Suns News: Week 14 1/23-1/29

[jonh]

Haven't seen this post anywhere:

http://arizonasports.com/story/1011305/ ... lt-player/

McD isn't denying we're talking to the Kings about Cousins. A few quotes:

I obviously haven't seen this at all. But I am hoping that it is because it happens in the clubhouse, and the locker room doesn't leak. That would be a good sign. I just hope we see evidence of the players taking that feedback and doing something with it. I would hope that Knight has been the focus of many of these talks...

I think a good sign would be that we've had literally zero behavior problems this year. Knight, Dudley, and Len have all at times been either completely taken out of the rotation or had their minutes limited and we haven't heard a peep of complaints from them. I'm actually very impressed with how Knight has handled this season.

His on the court play needs to match.

Not for me to be impressed with how he's handled his situation. Of course I'd love his on court play to be better, but it's irrelevant to his attitude.

So would you be ok holding onto him for the rest of the year? Whats the next step for the Suns and Knight if they keep him? He obviously is not thriving coming off the bench.

[Split T]

My preference is to trade him, but if we can't find anyone to give us anything of value, I see no reason to. I'm sure we could dump him on orlando for Jeff Green's expiring contract, but that simply just gets him off our team and gets rid of his contract. We're not hurting for salary cap space and Knight isn't causing any problems in the locker room, so I'd hold onto him and see if we can't restore some value. He's 25 years old and has a lot of talent.

I don't really know what the answer is to restoring his value. He's obviously struggled with his move to the bench, but starting him is not an option at this point. Ideally, he'd figure out how to play like the seven seconds or less version of barbosa. Come in with the second unit and score a bunch of points. He's got a similar skill set in his speed and ability to hit the outside shot. Needs to learn how to finish in that 3-5 foot range when he can't quite get all the way to the hoop. His floater game is pretty week.

[Mori Chu]

It isn't very smart to deal a player when his value is completely bottomed out, as Knight's has. We should probably hold onto him and hope that we can rehabilitate his game to the point that he's a valuable player again. Then he either helps us win, or he fetches us more in trade.

[pickle]

I agree with T and Mori that we may as well hang on to Knight at this point. I'd much rather deal Bledsoe and then play Knight into an attractive asset, and then move him in the off-season.

Also, I mentioned this last year, but I wonder why he hasn't tried to change his style to go more off-ball, Korver style, honing his catch and shoot skills and becoming useful when he's not directing the offense. He's not too old to add more skills to his arsenal.

[ShelC]

Just going back to the potential PJ - Shabazz Muhammed trade...Zach LaVine just tore his ACL so I doubt they'll be looking to move Muhammad.

Sucks for LaVine. He was putting together a pretty good year. Hope this doesn't take away too much athleticism.

[carey]

Oh, no. When did that happen? Today?

[Superbone]

Oh, no. When did that happen? Today?

It happened last night. First he had a scare and then came back into the game and then he reaggravated it. Makes you wonder if he would have been able to avoid it if he hadn't come back for the night but I suspect that it happened the first time. But who knows, by continuing to play on it, he might have finshed the job.

[carey]

It happened last night. First he had a scare and then came back into the game and then he reaggravated it. Makes you wonder if he would have been able to avoid it if he hadn't come back for the night but I suspect that it happened the first time. But who knows, by continuing to play on it, he might have finshed the job.

Wow, that is a major misstep by the training staff.

[Mori Chu]

Wow, that is a major misstep by the training staff.

Yeah, absolutely. We sometimes kind of take our training staff for granted or forget about them. But then stupid teams like Minny, OKC, Portland do things like this and ruin/shorten careers by letting players injure themselves. We should be grateful every day that we have one of the best training staffs in the league.

[carey]

Yeah, absolutely. We sometimes kind of take our training staff for granted or forget about them. But then stupid teams like Minny, OKC, Portland do things like this and ruin/shorten careers by letting players injure themselves. We should be grateful every day that we have one of the best training staffs in the league.

I do not. You see that Gordon and Anderson are staying on the court in Houston and they've credited the training staff. It can make all the difference in the world and I've been complaining about the Pelicans' staff (same as the Saints' staff) for years.

[UglyTruth]

I agree with T and Mori that we may as well hang on to Knight at this point. I'd much rather deal Bledsoe and then play Knight into an attractive asset, and then move him in the off-season.

This is never going to happen. If the Suns are waiting on this then they will just end up waiting through all 5 years of Knight's contract or maybe in the final season of his contract, he'll have some value as an expiring contract but that's about it.

[Split T]

I agree with T and Mori that we may as well hang on to Knight at this point. I'd much rather deal Bledsoe and then play Knight into an attractive asset, and then move him in the off-season.

This is never going to happen. If the Suns are waiting on this then they will just end up waiting through all 5 years of Knight's contract or maybe in the final season of his contract, he'll have some value as an expiring contract but that's about it.

How can you say it will never happen? In 2014-15 for the bucks he was averaging 17.8/4.3/5.4 while shooting 40% from 3. I'm not saying he will return to that level of play, but it's certainly a possibility. He's still 25 years old and hasn't lost any skills.

[Indy]

I agree with T and Mori that we may as well hang on to Knight at this point. I'd much rather deal Bledsoe and then play Knight into an attractive asset, and then move him in the off-season.

