I am perfectly content with the roster, no more moves needed. Great 9 man rotation with Holliday and Landale filling in the gaps. Not much room to improve. Give cam the keys
Sort of true. Durant opens the window for as long as he remains a top 20ish player, but we have enough young pieces and future draft picks that our window can easily extend beyond that. If Amen becomes a true star, that alone extends the window a long time. Internal improvement from Tari and Jabari can also make a big difference. Our 2027 and 2029 draft capital gives us the ability to reload with a good pick or deal to acquire the next quality piece to go with the young core. If I were Stone, I wouldn’t be in a big rush to cash in that draft capital or our young talent another major piece. This coming year is a huge growth opportunity like last year - huge opportunity for Amen to take a big step forward individually, huge chance to see what Amen, sengun, Jabari and Tari look like with an elite scorer and shooter with huge gravity on the floor.
Whilst also being Beard coming home, redeeming himself with a chip, and then they can retire as Rockets and ride off into the sunset. Imagine how good Amen's playmaking and dribble drive game would be learning from Harden?
Neither could D-Wade (no, not even from the midrange, at least not efficiently). But for the record I think Amen will be a 3P shooter. He was already knocking them down from the corner this season.
Amen is so young. To me his trajectory is Kawhi if he can put together a consistent 3. He's come a long way since I first saw him after the draft.
You also have to take into account that there will be load management with KD. For example I can see him sitting out some back-to-backs. Also you just traded away 2 starters. That opens up a lot of playing time. With a sulking Whitmore and an unproven Reed, there’s too much uncertainty for the guard rotation as is.
if we were to expand the trade, say by including holiday and Jock, What is the maximum dollar amount on a player that we could bring back?
So this would imply that we would be turning it into a 3 team trade, correct?? The Suns are not allowed to trade multiple players in one deal right?
I’d love a sniper. Troy daniels, Anthony morrow Marcus Thornton type we could bring in to hit 3s situationally. But other than that let’s roll with this roster. Maybe cam could be that dude eventually or Reed will make it to where we don’t need a bench sniper
We have options depending on how aggressive we want to be: Option 1: Go all out for a true superstar. Giannis seems to be the only available option. Would likely need Sengun, Reed and a ton of picks to make it happen. Option 2: Go for a star level guard. Brown, Garland, Murray, Lamelo Ball, Booker, Trae, White, Fox could all be in play this summer. Would very likely need FVV’s salary for matching purposes, one of Tari/Bari, maybe Reed and few of our picks. Option 3: Play it safe, see what we have, add a rotational guard via free agency using the MLE. LeVert, Gary Trent Jr, Beasley, Tre or Tyus Jones, Davion Mitchell, Oubre, Yabusele are all UFAs. Options can be combined. We could trade for Garland (FVV, Tari, 3-4 picks) and still be able to pursue Gary Trent. Garland adds playmaking and penetration (which we currently lack), both add much needed spacing.
I suspect one of the reasons KD forced his way to Houston is Sengun. We are not trading him. If we were a 20-win team and looking to rebuild, maybe. But not now. I wonder if salaries are being structured and contingencies put in place so that it becomes possible for the twins to play together eventually? That, I think, is a more realistic bit of dream casting than fantasizing about 28 year-old Harden returning.
Option 3 is the best option by far unless Derrick White becomes available. He is too good a fit not to make a play for him. I would give both Phoenix picks and the Dallas swap and would probably have to give up Reed and filler. If you could fit Landale and Nate in the deal, the celtics could immediately dump their salaries.
