Suns 2022 Off-Season Thread

[Drewsprocket]

Ya you can make it work financially, but no way Toronto moves Siakam without Ayton or another major piece involved.

Though I will say that Cam won’t be making 15-20 million until 2023, so he’ll still be a 6 million dollar player next year. So you could just run it out with Crowder, let him expire, and move Cam J into the starting lineup the year after.

It’s why I like the Barnes deal…he’s expiring too so you have options next summer as well.

Yes but I think Jae as an expiring deal and good player in the 10M range is a valuable asset to use.

I wonder if Crowder and Saric + a 1st rd is enough to get Barnes.
If Barnes had more years it would be different I think for me.

[Indy]

Maybe this is crazy to say, but I think Saric could be a valuable piece for us. It isn't like he had any athleticism to begin with, so I am less worried about it than with other guys. But his ability to make plays and hit the 3 are important aspects to our offense.

[Split T]

Ya I think I want to keep Saric around if we can. If we do move on from him, I’d like someone else who can space the floor and play make a bit from the 5 spot.

[JeremyG]

The only problem I have with Bridges is that he seems to take a step back in the playoffs. If he and CP3 played like they did all season, we would still be playing.

[Drewsprocket]

Maybe this is crazy to say, but I think Saric could be a valuable piece for us. It isn't like he had any athleticism to begin with, so I am less worried about it than with other guys. But his ability to make plays and hit the 3 are important aspects to our offense.

That’s the problem Saric presents: when he’s healthy and in sync, he can be incredibly effective out on the floor creating and knocking down shots and making un-athletic hustle plays. Otherwise, he’s just a let down. Idk.

[specialsauce]

The only problem I have with Bridges is that he seems to take a step back in the playoffs. If he and CP3 played like they did all season, we would still be playing.

He does. Crawls into his shell. I’d be willing to include him in a deal for the right star.

[Split T]

Mikal was awesome against the Pelicans…struggled against the Mavs. He’s a role player and we asked him to shoulder more responsibility because CP3 was garbage and Bridges couldn’t answer the call. He’s better when he’s an afterthought and can capitalize on the attention given to others.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Does Gambo still get insider info? I haven't paid attention to him..ever?

[Flagrant Fowl]

That "rumor" has me thinking an Ayton trade will very likely involve heavy tampering. There's really no way to totally prevent it, but maybe the NBA would be better off just permitting any off-season transaction the day after the Finals end.

The Pacers are definitely interested in Ayton, but the Suns will need at least one more serious pursuer to get the most out of his value. Otherwise we might see a standoff over one of those lottery picks and a lot of speculation on draft night when teams like Indiana and San Antonio make their selections. I don't love the idea of the Suns bringing in a rookie next season and I'm pretty sure James Jones feels the same way, so that makes it even more difficult to manage a draft selection in an Ayton trade.

Off the wall idea of the day..(needs some tuning to make the numbers work even when ignoring the tampering)

Suns - Julius Randle, Myles Turner
Pacers - Deandre Ayton
Knicks - #6, Jae Crowder

The Pacers do it because they want Ayton, and Turner, #6, and (TBD asset) is probably about their limit.

The Knicks do it because the relationship between Randle and the fanbase seems pretty toxic and it's sort of felt like Randle is just keeping the seat warm for a bigger "star". A #6 pick and $10M expiring Jae Crowder might be enough in their worst case scenario. (We'll ignore their real problem with Thibs for the sake of this hypothetical trade.)

The Suns do it because they don't want to pay Ayton but want to remain competitive for a title. Randle and Turner aren't perfect, but combined they're not much, if any, worse than Crowder and Ayton.

[ShelC]

I feel like the Randle/Turner combo looks good on paper and then crashes and burns in execution. Chemistry is a tricky thing and I think Jones knows this. Even as limited as Crowder can be offensively, he helps give us an identity and fits in seamlessly. Randle can play really dumb and take bad shots and his defense isn't exactly his calling card. He's also ball dominant which is why things went sideways when the Knicks tried to work in Kemba and Fournier who also need the ball. In 20-21 when he was All-NBA, he was the only offensive threat and essentially played ISO ball all year.

Turner's rebounding will always be an issue and I think he's another guy who thinks he's better than he is and wants an expanded offensive role.

[Mori Chu]

Turner is maybe interesting, but I want no part of Randle.

[specialsauce]

[bbvideo][/bbvideo]

That "rumor" has me thinking an Ayton trade will very likely involve heavy tampering. There's really no way to totally prevent it, but maybe the NBA would be better off just permitting any off-season transaction the day after the Finals end.

The Pacers are definitely interested in Ayton, but the Suns will need at least one more serious pursuer to get the most out of his value. Otherwise we might see a standoff over one of those lottery picks and a lot of speculation on draft night when teams like Indiana and San Antonio make their selections. I don't love the idea of the Suns bringing in a rookie next season and I'm pretty sure James Jones feels the same way, so that makes it even more difficult to manage a draft selection in an Ayton trade.

