2024 Suns General Offseason News

[specialsauce]

The preseason, presummer league post draft glass completely full takes on the late first round pick and second round pick are fantastic

None of my lineups include any of our rookies. They're g league/end of bench until they prove they are nba talent.

Alec Peters
Davon Reed
Tyler Ennis
Elie Okobo
Gani Lawal
Taylor Griffin
Alando Tucker
DJ strawberry

You guys realize these are their former peers right? You're talking about end of draft fodder, if they strike a playable guy on them it's the exception not the rule

[Split T]

You left out a few:

Bogdon Bogdonovich
Leandro Barbosa
Toumani Cámara

Rookies always get hyped up more than they should, but there have been some hits in the ranges we took Dunn, Ighodora, and Bridges. There’s no harm in hoping for the best.

[ShelC]

There were also players taken in the late 1st, early 2nd who were available that we've passed on. The talent is there, it's on the scouts/front office to make the right choices.

In 2018 we took Elie Okobo 31st while Jevon Carter went 32nd, Jalen Brunson went 33rd, Devonte Graham went 34th, Mitch Robinson went 36th, Gary Trent went 37th. Bruce Brown went 42nd and DeAnthony Melton went 46th. That's a lot of talent coming out of the 2nd round that year. McD whiffed, as usual.

[Split T]

I went back and looked at 2019-2022 drafts and looked at all the picks between 28-40…52 guys were drafted and by my count, 22 became nba rotation players:

Jordan Poole, Keldon Johnson, Nic Claxton, Daniel Gafford, Kevin Porter Jr, Cody Martin, Jaden McDaniels, Malachi Flynn, Desmond Bane, Xavier Tillman, Vit Krejci, Dayron Sharpe, Santi Aldama, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Herb Jones, Miles McBride, Ayo Dosunmo, Peyton Watson, Andrew Nembhard, Jaylin Williams, Max Christie, Jaden Hardy.

28-40 seems to have just above a 40% hit rate on becoming an nba player. At least 10 of those guys are good nba players…so I’d say chances are 1 of Dunn or Ighodora will be an nba player and 25% chance they become a good one.

[specialsauce]

You left out a few:

Bogdon Bogdonovich
Leandro Barbosa
Toumani Cámara

Rookies always get hyped up more than they should, but there have been some hits in the ranges we took Dunn, Ighodora, and Bridges. There’s no harm in hoping for the best.

Bogi and TooMany Buckets never played a minute for the suns so I intentionally left them out. Barbosa wasn't drafted by the Suns so forgot him

[specialsauce]

I went back and looked at 2019-2022 drafts and looked at all the picks between 28-40…52 guys were drafted and by my count, 22 became nba rotation players:

Jordan Poole, Keldon Johnson, Nic Claxton, Daniel Gafford, Kevin Porter Jr, Cody Martin, Jaden McDaniels, Malachi Flynn, Desmond Bane, Xavier Tillman, Vit Krejci, Dayron Sharpe, Santi Aldama, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Herb Jones, Miles McBride, Ayo Dosunmo, Peyton Watson, Andrew Nembhard, Jaylin Williams, Max Christie, Jaden Hardy.

28-40 seems to have just above a 40% hit rate on becoming an nba player. At least 10 of those guys are good nba players…so I’d say chances are 1 of Dunn or Ighodora will be an nba player and 25% chance they become a good one.

Okay, that's better than I thought but even still a 60% chance they don't become an NBA level player, and look at those players and tell me how many of them got meaningful minutes as a rookie on a successful team.

[TOO]

I went back and looked at 2019-2022 drafts and looked at all the picks between 28-40…52 guys were drafted and by my count, 22 became nba rotation players:

Jordan Poole, Keldon Johnson, Nic Claxton, Daniel Gafford, Kevin Porter Jr, Cody Martin, Jaden McDaniels, Malachi Flynn, Desmond Bane, Xavier Tillman, Vit Krejci, Dayron Sharpe, Santi Aldama, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Herb Jones, Miles McBride, Ayo Dosunmo, Peyton Watson, Andrew Nembhard, Jaylin Williams, Max Christie, Jaden Hardy.

28-40 seems to have just above a 40% hit rate on becoming an nba player. At least 10 of those guys are good nba players…so I’d say chances are 1 of Dunn or Ighodora will be an nba player and 25% chance they become a good one.

Okay, that's better than I thought but even still a 60% chance they don't become an NBA level player, and look at those players and tell me how many of them got meaningful minutes as a rookie on a successful team.

Brother, it's the off-season, why so blue?

[specialsauce]

I went back and looked at 2019-2022 drafts and looked at all the picks between 28-40…52 guys were drafted and by my count, 22 became nba rotation players:

Jordan Poole, Keldon Johnson, Nic Claxton, Daniel Gafford, Kevin Porter Jr, Cody Martin, Jaden McDaniels, Malachi Flynn, Desmond Bane, Xavier Tillman, Vit Krejci, Dayron Sharpe, Santi Aldama, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Herb Jones, Miles McBride, Ayo Dosunmo, Peyton Watson, Andrew Nembhard, Jaylin Williams, Max Christie, Jaden Hardy.

28-40 seems to have just above a 40% hit rate on becoming an nba player. At least 10 of those guys are good nba players…so I’d say chances are 1 of Dunn or Ighodora will be an nba player and 25% chance they become a good one.

Okay, that's better than I thought but even still a 60% chance they don't become an NBA level player, and look at those players and tell me how many of them got meaningful minutes as a rookie on a successful team.

