Suns 2022 Off-Season Thread

[Indy]

It very well could have been a discussion where Sarver said "I am really sorry to hear you didn't make the All-star team this year--you absolutely deserved it! You will make it next year! At least I don't have to pay you your million dollar bonus, wink wink nudge nudge."

it isn't better because it would just show what a self-centered person he is, but it probably wasn't as blatant as him bouncing down to the practice court and just yelling out "HA! I don't have to pay you your bonus now!"

Well, it is Sarver, the big bad monster of an owner, but...you are right. It's probably something much less diabolical that's been twisted.

Oh, he is still an awful person. Just probably has 2% more tact than people assume.

[Indy]

We can if Bridges and Ayton become all-stars.

I don' think it is realistic to expect something out of Bridges we haven't seen. He will likely never be a guy that gets you 15-20 points a game. Our offense isn't designed around him, and he doesn't dribble. If he is here and can be a 1st team all-defensive guy that hits +38% of his 3s, that is great. Just not all-star worthy.

As for Ayton, I don't see him making an all-star team unless the better centers are injured. Jokic, Towns, and Gobert are all still in the West.

Counting on "internal development" for a 2nd consecutive off-season is not going to get us where we want to be. We don't like acknowledging it, but we got very lucky to get to the Finals. Every team along the way was missing their (arguably) best player.

I’m not saying we should count on it. I’m just saying it’s a possibility. I definitely would prefer improving the roster.

But I don’t think it’s much of a leap for either player. Before Ayton missed games last season he was being mentioned as an all-star, and then there was serious talk about Bridges being an injury replacement in the all-star game.

I think both players will still elevate their games. I don’t think they’ve reached their peak yet. And Bridges will never score 15-20 points a game? He averaged 14.2 last year.

I meant nearly every game. Over half the games last year he scored under 15 pts.

[Superbone]

It very well could have been a discussion where Sarver said "I am really sorry to hear you didn't make the All-star team this year--you absolutely deserved it! You will make it next year! At least I don't have to pay you your million dollar bonus, wink wink nudge nudge."

it isn't better because it would just show what a self-centered person he is, but it probably wasn't as blatant as him bouncing down to the practice court and just yelling out "HA! I don't have to pay you your bonus now!"

I don't know... He's pretty immature.

[Split T]

We are in a holding pattern with KD…can’t trade away our contracts or assets until that situation is resolved. Because of that I’m cool going into the season with this team, but once the KD situation is resolved(either Brooklyn decides to keep him or he goes elsewhere) we need to make some moves. I’d revisit Eric Gordon and I’d try and upgrade Crowder.

I’m thinking something like Payne/Shamet/2 2nds for Gordon and Crowder/Craig/1st for Barnes.

Paul/Booker/Bridges/Barnes/Ayton with
Gordon/Johnson/Saric is a pretty good top 8. Balanced with multiple creators, everyone shoots too.

I’m still interested in what we do with the TPMLE. We’d need a backup pg. I’m really hoping Kemba gets bought out. Or we make a move for the European pg OKC has the rights to.

[Split T]

It very well could have been a discussion where Sarver said "I am really sorry to hear you didn't make the All-star team this year--you absolutely deserved it! You will make it next year! At least I don't have to pay you your million dollar bonus, wink wink nudge nudge."

it isn't better because it would just show what a self-centered person he is, but it probably wasn't as blatant as him bouncing down to the practice court and just yelling out "HA! I don't have to pay you your bonus now!"

I don't know... He's pretty immature.

He is, but that’s why I think it’s easy to see him making a joke about it. Joking about not paying someone a million dollars seems exactly like something Sarver would do.

[Superbone]

It very well could have been a discussion where Sarver said "I am really sorry to hear you didn't make the All-star team this year--you absolutely deserved it! You will make it next year! At least I don't have to pay you your million dollar bonus, wink wink nudge nudge."

it isn't better because it would just show what a self-centered person he is, but it probably wasn't as blatant as him bouncing down to the practice court and just yelling out "HA! I don't have to pay you your bonus now!"

I don't know... He's pretty immature.

He is, but that’s why I think it’s easy to see him making a joke about it. Joking about not paying someone a million dollars seems exactly like something Sarver would do.

Well, no matter. There's zero excuse for ever bringing it up to your player. Just another example of bad ownership.

[Split T]

Oh I agree…Sarver is awful and his actions speak for themselves, but I just don’t think he’s out there gloating about Goran losing a million dollar bonus. He’s awful, but I’ll stick to using the things we know he’s done to form that opinion.

[Superbone]

Oh I agree…Sarver is awful and his actions speak for themselves, but I just don’t think he’s out there gloating about Goran losing a million dollar bonus. He’s awful, but I’ll stick to using the things we know he’s done to form that opinion.

Well, add this to the list then. Unless you think Dragic is lying.

[Split T]

Oh I agree…Sarver is awful and his actions speak for themselves, but I just don’t think he’s out there gloating about Goran losing a million dollar bonus. He’s awful, but I’ll stick to using the things we know he’s done to form that opinion.

Well, add this to the list then. Unless you think Dragic is lying.

It is on the list, and I don’t think he’s lying, I just think Sarver probably thought he was being funny. I’m just saying I don’t have to assume the worst intentions from Sarver, he’s bad enough even when you give him the benefit of the doubt. Though this quote doesn’t look good for Sarver:

Literal translation goes like this: "He came to the gym and said that he is happy.... Actually happy. So I asked him why are you so happy? He told me that it's because he doesn't have to pay me 1 million dollar bonus. And I was like, what kind of owner doesn't want his own player to make the all star team. After that I said to myself .. I really don't see myself being in this place any longer.

