2026 Offseason

[Mori Chu]

What do you guys think about trading Jalen Green to Memphis for Ja Morant? I really think Ja is a "change of scenery" guy who will do better once he's out of Memphis; too much bad history and hurt feelings. His personal issues concern me, but I think a lot of young men grow up in their 20s and there's hope that he can mature out of his earlier mistakes with a fresh start. And (if healthy and productive) he's much more the kind of player I would want next to Booker than Jalen Green. Ja can help lead the offense but will still be happy to pass to Book to be our finisher. Much better pairing than Book plus a ball-stopper like Green.

Ja makes $39m this year and has 3 years left on his contract. Jalen Green makes $33m this year and has the same contract length. Trade Machine says you can swap them straight up, or you could throw in a bit more salary from the Suns side to make it work. I'd do it if they would. Thoughts?

[ShelC]

Given he just made some gun gesture watching one of the playoff games a few nights ago, I'd say he still doesn't get it and would stay far away.

[virtual9mm]

Mat Ishbia makes a pretty strong statement that he wants to keep Devin Booker...

I might not agree with the move -- but I respect it.

In this case, Green has to go.

[Split T]

I think I’d stay away because of the off the court stuff…I get it from a basketball perspective even though he can’t really seem to stay on the court and isn’t as productive when he is on the court nowadays.

[virtual9mm]

What do you guys think about trading Jalen Green to Memphis for Ja Morant? I really think Ja is a "change of scenery" guy who will do better once he's out of Memphis; too much bad history and hurt feelings. His personal issues concern me, but I think a lot of young men grow up in their 20s and there's hope that he can mature out of his earlier mistakes with a fresh start. And (if healthy and productive) he's much more the kind of player I would want next to Booker than Jalen Green. Ja can help lead the offense but will still be happy to pass to Book to be our finisher. Much better pairing than Book plus a ball-stopper like Green.

Ja makes $39m this year and has 3 years left on his contract. Jalen Green makes $33m this year and has the same contract length. Trade Machine says you can swap them straight up, or you could throw in a bit more salary from the Suns side to make it work. I'd do it if they would. Thoughts?

Message boards say that he's losing his athleticism. Hard pass.

[Aztec Sunsfan]

Flopping would be so easy to fix too. Just start handing out fines. In the moment give techs if you can, but they are hard to catch at times, so just fine after the fact.

Yeah, but these refs are idiots and don't see it. OKC players are master manipulators. They pull on their defenders and then fall down and the refs call it every time. What I don't get is how and why it is so one-sided. When Dort tripped Book and he went flying to the ground, they totally ignored it. Did they think Book was flopping? I have no idea what goes on in their pea-sized brains.

That’s why it needs to be done after the fact too. Someone in the league office can review the games and hand out fines…and scale that fine up for each repeat offense…you get 5 flopping offenses and it’s a 1 game suspension and keep escalating the suspensions too. People will stop.

Allow every team to submit a tape denouncing flopping and use it to evaluate and teach the referees.

[ShelC]

Some clips below of Gregory and Ishbia speaking. Don't agree with the idea that Book, Green and Brooks can be a path to more success, just think it's wishful thinking. Agree that the youth development part needs to be sped up and continuity should be help things going into next year but we can't think this core group will improve with more time. They're limited and maybe even maxed themselves out. Gregory also said we might split or won games 3 or 4 against a different opponent because of how well we played, so take that for what it's worth.

Spoiler: show/hide

[Mori Chu]

Message boards say that he's losing his athleticism. Hard pass.

The big concern to me is the poor shooting percentages. He averaged a pretty respectable 19.5 ppg and 8.1 apg this past season despite injuries. But his shooting splits were .410 / .235 / .897. That's pretty rough. When combined with a possible reduction in his athletic ability, the lack of shooting will make it easier for defenses to play off him and double Booker and others.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/pl ... nja01.html

[Superbone]

Flopping would be so easy to fix too. Just start handing out fines. In the moment give techs if you can, but they are hard to catch at times, so just fine after the fact.

Yeah, but these refs are idiots and don't see it. OKC players are master manipulators. They pull on their defenders and then fall down and the refs call it every time. What I don't get is how and why it is so one-sided. When Dort tripped Book and he went flying to the ground, they totally ignored it. Did they think Book was flopping? I have no idea what goes on in their pea-sized brains.

That’s why it needs to be done after the fact too. Someone in the league office can review the games and hand out fines…and scale that fine up for each repeat offense…you get 5 flopping offenses and it’s a 1 game suspension and keep escalating the suspensions too. People will stop.

Allow every team to submit a tape denouncing flopping and use it to evaluate and teach the referees.

I think you guys are onto something.

[Superbone]

Here is the whole press conference. I watched the whole thing.

[Superbone]

Here are my thoughts on it. Let's start with Booker. Pretty much what I figured. At least now we won't constantly talk about trading him here. I kid, I kid. Of course we will. But the good news is that he's going to lead us to a championship. That's good to know.

A lot of talk about continuity and growing what we have. I like that. But I also want to know how we're going to improve rebounding the ball. You can't teach size and we just don't have enough. Maybe if Maluach and Fleming (and Dunn) become a regular part of the rotation but still, I think we need reinforcements here.

Next step is to continue to build on this season. Let's see if we take another step next season.

[Aztec Sunsfan]

Some clips below of Gregory and Ishbia speaking. Don't agree with the idea that Book, Green and Brooks can be a path to more success, just think it's wishful thinking. Agree that the youth development part needs to be sped up and continuity should be help things going into next year but we can't think this core group will improve with more time. They're limited and maybe even maxed themselves out. Gregory also said we might split or won games 3 or 4 against a different opponent because of how well we played, so take that for what it's worth.

Problem is that getting higher than a 7th seed is a really tall order given our current constitution, so we won’t get a different opponent other that the 1st or 2nd seed, this is as foolish as claiming that we could have sweep the Wizards on the first round given how well we played. Next season’s Suns will look more like the team post ASB than the team on the first half of the season if there are no changes.

Hopefully it was just media day speech, therefore avoiding to open our needs or plans or available players to the rest of the league too soon.

[Gladiator]

I think Gregory was just saying what you need to say in that situation, although I believe they have no intention of trading Book or Brooks. Gregory speculating about trading Green would only lessen his value.
Hard no on Morant for me - he is a poor three-point shooter and relies heavily on athleticism. I can see his game aging very poorly. And that’s before the off-court stuff.

[virtual9mm]

If the Suns keep Green along with Booker, we are looking at the Malaise years 2.0. And I think they know this. BG knows how not to tank Green's value, which is pretty high at the moment.

[The Bobster]

Never fall in love with your players, you only handcuff yourself when you're looking to improve your team.

Even the "generational talents." And the Suns don't have any of those.

[The Bobster]

Hard no on Morant for me - he is a poor three-point shooter and relies heavily on athleticism. I can see his game aging very poorly. And that’s before the off-court stuff.

And we already have one of those in Green.

[virtual9mm]

Never fall in love with your players, you only handcuff yourself when you're looking to improve your team.

Even the "generational talents." And the Suns don't have any of those.

They're saying the right things to boost value. No fire sales. I like the approach.

But I'm sure that we're still taking calls on Book...quietly.

[ShelC]

[JJ Slim]

Never fall in love with your players, you only handcuff yourself when you're looking to improve your team.

Even the "generational talents." And the Suns don't have any of those.

They're saying the right things to boost value. No fire sales. I like the approach.

But I'm sure that we're still taking calls on Book...quietly.

Yeah, it's all corporate speak. Say what you have to but don't believe any of it.

[JJ Slim]

Yep, they're gone.