Mikal Bridges, Welcome to Phoenix!

[O_Gardino]

The big question is, why would philly offer mikal to phoenix in the first place?

They liked Zhaire almost as much, so they took the opportunity to pick up an asset.

+ they might need an explosive 2 more than a steady 3. They've already got Saric, so gambling on Smith's upside and the value of the pick isn't a bad move for them.

[O_Gardino]

Add Okobo to the list of guys we've drafted who are two years away from being two years away. If he's ever something solid in the league, it probably won't be until his second contract.

That's what 2nd round picks are for.

[O_Gardino]

The big question is, why would philly offer mikal to phoenix in the first place?

They liked Zhaire almost as much, so they took the opportunity to pick up an asset.

This is a problem in terms of assets management. If you are calling me about your homegrown kid freshly drafted at #10 and you are offering to trade down all the way to #16, I have to know that you value the prospects basically the same. I have to stay strong and not give up a premium asset, period. You want the MIL pick or a lottery protection on MIA pick? Fine. But surrendering the unprotected pick is an overpay no matter how you slice it.

I won't fault the GM for taking this gamble, though. The prospect could be worth it, but you are putting him on a tough position, especially since we have a number of players taking his space, so you have put yourself in a corner and now you esentially are forced to make a move to send out someone, even if you truly believe Bridges can play PF.

When you are desperate to start winning this season, everybody knows it and you end up overpaying. It's worth it if you do start winning.

[Cap]

The big question is, why would philly offer mikal to phoenix in the first place?

They liked Zhaire almost as much, so they took the opportunity to pick up an asset.

This is a problem in terms of assets management. If you are calling me about your homegrown kid freshly drafted at #10 and you are offering to trade down all the way to #16, I have to know that you value the prospects basically the same. I have to stay strong and not give up a premium asset, period. You want the MIL pick or a lottery protection on MIA pick? Fine. But surrendering the unprotected pick is an overpay no matter how you slice it.

I won't fault the GM for taking this gamble, though. The prospect could be worth it, but you are putting him on a tough position, especially since we have a number of players taking his space, so you have put yourself in a corner and now you esentially are forced to make a move to send out someone, even if you truly believe Bridges can play PF.

When you are desperate to start winning this season, everybody knows it and you end up overpaying. It's worth it if you do start winning.

There wasn’t a lot of time for negotiating. I saw it reported on Twitter (I forget who, but I think it was someone credible) that we were all set to pick DiVincenzo when Philly called us with about 30 seconds on the clock offering this deal. We weren’t interested in Zhaire for ourselves, so it was basically a take-it-or-leave-it situation: either accept the deal and draft Zhaire, or reject it and draft DiVincenzo.

[ShelC]

I'm glad we got Mikal but it sounds like we got played a bit.

[Split T]

It's possible we had already discussed moving up with Philly and the deal was already talked about. If we had offered the Miami pick already to move up and Philly turned us down, it would have been hard to negotiate anything different with 30 seconds on the clock. Smooth move by Philly, they probably called late on purpose so we had no time to negotiate and said take it or leave it. McD loved Bridges and took the deal

[Indy]

I'm glad we got Mikal but it sounds like we got played a bit.

Of course we did. But we all knew that would happen if we wanted to move up, with this FO. We are the desperate team and Philly isn't. But at some point you have to start cashing in your chips. Might not have been the best move available, but honestly you knew they were going to find some way to spend that pick.

By the way, it is still so crazy to me that we traded both of the Dragic picks to get back the pick we lost for BK. So fucking stupid, but you can't fall into the sunk cost fallacy.

[Split T]

I'm glad we got Mikal but it sounds like we got played a bit.

Of course we did. But we all knew that would happen if we wanted to move up, with this FO. We are the desperate team and Philly isn't. But at some point you have to start cashing in your chips. Might not have been the best move available, but honestly you knew they were going to find some way to spend that pick.

By the way, it is still so crazy to me that we traded both of the Dragic picks to get back the pick we lost for BK. So f*** stupid, but you can't fall into the sunk cost fallacy.

