How Would You Rebuild the Suns?

[ShelC]

I would love to see us just buy picks over the next few years regardless. Ishbia's got the money, we need the youth and teams are always looking to trade/sell out of the 1st round. Those and some 2nds can go a long way.

[Kryptonic]

Nobody is trading a top 5 pick for a coach.

Let alone this version of DA…. Would be nice but DA isn’t worth the 3 pick.

[Kryptonic]

I would love to see us just buy picks over the next few years regardless. Ishbia's got the money, we need the youth and teams are always looking to trade/sell out of the 1st round. Those and some 2nds can go a long way.

Just curious…. How does one just buy a pick? Doesn’t that require us trading our TPML or MLE?

[Split T]

I keep coming back to Toronto…a much more likely trade would be OG and Ayton to Portland, Simons and 3 to Toronto, Nurkic, Little, and 13 to us.

We could then either roll with Nurkic at the 5, or try and use the 13th pick to upgrade him.

Portland would roll out Dame/Sharpe/OG/Grant/Ayton

Toronto would be Simons/Miller/Barnes/Siakam/Poeltl

We’d be CP3/Booker/Little/KD/Nurkic

I don’t love that trade, but it seems more realistic. Little is nice, Nurkic I don’t want though. It would come down to how we use the 13th pick.

[ShelC]

Think we can just buy a team's pick for like $3mil. At least that's what we used to when Sarver was running things.

Edit: Just to clarify, we were the ones selling the picks when Sarver was running things.

[Split T]

I would love to see us just buy picks over the next few years regardless. Ishbia's got the money, we need the youth and teams are always looking to trade/sell out of the 1st round. Those and some 2nds can go a long way.

Just curious…. How does one just buy a pick? Doesn’t that require us trading our TPML or MLE?

Before(or during) the draft teams can sell picks for money. It’s almost always 2nd round picks.

The Lakers bought the pick that drafted THT for 2.2 million(pick 46). They bought the same pick in 2014 for 1.8 million(Jordan Clarkson).

[Kryptonic]

Thanks for clarifying that... Honestly, that's pretty reasonable (money wise) if it's a route Ishbia wants to go.

[Split T]

Ya I hope we buy at least 1….I don’t have anyone in mind, but it’s also the cheapest salary to add to the roster.

[TOO]

Nobody is trading a top 5 pick for a coach.

Let alone this version of DA…. Would be nice but DA isn’t worth the 3 pick.

Yeah, that 3rd pick stuff is pie in the sky to me, be lucky to get a late lotto and some middling wings in return.

[SunsSince92]

Nobody is trading a top 5 pick for a coach.

I guess it depends how desperate we are to land Lue. I wouldn't do it but then I'm not Ishbia.

[Split T]

You’d have to at least trade down to the mid 1st and pick up another asset or two. Then trade the 18th pick or whatever for Lue. If we were dead set on Lue and could get him for a 1st, I’d keep trading back to like 29 and give them that pick.

[INFORMER]

The report is coming from Chris Haynes, which means the source is Chris Paul. It's clearly in Paul's best interest to not get traded and receive the $15M not guaranteed on the last year of his deal.

Suns can’t really trade him without guaranteeing the 15 million. He only counts for his guaranteed money going out when being traded.

That isn't true.

[INFORMER]

Maybe the Paul stuff is just smoke to get other teams interested.

I think that's likely. Other teams are trying to wait the Suns out, hoping we'll waive CP3 and they can sign him on the cheap without giving up any assets. We are trying to signal that he still has value to us so they'll make us interesting offers. What will be interesting is if the July 1 date approaches and we don't have a good deal lined up. Would we waive and stretch him? It's pretty crazy to pay ~ $35m to just make Monty and CP3 go away with nothing in return. Not sure how we fix this roster unless we can find a way to add a great coach and some reasonably priced talent and depth.

Trade is happening, this is the Suns trying to preserve leverage in a trade

I don't know if whatever we get in a CP3 trade would be better than being able to use the NTP-MLE and Bi-annual exception.

[INFORMER]

He was the consensus number 2, but it seems he has been surpassed by Brandon Miller. Miller was a stud this season, and I don't think Charlotte will care about any character concerns stemming from the murder he was involved in.

He wasn’t really involved in the murder. He did deliver the gun that was used in the murder, but he was just returning it to its owner. He had no idea what was going to be done with it.

Sounds like he a future team mate of Ja’s.

Law cleared him of any wrong doing, this isn't an issue.

It was an issue for plenty of people, and it will be something a smart GM will look into.

I'm not saying he committed a crime, and I didn't agree with all of the calls for him to be suspended, but the situation is reason for pause. The indifference he carried himself with after that stuff went down wasn't a good look. So yeah, there should be a moderate amount of concern about his character.

[INFORMER]

Given we fired 2 scouts, I wonder how far that sets us back as far as planning for next season? How many scouts do we have?

I think the firings reduced the scouting staff by 100%.

[INFORMER]

Being that I think it's time for the Suns to move on from CP3 and find high level PG to take over.

With Booker and Durant, I don't think the Suns need a high level point guard.

SA may be trying to immediately build a winner, while also keeping an eye on building for the future(if they are smart, and I think they are). They have a lot of 1st round picks in the near future, along with a good amount of cap space next year. Would you offer CP3 for picks in the future, if the Suns already have a bead on an upgrade to CP3 for next season?

I don't think the Spurs would have any interest in trading for Chris Paul.

[INFORMER]

A lot of people have an aversion to Point Book, but I suggest watching the Miami Heat right now to see how it could work. Their starting back court is Gabe Vincent and Jimmy Butler, and pretty much everyone can handle the ball anywhere on the court.

I just don't like lineups that require Book to bring the ball up nearly every possession. I want to maintain his freedom to leak out in transition or start sets with him working off the ball. Guys like Damian Lee and Josh Okogie aren't natural ballhandlers. I'd be starting Shake Milton next to Book, understanding that Book would be more of the initiator/facilitator. I just don't like surrounding Book with a bunch of catch and shoot guys and asking Book to be the primary ballhandler.

It's like the role that Ron Harper played with the Bulls. He brought the ball up the majority of the time, but Pippen, Jordan, and Kukoc ran the offense. Sure all of those guys brought the ball up from time to time, but most of the time Harper was the guy. I'd be comfortable following that structure with Book playing the Jordan role.

[INFORMER]

I can buy Portland being interested…Some sort of Simons/Nurkic package for Ayton/Shamet makes sense.

Giving up Simons for Ayton would not make sense.

[INFORMER]

What about something like this?


Rockets- Tim Hardaway Jr, Ayton, 10th pick

Mavs- Kevin Porter Jr, Sengun

Suns: Kenyon Martin Jr, 4th pick.

I don't think the Mavericks would want either KPJ or Sengun.

[INFORMER]

A rookie point guard? I don’t think Booker and KD would want to put the season into his hands.

Good thing they're not the GM.

The "trade the high lotto pick for a vet" strategy hardly ever works. The Hawks trading the third pick (Pau Gasol) for Shareef Abdur-Rahim was dumb. Vince Carter wanted Toronto to trade their lotto pick (Chris Bosh); that would have been dumb. The Rockets traded their lotto pick (which turned into Rudy Gay) for Shane Battier; Battier was a solid role player, but probably wasn't worth the price to bring him in.

And I remember a rookie point guard (Sam Cassell) being a key part of the Rockets championship run.

It would be foolish to operate under the premise that we have to trade the 3rd pick just because we're in win-now mode.