Suns News: 2019 Off-Season

[Mori Chu]

From reddit /r/suns. LOL:

[djy2j]

Ya, we are set up pretty nicely to strike big in 2020 or 2021 free agency. A big reason why I don’t think we need to do anything drastic this free agency. Just sign a competent pg to a 2 year deal and go from there.

Suns have spent like 4 years “setting themselves up” for a big move. Time is up. Need to stop dithering, be concise, and go out and get another piece to build on.

I’m not a huge DLo fan but Booker wants him, it’ll keep him happy, and he fills a huge need so go and do it. No more stop gaps. That means no Collison; Joseph, Rubio, or whoever else Gambo has advocated we make a run at. I’d rather make a bold move and have it backfire then spend another 4 seasons wallowing without direction.

Tick tock

[Superbone]

Ya, we are set up pretty nicely to strike big in 2020 or 2021 free agency. A big reason why I don’t think we need to do anything drastic this free agency. Just sign a competent pg to a 2 year deal and go from there.

Suns have spent like 4 years “setting themselves up” for a big move. Time is up. Need to stop dithering, be concise, and go out and get another piece to build on.

I’m not a huge DLo fan but Booker wants him, it’ll keep him happy, and he fills a huge need so go and do it. No more stop gaps. That means no Collison; Joseph, Rubio, or whoever else Gambo has advocated we make a run at. I’d rather make a bold move and have it backfire then spend another 4 seasons wallowing without direction.

Tick tock

Somebody watched John Wick 3: Parabellum.

[JeremyG]

From Lowe's article:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/270 ... t-decision

The Suns will sign a veteran point guard, and Devin Booker has campaigned for Russell -- a close friend. But other voices within the Suns may not share Booker's unabashed enthusiasm, sources say. They have only about $14 million or so in cap space as of now. We'll see how Phoenix approaches the point guard market.

Guess we'll see. It would suck if we don't sign Russell and Book turns sour on the franchise. Then again, it would suck to sign Russell to a max deal just because Booker wants him and not have him be worth it or be a bad fit.

That second scenario is a thousand times better than the first scenario! I wish the Suns would realize that!

And what Lowe says is exactly what I thought might be happening, and Gambo doesn't seem to address that possibility. It makes sense of why all of the DLo to Suns stuff is coming from the players' side (including perhaps DLo hinting at it). I think he and Booker both want him to come here, but the Suns front office doesn't want him. (It's possible Booker hasn't directly talked with the front office about it yet, and doesn't want to have tampering charges.)

Booker will demand a trade very soon if we sign Cory Joseph instead. I hope Sarver and the rest of the front office is happy about losing Booker. Because I know the fanbase won't be happy about it. (And that's an understatement obviously.)

[djy2j]

Ya, we are set up pretty nicely to strike big in 2020 or 2021 free agency. A big reason why I don’t think we need to do anything drastic this free agency. Just sign a competent pg to a 2 year deal and go from there.

Suns have spent like 4 years “setting themselves up” for a big move. Time is up. Need to stop dithering, be concise, and go out and get another piece to build on.

I’m not a huge DLo fan but Booker wants him, it’ll keep him happy, and he fills a huge need so go and do it. No more stop gaps. That means no Collison; Joseph, Rubio, or whoever else Gambo has advocated we make a run at. I’d rather make a bold move and have it backfire then spend another 4 seasons wallowing without direction.

Tick tock

Somebody watched John Wick 3: Parabellum.

Haha. I have not seen any of the John Wicks and don’t know much about them. Maybe my impatience/frustration with this team seems like a movie plot but I guess with actions of this team seem surreal sometimes also.

[Drewsprocket]

I wonder about ticket sales when booker wants a trade. Nobody is gonna bend over backwards to trade away any fair value for Book once he wants to leave. If DLo doesnt work out, he will be a decent trade chip. If Booker wants this, I would assume DLo wants it too.

[JeremyG]

Even without considering Booker, the most asinine thing in the world would be to turn down an All-Star free agent who wants to come to your team. When is the last time that happened?

