Phx-Suns.Net

Not wishing to spoil the current good vibes, but wanted an ongoing discussion on how folks thought the team could improve going forward during the Booker era given we currently likely max out as a low tier play in/ playoff team as is (though they are fun to watch). The main issue being we don’t own our picks for some time and have a bunch of dead cap for several more years. Thoughts?

Our roster is still incomplete in terms of missing a PF, so some improvement would come from roster balance and internal development of our current youngster crop. Though I’m not sure we can enough high potential prospects to make serious leaps in the future years.

Some other options:
rebuild/retool by selling vets other than book when their value is high for a change for prospects and draft capital. Eg hope we can make another Joe Johnson trade like we did with Boston many a year ago.

Retool by consistently adding players on the margins that fit our new style? And hope having a defined style of play makes it easier to strike gold in the draft.

Look for disgruntled / often injured stars at low value eg morant / Zion


Or At some point realise we won’t move past our current limited ceiling unless we trade book for multiple potential lotto picks?

Danimal wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 11, 2025 2:49 pm

... rebuild/retool by selling vets other than book when their value is high for a change for prospects and draft capital. Eg hope we can make another Joe Johnson trade like we did with Boston many a year ago.

Retool by consistently adding players on the margins that fit our new style? And hope having a defined style of play makes it easier to strike gold in the draft.

I personally think these are the keys. Just because we don't have many (any?) draft picks in the near future doesn't mean we can't acquire some. And I feel like our draft record has been quite strong in the last few years going back to Camara which still makes me sick. I don't think we need an overhaul. Just some fine tuning. And not all of it will be pleasant. Larry Nance and Jeff Hornacek come to mind. We likely will have to trade some real value to get a good to very good PF for example.

Nothing against Jalen Green but maybe the hamstring injuries are sign from the basketball gods that he's not supposed to be here. Like when KD slipped in warmups before his first game. Or the Beal nonsense. He's not a Suns-type of player. Move his salary for a PF like JJJ or Franz Wagner. Memphis and maybe Orlando will shake things up this year. Offloading guys Royce and Richards won't bring much back in value, at least not enough to really elevate us. JJJ and Franz might be pipedreams but those are the kinds of guys you target with Green's contract.

Suns playing well, still find ways to complain. Crazy.

No one's complaining. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. And well done is better than well said.

With regards to Jalen...everything we want is on the other side of Christmas.

I think it’s all about player development and striking at the right time. You gotta hope Williams/Green/Dunn/Maluach/Fleming/Brea develop above their expectations…either so we can use them or trade them. Then I think you gotta keep competing…think the bubble suns run leading to CP3 wanting to come. If we play above expectations, we might be desirable to a star.

This team looks solid...there are some solid young players...the team has shown it knows how to draft, including late in the order...and get players that add value. This team should be able to be competitive for some time...and we can add good players, look at what they built. It shows that we overshot going for KD, etc...but they know how to use the tools they have, and use them effectively.

Quit crying for the wolfing gods to come calling...enjoy the success and let's see how it unfolds...for crying out loud...

VT

TOO wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 11, 2025 4:30 pm

Suns playing well, still find ways to complain. Crazy.

Yep...I'm enjoying the hell out of this...for crying out loud...

ShelC wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 11, 2025 4:35 pm

No one's complaining. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. And well done is better than well said.

With regards to Jalen...everything we want is on the other side of Christmas.

Some of it sounds an awful lot like crying...The Naddering Nabobs of Negativism need to take up drinking and chill the hell out for a while...

My general take on this team is that while I have really enjoyed them so far this season, realistically this team has no pathway to becoming a real playoff threat or contender, and we should find a way to reposition ourselves so that we can build toward eventual contention. Jalen Green's debut was awesome to watch, but I don't think it is good value for us to have so much of our cap tied up in Book + Jalen when they play similar positions and roles.

If we wanted this team to improve its present state, the realistic-ish dream for me would be to trade Jalen Green for JJJ or some other impressive PF to balance out the roster. And I'd consider that. But honestly I would prefer to see them make moves around a teardown and rebuild because I don't think this team + JJJ is a contender nor can get there in the next few years.

I think we should prioritize regaining draft assets, especially 1st round picks, of which our cupboard is almost entirely bare. I would personally try to trade Grayson while his value is high and try to get one or two 1sts for him. I would see if we can get a 1st for Nick Richards. I would call around about Royce O'Neale. I would trade Oso for a future 2nd.

The biggest question is, what about Booker? I think the smart move would have been to trade him to Houston this past summer for most/all of our draft picks back. But now we can't really do that because Houston took KD instead and likely would not also want Booker. If they would still take him and give us 3+ of our 1sts back, you do that any day. I don't think many other Booker trades make sense because I don't know what teams have the draft assets to make it worthwhile for us. I don't want to trade Book unless we get a bunch of picks to help us rebuild, and ideally some/all of them would be our own picks. Would OKC give us a boat load of their future 1sts? Utah has the assets but there's no point for them to acquire Book given their hopeless roster and timeline. Memphis might be an interesting trade target because they could give us Ja or JJJ + our 2026 pick plus some of their own future 1sts. That's selling Booker for 80 cents on the dollar, but this team has no future, so yes, I want to sell.

