Suns News: Week 14 (1/20 - 1/26)

[Gladiator]

Epically bad trade coming in 3,2,1...

It certainly looks that way

[INFORMER]

No telling what draft picks will be where over the next 7 years so it's whatever.

The point is that the picks will be used to fund the same poor decision-making that has this team where they currently are.

[iLLmatic]

Epically bad trade coming in 3,2,1...

Yep, that was my initial thought too. This team doesn’t give a crap about the future. Another move to put us further in debt. Robbing Peter to pay Paul. I hate this front office and management.

[TOO]

Epically bad trade coming in 3,2,1...

Trade(s) me thinks.

[Flagrant Fowl]

but they are looking at the shitshow that is this team and saying, "That pick is going to be really special."

That 2031 pick is going to be special? Do they have intel on the U-12 basketball prospects?

I'm not anti-draft pick, but at least acknowledge they're huge mystery boxes that far into the future.

I read that as special in the draft order - top three or whatever - rather than any particular prospects.

We just had a draft in which none of the lottery picks will certainly be a star, and the likely ROY winner, had he not been injured, was drafted 16th.

I get there are the generational draft picks like Wemby, but they're called generational for a reason.

I don't love the path Ishbia is taking with this roster right now, but I really wouldn't love winning fewer than 30 games and putting all hope into a 19-20 year old every summer that might be really good 4 years later.

[Gladiator]

Epically bad trade coming in 3,2,1...

Yep, that was my initial thought too. This team doesn’t give a crap about the future. Another move to put us further in debt. Robbing Peter to pay Paul. I hate this front office and management.

And Paul doesn’t even play for us any more. He’s in San Antonio now!!!!

[The Bobster]

They won't be a 2nd apron team in 2031, Beal, Booker and Durant and their huge salaries will be long gone by then.

I suspect they'll have enough cap space between now and then to build a borderline play-in team like they are now.

Of course this is dependent on being able to draw a line for an offseason where you want to have cap flexibility.

[Gladiator]

but they are looking at the shitshow that is this team and saying, "That pick is going to be really special."

That 2031 pick is going to be special? Do they have intel on the U-12 basketball prospects?

I'm not anti-draft pick, but at least acknowledge they're huge mystery boxes that far into the future.

I read that as special in the draft order - top three or whatever - rather than any particular prospects.

We just had a draft in which none of the lottery picks will certainly be a star, and the likely ROY winner, had he not been injured, was drafted 16th.

I get there are the generational draft picks like Wemby, but they're called generational for a reason.

I don't love the path Ishbia is taking with this roster right now, but I really wouldn't love winning fewer than 30 games and putting all hope into a 19-20 year old every summer that might be really good 4 years later.

That’s fair but you also can’t afford to ignore the draft to the extent the Suns are. The best teams all have multiple of their best players they drafted with their own picks - Cleveland (Garland, Mobley), OKC (Holmgren, Williams), Boston (Brown, Tatum). They obviously supplement with great trades.
I feel like our trade-draft balance is way out of whack and there is little evidence that approach works.

[specialsauce]

Sigh. Five first-round swaps, four first-round picks, CP three, two promising young players and one hell of a lot of cap flexibility for zero playoff wins; the situation is a negative one and the future is negative too.

Hold on, seriously!!!! We had no idea!!! Please, recycle that bitch and say it again

Well, if you insist…

We’re not even going to get the seven seed. Ishbia has screwed this franchise six ways to Sunday. Five first-round swaps, four first-round picks, CP three, two promising young players and one hell of a lot of cap flexibility for zero playoff wins; the situation is a negative one and the future is negative too.

And a partridge in negative three.

I’m sensing that the reaction to this post is negative for some people.

On a scale from one to ten, Saucy is a negative five.

[Flagrant Fowl]

but they are looking at the shitshow that is this team and saying, "That pick is going to be really special."

That 2031 pick is going to be special? Do they have intel on the U-12 basketball prospects?

I'm not anti-draft pick, but at least acknowledge they're huge mystery boxes that far into the future.

I read that as special in the draft order - top three or whatever - rather than any particular prospects.

We just had a draft in which none of the lottery picks will certainly be a star, and the likely ROY winner, had he not been injured, was drafted 16th.

I get there are the generational draft picks like Wemby, but they're called generational for a reason.

I don't love the path Ishbia is taking with this roster right now, but I really wouldn't love winning fewer than 30 games and putting all hope into a 19-20 year old every summer that might be really good 4 years later.

That’s fair but you also can’t afford to ignore the draft to the extent the Suns are. The best teams all have multiple of their best players they drafted with their own picks - Cleveland (Garland, Mobley), OKC (Holmgren, Williams), Boston (Brown, Tatum). They obviously supplement with great trades.
I feel like our trade-draft balance is way out of whack and there is little evidence that approach works.

Other teams who also drafted their best player include Portland, Charlotte, and Toronto.

[specialsauce]

[ShelC]

Lots of aging stars are going to force their way to Phoenix to get that one last max extension. Cool stuff.

[INFORMER]

The problem is that Ishbia's "competing for a championship" amounts to spending money and chasing names. That's not a basketball strategy. Look at the last two coaching hires. Vogel won a championship. Budenholzer won a championship. It's like Ishbia just said, "I want to win a championship so I am going to get a coach that has won a championship." Ishbia thinks stars win championships, so he tries to get every single one that he can.

[The Bobster]

What if they're actually looking for something to trade along with Nurk or Allen in order to pick up someone like Robert Williams?

[ShelC]

I think Williams is headed to Houston but I was thinking they're stocking up on extra picks to attach to Nurk.

[INFORMER]

I hope Robert Williams isn't the target, because he'll be in street clothes watching the Suns like the rest of us.

I can see them combining a pick with Nurk and sending him to Washington for Valanciunas and Johnny Davis. But that ultimately is just upgrading your room on the Titanic.

[INFORMER]

The other two picks will likely be packaged with Beal.

[Cap]

quadrupled down on maximizing their windows for winning

He’s maximizing the window by investing everything in a 36 year old and a 35 year old?

[Charlie Smithy!]

All this is making me remember when the New York Mets acquired Roberto Alomar, Mo Vaughn, and Rickey Henderson.

[Kryptonic]

All this is making me remember when the New York Mets acquired Roberto Alomar, Mo Vaughn, and Rickey Henderson.

And how’d that play out?? Lol