Suns Off Season Changes for 2025-26

[Cheesebeef]

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It’s ludicrous to pay anyone besides 2-3 players that much if you’re not contending for a title.

Agreed. We basically just committed to being the Bradley Beal Wizards. I just hope they have some semblance of brain activity to not to go full moron and give him a no trade clause to boot.

 

[swagron]

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Smart to say you want to stay.

Another albatross contract. Why bother on a middling team?

 

[Phrazbit]

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It’s ludicrous to pay anyone besides 2-3 players that much if you’re not contending for a title.

The “max salary” is a major problem.

It grossly inflates the salary of 2nd tier stars and causes quality role players to bounce around the league instead of getting paid what they’re worth.

 

[95pro]

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Smart to say you want to stay.

What are we doing...

 

[GatorAZ]

The “max salary” is a major problem.

It grossly inflates the salary of 2nd tier stars and causes quality role players to bounce around the league instead of getting paid what they’re worth.

The intention of the supermax was good but now players just ask/demand out. The next CBA will be interesting.

 

[BooksOrangePlanet]

What are we doing...

same ish different day

 

[Cheesebeef]

same ish different day

lol... clever.

 

[Suns_fan69]

Oof. I'm a Book apologist (voted to keep him in the other thread), but not at this price. This is a ludicrous amount to pay for someone that is not top 10 and barely scraping top 15 player in the league.

 

[leclerc]

Book is not worth it. Ish is an idiot.

And yeah, Giannis was kind of that MJ force in the finals. He could not be stopped. Running people over is fine in the NBA.

 

[AsUpRoDiGy]

Paying a top 20 player a top 5 salary is how you stay in purgatory. Ishbia is a maroon.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

The “max salary” is a major problem.

It grossly inflates the salary of 2nd tier stars and causes quality role players to bounce around the league instead of getting paid what they’re worth.

It’s not the max salary that’s the problem. It’s that there are too many owners willing to give it to players who aren’t worth it that’s the problem.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Oof. I'm a Book apologist (voted to keep him in the other thread), but not at this price. This is a ludicrous amount to pay for someone that is not top 10 and barely scraping top 15 player in the league.

He’s not even scraping top 15. He’s been ALL NBA 2 times out of his 10 year career. He’s a top 20 player and probably just barely scraping there at this point.

 

[AzStevenCal]

He’s not even scraping top 15. He’s been ALL NBA 2 times out of his 10 year career. He’s a top 20 player and probably just barely scraping there at this point.

For a shooting guard Devin has nearly elite PG skills but he can't even pretend to defend the position. I think we'd be better off if he had no PG skills whatsoever so we'd never be foolish enough to play him there. Healthy and playing his natural position I'd expect to see him quickly rehab his reputation. He'll probably never be top 5 but he shouldn't be much below that IMO.

 

[Cheesebeef]

For a shooting guard Devin has nearly elite PG skills but he can't even pretend to defend the position. I think we'd be better off if he had no PG skills whatsoever so we'd never be foolish enough to play him there. Healthy and playing his natural position I'd expect to see him quickly rehab his reputation. He'll probably never be top 5 but he shouldn't be much below that IMO.

He shouldn’t be much lower than Top 5… in the entire league? He’s arguably not even top 5 at SG behind SGA/Ant and Curry annihilate Booker and Harden and even Mitchell could be argued better. Hell, I don’t even know that a strong argument can be made that Devin is better than Jaylen Brown, who might score a little less but is a fierce defender versus Book who can’t guard a folding chair the majority of his career… not to mention that Brown is also younger as well and has shown to be a big time playoff performer.

He’s too one dimensional and too poor of a defender to be even close to a top 5 player in the league.

 

[AzStevenCal]

He shouldn’t be much lower than Top 5… in the entire league? He’s arguably not even top 5 at SG behind SGA/Ant and Curry annihilate Booker and Harden and even Mitchell could be argued better. Hell, I don’t even know that a strong argument can be made that Devin is better than Jaylen Brown, who might score a little less but is a fierce defender versus Book who can’t guard a folding chair the majority of his career… not to mention that Brown is also younger as well and has shown to be a big time playoff performer.

He’s too one dimensional and too poor of a defender to be even close to a top 5 player in the league.

It's impossible for me to support my position given that I'm talking about what could be rather than what has been but I've seen Devin be an elite defender and I've seen him be an almost unstoppable scoring force. And yes, I've also seen him be one of the worst defenders in the league and I've cringed as run of the mill rotation players outplayed him but I believe health/lifestyle choices and playing out of position have a lot to do with these issues.

