Absolutely do not want him for all of these reasons. I think you'd get a short term boost by adding him, but it's not worth the risk.
I think we should just upgrade the shooting guard spot. Jalen for Derrick White would be perfect next to Amen.
I was exploring this earlier, and with Boston being a second apron team, I'm not sure how to make the salaries work on a Jalen for White deal. They can't aggregate player salaries in a trade, and Jalen gets paid more than White does next season. If anyone knows a way, let me know, but right now I'm not seeing how to do this one. In any case, I feel like White is possibly/probably an upgrade over either FVV or Jalen, but do keep in mind he's over 30 now. I personally would really rather add a Coby White type of dude who fits our timeline better, rather than another guy in the grey area of "when's he gonna have a permanent decline in his capabilities" like Fred is.
KD is 37 and has played an average of 54 games per year the past 5 seasons. Look at what is happening to the Cavs w Injuries. They had an incredible regular season, but lost their first two games at home in the East Semis. We dealt w enough injuries in the Yao/TMac era, I don't want another player w a messed up foot on this team.
We would have to include all the Phoenix picks for it to be fair value and the Celtics would still say no. Jalen Green is not piece that contenders want. He's a piece for a rebuilding/tanking team. He's also on a really bad contract and the Celtics are trying to decrease salary.
I saw a Durant trade proposal to the Clippers and thought we could turn that into a 3-way deal that would upgrade our SG spot. This is my variation on the theme- Suns trade Durant to the Clippers. Suns receive Jalen Green, Bogdan Bodgdanovic and their own 2027 first round pick back from the Rockets. Rockets receive Norm Powell, Derrick Jones Jr and the Clippers 2031 first. Clippers get another future hall-of-famer. Suns get control back of an upcoming first round pick and Jalen Green holds some promise for their depressed fan base. Rockets get a vastly more efficient shooting guard and a solid depth piece in DJJ. Rockets give up the Phoenix pick but get another solid asset with the Clippers 2031 first. Thoughts? If your opinion is that Jalen Green is already a better player than Norm Powell that your opinion is invalid and please keep your delusions to yourself.
There are 3 ways to improve your team: trade, draft, FA. Outside of Cooper Flagg who in the draft is going to make us significantly better next year, Dylan Harper? Which FA can we sign with denying all of our caps holds and not picking up FVVs option? Giddey? We don't have the money. Therefore, we are looking at trade. FVV and Green now and Brooks eventually will not be on this team. We can blow our wad on Booker and Giannis in one shot and get very little in return and NEVER win. We can pray for Edwards and Luka in one hand and **** in the other because that's not happening. OR we can look at "discounted" stars like KD and even Harden. NOBODY wanted Butler. How about now? Tell me of better options out there and I will listen. Mathloom provides the level of what I am willing to trade for KD. If we had KD right now we would defeat the TWolves and at least scare the living **** out of the Thunder. He might have been enough to push us over the edge. If we run back what we have we are NOT #2 in the West. I guarantee you other teams aren't just running it back except OKC so this is a moving target and that is the mistake people always make with the run it back argument. We can be aggressive and safe in pursuing options. Its called calculated risk for a reason. I say compete now and compete later with "discounted" stars. If our owner is not willing to go into the tax then why even talk about competing. I know our team SUCKS at shooting and someone is out there available now that helps immensely with that problem.
I think a better path would be to get a spacing big man like Naz Reid to pair with Sengun. That way Sengun can continue to play power forward which he excels at and we can fix our spacing issues. FVV, Amen, Brooks, Sengun, Naz This would be a tough defensive lineup and would give Amen the opportunity to handle the ball more. I think upgrading the SG position is hard because there isn't a ton of good options outside of Booker and Amen has shown that he can be a primary ball handler.
Any chance KD forces a buyout in the last year of his deal? I understand Phoenix really can’t afford to lose him for nothing, but if things go south between the two sides and the implosion continues, Phoenix doesn’t really have much leverage.
He's played 77 and 76 games over the past 2 years. What more do you want? He would probably be our 10th man in the rotation. He would be one of the league's best 10th men. He's an excellent defensive player shooting 35.6% from 3. Also an elite lob threat comparable to Amen. His contract is reasonable and could be included in a future deal.
Jalen + Brooks + 2025 PHX Pick seems like really fair value for KD, anything more I start to question if I’d do it
Dew it, though we would probably need Bogdan instead of Jones Jr. We need shooters and we wouldnt have Harden to toss him insane lob passes so he would be nearly useless.
I don’t think we can trade the 25 pick unless somehow we acquire a 2026 pick. We could pick for the other team and then trade it.
Bogi is better offensively but DJJ is much better defensively and has a better contract. I'd rather DJJ at $10 million than Bogi at $16 million. I'd be Ok with either in that deal though.
