Suns News: The Offseason

[Cap]

It's nice to see Ulis got 10 votes as well.

Someone voted him to the first team... Has to be a Phoenix voter, right?

Probably the same person who gave Bender a 2nd team vote.

[Indy]

It's nice to see Ulis got 10 votes as well.

Someone voted him to the first team... Has to be a Phoenix voter, right?

Probably the same person who gave Bender a 2nd team vote.

Yeah, that is just ridiculous.

[Superbone]

Between Amare in 03 and Booker in 16, we went an awfully long time without any All-Rookie honorees. All the more remarkable considering we spent about half those years in the lottery.

Yeah, that explains some things. However, things are turning around. I feel pretty confident that we'll have another honoree next year at this time as well... Davon Reed.

[In2ition]

I still think Ulis is better than Yogi.

[carey]

McDonough on with Munny.

[youtube][/youtube]

[carey]

Some notes.
*Alec Peters will miss Summer League for sure but should be full go by the time training camp is here.
*Phone rang off the hook before the draft.
*Phones dried up the closer & closer they got to they draft and it became apparent Tatum would be the Celtic's guy. Once teams knew JJ would be there at #4 the value of the pick got higher.
*Has not spoken to Bledsoe since the draft where his name came up quite often. There was nothing to trade rumors regarding Bledsoe in spite of the numerous rumors. (I don't even remotely believe that.)
*10 roster players have been in and out working this Summer already.

[Mori Chu]

I would probably have done Bledsoe and #4 for Kyrie (and would still do that trade with Josh Jackson in place of the #4 pick). Kyrie has flaws, but he's shown himself to be an absolutely devastating finisher and scorer, worthy of being one of the top 1-2 players on a Finals team. He's been an All-Star and is still very early in his career (age 25). He averaged 25 PPG, 5.8 APG, and 40.1% on 3s. Full stats:

http://www.espn.com/nba/player/stats/_/ ... rie-irving

Bledsoe's knees could give out at any minute. J.Jackson looks like a good rook and a promising piece, but who knows. There are no guarantees. To trade two questionable/flawed assets like that for a real blue chipper player, I'd do it.

Kyrie isn't my favorite PG and isn't exactly my type of player. But if you can get a talent like that by spending only that much of your own assets, I think you have to do it.

[carey]

Not sure if I would or I wouldn't. A Kyrie + Booker backcourt would be murdered every night. You're talking about 2 of the worst starters at their positions defensively in the league playing together. It would be bad.

[Superbone]

Thanks for the Munny interview, carey. Good stuff.

[Split T]

Kyrie is percieved as a superstar. We probably would have been praised around the media and with national fans, but I don't think that would have been a good trade. Kyrie is a fantastic scorer, but a poor defender and a poor PG. Playing with LeBron has covered his deficiencies and allowed him to focus on what he does best. We wouldn't have that here. We'd have Kyrie and Booker taking turns playing iso ball and getting beat consistently on D.

"He was an All-Star in the East..."

He's definitely a talent and he's got a lot of value, just don't think he makes a lot of sense for our team. I'd trade him straight up for Bledsoe, but not with Jackson included.

[TOO]

Not sure if I would or I wouldn't. A Kyrie + Booker backcourt would be murdered every night. You're talking about 2 of the worst starters at their positions defensively in the league playing together. It would be bad.

I wouldnt have done that trade, Kyrie has shown before LeBron that he's not a winner. He might have learned to be a winner, but I don't think he would be the right person to lead this ship. He's an incredible offensive talent, but he's not a defender that we need next to Booker. Jackson has a chance to be that and Bledsoe is still a very tradable piece. I choose that scenario every time.

[O_Gardino]

I'm still trying to figure out the Suns opening night roster based on our draft picks and the new 2-way contracts.

So far, this summer looks like the same kind of log jam we saw last season after free agency. We just have too many guys who are going to expect or need minutes.

Assuming we stand pat on the roster, sign our RFA's and rookies, and don't trade anyone, we only have room for one more dude. Maybe a 2-way contract guy or a minimum contract guy based on what we do with Reed.

Guards - 6
Bled: will play 32+ minutes before he gets injured.
Knight: He will want to play. He will be very angry and will be a problem if he is still here and still riding the bench.
Ulis: Showed that he can compete in the NBA. Will expect some minutes to build on his end of season work last year.
Booker: Franchise Player. 34+ minutes.
Barbosa: Can still play, but might know he is at the stage of his career when he plays less.
Reed: We may need him when there are injuries, especially if Knight is gone. If he is on a 2-way, we need to carefully manage he days with the NBA club.
Forwards - 7
Warren: Returning Starter who played well before his injury. Contract year. He will expect a chance to get back on track and prove his worth.
Jackson: High pick who is supposedly ready to play.
Jone Jr: Got increasing time at the end of the season and participated in All-Star weekend. Probably knows he has a lot of work to do, but I promise that he expects playing time this season.
Chriss: Returning Starter and promising young big man. He will expect his role to increase.
Bender: High pick last year who got left out a bit. We need to find him minutes and he will expect them.
Dudley: Might be OK on the bench, but he might want to play a bit, too.
Peters: Just glad to be on a roster. Will be happy with a 2-way contract.
Center - 3
Chandler: I don't think he wants to be benched, but I don't really know. He's getting old, but he rebounded the hec out of the ball last year, and I think he is a valuable leader on the court.
Len: ... If we keep him, we had better do a good job of developing him. We've been misusing him, IMO. He probably thinks of himself as starter material, and will want to play.
Williams: Another guy who will expect the chance to build on what he did at the end of last season.

