I don’t think the Ayton decision comes down to the new coach. His time has passed. I don’t think Booker or KD want him here.
That’s what we heard last summer about Book. I wouldn’t put much stock in that.
But if the reports are true from Gambo that Monty did not want to keep Ayton and wanted Turner instead, then Sarver and Jones really messed up last summer. You can’t just force a guy to coach a player he doesn’t want (especially your second leading scorer). They needed to choose between Monty or Ayton. Failing to do so obviously did not work.
"I'm a Deandre Ayton guy."--Al McCoy, September 21, 2022.
I don’t think the Ayton decision comes down to the new coach. His time has passed. I don’t think Booker or KD want him here.
That’s what we heard last summer about Book. I wouldn’t put much stock in that.
But if the reports are true from Gambo that Monty did not want to keep Ayton and wanted Turner instead, then Sarver and Jones really messed up last summer. You can’t just force a guy to coach a player he doesn’t want (especially your second leading scorer). They needed to choose between Monty or Ayton. Failing to do so obviously did not work.
Well, Ayton gets some of the blame, too. But he may get another bite at this. All depends on how good or bad the offers coming in will be.
It’s interesting because I know James Jones has always liked Ayton way more than Monty has, so the decision on Ayton could come down to whether Jones is retained or not—or how Ishbia feels about Ayton (which we really don’t know).
"I'm a Deandre Ayton guy."--Al McCoy, September 21, 2022.
I don’t think the Ayton decision comes down to the new coach. His time has passed. I don’t think Booker or KD want him here.
That’s what we heard last summer about Book. I wouldn’t put much stock in that.
But if the reports are true from Gambo that Monty did not want to keep Ayton and wanted Turner instead, then Sarver and Jones really messed up last summer. You can’t just force a guy to coach a player he doesn’t want (especially your second leading scorer). They needed to choose between Monty or Ayton. Failing to do so obviously did not work.
The biggest mistake James made was his typical mistake- doing absolutely Jack shit.
I wish I could be the Suns GM and get paid to sit on my hands.
He sat there all off-season, wasn’t proactive in finding a sign and trade partner and let DA find a max offer that he had no choice but to match. It was the worst possible outcome for the Suns.
I don’t think the Ayton decision comes down to the new coach. His time has passed. I don’t think Booker or KD want him here.
That’s what we heard last summer about Book. I wouldn’t put much stock in that.
But if the reports are true from Gambo that Monty did not want to keep Ayton and wanted Turner instead, then Sarver and Jones really messed up last summer. You can’t just force a guy to coach a player he doesn’t want (especially your second leading scorer). They needed to choose between Monty or Ayton. Failing to do so obviously did not work.
The biggest mistake James made was his typical mistake- doing absolutely Jack shit.
I wish I could be the Suns GM and get paid to sit on my hands.
He sat there all off-season, wasn’t proactive in finding a sign and trade partner and let DA find a max offer that he had no choice but to match. It was the worst possible outcome for the Suns.
He should have traded DA last offseason.
Imagine how we would have looked had Jones pulled the trigger on Eric Gordon
With Ja facing a big suspension, and Grizzlies is serious need of a veteran leader what about this Rosterbation?
Grizzlies: CP3, Mark Williams
Hornets: Ayton, Tyus Jones, Zaire Williamson
Suns: Rozier, Hayward, Steve Adams
Grizzlies do it because CP would immediately help change their culture, and be a great mentor to all of the grizzlies young players, including Ja. CP would maximize all of the grizzlies weapons and be a solid stop gap until Ja comes back. Plus with Bane’s pending big extension, CP is a 30 million expiring contract, they can get off of after a year or potentially trade for assets to a team that wants 30 million off the books. Williams is good young, athletic big with potential, that can fill many of the responsibilities that Steven Adams had at a very cheap cost.
Hornets do it because, I think they get better. They get younger with good players that fit their timeline, players that were apart if winning cultures. Ayton and LaMelo would killer pick and roll combo and add in their potential top 3 pick, they could compete for a playin spot. Even if they got Wemby, I think him and Ayton would be a great front court combo, it’ll allow Wemby to take a couple years to fill out his frame before becoming a full time center.
We do it because our starting lineup is set and legit upgrade over last years: Rozier-Book-Hayward-KD-Adams would be fantastic. I would look to move Hayward to the bench to headline that and use the TPMLE get another good player.
I hate to say it but getting Dillon Brooks in this situation might not be the most terrible idea and he probably played himself into a vet min contract, and maybe you can use TPMLE to get Naz Reid or Brook Lopez with the promise of a starting job then fill out the roster with hopefully solid vet minimum guys.
But this is a good starting point for a roster.
Rozier-Book-Brooks-KD-Reid
Payne-Hayward-Adams
Allows us to play big or play small ball with KD at the 5.
I get where you're coming from, but if I'm the Grizzlies who're expecting Morant to miss a decent number of games, I'd rather have Tyus Jones than Chris Paul.
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Ishbones has to be prioritizing PG immediately after finding a coach. The pool is much larger if they can somehow land a Ty Lue hiring. I'd even be comfortable with a guy like Schroder getting most of the PG minutes IF he's coached by Lue.
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I know it's blasphemy to say or think, but we should do what LAL did. They have two stars, one older. They surrounded them with defense and shooting instead of going for that big 3rd star to pair with them. Of course it all hinged on AD staying healthy which he largely has this postseason.
I know it's blasphemy to say or think, but we should do what LAL did. They have two stars, one older. They surrounded them with defense and shooting instead of going for that big 3rd star to pair with them. Of course it all hinged on AD staying healthy which he largely has this postseason.
It's really not blasphemous. It's the best strategy.
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How desperate would the Nets be about unloading Simmons?
Does an Ayton + CP3 (to be waived) offer to take on Simmons, would entice them to send us Claxton and Dinwiddie alongside? Add Payne or Shamet (please lord, let it be Shamet) to round up the salaries and we get
Spencer / Booker / KD / Claxton, with Simmons coming from the bench to restore him slowly, as taking a $35mill bet on him becoming half the player he used to be is still 6th man of the year material, and playing against lesser competition could be all he needs (or coming next summer, flip him for whatever you can, as he is one year less obscenely awful contract)
I know it’s looks very lateral if Simmons turns out a complete albatross, but we get younger at both spots, CP3 is no longer a starting caliber PG and Claxton could be just what we need at C. Perhaps we can get some draft compensation to balance it even more. If KD, having shared the locker with Ben, says he is salvageable, go for it, all the opposite if he was indeed a major reason to depart (No doubt Simmons health played a role, but KD has the best possible input about the real attitude problems)
I don’t think I’d want Dinwiddie…I’d rather have another wing like Royce O’Neale. Brooklyn didn’t show any interest in Ayton before though, so not sure they would now. But maybe they’re more desperate to get off Simmons than I think.
The time to get Simmons was during the KD trade… I was hoping we could have used him to negotiate NOT sending the next decades picks or bridges, but oh well.
The time to get Simmons was during the KD trade… I was hoping we could have used him to negotiate NOT sending the next decades picks or bridges, but oh well.
Would’ve been tricky as we would’ve had to dump Ayton on them to make the salaries work. Would’ve left us very thin…of course we ended up that thin anyways.
I don’t think I want to touch Simmons. Though I’d probably just ask KD what he thinks after playing with him.
I wouldn’t put much stock in that.
