Suns 2025-2026 Season Discussion

[taz02]

Oso will never be a significant piece of a championship team if he can't shoot or at least hit free throws. When he touches the ball outside the free throw line opposing defenders don't bother to even guard him. If you can't shoot you have to be great at something else.

The front court needs addressed, and we have the assets to do it. Let's get it done.

 

[phillycard]

Congrats on a good season guys despite expectations. My Sixers will be joining you on the couch tonight.

Heeeeeeeeeyyyy! We live on! (for now.LOL)

 

[95pro]

It's crazy that a guy that can whip a bounce pass through defenders in the paint can't make even half his free throws. It has never made sense to me how some of these guys are good enough to make it into the NBA but will shoot outside shots like it's the first time they've ever touched a basketball.

Like, how Barkley looks like he's never hit a golf ball before every time he does his back swing, and he KNOWS his swing sucks but can't fix it.

Its actually been fixed for a while now

 

[Superbone]

Heeeeeeeeeyyyy! We live on! (for now.LOL)

Best of luck! Would love to see Boston go down. Their fans left an ugly taste in my mouth last time they were in our arena.

 

[Adrian]

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[Adrian]

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[Adrian]

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[GatorAZ]

If Minnesota is trying to lower their tax hit. We take on an additional 10-ish mil which keeps us under the tax for 4-5m. We could probably dump Royce’s salary to re-sign Gillespie. We would likely have to let Mark Williams walk and bet on Maluach.

Green ($33.3m)
Dunn ($2.6m)

for

Randle ($30.8m)
DiVencenzo ($12m - and won’t play next year)

Rotation:
Gillespie, Goodwin
Booker, Allen
Brooks/Fleming
Randle, Fleming
Oso/Maluach

 

[Phrazbit]

If Minnesota is trying to lower their tax hit. We take on an additional 10-ish mil which keeps us under the tax for 4-5m. We could probably dump Royce’s salary to re-sign Gillespie. We would likely have to let Mark Williams walk and bet on Maluach.

Green ($33.3m)
Dunn ($2.6m)

for

Randle ($30.8m)
DiVencenzo ($12m - and won’t play next year)

Rotation:
Gillespie, Goodwin
Booker, Allen
Brooks/Fleming
Randle, Fleming
Oso/Maluach

As much as I dislike Randle, this does make sense for us.

However, I don't see how this makes sense for Minnesota. If it was O'Neale and Grayson, I think they do it... but then I think it's a bad trade for us.

Their front court is eating up an ugly portion of their cap space, but I think they can find better ways of balancing it than Jalen Green.

They are in a bind though. They're dropping 120+ million on Reid (a backup) and McDaniels who's like... diet Mikal Bridges, Randle, who's Julius Randle and Gobert who's the only one with positive trade value but... it's Rudy Gobert! Everyone hates Rudy Gobert!

With DiVencenzo out for the year, their back court is in desperate need for help.

Even so, I don't see how they convince themselves that Green is the answer. He's homeless man's Edwards. I don't know how they share the court together.

 

[Proximo]

Oso will never be a significant piece of a championship team if he can't shoot or at least hit free throws. When he touches the ball outside the free throw line opposing defenders don't bother to even guard him. If you can't shoot you have to be great at something else.

The front court needs addressed, and we have the assets to do it. Let's get it done.

Oso knows that has to be fixed, and has said as much. I think he will at least get the free throw issue fixed. Granted without a jumper and his lack of size you still don't want him playing in the playoffs.

Personally I don't consider backup center to be a very critical piece of a team. I don't want to give up many assets for that since if you have a good center they should only get 12-15 minutes a game.

 

[Proximo]

As much as I dislike Randle, this does make sense for us.

However, I don't see how this makes sense for Minnesota. If it was O'Neale and Grayson, I think they do it... but then I think it's a bad trade for us.

Their front court is eating up an ugly portion of their cap space, but I think they can find better ways of balancing it than Jalen Green.

They are in a bind though. They're dropping 120+ million on Reid (a backup) and McDaniels who's like... diet Mikal Bridges, Randle, who's Julius Randle and Gobert who's the only one with positive trade value but... it's Rudy Gobert! Everyone hates Rudy Gobert!

With DiVencenzo out for the year, their back court is in desperate need for help.

Even so, I don't see how they convince themselves that Green is the answer. He's homeless man's Edwards. I don't know how they share the court together.

I don't want Randle for any price. He is not good defensively, and he takes to many shots. He just isn't a player on a winning basketball team.

