Around the League: The Off-season

[Wormwood]

Wormwood... always the bluebird of happiness.

Now now, to be fair, I'm happy Josh Jackson is gone. Addition by subtraction if there ever was one.

[Superbone]

Wormwood... always the bluebird of happiness.

Now now, to be fair, I'm happy Josh Jackson is gone. Addition by subtraction if there ever was one.

True dat. Missed it by THAT much. Man would Fox have been nice for us. Oh, well.

[JCSunsfan]

Wormwood... always the bluebird of happiness.

Now now, to be fair, I'm happy Josh Jackson is gone. Addition by subtraction if there ever was one.

The G-league stuff starts AFTER the deadline for picking up his extension--which obviously is not happening. I agree with you about addition by subtraction. I am convinced the Suns would have had 5-8 more wins last year if Jackson was not on the roster. His impact on the court overall was that bad.

[Shabazz]

What a freaking disaster the double-whammy of the 2016 and 2017 drafts was. Yeesh. To have 3 top-8 picks and come away with 3 players who are all hanging on to pro hoops for dear life is almost hard to do if you had a dude off the street picking players based on online mock drafts.

[Nodack]

You don’t know until you know.

[The Bobster]

Yes, the 2016 & 2017 draft were just disasters.

But look at some of the their lottery picks in last 10 years -

2011 - 13 - Markieff Morris - Passed on Kawhi Leonard (15), Nikola Vucevic (16)
2012 - 13 - Kendall Marshall - Victim of a bad draft overall
2013 - 05 - Alex Len - Victim of a bad draft overall
2014 - 14 - T.J. Warren - Good pick
2015 - 13 - Devin Booker - Good pick
2016 - 04 - Dragan Bender - Passed on Buddy Hield (6) and Jamal Murray (7)
2016 - 08 - Marquise Chriss (from SAC) - Passed on Jakol Poltl (9) and Domantas Sabonis (11)
2017 - 04 - Josh Jackson - Passed on De'Aaron Fox (5) and Laurie Markkanen (7)
2018 - 01 - Deandre Ayton - Good pick
2018 - 10 - Mikal Bridges (From PHI in draft night trade) - Good pick?
2019 - 11 - Cameron Johnson (from MIN in draft night trade) - ?

[OE32]

Yes, the 2016 & 2017 draft were just disasters.

But look at some of the their lottery picks in last 10 years -

2011 - 13 - M******f M****s - Passed on Kawhi Leonard (15), Nikola Vucevic (16)
2012 - 13 - Kendall Marshall - Victim of a bad draft overall
2013 - 05 - Alex Len - Victim of a bad draft overall
2014 - 14 - T.J. Warren - Good pick
2015 - 13 - Devin Booker - Good pick
2016 - 04 - Dragan Bender - Passed on Buddy Hield (6) and Jamal Murray (7)
2016 - 08 - Marquise Chriss (from SAC) - Passed on Jakol Poltl (9) and Domantas Sabonis (11)
2017 - 04 - Josh Jackson - Passed on De'Aaron Fox (5) and Laurie Markkanen (7)
2018 - 01 - Deandre Ayton - Good pick
2018 - 10 - Mikal Bridges (From PHI in draft night trade) - Good pick?
2019 - 11 - Cameron Johnson (from MIN in draft night trade) - ?

I think what's sad is how much better we fans would have done had they just left it to us. No interviews, no private workouts, just... wow. We would have taken Kawhi over Kieff. Would have drafted basically anyone over Marshall (at least I would have). My guess is the board would have taken Noel over Len, fwiw, though I admit I probably would have taken Alex. I loved Warren but feel the board may have gone for Gary Harris, Rodney Hood or that POS wing the Celts drafted that year. We would have taken Booker. I would not have taken Bender - that's for sure. I wanted to trade down for Sabonis or grabbed BPA, which IMO at the time was Murray. Rather than trade up to 8 for Chriss, pretty sure I'd have drafted Dejounte Murray at 13. JJ is tough because while I was super-skeptical of Josh, the guy I liked was Markkanen, but we already had Bender and Chriss, so I'm not sure how to evaluate that one. Would have taken Ayton at 1 and Bridges at 10 last year. At 11 I'd have taken Brandon Clarke, so we'll see how that one turns out.

