https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/45450487/sources-suns-hiring-cavs-assistant-jordan-ott-head-coach With their coaching hire set, the Suns now begin the franchise's offseason of changes to the roster. The Suns will work with All-Star forward Kevin Durant and his business partner, Boardroom CEO Rich Kleiman, on his next landing spot. He is expected to have a robust market of approximately four to six seriously interested teams this offseason, sources said.
John Gambadoro, who is a more reliable version of Kelly Iko for the Suns. If he's saying it, then the Rockets have offered some version of that package.
More reliable than Kelly Iko isn’t saying much. Kelly Iko publishes what he is told to publish by the Rockets, I’m guessing Gambadoro is the same. The Suns are desperately trying to drum up leverage. They have none. Durant wants to leave, Durant only has 1 year left on his contract, Durant is a 37 year old really good player with an injury history. In the end, FVV or a bunch of our filler contracts and the #10 will be the best they are offered. SA would be in play, but they are going to have to mass a lot of player contracts to come up with the outgoing salary to meet cap rules. There are only a couple of things that could screw this up for the Rockets. 1. Durant says no to Houston. 2. A third team gets involved to get Durant to his preferred destination like SA, MIami, or NY would be my guess.
Considering his salary and PHX's 2nd apron limitations, there are only two HOU/PHX Durant deals that work: Fred & one of our guys still on his rookie contract with one or more picks; or Jalen & Dillon with one or more picks. Personally, I think the Rockets value Fred more than Jalen. If you consider the cap/apron implications of signing Bari, Tari, and Amen long-term, I bet that the Rockets would rather have Fred locked in at a lower amount over the coming years than Jalen still on the books. Also, we have more depth at wing than PG, so trading Jalen & Dillon versus Fred makes more sense from a roster construction perspective. So if it's Jalen & Dillon, now you're just arguing over how many picks go with them. For certain you're sending out #10. I would give PHX their 2027 pick as well. We'll already have the Brooklyn pick that year, and I don't see us having space for 2 rookies 2 years from now.
I do not see KD wanting to come here if we are sending out Jalen and Jabari. Despite Jalen playoff performance KD probably still wants him on the team if he goes. That also doesn't look like a championship team nor does it have any depth. He looks like he would have to be the main offensive player which I doubt he wants to be anymore
Good points. From Phoenix's perspective I think Fred/Tari/+ makes more sense... Unless they want to play one of Jalen, Booker or Beal as a full time PG and I don't think they want to do that...
FVV and Landale works and would give Suns an immediate 8m in salary relief since his contract is non-guaranteed and another 8m or so in luxury tax savings. Fred would also be an expiring contract and could be traded at the deadline or let walk after the season for another 44m in cap and luxury tax savings. If they somehow get some leverage somewhere they might demand Tari and Cam instead of Landale. I would do that if Durant agreed to a one-year extension only. So we would have 2 years with Durant and him coming off the books would coincide with Amen’s extension.
Ok. I’ll take your word for it. About the only source I believe is WOJ. The rest for the most part are being used by GMs, looking for clickbait’s, or just flat out guessing.The Rockets would be total idiots to give that package for Durant.
I mean I said it's "hypothetical" for a reason. Because any news right now is clearly in the middle of negotiations and not finalized. Right now he's just hearing potential names being thrown out. And that's Jalen/Jabari/Cam from the Rockets and Vassell/Barnes/picks from SA. Even Woj reporting on this would not be reliable since he's not reporting a trade and just what's been bantered.
Gambadoro is a radio host and literal mouthpiece for the Suns FO. He doesn’t have sources, plural; has one source. Whatever you hear from Gambadoro is what Ishbia/the Suns FO wants him to say on air to serve their interests. He is not a “reporter” in any sense. He can tell you exactly who the Suns are interviewing for head coach for example. His commentary on trades is just Suns FO propaganda however. Earlier this year he guaranteed Jimmy Butler would be on the Suns. He said the Rockets were offering Jalen/Jabari/Tari/Reed and the Suns picks back for KD. lol. Pure bluster. I’m not a huge Kelly Iko fan, but his reported stories in The Athletic are not propaganda. There are editors and multiple sources involved etc. His opinion stuff is what’s bad about him.
If SA will include the #3 or #8 pick AND Durant wants to go there, they will land him unless we give back another Phx pick which I am not at all in favor of. In reality, I think we would be better off trying to make a deal for John Collins and Sexton than getting Durant. In any scenario, FVV needs to be going out or to the bench for the Rockets to take the next step toward contention. FVV starting will set this franchise back another year.
Would need to also add in like Holiday and Nate Williams...not that adding those two is a deal breaker, but just those three alone doesn't work... But I wouldn't do that trade either way.
All this talk from folks actually believing we'd give up any of those guys outside of Cam (who I dont want to part with, but would)...along with any picks/swaps outside of this year's... FOR DURANT. C'mon now....smh.
I realize as rockets fans that we are probably underestimating what it will take to get KD, but Jalen, Bari and Cam feels like too much given KD’s age. It’s probably not that far off though. It’s certainly a better player package than anything the Spurs woukd reasonably offer. I’m skeptical the Suns want to pair Booker and Jalen, but Bari and Cam should be attractive to them. Both have more upside than any of the Spurs prospects not named Castle.
Only if Stone is an idiot. We don’t really know yet since he wanted Oladipo, but not Allen, but I tend to think he is not an idiot, but extremely risk averse which may cost us some really good opportunities.