 

[how_sweet_it_is]

I've cringed as run of the mill rotation players outplayed him but I believe health/lifestyle choices and playing out of position have a lot to do with these issues.

Interesting...go on. What do we know about Booker's health/lifestyle choices?

 

[Phrazbit]

It’s not the max salary that’s the problem. It’s that there are too many owners willing to give it to players who aren’t worth it that’s the problem.

When you artificially deflate the top end salaries it inevitably inflates the wages of dudes of a lesser tier.

They need to get rid of it, negotiate actual contracts instead of this boiler plate garbage where if you're anything close to an star or can average 20 a game you get a max deal.

I realize it will cause a situation where some team goes out and offers Luka or Giannis 120 million a year... but if they have the cap space, then that is on them.

Denver has 3 guys on "max" deals, Murray and Porter are not guys who should get those salaries but they check these artificial boxes and the expectation is there is no negotiation, they get the "max"... and Denver loses all their role players from a title winner because they're so top heavy.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Interesting...go on. What do we know about Booker's health/lifestyle choices?

Well, we know he's had ongoing hamstring/groin pull problems for several years now. Sometimes he misses games but all too often he plays through the injury and always disappoints when he does. But lifestyle choices? We don't really know anything. It's just speculation based on when he got involved and how he played after that happened, that plus rumors about his active night life.

 

[Covert Rain]

It's impossible for me to support my position given that I'm talking about what could be rather than what has been but I've seen Devin be an elite defender and I've seen him be an almost unstoppable scoring force. And yes, I've also seen him be one of the worst defenders in the league and I've cringed as run of the mill rotation players outplayed him but I believe health/lifestyle choices and playing out of position have a lot to do with these issues.

This part. I think Cheese makes a good point in that this team has been so devoid of consistent PG play and desperate for a leader since CP3 left. Couple with that early in his career they played him a bunch at that position and it's enough to tempt the Suns to take a bite of the forbidden fruit. Point book is a turnover machine. This year he took so many bad 3's as well as he tried to initiate the offense. He then would get paired up with another smaller faster guard on the other end and couldn't stay in front of that person.

 

[Cheesebeef]

This part. I think Cheese makes a good point in that this team has been so devoid of consistent PG play and desperate for a leader since CP3 left. Couple with that early in his career they played him a bunch at that position and it's enough to tempt the Suns to take a bite of the forbidden fruit. Point book is a turnover machine. This year he took so many bad 3's as well as he tried to initiate the offense. He then would get paired up with another smaller faster guard on the other end and couldn't stay in front of that person.

He is also PAINFULLY slow to recognize double teams coming and gets himself caught in a corner which just shouldn’t happen with a SG with “elite point guard skills for a SG”. At least not this late into his career.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

He is also PAINFULLY slow to recognize double teams coming and gets himself caught in a corner which just shouldn’t happen with a SG with “elite point guard skills for a SG”. At least not this late into his career.

This is one of the scariest/craziest things to me. It’s not like he rarely sees it. He’s constantly blitzed and seemingly never knows where to beat the double team. It’s kinda embarrassing to me.

 

[Covert Rain]

By the way since I brought up CP3?!? I was shocked to hear he played in every game this season.

 

[Germz249]

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I just want a job like James Jones where I can screw things up time after time and have all the coach and staff I hire fall on the sword while I am still employed for years making a big salary.

 

[BooksOrangePlanet]

i don't think jj gets canned - if anything he gets moved to a new position - if ish-bia is to blame he doesn't want a disgruntled jj running around telling the rest of the nba why he doesn't have a job any longer

jj either stays as gm or gets a cushy gig with the org

 

[Phrazbit]

i don't think jj gets canned - if anything he gets moved to a new position - if ish-bia is to blame he doesn't want a disgruntled jj running around telling the rest of the nba why he doesn't have a job any longer

jj either stays as gm or gets a cushy gig with the org

These are my thoughts exactly on the situation.

Not that JJ is a nark, but if Ishbia has been running everything, then Ishbia cannot justify firing JJ... and if he DOES fire JJ, then JJ should be well within his rights to say "these moves were out of my control".

If Ishbia fires JJ he needs to have someone immediately lined up, like Bob Myers, someone who justifies the firing. But that said, if you're Bob Myers, why on earth would you risk your legacy for a franchise in the worst position in the NBA and with an EXTREMELY meddlsom and impatient owner?