2024-2025 Around the NBA Thread

[gimpy]

I don't think they are, or can, rebuild anything with Ishbia there. He needs to give it up to better basketball people, which I don't think he will do.

 

[Hoop Head]

Why are you looking to add old players.

You still have not accepted where this team is at. We are a rebuilding team like it or not.

If we aren't retooling entirely then I'd be in favor of grabbing those guys from Boston, who was rumored as a KD destination. We may not compete for a championship but we won't be lottery bound as other teams control our picks.

 

[Mainstreet]

Why are you looking to add old players.

You still have not accepted where this team is at. We are a rebuilding team like it or not.

It would have been nice to see the Suns win a championship in my lifetime.

It's still hard to understand that an owner could destroy those dreams in one year.

 

[Hoop Head]

It would have been nice to see the Suns win a championship in my lifetime.

It's still hard to understand that an owner could destroy those dreams in one year.

Hold out for a while longer. I predict your consciousness will be able to be transferred to the cloud though before the Suns win a title. I think we're a few years from those neural links.

 

[Mainstreet]

Hold out for a while longer. I predict your consciousness will be able to be transferred to the cloud though before the Suns win a title. I think we're a few years from those neural links.

I think attaching my neural links to the Suns is the last thing I would want to do. One lifetime is enough.

 

[Proximo]

It would have been nice to see the Suns win a championship in my lifetime.

It's still hard to understand that an owner could destroy those dreams in one year.

There would be a lot of things that were nice if they would come true, but sometimes you just have to accept reality.

OKC, the Wolves, the Spurs and the Rockets all have young cores and are going to be really hard to beat over the next few years. Add in the Lakers with Luka and the Nuggets with Jokic and it's just not realistic to think a team with no draft picks, Booker - who was barely even a top 20 player this year and is already 29, and a 38 yr old KD as our only Assets can possibly compete with any of those teams in the next few years. The KD window was realistically 2 years - and they are over. The expectation should always have been we were going to be non competitive after those 2 years.

Even if we drafted the next Jokic with our late round pick this year it would still take him 3 or so years to get us to become a competitive team.

Ishbia screwed things up, but in all fairness if he made no moves we would only be in a little better position - basically we would still have an inferior team but have our first rounders - but those are far from a sure thing.

 

[Mainstreet]

There would be a lot of things that were nice if they would come true, but sometimes you just have to accept reality.

OKC, the Wolves, the Spurs and the Rockets all have young cores and are going to be really hard to beat over the next few years. Add in the Lakers with Luka and the Nuggets with Jokic and it's just not realistic to think a team with no draft picks, Booker - who was barely even a top 20 player this year and is already 29, and a 38 yr old KD as our only Assets can possibly compete with any of those teams in the next few years. The KD window was realistically 2 years - and they are over. The expectation should always have been we were going to be non competitive after those 2 years.

Even if we drafted the next Jokic with our late round pick this year it would still take him 3 or so years to get us to become a competitive team.

Ishbia screwed things up, but in all fairness if he made no moves we would only be in a little better position - basically we would still have an inferior team but have our first rounders - but those are far from a sure thing.

There is a difference between the Suns reality now and the reality before the Suns made the trade for Durant.

Prior to the KD trade, the Suns had a nice young core, expiring contracts (Saric and Crowder) plus all their draft picks.

The problem is, they chose to gamble the past, present and future on a whimsical notion.

 

[Superbone]

Hold out for a while longer. I predict your consciousness will be able to be transferred to the cloud though before the Suns win a title. I think we're a few years from those neural links.

Somebody has been watching too much Black Mirror.

 

[Ronin]

Kings reportedly hiring former Bulls guard, champion BJ Armstrong as assistant GM

BJ Armstrong was one of Michael Jordan's backcourt mates during Chicago's run to its first three championships.

sports.yahoo.com

 

[Yuma]

They have blown it up in a Suns fashion. Traded Jrue and Middleton for Dame and Kuzma. They also let key role players leave like DiVincenzo. You'd think they lost in the finals by how quick they moved on from starters and their coach, who we just fired as well.

Giannis won't be traded unless he asks. He's a weird guy also and I'm not sure he'll ask. They were clicking this season before the collapse as they won the NBA Cup but ultimately they need depth and injury luck.