I know the above probably sounds really negative given our nice start. And I admit that it has been really a nice start with good vibes and some fun wins, and I do like this group of players. But really we're barely over .500 and have mostly beaten bad teams. I don't think it'll hold up, and even if it did, that would put us as a play-in team with absolutely no chance to contend and very little chance to improve without any draft picks. It is folly to keep pouring more resources into a team like that, when you don't have any 1sts and don't have enough blue chip talent on the roster to ever grow into a contender.

Blow it up.

I think blowing up is a dumb strategy. Our team is clicking. You never know when a good player that fits our style will become available, and everyone but Oso are having a great year so far.

I think it's not impossible that this team can be a 5th place in the standings come trade deadline.

Mori Chu wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 11, 2025 8:42 pm

Blow it up.

Jesus Christ Mori. Blow it up? Have we been watching different teams this season? Outside of Oso, the roster has been playing great basketball, competing, young and well coached. There were hiccups early and there have been injuries but they've looked a lot better these past 6 games and continue to form an identity on both sides of the ball.

This entire thread sucks. Kind of takes the wind out of the sails. Allen and Booker have been playing tremendous basketball and your strategy is to trade them both? Let's give Ott a season with this roster. It would be a bullshit to watch another 3 year rebuild with garbage because we trade the good that we have now. Maybe this thread will be worth visiting after, I don't know, 40 or so games played this season.

Some people just like being in a constant rebuild. Not me. I enjoy good basketball which we have. Right now. Some people just can’t enjoy nice things.

Superbone wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 11, 2025 9:40 pm

Some people just like being in a constant rebuild. Not me. I enjoy good basketball which we have. Right now. Some people just can’t enjoy nice things.

And there's never a guarantee your draft pick is going to pan out. Acquiring a bunch of licks and getting rid of your current talent tells fans to ride out bad basketball again and puts Ott in a shitty situation of coaching a talentless team so we can get that high draft pick sometime to fix everything. No thank you.

I dont get it either. You rather have a Kokoskov team than what we have right now? How did that pan out?

The entire thread was about how do we best improve going forward. I think the only complaint was some slight roster imbalance and a potentiality limited ceiling due to not owning our own picks etc, whilst commenting that the current team was fun to watch. I listed a wide range of options including internal development. We get one game above .500 and some of you start chirping as if I said burn It down during peak show time lakers

I got you Danimal…I think I understood what you were getting at…for me basketball purgatory is a play-in/1st round exit team without great avenues to improve…feels like that’s exactly what we are right now.

I’m also greatly enjoying this season and don’t think we should really make any moves…outside of maybe looking at trading a wing for an actual PF, but there’s plenty of time to figure that out.

I think tearing it down makes very little sense. We don’t have our own picks and there’s no realistic way to get them back(no team has more than 2 of them and at least 4 teams have rights to them).

The team is playing well, they are fun, and there is a decent amount of youth on the roster. You play it out, develop those young guys like crazy/turn them into cornerstones, and make some savvy fa/trade acquisitions when the time is right.

We’re not exactly a championship team on the rise, but I do think the blow it up talk makes zero sense at this point. Let’s see what happens and enjoy it along the way.

Sorry Mori and Danimal for getting so upset last night. I think this post and the suggestion of blowing it up directly went against my overly rose pedal glasses view of the team at the moment. I'll try to balance it out with being a bit more of a realist. It's a long seasons and we haven't been beating any real contenders, necessarily, outside of San Antonio. The Clippers have the oldest roster in the league and didn't have Leonard both games. Let's hope we can keep it up and look into ways of improving our roster and potentially our draft capital as well.

I think blowing it up is definitely on the extreme end. A guy like Book will still attract other really good players if the team looks be on steady ground and ascending. And while it's early, this does feel a bit like the pre-bubble/bubble team that started that successful run and if we keep it up, other players will take notice.

I don't necessarily think we're in purgatory yet because this is the beginning of a reset. Making the playoffs/play-in would obviously be an improvement from last year and a step in the right direction. Purgatory would be plateauing next year and the year after, just being a play-in team.

I only mentioned Green as a trade candidate because I think he's the avenue to improve. He's got the salary to bring in a difference maker in the frontcourt, should one become available.

It would be great if Fleming developed into a starter or reliable bench big for us who can effectively eat up minutes at the 4spot. That solves a huge problem without breaking up the roster.

I'm good riding out this season tho. Let's see if Mark Williams holds up and gets a contract longterm with us. Let's see how CG does the rest of the year and what his future is with us. Let's see if the young guys get playing time and some development this year.

FWIW tho, Jaren Jackson Jr did go to Michigan State. Just gonna throw that out there.

Split T wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 11, 2025 5:47 pm

I think it’s all about player development and striking at the right time. You gotta hope Williams/Green/Dunn/Maluach/Fleming/Brea develop above their expectations…either so we can use them or trade them. Then I think you gotta keep competing…think the bubble suns run leading to CP3 wanting to come. If we play above expectations, we might be desirable to a star.

Sounds like you graduated from the Jerry Colangelo School of Rebuilding with a degree in Remaining Competitive.