Game Day: Suns (17-37) @ Rockets (39-17), Sat 2/11/17

[TOO]

Hey guys, just wondering your thoughts on the Brandon Knight trade that involved the Lakers pick? Asking for a friend.

[Cap]

If your friend is named Ryan McDonough, punch him in the face.

If he's the Ryan McDonough who made this trade, punch him twice.

[In2ition]

Hey guys, just wondering your thoughts on the Brandon Knight trade that involved the Lakers pick? Asking for a friend.

Are you talking hindsight or at the time it was done?

I thought it was terrible when it happened, didn't make any sense since they seemed to realize that the 2-3 pg system didn't work and created more internal problems then it created for opponents, and I never thought that Knight was really all that great and wasn't impressed with him at all. And to say at the time that we ended up with the best player from all the trades that were made by Phx with Goran, MCD, and IT being involved, made me seriously question their talent evaluation skills.

In hindsight and now, I think it was one of the worst trades in the last decade at least and is even worse than I originally thought.

[carey]

I don't think he was serious. I think we've not shut up about it for 2 years now.

[In2ition]

I liked Cap's response.

[Mori Chu]

Upon reflection, I'm starting to think Lakers pick for Knight may have been a bad trade for us.

[Split T]

What if the Lakers keep their pick this year(top 3) sign a stud free agent(Griffin?) And get the 8th seed next year and Philly gets the 16h pick. Meanwhile, knight finishes the season strong and we move him in the off-season for a lottery protected first?

[3rdside]

.

[Cap]

What if the Lakers keep their pick this year(top 3) sign a stud free agent(Griffin?) And get the 8th seed next year and Philly gets the 16h pick. Meanwhile, knight finishes the season strong and we move him in the off-season for a lottery protected first?

What if all the children of the world joined hands and sang together in the spirit of harmony and peace?

[Split T]

What if the Lakers keep their pick this year(top 3) sign a stud free agent(Griffin?) And get the 8th seed next year and Philly gets the 16h pick. Meanwhile, knight finishes the season strong and we move him in the off-season for a lottery protected first?

What if all the children of the world joined hands and sang together in the spirit of harmony and peace?

Ha. Just trying to be optimistic,

Interesting tidbit, if the Lakers send their 2017 pick to Philly, they also have to send a 2019 1st to Orlando. If they keep their 2017 pick, the 2019 1st turns into two 2nd round picks. So Lakers have a lot of reasons to stay in the top 3 this year.

[Mori Chu]

I mean, yes, it is possible to construct a scenario involving several unlikely hypotheticals in which our Knight trade is merely a minor mistake and not a disaster. So, there's that.

[TOO]

I don't think he was serious. I think we've not shut up about it for 2 years now.

[Aztec Sunsfan]

Losing your confidence is the worst. The poor kid is under a lot of pressure and scrutiny, HE CLEARLY KNOWS THAT, and is hard to perform live, under TV cameras and thousands of people ready to call you TRASH or worse the minute you step into the court. Anyone who teachs or performs in front of a crowd, know the difference between a warm environment and one that agresively wants to exhibit you. How many of us were performing at the highest level of our work field at 24 years old, and did it under that size of lamelight? We should let the kid alone for a month and see what happens, is not like we are risking our season. He clearly is forcing his play in an attempt to silence the people, I know I would be doing it, some sort of "All I need is a 50 pts performance an people will back off"

And this is why I agree that our development area should be call upon this. Knight and Booker are regresing (the streak was just a smoke curtain) both at the court and as Pro's. Chriss, Len and Warren are not showing signs of having learned anything resembling TEAM playing, and Bender is not even playing, injury aside. We have a bunch of tall athletic guys, running around like they just meet at the park and started pickup play.

This "poor kid"?

You know he's making $70 million right? Give me $70 million and all my confidence issues goes away because if I'm good enough to earn $70 million then I know I'm doing my job right.

And you know Knight's been with the Suns for 2 years now right? What is gonna happen in the next month that hasn't happened in the last 2 years?

