Suns 2022 Off-Season Thread

[Split T]

JaVale's IG.

I don’t think we want to pay him. We’d probably go Biyombo at the minimum. I’m sure we’d keep him at the minimum, but he played at $5 million last season and probably doesn’t want to take a huge pay cut. Gotta be smart with our money now that we’re hitting tax territory. Also Saric being back might be part of it.

[TOO]

He gets played off the floor in the playoffs, like most bigs who can only hover around the rim. He was pretty useful during the season as Ayton insurance, but he's not a necessity. We need a small mobile 5 or a guy that can knock down 3's like Kleber.

[ShelC]

I think you need a defensive, rebounding, shotblocking center with size on the bench. Even in the playoffs you have to be able to matchup and we were getting outrebounded as it was, especially against the Pels. I think Biyombo is a better bet to be back, especially on a smaller deal.

[Mori Chu]

JaVale was great for us all year. Biyombo is a nice big but McGee was much, much more useful during the season. I hope we can keep him.

[Split T]

I liked McGee, I’d just rather have a backup big that spaces the floor. I hope Saric can be that guy. In that case, our 3rd big can be a traditional rim roller…I don’t think we want to spend 5 million on a 3rd big. Biyombo at the minimum seems more likely. Then we can spend the money saved on perhaps another ball handler.

[Drewsprocket]

I think you need a defensive, rebounding, shotblocking center with size on the bench. Even in the playoffs you have to be able to matchup and we were getting outrebounded as it was, especially against the Pels. I think Biyombo is a better bet to be back, especially on a smaller deal.

I really had hoped Craig was gonna be that guy in the playoffs.

[Drewsprocket]

Does anyone think Saric even has a role with us still?
Last season he was never the same after covid and then got injured. He went from balling off the bench to being hella out of sorts out on the floor and shooting bricks.

[Split T]

Does anyone think Saric even has a role with us still?
Last season he was never the same after covid and then got injured. He went from balling off the bench to being hella out of sorts out on the floor and shooting bricks.

I think he’s likely to be moved via trade to help match salaries, but if he’s here, we’ll see what he can do.

I will say, he was pretty good even after his covid bout. He missed about a month from mid January to mid February and played well until about mid March. He struggled quite a bit to finish the season from there on, with a few decent games mixed in. His playoff numbers were ok though, albeit in limited minutes.

We’ll just have to see what he looks like when he gets back on the court.

[Indy]

Of the 10 guys this season that played in at least 25 games, and played at least 15 mpg, McGee was 9th in plus/minus. Only Torrey was worse, and we all think of his time here this season as a huge disappointment.

As a team we were a +7.5 per game. McGee was a +1.6, despite having by far the most points per minute of the non-starters. He just can't defend anyone anymore.

[Indy]

I can see us keeping Saric and him even playing a significant role for us next year. We really need that connector role from a big.

[Mori Chu]

Of the 10 guys this season that played in at least 25 games, and played at least 15 mpg, McGee was 9th in plus/minus. Only Torrey was worse, and we all think of his time here this season as a huge disappointment.

As a team we were a +7.5 per game. McGee was a +1.6, despite having by far the most points per minute of the non-starters. He just can't defend anyone anymore.

I don't really believe in +/-. It's an extremely flawed stat that has a lot to do with who else is on the floor. McGee played a lot of bench minutes without our stars on the floor; it doesn't surprise me that the overall plus-minus isn't great. But his stats were pretty good and the eye test showed that he did a lot of good things for us out there. We went from our non-Ayton minutes being painful to them being mostly tolerable.

[Mori Chu]

By the way, can we please put this guy in our rotation next year? He was really promising but we didn't give him a real shot. I think he's better than Payne and could be our backup PG if we can't land a guy like Rubio.

[Split T]

I’d love to bring back Holiday as a 4th or 5th guard, but we need to find a 3rd guard.

[Indy]

Of the 10 guys this season that played in at least 25 games, and played at least 15 mpg, McGee was 9th in plus/minus. Only Torrey was worse, and we all think of his time here this season as a huge disappointment.

As a team we were a +7.5 per game. McGee was a +1.6, despite having by far the most points per minute of the non-starters. He just can't defend anyone anymore.

I don't really believe in +/-. It's an extremely flawed stat that has a lot to do with who else is on the floor. McGee played a lot of bench minutes without our stars on the floor; it doesn't surprise me that the overall plus-minus isn't great. But his stats were pretty good and the eye test showed that he did a lot of good things for us out there. We went from our non-Ayton minutes being painful to them being mostly tolerable.

In small sample sizes, sure. but for an entire season? And do you think he played less minutes with good players than Shamet, Payne, and Craig?

[Superbone]

I'm frankly puzzled why Holiday didn't get more minutes. He brought a lot of energy into the game both on defense and offense and as posted, shot the ball pretty dang well. Is he on the small side? Sure. But I'd like to see him get some more minutes going forward unless we bring in somebody better. I think we should target 24 minutes a game for Paul next year during the regular season.

[In2ition]

I'm frankly puzzled why Holiday didn't get more minutes. He brought a lot of energy into the game both on defense and offense and as posted, shot the ball pretty dang well. Is he on the small side? Sure. But I'd like to see him get some more minutes going forward unless we bring in somebody better. I think we should target 24 minutes a game for Paul next year during the regular season.

Especially with this.

[Mori Chu]

If we had gotten last season's Payne and last season's Craig, along with our various improvements like McGee, Shamet, and Biyombo, I think we would have been in pretty good shape.

[In2ition]

You could argue that Payne being so damn bad may have caused CP3's injury(whatever injury that is). Idk what happened before Game 7, but it seemed like they thought they could just show up and win. Something internal must have been going on that really affected all of them. It was not the same team that I watched all year or even the year before.

[Drewsprocket]

Payne’s season haunts me the most. Last year he helped us win legit games when Paul was out and I just felt the suns curse.
This year he just straight looked like he didn’t have it. Whether from his own injury or not having many counters to his better prepared defenders.
WTF : he went 9/32 on FGs against the Mavs. He couldn’t give us just one game of going off this series?

[In2ition]

I remember being very uneasy about trusting Payne as the backup PG before the season. Every Suns fan in my social circle(outside of phx-suns.net) really wanted Jones to find someone better, because none of us trusted him. It was like hoping that the bubblegum, popsicle sticks and duck tape to hold on through the rough roads that were sure to come at some point.