[specialsauce]

Ya, we are set up pretty nicely to strike big in 2020 or 2021 free agency. A big reason why I don’t think we need to do anything drastic this free agency. Just sign a competent pg to a 2 year deal and go from there.

Suns have spent like 4 years “setting themselves up” for a big move. Time is up. Need to stop dithering, be concise, and go out and get another piece to build on.

I’m not a huge DLo fan but Booker wants him, it’ll keep him happy, and he fills a huge need so go and do it. No more stop gaps. That means no Collison; Joseph, Rubio, or whoever else Gambo has advocated we make a run at. I’d rather make a bold move and have it backfire then spend another 4 seasons wallowing without direction.

Tick tock

Thank you. I just want a roster of players that other teams would actually give minutes too. We would have 2, potentially 4 star players then. We can round out the roster from there.

[JeremyG]

I still say Sarver needs to crowdsource/fansource the GM position with the posters on this forum. Our consensus decisions would be much better than any GM the Suns have had in years, and Sarver could save money not having to pay us millions of dollars.

[specialsauce]

Ya, we are set up pretty nicely to strike out big in 2020 or 2021 free agency. A big reason why I don’t think we need to do anything drastic this free agency. Just sign a competent pg to a 2 year deal and go from there.

Fixed that for you. Nobody’s coming to Phx in FA unless we turn this clown show around first.

[Split T]

Ya, we are set up pretty nicely to strike big in 2020 or 2021 free agency. A big reason why I don’t think we need to do anything drastic this free agency. Just sign a competent pg to a 2 year deal and go from there.

Suns have spent like 4 years “setting themselves up” for a big move. Time is up. Need to stop dithering, be concise, and go out and get another piece to build on.

I’m not a huge DLo fan but Booker wants him, it’ll keep him happy, and he fills a huge need so go and do it. No more stop gaps. That means no Collison; Joseph, Rubio, or whoever else Gambo has advocated we make a run at. I’d rather make a bold move and have it backfire then spend another 4 seasons wallowing without direction.

Tick tock

That’s fair, I’m not 100% against D-Lo. Just pointing out that we don’t need to get that star this off-season. We’d have opportunities in the coming years. Of course if you can get that star this year, go ahead and do it.

We could maybe have space still next offseason, depending on how we create the space for Russell and how much he gets.

[Mori Chu]

In some sense I like Brogdon as a player better than Russell. He's smarter with the ball, he doesn't take as many bad shots, he doesn't try to play beyond himself as much. He's a better defender. He's a better complementary player and role player in a system where others will handle the ball more and take more of the shots.

But on this team I think Russell is a much better fit. We need a guy to handle the ball and run the offense so that we don't have to watch Point Booker all game any more. We need a guy who will go get his own shot, drive to the basket, pull up, and who can also take a pass and hit an open shot. Russell is better at all of those than Brogdon, other than the spot-up shooting. Brogdon would be a great player if we had a Harden or a Giannis, a guy who was going to have the ball 90% of the time. We don't. We need a playmaker and PG to run the offense. That's Russell. Kind of a KJ-type PG. Brogdon strikes me as more of a rich man's Derek Fisher. I don't think that is what we really need.

[ShelC]

Still not sold on him as a max player or even a good fit, much less a PG. He was also struggling to play next LeVert early last year and only seemed to find his game and break out after LeVert got injured. At this point tho, if we can land a big name if free agency who wants to be here I won't argue.

[Split T]

Ya, we are set up pretty nicely to strike out big in 2020 or 2021 free agency. A big reason why I don’t think we need to do anything drastic this free agency. Just sign a competent pg to a 2 year deal and go from there.

Fixed that for you. Nobody’s coming to Phx in FA unless we turn this clown show around first.

Ehh, I don’t believe that. Plus your biggest suggestions are to go sign people right now, who wouldn’t sign here anyways according to you.

Cam Johnson really wanted to come here. Saric also was really excited to come here. Players seem to love Monty. You’re right that we won’t get a KD to sign here if we suck, but I don’t think we need to sign a KD.