He's one the most selfish players to even don a Suns jersey in franchise history. Passing the ball is like 200th instinct.

I don't know what do you do for a living, but if it is just about money, without any apreciation for exceling at performance, get congratulated by your bosses, your peers and clients (fans), or actually EARN your paycheck, well, you don't know what this bussines is about. And if it does, but doesn't care about because you already "got paid", well, we simply see the world very different.

And based on the last two years, we should be dumping Bledsoe for peanuts as well, because is A FACT, that he will get season ending surgery any minute now, and trade Len for a second rounder. A lot can happen in a month if you can regain your balance and your center, i.e., People pay for Power Weekends to reset a bad funk, but hey, I hope you never get subject to the same standards you are using. You like to sound harsh and abuse of hiperboles, I try to keep in mind that they are only humans after all, kids on his 20's lucky to hit the genetic jackpot, but still subject to learn how to grow up. I try to write keeping in mind that they could be reading me, not because they could find me or know me, but because I try to be as decent behind a keyboard, that face to face with somebody. But that's just me.

[UglyTruth]

Losing your confidence is the worst. The poor kid is under a lot of pressure and scrutiny, HE CLEARLY KNOWS THAT, and is hard to perform live, under TV cameras and thousands of people ready to call you TRASH or worse the minute you step into the court. Anyone who teachs or performs in front of a crowd, know the difference between a warm environment and one that agresively wants to exhibit you. How many of us were performing at the highest level of our work field at 24 years old, and did it under that size of lamelight? We should let the kid alone for a month and see what happens, is not like we are risking our season. He clearly is forcing his play in an attempt to silence the people, I know I would be doing it, some sort of "All I need is a 50 pts performance an people will back off"

And this is why I agree that our development area should be call upon this. Knight and Booker are regresing (the streak was just a smoke curtain) both at the court and as Pro's. Chriss, Len and Warren are not showing signs of having learned anything resembling TEAM playing, and Bender is not even playing, injury aside. We have a bunch of tall athletic guys, running around like they just meet at the park and started pickup play.

This "poor kid"?

You know he's making $70 million right? Give me $70 million and all my confidence issues goes away because if I'm good enough to earn $70 million then I know I'm doing my job right.

And you know Knight's been with the Suns for 2 years now right? What is gonna happen in the next month that hasn't happened in the last 2 years?

He's one the most selfish players to even don a Suns jersey in franchise history. Passing the ball is like 200th instinct.

I don't know what do you do for a living, but if it is just about money, without any apreciation for exceling at performance, get congratulated by your bosses, your peers and clients (fans), or actually EARN your paycheck, well, you don't know what this bussines is about. And if it does, but doesn't care about because you already "got paid", well, we simply see the world very different.

And based on the last two years, we should be dumping Bledsoe for peanuts as well, because is A FACT, that he will get season ending surgery any minute now, and trade Len for a second rounder. A lot can happen in a month if you can regain your balance and your center, i.e., People pay for Power Weekends to reset a bad funk, but hey, I hope you never get subject to the same standards you are using. You like to sound harsh and abuse of hiperboles, I try to keep in mind that they are only humans after all, kids on his 20's lucky to hit the genetic jackpot, but still subject to learn how to grow up. I try to write keeping in mind that they could be reading me, not because they could find me or know me, but because I try to be as decent behind a keyboard, that face to face with somebody. But that's just me.

He's a celebrity, he's an NBA player, he's bound for criticism.

There has been less bad things said about Brandon Knight than there has been about GOATs like LeBron or Kobe and yet they still went out there and performed.

Knight doesn't know me, will never know me and gives zero damns about what I think of him. Just like every other NBA player and every other NBA fan.

And yes, we should be looking to trade Bledsoe before he gets hurt again! And agreed that we shouldn't resign Len to some big deal and he hasn't lived up to the level of play from other Cs from his same class like Gobert and Adams.

