NBA FA 2020 & Suns FA targets

[Indy]

Funny how our minds work. 'Paying to move TJ Warren was not a big deal because we had a logjam at forward'. Then, while still lackong a starter PF and a backup PG, 'let's spend our FA money on this forward'.

I think Cam might be our starting PF

It looks like that is what we will be doing... but we really need someone that can move the ball besides just our back court. Oubre, Mikal, Cam, Frank, and Ayton are not good at that. I really wish the Dario we are seeing in July/August was the Dario we saw October through March.

[ShelC]

Curious to see what kind of market and interest Dario gets in the offseason. We can match any offer or he can sign the QO for a season and stay, correct? QO is about 6mil but a cap hold of 10mil? I think he's better suited as a backup and maybe this is proving it now.

[Split T]

Funny how our minds work. 'Paying to move TJ Warren was not a big deal because we had a logjam at forward'. Then, while still lackong a starter PF and a backup PG, 'let's spend our FA money on this forward'.

I think Cam might be our starting PF

It looks like that is what we will be doing... but we really need someone that can move the ball besides just our back court. Oubre, Mikal, Cam, Frank, and Ayton are not good at that. I really wish the Dario we are seeing in July/August was the Dario we saw October through March.

Ya, most of the season I was pretty set on letting Saric walk, but bringing him back as a 4/5 off the bench is becoming intriguing. If we stick with this Rubio/Booker/Bridges/Cam/Ayton starting 5 and Oubre is willing to come off the bench, a bench unit of Payne/FA/Oubre/Saric/FA could be something.

[Split T]

Curious to see what kind of market and interest Dario gets in the offseason. We can match any offer or he can sign the QO for a season and stay, correct? QO is about 6mil but a cap hold of 10mil? I think he's better suited as a backup and maybe this is proving it now.

I wonder if he’s sign quickly if we gave him something like 8 million per for 3 years. That drops his cap hold down and if we renounce Baynes/Kaminsky/Diallo/Okobo/Carter I think we’d have more than the MLE to spend. Not sure on those numbers though.

I’d like to bring Carter back as well as a 3rd pg. He plays hard, his defense in certain situations is valuable, and he can hit spot up 3’s. He’s still just a minimum guy though.

[ShelC]

Yea Carter's a sparkplug. Not a guy you play everynight necessarily and hopefully Payne can lock down the backup job. But Carter can play in the backcourt with any combo of Rubio, Book and Payton and be effective. We talk about development, than want to dump a rook/2nd yr player for not playing great all the time. Carter's worth keeping around. Even as a practice/bench player for energy and culture. Bench mob type.

[Split T]

Do you guys think Jerome has any value? Would a team send us a high 2nd for him this offseason? Probably not is my guess as he didn’t show anything this year to indicate he can play in the nba, but that would be my dream scenario. Move him for a high 2nd and target Paul Reed, Desmond Bane, or Zeke Nnaji.

[Split T]

Curious to see what kind of market and interest Dario gets in the offseason. We can match any offer or he can sign the QO for a season and stay, correct? QO is about 6mil but a cap hold of 10mil? I think he's better suited as a backup and maybe this is proving it now.

I wonder if he’s sign quickly if we gave him something like 8 million per for 3 years. That drops his cap hold down and if we renounce Baynes/Kaminsky/Diallo/Okobo/Carter I think we’d have more than the MLE to spend. Not sure on those numbers though.

I’d like to bring Carter back as well as a 3rd pg. He plays hard, his defense in certain situations is valuable, and he can hit spot up 3’s. He’s still just a minimum guy though.

Ok I lied, I checked the numbers and I think bringing back Saric would put our cap space under the MLE, unless we dumped some extra salary.... like Jerome. Then we could get to just over the MLE which would help us in negotiating with the MLE guys and we could still use the room exception. Otherwise it might just be best to operate over the cap and use the full MLE

[Indy]

Yea Carter's a sparkplug. Not a guy you play everynight necessarily and hopefully Payne can lock down the backup job. But Carter can play in the backcourt with any combo of Rubio, Book and Payton and be effective. We talk about development, than want to dump a rook/2nd yr player for not playing great all the time. Carter's worth keeping around. Even as a practice/bench player for energy and culture. Bench mob type.

