesn't see it that way? Also, I haven't heard anyone from the current or former FO say that we needed help at the SG position, or even additional veteran leadership on the bench. They have been really vocal about needing to find a PG as their primary focus.

[ShelC]

Wouldn't surprise me if Sarver's a fan and just wants Crawford to sign and hit some big shots a couple times a year.