[UglyTruth]

McDonough totally botched it with Knight. First to throw away a good pick to get him and then to pay him that kind of money when he hadn't shown he deserves it.

Let's not forget that Knight would have been a free agent anyway, so even if we wanted to give him this current contract, we probably could have just pursued him as an UFA and signed him without having to give up the Laker pick and trade for him. The Bucks were making it clear that they didn't want Knight and weren't going to re-sign him. This is the part I can't get over.

Possibly the most idiotic trade in NBA history.

Usually when you see lists of worst trades, the trades are judged with the benefit of hindsight. But this was idiotic even without the benefit of hindsight.

The fact that he has turned out to be one of the worst players in the league makes it even worse in hindsight. But I don't think anybody here had any inkling how terrible a player he would turn out to be, and we still all judged it to be an incredibly stupid trade. Then it turned out to be a lot worse than we could have imagined.

One bad trade probably shouldn't end a GM's career... unless it's this one. Unless McD does something really impressive while still with the Suns, I don't know if he ever gets a chance with another franchise. Why would any franchise want to risk hiring a GM who might make a trade like that one, unless he has shown qualities that make him worth the risk? So far, he hasn't.

Yeah I hated this trade for that same reason...if they wanted Knight, they could've had him in 4 months by waiting it out.

And once fired GMs rarely get second chances in sports anyway.

I have a feeling that if McD gets fired, Ainge will hire him back as a thank you gesture for the IT deal.

It's just frustrating that McD hasn't found some way to rid himself of Knight.

[JustWinBaby]

I know the Morris Twins certainly left on bad terms. However at one point they were a real part of the future of this franchise. The same can be said of Goran Dragic and Isaiah Thomas along with Marcin Gortat. Below are how these guys are doing on their new teams after McDonough either traded them or dumped them.

Markieff Morris - 16.4 pts , 7.1 rebounds, 2.0 assists
Marcus Morris - 15.5 pts, 4.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists
Isaiah Thomas - 31.1 pts, 6.6 assists
Goran Dragic - 20.1 pts,, 6.3 assists
Marcin Gortat - 11.9 pts, 11.5 rebounds

How are we better and closer to a championship after these moves by McDonough. At some point he has to be accountable, doesn't he?

[Indy]

I know the Morris Twins certainly left on bad terms. However at one point they were a real part of the future of this franchise. The same can be said of Goran Dragic and Isaiah Thomas along with Marcin Gortat. Below are how these guys are doing on their new teams after McDonough either traded them or dumped them.

Markieff Morris - 16.4 pts , 7.1 rebounds, 2.0 assists
Marcus Morris - 15.5 pts, 4.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists
Isaiah Thomas - 31.1 pts, 6.6 assists
Goran Dragic - 20.1 pts,, 6.3 assists
Marcin Gortat - 11.9 pts, 11.5 rebounds

How are we better and closer to a championship after these moves by McDonough. At some point he has to be accountable, doesn't he?

But he drafted Devin Booker

[Cap]

I know the Morris Twins certainly left on bad terms. However at one point they were a real part of the future of this franchise. The same can be said of Goran Dragic and Isaiah Thomas along with Marcin Gortat. Below are how these guys are doing on their new teams after McDonough either traded them or dumped them.

M******f M****s - 16.4 pts , 7.1 rebounds, 2.0 assists
M****s M****s - 15.5 pts, 4.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists
Isaiah Thomas - 31.1 pts, 6.6 assists
Goran Dragic - 20.1 pts,, 6.3 assists
Marcin Gortat - 11.9 pts, 11.5 rebounds

How are we better and closer to a championship after these moves by McDonough. At some point he has to be accountable, doesn't he?

But he drafted Devin Booker

And he traded a useless, broken-down FA Nash for that super-juicy pick! What a coup! And he signed IT to that amazing contract, too!

How depressing. Even when he does make a successful transaction, he turns right around and discards its fruit every time.