Perhaps they ought to just let us vote on the pick each year.

[Split T]

That’s a fun exercise:

2011- I think I would have picked Kawhi, but I don’t really remember. I was very surprised he was available.
2012 - I wanted Perry Jones, so probably just as bad as Marshall.
2013 - I would have taken Noel
2014 - Not sure, but wouldn’t have taken Warren. I wanted Lavine, probably would have settled for Harris. Definitely would have taken Harris at 18 over Ennis.
2015 - Would have took Booker, but I was hoping for Turner.
2016 - Wanted Hield, but I would have still moved up for Chriss
2017 - Loved the jackson pick, but I slightly favored Isaac
2018 - Was in favor of Ayton, but I’d have supported trading down to 4. I liked Bagley, Doncic, and JJJ as well. Loved the Bridges trade.
2019 - Would have taken Clarke at 11.

[ShelC]

This quote made me laugh:

[Cap]

This team can love each other, they can have S’mores, singing ‘Kumbaya’ with guitars out there.

Only if they hire Earl Watson to coach.

[O_Gardino]

2011 - I had no opinion. I wasn't following the NBA because the Suns were just depressing.
2012 - Same.
2013 - Wanted to see if McD would be any good, so I watched the draft. Didn't have a favorite, but I hated the Len pick. Thought he would be bad and injury prone. Also didn't think we needed a center because we had the Polish Hammer.
2014 - Didn't have a favorite player, but hated picking Warren because we already had a handful of SF.
2015 - I only "scouted" shooting guards in this draft, and Book was my favorite. The kinds of plays he made in college were very translatable to the NBA.
2016 - Booker had me so excited that I actually followed this whole draft in greater depth. Besides Booker, both Warren and Len were better than I had expected, so I had some hope in McD's ability to draft. I liked Bender and wanted to trade up for Sabonis. Would have loved Jamal Murray, but knew we wouldn't take a guard. If we were going to stand pat, I would have taken a risk on Dejounte Murray at the end of the draft.
2017 - All I wanted was a point guard. Liked the idea of trading down for Frank or Malik Monk, both of whom I thought could play off of Booker.
2018 - Wanted Doncic. Loved that we took Bridges.
2019 - I would have taken Brandon Clarke.

[ShelC]

A TJ Warren highlight from India.

[Mori Chu]

Here is Zach Lowe's take on all3 30 teams heading into the season. He thinks our Suns will be near the bottom tier of the league, though he does praise us for improving in the off-season.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/277 ... ottom-tier

[Hermen]

A TJ Warren highlight from India.

He also had 30 points and shot 5/6 from 3. One assist though

[Superbone]

He also had 30 points and shot 5/6 from 3. One assist though

He is who we thought he was!

[Split T]

I’m not sad he’s gone, but that TJ Warren trade is gonna look pretty dumb on our part. He’ll play well and we gave up a pretty decent asset to dump him.

[Mori Chu]

I’m not sad he’s gone, but that TJ Warren trade is gonna look pretty dumb on our part. He’ll play well and we gave up a pretty decent asset to dump him.

Vague similar to giving up 2 first rounders to get rid of a perfectly serviceable Kurt Thomas long ago.

[The Bobster]

Well, let's see if T.J. can play more than 50 games before we pass judgement.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Well, let's see if T.J. can play more than 50 games before we pass judgement.

This is where I'm at, but you know that won't stop the NBA media from shitting all over James Jones every time Warren scores 30 in a Pacers win.

[specialsauce]

TJ plays well in meaningless games against inferior defenses. He sucks against any playoff caliber defense. Nothing to see, move on