Free Agency Thread

[Superbone]

Good signing. I was ambivalent about him but my inner cheerleader felt great after watching this.
Edit: I bet Ayton gonna benefit the most from Jae, CP3, and Jalen.

YES! I watched all of the Heat's playoff games in the bubble and Crowder really impressed. He's 30 years old and still has some really good years in him.

[Superbone]

The replies to this post on Twitter are just fantastic.

Thanks for the heads up. A few examples:

Hey Ryan. U set this franchise back and james Jones is cleaning up the gigantic mess you made

James has accomplished more in less than 2 offseasons then you have your entire career.

How does it feel knowing James Jones has done more this month than you have done during your entire time with the Suns?

How does it feel to see James Jones turn your trainwreck into a team with a promising future? No longer taking whomever has the highest ceiling and wasting the roster space due to attitude problems.

[Superbone]

This one picture had to sting, McD:

[Danimal]

This one picture had to sting, McD:

Gold.

[Wally_West]

Hahaha

[Cap]

Ulis is in the G League, Bender is playing in Israel, and Watson, as far as I can tell, is unemployed. At least Chriss is still in the NBA.

[Superbone]

And how many left on the Suns?

[Wally_West]

[Drewsprocket]

Will he take a vet min as a back up playmaker? He’s serviceable off the bench.

[ShelC]

We needed a thicker 3/4 in the worst way. Mikal and Cam are slighter/thinner and so was Oubre. And even tho our guys are good defenders, we were lacking some toughness and physicality. CP and Crowder bring that. If Baynes is back, we're that much tougher. Saric plays tough but isn't really scaring anyone. DA is meh. I'm hoping Smith can be more of an imposing threat around the rim. But Crowder can dig in and body up a LeBron, Kawhi/PG, Luka, Melo, Tatum and make their lives harder with his strength. He can bang and can switch off effectively. Even Giannis had trouble with Crowder's strength and lower center of gravity.

[ShelC]

[Split T]

I’ve let it simmer a bit and I feel ok about this move. I’m still really hoping that 3rd year is a team option, but I do think Crowder should maintain trade value throughout his contract. I wish he was a better shooter, but he helps on defense and with effort/culture. If we get Bubble Crowder, then we got a steal.

I’d guess Crowder starts, but we’ll see. One thing is I think we should have a really good defense this year. Ayton took a leap last year. If he improves again, we’ve got two really good wing defenders in Bridges and Crowder, a good point of attack defender in CP3 and a nice anchor in Ayton. Good reserve defenders in Carter/Cam/Smith too. Saric actually does fine defending the post and we can afford below average defense from Booker now. He might just be better than that on this team.

What’s crazy is we should have a pretty strong defense and we’ve got CP3 and Book on offense. That’s gonna be tough in the playoffs. If Ayton takes a leap? Watch out. We should also have a lot of shooting. I think that could be what swings us from like a 6/7 seed to a potential home court seed and dark horse contender.

If guys like crowder, Saric, Bridges, Payne, and Smith are in that 33-35% range, we’ll be good, not great. If a few of them push up into that 36-38% range or higher, we start to be pretty dangerous. Booker becoming a 38-40% 3pt shooter playing off Paul would be nice. Carter and Cam should be 40%+ and CP3 has always been a pretty consistent 37-38% shooter. I have no idea what we’ll see from Ayton.

But end game situations we should be dangerous with the CP3/Booker mid range dominance too. I feel good about our chances in that Utah/Denver/Portland group. I don’t know what to expect out of GS, they’re a wildcard. So is Houston if they keep Harden. Dallas has Luka so I won’t rule out a leap.