[Split T]

I know the Morris Twins certainly left on bad terms. However at one point they were a real part of the future of this franchise. The same can be said of Goran Dragic and Isaiah Thomas along with Marcin Gortat. Below are how these guys are doing on their new teams after McDonough either traded them or dumped them.

M******f M****s - 16.4 pts , 7.1 rebounds, 2.0 assists
M****s M****s - 15.5 pts, 4.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists
Isaiah Thomas - 31.1 pts, 6.6 assists
Goran Dragic - 20.1 pts,, 6.3 assists
Marcin Gortat - 11.9 pts, 11.5 rebounds

How are we better and closer to a championship after these moves by McDonough. At some point he has to be accountable, doesn't he?

Hard to be upset about dumping the Morris Twins, in fact everyone on here was mad it took so long. We got a pretty good haul for Markieff. Marcus Morris was a dump, but he wasn't that good. He'd have a game every now and then where he went 5/6 from 3, but didn't do much else for us. Dragic asked to be traded too, we got quite a bit for him as well. Gortat was sent away when we thought we were rebuilding. In retrospect, we should have held onto him because we probably make the playoffs in 13-14 with him at C. The IT trade is interesting, it obviously looks bad now, but no one had any issue with it at the time.

You can fault McD on how he handled the Morris and Dragic situations leading up to the trades, but he did well with the actual trades once his hand was forced. He misread how good that 13-14 team would be, just like everyone else, and he misjudged how good IT could be, just like everyone else. I don't see any huge mistakes on this list. Of course, you'd like your GM to be able to predict the future better than McD has so far, but we did turn those 5 players into 5 first round picks, with 2 still to come.

Although, none of those 3 picks we've made are on our team anymore. Tyler Ennis was picked with the Gortat 1st and traded in the package for Knight. The IT first(Skal Labissiere) was packaged with the Markieff 1st(Georgios Papagiannis) to select Marquese Chriss.

[Mori Chu]

I know the Morris Twins certainly left on bad terms. However at one point they were a real part of the future of this franchise. The same can be said of Goran Dragic and Isaiah Thomas along with Marcin Gortat. Below are how these guys are doing on their new teams after McDonough either traded them or dumped them.

M******f M****s - 16.4 pts , 7.1 rebounds, 2.0 assists
M****s M****s - 15.5 pts, 4.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists
Isaiah Thomas - 31.1 pts, 6.6 assists
Goran Dragic - 20.1 pts,, 6.3 assists
Marcin Gortat - 11.9 pts, 11.5 rebounds

How are we better and closer to a championship after these moves by McDonough. At some point he has to be accountable, doesn't he?

I get what you are saying with this post, but I don't think it is entirely fair. You could make a listing like this for a lot of teams. For example, the Clips gave us Bledsoe for Dudley, and lol, Bledsoe is averaging a ton of PPG for us. Are the Clips stupid? No, because they already had a stud PG in Chris Paul, and they couldn't pay Bledsoe the contract he wanted, and Bledsoe wanted to start. So the details matter.

The Morrii were trouble and we had to get rid of them. It wouldn't matter if they were averaging 30ppg now; it still would have been right to get their cancerous attitudes off our team.

Dragic/IT, we botched this one. I am pleased that we got two 1sts for Goran, but we should not have pushed him to want to leave. IT we sold too low on, but he was a bad fit here in a similar way to how Knight is now, only a better scorer. I still don't think I would want IT as the best player on my team; too selfish. I must admit that the 29.8ppg is insane. (You list 31.1? That is wrong. Is that per 36 min?)

I'm definitely frustrated about the PG situation. I honestly would have strongly preferred exactly the opposite of what we did. We kept Bledsoe and got Knight. I wanted to keep Dragic and have IT be the backup, and dump Bledsoe. Oh well. At least Bledsoe is putting up gaudy numbers and having a strong overall season.

As for Gortat, I don't miss him much. Chandler and Len are giving us capable minutes at center. Gortat wanted a lot of money, and the Wiz wanted to give it to him. I don't have anything against Gortat but also think he has a certain ceiling as a player and am not crushed that he's gone.