I was surprised to see he's already 30 years old. Not ancient, mind you. We are talking about Durant being old at 36, and Giannis is right behind him. Giannis also has to play with speed and athleticism for his game to work, where KD plays more of an old man friendly game. I am not sure a young team would want to go all in on Giannis, then have to rebuild from the pieces you traded away, and hope his is still Giannis several seasons down the road.

 

[Yuma]

It would have been nice to see the Suns win a championship in my lifetime.

It's still hard to understand that an owner could destroy those dreams in one year.

Me too. That's why I watch. Just want to see them do it once. After game two in the Finals against the Bucks, I rode the escalator to the lobby thinking, "This might finally be it." Then Lucy yanked the football away.

 

[Proximo]

There is a difference between the Suns reality now and the reality before the Suns made the trade for Durant.

Prior to the KD trade, the Suns had a nice young core, expiring contracts (Saric and Crowder) plus all their draft picks.

The problem is, they chose to gamble the past, present and future on a whimsical notion.

So subtract KD and add Cam and Mikal to this years team - would they have been that much better?

They probably would have been a little better, but would they be able to beat any Western conference playoff team this year? I don't think so.

The truth is the only reason we were able to go the finals that year is we got the last gasp of good play out of CP3 - it was already gone by the time we made the deal for KD. We weren't a good team anymore.

Would I prefer we did not make the KD deal, absolutely, but you shouldn't pretend we were going to compete for a title if we didn't make the move.

 

[AzStevenCal]

So subtract KD and add Cam and Mikal to this years team - would they have been that much better?

They probably would have been a little better, but would they be able to beat any Western conference playoff team this year? I don't think so.

The truth is the only reason we were able to go the finals that year is we got the last gasp of good play out of CP3 - it was already gone by the time we made the deal for KD. We weren't a good team anymore.

Would I prefer we did not make the KD deal, absolutely, but you shouldn't pretend we were going to compete for a title if we didn't make the move.

I mostly agree with your post but I don't believe it was just because we got the last of CP3, we also had a big man who usually played like he was a top 10 center (despite how frustrated we were with him) and we had a physical 4 playing next to him. We didn't just tail off because CP3 dropped off a cliff, we tailed off because of the disappearance of Crowder, Ayton and Payne too. That roster wasn't going to win it all but we had a lot to work with to build towards a true contender.

 

[Mainstreet]

So subtract KD and add Cam and Mikal to this years team - would they have been that much better?

They probably would have been a little better, but would they be able to beat any Western conference playoff team this year? I don't think so.

The truth is the only reason we were able to go the finals that year is we got the last gasp of good play out of CP3 - it was already gone by the time we made the deal for KD. We weren't a good team anymore.

Would I prefer we did not make the KD deal, absolutely, but you shouldn't pretend we were going to compete for a title if we didn't make the move.

What is forgotten, there were a myriad of other trades the Suns could have made if they didn't trade for Durant and Beal.

There were a boatload of trades the Suns could have made all while keeping their core players, even if that meant replacing Chris Paul.

 

[Covert Rain]

I mostly agree with your post but I don't believe it was just because we got the last of CP3, we also had a big man who usually played like he was a top 10 center (despite how frustrated we were with him) and we had a physical 4 playing next to him. We didn't just tail off because CP3 dropped off a cliff, we tailed off because of the disappearance of Crowder, Ayton and Payne too. That roster wasn't going to win it all but we had a lot to work with to build towards a true contender.

This. There a ton wrong with that team including being mentally soft. That wasn’t changing without moves. The KD move wasn’t the right one but we still would had to have big chances.

 

[Cheesebeef]

This. There a ton wrong with that team including being mentally soft. That wasn’t changing without moves. The KD move wasn’t the right one but we still would had to have big chances.

I don’t know about big chances. Better chances yes. But our most attractive assets were still gonna be Mikal and a boatload of picks and we’ve seen that Booker isn’t close to a number one so Mikal likely would have been a centerpiece to try and get a legit number one. But yeah… def would have had better chances and a more flexible future than the chances and future the KD trade doomed them to.

 

[Covert Rain]

I don’t know about big chances. Better chances yes. But our most attractive assets were still gonna be Mikal and a boatload of picks and we’ve seen that Booker isn’t close to a number one so Mikal likely would have been a centerpiece to try and get a legit number one. But yeah… def would have had better chances and a more flexible future than the chances and future the KD trade doomed them to.

Well I consider getting a number one in here a big change. To me that always had to happen. It just ends up KD wasn’t that number one.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Well I consider getting a number one in here a big change. To me that always had to happen. It just ends up KD wasn’t that number one.

