Suns News: 2026 Offseason Edition

[TOO]

I think Gregory has done a heck of a job all things considered. He was given a shit sandwich and so far has made it work.

[virtual9mm]

https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/ ... 017191007/

Something very big was missing at Miles Bridges' introduction | Opinion

The man who preaches 'alignment, accountability and culture' was noticeably absent and it was wrong.

Can't open the link from HK, unfortunately. Can you post the text or key snippets? Thank you.

[virtual9mm]

I think Gregory has done a heck of a job all things considered. He was given a shit sandwich and so far has made it work.

Kopi Luwak is the finest coffee on the planet and it is, essentially, weasel shit.I dislike one particular move immensely but it doesn't mean that I can't appreciate the genius in his other moves.

[Shabazz]

I think he’s just wrong about the lottery rules changing making the pick not as valuable..if anything it made the pick more valuable as it doesn’t require the suns to be bad to be a good pick. He’s also just very dismissive of the possibility that something weird happens and we are bad that year.

Yes. All of this.

[Mori Chu]

Yep..though I can see the perspective from a current GM. What does he care about a pick in 2033…he’s trying to build a team now and has been given the direction that we aren’t ever going to rebuild. Earlier picks are better for that…even if they aren’t as valuable.

I think he’s just wrong about the lottery rules changing making the pick not as valuable..if anything it made the pick more valuable as it doesn’t require the suns to be bad to be a good pick. He’s also just very dismissive of the possibility that something weird happens and we are bad that year.

This is a great post. I agree with pretty much all of this. Gregory (along with Ishbia) deserves credit for several positive moves made in the past few years to improve the team and fix things that weren't working. Though I pretty strongly dislike one particular trade, most of the transactions are consistent with a vision toward making the team the most competitive it can be this year, while also retaining some (SOME) future assets, young players, etc. so that we don't have a completely bare cupboard in a few years.

IMO the biggest mistake (apart from trading from an abuser) is undervaluing our own draft picks. I get that we now have "a" 1st round pick in most future years. That is good! But I think the new flatter tiered lottery system is likely to make us regret those picks not being OUR picks, and furthermore being heavily swapped and worst-of-N picks. Even in a mediocre season we might luck into a top-10 pick in the new lottery. You can easily imagine a slightly down season in a few years which we narrowly miss the play-in for whatever reason. In such a case, our pick would have a nontrivial chance of jumping up and being extremely valuable. Instead we have these megaswapped picks that are quite likely to be in the 24-30 range. You can still find guys there, but it is much easier to grab a core future player at say #8 than it is at #26. It just is.

I think what it's going to take for Gregory and Ishbia to finally realize this mistake is for one of the picks we traded away to really come back to bite them. Like it'll end up being the #7 pick and it'll draft some guy who turns out to be a real star. And then everyone will be chattering on TV and the web about how that was originally the Suns pick. They'll have to actually see that happen to realize that they messed up. That'll take a few years to happen, I think. But I bet it will.

[TOO]

I just don't care about it enough to worry about what ifs that much.

[BigLewy]

This new lottery reform could be done in a few years anyways, so that aspect could be a moot point. But based on the luck of the franchise, one of these picks 5-7 years from now will end up a top three pick.

[Superbone]

[pickle]

How much of what Gregory said is what he truly believes, and how much of it is him being a good soldier? I don't think he's actually irrational. This is the team owner that we have, so ... let's work through the seven stages of grief together, friends. I want to say I've reached acceptance, but maybe I'm still stuck in denial.

[pickle]

Spoiler: show/hide

Obviously, you never know what teams actually think and we've seen enough stupid trades to know that it only takes one sucker to trade for a guy, but in terms of value, if you ask me, Green makes around 20M more than he should based on his ideal role for any team as a 6th man (let alone PHX with Booker, Brooks, etc.).

You can make the point that due to age and athleticism, he has untapped potential; but I don't think teams will buy it because the sample size is large enough at this point (and last season he even lost his status as an iron man). So my guess is that to the vast majority of teams, he is little more than a non-expiring bad contract and, as such, the only thing you are getting back in a trade is a similar bad contract, unless you are willing to give up actual assets.

I agree with the assessment of Green’s abilities on the court and the relative pessimism that he will tap that potential to become more, but I would push back on him being 20 mil too expensive. We did get lucky with CG taking a friendly contract but any contender will have a sixth man making far more than 15 mil per. Green might be on the higher end of contract figures but he’s by no means an albatross contract, especially since he only has two more years (one of which is a PO).

I don't know man. If Green was a FA I would not offer more than the MLE, and even that would give me some pause considering the money thrown around this summer for a number of guards. 22M for Powell, 9.6M for Sexton, 24M for Coby White, 22M for Ayo, 15M for Grimes, 6M for Anfernee Simons, etc. Can't convince me that in this landscape Green is worth more than half of his current 35M per.

Granted, he is not Bradley Beal (or a Lillard/Beal stretched salary), but why are we paying a marginal excess compared to the mean of the guys above? For what production? Scratch Powell if you want to point out to the monster contract AR15 got from LAL. Guards who can score 20ppg on mediocre/bad efficiency if you give then the green light while doing little else, simply are not a rare commodity at all in the NBA. Again, are we paying for implied potential? Hard to see it after 5 years in the league. And then you have the issue of the redundancy with Booker and others.

I don't disagree with the sentiment in the current landscape of the NBA, but I feel like his deal has to be taken into context. The league has become much more rational with mid-level contracts since the effects of the second apron has become abundantly clear, and that has affected the middle class more than the top tier. Meanwhile, Green's deal was signed before that impact was felt, and by another team, and we had to match salaries when trading KD and we were not exactly negotiating from a position of strength when we made that deal. Back when Green's extension was signed, I don't think the league was up in arms about how bad it was, given that it was a 3 year deal and nowhere near the max. That he has underperformed that deal subsequently is a real shame, but it's not a Trae Young deal.

Having said that, I think I might have projected some thoughts into your post that you didn't intend. You simply said that he was 20 mil overpaid, which again strictly in today's cap environment might be quite true.

I am still hoping that he either improves his ability to score to the point where he's at least a Zach LaVine, or that he accepts his value in the modern NBA and accepts a 6th man role and maybe even a discount in his next deal.