We won't win regular season games against bigger teams that are healthy with Cam getting minutes at PF, either...unless our guards and wings shoot lights out from outside.
Roster ideas and rumors for Suns
- Thread starter Mainstreet
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We won't win regular season games against bigger teams that are healthy with Cam getting minutes at PF, either...unless our guards and wings shoot lights out from outside.
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I'm pretty sure that Crowder got, by far, the bulk of the minutes at the 4 spot. Cameron played some 3 and some 4 and he and Craig backed up the PF spot but in the 4 games we lost in a row Jae averaged more than 38 minutes per.
As far as an early (and effective) return, I don't know about Saric one way or the other, but I do know that counting on him this season is beyond foolish. Hope? Yes. Depend? Not a chance.
We need another rotation player to take Dario's position and minutes. Maybe we can make it work with McGee and moving Frank to the PF backup or backup's backup spot but an actual power forward would be a better choice if we can find one.
Carolinacacti
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Cam is the Man and the Suns will win .
he deserved more minutes for sure.
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We won an awful lot of games last year with Cam getting minutes at PF and without our perimeter players shooting lights out. We need Ayton to play fairly well and our guards to play to their typical level, when that happens we can beat any team. But whether our opponents are bigger than us or smaller than us, if Ayton plays timidly and if our guards play poorly, we lose.
Give us a star power forward, and we'll be able to win a few more games even when Ayton plays soft or our guards have off nights. But add a borderline power forward to our roster and I don't see much changing for us.
Jae averaged so many minutes in those last 4 games because the Suns were getting abused up front with Cam and Craig at the 4. And due to his lack of quickness and athleticism, Frank got abused on defense and on the boards whenever he tried to play the 4 last season.
The Suns need a bona fide 4 to take the bulk of Saric and Craig's minutes. That much is clear.
History says you're wrong. Recent history also as in last season.
But I forgot, Jalen Smith will cause CP3 and Booker to demand trades. So its all for not in the end. Thats somehow the same as Ben Simmons in Philly also.
Just admit you like to complain more than enjoy anything and wait for a few airplanes to fall before claiming the sky is coming down.
Take away the games we won with the opponent missing key players, where neither Saric nor Craig came to the rescue, and where the guards and wings didn't shoot lights out, and I think you will find that there weren't an "awful lot" of wins, and that doesn't even factor in the other teams' improvement this offseason while the Suns basically stood pat in terms of the rest of the roster...
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How am I missing that? The Lakers were loaded and if they were healthy we'd have lost in the opening round. Not because they were bigger than us, or not JUST because they were bigger than us, they simply were more talented than we were.
But I disagree about AD's injury deciding it, it just made it easier. I like our chances of winning that series even if AD hadn't gone down that game. AD always gives us trouble and we were down a game but we were outplaying them in that game before he went down and we just needed a win to get home court advantage back. Fortunately for us, IMO neither AD nor Lebron were all the way back from injury even prior to AD going down again.
As for the regular season, the second best record in the NBA trumps your cherry picking. And no team wins them all. We had bad stretches (mostly where Ayton was sleepwalking) but they didn't all come against big teams. And we didn't lose to all the big teams all the time, far from it. You can't change history just by saying it over and over.
JerkFace
(Formerly offset) i have a special purpose
It doesn’t matter if he would be effective or not. If there is a chance he can make it back by the end of the year then we don’t qualify for the DPE. Even if we decide that we don’t want him to come back this season and just want him to take his time and recover slowly we still don’t qualify for the DPE if the 3rd party doctor says that physically he could of been ready before the season ended.
Take away this, that, this other thing, and account for these games. Dude, you put like 6 conditions on things. If you want to try and make a legit argument then find some real stats to point to rather. You are cherry picking a ridiculous amount right now, its absurd.
So when Saric played well OR when Craig covered for him but also when Booker didn't shoot great and if Paul was off.... It's asinine and you can select 6 or 7 "what ifs" for any team to knock them down a rung or two.
