Welcome Cam Johnson

[Dr. Jones]

COMPLETELY disagree with most of that list. Come on Chris.

What kool-aid is there to drink? He was the #11 pick in a crap draft. You guys are all acting like we passed on Michael Jordan to draft Sam Bowie. Ridiculous.

Look at it this way...... In a crap draft we doubled our odds of finding a good player by trading one away for the honor to move back in the crap draft.

Then to top it off...... We decided to up our level of risk on someone with one of the lowest ceilings in the top 20.

Here are the consensus rankings..

SI - #24
Sporting News - #20
CBS Sports - #14
ESPN - #30
NBADraft.net - #37
The Ringer - #33
Bleacher Report - #26
Forbes - #27
FiveThirtyEight - #38
NBADraftRoom - #21
247Sports - #22

Average ranking 26.5.

I don't care. That's the whole point. For most of those, figuring out who goes #9 - #25 is like picking names out of a hat. You obviously think this draft is much better than it actually is IMO.

Did you also check to see how far Brandon Clarke fell? He's the board's golden boy at this point.

Ahh... .You didn't care anyways. Never mind then.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

I suppose time will tell if Cam was actually a reach or not, but I know I don't see much value in arguing about what other unknown we should have taken in a weak draft class.

The one thing I am glad about in the Cam pick is that it shows conviction in getting the guy that you truly want and not simply taking the player that consensus says you should take to get the most value.

They likely could have gambled and moved back another 5-10 spots to get more value, but they either wanted Cam too badly to take that chance or teams just weren't chomping at the bit to move up to 11 for anyone that was still on the board. Either way I am glad that they got someone that they were apparently so high on and until I see it fail or succeed on the court I am not going to put much stock into whether the general consensus agreed with the pick or not.

 

[Mainstreet]

If we had traded #6 for Saric and a pick in the late teens or twenties (I know Minnesota did not have a pick in that range, just a hypothetical) and taken Cam, I not sure people would have cared that much. To me, the key asset attained in the trade down is Saric. I know he only has a year left, but he is a RFA so he will be in our control. We traded down and got a starting pf that we KNOW is an NBA player. I am not sure there was anyone at #6 that was a guaranteed NBA player let alone an already proven starter (Philly, playoff team).

I agree, there are lots of ways to look at it.

Also the Suns have the option of extending Saric before he becomes a RFA although my guess is they will hold onto their expiring assets to see if they can trade for a star.

 

[Krangodnzr]

I could give a rat's butt about where a player was projected to go after like the first ten picks.

Look at every draft for the past 20 years, and there are way more misses than hits.

I'm not annoyed that the Suns identified a guy that filled a particular skill set they desperately needed. Like @Chaplin stated, look at all the players drafted ahead of Cam Johnson and tell me how, clearly, they fit what the Suns needed better? It's obvious the plan was always to add a veteran PG, so guys like Coby White and Garland weren't really being considered. All the bigs didn't offer the floor stretching ability Cam Johnson offers.

If Amin Elhassan can say that the Suns had a B offseason, I think the critics on this board should take note of that, since he obviously loves hating on the Suns.

 

[JCSunsfan]

I suppose time will tell if Cam was actually a reach or not, but I know I don't see much value in arguing about what other unknown we should have taken in a weak draft class.

The one thing I am glad about in the Cam pick is that it shows conviction in getting the guy that you truly want and not simply taking the player that consensus says you should take to get the most value.

They likely could have gambled and moved back another 5-10 spots to get more value, but they either wanted Cam too badly to take that chance or teams just weren't chomping at the bit to move up to 11 for anyone that was still on the board. Either way I am glad that they got someone that they were apparently so high on and until I see it fail or succeed on the court I am not going to put much stock into whether the general consensus agreed with the pick or not.

Or maybe Saric was the greater target. Yeah, the could have moved back farther, but Minny did not have a later pick.

 

[JCSunsfan]

I agree, there are lots of ways to look at it.

Also the Suns have the option of extending Saric before he becomes a RFA although my guess is they will hold onto their expiring assets to see if they can trade for a star.

I agree, I do not see value in extending Saric early, unless he really blows up early and he wants to sign at bargain-basement level. Even then, it limits options.

 

[Krangodnzr]

I use the term only to describe the after-draft discourse regarding how good this guy could actually be. It's a mild turn-of-phrase.