Only one guy on our team is shooting better from 3 than Carter (excluding the guys that have taken less than 10 all season).

[Ring_Wanted]

Funny how our minds work. 'Paying to move TJ Warren was not a big deal because we had a logjam at forward'. Then, while still lackong a starter PF and a backup PG, 'let's spend our FA money on this forward'.

I think Cam might be our starting PF

Could be, but I wouldn't be too confident. In any case, I am interested in adding a clear upgrade at PF, even if Cam (or Oubre) spends some time there. Woods would be the first option, but if he can't be had, I'd look at Millsap. I know he is old, but Millsap could be exactly the kind of player we need to raise the floor of this team (the ceiling is a matter of Booker, Ayon and Bridges). Grant would be my #3 target.

[Mori Chu]

I like Christian Wood but think he is going to be a super hot commodity and get a huge contract that we can't match.

I just looked up Paul Millsap's stats. I was surprised to find that he's shooting the best 3-point percentage of his career this year (.438) and still averaging 7.3 rebounds in only 24 minutes/game. Not bad at all. He's old (35), but if he could be had for a reasonable price, he would be an interesting target.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/pl ... spa01.html

[Indy]

Yeah I just can't see us finding a way to get Wood.

[Split T]

Funny how our minds work. 'Paying to move TJ Warren was not a big deal because we had a logjam at forward'. Then, while still lackong a starter PF and a backup PG, 'let's spend our FA money on this forward'.

I think Cam might be our starting PF

Could be, but I wouldn't be too confident. In any case, I am interested in adding a clear upgrade at PF, even if Cam (or Oubre) spends some time there. Woods would be the first option, but if he can't be had, I'd look at Millsap. I know he is old, but Millsap could be exactly the kind of player we need to raise the floor of this team (the ceiling is a matter of Booker, Ayon and Bridges). Grant would be my #3 target.

What would you do about guard off the bench? Do you think we could get one of those 4’s and have enough money to go get another backcourt guy? We could get lucky in the draft, but that would worry me if we don’t get Haliburton. He’s the one guy I think we could just plug into the rotation.

Are you a no on bringing back Saric?

[Shabazz]

Yeah I just can't see us finding a way to get Wood.

Have you tried talking to your doctor?

[Indy]

So this is who we have already under contract for next year, right?

Back court
Rubio
Booker
Gerome
Lecque
Payne (non guaranteed)
Okobo (non guaranteed)


We are REALLY heavy in the 'inexperienced guard' category, and don't have anything besides a starting PG and SG. I assume we have to go after someone we think can be either a true back up PG or a true combo guard. Not just more d-league fodder.


Front court
Ayton
Oubre
Frank (non guaranteed)
Mikal
Cam
Diallo (non guaranteed)

I am not sure we can write anyone on this list in as a guaranteed starter behind Ayton. I don't see us picking up Diallo's contract, and even if we do he probably isn't getting more than very spotty minutes. Maybe we keep Frank and continue to give him ~20mpg at the 5? Or we need to go sign a back up that can play 5.

Oubre, Mikal, & Cam are a fine trio for our forward spots, but it is still pretty thin and will need some type of help that can play the 4.

======
Also not sure if Spotrac.com is right, but it shows us as being over the cap for next season with our current contracts and cap holds. I know we can renounce some guys, but how much cap space will we really have to go after a legit back court player and a legit front court player?

[Indy]

Yeah I just can't see us finding a way to get Wood.

Have you tried talking to your doctor?

he said to pray for it.

[Split T]

So this is who we have already under contract for next year, right?

Back court
Rubio
Booker
Gerome
Lecque
Payne (non guaranteed)
Okobo (non guaranteed)


We are REALLY heavy in the 'inexperienced guard' category, and don't have anything besides a starting PG and SG. I assume we have to go after someone we think can be either a true back up PG or a true combo guard. Not just more d-league fodder.


