Suns News: Week 3 (10/31 - 11/6)

[Split T]

He hasn’t looked good in his limited minutes…hard to play a developmental project when you’re competing for a championship. But I also agree, don’t draft a project if you’re not willing to give them time to develop.

Also why do you have to decide on the rookie option a year in advance? Seems like you should be able to decide after year 2 for the 3rd year option.

[Split T]

Guys, this makes him an expiring contract. That helps in trades to make salary match. It isn't Sarver cheaping out (or at least is doesn't have to mean that).

And his motivation to play hard would be to stay in the league and earn his next contract. By that rationale, nobody on an expiring contract would want to play hard?

Good take.

Instead of hand-wringing about who they should have drafted, it should be about what management will do to shore up the perceived weakness.

One positive is Jones doesn’t seem to have an issue moving on when he’s wrong. Assuming Smith just isn’t that good, it’s good to see we don’t just keep him around because we spent a high pick on him. I think we knew that though with how easily he moved on from Josh Jackson…though his off the court issues helped there.

I still will complain about not drafting Haliburton though, haha. It was such an obvious pick.

[Indy]

As much as I like Cam J. our drafting under Jones has been awful.

We've only drafted 2 players. Cam and Jalen. Someone that is out performing guys taken around him, and someone not.

Or do you mean how they used their draft picks to add/change players?

[Indy]

This decision makes it essentially a 0% chance that Smith stays here past this year. If he plays poorly, of course they won't keep him. But if he plays well, he'll be worth more than that rookie salary, so somebody else will take him from us or force us to overpay for him, which I don't think our FO would do. So we might as well bench him or cut him since he has no place in our future.

Even a steady improvement over time this season wouldn't likely put him above his rookie salary of next year. His option was 4.7M. That is what Torrey Craig got this summer. And McGee. Nobody is going to pay him that.

[Shabazz]

Nobody wants him Shel. I think most teams would want that 4-5M in space.

I just don't know anymore lol. I think Jones (and Monty) have specific types of players in mind and are probably putting a premium on triple threat wings/perimeter players and aren't willing to commit to less skilled bigs just because they're big?

Haliburton or Bane just would have been perfect for us…I’d guess they were just focused on a big though

Even if they were focused on a big, Isaiah Stewart, Saddiq Bey, Precious Achiuwa, Jaden McDaniels all drafted after Smith.

From replacing the scouts with Youtube, getting rid of the G-league team, trading away most of our picks and completely and obviously whiffing on the Smith pick, this is the 7SOL era in terms of asset management all over again. Completely failing on the margins and with regards to young players. Sarver can claim to have learned from his mistakes, but he seems to be making some basic ones again.

[Split T]

Nobody wants him Shel. I think most teams would want that 4-5M in space.

I just don't know anymore lol. I think Jones (and Monty) have specific types of players in mind and are probably putting a premium on triple threat wings/perimeter players and aren't willing to commit to less skilled bigs just because they're big?

Haliburton or Bane just would have been perfect for us…I’d guess they were just focused on a big though

Even if they were focused on a big, Isaiah Stewart, Saddiq Bey, Precious Achiuwa, Jaden McDaniels all drafted after Smith.

From replacing the scouts with Youtube, getting rid of the G-league team, trading away most of our picks and completely and obviously whiffing on the Smith pick, this is the 7SOL era in terms of asset management all over again. Completely failing on the margins and with regards to young players. Sarver can claim to have learned from his mistakes, but he seems to be making some basic ones again.

Got a little too confident after the Cam pick I think. Targeted a specific skill set. Wanted the floor spacing offense with rim protection on defense. While all those guys are better, none of them fit those skill sets. Draft should almost never be about targeting specific skills. Just go get the best prospect.

[Mori Chu]

Hopefully James Jones learns from each mistake he makes as a GM. The Jalen Smith saga should teach him not to drink his own Kool-Aid. After the rightful praise he received for his wacky-at-the-time trade to get Cam Johnson and Saric for the 6th pick that became the dud Culver, Jones seemed to think he was a draft savant and could pull off a "wacky" pick every year and surprise everyone by finding diamonds in the rough. But the second time, with Smith, he blew it. When there's a bona fide star and obvious pick like Halliburton on the board, you just take him. You don't have to "zag" by taking some shocker when there's such a simple better solution right there in front of you.