He is more of a known quantity than an unknown at this point. A sweet-shooting, and un-athletic wing player who will have serious trouble creating his own shot while being destined to be a role player at best in the league. With an injury history that would make anyone wonder what type of stuff the front office was tripping on when they traded back and then took him 7 to 10 picks too early.

No sense trying to drink the kool-aid here. Especially since we had better PG options at our original spot than the one we chose to horribly overpay for the next 3 years.

We gave two wings away this offseason, then took a wing in the draft. A lesser one than the two we had.
We needed a PG and had the opportunity to draft one but instead overpaid a career middle of the road PG.

My fearless prediction is that Coby White won't ever be as good as Ricky Rubio.

 

[Chaplin]

My fearless prediction is that Coby White won't ever be as good as Ricky Rubio.

What's funny is that them's fightin' words, even with people that don't like Coby White!

 

[Krangodnzr]

What's funny is that them's fightin' words, even with people that don't like Coby White!

Ricky Rubio is a legitimate starting PG in the NBA. I don't get why people dislike him so much.

For Coby White to even be a starting NBA PG, he's going to have to grow substantially.

 

[Chaplin]

Ricky Rubio is a legitimate starting PG in the NBA. I don't get why people dislike him so much.

For Coby White to even be a starting NBA PG, he's going to have to grow substantially.

Only thing I can think is that people in the league really have short memories. He had a "down" year for him last year, so everyone is assuming it will continue. I don't think that's a given at all.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

Or maybe Saric was the greater target. Yeah, the could have moved back farther, but Minny did not have a later pick.

I was more so talking about doing another trade back after the first trade, but either the Suns didn't want to chance losing the guy they wanted or teams didn't see enough value in trading up to 11 with what was left on the board.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Only thing I can think is that people in the league really have short memories. He had a "down" year for him last year, so everyone is assuming it will continue. I don't think that's a given at all.

I think it's more he's only had one really good year in his entire career (I guess that was his first year on the Jazz where he shot a career high 41.8% from 2 and 35% from 3), got dumped by his team who realized they needed a big upgrade at PG if they were ever going to really contend and he did next to nothing to help the Wolves win during his entire tenure there.

He's a journeyman starting PG. Now, that's A LOT better than the utter trash we've had there the last couple years, but big picture, I just don't think he excites people all that much.

I mean... are people supposed to get really excited by a guy who's on his third team at age 28, who's career averages are 11 pp., 7.7 assists, 4 rebounds, shooting 38% FG, 32% from 3? That's kinda as pedestrian as numbers get overall.

And while I'm not "excited" and think he's a band-aid, he should be able to help this team get out from under the complete and utter disgustingdom they've been mired in. Also hoping he rebounds at the same rate he did prior to this year. 4.5 boards a game isn't huge, but every little bit helps, especially getting that from the PG position.

The most interesting thing to me about his shooting is that he is a REALLY good FT shooter at 84% but the rest of his shooting is just abysmal for the majority of his career.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I agree, I do not see value in extending Saric early, unless he really blows up early and he wants to sign at bargain-basement level. Even then, it limits options.

if the suns see the same thing, it's really questionable to trade away the 6th pick in the draft for a guy you don't value enough to extend as part of the future. that's one of my biggest issues with that trade. trading for a guy on a one year contract that you're hoping to sign to a bargain-basement level contract, and only if he blows up doesn't seem like great asset management to me.

 

[Krangodnzr]

I think it's more he's only had one really good year in his entire career (I guess that was his first year on the Jazz where he shot a career high 41.8% from 2 and 35% from 3), got dumped by his team who realized they needed a big upgrade at PG if they were ever going to really contend and he did next to nothing to help the Wolves win during his entire tenure there.

He's a journeyman starting PG. Now, that's A LOT better than the utter trash we've had there the last couple years, but big picture, I just don't think he excites people all that much.

I mean... are people supposed to get really excited by a guy who's on his third team at age 28, who's career averages are 11 pp., 7.7 assists, 4 rebounds, shooting 38% FG, 32% from 3? That's kinda as pedestrian as numbers get overall.

And while I'm not "excited" and think he's a band-aid, he should be able to help this team get out from under the complete and utter disgustingdom they've been mired in. Also hoping he rebounds at the same rate he did prior to this year. 4.5 boards a game isn't huge, but every little bit helps, especially getting that from the PG position.

