2023-24 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

Lol..I'd take him with Lebron and AD. Perfect 3rd star.. I'd trade D'Angelo Rui and Gabe for him!! ASAP.

 

Blaming the Suns demise on Vogel is a predictably dense take. They traded all their depth to end up with 3 guys who play the same style of offense and 2 of them play no defense.

No point guard, 3 guys who iso in the midrange, and a roster of minimums. Anyone who watches basketball knew this would be a failure the moment they traded for Beal.

And before G4 Beal had the nerve to say “I’ll be damned if I’m swept” like he hasn’t spent his entire career in the lottery. They’ll fire Vogel and the new coach will have the same result next year. No need to claim to have watched basketball for 50 years to get that prediction right.

 

luka's injured, too. if he's not, that series might already be over. i think okc smashes the clippers in round 2, assuming they get there. they'll be ready for the goon act, and their star is healthy.

i think people are picking a VERY opportune time to get on the kyrie bandwagon, as it's basically the only stretch in the last few years that he seems worth his billing. and his team still might be out in the first round. the main issue with him has been physical and mental health issues, and they crop up FREQUENTLY. if he stays with it long enough to deliver a ring to dallas, people can claim it was smart to sell literally every trade asset we had for nearly a decade to get him. having a big game in a home playoff loss isn't the time to crow about that, though.

usually that means that you probably had them on a lower max deal when you acquired at least one of the other players (or both). this was what slick was missing in our discussion. we, like the suns, had three guys making 40-50 million per year. unless those are three top-10 players, that's not a way to win. the heat are the only team that did something equivalent, and even then, their three salaries still added up to less than the cap. and that was an era with weaker lux tax penalties (really nothing other than money, and not even a lot of that).

the idea that we should trade for a third guy making 40+ million is nuts to me. and phx is the right case study here, as whatever third star available to us will be a beal-like star. nobody is trading us anthony edwards. or luka. or SGA. etc. you're getting lillard or beal or some other guy on his last legs (jimmy butler's probably next in this vein).

again, if we want to aim for a guy making 25-30 million as another reliable 30mpg two-way player, i'm totally in and would spend some firsts to make it happen. but i see no path to a three star model that makes any sense.

 

wonder if the Sixers are firing Nick Nurse if they lose 4 -1 vs Knicks? Would like to have him here, I've been a fan since the Raptors championship run.

 

yeah, i don't think the philly situation is his fault. embiid was hurt in the regular season and is playing hurt now. that's their problem. not sure how to get out of it, as it's like our AD problem (except embiid deserves the mr. glass moniker much more than AD does)--you don't want to be the team that gave up on a generational talent before they suddenly got healthy. NO's got that issue with zion, too.

i think one problem is that people see denver (mpj) and boston (zinger) having luck gambling on guys with big injury red flags to the tune of rings, and they get really squirrely about selling them off.

anyway, yes, nurse would be an upgrade on ham.

 

Suns have a lot of problems, Vogel ain't one of them. Most of this has been said above but...

- you don't hire a defensive coach without giving him anyone willing to defend. None of those 3 are willing to roll up their sleeves or do what's necessary.
- instead he's given 3 of the biggest me-first divas in the league.
- there's no point guard, so on the court organization will suffer.
- there's no leadership on the court. The "3 stars" are beta personalities on the floor.
- injuries were guaranteed.
- depth? What's that?



Stuck with a chump with an injury history, history of losing on an awful Wizards team, and a big contract. Stuck like Chuck.

 

Can we get Vogel back ?

 

So I think we're actually on the same page. When I said its a case-by-case thing, part of it is the contract aspect. If the Bucks decide Lillard isn't the right fit for them, I'm not interested in a declining Lillard at $50 million a year. I'm not interested in Trae Young at $43 million a year, although I think the offensive upside of Trae/LeBron/AD could be pretty awesome. But if Mitchell tells Cleveland he only wants to come to LA (which I seriously doubt happens) and we could actually get him and his $35 million salary for DLo/Vando/JHS/all three picks, you do that without a second thought. If the third star is the right combination of on-court fit with the other two and not so punitive to acquire/have on the cap sheet, it can absolutely be the right way to go.

The part I can't let go of is that LeBron has been wanting to bring in the third guy for a few years now. It's easy to dismiss that after how much of a disaster the Russ trade was, but that was more about Russ the player being actively detrimental to LeBron and AD's skillset and on an incredibly punitive contract on top of that. But when we see LeBron over and over again completely gassed at the end of these Nuggets games and unable to play the matching up hunting game he used to thrive on, its obvious that having the third star that can be the primary creator for stretches would help him a lot. LeBron somehow came back this season at age 39 as a better player than last year, we can't count on him continuing to defy the laws of nature like that. The third star can help offset incremental decline from LeBron in a way that even the best role players can't. It would also be nice to not get run over in the non-LeBron minutes for once.

Mitchell is the only option I can see right now that really makes sense. If (and when, IMO) that doesn't pan out, personally I want them to check in on Mikal Bridges. If we could get him for DLO + picks or DLo/Vando + picks, I'm really intrigued by the idea of essentially starting him at the 2 with Austin at the 1. I want them to check in on Caruso. So if we can't pull of a perfect third star trade, yeah keep building up the role players around LeBron and AD.

 

LOL

But they can't trade him, Knicks does not have anybody even close to 50 millions contract.

 

Bradley Beal’s agent Mark Bartelstein is the father of Phoenix Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein

 

we're not getting a sub-40 million max player. they almost never move, and when they do, they determine it AND they cost a ton.

it was reported that bkn turned down jalen green and multiple firsts for bridges.

my realistic target continues to be jerami grant. portland's bad and won't be good until grant's done being good. rui/vando works money wise. maybe vando is routed for a protected 1st or a middling prospect, then all that plus a first goes with rui to portland.

i'm still not even sure that's a huge upgrade, as one could possibly argue that rui and vando could each be more valuable than grant (whose defense has slipped considerably over time).

anyway, the only path to a star i see is young, and that's a dark path for me.

 

randle and bogdanovic combine for 50 million. the knicks have seen they can win without randle, so i'm guessing he's moving this summer. i figured it would be for donovan mitchell, but they might go for booker, too. booker is also CAA.

man, the knicks nailed it by going with CAA. their client list is strong right now.

i don't get how this works. he had it, but was traded. how could that not have included a waive of that clause? can you temporarily waive it?

 

hope for nothing but the worst for the suns in the future

booker especially. f*** that soft POS