As much as I love Ball and his ability to pass and defend, we have been crying out for players who can shoot the ball when needed for the past few seasons.
I don't think Ball's addition makes us an overall better team.
Yes he can facilitate others, but that he is overall subtraction by addition.
Yes, he may be able to feed Ayton in the post better than anyone on the roster so far, but defenders can leave him and still focus on Booker in the back court, in fact, defenders sag so far off Ball that you end up playing 4 on 5 most of the time!!
On defense, yes, he is better than what we have at the one, but, for me, that's his overall benefit.
So, for me, until he improves his shot, we shouldn't spend a 6th pick or anything else of much value when we can get someone else who can pass and shoot at the one.
Who? Who’s available that’s as good of a passer and a great shooter?
Why do they have to be as good of a passer. Literally almost anyone is a better shooter. I would happily take a slightly lesser passer who can actually shoot.
Well I guess it’s a moot point now since we refused to give up #6. But I value passing and defense way more than shooting. But fine, who’s a slightly lesser passer who can shoot that’s available?
Darren Collison - Not a long term answer but comes without costing the #6 pick.
Malcolm Brogdon - not really available
Dinwiddie
D-Lo
Delon Wright
Heck just sign Rubio, he provides everything Lonzo does right now and will be cheaper(money wise and asset wise). He doesn’t have the long term potential of ball, but we don’t give up the long term potential of whoever we pick at 6.
I don’t hate Ball, I think he has some unique gifts that can be developed, but he’s not worth the 6th pick.
I wouldn't do that deal. I value #6 more than that.
I’m not sure I would either...just thinking about pg’s we could conceivably acquire. I don’t really know what SA thinks of White, but he’s got good size, decent shooter, decent distributor, good defender. He’s a decent fit alongside Booker. You could still get a decent player at 19(PJ Washington, Grant Williams, maybe Brandon Clarke...though he seems unlikely to be available) Then you’d have a little extra cap space to sign a PF.
I think most likely we just keep the pick for ourselves.
Ugh, I would really hate it if we end up with D'Aneglo Russell, Coby White, or Darius Garland.
It sure feels like the Russell thing is close to a done deal. The players nowadays can't help themselves and just tweet out the teams they're going to sign with. Or their friends do.
I'm going to have a tough time warming to a Russell signing - seems a lot more style over substance. I'd be very worried about anyone outside of him and Booker getting enough shots, and the defense as well, of course. But I agree that there's a lot of things pointing to him being here next year.
I'm fine with Russell on the court. Obviously he and Booker will have defensive issues, but they're both talented enough to be top 3 players on a contender.
It's the pending trade and contract that make me apprehensive.
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I'm hoping to see Warren moved this week. I'm hoping for something like:
Warren to Detroit
for
Langston Galloway (stretch and waive his $7.3 mil salary for 19-20 season)
Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk (waive non-guaranteed 19-20 salary)
#15 pick
----------------
Warren to OKC
for Andre Roberson and #21 (stretch and waive Roberson's last year of his contract)
IF the suns shed his contract for a lousy middling draft pick and don’t use that salary savings to improve the club in trade or FA, I will .....not be surprised one bit at the lack of creativity or desire to actually improve the club.
Those are just awful trades in a shitty draft unless it’s a pure salary dump with future moves on the horizon
Also, one thing to keep in mind about Tyler Johnson and shedding his salary:
The deadline for him to exercise his player option is 6/29/19. Avery Bradley's contract becomes guaranteed on 7/3/19. So even if Tyler waited until the last minute to opt in, the Suns could move him to Memphis with the Milwaukee pick for Avery Bradley's non-guaranteed deal and let's say...C.J. Miles.
Stretch and waive Miles's last year, and pull the trigger on the Warren-to-Detroit deal, and that would free up an additional $21 million in cap space.
If Tony Parker hasn't filed his paper work for retirement, and if Charlotte hasn't waived him, I believe Charlotte could still move his non-guaranteed contract. I would look into them or Philadelphia (Jonathan Simmons's non-guaranteed contract) as targets to move Josh Jackson for the aforementioned contracts and a second rounder.
If the Suns could pull that off, that would be an additional $7 million in cap space. That could get them to the mid-$30 mil in cap space with the other above moves.
I would luke to hope they could do something smart and then make some great signings, but I'm afraid I haven't seen any evidence to get my hopes up yet. I should probably just take a nap until July 12th and then assess what happened.
"There are 3 rules I live by: never get less than 12 hours sleep, never play cards with a guy with the same first name as a city & never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body. Everything else is cream cheese."
I would luke to hope they could do something smart and then make some great signings, but I'm afraid I haven't seen any evidence to get my hopes up yet. I should probably just take a nap until July 12th and then assess what happened.