The most interesting thing to me about his shooting is that he is a REALLY good FT shooter at 84% but the rest of his shooting is just abysmal for the majority of his career.

I think the Jazz HAD to dump him since Gobert and Favors are such a weird combo of non-shooters to have on the court in the modern NBA. That puts more pressure on other players to pick up the slack, and that really isn't Rubio's game.

 

[Krangodnzr]

trading for a guy on a one year contract that you're hoping to sign to a bargain-basement level contract, and only if he blows up doesn't seem like great asset management to me.

I think we are seeing a completely different paradigm from James Jones. He doesn't seem to view players as an "asset".

 

[Krangodnzr]

Only thing I can think is that people in the league really have short memories. He had a "down" year for him last year, so everyone is assuming it will continue. I don't think that's a given at all.

The chances that Coby White matches Rubio's down year aren't even that good.

Look through the last ten years of NBA drafts, and the majority of PGs drafted in the top 15 down ever post a year like what Rubio had last year.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I think we are seeing a completely different paradigm from James Jones. He doesn't seem to view players as an "asset".

i don't even know what that means, but ok.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I think the Jazz HAD to dump him since Gobert and Favors are such a weird combo of non-shooters to have on the court in the modern NBA. That puts more pressure on other players to pick up the slack, and that really isn't Rubio's game.

Favors isn't on the team anymore and I'm pretty sure they knew that was going to be the case going into the off-season. I think they dumped him because they know he is what he is... an average at best PG, who's lack of shooting made him a bad fit next to their version of Booker and they knew that if they ever wanted to really challenge for the title, they needed to upgrade that position with a true floor-leader who's made deep runs in the playoffs, plays very good D and can shoot, score and create for others.

 

[Mainstreet]

The Suns can free a boatload of money next summer and if Saric blows up that they can match any offer he receives.

Meanwhile the Suns have a starting power forward on a $3,481,985 contract.

It's not a bad move to me.

 

[Cheesebeef]

The Suns can free a boatload of money next summer and if Saric blows up that they can match any offer he receives.

Meanwhile the Suns have a starting power forward on a $3,481,985 contract.

they have a band-aid at PF as far as I'm concerned. They made the classic Suns move of... ah, forget it.

 

[Krangodnzr]

Favors isn't on the team anymore and I'm pretty sure they knew that was going to be the case going into the off-season. I think they dumped him because they know he is what he is... an average at best PG, who's lack of shooting made him a bad fit next to their version of Booker and they knew that if they ever wanted to really challenge for the title, they needed to upgrade that position with a true floor-leader who's made deep runs in the playoffs, plays very good D and can shoot, score and create for others.

Good point. Shoots down my theory a bit.

 

[Mainstreet]

The Saric trade can be viewed as a band-aid or a fix. The important part is the Suns get to decide.

 

[Cheesebeef]

The Saric trade can be viewed as a band-aid or a fix. The important part is the Suns get to decide.

they really don't. he gets to decide in the end. if he has a good season... which we HOPE he does, in what everyone's calling a terrible FA market, he might get a contract bigger than we want to spend, even as an RFA. Or he could decide to go back and play overseas. And then if he's gone, we have very little to show for our trade unless Cam ends up being a much bigger difference maker than anyone projects him to be.

 

[SirStefan32]

I really wasn't up to speed on most players drafted this year. I was a not happy they passed on Clarke to take Johnson, but honestly, if Johnson is who they wanted, I couldn't possibly care less if he was taken at #11 or #17, or whatever. If he is the player they wanted, I am fine with wherever he was drafted.

 

[Mainstreet]

they really don't. he gets to decide in the end. if he has a good season... which we HOPE he does, in what everyone's calling a terrible FA market, he might get a contract bigger than we want to spend, even as an RFA. Or he could decide to go back and play overseas. And then if he's gone, we have very little to show for our trade unless Cam ends up being a much bigger difference maker than anyone projects him to be.

If Saric has a good season the Suns have the option to match as a RFA. True the Suns might have to pay more if he has a good season.

If Saric has a bad season the Suns can let him walk. I doubt if Saric chooses to go overseas if he has a good season because the NBA pays better. There is an element of risk but it is acceptable for a power forward.