Suns News: Week 11 (Dec 30 - Jan 5)

[Mori Chu]

Last Week's Games
Mon, Dec 23 @ Nuggets L 90-117
Wed, Dec 25 vs Nuggets W 110-100
Fri, Dec 27 vs Mavs L 89-98
Sat, Dec 28 @ Warriors L 105-109

This Week's Games
Tue, Dec 31 vs Grizzlies, 7:00 PM MST
Sat Jan 4 @ Pacers, 5:00 PM MST


Suns Stories
Bright Side: Lakers dealing DAR is a reminder that the Suns are fucked:
https://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2024 ... ne-options

AZCentral: What we learned as Suns fall to 1-4 without Devin Booker in loss to Warriors:
https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/ ... 296077007/

Valley of the Suns: Suns could acquire former player from Sacramento Kings (Alex Len, eww):
https://valleyofthesuns.com/suns-could- ... s-alex-len

[Split T]

Is there a world where we waive and stretch Nurk? How much money would that save Ishbia? If I remember right, it’s too late to impact this year, so it would only stretch next years salary…would make him like 6ish million a year for 3 years though instead of 19 next year. Not a terrible idea if we can’t find someone to take him.

[Superbone]

Ishbia sure has been quiet for a while.

[Cap]

Is there a world where we waive and stretch Nurk?

Is there a world where we don’t suck for the rest of the season and even worse for the next ten? Worrying about Nurk feels kinda pointless now.

[ShelC]

Post-practice videos...Bud said Book and Grayson did pretty much all of practice and 5-on-5. Allen's hopeful to play tomorrow. Dunn talks about his 3pt shootng.

Spoiler: show/hide

[Superbone]

I love Dunn's attitude. I wish we could have 15 Dunn's on the team. I wouldn't care if they shot a combined 25%. They'd be fun to watch and they'd make up for it on the defensive end.

[Superbone]

Is there a world where we waive and stretch Nurk?

Is there a world where we don’t suck for the rest of the season and even worse for the next ten? Worrying about Nurk feels kinda pointless now.

Worrying about the next 10 is even more pointless. I don't think Ishbia allows this team to be even worse. Especially not for 10 years!

[Superbone]

So, does Book play tomorrow?

[Cap]

Is there a world where we waive and stretch Nurk?

Is there a world where we don’t suck for the rest of the season and even worse for the next ten? Worrying about Nurk feels kinda pointless now.

Worrying about the next 10 is even more pointless. I don't think Ishbia allows this team to be even worse. Especially not for 10 years!

That’s like saying someone with zero assets and lots of debt won’t allow himself to be poor. Not much he can do after spending himself into that kind of hole.

[Superbone]

Is there a world where we waive and stretch Nurk?

Is there a world where we don’t suck for the rest of the season and even worse for the next ten? Worrying about Nurk feels kinda pointless now.

Worrying about the next 10 is even more pointless. I don't think Ishbia allows this team to be even worse. Especially not for 10 years!

That’s like saying someone with zero assets and lots of debt won’t allow himself to be poor. Not much he can do after spending himself into that kind of hole.

We shall see. Bookmark these posts and we will revisit.

[Superbone]

Is there a world where we waive and stretch Nurk?

Is there a world where we don’t suck for the rest of the season and even worse for the next ten? Worrying about Nurk feels kinda pointless now.

Worrying about the next 10 is even more pointless. I don't think Ishbia allows this team to be even worse. Especially not for 10 years!

That’s like saying someone with zero assets and lots of debt won’t allow himself to be poor. Not much he can do after spending himself into that kind of hole.

We shall see. Bookmark these posts and we will revisit.

And to answer your comment. There are a lot of things that person can do. He can get a better job, change his ways from spender to saver, pay down the debt until paid off, and then start saving everything he was previously putting into debt and put it into an S&P index fund. It's possible to make a turnaround both in basketball and in life.

To your point, it may take some time.

[Mori Chu]

Is there a world where we waive and stretch Nurk?

Is there a world where we don’t suck for the rest of the season and even worse for the next ten? Worrying about Nurk feels kinda pointless now.

