Bledsoe traded to Bucks

[ShelC]

Are you in that big a rush to see what Sarver and James Jones are gonna do when McD is gone?

Not a reason to keep him employed.

[1tinsoldier]

"Players as good as Bledsoe are not often available and rarely change teams for such a low cost." - Sporting News

[JCSunsfan]

"Players as good as Bledsoe are not often available and rarely change teams for such a low cost." - Sporting News

Is this the same media that was talking about what exorbitant returns the Suns were asking for Bledsoe a week ago? What hypocrites.

[O_Gardino]

The Sporting News is basically amateurs or fans trying to break into the sports writing business.

[Superbone]

Sounds about right.

[bajanguy008]

The Sporting News is basically amateurs or fans trying to break into the sports writing business.

Agreed , my only link to them is playing fantasy yeeaaars ago. Never quite thought their content was anything special

[Phoenix219]

Bledsoe was a dud for me. I never liked his play style. He didn't make the Suns better. He played his best when Dragic was here. He and especially his agent can go to hell. I wish we had never traded for him to be honest. He was a mistake for this franchise.

Co Signed For Truth.

[Mori Chu]

Monroe is not going to be a desirable trade piece. The value of expiring contracts is way down in the new CBA. Contracts are so short that it isn't worth giving up an asset any more just for an expiring contract. And if you do have a long term toxic contract, nowadays you can just stretch provision it and get most of it off your books.

We're going to play him minutes through the end of the year and then he's going to leave and sign with Atlanta or some non-playoff team like that. That's the future here.

[Split T]

I think we acquired Monroe because he's an expiring. We'll try and trade him for a pick and another expiring, but I think McD might be targeting cap space, otherwise we would have taken the 2 1sts and Asik+Ajinca deal.

Which begs the question, who are we after?

LeBron? Haha
Cousins? Not likely without Bledsoe
PG13? Not a chance

Are there any other max level players?

I guess we'll probably max out a restricted guy like Jabari or Aaron Gordon.

Other restricted guys we might throw a big offer at: Elfrid Payton, Marcus Smart

The smart move would seem to be to roll the money over to 2019.

Butler, Kyrie, Klay, Kawhi, Kemba among others..

Could actually see us getting Kemba, the others seem very unlikely.

Your 2019-2020 Suns....

Kemba-Booker-Jackson-Bender-Ayton

[JCSunsfan]

Bledsoe was a dud for me. I never liked his play style. He didn't make the Suns better. He played his best when Dragic was here. He and especially his agent can go to hell. I wish we had never traded for him to be honest. He was a mistake for this franchise.

I think I disagree with you factually, but emotionally, I am right there with ya. If that makes any sense.

[JCSunsfan]

Monroe is not going to be a desirable trade piece. The value of expiring contracts is way down in the new CBA. Contracts are so short that it isn't worth giving up an asset any more just for an expiring contract. And if you do have a long term toxic contract, nowadays you can just stretch provision it and get most of it off your books.

We're going to play him minutes through the end of the year and then he's going to leave and sign with Atlanta or some non-playoff team like that. That's the future here.

OK. That is the pessimistic view of it (realist if you like). We need a little Pollyanna here. He is going to play for us and finally be released to be an all-star type dominating center. He and Booker are going to become best friends and we are going to sign him to a long term contract and he will be our core piece at center for the next five years.

[Mori Chu]

I would be happy if they take the salary cap space freed up by Bledsoe/Monroe and used it to throw a big contract at Aaron Gordon. The pitch is, come back to Arizona, we love you here. I think Gordon is showing that he can be an elite NBA PF. Then we get rid of Chriss but keep Bender as a backup PF/C project. I could live with that.

[Split T]

I would be happy if they take the salary cap space freed up by Bledsoe/Monroe and used it to throw a big contract at Aaron Gordon. The pitch is, come back to Arizona, we love you here. I think Gordon is showing that he can be an elite NBA PF. Then we get rid of Chriss but keep Bender as a backup PF/C project. I could live with that.

Ya, the trouble would be getting Orlando not to match. Orlando has been struggling for awhile like us and are seeing some success this year. I think they probably do whatever they can to keep it going.

[Ring_Wanted]

Orlando would match anything now that Gordon seems to be putting it together.

[O_Gardino]

There's lots of opportunity to draft a PF.

[ShelC]

Still not convinced Gordon is anything special. They can match whatever they want.

[The Bobster]

The Sporting News is basically amateurs or fans trying to break into the sports writing business.

Sadly, it used to be "The Bible of Baseball"

I used to get a lot of my NBA news from it back in the 70's.

[carey]

https://twitter.com/SunsSolarPanel/status/928755564494053376

[Split T]

Monroe did meet with McD and told him he's happy to play. Will be interesting to see what happens.

[Wormwood]

Absolute smartest thing we can do with Monroe:

Play him, build his value, trade him for someone with an ugly contract that lasts two years (instead of one). That way, in two years when CHandler, Dudley, Knight, and the stiff we got for Monroe come off the books we'll have a ton of cap space to shoot for a star player.

In return for taking a stiff with two years left, we give someone cap relief, and get back a couple of first round picks.

Out: Monroe

In: Random stiff with two years left on contract, + 1st round picks.

Turning Bledsoe into three first round picks is actually not a bad deal, especially if we set them up to all be in the 5-16 range.