Suns trade Grayson Allen, Royce O'Neale for Miles Bridges

[INFORMER]

This is interesting from The Ringer. Bridges was part of the most successful five-man group in the league last season.

Ball has spent much of the past few years in trade rumors, but the timing of this deal is jarring. The Hornets are coming off the most successful stretch of basketball in recent franchise history. In their second season under head coach Charles Lee, they jumped from 19 wins to 44, ending the season with a 27-10 finishing kick in which they looked like one of the most promising young teams in the league. Their starting lineup—Ball, Kon Knueppel, Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges, and Moussa Diabaté—was the most successful five-man group in the entire NBA last season. And Ball was the drink stirrer: the best passer on the team, the primary creator in the pick-and-roll, and the free-range attacker in transition who instilled the Hornets’ run-and-gun style.

There were too many nights last season where Knueppel looked like a better player than Book. In general, Charlotte was great at bombing their opponents with the 3-ball and having an offense that just relentlessly attacked.

Charlotte has had a very interesting offseason. They are getting criticism over the big changes they made after having a promising season, so we'll see what they look like next year.

They seem to want to get out of the bad character business. LaMelo is an incredible talent, but he is a clown too, injured a lot, and has a big contract. I think the return they got wasn't great, although I have always liked Naz Reid. They did get tremendous cap relief.

No need to rehash the Bridges stuff, just that he didn't fill any need for them, wouldn't have made sense to extend especially with what seems like continued off-the-court issues, plus the pick exchange was a heist.

They still kept Braxton Miller who has possibly been a model citizen since he was drafted after the whole borderline accessory to murder thing.

Then there was Diabate losing his mind last season with the brawl versus Detroit. Maybe an isolated incident, but taken with everything else that was on the roster, still not a good look. He is still there though.

[INFORMER]

Hmmm…

“The only aspect of the basketball character that he needs to really improve upon is like the sacrificial winning things,” Friedman said. “Do you crash the offensive glass every time? Are you detail-oriented defensively? Do you ease up just because you’ve scored 20 on a given night, and then you’re also giving up 20?

This is some of the reason why I don't think the whole "we've addressed our need at power forward" narrative.

True, the power forward position has changed, and traditional 4s are rare. But I don't think anyone would have said going into the offseason that we need a scorer at the 4 that isn't a strong rebounder or defender.

There are certainly a variety of ways to address the 4 spot. You can go with size, shooting coupled with a paint owning center, 3&D, etc. It just feels like none of those options have been implemented by the Suns.

[Mori Chu]

Simplest way I can say it is, I would much rather have just watched us play some combination of Fleming, Royce, Oso, and Peat at the 4. I like all of those guys, and while some of them are undersized to play 4 full-time, they all bring some great skills and/or are developing. Fleming in particular, I would have loved if they had just planned to throw him out there at the 4 for 20-25 minutes a game and force him to develop there. I freaking love Fleming and think he's going to be a future star for this team if we don't screw it up.

So I would not have spent substantial assets to get a guy to put in front of Fleming and eat up his minutes. Especially a guy who isn't as good of a 3-point shooter, nor as good of a defender, as Fleming. Br****s isn't even a great rebounder.

Then consider that we just drafted a young PF in Peat. I would have loved to see a situation where Peat could start getting some actual rotation minutes at PF by later in the season. But now he's 4th or 5th in line for minutes; I don't think he'll see the court unless we have a huge wave of injuries. That's a bummer to me. I don't want to depend on rooks, but I want there to be a little bit of daylight for them to play. Maluach started to get some minutes late last season and it seemed to help his development a lot. How is Peat going to get on the court?

Then you consider that we blew our 2033 1st. Now we once again don't have any of our own 1sts tradeable until the President's seventh term, and it will make it hard to trade for an actual star in the future.

Then you throw in that Br****s beats women, including that he still seems to be in a very messy public fight with the woman and they still seem to be cross-accusing each other of assaults and abuses, and it's an easy decision to me. F this guy.

[Mori Chu]

I hope everyone here keeps the same energy going into the season.
I don't want to hear SHIT if Miles is putting up 20+

I don't care if Br****s gets MVP votes and leads us to the WCF. I don't want him on the Suns.

[Superbone]

Lol, 'bone is really trying hard.

Giving news is trying really hard? I can stop at any time. Or do you just want certain news and not others?

[INFORMER]

Lol, 'bone is really trying hard.

Giving news is trying really hard? I can stop at any time.

I'm not telling you to stop. It just seems like you're trying really hard to promote the Bridges move. But I get just wanting to feel good about what the team does and also wanting to counter the negativity.

[Superbone]

Lol, 'bone is really trying hard.

Giving news is trying really hard? I can stop at any time.

I'm not telling you to stop. It just seems like you're trying really hard to promote the Bridges move. But I get just wanting to feel good about what the team does and also wanting to counter the negativity.

I post news about everything. You're just singling out the news about Bridges since you don't like the move. I wouldn't have done it either. I have that on record. But he's here now so we can't hide from it.

[INFORMER]

I'm not sure how anyone is or could hide from it.

[JeremyG]

If Ishbia continues to run the team like he has, I don't ever see it being a lotto pick.

Our pick was a lotto pick just a year ago, and we were one loss to the Warriors away from it being a lotto pick this year.

[Superbone]

I'm not sure how anyone is or could hide from it.