Worrying about the next 10 is even more pointless. I don't think Ishbia allows this team to be even worse. Especially not for 10 years!

This era just goes to show that it takes more than willingness to spend infinite money to make a great NBA team. Sarver was too cheap and interfered to save money in a penny-wise-pound-foolish way, but Ishbia has had the opposite problem, being overly willing to go "all in" and blow money, cap space, and present/future assets and picks to try to win now. Both approaches are unwise and are not what title teams tend to do.

[Split T]

Is there a world where we waive and stretch Nurk?

Is there a world where we don’t suck for the rest of the season and even worse for the next ten? Worrying about Nurk feels kinda pointless now.

Of course there is…Look this team has a lot of problems, but I don’t actually think we’re in danger of being bad unless we choose that direction intentionally. We seem stuck a little in the middle with pretty limited options to improve, but we’ve already seen an ability to make things happen with those limited resources.

We still have a 28 year old Devin Booker. Kevin Durant still looks like a top 10 guy. Beal hasn’t been the fit we were hoping, but he’s still a good player. Grayson and Royce have value and are locked up to good deals. We seem to have landed some pretty good rookies in Dunn and Oso…

Nurk is clearly the weakest link on the team at the weakest position on the team. Fixing that position would go a long ways towards fixing this team. Remember when Dallas was a play-in team and then traded for Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington and made the finals? I don’t know what our version of that trade is, but that is certainly possible.

We’d need some health luck, but a Tyus, Beal, Booker, KD lineup with just an average starting C is a good team. Not a team anyone is going to pick to win a championship, but do they have a greater than 1% chance? Ya I think so.

I think we also forget that we will only owe 2 picks after this year. I don’t think it would be that hard to pivot this summer to a non 2nd apron team, get access back to our 2033 pick and retool around Booker(of course you gotta move KD in this scenario). You could also pull the plug and get your picks back from Houston and choose to rebuild.

I just don’t see the future as bleak as some of you do.

[Split T]

Is there a world where we waive and stretch Nurk?

Is there a world where we don’t suck for the rest of the season and even worse for the next ten? Worrying about Nurk feels kinda pointless now.

Worrying about the next 10 is even more pointless. I don't think Ishbia allows this team to be even worse. Especially not for 10 years!

This era just goes to show that it takes more than willingness to spend infinite money to make a great NBA team. Sarver was too cheap and interfered to save money in a penny-wise-pound-foolish way, but Ishbia has had the opposite problem, being overly willing to go "all in" and blow money, cap space, and present/future assets and picks to try to win now. Both approaches are unwise and are not what title teams tend to do.

The timing of Ishbia taking over and the new CBA was really unfortunate. We certainly would’ve won a title if Ishbia was our owner in the 7SOL era.

[SunsRIt]

This is a pretty good video spending money to buy a championship:

[ShelC]

The irony is that we had our most successful stretch under Sarver and costs were largely under control because we drafted well and made smart FA signings. We might've even been in a better spot now with Sarver in charge.

[Split T]

The irony is that we had our most successful stretch under Sarver and costs were largely under control because we drafted well and made smart FA signings. We might've even been in a better spot now with Sarver in charge.

Sarver inherited the 7SOL team and he slowly tore it apart…chased away Joe Johnson, traded Marion, let Amare walk, then finally traded Nash.

What were the good draft picks? We constantly traded them under Sarver or completely botched them in later Sarver years. I really don’t see what you’re talking about here.

[ShelC]

Talking about this most recent stretch under Jones and Monty. Drafting Mikal, Cam and DA (despite how he ended up), trading for CP, signing Crowder. Took him 15 years but he finally got it right.

[Split T]

Talking about this most recent stretch under Jones and Monty. Drafting Mikal, Cam and DA (despite how he ended up), trading for CP, signing Crowder. Took him 15 years but he finally got it right.

Oh ok…he did seem to finally learn to let the GM do their job

[Cap]

I think we also forget that we will only owe 2 picks after this year.

IINM, it’s three picks and three swaps over the next six years. The next time we have our own pick is ‘31.