2023 Suns General Offseason/PostSeason News Thread

[djy2j]

I know the vibe here on Flex and this guy but thought I would just post it to get the creativity wheels moving again on a Monday.

[TOO]

I would jump all over Davion. Why Sacramento would make him available tho is beyond me.

I do not believe Davion would appreciate that.

[AmareIsGod]

I know the vibe here on Flex and this guy but thought I would just post it to get the creativity wheels moving again on a Monday.

Thank you. It's as I've said. Do people really think Ishbia is going to try to save money and not address all areas of need? This was simply Cam Payne and his lack of availability due to health and inconsistent play not being worth his contract. Simple as that.

[Split T]

[Mori Chu]

This Payne trade is a good example not to take everything the team/FO says as gospel. Not long ago the coach and FO were talking about how great Cam Payne is and how he's a part of this team going forward. And then they trade him for some 2nd rounders and a trade exception. You shouldn't just take what these people say in interviews and press conferences as if they were testifying under oath or some shit. They say nice things about the guys on the team because that's the right thing to do. But almost anybody can and will be considered for trades if it makes sense to do so.

Specifically, if you point to some quote from Vogel or Jones or Ishbia about how DA is part of our core and they can't wait to work with him in the coming season, and you cite that quote as evidence that he's not going anywhere, well, look at our dear friend Cam Payne. My point is not that DA is definitely being shipped out, just that these quotes are completely hollow and don't mean shit.

[JeremyG]

This Payne trade is a good example not to take everything the team/FO says as gospel. Not long ago the coach and FO were talking about how great Cam Payne is and how he's a part of this team going forward. And then they trade him for some 2nd rounders and a trade exception. You shouldn't just take what these people say in interviews and press conferences as if they were testifying under oath or some shit. They say nice things about the guys on the team because that's the right thing to do. But almost anybody can and will be considered for trades if it makes sense to do so.

Specifically, if you point to some quote from Vogel or Jones or Ishbia about how DA is part of our core and they can't wait to work with him in the coming season, and you cite that quote as evidence that he's not going anywhere, well, look at our dear friend Cam Payne. My point is not that DA is definitely being shipped out, just that these quotes are completely hollow and don't mean shit.

I can't wait until training camp. Are we really going to continue to speculate about Ayton being traded all summer? When can this stop? July 31? August? September?

That's comparing apples and oranges. Plus we have actual reporting to corroborate public statements.

They are not looking to trade Ayton. Period. Does that mean it's impossible if someone calls them and blows them away with an offer? Of course not. But that would be like speculating on whether Milwaukee will offer us Giannis for Kevin Durant and whether we will trade KD.

They've already made their decision to keep Ayton.

[JeremyG]

Gambo just reiterated that there is nothing the Suns are currently working on, that he believes the roster is set, and they aren't trading DA. They may use the TPEs during the season.

[ShelC]

[ShelC]

[Flagrant Fowl]

Guys with a salary that can be obtained using a TPE who might be squeezed out of playing time on their team.

Cedi Osman - $6.7M
Jae'Sean Tate - $6.5M
Rudy Gay - $6.47M
Ricky Rubio - $6.1M (Ishbia/Gilbert issue)
JaVale McGee - $5.73M
Dean Wade - $5.7M (Ishbia/Gilbert issue)
Cole Anthony - $5.5M
Chuma Okeke - $5.2M
Jalen Smith - $5.0M
Aleksej Pokusevski - $5.0M
Payton Pritchard - $4.0M (far less likely since the Smart trade)

There are a handful of guys in the minimum range.

[JeremyG]

Mat Ishbia on Burns and Gambo:

"I don't forecast or predict any other moves. [...]

"We're really excited about what we've got. We've got many superstars, we've got a great roster, of course we added Beal, of course we still have Deandre Ayton, and we have other stars, of course Durant and Booker, the superstars. [...]

"I would not anticipate any other significant changes, or really any other changes at all, going forward, but things can happen, and so I can never say never. [...]

"A lot of people call it a superteam with these three superstars, and like I said I think Deandre Ayton is a superstar too, but let's just call it the way everyone wants to talk about that..."

https://arizonasports.com/category/podc ... Show+Audio

[Shabazz]

Guys with a salary that can be obtained using a TPE who might be squeezed out of playing time on their team.

Cedi Osman - $6.7M
Jae'Sean Tate - $6.5M
Rudy Gay - $6.47M
Ricky Rubio - $6.1M (Ishbia/Gilbert issue)
JaVale McGee - $5.73M
Dean Wade - $5.7M (Ishbia/Gilbert issue)
Cole Anthony - $5.5M
Chuma Okeke - $5.2M
Jalen Smith - $5.0M
Aleksej Pokusevski - $5.0M
Payton Pritchard - $4.0M (far less likely since the Smart trade)

There are a handful of guys in the minimum range.

You should expand your search to teams near the tax, way apron or 2nd apron.

Tate or Pritchard would be nice, but the bummer is, had we made these moves earlier, we could have had KJ Martin or Obi Toppin for 2 second rounders.

[Split T]

Here’s the audio

[Flagrant Fowl]

Guys with a salary that can be obtained using a TPE who might be squeezed out of playing time on their team.

