What if this were an expansion year?

Discussion of the league and of our favorite team.
Post Reply
User avatar
The Bobster
Posts: 6635
Joined: Fri Mar 14, 2014 1:04 pm
Location: Phoenix, AZ

What if this were an expansion year?

Post by The Bobster »

Who would you protect if there was an expansion draft and the Suns had to lose a player?

Rules -
- Teams can protect a maximum of 8 players
- Teams must protect Restricted Free Agents or lose the right to resign them if they are selected [they would become an Unrestricted Free Agent if selected who could sign anywhere but Phoenix]
- Teams do not have to protect Unrestricted Free Agents
- Each team has to make at least one player available in the draft

Suns players and money still owed to them -

Bridges [4/$90 M]
Paul [3/$90 M]
Booker [2/$69.8 M]
Shamet [4/$42.5 M]
Payne [2/$12.5 M]
Crowder [1/$10.2 M]
Sarić [1/$9.2 M]
Johnson [1/5.9 M]
Craig [1/$5.1 M]

RFA - Ayton [$16.4 M QO]
RFA - Holiday [$5.8 M QO]
RFA - Wainright [$1.6 QO]

UFA - Biyombo
UFA - McGee
UFA - Payton

Draft Rights - Cenk Akyol [Turkey]
Author of The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts
Available from Scarecrow Press at - https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780810890695

User avatar
The Bobster
Posts: 6635
Joined: Fri Mar 14, 2014 1:04 pm
Location: Phoenix, AZ

Re: What if this were an expansion year?

Post by The Bobster »

My choices -

Protected - Ayton [RFA], Booker, Bridges, Craig, Crowder, Johnson, Paul, Payne
Unprotected - Akyol, Holiday [RFA], Sarić, Shamet, Wainright [RFA]

I would imagine it would come down to making Shamet, Payne or Craig available. And leaving Shamet would free up the most money, so I would leave him unprotected.

Of this group I would think Shamet would be the likely selection, unless a team wasn't interested in taking on hic contract and shoe Holiday or Wainright.
Author of The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts
Available from Scarecrow Press at - https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780810890695

User avatar
Split T
Posts: 25483
Joined: Wed Jul 16, 2014 9:51 am
Location: Provo, Utah

Re: What if this were an expansion year?

Post by Split T »

I think I’d protect Wainright…Paul, Booker, Bridges, Ayton, Johnson, and Crowder are obvious selections. Wainright should be cheap and is younger and could take the Craig role.

I’d then be deciding between Payne, Holiday, Saric, Shamet, and Craig. Keeping Wainright would rule out Craig for me. I think my next move would depend on what the rest of my plans were for the roster, but I’d probably be deciding between Payne and Saric. Funny enough they are both pretty good together. I think Payne is more dependent on Saric than the other way around, so I’d probably pick Saric unless we have plans to bring in another playmaking, stretch 5. In that case I keep Payne.

User avatar
Mori Chu
Posts: 20895
Joined: Wed Feb 26, 2014 10:05 am

Re: What if this were an expansion year?

Post by Mori Chu »

I wonder what our FO thinks of Shamet's season. Are they happy with him? Do they regret giving him that fat contract? Do they have high hopes that he'll contribute a lot next season? It'd be really interesting in this fictional scenario if they just left Shamet unprotected and see whether the expansion team(s) would scoop him up and get us out of his contract. I think if I could do that and then sign Holiday or others to take those minutes, probably at less money, I'd do it.

User avatar
Indy
Posts: 19339
Joined: Sat Aug 16, 2014 9:21 pm
Contact:

Re: What if this were an expansion year?

Post by Indy »

Mori Chu wrote:
Fri Jun 03, 2022 1:26 pm
I wonder what our FO thinks of Shamet's season. Are they happy with him? Do they regret giving him that fat contract? Do they have high hopes that he'll contribute a lot next season? It'd be really interesting in this fictional scenario if they just left Shamet unprotected and see whether the expansion team(s) would scoop him up and get us out of his contract. I think if I could do that and then sign Holiday or others to take those minutes, probably at less money, I'd do it.
It is 2 years 19.75M total. It is basically the MLE.

User avatar
Split T
Posts: 25483
Joined: Wed Jul 16, 2014 9:51 am
Location: Provo, Utah

Re: What if this were an expansion year?

Post by Split T »

The two non guaranteed years make it look rough, but ya it’s not bad.

Post Reply