Free Agency 2018

[JCSunsfan]

I like Shaq but he has to go if a better situation presents itself.

Knight, Okobo and Teodosic can all play off ball. Daniels is the one to make sense to go, or just buyout Dudley.

 

[JCSunsfan]

It appears likely that it won’t be him.

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It impacts their cap too.

 

[ColdPickleNachos]

Knight, Okobo and Teodosic can all play off ball. Daniels is the one to make sense to go, or just buyout Dudley.

Strongly agree. Harrison's defense is an asset. I'd love for the Suns to add another point guard, and it should not be at the expense of Harrison or Reed. Daniels makes the most sense to go if the Suns don't make a trade.

 

[Mainstreet]

Strongly agree. Harrison's defense is an asset. I'd love for the Suns to add another point guard, and it should not be at the expense of Harrison or Reed. Daniels makes the most sense to go if the Suns don't make a trade.

Totally agree. The Suns need to make room for Harrison and Reed. They need to keep Harrison even if he is a 4th point guard. Some other team would snatch him up in a millisecond. The Suns need to clean up their roster somewhere else.

 

[1tinsoldier]

Daniels is the one to make sense to go, or just buyout Dudley.

i'd be hesitant to lose Daniels. he might fill a Quentin Richardson role as a 3pt weapon now that we've got an increase of others on the floor demanding the defense's attention

 

[Mainstreet]

Nah. Wait until after the Clips pick up his option and then maybe we trade. But then the Clips will have to take back salary. I am sure they will cut him, if not they will cut Beverly.

The Clippers can't keep everyone.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

i'd be hesitant to lose Daniels. he might fill a Quentin Richardson role as a 3pt weapon now that we've got an increase of others on the floor demanding the defense's attention

I agree with this. He may zero other skills but my gosh he can drain treys. And he is now going to get a TON of open looks. He immediately becomes more valuable with the new talent around him.

 

[Hoop Head]

Totally agree. The Suns need to make room for Harrison and Reed. They need to keep Harrison even if he is a 4th point guard. Some other team would snatch him up in a millisecond. The Suns need to clean up their roster somewhere else.

I think Harrison is more likely to have a Two-Way deal than Reed. If we add another player it will probably be a PG and keeping 4 on the main roster is just too much. We can still see plenty of him on a on Two-Way deal and he can work on his game in the G-League, hopefully able to add a decent outside shot to his arsenal. He's the PG who is probably least skilled at running a team so letting him develop more in the G-League would probably be for the best.

 

[GatorAZ]

Knight, Okobo and Teodosic can all play off ball. Daniels is the one to make sense to go, or just buyout Dudley.

If they think he can make other players better in practice I could buy that. I would probably take that over Dudley’s leadership but Daniels is a legit rotation guy until Bridges/Reed price otherwise.

 

[Superbone]

If it had to be a choice between Daniels and Reed, I'd probably go with Reed since he brings it on the defensive side of the ball as well.

 

[Mainstreet]

I think Harrison is more likely to have a Two-Way deal than Reed. If we add another player it will probably be a PG and keeping 4 on the main roster is just too much. We can still see plenty of him on a on Two-Way deal and he can work on his game in the G-League, hopefully able to add a decent outside shot to his arsenal. He's the PG who is probably least skilled at running a team so letting him develop more in the G-League would probably be for the best.

I think the main thing is the Suns keep Harrison on the 17 slots. IMO, he has the potential to get better as a distributor and he always brings defense to the table. If the Suns make a trade to clear room, I'd like to have him on the 15 man roster.

 

[Hoop Head]

I think the main thing is the Suns keep Harrison on the 17 slots. IMO, he has the potential to get better as a distributor and he always brings defense to the table. If the Suns make a trade to clear room, I'd like to have him on the 15 man roster.

I agree with that. I look forward to the Two-Way deals expanding in the future. I think we'll be seeing changes to them over time because right now there just isn't quite enough time allowed for players to go back and forth, especially when pro-teams are further away from their G-League franchise. The Suns are lucky because it's like a 2 hour road trip between the NAZ Suns and main team but not every team shares a similar proximity to their G-League counterpart. Traveling to and from shouldn't count against their 45 days but it does, currently, and practice or off days also count. So there's room for improvement, which I expect we'll see slowly. Last year was the first year with them so I'm sure they got ideas on how they could work better. 45 days isn't enough though, when you include off days. They need to limit it to a set number of games, I think. I know the NBA wants the G-League to be more of a minor league system and the Two Way deals were a big step in the right direction, now they need to improve those.

 

[Mainstreet]

I agree with that. I look forward to the Two-Way deals expanding in the future. I think we'll be seeing changes to them over time because right now there just isn't quite enough time allowed for players to go back and forth, especially when pro-teams are further away from their G-League franchise. The Suns are lucky because it's like a 2 hour road trip between the NAZ Suns and main team but not every team shares a similar proximity to their G-League counterpart. Traveling to and from shouldn't count against their 45 days but it does, currently, and practice or off days also count. So there's room for improvement, which I expect we'll see slowly. Last year was the first year with them so I'm sure they got ideas on how they could work better. 45 days isn't enough though, when you include off days. They need to limit it to a set number of games, I think. I know the NBA wants the G-League to be more of a minor league system and the Two Way deals were a big step in the right direction, now they need to improve those.

It's nice the NAZ Suns are so close but I guess it still can pose a problem if the Suns are on the road. I'm hoping fans near the Prescott area take advantage of the opportunity to watch the G-League team. I haven't heard much about attendance.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Looks like I was wrong about Milos.