That's 16, so at least one has to be on a 2-way. Peters, most likely. If Reed is also on a 2-way, we can bring in another vet. Of the 16 listed, 4 at most know they are not in line to get minutes.

A lot of us feel that Len will be gone, but that might be wishful thinking. The front office has shown no indication that they will let him walk, and every indication that they like to accumulate assets. How they handle Len will tell us a lot about McD and how much Sarver is involved.

A lot of us think Knight has to go no matter what, and others think he can play a little and rebuild his trade value so that we don't eat the contract. How we handle Knight will tell us if we learned anything from how we handled the Morris brothers.

If a couple of these guys move around, we will have room to add some Veteran Leadership On The Bench, and that clears out minutes for other young guys. I hope we don't bring in anyone who expects to play, unless it's a block buster trade of 2 of our rotation guys for KP (or something).

I just hope we start doing something with these guys soon. Logjam at every position is not the way to grow young talent.

[Mori Chu]

I wouldnt have done that trade, Kyrie has shown before LeBron that he's not a winner. He might have learned to be a winner, but I don't think he would be the right person to lead this ship. He's an incredible offensive talent, but he's not a defender that we need next to Booker. Jackson has a chance to be that and Bledsoe is still a very tradable piece. I choose that scenario every time.

Is Booker a "winner"? If so, what is your evidence for this, given that his Suns teams have all had horrible records? And if your response is to say that it's too early to tell because he is young, well, if Lebron James came to the Suns and we started going to the Finals every year, would Booker still be "not a winner" because he played on teams with poor records before Lebron arrived?

[Superbone]

I would be happy if we stood pat and didn't bring in any FAs.

[Indy]

I wouldnt have done that trade, Kyrie has shown before LeBron that he's not a winner. He might have learned to be a winner, but I don't think he would be the right person to lead this ship. He's an incredible offensive talent, but he's not a defender that we need next to Booker. Jackson has a chance to be that and Bledsoe is still a very tradable piece. I choose that scenario every time.

Is Booker a "winner"? If so, what is your evidence for this, given that his Suns teams have all had horrible records? And if your response is to say that it's too early to tell because he is young, well, if Lebron James came to the Suns and we started going to the Finals every year, would Booker still be "not a winner" because he played on teams with poor records before Lebron arrived?

Valid points. I still wouldn't do the deal, but more because we need defense to pair with Book.

[TOO]

I wouldnt have done that trade, Kyrie has shown before LeBron that he's not a winner. He might have learned to be a winner, but I don't think he would be the right person to lead this ship. He's an incredible offensive talent, but he's not a defender that we need next to Booker. Jackson has a chance to be that and Bledsoe is still a very tradable piece. I choose that scenario every time.

Is Booker a "winner"? If so, what is your evidence for this, given that his Suns teams have all had horrible records? And if your response is to say that it's too early to tell because he is young, well, if Lebron James came to the Suns and we started going to the Finals every year, would Booker still be "not a winner" because he played on teams with poor records before Lebron arrived?

.


Nope, Booker is not a winner, he's an inefficient kid with potential. He's got a long way to go before he can lead a team to the playoffs. I dont think you can build a team around Kyrie, he doesnt make anyone better, he's all offense, no pass, no defense. He doesnt show any will to play defense. Kyrie is under .500 when LeBron sits, there is a reason for that.

[Wormwood]

We need to clear out the logjam. Too many young guys that we need to develop, zero belief that we're going to the playoffs. Clearing out future cap space is going to be important.

Len is a solid backup. Nothing more. If the choice is between him and Alan Williams, let Len walk

Keep Williams. Still relatively young, and posts the second best PER on the team. Consistent as hell. Fun fact: in the 18 games where Williams played 20+ minutes, he had 14 double doubles.

Trade Dudley. He's a great locker room guy, but some team that needs a 3 and D sixth man needs him more.

Keep Chandler. We don't have enough depth at C if Len (and I would...) walks to let him go.

Barbosa was really bad last year, but not as bad as Knight and at 1/3rd the cost. Keep, simply because we're thin at SG and his $4m salary disapppears after this throw away year.

Knight has to go. He's desperately unhappy here, refusing to play, isn't helping in the locker room as far as we can tell, and is God awful on the court. (5th worst RPM in the NBA... out of 468.) If cutting him is what it takes, so be it. Getting cap relief is going to cost us draft picks. He has less than zero value at this point. Worst part: he's signed through the 2019-2020 season.
http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm/ ... 2/sort/RPM

Next year I'd like to run out the following:

PG: Bledsoe, Ulis

SG: Booker, Barbosa, Reed

SF: Warren, Jackson, Jones Jr.

PF: Chriss, Bender, Peters (I want Bender to battle Peters for playing time)

C: Chandler, Williams (Chriss can see some time here in small ball line ups)

[ShelC]

Can we stretch Knight's contract?

[Indy]

Can we stretch Knight's contract?

I thought I read we can, but I don't get the feeling that the FO is there yet.

[Split T]

If we end up having to stretch him, I'd wait till at least next season. We don't need the cap space this year and cutting 14 million off the total salary will be quite beneficial if we do have to stretch him.