I also don’t think we’ll suck this year. I haven’t been thrilled with our offseason, but it’s hard to argue that we didn’t get better. Our best stretch last year was when Tyler/Booker/Bridges/Oubre/Ayton were all healthy and playing. We went 5-2 over a 7 game stretch. All those guys are back and will have improved. Plus we added Saric, Baynes, Johnson, and will sign a FA PG. Even if you don’t think Johnson will contribute much as a rookie, we’ll have 8 actual competent NBA players next season. Possibly 9 or 10 if the rookies do anything.

Barring injuries, we’ll have no reason to play incompetent basketball players. No Jackson, no bender, no okobo, no Melton, no Crawford, no Spalding, no Jimmer, no Canaan. We had one 7 game stretch where we could actually put a lineup on the court that didn’t have an incompetent player out there. I don’t see us making the playoffs, but 35-40 wins is within reason. And an up and coming 37 win team in Phoenix with a well respected coach and gm can get a FA to sign.

[specialsauce]

Ya, we are set up pretty nicely to strike out big in 2020 or 2021 free agency. A big reason why I don’t think we need to do anything drastic this free agency. Just sign a competent pg to a 2 year deal and go from there.

Fixed that for you. Nobody’s coming to Phx in FA unless we turn this clown show around first.

Ehh, I don’t believe that. Plus your biggest suggestions are to go sign people right now, who wouldn’t sign here anyways according to you.

Cam Johnson really wanted to come here. Saric also was really excited to come here. Players seem to love Monty. You’re right that we won’t get a KD to sign here if we suck, but I don’t think we need to sign a KD.

I also don’t think we’ll suck this year. I haven’t been thrilled with our offseason, but it’s hard to argue that we didn’t get better. Our best stretch last year was when Tyler/Booker/Bridges/Oubre/Ayton were all healthy and playing. We went 5-2 over a 7 game stretch. All those guys are back and will have improved. Plus we added Saric, Baynes, Johnson, and will sign a FA PG. Even if you don’t think Johnson will contribute much as a rookie, we’ll have 8 actual competent NBA players next season. Possibly 9 or 10 if the rookies do anything.

Barring injuries, we’ll have no reason to play incompetent basketball players. No Jackson, no bender, no okobo, no Melton, no Crawford, no Spalding, no Jimmer, no Canaan. We had one 7 game stretch where we could actually put a lineup on the court that didn’t have an incompetent player out there. I don’t see us making the playoffs, but 35-40 wins is within reason. And an up and coming 37 win team in Phoenix with a well respected coach and gm can get a FA to sign.

DLo has a personal connection here, that’s different.

[JeremyG]

The only free agent that wants to join this clown show is Booker's best friend, and we're telling him "No, we're too good for you."

[Split T]

In some sense I like Brogdon as a player better than Russell. He's smarter with the ball, he doesn't take as many bad shots, he doesn't try to play beyond himself as much. He's a better defender. He's a better complementary player and role player in a system where others will handle the ball more and take more of the shots.

But on this team I think Russell is a much better fit. We need a guy to handle the ball and run the offense so that we don't have to watch Point Booker all game any more. We need a guy who will go get his own shot, drive to the basket, pull up, and who can also take a pass and hit an open shot. Russell is better at all of those than Brogdon, other than the spot-up shooting. Brogdon would be a great player if we had a Harden or a Giannis, a guy who was going to have the ball 90% of the time. We don't. We need a playmaker and PG to run the offense. That's Russell. Kind of a KJ-type PG. Brogdon strikes me as more of a rich man's Derek Fisher. I don't think that is what we really need.

A lot depends on how you view Booker. I do think you can put a lower usage guy like Brogdon next to Booker, but not to the extent of Harden. Even in Milwaukee, they need other ball handlers next to Giannis. Middleton, Brogdon, and Bledsoe all can do that. We still need handlers around Booker and I think we’d be a little disappointed in how much of the offensive control Brogdon can take. He’s a great fit in Milwaukee because they often have at least 2, if not 3 other ball handlers on the court. He’d be exposed if you rely on him to run the offense too much.

