I don't think you're grasping the trade rules. If we're receiving $54m, we have to send out roughly $54m no matter if it's a direct trade or other teams are involved. We're not under the cap so we can't circumvent that. If another team is brought into the trade, all they can do is absorb a salary (and they will require payment in the form of a FRP). They can't send salary on our behalf. An example is if our offer is FVV, Landale, Whitmore and #10. Let's say Phoenix have no interest in keeping FVV and want to dump his salary. A team with cap space like Brooklyn can take the salary off their hands without trading salary back - and for that they would require an extra pick from Phoenix or Houston (not a crappy pick because that's a near-max level salary). Neither team seems interested in coughing up an extra pick to do that. That wouldn't allow us to send fewer contracts out. Bottom line is: FVV and Landale Or Brooks and Green Or Green, Jabari, Landale and Holiday Then you sprinkle in the draft pick(s) and/or Whitmore. Out of these options, we're obviously not going to prefer trading two starters and the best pick on the market. Keep in mind the Suns hold 3 future first round picks already. You trade them two starters and #10 they will rebuild relatively quickly and all our future Suns picks become mediocre. That would be a catastrophic self-sabotage for us. The best solution is trading assets that will be good in the future rather than now (#10, Whitmore) and assets that have low/short value (FVV, Landale).
Ishbia making a fool of himself being hands-on this summer. The rest of the GM's must be cracking up at these stories he's plugging in the media. He doesn't understand that what he's trying to do has been tried a million times. No one is going to act based on a rumor about other offers, the agents are all in on it, they know every conversation taking place. Durant's agent is going to tell his preferred destinations everything they need to know. If Masai is dumb enough to trade Quickley, Poeltl and a better pick than us for 1 year of Kevin Durant, go for it. We should not top that offer. If the Wolves want to trade DPOY candidate Gobert for Durant and then have NAZ REID AND KEVIN DURANT as their PF/C - they will be the new Suns. A lot of offense but hopeless defensively. Suns will be stuck in mediocrity and so will the Wolves. Go for it. One year later when KD walks, the Wolves will be broken (with no cap space, no trade chips and no picks) and Anthony Edwards will want to go somewhere he can recruit real talent rather than watch the Wolves rebuild. I believe the Wolves and Raptors will bow out. I think we got Ishbia by the balls and his ego can't take it. We have an offer on the table. The offer is ageing FVV's expiring, a reclamation project in 20 yr old Whitmore and the #10 pick. If it were Brooks and Green or Jabari and Green, the Suns would have pulled the trigger already.
Get him, cool. If not, whatever. We, “the fans”, want and assume most if not all of our guys are chasing a championship. Does Kevin? Maybe he does? Or is Kevin setting up (in San Antonio/Austin) for a post basketball life & business interests. Spoiler Was on that great Warriors team, wins 2 titles, and then leaves. Winning didn’t fill that void & was not fulfilling. Stops in Brooklyn & Phoenix complete disasters. Vetoes a trade back to the Warriors Doesn’t want to play with Ant (MN weather? LOL); Bus passenger to Wemby being the bus driver? Says he wants to end his career on “his terms”. So what is he chasing? Post basketball life? Money($120M)? What brings Kevin happiness? (And don’t say “he just wants to hoop.”) Arguing with fools on X?
My thoughts is that KD would be fulfilled of helping a bunch of young guys reach the next level. I'm not necessarily against acquiring him, but really I am not necessarily for it either. Maybe I believe in Jalen way too much even after his inconsistent performances and bad playoffs, but man I hate to be impatient and give him away for a soon to be 37 year old Durant. If Durant has a major injury this year, you are ****ed. You just gave a way good assets to watch a man sit on the bench and pay him a **** load of money.
Great note, he must be super interested in befriending Tilman then. He will need investments and connections for his WNBA team. I don't know why people have ever expected more out of Durant. He was a historically elite scorer and a decent defender who works hard on his fitness and sharpness. He's not the leader of the locker room. He's not your primary playmaker. He's not a role model off the court. He's not a guy who's going to invest his personal time in developing others. He doesn't care about those things so you shouldn't expect a Hakeem or Dirk-like title out of him where he is the hero franchise player who can do most of it on his own. We need a hired gun while our core hits their prime. He's been a hired gun who helped the Warriors win more easily in the playoffs. What he did for them is actually exactly what we need from him. Just come here and help us win 2 more games per playoff series - that's it. His presence will make everyone else's job easier because they'll all be guarded by lesser defenders and have a little more spacing to drive to the basket. The rest is on the young guys and Ime. Nothing is changing in terms of Amen/Sengun/Green/Ime's responsibility to step up - they absolutely still must get better in order for us to win a title. Just not as fast as they would otherwise would have had to improve. For a starter and a pick, we're lucky to get 2 years of a 25ppg scorer who's passable on defense and has championship experience. Just zooming out of who he is, if we can get that without breaking the team, it's a good deal JR. We're not mortgaging our future for him like Phoenix/Nets. We're more in the Warriors mold where we can fold him into a program.
Was playing around with Fanspo & if Rox wait until draft day, it looks like the deal COULD be - Brooks - Landale - Holiday - Whitmore - #10 pick (~$6M) Would require Rox to renounce Tate, Boban, & Bullock. (Maybe Unc Jeff) It does include Adams' new salary & declining FVV's option. So it does at least look possible in theory, just a lot of moving parts. That being said, I could be wrong. BimaThug or Aelliott could probably better answer.
I'd love to be a fly on the wall when Durant lets his guard down and talks with Ime. "So Kevin, what do you want?" The answer might be, "I want to win at the end of my career and go out on top. I want to finish my legacy as THE GUY who made a difference in the game." If he's talking like that, Durant needs to be coached by Ime because he can bring out those qualities. He's unlikely to get that experience in Minnesota, San Antonio, or even Miami (though Spoelstra is the kind of winner who could help Durant achieve his goals).
KD's agent using The Athletic as a mouthpiece, just like Rich Paul did for De'Aaron Fox. He def wants to be a Spur. The good news is PHX doesn't care. They will do what's best for them, as they should.
It depends. They don't want Jalen. He would be their 3rd best sg. They want a 3rd team involved to take Jalen so it depends on what that gets them. If I was them I would try and get a real PG and a lob center for Jalen...
I can see Stone giving back suns picks for 4 future 2045 first rounders in some 3 team deal. I don’t see him gutting the team.
That's a flawed roster. Their 2 best players would be very prone to injuries and they would lack shooting. Durant would be their only shooter and that's when he plays. Harper can't shoot.... he's also a so-so defender. The spurs were not a good defensive team last year with Victor and Castle on the floor. They will be dealing with an unproven coach. It's like a fantasy league construction... little thought to cohesion....
I'd rather have Brooks over the next 3 years. Better defense than Durant and he was our best shooter last year.
So your preferred solution is to overpay and gut our young core for a 37 year old? Thank God you aren’t our GM.
Everybody wanting to hold onto Jalen: If you add Durant... when he plays Jalen is getting 8 to 10 shots a game. He's not making any allstar teams doing than 50 games of the year. Also, they need minutes to develop Reed who has more upside as a shooter. If Amen is taking a bigger role, you need better shooting, hence the appeal of Durant.
His age isn't relevant if he's playing for someone else 4 years from now. They drafted Reed Sheppard for a reason. I would take a lesser player for Jalen who could be consistent. I've never seen a player who is as off and on as Jalen.