 

[Chaplin]

Does anybody know what the clippers are actually doing? Nothing they've done this offseason makes much sense.

Granted they needed a center to replace Jordan, but why one as old as Gortat?

 

[Mainstreet]

Looks like I was wrong about Milos.

The Suns will have an opportunity to make a trade or pick up another player that is released.

Or maybe they wait.

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[devilalum]

I'm guessing since nothing was reported that Teodosic is still a Clipper.

 

[Hoop Head]

Does anybody know what the clippers are actually doing? Nothing they've done this offseason makes much sense.

Granted they needed a center to replace Jordan, but why one as old as Gortat?

I know @Mr. Boldin was a Clippers fan and seemed to share some insight into some of their moves but he hasn't been around for a little while. I was hoping he'd comment regarding the recent talk of how they currently have 6 PG's but he hasn't posted since FA started on July 1st.

The Clippers resigned Avery Bradley also. They don't seem to be tanking or building a contender, just content with being middle of the pack. Jerry West was brought in when they demoted Doc Rivers from the GM position but other than shedding Blake Griffin's contract they haven't really made any good moves. They haven't made many bad ones either but there have been a few questionable moves that could be seen as bad like the Gortat deal but I guess they could do worse.

 

[Phrazbit]

Does anybody know what the clippers are actually doing? Nothing they've done this offseason makes much sense.

Granted they needed a center to replace Jordan, but why one as old as Gortat?

Cost.

They filled a position of need and got away from the awkward Rivers/Rivers situation before Doc could argue for another dumb contract for his kid and still maintained a huge amount of cap space for free agency next year when the pool looks like it will be deeper.

That one I get.

However, where they're going to find minutes for their army o point guards, my guess would be that Beverly is getting cut. As a 30 year old coming off microfracture, he might be done.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Cost.

They filled a position of need and got away from the awkward Rivers/Rivers situation before Doc could argue for another dumb contract for his kid and still maintained a huge amount of cap space for free agency next year when the pool looks like it will be deeper.

That one I get.

However, where they're going to find minutes for their army o point guards, my guess would be that Beverly is getting cut. As a 30 year old coming off microfracture, he might be done.

Yeah. I don’t want Beverly for that reason so I imagine the Clips could be thinking the same way.

 

[Errntknght]

Propping up his assist to turnover ratio as being so much better than all of those players doesn't tell the whole story. He played in 23 games. That's extremely limited information. His assist to turnover ratio was good but he averaged 16 minutes each game. Looking up more info on him, he only played PG for 59% of the time he was on the floor. That would skew things some. More important than any of that though, he's only played in 3 wins. So while he may look like a decent young player, his assist to turnover ratio is really far too small to tell the whole story.

I'm glad you pointed out Shaq only played in three wins - it confirmed my recollection that he only played at the height of our tanking. Makes it all the more remarkable that he had a plus-minus of +5.8. For comparison, among all our regular rotation players the best plus minus was -8.8 (by Alex Len, no less). (The numbers are per 48 min, which is normal for box score plus-minus results)
Granted the sample size is small but it's all we've got - except for SL where he recorded 33 assists and 9 TO for a 3.7 ratio. SL doesn't mean squat but it is a further hint that he's pretty good on that metric.

You might remember me saying he was so much better than those others, but I didn't say that - I just said he was better on that metric. In fact, 2.5 isn't a particularly good ratio, hopefully he'll improve a good bit with more coaching and playing time - and better shooting by the recipients of his passes.

 

[Mainstreet]

Here is the way I see it. Shaq is a 3rd PG at best unless the Suns do not do anything. His specialty would be defense.

Knight
(trade/free agent)
Harrison
Okobo (not ready to play)

A two-way contract for Harrison might work.

 

[ColdPickleNachos]

Part of this is situational (a large part), and it's a small sample size, but Shaq had by far the best Net Rating of anyone on the Suns last year. I remember noticing that his Plus-Minus was almost always positive, which made him a huge outlier. After seeing him in Summer League, warts and all, I think he's deserving of more than a two-way contract.

https://stats.nba.com/players/advanced/?sort=NET_RATING&dir=-1&Season=2017-18&SeasonType=Regular Season&TeamID=1610612756

 

[Mainstreet]

Part of this is situational (a large part), and it's a small sample size, but Shaq had by far the best Net Rating of anyone on the Suns last year. I remember noticing that his Plus-Minus was almost always positive, which made him a huge outlier. After seeing him in Summer League, warts and all, I think he's deserving of more than a two-way contract.

https://stats.nba.com/players/advanced/?sort=NET_RATING&dir=-1&Season=2017-18&SeasonType=Regular Season&TeamID=1610612756

My main focus was to keep Harrison even if the Suns have to keep 4 point guards. And the worse case scenario is to try to make him a two-way player. I prefer the 1st option.

 

[Phrazbit]

I'm fine for a 2 way contract for Harrison.

But his sample size numbers are really small. Yeah, he had a positive +,- in his limited playing time but he had a +38 in the Dallas Mavericks tanktastic finale, soooooo, that obviously skews things quite a bit.

That final box score is a sight to behold. We put out a pretty putrid squad and the Mavericks countered with a stupendous disaster. Harrison dropped 18-10, Alec Peters scored 36 off the bench, the Mavs were so terrified of winning that even a marginal player like Yogi Farrell only saw 7 minutes, Aaron Harrison played the full 48 minutes for the Mavericks, that one game accounts for 15% of the minutes he's played in his entire 3 year career.