Cedi Osman - $6.7M
Jae'Sean Tate - $6.5M
Rudy Gay - $6.47M
Ricky Rubio - $6.1M (Ishbia/Gilbert issue)
JaVale McGee - $5.73M
Dean Wade - $5.7M (Ishbia/Gilbert issue)
Cole Anthony - $5.5M
Chuma Okeke - $5.2M
Jalen Smith - $5.0M
Aleksej Pokusevski - $5.0M
Payton Pritchard - $4.0M (far less likely since the Smart trade)

There are a handful of guys in the minimum range.

You should expand your search to teams near the tax, way apron or 2nd apron.

Tate or Pritchard would be nice, but the bummer is, had we made these moves earlier, we could have had KJ Martin or Obi Toppin for 2 second rounders.

There are certainly more, I just didn't want to list a bunch of guys who'd be 14th-15th men.

[Cap]

Terrible trade is a stretch…Payne hasn’t been very good for the last couple years. It was definitely trying to save money, but his skill set isn’t as important anymore. It seems they like Goodwin better…and I still don’t think they are done, so we’ll see who else is on the roster come training camp. Can’t evaluate individual moves in a vacuum.

We save a little money, get a TPE that might prove valuable down the line, and send Cam somewhere he gets to play in a contract year. Seems like a better option than keeping him on the bench waiting for somebody to get hurt.

We’re not going to win a championship with Payne playing major minutes in the playoffs.

We literally almost did exactly that. He even started two major wins for us in the conference finals.

I meant with this team. If Payne is playing major minutes in the playoffs, it means Booker or Beal is out.

[Cap]

He’ll put up numbers because he has the ball…and especially with CP3 out last year he had to be the only ball handler on the court for awhile. His TS% in those 15 starts was still .518. That’s bad.

He made more sense for us when we had CP3 and we lacked ball handlers in our offense. We don’t really lack that anymore. Yes it would be nice to have someone like Payne as the 5th guard if Booker or Beal got hurt, but I do kinda feel like Saben Lee can fill that role nearly as well and doesn’t cost 26 million.

We also need to wait and see what happens. It very much sounds like we tried to get TJ McConnell for Payne so we may still be trying to acquire a pg. Two names I’ve seen us connected to over the last couple months at one time or another are Payton Pritchard and Davion Mitchell. Both would be acquirable into one of our TPE’s.

That is possible and it would get rid of my salary dumping criticism. But using the TPE on a PG only emphasises my other point--why not keep the fan favorite and some continuity, if you're going to spend the money anyway?

If we use the TPE on a Payne-like player, then yeah, we might as well have kept Payne. The idea is to hold onto the TPE and see if it gives us an opportunity to pick up someone more valuable. If it doesn’t, then we’ll hang onto the $26M.

BTW, it’s crazy how the cap has gotten these days. We traded a $6.5M salary, and sent IINM $3M cash in the trade, and we’re saving $26M?

[The Bobster]

If we use the TPE on a Payne-like player, then yeah, we might as well have kept Payne. The idea is to hold onto the TPE and see if it gives us an opportunity to pick up someone more valuable. If it doesn’t, then we’ll hang onto the $26M.

BTW, it’s crazy how the cap has gotten these days. We traded a $6.5M salary, and sent IINM $3M cash in the trade, and we’re saving $26M?

If we get a passing point guard or a defense-first point guard I'd be fine with it, another score-first point guard would be pointless.

[TOO]

He’ll put up numbers because he has the ball…and especially with CP3 out last year he had to be the only ball handler on the court for awhile. His TS% in those 15 starts was still .518. That’s bad.

He made more sense for us when we had CP3 and we lacked ball handlers in our offense. We don’t really lack that anymore. Yes it would be nice to have someone like Payne as the 5th guard if Booker or Beal got hurt, but I do kinda feel like Saben Lee can fill that role nearly as well and doesn’t cost 26 million.

We also need to wait and see what happens. It very much sounds like we tried to get TJ McConnell for Payne so we may still be trying to acquire a pg. Two names I’ve seen us connected to over the last couple months at one time or another are Payton Pritchard and Davion Mitchell. Both would be acquirable into one of our TPE’s.

That is possible and it would get rid of my salary dumping criticism. But using the TPE on a PG only emphasises my other point--why not keep the fan favorite and some continuity, if you're going to spend the money anyway?

If we use the TPE on a Payne-like player, then yeah, we might as well have kept Payne. The idea is to hold onto the TPE and see if it gives us an opportunity to pick up someone more valuable. If it doesn’t, then we’ll hang onto the $26M.

BTW, it’s crazy how the cap has gotten these days. We traded a $6.5M salary, and sent IINM $3M cash in the trade, and we’re saving $26M?

Suns are definitely in a new stratosphere when it comes to cap math.

[JeremyG]

Terrible trade is a stretch…Payne hasn’t been very good for the last couple years. It was definitely trying to save money, but his skill set isn’t as important anymore. It seems they like Goodwin better…and I still don’t think they are done, so we’ll see who else is on the roster come training camp. Can’t evaluate individual moves in a vacuum.

We save a little money, get a TPE that might prove valuable down the line, and send Cam somewhere he gets to play in a contract year. Seems like a better option than keeping him on the bench waiting for somebody to get hurt.

We’re not going to win a championship with Payne playing major minutes in the playoffs.

We literally almost did exactly that. He even started two major wins for us in the conference finals.

I meant with this team. If Payne is playing major minutes in the playoffs, it means Booker or Beal is out.

I think we would still have a chance to win the championship if one of them is out. Certainly if it was only for a couple of games like CP3 in 2021.

[Furlanfufi]

I think just makes a lot a sense to wait to see how the team plays and adress some flaw during the season.