2018 Suns Offseason News

[UglyTruth]

Spoiler: show/hide

It's not harmless; is this the best thing we can come up with? The best way to use $15 million in cap space is a 3&D wing who shot 28% from 3 in the playoffs and is 33 years? After just investing 2 1st rounders into a 3&D player? And with 3 of our top 4 players being wing players?

ariza will have to play pf.

Awesome so he has to learn a new position. Ariza played only 2% of his total minutes last regular season at the PF position according to 82games and Cleaning The Glass

http://www.82games.com/1718/17HOU14.HTM

[SDC]

Spoiler: show/hide

It's not harmless; is this the best thing we can come up with? The best way to use $15 million in cap space is a 3&D wing who shot 28% from 3 in the playoffs and is 33 years? After just investing 2 1st rounders into a 3&D player? And with 3 of our top 4 players being wing players?

ariza will have to play pf.

Awesome so he has to learn a new position. Ariza played only 2% of his total minutes last season at the PF position according to 82games and Cleaning The Glass

http://www.82games.com/1718/17HOU14.HTM

he played a lot if pf in the playoffs while pj tucker played center

[UglyTruth]

Spoiler: show/hide

It's not harmless; is this the best thing we can come up with? The best way to use $15 million in cap space is a 3&D wing who shot 28% from 3 in the playoffs and is 33 years? After just investing 2 1st rounders into a 3&D player? And with 3 of our top 4 players being wing players?

ariza will have to play pf.

Awesome so he has to learn a new position. Ariza played only 2% of his total minutes last season at the PF position according to 82games and Cleaning The Glass

http://www.82games.com/1718/17HOU14.HTM

he played a lot if pf in the playoffs while pj tucker played center

Suns should worry about regular season first before thinking about playoffs imo.

[Xylus]

I don’t think it’s a good idea to pay $15 mil to a guy who is going to take minutes from Bridges, but at least it’s just a 1-year rental. I’m sure McD nabbed him for the mentor angle.

Spoiler: show/hide

It's not harmless; is this the best thing we can come up with? The best way to use $15 million in cap space is a 3&D wing who shot 28% from 3 in the playoffs and is 33 years? After just investing 2 1st rounders into a 3&D player? And with 3 of our top 4 players being wing players?

ariza will have to play pf.

Awesome so he has to learn a new position. Ariza played only 2% of his total minutes last season at the PF position according to 82games and Cleaning The Glass

http://www.82games.com/1718/17HOU14.HTM

he played a lot if pf in the playoffs while pj tucker played center

Suns should worry about regular season first before thinking about playoffs imo.

Nice strawman you got there.

[Gladiator]

http://www.espn.com.au/nba/story/_/id/2 ... sing-moves

Interesting tidbit .. Pelton speculates Booker could slide over to point guard and run Ariza at the 2. Not really glowing in his praise of the move overall though

[ShelC]

McD added a vet who can play and another "asset" he can flip at the deadline. But unless there's a trade coming, he's jammed himself up again and any team we approach with Warren/Chriss/Bender knows we're desperate to make a deal. I think he's thinking Bridges will play spot minutes off the bench to start the season and then he'll flip Ariza somewhere for a pick and open the minutes back up, maybe as early as December once he can be traded.

Knight (24)/Booker (16) Okobo (8)
Booker (20)/Jackson (18) Bridges (10)
Jackson (18)/Ariza (10) Warren (8)
Ariza (20)/Chriss (16)/Bender (12)/Warren (12)
Ayton (30)/Bender (10)/Chriss (8)

Booker (36), Jackson (36), Ariza (30), Ayton (30), Knight (24), Chriss (24), Bender (22), Warren (20), Bridges (10), Okobo (8).

It's not awful, but it's not great either.

[UglyTruth]

I don’t think it’s a good idea to pay $15 mil to a guy who is going to take minutes from Bridges, but at least it’s just a 1-year rental. I’m sure McD nabbed him for the mentor angle.

Yeah this team definitely needs few more mentors. If we can sign Rondo and maybe D-Wade (UFA as well), I think we could have ourselves an All Mentor lineup of

Rondo
Wade
Ariza
Dudley
Chandler

[Ring_Wanted]

You don't sign a guy with the mindset to trade him later.

I am eager to see what happens next. I buy into Point Booker but not full time. Still need a grown ass big man at PF (would love PJ Tucker, svck it haters haha). And of course a PG.

[jonh]

http://www.espn.com.au/nba/story/_/id/2 ... sing-moves

Interesting tidbit .. Pelton speculates Booker could slide over to point guard and run Ariza at the 2. Not really glowing in his praise of the move overall though

Is it possible that the FO approach to FA was influenced by Booker vouching for Knight? I know they’ve been spending time together during the off-season. Maybe booker feels he turned a corner, and is willing to bet on him and Knight taking turns running the point? It would help provide minutes to the tons of SFs on the roster.

[Ring_Wanted]

10 mpg to Bridges is terrible. 20mpg fron Ariza at PF is very questionable. 24mpg to Knight is offensive.

[Flagrant Fowl]

I'll just be happy to have a competitive team every night, and I think we'll see an early season bump if Igor is at least an average coach. So many of the problems last year simply came from starting out so terrible. That should be avoidable this time around.

I'm fine with the PG situation right now. Give Knight a chance to prove himself. If it's not working out but the team is performing well, then make a move for someone like Kemba Walker at the trade deadline.

[The Bobster]

I'll just be happy to have a competitive team every night, and I think we'll see an early season bump if Igor is at least an average coach. So many of the problems last year simply came from starting out so terrible. That should be avoidable this time around.

