But the difference was in the upside too. Durant was a bona fide MVP candidate when we acquired him. No one, not even dantoni, could have projected that nash would rise to a two time MVP. The KD trade was higher on both the risk and reward axis at the time of both trades.
I disagree that Durant was a bona fide MVP candidate by the time we'd acquired him but he had been prior to his injury in early January so I'll concede the point. But even grading him as an MVP level player, I don't think that difference between his playing level and the expectations regarding Nash, significant though it is, comes anywhere close to offsetting both the cost and the risks.
Not to mention the salary implications and locking up that cap space with the Nash move. As we all came to find out, the team was only willing to spend so much money. The team as a result shed assets in the coming years.
They were pretty confident Iggy and Deng would be off the board by the time they picked or they probably would have kept them. They also wanted to maximize the amount of money they had to spend in free agency where their prime targets were Nash and M Okur. They struck out on the latter and used to put money on Richardson . Imagine if they had just kept the draft pick and taken Iggy and used the Richardson money to resign Joe johnsen to the deal he wanted?
Or if they had just gotten Okur. He would have been the perfect stretch 5 for that DA team and we would have been BIG as well.
If some created a list of missed picks, picks we passed on or scenarios like this I would be sick.
The Diaw role, later.
And with KT and Raja off the bench to go big/nasty depending on matchups.
You’re entitled to your opinion. And many seasons of no titles.
Yeah, I've thought about it. We can't do anything about it now.
I’m not a Crowder honk but they butchered that situation given the fact how thin our wings are. You either had to involve him in a separate deal for something worthwhile or swap his contract for Saric in the KD deal and beg/pay him to come back.
IMO, despite what some fans think the Suns have thought all of this through. It's not like they still don't have every other pick and options. Maybe the Suns think we have only a couple realistic windows left with Book?
I think they had thought about that and decided the trade wasn’t reasonable for the future, and then Ishbia came in, with his name fresh on the deed, and decided to make a big splash.
And all the first round picks we actually do have every other year.
Yep, the only real question IMO is where the fault lies. I'm sure some of it is on Crowder but I believe the lion's share was inside the organization, namely JJ or Monty or Sarver. Regardless, we lost a role player whose game was nothing special but all told he was close to perfect for our needs.
It happens sometimes but in fairness, it didn't happen here. Jae was part of the Durant trade, for all we know it was the only way the deal would have worked for Brooklyn and Milwaukee. And then we depleted our bench even more by giving away Saric who only recently had started playing more like the Dario of old.