Dragic = two Miami picks
Laker pick = Knight
Two Miami picks = Laker pick
Picks cancel out and we traded Dragic for Knight

Still bad, and you can call me crazy, but that doesn't sound awful to me anymore. I'm cautiously optimistic Knight will be productive this year and Dragic was leaving no matter what.

[Indy]

I'm glad we got Mikal but it sounds like we got played a bit.

Of course we did. But we all knew that would happen if we wanted to move up, with this FO. We are the desperate team and Philly isn't. But at some point you have to start cashing in your chips. Might not have been the best move available, but honestly you knew they were going to find some way to spend that pick.

By the way, it is still so crazy to me that we traded both of the Dragic picks to get back the pick we lost for BK. So f*** stupid, but you can't fall into the sunk cost fallacy.

Dragic = two Miami picks
Laker pick = Knight
Two Miami picks = Laker pick
Picks cancel out and we traded Dragic for Knight

Still bad, and you can call me crazy, but that doesn't sound awful to me anymore. I'm cautiously optimistic Knight will be productive this year and Dragic was leaving no matter what.

Well, he was only leaving "no matter what" after what we did to him. But yeah, it could always be worse.

[LVSunsFAN]

The big question is, why would philly offer mikal to phoenix in the first place?

They liked Zhaire almost as much, so they took the opportunity to pick up an asset.

The Sixers indeed liked Zhaire aslmost as much as Mikal.
On top of that they needed a major trade asset to acquire a star to add to their current roster.
The unprotected Miami pick definitely qualified as such. So they didn't lose much in getting Zhaire instead of Mikal and they picked up what might've been the only thing they were missing to execute a trade for a key player in the next few months.
Don't expect the Sixers to still be in possession of that Miami pick come pre-season.

[Split T]

I'm glad we got Mikal but it sounds like we got played a bit.

Of course we did. But we all knew that would happen if we wanted to move up, with this FO. We are the desperate team and Philly isn't. But at some point you have to start cashing in your chips. Might not have been the best move available, but honestly you knew they were going to find some way to spend that pick.

By the way, it is still so crazy to me that we traded both of the Dragic picks to get back the pick we lost for BK. So f*** stupid, but you can't fall into the sunk cost fallacy.

Dragic = two Miami picks
Laker pick = Knight
Two Miami picks = Laker pick
Picks cancel out and we traded Dragic for Knight

Still bad, and you can call me crazy, but that doesn't sound awful to me anymore. I'm cautiously optimistic Knight will be productive this year and Dragic was leaving no matter what.

Well, he was only leaving "no matter what" after what we did to him. But yeah, it could always be worse.

True, we still definitely screwed the whole situation up and brought it upon ourselves... I'm just thinking if we had traded Dragic straight up for Knight at the time and never gave up the Laker pick, would there have been as much outrage? I don't think there would have. Knight was having a very good season, was younger, cheaper and seemed more suited to play off the ball. Turns out he's been crap for us, but even the biggest critics of the trade didn't think Knight would fall apart like he has.

[Split T]

The big question is, why would philly offer mikal to phoenix in the first place?

They liked Zhaire almost as much, so they took the opportunity to pick up an asset.

The Sixers indeed liked Zhaire aslmost as much as Mikal.
On top of that they needed a major trade asset to acquire a star to add to their current roster.
The unprotected Miami pick definitely qualified as such. So they didn't lose much in getting Zhaire instead of Mikal and they picked up what might've been the only thing they were missing to execute a trade for a key player in the next few months.
Don't expect the Sixers to still be in possession of that Miami pick come pre-season.

Yep, I'd expect that to be included in offers for stars everywhere..Kawhi? McCollum? Gonna be an entertaining off-season

[The Bobster]

Realistically?

That Miami pick is probably going to be a mid-1st round pick, but there's a reasonable possibility that the 2021 draft will be a deep one.

It's probably more than I would have given up unless they had added some protection to it.

[Indy]

Realistically?

That Miami pick is probably going to be a mid-1st round pick, but there's a reasonable possibility that the 2021 draft will be a deep one.

It's probably more than I would have given up unless they had added some protection to it.

Isn;'t that the draft they are talking about letting HS players enter? So basically it is almost two drafts in one. Should be really deep.