[ShelC]

Something to keep an eye on since we just played the Cavs

[BigLewy]

To me, Haliburton was like Booker-such an obvious pick and should have been a no-brainer. Not saying he's at the level of Booker, just that during the draft, it seemed to line up perfectly for need and talent level. Unless his agent really told Jones not to draft him or something. Oh well, nothing we can do about it now.

[Split T]

To me, Haliburton was like Booker-such an obvious pick and should have been a no-brainer. Not saying he's at the level of Booker, just that during the draft, it seemed to line up perfectly for need and talent level. Unless his agent really told Jones not to draft him or something. Oh well, nothing we can do about it now.

I honestly thought Haliburton should have been considered in the top 3. I never loved Wiseman. I was scared of Edwards. I think Ball was the only guy I would have taken over Haliburton…I was beyond thrilled for the 15 seconds we were on the clock when Haliburton was there and before Gambo tweeted out we were picking Smith.

[Split T]

Hopefully James Jones learns from each mistake he makes as a GM. The Jalen Smith saga should teach him not to drink his own Kool-Aid. After the rightful praise he received for his wacky-at-the-time trade to get Cam Johnson and Saric for the 6th pick that became the dud Culver, Jones seemed to think he was a draft savant and could pull off a "wacky" pick every year and surprise everyone by finding diamonds in the rough. But the second time, with Smith, he blew it. When there's a bona fide star and obvious pick like Halliburton on the board, you just take him. You don't have to "zag" by taking some shocker when there's such a simple better solution right there in front of you.

Speaking of Culver, I believe he had his 4th year option declined. He turned out to be a pretty awful pick as well. Good thing we didn’t make it.

[Split T]

Yikes…I thought Anthony Bennett had his 3rd year option declined though

[Flagrant Fowl]

My optimism for Jalen Smith just took a huge hit. I suppose the writing was on the wall when they gave Nader a shot in the rotation over Smith. Now I'll be surprised if he's still on the team after the trade deadline.

I still think he's an NBA player. He's not Earl Clark. But he needs to get some serious playing time somewhere.

[Split T]

Another good point, don’t blame Sarver if he doesn’t want to pay 7 million dollars for a guy we don’t believe can play in our rotation yet.

[ShelC]

[JeremyG]

Hopefully James Jones learns from each mistake he makes as a GM. The Jalen Smith saga should teach him not to drink his own Kool-Aid. After the rightful praise he received for his wacky-at-the-time trade to get Cam Johnson and Saric for the 6th pick that became the dud Culver, Jones seemed to think he was a draft savant and could pull off a "wacky" pick every year and surprise everyone by finding diamonds in the rough. But the second time, with Smith, he blew it. When there's a bona fide star and obvious pick like Halliburton on the board, you just take him. You don't have to "zag" by taking some shocker when there's such a simple better solution right there in front of you.

Exactly. Even if Haliburton didn't want to be here, you draft him if he's the best player, and if you have to, then you trade him for value.

[Indy]

...

That comment from Monty saying "we don't handcuff anyone"...

[Indy]

Has anyone heard anything from INF? He was posting every couple of minutes the night of our first game against Denver, complimenting Ayton and CP3 and Book and seemed really excited. Then just nothing. I keep thinking about Superbone's episode during the playoffs and just hope he is OK.

[Nodack]

No idea.

Btw, Happy belated birthday Indy!

Nice to see Monty acknowledge not being able to get a good read on Stix because of lack of playing time. I feel bad for the guy and keep pulling for him.

[specialsauce]

My optimism for Jalen Smith just took a huge hit. I suppose the writing was on the wall when they gave Nader a shot in the rotation over Smith. Now I'll be surprised if he's still on the team after the trade deadline.

I dont think he's an NBA player. He's Earl Clark. But he needs to get some serious playing time somewhere.

FTFY