Now we know it was Sarver, not the 3-headed pg that really chased Dragic away.

[Shabazz]

We can if Bridges and Ayton become all-stars.

I’m counting on improvement from both of them. I’m also counting on the opposite from CP and Jae.

[Mori Chu]

We can if Bridges and Ayton become all-stars.

I’m counting on improvement from both of them. I’m also counting on the opposite from CP and Jae.

That sounds right to me. I think this is the year when CP3 falls off and the top 3 becomes Booker, Ayton, Bridges. Unless we have KD of course.

[JeremyG]

We can if Bridges and Ayton become all-stars.

I’m counting on improvement from both of them. I’m also counting on the opposite from CP and Jae.

That’s true. Especially CP3 is at the age where decline is virtually inevitable.

[INFORMER]

My bet is that if this team comes back this way, that Saric plays a bit more of PF next to Ayton to have big lineups, especially against teams like Minnesota, Dallas and even the Lakers.

That would be unfortunate because we have tried that before and Saric struggled to be effective. So to try it again after he has had a major injury seems like a great plan. But it is in keeping with the current philosophy of trying the same things and expecting different results.

[INFORMER]

It’s tricky though because if we start moving players around, it gets trickier to match salary for KD. It would be nice to give the Nets a cutoff day. Give them our best offer and say we’re moving on if you don’t accept by then

I don't see why Brooklyn would even care.

[Split T]

I mean CP3 hit the age of decline like 4 years ago. I really don’t think there’s much about his game that he can’t keep doing. He’s already lost his pull up 3, hasn’t been using it anyway. I think he’ll be able to hit that 15 foot elbow jumper until he’s 50. He doesn’t blow by people, he’s calculating and picks his spots.

What will do him in is he’ll get hurt and not really recover. That could happen next year, but I’m not really expecting much of a decline otherwise. I hope, especially if we get KD, he takes more of a backseat. I’d play him 25-28 minutes a game and either hold him out of back to backs or cut his minutes even more. Let Booker run more offense and definitely let Bridges and Ayton run more stuff to see if they can do it.

[Split T]

It’s tricky though because if we start moving players around, it gets trickier to match salary for KD. It would be nice to give the Nets a cutoff day. Give them our best offer and say we’re moving on if you don’t accept by then

I don't see why Brooklyn would even care.

They might not…but they also might not want to make KD mad. I think they know they have to trade him and are obviously disappointed in the offers. Truth is they know we wont move on. No one could come close to raising the ceiling of our team as much as KD could. At least not that’s obtainable. They’ll wait it out. We’ll see if KD starts to put pressure on them or if we give in and meet their asking price.

[In2ition]

My bet is that if this team comes back this way, that Saric plays a bit more of PF next to Ayton to have big lineups, especially against teams like Minnesota, Dallas and even the Lakers.

That would be unfortunate because we have tried that before and Saric struggled to be effective. So to try it again after he has had a major injury seems like a great plan. But it is in keeping with the current philosophy of trying the same things and expecting different results.

You are correct, it's not a great plan and didn't work well in the past. Do we know if this was tried vs big lineups or small lineups? Just curious, as I can't recall correctly.

[Split T]

My bet is that if this team comes back this way, that Saric plays a bit more of PF next to Ayton to have big lineups, especially against teams like Minnesota, Dallas and even the Lakers.

That would be unfortunate because we have tried that before and Saric struggled to be effective. So to try it again after he has had a major injury seems like a great plan. But it is in keeping with the current philosophy of trying the same things and expecting different results.

You are correct, it's not a great plan and didn't work well in the past. Do we know if this was tried vs big lineups or small lineups? Just curious, as I can't recall correctly.

He started alongside Ayton as a 4 most the season during his 1st year. He was mostly disappointing and it had become pretty clear we would move on. I believe he was replaced in the starting lineup at some point. In the bubble we had no Aron Baynes, so he became the backup 5 by necessity and we unlocked something there. Enough so that we re-signed him and made that his new role.

[INFORMER]

At this point, I think I'd rather trade picks/filler for LeBron because LeBron just fills so many holes for us. He can literally be the backup PG. He's a forward who can create his own shot, he's got a great post-up game... running the Spain pick and roll with LeBron as the guard and Ayton as the back screener just seems like such a great thing to me.

Your guys convinced he can play D when he wants are drinking the kool aid. He hasn’t played d in two years and he’s no spring chicken. You’re literally guessing despite all the evidence to the contrary

LeBron is a ticking injury time bomb imo. I wouldn't want to mortgage a lot of future assets for a guy who probably has one good year left in him. Also he has motivation to chuck said to break the scoring record which doesn't mesh well with our offense. I think the best for LeBron is to just stay on LAL and chuck his way to that record.

I think WP is right about the basketball fit - LeBron would check so many boxes. Saucy raises some valid concerns about his defense, but I think the Suns would be fine if LeBron has Bridges and Ayton next to him.

Mori's concerns regarding LBJ's durability is also valid. He is starting to break down and at this point, you're probably only getting 50-65 games out of him a season. Will he be healthy for the playoffs? That is a legitimate concern.

Personally, I would hate the move. I want a championship, but I don't want it to just be a bullet point on LeBron's basketball resume. I wouldn't enjoy that at all.

[INFORMER]

If we don't get KD, we should go after someone like John Collins or Harrison Barnes.

Keep wishing, 'bazz; I don't think John Collins is a Jimmy Jones kind of player.