[Split T]

Realistically?

That Miami pick is probably going to be a mid-1st round pick, but there's a reasonable possibility that the 2021 draft will be a deep one.

It's probably more than I would have given up unless they had added some protection to it.

Isn;'t that the draft they are talking about letting HS players enter? So basically it is almost two drafts in one. Should be really deep.

That's the earliest they said they'd do it. Might not happen till 2022. Actually think it's more likely in 2022. No 2022 draft picks have been traded yet, while three 2021 picks have been. NBA let teams know of their plans now because the value on those picks change. They may avoid the 2021 draft since those picks were traded under the former expectation of value.

[JJ Slim]

The big question is, why would philly offer mikal to phoenix in the first place?

They liked Zhaire almost as much, so they took the opportunity to pick up an asset.

This is a problem in terms of assets management. If you are calling me about your homegrown kid freshly drafted at #10 and you are offering to trade down all the way to #16, I have to know that you value the prospects basically the same. I have to stay strong and not give up a premium asset, period. You want the MIL pick or a lottery protection on MIA pick? Fine. But surrendering the unprotected pick is an overpay no matter how you slice it.

I won't fault the GM for taking this gamble, though. The prospect could be worth it, but you are putting him on a tough position, especially since we have a number of players taking his space, so you have put yourself in a corner and now you esentially are forced to make a move to send out someone, even if you truly believe Bridges can play PF.

I am really interested to see who initiated it. Curious if McD called them about Mikal when they took him and asked who was their second choice, and if he is there at 16, can we make a deal. Especially considering all of the turmoil in their FO.

I'm curious too. If they were talking before Philly picked wouldn't there have been the chance to try for Porter instead at that point? To me he seems like a stud but the downside was his possible medical issues and that he may never have panned out. But with the Suns world class medical team (assuming it still is) this might have been the best place for him. I wonder if you had a choice if you would have wanted Porter over Bridges?

[Cap]

The big question is, why would philly offer mikal to phoenix in the first place?

They liked Zhaire almost as much, so they took the opportunity to pick up an asset.

This is a problem in terms of assets management. If you are calling me about your homegrown kid freshly drafted at #10 and you are offering to trade down all the way to #16, I have to know that you value the prospects basically the same. I have to stay strong and not give up a premium asset, period. You want the MIL pick or a lottery protection on MIA pick? Fine. But surrendering the unprotected pick is an overpay no matter how you slice it.

I won't fault the GM for taking this gamble, though. The prospect could be worth it, but you are putting him on a tough position, especially since we have a number of players taking his space, so you have put yourself in a corner and now you esentially are forced to make a move to send out someone, even if you truly believe Bridges can play PF.

I am really interested to see who initiated it. Curious if McD called them about Mikal when they took him and asked who was their second choice, and if he is there at 16, can we make a deal. Especially considering all of the turmoil in their FO.

I'm curious too. If they were talking before Philly picked wouldn't there have been the chance to try for Porter instead at that point? To me he seems like a stud but the downside was his possible medical issues and that he may never have panned out. But with the Suns world class medical team (assuming it still is) this might have been the best place for him. I wonder if you had a choice if you would have wanted Porter over Bridges?

I don’t think so. Bridges and Zhaire were the two guys Philly liked. So they took one at 10, and when the other was still available at 16 they traded down to pick up an asset. They couldn’t risk taking somebody else at 10, lest both their targets come off the board before 16.

[JJ Slim]

At first I was upset about the Bridges acquisition mostly because of what he did to Michigan in the NCAA tourney but now I'm ok if he is on our side.

[O_Gardino]

Here's some video of Bridges showing his finesse and hesitancy around the basket. This kind of thing is why he stays outside so much:

[youtube][/youtube]

And here's the Dime Drop, my new favorite guy-who-only-reviewed-like-8-prospects.

[youtube][/youtube]

[BlaCkAdDa]

I think by reports we called Philly first.. They called back when Zaire still on board.

Also how on earth could we lottery protect Miamis pick? Say protection kicks in.. What do Philly get.. Our pick? Hardly same thing.