The Kevin Durant Problem

[Flagrant Fowl]

Gambo is making it sound like the Suns don’t want Wiggins or Ware, because they don’t help you win games right now, and they are “soft” players.

Ware has grown on me as a prospect, but I agree with the Suns about both of them being "soft" in this case.

[Shabazz]

Gambo is making it sound like the Suns don’t want Wiggins or Ware, because they don’t help you win games right now, and they are “soft” players.

Ware has grown on me as a prospect, but I agree with the Suns about both of them being "soft" in this case.

Gambo is right.

[ShelC]

Heat deal was always trash even with Ware. Miami is probably KD's #1 choice so we're entertaining things with them.

[Split T]

I wonder what we would even want from Miami if we don’t want Wiggins/Ware? Probably at that point we just want expiring contracts and all the picks…maybe Jovic and Jacquez. But Miami really doesn’t have a shot if we don’t like those guys…maybe it’s Herro to a 3rd team?

[JeremyG]

Gambo said it’s very unlikely it will be Miami, precisely because we don’t like what they have to offer. It seems KD is the one pushing for Miami.

[Split T]

And Miami…hard for Miami to make a deal if we don’t like Wiggins and Ware…they aren’t trading Bam.

I think it’s clear Minny has had the best offer(at least in our eyes) and one of the 3 teams KD wants needs to step up their offer.

[Wally_West]

Windy, Shams, Gambo all said that Twolves don’t care if Durant willing to sign an extension, I wonder if this their way of putting some pressure on suns to make a deal already. I think we are nearing the end here. If none of KD’s preferred list of teams up their offer significantly in the next couple days, I think we move on to Twolves, Raps and clippers

[Wally_West]

Yeah, Barrett or Quickley with Poetl and 9th pick sounds good to me. Would love to get Dick tho.

So would your mama!!!

She’s doesn’t really follow the NBA but im sure she’d think he’s a nice young man. Who wouldn’t like a tall young man with a great stroke who can penetrate?

[Kryptonic]

Yeah, Barrett or Quickley with Poetl and 9th pick sounds good to me. Would love to get Dick tho.

So would your mama!!!

She’s doesn’t really follow the NBA but im sure she’d think he’s a nice young man. Who wouldn’t like a tall young man with a great stroke who can penetrate?

And can take double teams.

[Split T]

Honestly I’d take the Toronto offer. Poeltl, RJ, #9

[TOO]

Honestly I’d take the Toronto offer. Poeltl, RJ, #9

If they can somehow get a 3rd team involved for another pick I think that would be a definite home run. Id take it as stated tbh, I like Poeltl and 9, it's a coin flip for me on Quickley or Barrett, probably need IQ more than Barrett since we've got no PG.

[Mori Chu]

In case you want to look up stats on Quickley or Barrett:

https://www.basketball-reference.com/pl ... kim01.html
https://www.basketball-reference.com/pl ... erj01.html

Quickley is averaging 17.1 ppg on .420/.378/.867 splits, 5.8 ast, 3.5 reb in 27.8 mpg. Not bad though the overall FG% is a bit low. His minutes are a bit lower than I would have thought.

Barrett is averaging 21.1 ppg on .468 / .350 / .630 splits, 6.3 reb, 5.4 ast in 32.2 mpg. He scores more than I thought; the FT% is bad.

I don't love either of these guys. On balance I think I would maybe rather have Quickley? We need a PG in the worst way. Barrett is a decent player but I bet his volume scoring would drop playing next to Booker, and he seems like he would want to put up a lot of shots. Also having Barrett would make it harder to start Dunn, unless we wanted to throw out a crazy lineup like PG/Book/Barrett/Dunn/Poetl, which sounds too small to be successful.

Either way, I don't really love this Toronto trade package. It's part of the core of one of the worst teams in the league. And why would they want to pair Durant with this team, minus two starters? What is that team going to accomplish? Or do they just think having KD for 1-2 years would juice their ticket sales?

The #9 pick would be nice to have, but I don't know much about the draft prospects in that range, so it's hard to get too excited about it. At least Quickley and Barrett are both young, so we wouldn't be trading KD for 30+-year-olds past their prime like Randle or Gobert.

Also, LOL, BBall Reference lists Barrett's nickname as "The Maple Mamba."

[TOO]

Barnes, Ingram, KD is a pretty solid trio.

[Split T]

One thing to keep in mind, Quickley has 4 years and 130 million left on his deal…he’s expensive

[The Bobster]

One thing to keep in mind, Quickley has 4 years and 130 million left on his deal…he’s expensive

If $32.6 million is expensive for a starting PG, what is $75 million for a starting SG?

[Split T]

One thing to keep in mind, Quickley has 4 years and 130 million left on his deal…he’s expensive

If $32.6 million is expensive for a starting PG, what is $75 million for a starting SG?

Booker makes 53 million next year, not 75

[The Bobster]

I think if they want to be competitive next year Poeltl, Quickley and the #9 pick is a pretty good start, especially if you can add a couple of big forwards in the draft or by trading Allen or O'Neale.

That would leave them with -

F - Ryan Dunn, Grayson Allen, Royce O'Neale
C - Jakob Poeltl, Nick Richards, Oso Ighodaro
G - Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, Immanuel Quickley, Collin Gillespie

Draft - 9th pick, 29th pick, 52nd pick

[The Bobster]

One thing to keep in mind, Quickley has 4 years and 130 million left on his deal…he’s expensive

If $32.6 million is expensive for a starting PG, what is $75 million for a starting SG?

Booker makes 53 million next year, not 75

Yes, but they're talking about a two-year, $150 million extension, which would leave him with 5 years, $318 million remaining ($63.647 a year, $75 million a year for the last two)

[Split T]

One thing to keep in mind, Quickley has 4 years and 130 million left on his deal…he’s expensive

If $32.6 million is expensive for a starting PG, what is $75 million for a starting SG?

Booker makes 53 million next year, not 75

Yes, but they're talking about a two-year, $150 million extension, which would leave him with 5 years, $318 million remaining ($63.647 a year, $75 million a year for the last two)

But you can’t compare a salary 4 years from now to a salary right now. The 75 million is the same percentage in 4 years that 53 is today.

[TOO]

I think if they want to be competitive next year Poeltl, Quickley and the #9 pick is a pretty good start, especially if you can add a couple of big forwards in the draft or by trading Allen or O'Neale.

That would leave them with -

F - Ryan Dunn, Grayson Allen, Royce O'Neale
C - Jakob Poeltl, Nick Richards, Oso Ighodaro
G - Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, Immanuel Quickley, Collin Gillespie

Draft - 9th pick, 29th pick, 52nd pick

This feels like a a possible play-in late lotto team, which is what I think the FO is shooting for until the cap clears because they don't have any draft capital.