This is never going to happen. If the Suns are waiting on this then they will just end up waiting through all 5 years of Knight's contract or maybe in the final season of his contract, he'll have some value as an expiring contract but that's about it.

How can you say it will never happen? In 2014-15 for the bucks he was averaging 17.8/4.3/5.4 while shooting 40% from 3. I'm not saying he will return to that level of play, but it's certainly a possibility. He's still 25 years old and hasn't lost any skills.

I think if he were our starting PG, played 35 mpg, and didn't have to play alongside a 2nd PG, he could get close to that. But that isn't ever going to be the case here.

[Split T]

I agree with T and Mori that we may as well hang on to Knight at this point. I'd much rather deal Bledsoe and then play Knight into an attractive asset, and then move him in the off-season.

This is never going to happen. If the Suns are waiting on this then they will just end up waiting through all 5 years of Knight's contract or maybe in the final season of his contract, he'll have some value as an expiring contract but that's about it.

How can you say it will never happen? In 2014-15 for the bucks he was averaging 17.8/4.3/5.4 while shooting 40% from 3. I'm not saying he will return to that level of play, but it's certainly a possibility. He's still 25 years old and hasn't lost any skills.

I think if he were our starting PG, played 35 mpg, and didn't have to play alongside a 2nd PG, he could get close to that. But that isn't ever going to be the case here.

He won't get the minutes here, but he could possibly return to a proportionate level of play in lesser minutes. If he could give us something like 13/3/3 with decent shooting, say 37-38% from 3, he could regain some value as a possible sixth man somewhere.

[Shabazz]

There have been plenty of PGs who showed statistical promise early in their careers and then just lost "it" at a young age without ever getting it back. Two that immediately come to mind are Aaron Brooks (some similarities between the Brooks and Knight trades) and Ty Lawson (alcoholism was involved, but still).

[Shabazz]

Paul Coro is now writing for the LA Times.

[Mori Chu]

How can you say it will never happen? In 2014-15 for the bucks he was averaging 17.8/4.3/5.4 while shooting 40% from 3. I'm not saying he will return to that level of play, but it's certainly a possibility. He's still 25 years old and hasn't lost any skills.

I think if he were our starting PG, played 35 mpg, and didn't have to play alongside a 2nd PG, he could get close to that. But that isn't ever going to be the case here.

The possibility that seems most realistic to me, if you want to concoct a "Knight restores his value" story, is something like the following.

Bledsoe suffers a really bad injury that knocks him out for essentially the entire 2017-18 season. Knight starts at PG in his place. He gets 35+ mpg. His averages are pretty decent, like the numbers Split T quoted. Teams have some amount of interest. Suns let the word out that he's gettable. Some team on the fringe of the playoffs (Philly? Orlando?) bites and gives us a 1st-rounder or some intriguing prospect.

I don't know if that will happen, but I don't think it is an insane possibility. Bledsoe is playing with no cartilage in his knees, and I would honestly be surprised if he never suffered another major injury to his legs.

[Split T]

There have been plenty of PGs who showed statistical promise early in their careers and then just lost "it" at a young age without ever getting it back. Two that immediately come to mind are Aaron Brooks (some similarities between the Brooks and Knight trades) and Ty Lawson (alcoholism was involved, but still).

I wasn't saying it couldn't happen. Just saying there is no way of knowing if knight has lost "it" or if he's just having a bad year. Plenty of examples of players having bad years and bouncing back as well.

[JCSunsfan]

I agree with T and Mori that we may as well hang on to Knight at this point. I'd much rather deal Bledsoe and then play Knight into an attractive asset, and then move him in the off-season.

This is never going to happen. If the Suns are waiting on this then they will just end up waiting through all 5 years of Knight's contract or maybe in the final season of his contract, he'll have some value as an expiring contract but that's about it.

How can you say it will never happen? In 2014-15 for the bucks he was averaging 17.8/4.3/5.4 while shooting 40% from 3. I'm not saying he will return to that level of play, but it's certainly a possibility. He's still 25 years old and hasn't lost any skills.

I think if he were our starting PG, played 35 mpg, and didn't have to play alongside a 2nd PG, he could get close to that. But that isn't ever going to be the case here.

He won't get the minutes here, but he could possibly return to a proportionate level of play in lesser minutes. If he could give us something like 13/3/3 with decent shooting, say 37-38% from 3, he could regain some value as a possible sixth man somewhere.

Correct. He doesn't have to get that level of minutes. He just has to return to that rate of play.

[pickle]

I agree with T and Mori that we may as well hang on to Knight at this point. I'd much rather deal Bledsoe and then play Knight into an attractive asset, and then move him in the off-season.

This is never going to happen. If the Suns are waiting on this then they will just end up waiting through all 5 years of Knight's contract or maybe in the final season of his contract, he'll have some value as an expiring contract but that's about it.

How can you say it will never happen? In 2014-15 for the bucks he was averaging 17.8/4.3/5.4 while shooting 40% from 3. I'm not saying he will return to that level of play, but it's certainly a possibility. He's still 25 years old and hasn't lost any skills.

I think if he were our starting PG, played 35 mpg, and didn't have to play alongside a 2nd PG, he could get close to that. But that isn't ever going to be the case here.

But that's exactly my point. Trade Bledsoe, give Knight 35 mpg, then trade him in the offseason.