I’m not sold on Russell though either. Russell is a primary ball handler and could split duties with Booker, but he isn’t a great fit in the high iq/ball movement/shooting strategy we seem to be implementing.

[JeremyG]

Russell already took a bunch of nobodies to 42 wins and the playoffs. Imagine what he could do with Ayton and Booker.

[Superbone]

Ya, we are set up pretty nicely to strike out big in 2020 or 2021 free agency. A big reason why I don’t think we need to do anything drastic this free agency. Just sign a competent pg to a 2 year deal and go from there.

Fixed that for you. Nobody’s coming to Phx in FA unless we turn this clown show around first.

Ehh, I don’t believe that. Plus your biggest suggestions are to go sign people right now, who wouldn’t sign here anyways according to you.

Cam Johnson really wanted to come here. Saric also was really excited to come here. Players seem to love Monty. You’re right that we won’t get a KD to sign here if we suck, but I don’t think we need to sign a KD.

I also don’t think we’ll suck this year. I haven’t been thrilled with our offseason, but it’s hard to argue that we didn’t get better. Our best stretch last year was when Tyler/Booker/Bridges/Oubre/Ayton were all healthy and playing. We went 5-2 over a 7 game stretch. All those guys are back and will have improved. Plus we added Saric, Baynes, Johnson, and will sign a FA PG. Even if you don’t think Johnson will contribute much as a rookie, we’ll have 8 actual competent NBA players next season. Possibly 9 or 10 if the rookies do anything.

Barring injuries, we’ll have no reason to play incompetent basketball players. No Jackson, no bender, no okobo, no Melton, no Crawford, no Spalding, no Jimmer, no Canaan. We had one 7 game stretch where we could actually put a lineup on the court that didn’t have an incompetent player out there. I don’t see us making the playoffs, but 35-40 wins is within reason. And an up and coming 37 win team in Phoenix with a well respected coach and gm can get a FA to sign.

I was with you on your incompetent list until you listed Crawford. He's not incompetent, he's just old and on his last legs.

[Split T]

Ya, we are set up pretty nicely to strike out big in 2020 or 2021 free agency. A big reason why I don’t think we need to do anything drastic this free agency. Just sign a competent pg to a 2 year deal and go from there.

Fixed that for you. Nobody’s coming to Phx in FA unless we turn this clown show around first.

Ehh, I don’t believe that. Plus your biggest suggestions are to go sign people right now, who wouldn’t sign here anyways according to you.

Cam Johnson really wanted to come here. Saric also was really excited to come here. Players seem to love Monty. You’re right that we won’t get a KD to sign here if we suck, but I don’t think we need to sign a KD.

I also don’t think we’ll suck this year. I haven’t been thrilled with our offseason, but it’s hard to argue that we didn’t get better. Our best stretch last year was when Tyler/Booker/Bridges/Oubre/Ayton were all healthy and playing. We went 5-2 over a 7 game stretch. All those guys are back and will have improved. Plus we added Saric, Baynes, Johnson, and will sign a FA PG. Even if you don’t think Johnson will contribute much as a rookie, we’ll have 8 actual competent NBA players next season. Possibly 9 or 10 if the rookies do anything.

Barring injuries, we’ll have no reason to play incompetent basketball players. No Jackson, no bender, no okobo, no Melton, no Crawford, no Spalding, no Jimmer, no Canaan. We had one 7 game stretch where we could actually put a lineup on the court that didn’t have an incompetent player out there. I don’t see us making the playoffs, but 35-40 wins is within reason. And an up and coming 37 win team in Phoenix with a well respected coach and gm can get a FA to sign.

I was with you on your incompetent list until you listed Crawford. He's not incompetent, he's just old and on his last legs.

He spent a lot of the season trying to find his shot. He was ok, he was a steadying influence at times, but most of the year he wasn’t playing good basketball. He did find his rhythm towards the end. Maybe incompetent isn’t the right word, but not having to play him this year should help.