Right. So that was the wrong move. Bridges and a boatload of picks might have gotten us a better one moving forward.

 

[Ronin]

Clippers likely run it back with Harden, Leonard, 'I definitely believe in those two' GM Frank says

The Clippers don't control their own draft pick until 2030, so a tear down and rebuild is off the table.

sports.yahoo.com

 

[Ronin]

Former Lakers star Byron Scott is accused of sexually assaulting a girl 38 years ago

Byron Scott is accused in a lawsuit of the sexual assault of a 15-year-old Campbell Hall School student in 1987 when he was 26 and a Lakers star.

www.yahoo.com

 

[Proximo]

What is forgotten, there were a myriad of other trades the Suns could have made if they didn't trade for Durant and Beal.

There were a boatload of trades the Suns could have made all while keeping their core players, even if that meant replacing Chris Paul.

The point is Paul's starpower needed to be replaced. Making side moves without touching Mikal, Cam, Booker, Ayton and being able to replace that is quite unlikely. To me the only way it could have been done is getting lucky in the draft.

With that said, other than Wemby, I can't think of one draft pick in the last couple years - and especially none that weren't a top 10 pick that has that kind of star power.

Now if we had just drafted Haliburton, that would have gone a long way - but we didn't.

 

[Hoop Head]

The point is Paul's starpower needed to be replaced. Making side moves without touching Mikal, Cam, Booker, Ayton and being able to replace that is quite unlikely. To me the only way it could have been done is getting lucky in the draft.

With that said, other than Wemby, I can't think of one draft pick in the last couple years - and especially none that weren't a top 10 pick that has that kind of star power.

Now if we had just drafted Haliburton, that would have gone a long way - but we didn't.

We could have used those picks in addition to Cam or Ayton to either move up or add a star like player who is closer to Booker's age, perhaps even younger. Instead they gambled on a very short window that didn't extend the competitive window but gave it an expiration date.

 

[AzStevenCal]

We could have used those picks in addition to Cam or Ayton to either move up or add a star like player who is closer to Booker's age, perhaps even younger. Instead they gambled on a very short window that didn't extend the competitive window but gave it an expiration date.

Yeah, it was a horrible move in so many ways. First off, we just weren't close enough to winning it all to justify going all in on a KD trade, not even if we could have hung onto Mikal and a pick or two. Secondly, we grossly overpaid just with the players and the number of picks we surrendered. On top of that, we made that overpayment even worse when we didn't insist on protecting those picks. Somewhere there was a team that could have won it all with a KD trade, we weren't that team.

 

[Mainstreet]

The point is Paul's starpower needed to be replaced. Making side moves without touching Mikal, Cam, Booker, Ayton and being able to replace that is quite unlikely. To me the only way it could have been done is getting lucky in the draft.

With that said, other than Wemby, I can't think of one draft pick in the last couple years - and especially none that weren't a top 10 pick that has that kind of star power.

Now if we had just drafted Haliburton, that would have gone a long way - but we didn't.

The Suns needed to be patient and let opportunity come to them rather chasing afteran aging, off injured, over-priced star.

They were stocked with draft picks and expiring contracts, plus a young core less Chris Paul. We will never know what trades that may have come across the desk of James Jones.

Yes, the Suns not drafting Haliburton is a mistake that will not go away.

 

[Hoop Head]

Yeah, it was a horrible move in so many ways. First off, we just weren't close enough to winning it all to justify going all in on a KD trade, not even if we could have hung onto Mikal and a pick or two. Secondly, we grossly overpaid just with the players and the number of picks we surrendered. On top of that, we made that overpayment even worse when we didn't insist on protecting those picks. Somewhere there was a team that could have won it all with a KD trade, we weren't that team.

I think the deal that would have most easily filled our needs, a replacement for CP3, would have been making a Dame deal when the year was done. Portland was headed to the lottery and end up blowing it up and trading Lillard for a couple of picks and our youth. I still don't understand how Milwaukee essentially swapped Holiday and Grayson for Lillard while we sacrificed the young talent to Portland in exchange for Nurkic. There was zero reasons the Suns should have facilitated that deal. In an alternate reality we would have been in a prime spot to flip Paul's expiring deal plus Camara, Ayton, and a pick for Nurkic and Dame. We still have the twins and 3/4 of our draft picks. Portland probably does the same move Washington did, swapping Paul for Poole, so it's all leveled out except Milwaukee and Phoenix don't blow it up.