What I am saying is that in terms of his contributions next year it likely doesn't matter. He won't be effective. If we are looking for someone to help fill the back court needs? Yes it matters that he won't be very effective.
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Take away the games we won where we outscored them and we look pretty bad too. Yes, we caught a lot of breaks last year. IMO we were better than the Bucks, injuries saved them. But at no time did I think we were the best team in the league (with everyone healthy). It happens, players get injured.
I don't think we're the best team going into this season either but I disagree that we stood pat and so many others improved. I think adding Javale and keeping our own free agents is one heck of an off season. Considering how little salary room we had and the risk of losing CP and Cam, a slight overall improvement is about the best we could hope for IMO. And, hopefully, we'll be attractive enough to a midseason buyout to strengthen our weakest area.
I agree with this 100% and the hand ringing over Sarver not paying the full MLE yet is ridiculous. Regardless over who the owner is, expecting them to spend every dollar available up to the luxury tax is unrealistic and unreasonable, IMO. Spending doesn't equal quality or the Knicks would have won a string of titles over the last 2 decades.
We've done well to improve while keeping our options open and the flexibility to improve further if an opportunity presents itself.
Too be clear, an opportunity doesn't need to present itself for JJ to make a move, I don't believe is sitting back and waiting for something to happen, I believe he's been proactive and has floated trades with other teams also but it's a slow time for the league right now. We'll have to wait for training camp before roster activity starts kicking back up.
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Cant believe you guys are still engaging with the Colin Robinson of Suns fans.
You're forgetting that we left $10 million in cap exemptions on the table.
Meanwhile, even now, other teams who are stacked up front are signing players who could help the Suns, as Patrick Patterson just signed a camp contract with the Blazers.
It seems more and more that for whatever reason, Suns ownership and management are content to give a ton of minutes at the 4 to a shooting guard or else a guy who currently isn't even good enough to be a G Leaguer. With that being the case, I don't know how anyone can say ownership/management is serious about trying to win a championship.
OP
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The remaining $4.5 million of the MLE and the open roster spot should be considered an asset. It's hard to know who will become available. It's nice to play with an extra ace up the sleeve although I'd use it in a millisecond if a difference maker came along.
The Suns might even choose to use their other two-way slot to add depth with another young player with experience like Hutchison.
The Suns might even choose to use their other two-way slot to add depth with another young player with experience like Hutchison.
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i think you guys are overvaluing that 4.5 cone buyout time. Guys who get bought out are likely big money players anyway where the difference between getting 1 million bucks to 4.5 won’t be a determining factor if the Lakers or Nets are contenders and come a calling. Hell, we saw guys already take peanuts to play on those teams who were worth more (Blake Griffin this off-season, Dwight Howard with the Lakers).
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I'm pretty sure he'll be available again soon. And when that happens, I'm sure we'll pass again. Then, you'll be sad and I'll be glad. I'd much rather have Cameron than Patterson.
OP
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It's another chip to play when a player is going through a buyout with another team.
Some big name players are never going to choose Phoenix over what is considered a more attractive market.
Hopefully the Suns can find a player that wants to play here. Those few million could make a difference to the right player.
Having that open roster spot helps as well.
This. Anything outside a trade isn't going to solidify the position. It's going to be roll the dice and play by committee otherwise.
OP
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Let's not forget Tim Thomas. He was bought out or simply waived.
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Well, yeah, we probably aren't going to get a star in the midseason. I just think we have better chance of adding the kind of player that could help us (given our cap and tradable asset limitations) during the buyout season than the free agency period. There usually are a lot of players bought out or released during the season, not just the big dollar veterans.
If we had a couple of surplus draft picks maybe we could trade Cam Johnson, Saric and a couple of first rounders for a starting power forward but I'm glad we're not giving away anything for marginal improvement.
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I don’t mean a star. I just mean I don’t see many valuable buyout guys being swayed by 3.5 million bucks difference if it comes down to trying to win a title with us or the big boys if they are rolling.
I'd rather have both, with Cameron at the 2/3 where he belongs. Forcing Cameron in his current physical state to play the 4 is like having neither, at least against teams with actual 4s.