Off the wall idea of the day..(needs some tuning to make the numbers work even when ignoring the tampering)

Suns - Julius Randle, Myles Turner
Pacers - Deandre Ayton
Knicks - #6, Jae Crowder

The Pacers do it because they want Ayton, and Turner, #6, and (TBD asset) is probably about their limit.

The Knicks do it because the relationship between Randle and the fanbase seems pretty toxic and it's sort of felt like Randle is just keeping the seat warm for a bigger "star". A #6 pick and $10M expiring Jae Crowder might be enough in their worst case scenario. (We'll ignore their real problem with Thibs for the sake of this hypothetical trade.)

The Suns do it because they don't want to pay Ayton but want to remain competitive for a title. Randle and Turner aren't perfect, but combined they're not much, if any, worse than Crowder and Ayton.

Hard pass on them especially Randle. A loser with a bad attitude

[JeremyG]

Mikal was awesome against the Pelicans…struggled against the Mavs. He’s a role player and we asked him to shoulder more responsibility because CP3 was garbage and Bridges couldn’t answer the call. He’s better when he’s an afterthought and can capitalize on the attention given to others.

That doesn’t explain his defense being worse in the playoffs.

[Split T]

Mikal was awesome against the Pelicans…struggled against the Mavs. He’s a role player and we asked him to shoulder more responsibility because CP3 was garbage and Bridges couldn’t answer the call. He’s better when he’s an afterthought and can capitalize on the attention given to others.

That doesn’t explain his defense being worse in the playoffs.

I don’t really think it was, he was incredible against the Pelicans. He didn’t have as much of an impact defensively in the Mavs series because we just switched him off Doncic whenever Dallas wanted. We let Luka dictate his matchup way too easily. That’s more Monty than Mikal

[Split T]

Does Gambo still get insider info? I haven't paid attention to him..ever?

That’s interesting and ya it’s definitely tampering or borderline tampering. I don’t exactly know how it all works, but you know Ayton’s agent has been putting out feelers to see who might sign his guy.

I don’t know what the specific rules are, can Ayton’s agent talk to teams? The bigger problem would be how do we communicate who we want them to draft?

I guess we can call them and pretend like we’re interested in the pick in a separate trade and let it slip who we are targeting(hint hint).

I’m ok with Turner and 6 for Ayton. I think Turner is a better fit for us than Ayton. Ayton is certainly better, but Turner is a legit floor spacer and elite defensively. I know he’s wanted to do more offensively though, so hopefully that’s not a problem. Rebounding would be a concern for sure.

I wouldn’t be thrilled about Randle though. I’d rather keep the 6th pick. I know it feels like we’d need someone to contribute right away, but I’m not sure that’s true. I think we can be patient. Turner helps offset the loss of Ayton and we’d still have a lot of contracts to move and add another piece. It would be kinda nice to add another young cheap rookie to the core.

[ShelC]

I think that's a gray area in terms of tampering. The Pacers and Suns are rumored to have discussed DA heading into the deadline so they may be continuing discussions or Duffy is working between both teams on behalf of his client. It's not the Pacers overtly or behind the scenes talking to DA/Duffy and recruiting him. Duffy's probably talking to a lot of teams trying to line up a max offer.

If the Pacers were just reaching out to Duffy to discuss a deal (ahead of any league scheduled dates) or were hiring members of DA's family/inner circle, then the Suns would have a case for tampering. But these convos happen throughout the year and the league knows it.

Turner's biggest issues are durability and rebounding. We can just plug Turner in there with his 6-7 rebounds and expect to be as good. I also question his strength/post defense, which shouldn't be taken for granted with DA.

[Split T]

I do wonder if his rebounding will go up without Sabonis next to him. But ya he’s still not a great rebounder. We’d need better team rebounding for sure.

Post defense wouldn’t worry me too much, there’s not a whole lot of teams that could attack that.

[Split T]

Would you consider Russell as a 3rd guard?

What if Minny said we could have KAT if we also took Russell?

I believe Ayton, Saric, Payne, Shamet, Crowder, and Craig for KAT/Russell would work. Let’s say we add 2 1sts or something.

Paul/Booker/Bridges/CamJ/KAT

Russell would be our only bench guy left haha. Probably doesn’t make sense.

[In2ition]

Would you consider Russell as a 3rd guard?

What if Minny said we could have KAT if we also took Russell?

I believe Ayton, Saric, Payne, Shamet, Crowder, and Craig for KAT/Russell would work. Let’s say we add 2 1sts or something.

Paul/Booker/Bridges/CamJ/KAT

Russell would be our only bench guy left haha. Probably doesn’t make sense.

Idk if I'd be against that. I think that Russell is overpaid, but we overpaid Payne, and Shamet, so..

[Split T]

He’s only got 1 year left on his deal…I’m not sure how we get Minny to bite though unless they just want to dump him. We can get there pretty easy as we also have 31 million in expiring contracts, but don’t really think Crowder/Saric/Payne/Craig would be all that exciting to Minny. Maybe Crowder makes sense, but we’d have to include draft capital and I’m not doing that for D-Lo