Front court
Ayton
Oubre
Frank (non guaranteed)
Mikal
Cam
Diallo (non guaranteed)

I am not sure we can write anyone on this list in as a guaranteed starter behind Ayton. I don't see us picking up Diallo's contract, and even if we do he probably isn't getting more than very spotty minutes. Maybe we keep Frank and continue to give him ~20mpg at the 5? Or we need to go sign a back up that can play 5.

Oubre, Mikal, & Cam are a fine trio for our forward spots, but it is still pretty thin and will need some type of help that can play the 4.

======
Also not sure if Spotrac.com is right, but it shows us as being over the cap for next season with our current contracts and cap holds. I know we can renounce some guys, but how much cap space will we really have to go after a legit back court player and a legit front court player?

Using Spotrac’s numbers, we have 83 million guaranteed for 8 players. #10 pick is another 4.4 million. Add roster spot holds for 3 spots, which I think is around 900K and that puts us right at 90 million. Think the plan is to keep salary cap at 109 million again.

So if we renounce holds on Baynes, Saric, Carter, and decline options on Diallo, Kaminsky, Okobo, and Payne, we can have 19 million in cap space. Saric has a 10 million cap hold, so keeping his hold drops us down below the MLE. If Payne keeps playing well, I imagine we bring him back, which cuts about 1 million into our space. Carter would also cut about 1 million into it to keep his cap hold.

Diallo has like a 1.8 million option
Okobo is at 1.7 million
Kaminsky at 5 million
Baynes Cap hold is 10.3 million

[In2ition]

I like him as a target too, but with Devin/Mikal/Cam/Kelly and either Dario or a Dario replacement, how many minutes would he get here? I imagine it’ll take $15-18M annually to sign him. Is that a good use of resources if he’s capped at 25ish mpg?

Agree. Even if Oubre is moved/leaves in FA I wouldn't put a ton of money towards Harris when we have other pressing needs.

Of course the most pressing need is backup PG, after that, maybe a defensive weakside blocker in a PF, but a certified professional flamethrower makes the game much easier for everyone and if you could get that with a min rookie contract guy that you discover like the next Duncan Robinson, that would be pretty nice.

[Indy]

Thanks for the breakdown split

[ShelC]

We have our backup PG - his name is Jevon Payne.

[Ring_Wanted]

Funny how our minds work. 'Paying to move TJ Warren was not a big deal because we had a logjam at forward'. Then, while still lackong a starter PF and a backup PG, 'let's spend our FA money on this forward'.

I think Cam might be our starting PF

Could be, but I wouldn't be too confident. In any case, I am interested in adding a clear upgrade at PF, even if Cam (or Oubre) spends some time there. Woods would be the first option, but if he can't be had, I'd look at Millsap. I know he is old, but Millsap could be exactly the kind of player we need to raise the floor of this team (the ceiling is a matter of Booker, Ayon and Bridges). Grant would be my #3 target.

What would you do about guard off the bench? Do you think we could get one of those 4’s and have enough money to go get another backcourt guy? We could get lucky in the draft, but that would worry me if we don’t get Haliburton. He’s the one guy I think we could just plug into the rotation.

Are you a no on bringing back Saric?

Yeah, my dream offseason (while trying to keep it realistic) would be like this:

1.- Trade up for Haliburton (say #10 and 2021 1stR with light protection).

2.- I also have real interest in Jalen Smith (projected anywhere from mid 1stR to late 20s or ever a high 2ndR) and wouldn't heistate to spend future draft stock to add him, even in a scenario like the one above where we have already used a future pick. He'd be a great prospect to have, especially if the team adds a veteran PF like Millsap to teach him the ropes.

3.- Sign Millsap.

4.- Sign Trier.

As for Saric, yeah, he wouldn't be on my plans unless he took a ridiculously cheap contract (under the MLE, which probably is not going to happen). I was not impressed before the trade and he has not done enough to convince me he is worth the opportunity cost. I believe he serves a better purpose on a bonafide good team that doesn't need a lot from him.

Of course, all this could be played in a different way. Like, trade up for Toppin. Then use the cap space for FVV. But this scenario is more risky: Toppin mindset/IQ, alongside Ayton, could mean too much frustration for me as a fan, and too much work for the coaches. And if I am honest, I have my doubts about giving FVV a huge contract as I don't know how he'd respond if out of a contender environment.