what is your definition of a top pick? i dont think anyone that has one or two in this draft will trade it. I said in a different thread that I would give 5-6 frps for Flagg, but I don't think that whoever had the no. 1 pick would do it. Flagg will immediately be 3rd among young players as soon as he steps on the NBA court. Wemby, Amen, Flagg are all future supeerstars. We wouldn't need those picks with our young team to be championship contenders for the next 6-7 years. Amen, Jalen, Flagg, Jabari, Sengun. Alas, its just a dream.
If KD doesn't want to be here no thanks. I'd take Booker for Green and some draft capital. KD is another injury away from having his career over
The 25 pick is a swap that the Suns aren't a part of. For all intens and purposes, the Rockets own the Phoenix 25 pick and Brooklyn owns the Rockets 25 pick (or OKC pick if the Rockets falter).
PHX doesn’t have Sengun, Amen, Bari and Tari. I’d trade all their picks back plus Green, FVV and Brooks for Booker and Durant. Amen/Reed Booker/Cam Durant/Tari Bari/Green Sengun/Adams
And, why, pray tell, is this nonsense? PHX is about to collapse. We have the inside track for Booker. (and desire him greatly) Durant won't cost much. We've been linked to both. Together with what we have, we're serious contenders for the Title.
KD didn’t look 36 last night. That’s all I’m saying. here’s a crazy thought: KD and Kyrie reunited in Houston. Kyrie is a free agent and KD will cost a lot less than Booker.
Exactly. Durant would have made more sense to acquire at this trade deadline. This year's version of Kevin Durant is better than the 37-year old version of Durant will be. This was a unique opportunity to use our expiring contracts and solve our offensive problems. Rafael Stone wasted the opportunity. Acquiring him this coming summer makes less sense. He will only decline in the future and just his salary demands would force us to give up several of our young players. We can't afford Durant plus all our young guys on fair extensions. Booker definitely would make more sense this coming summer. We can include Jalen in that deal.
According to the reports, the Rockets DID call PHX about Durant at the deadline, but the Suns weren't willing to trade him.
FIFY. We called and Suns knew we were going to clean them out. They got everybody else involved to drive the price up and did business with everybody else to avoid dealing with us. I am sure our offer was obscenely insulting as it should have been. The Suns management did not want the public backlash so they chose to push things to this summer. Deal will only get worse. Don't want Booker and if deal doesn't serve us don't want KD.
The point is that getting their picks back from the Rockets doesn't really solve their problems because they owe everything else to other teams, they have no tank option thru 2031. Brooklyn had that option because a single team owned their picks / swaps and they got most of those back in a single trade (and they are still in a bad place with the 27 pick swap limiting their timeline). That's an impossibility for PHX. I think the Rockets best bet here is to let them fall apart .... and collect a couple lottery picks. Durant isn't staying there beyond next season (really this offseason they won't get a big return in trade either), Beal is going to continue to be an anchor that drags them down & it's being proven right now that Booker isn't good enough to carry that team. Sit back and collect lottery picks.
You've got offense running through Booker, Amen, and Sengun. Booker and Amen sharing the bulk of ball handling...with space to operate. Booker, Durant, and Jabari would have insane looks on a consistent basis.
It's possible they just weren't willing to trade him for what we were offering. It helps with damage control for them to say they would not have traded him for any offer. It's hard to know whether or not that's true.
They had agreed to trade him to the Warriors and he told them no. Just like Jimmy signed his extension immediately with the Warriors there was no way Warriors were trading for KD without an extension and giving up Kuminga, Wiggins, etc. The Suns tried to do everything except deal with the Rockets. This summer they are virtually out of options and the deals won't be any better as an expiring contract.
I I don't think we know that the Suns refused to deal with the Rockets. I also don't think we know that Durant would have refused to be traded to the Rockets. He may just not have wanted to be stuck on an aging Warriors roster that would have been irrelevant for the next several years as he and Curry approached middle age. Maybe he just doesn't like the Bay area. My major point though is that it won't be in our interest to trade for him this coming summer compared to trading for him this past deadline. We'd have one less playoff run with him and his efficacy will only decrease with age. Our salary cap situation changes significantly this summer and will become further complicated with each passing year. Durant at $60 million per year would mean us giving up several our young players. I would have been intrigued to have acquired him this past trade deadline and I think we would have immediately been a top-4 team in the NBA. I would hate for us to acquire him this summer.