[Split T]

We needed a thicker 3/4 in the worst way. Mikal and Cam are slighter/thinner and so was Oubre. And even tho our guys are good defenders, we were lacking some toughness and physicality. CP and Crowder bring that. If Baynes is back, we're that much tougher. Saric plays tough but isn't really scaring anyone. DA is meh. I'm hoping Smith can be more of an imposing threat around the rim. But Crowder can dig in and body up a LeBron, Kawhi/PG, Luka, Melo, Tatum and make their lives harder with his strength. He can bang and can switch off effectively. Even Giannis had trouble with Crowder's strength and lower center of gravity.

I do like the distinction between Bridges and Crowder. Crowder isn’t quick enough to defend guys like Murray, Beal. We saw that as he’s tried to defend Booker over the years, but he matches up well with the bigger wings like Luka and Lebron. Bridges Can take the quicker guards.

[Indy]

This wasn't even close to being the worst FA signing of the last two days, so we are making progress.

Let's hope we get partial-season Miami Crowder instead of Memphis, Utah, Cleveland or Dallas Crowder. Late Boston Crowder wasn't bad either.

[specialsauce]

Crowder is a great signing. He’s exactly the type of player I wanted to replace Oubre. Cheaper replacement with far higher value compared to cost, lower usage, smarter on defense, toughness with a good work ethic and decent/above average from 3.

It’s pretty clear the type of team Jones is trying to assemble (don’t you dare respond with “yeah, mediocre” inf). He’s got a clear identity for this roster, which is much more than I could say for any GM really since D’Antoni left.

I’m really happy with our moves overall. I would have preferred FVV at 21m over Paul at 40, but I can at least see a plan and purpose. And MLe for crowder is hardly an overpay. Overpaying a player like Bertrans or Gallo is what will kill teams.

Yep, yep, yep. You're just happy he won't do push ups after a hustle play leaves him on the deck.

You forgot the part where we were down 20 lol

[Indy]

Crowder is a great signing. He’s exactly the type of player I wanted to replace Oubre. Cheaper replacement with far higher value compared to cost, lower usage, smarter on defense, toughness with a good work ethic and decent/above average from 3.

It’s pretty clear the type of team Jones is trying to assemble (don’t you dare respond with “yeah, mediocre” inf). He’s got a clear identity for this roster, which is much more than I could say for any GM really since D’Antoni left.

I’m really happy with our moves overall. I would have preferred FVV at 21m over Paul at 40, but I can at least see a plan and purpose. And MLe for crowder is hardly an overpay. Overpaying a player like Bertrans or Gallo is what will kill teams.

Yep, yep, yep. You're just happy he won't do push ups after a hustle play leaves him on the deck.

You forgot the part where we were down 20 lol

Kelly at 14.375M vs Crowder at 10M? I would take Kelly every time.

[Split T]

So who’s still out there we can bring in to the back court?

Jordan McRae is my top choice right now.

Langston Galloway, E’Twaun Moore, Jeff Teague, Reggie Jackson, Jordan McLaughlin, Shabazz Napier...who else?

[Split T]

Will he take a vet min as a back up playmaker? He’s serviceable off the bench.

I think he’s washed

[jonh]

Crowder is a great signing. He’s exactly the type of player I wanted to replace Oubre. Cheaper replacement with far higher value compared to cost, lower usage, smarter on defense, toughness with a good work ethic and decent/above average from 3.

It’s pretty clear the type of team Jones is trying to assemble (don’t you dare respond with “yeah, mediocre” inf). He’s got a clear identity for this roster, which is much more than I could say for any GM really since D’Antoni left.

I’m really happy with our moves overall. I would have preferred FVV at 21m over Paul at 40, but I can at least see a plan and purpose. And MLe for crowder is hardly an overpay. Overpaying a player like Bertrans or Gallo is what will kill teams.

Yep, yep, yep. You're just happy he won't do push ups after a hustle play leaves him on the deck.

You forgot the part where we were down 20 lol

Kelly at 14.375M vs Crowder at 10M? I would take Kelly every time.

So would the GSW

[Split T]

I wonder if he was waiting on the Crowder signing. Wouldn’t be surprised if he was our back up plan and we had a 2 year deal lined up for him.