I'm not expecting some miracle turnaround overnight - I'd be happy with improvement on both ends of the court (the did have the worst offense and defense in the league after all), which should result in more wins.

They're starting to build a decent rotation -

F - Jackson, Warren, Ariza, Bender, Bridges
C - Ayton, Chandler, Chriss
G - Booker, Knight, Daniels, Oboko

I still think they need to get someone i the backcourt that can distribute the ball, but I doubt they're done making roster moves.

[Wormwood]

This is a STUPID move.

We now have 5 small forwards, and $50M invested in them. How are they going to get minutes> That works out to less than 10 minutes per player.

The argument that we can play them at PF is dumb. Sure you can. You could play Knight at PF. Ariza out of position at PF is going to get killed. (i.e. won't help with that winning and keeping Booker thing)

Ariza is done. His shooting is terrible. His rebounding is terrible. His assist rate is terrible. His PER is on a par with Josh Jackson's, and he was AWFUL most of last season.

He's a good defensive player, but putting him at PF totally negates that.

Something else no one mentioned is the opportunity cost. There's a number of other things we could have done with our cap space this year that would have made a much bigger, and more positive difference. There's a lot of things we could have done that would have helped more to keep Booker around. In this regard, it's very costly.

This was an epic level fail by McDonough, and he keeds making the same mistakes (We can have 5 PGs! We can have SFs playing PF!).

[bajanguy008]

I am beginning to be fairly confused as to the general consensus on here.....

There are no Chriss fans on here, I'm fairly certain it is absolutely Zero. There are a few TJ fans although even they have fingers crossed he would come in this year with an improved shot. Bottom line is for the most part everyone has been suggesting all off season that we should use one or both of these in a trade.
So don't folks now think a trade is more probable ?? For me the Ariza signing has little impact on using those pieces to try upgrade the guard spot so that is still the transaction I'm waiting for before I start tripping out on McD

[SDC]

McD added a vet who can play and another "asset" he can flip at the deadline. But unless there's a trade coming, he's jammed himself up again and any team we approach with Warren/Chriss/Bender knows we're desperate to make a deal.

tyler johnsons salary is about to balloon to 19 million next season, so miami is also desperate to shed some salaries...

[Split T]

I'm confused at why so many people think Ariza can't play the 4, he's spent significant time there during his career and has the size to do it. He's not a good rebounder, but Ayton/Chandler should take care of the boards. Who are we afraid of him defending? The days of Duncan and KG types at PF are over.

Pf's nowadays are Harrison Barnes, Kyle Kuzma, Jayson Tatum, Tobias Harris, Melo, Rudy Gay, Aaron Gordon, Dario Saric, Markieff Morris etc.

There are a couple teams that still play two big men from time to time: SA(aldridge and Gasol) Minny (Kat and taj), but the vast majority of teams play big wings at the 4 nowadays, and I don't see Ariza having any issues.

[ShelC]

https://www.basketball-reference.com/pl ... atr01.html

This fantasy that Ariza's played PF for a good part of his career and can handle minutes there is frustrating. He's been a catch and shoot SF his entire career. For his career he's played PF 12% of the time, last season he played there 5%. It'll be the same as Shawn playing PF and we'll have the same rebounding issues. In the words of Chris Rock: "Yea you could drive a car with your feet but that don't make it a good idea". Harris Barnes is 6-8 240, Kuz is 6-10 230, Harris is 6-9 230, Melo isn't a PF either, Gordon is 6-9 230, Saric 6-10 230. Ariza is 6-8 215. All this means is we'll be playing 4 round, jacking a bunch of 3s and switching everything - McD's version of the Warriors. Instead of the 2-headed PG monster he envisioned, we'll have 4 wings out there; unless there's some monster trade coming....

[Split T]

https://www.basketball-reference.com/pl ... atr01.html

This fantasy that Ariza's played PF for a good part of his career and can handle minutes there is frustrating. He's been a catch and shoot SF his entire career. For his career he's played PF 12% of the time, last season he played there 5%. It'll be the same as Shawn playing PF and we'll have the same rebounding issues. In the words of Chris Rock: "Yea you could drive a car with your feet but that don't make it a good idea". Harris Barnes is 6-8 240, Kuz is 6-10 230, Harris is 6-9 230, Melo isn't a PF either, Gordon is 6-9 230, Saric 6-10 230. Ariza is 6-8 215. All this means is we'll be playing 4 round, jacking a bunch of 3s and switching everything - McD's version of the Warriors. Instead of the 2-headed PG monster he envisioned, we'll have 4 wings out there; unless there's some monster trade coming....

Ariza measured 6'8.25 with a 7'2 wingspan and a 8'11.5 standing reach.

Kuzma is 6'9.5 with a 8'11.5 standing reach

Harris is 6'7.75 with a 6'11 wingspan and an 8'7.5 standing reach.

Barnes is 6'8 with a 6'11 wingspan and an 8'6 standing reach

Gordon is 6'8.5 with a 6'11.75 wingspan

Tucker and Ariza were essentially interchangeable at the 3 and 4 last year, but basketball reference considered Tucker the PF. Ariza also played 40% of his time at pf in a season before Tucker got to Houston

[carey]

Yeah, I don't know how I feel about it but I'm going to wait a few weeks to see what else we do first. I try not to overreact to a single move in a vacuum (unless it involves trading away draft picks then I reserve the right to immediately be irate if the return sucks.)

[ShelC]

Ariza will still be giving up 15+ lbs in most matchups, same as Shawn. And body types are different. Ariza's slender. Tucker is a wide body, stronger bully. Barnes, Gordon and Kuz are more built and bulkier. I'm sure we'll be fine tho, he's got a longer wingspan than all those guys.