Carno wrote: ↑Thu Mar 20, 2025 9:23 am
Trading for KD and Beal were both valid contender building transactions. You can argue whether the trades cost too much, sure. You can argue about team fit, sure. Some can argue that they wouldn't have made the moves. However, strategically, these are valid moves. It's not like he traded Doncic for Street Clothes. They were gambles for sure, and based on results, Ishbia lost the gamble.
Most of the criticism levied by fans today is based on hindsight. At the time, these moves were mostly applauded, with a fair amount of concern about what happens if the team fails.
Here is the trade from when the Suns traded for Beal:
viewtopic.php?t=2794
It is true that most of us (myself included) thought the Suns got a good deal acquiring Beal. Here's what I posted:
Holy shit. What absolute highway robbery.
But to be fair, I hadn't yet read the official full trade yet, which included all the details about how many 1st round pick swaps and 2nd rounders we gave out. My next post on the topic, once I heard those details, was:
We don't have control of any of our first round picks for a decade. I hope this core can win, because if they don't, we are really really screwed.
Besides, it's the FO's job to have a better big-picture view of this stuff than some boneheaded fans on the internet. They should have seen that we were collectively giving up 100% of our draft assets until 2031 and should have found a way to keep some of them.