 

[Mainstreet]

If Minnesota is trying to lower their tax hit. We take on an additional 10-ish mil which keeps us under the tax for 4-5m. We could probably dump Royce’s salary to re-sign Gillespie. We would likely have to let Mark Williams walk and bet on Maluach.

Green ($33.3m)
Dunn ($2.6m)

for

Randle ($30.8m)
DiVencenzo ($12m - and won’t play next year)

Rotation:
Gillespie, Goodwin
Booker, Allen
Brooks/Fleming
Randle, Fleming
Oso/Maluach

I don't like that trade at all. Jalen Green is the closest thing the Suns have to a second star and Randle will turn 32 in November.

 

[GatorAZ]

I don't like that trade at all. Jalen Green is the closest thing the Suns have to a second star and Randle will turn 32 in November.

Brooks is more of a star than Jalen. Green is a low IQ player.

 

[GatorAZ]

I don't want Randle for any price. He is not good defensively, and he takes to many shots. He just isn't a player on a winning basketball team.

Yeah he’s in decline but usually good his first season with a new team. Trying to think of way to add some scoring down low.

Mark Williams can’t really be counted on for anything at this point. He’s never finished a season.

 

[Proximo]

Yeah he’s in decline but usually good his first season with a new team. Trying to think of way to add some scoring down low.

Mark Williams can’t really be counted on for anything at this point. He’s never finished a season.

Zion is 5 times better an option than Randle. Yes he will cost a bit more, but it would be worth it.

 

[Mainstreet]

Brooks is more of a star than Jalen. Green is a low IQ player.

Getting older is not the answer. The Suns have to think long term.

 

[Hoop Head]

Zion is 5 times better an option than Randle. Yes he will cost a bit more, but it would be worth it.

I don't understand anyone thinking Zion is the answer for Williams availability issues. Zion misses about the same number of games as Williams and makes max money. I'd rather run it back with Mark for a 1/4 of the cost of Zion.

 

[Hoop Head]

Personally I don't consider backup center to be a very critical piece of a team. I don't want to give up many assets for that since if you have a good center they should only get 12-15 minutes a game.

Backup Center is vastly underappreciated. Not having a backup C in the finals was a large reason Milwaukee won and we lost. Say what you want about Ayton but he was also much better that year than Oso or Maluach figure to be this next season also which makes the need for a quality backup more important.

 

[Mainstreet]

Backup Center is vastly underappreciated. Not having a backup C in the finals was a large reason Milwaukee won and we lost. Say what you want about Ayton but he was also much better that year than Oso or Maluach figure to be this next season also which makes the need for a quality backup more important.

Yeah, if a team were set at the other four positions, they could succeed with rotation centers.

The Suns need to stock up on 4/5s that can play there and cross their fingers Maluach and Fleming develop.

 

[BooksOrangePlanet]

fleming and maluach is everything - year #2 with the same crew should come with obvious improvement but it all depends on those two (and ryan dunn)

we're not trading for any big names - we're not drafting top 10 or top 20 or 30 or even 40 - there is no help on the way - nobody's coming

theoretically fleming and maluach will be our draft picks this year - they were drafted as projects and played only when necessary but every second spent on the court got them ahead of "project" schedule

 

[leclerc]

Oh no, please don't try that these are our draft picks and show us existing players. Suns FO did that with Amaré one year. Just admit we have no picks (or a late second rounder or whatever). FO screwed up trading all those future picks. We've got to live with that. Go Suns!

 

[Proximo]

I don't understand anyone thinking Zion is the answer for Williams availability issues. Zion misses about the same number of games as Williams and makes max money. I'd rather run it back with Mark for a 1/4 of the cost of Zion.

I'm sorry even when available Mark Williams does nothing for you. He's not a good rim defender, rebounder or scorer. I seriously would rather play Khaman

Zion is an elite interior scorer. That is a straight advantage in getting teams in foul trouble and having a legit second option when the 3 isn't falling. He has injury concerns as well, but at least when he does play he is a needle mover.

 

[Proximo]

Backup Center is vastly underappreciated. Not having a backup C in the finals was a large reason Milwaukee won and we lost. Say what you want about Ayton but he was also much better that year than Oso or Maluach figure to be this next season also which makes the need for a quality backup more important.

I'm not saying it doesn't matter at all, just that it is not an area to put a large portion of your cap space into.

Did you watch Maluach's starts towards the end of the season? In my opinion he is already better than Ayton - I mean current Ayton. He can't score well, but in terms of rim protection and rebounding he is way better already. Believe me until the last 20 games of the season I was seriously concerned about Maluach's future, but he made huge strides at the end of the season, and just the fact he did improve means that it is likely to continue if given time.