2023 NBA Draft

[ShelC]

Emoni Bates, Desmond Cambridge, Tanner Groves, Landers Nolley, Markquis Nowell so far for Phoenix according to the list

[Split T]

I heard suns are being very secretive about who they are working out. No media allowed at any of the workouts.

[In2ition]

I feel like the Suns can get a good player in the 2nd round and should pursue buying another pick, either late in the first or early second round.

You could strike gold on one of these(in no particular order), if you have a good development coach:

Dereck Lively II
Bilal Coulibaly
Brandin Podziemski
Andre Jackson Jr.
James Nnaji
Jaime Jaquez Jr
Tristan Vukčević
Emoni Bates
Oscar Tshiebwe
Drew Timme

[Split T]

Coulibaly is a lotto pick now.

[In2ition]

You're probably right.

[INFORMER]

I got excited about Nnaji too when I first starting looking into him, but his stats around the basket turned me off a bit:

[In2ition]

Yikes. He certainly doesn't have the touch that Ayton does. If they could combine their strengths, it would be a pretty formidable center.

I can't tell if he can catch the ball. He looks like he just started playing the sport at times.

[Flagrant Fowl]

He's 18 and left Nigeria to start training in Hungary in 2018, of course there are some flaws in his game right now.

The most likely successful outcome is that it takes a while for him to develop shooting and ball skills, so the bet now is on the athleticism and movement. I can envision him being very similar to Serge Ibaka.

[In2ition]

Oh dang, I thought he started a lot later than that.

[INFORMER]

He's 18 and left Nigeria to start training in Hungary in 2018, of course there are some flaws in his game right now.

The most likely successful outcome is that it takes a while for him to develop shooting and ball skills, so the bet now is on the athleticism and movement. I can envision him being very similar to Serge Ibaka.

Of course he is going to have flaws; just being so bad at close range isn't one of them that I would expect. I would expect things like offensive awareness, ball-handling, passing, perimeter shooting to all be weak.

And I'm not saying he isn't a good prospect, just that my interest is lukewarm. I also don't know if I could trust the Suns to actually develop him.

[Flagrant Fowl]

He's 18 and left Nigeria to start training in Hungary in 2018, of course there are some flaws in his game right now.

The most likely successful outcome is that it takes a while for him to develop shooting and ball skills, so the bet now is on the athleticism and movement. I can envision him being very similar to Serge Ibaka.

Of course he is going to have flaws; just being so bad at close range isn't one of them that I would expect. I would expect things like offensive awareness, ball-handling, passing, perimeter shooting to all be weak.

And I'm not saying he isn't a good prospect, just that my interest is lukewarm. I also don't know if I could trust the Suns to actually develop him.

Who's to say how any prospect would develop? It's a new day under Ishbia.

I hope they have more intel on these guys than we would as hobbyists.

[INFORMER]

James Jones is still here.

[Superbone]

James Jones is still here.

Under a new regime. Like I keep saying, we have no idea what his restraints were under Sarver. Yeah, he could be that same guy but it might look a lot different as well.

[INFORMER]

James Jones is still here.

Under a new regime. Like I keep saying, we have no idea what his restraints were under Sarver. Yeah, he could be that same guy but it might look a lot different as well.

I get you like to blame Sarver for everything. But all you have to do is actually listen to James Jones talk. Seriously.

Unless you're going to try to say that everything Jones said was dictated by Sarver, at which point we can just move on...

[Superbone]

James Jones is still here.

Under a new regime. Like I keep saying, we have no idea what his restraints were under Sarver. Yeah, he could be that same guy but it might look a lot different as well.

I get you like to blame Sarver for everything. But all you have to do is actually listen to James Jones talk. Seriously.

Unless you're going to try to say that everything Jones said was dictated by Sarver, at which point we can just move on...

[Flagrant Fowl]

There's an argument on both sides. I'll wait until training camp to judge how this roster is shaping out, and even then, I've always been in favor of Jones holding cards to deal before the deadline.

As far as we know, he's not on the hook for the KD deal. Those big move seem to be on Ishbia's plate. So Jones ability to work the margins of the roster will probably be how he's evaluated in a year from now.

[Superbone]

There's an argument on both sides. I'll wait until training camp to judge how this roster is shaping out, and even then, I've always been in favor of Jones holding cards to deal before the deadline.

As far as we know, he's not on the hook for the KD deal. Those big move seem to be on Ishbia's plate. So Jones ability to work the margins of the roster will probably be how he's evaluated in a year from now.

Thank you.

[In2ition]

I think that Jones had a certain financial mandate before the winning mandate under Sarver. With that being the case, winning on the margins type moves, like having money for identifying young unproven talent and the paying big money to develop said talent wasn't thought of as money well spent.

I could be wrong, but those constraints have been thrown off with Ishbia. The cap will still be a limiter for salary, but on the margin moves like spending outside the cap restrictions is not a driving factor any longer. It seems like winning basketball is now the main motivation.

[INFORMER]

Yeah, I think it is clear Ishbia will spend more than Sarver.

And I think it is reasonable to believe that we lost the G League affiliate because Sarver wanted to cut spending. I think you can also point to the Suns only using half of the MLE in 2021 as Sarver interference, although the choice of who to use it on is squarely on Jones.

But beyond that, I think people bend over backwards to feed an anti-Sarver narrative. I mean we had people claiming Jones wasn't permitted by Sarver to sign players to 10-day contracts last year, until finally Jones did sign Saben Lee. Sarver was reportedly a Luka guy but we went with Ayton because our basketball people (minus our head coach) wanted it. Boy, I would have loved Sarver to have interfered in that situation.

I'm by no means claiming that Sarver was a good owner. But it just amazes me how quick people are to give Jones a free pass and blame Sarver for things that don't even make sense to pin on Sarver.

[Superbone]

Yeah, I think it is clear Ishbia will spend more than Sarver.

And I think it is reasonable to believe that we lost the G League affiliate because Sarver wanted to cut spending. I think you can also point to the Suns only using half of the MLE in 2021 as Sarver interference, although the choice of who to use it on is squarely on Jones.

But beyond that, I think people bend over backwards to feed an anti-Sarver narrative. I mean we had people claiming Jones wasn't permitted by Sarver to sign players to 10-day contracts last year, until finally Jones did sign Saben Lee. Sarver was reportedly a Luka guy but we went with Ayton because our basketball people (minus our head coach) wanted it. Boy, I would have loved Sarver to have interfered in that situation.

I'm by no means claiming that Sarver was a good owner. But it just amazes me how quick people are to give Jones a free pass and blame Sarver for things that don't even make sense to pin on Sarver.

What you are missing is that there is a HUGE difference between a free pass and a let’s see what happens under the new restraints and ownership. Maybe it turns out you were right about Jones, maybe not. Let’s see is all I said but you decided to run with this “free pass” idea that I haven’t seen anybody give him.