You just don't want to hear about it. Got it. Why don't you post all the news from here on out so we can know what's appropriate or not.

[Superbone]

If Ishbia continues to run the team like he has, I don't ever see it being a lotto pick.

Our pick was a lotto pick just a year ago, and we were one loss to the Warriors away from it being a lotto pick this year.

It's going to be a long wait but let's regroup in 7 years and see how the two picks compare. Let's see if all the hand wringing was on target or not.

[INFORMER]

I'm not sure how anyone is or could hide from it.

You just don't want to hear about it. Got it.

If I didn't want to hear about it, I wouldn't click on a thread about it.

I'm not sure why you need this to be about me being against something you are doing.

[TOO]

I'm not sure how anyone is or could hide from it.

You just don't want to hear about it. Got it.

If I didn't want to hear about it, I wouldn't click on a thread about it.

I'm not sure why you need this to be about me being against something you are doing.

Your earlier comment seemed pretty pointed at the fact he was posting relevant Bridges news.

[Superbone]

I'm not sure how anyone is or could hide from it.

You just don't want to hear about it. Got it.

If I didn't want to hear about it, I wouldn't click on a thread about it.

I'm not sure why you need this to be about me being against something you are doing.

Your earlier comment seemed pretty pointed at the fact he was posting relevant Bridges news.

Yes, he laughed and said that I was "really trying hard". Whatever that means.

[Superbone]

Here's me "trying hard" again, I guess:

[virtual9mm]

[media][/media]

Here's me "trying hard" again, I guess:

Great. Send them Bridges.

[AmareIsGod]

I'm not sure how anyone is or could hide from it.

You just don't want to hear about it. Got it.

If I didn't want to hear about it, I wouldn't click on a thread about it.

I'm not sure why you need this to be about me being against something you are doing.

Your earlier comment seemed pretty pointed at the fact he was posting relevant Bridges news.

Yes, he laughed and said that I was "really trying hard". Whatever that means.

I think it just means you were the first to post the laundry list of things his ex did, not that it excused his horrific abuse, in a way to make it seem like "yeah, he shouldn't have done what he did but she sounds like a piece of work" and painted her in a negative light. Even if it was factual. And you've posted mostly only positive articles about Bridges and how some experts think he'll be a great addition, etc.

It's become apparent, recently, that you aren't happy with the trade and are trying to move forward and hope for the best and we win more games and he's a good fit. But INF is fair to point out that you've posted counter to the negative narrative almost entirely, even if you are opposed. Maybe it's a way to try to find positive in all of the negative but I don't think anyone calling out INF is fair either. He's not wrong.

Also, it's not worth throwing away my fandom and the connection with .net because it is a terrible trade. Beyond the horrible human, he's just not a great player. A good player, yes. But not great. Which makes all of this new drama between him and his ex more added bullshit we all have to deal with. Great job Ishbia.

[AmareIsGod]

Getting on the Internet to tell fans that you're no longer a fan is the corniest shit ever.

It's like being a street evangelist. No one wants to hear that.

Awesome. Bravo. Glad you could contribute. Stay lit Nobody said I'm no longer a fan. Just that this is a bullshit decision by the FO. Remove all of the domestic violence shit and it's still a bullshit basketball decision. Care to argue otherwise? But I'm glad you felt the need to call me out. Take a bow. The Internet is a place to dump a whole lot of bullshit. Calling me out in the process of doing so, dumping my corny shit in the Internet, in a corner of the Internet with a limited audience... Well done.

I didn't mention you at all.

Probably just the timing. Right after my post(s) about how I felt about being a fan of the team after such a shitty trade. Not your fault. I had a few beers after the shit trade and probably let it out poorly towards several folks here, you included. Apologies.

[virtual9mm]

Getting on the Internet to tell fans that you're no longer a fan is the corniest shit ever.

It's like being a street evangelist. No one wants to hear that.

Awesome. Bravo. Glad you could contribute. Stay lit Nobody said I'm no longer a fan. Just that this is a bullshit decision by the FO. Remove all of the domestic violence shit and it's still a bullshit basketball decision. Care to argue otherwise? But I'm glad you felt the need to call me out. Take a bow. The Internet is a place to dump a whole lot of bullshit. Calling me out in the process of doing so, dumping my corny shit in the Internet, in a corner of the Internet with a limited audience... Well done.

I didn't mention you at all.

Probably just the timing. Right after my post(s) about how I felt about being a fan of the team after such a shitty trade. Not your fault. I had a few beers after the shit trade and probably let it out poorly towards several folks here, you included. Apologies.

Good of you to apologize. TBH, I saw that Korean flag on the post and was like WTF is this shit. Thought it better to wait until later to bring this up but it's completely inappropriate here.

BTW, I am a Korean by birth, American by nationality, and Hong Konger by permanent residence.

[JJ Slim]

Maybe I'm oversimplifying things but I took it just as SB posting news and posts related to the Suns. He does that regularly as a service to the site and I have never seen it as him having any kind of agenda. It is very possible that most of the posts out there to be found are spun to make the trade look good at least from major sites and reporters, not regular fans, so that is what he would mostly find. And I wouldn't expect SB to filter those out as he is simply reporting what is out there. Also this IS a thread dedicated to Bridges so it seemed an appropriate place for it to be. So thank you Superbone for being such a great resource to the site!