Brother, it's the off-season, why so blue?

Hint: Look at our roster

[Split T]

I went back and looked at 2019-2022 drafts and looked at all the picks between 28-40…52 guys were drafted and by my count, 22 became nba rotation players:

Jordan Poole, Keldon Johnson, Nic Claxton, Daniel Gafford, Kevin Porter Jr, Cody Martin, Jaden McDaniels, Malachi Flynn, Desmond Bane, Xavier Tillman, Vit Krejci, Dayron Sharpe, Santi Aldama, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Herb Jones, Miles McBride, Ayo Dosunmo, Peyton Watson, Andrew Nembhard, Jaylin Williams, Max Christie, Jaden Hardy.

28-40 seems to have just above a 40% hit rate on becoming an nba player. At least 10 of those guys are good nba players…so I’d say chances are 1 of Dunn or Ighodora will be an nba player and 25% chance they become a good one.

Okay, that's better than I thought but even still a 60% chance they don't become an NBA level player, and look at those players and tell me how many of them got meaningful minutes as a rookie on a successful team.

Ya I don’t necessarily disagree with you. It’s just easy to believe in the unknown. It’s also more fun to be optimistic, even if it’s unlikely to work out.

[specialsauce]

I went back and looked at 2019-2022 drafts and looked at all the picks between 28-40…52 guys were drafted and by my count, 22 became nba rotation players:

Jordan Poole, Keldon Johnson, Nic Claxton, Daniel Gafford, Kevin Porter Jr, Cody Martin, Jaden McDaniels, Malachi Flynn, Desmond Bane, Xavier Tillman, Vit Krejci, Dayron Sharpe, Santi Aldama, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Herb Jones, Miles McBride, Ayo Dosunmo, Peyton Watson, Andrew Nembhard, Jaylin Williams, Max Christie, Jaden Hardy.

28-40 seems to have just above a 40% hit rate on becoming an nba player. At least 10 of those guys are good nba players…so I’d say chances are 1 of Dunn or Ighodora will be an nba player and 25% chance they become a good one.

Okay, that's better than I thought but even still a 60% chance they don't become an NBA level player, and look at those players and tell me how many of them got meaningful minutes as a rookie on a successful team.

Ya I don’t necessarily disagree with you. It’s just easy to believe in the unknown. It’s also more fun to be optimistic, even if it’s unlikely to work out.

I think that's fine and to draft and aim to develop, but I can't believe we as fans and the organization are depending on these late picks to be ready to contribute on a team with title aspirations who is breaking the all time payroll record. Its asinine.

No attention to roster construction. We're going into camp with the same glaring hole of a roster full of 6'4 players aside from them. We're going to get hammered again unless by some miracle these kids are better than the average late pick coming out of the draft immediately

[Split T]

I don’t know that we’re relying on them. Oso is clearly 3rd string and not going to be expected to play. I think Dunn might get a shot in the rotation early, but he doesn’t have to be…

I think we know Booker, Beal, KD, Nurk, Grayson, Royce, Plumlee, and Morris will be in the rotation. That’s 8…Bol would be 9…then it’s probably Dunn, Okogie, or Lee for that 10th spot. It would be great if Dunn proved good enough for it, but we might just go back to Okogie.

It does make for a small team…specifically on the wing…but I’m not worried about that until after the deadline. Okogie was obviously given a contract so he could be traded. If February comes and Dunn hasn’t proven to be a worthy rotation player and we don’t make a move for a bigger wing off the bench, I’ll call them out. I’ll wait for the time being though.

[specialsauce]

I mean that's essentially the same rotation with Plumlee and Morris being upgrades to Eubanks and maybe Gordon but again doesn't fix our size issues on the wing, which is what we are putting all our hopes into Dunn for or that Bol takes another leap.

[Split T]

You’re right…I just don’t think there were actual options to make the upgrades we need yet. We are a 2nd apron team and only had 4(maybe 5) contracts that could even be traded that had any sort of value. The big 3(which we aren’t moving), Nurkic, and Little. Grayson and Royce aren’t movable yet. Okogie either. Nurk and Little probably have no value due to their contracts, so we’d have to attach picks to them to get anything back…I just don’t think the trades were there and we did not have the ability to sign players in free agency. We tried to get Haywood Highsmith apparently, but he got more from Miami. If we don’t make a significant move at the deadline then I’ll call them out. Sometimes the move just isn’t there.

[Split T]

I don’t know why espo thinks that’s a tough draw…everyone in the west is good and we probably drew 2 of the 5 teams that won’t even make the play-in.

[specialsauce]

I don’t know why espo thinks that’s a tough draw…everyone in the west is good and we probably drew 2 of the 5 teams that won’t even make the play-in.

We got defending champion Los Angeles.


Just kidding. Who cares until they add a meaningful crowd-based incentive (playoff seeding, home court, etc)

[Flagrant Fowl]

I think the Jazz are really the only team to not worry about. The Spurs are going to be good next season.

[Split T]

They might be, but you can say that about anyone in the west not named Utah and Portland…

The other groups are Minny/LAC/Sacramento/Houston/Portland or
Denver/Dallas/Pels/Warriors/Grizzlies

Would you want to replace Dallas or LAC? I think suns got the easiest group.

[Superbone]

It don't matter. You can beat them or you can't. You're good enough or you aren't. And then it still doesn't matter. Look how far the Lakers and Pacers went last year.

[Mori Chu]

Also, it's just the in-season tournament. It doesn't mean much. Might as well go against the best opponents and see what you're made of. And I don't even think our bracket has many of the "best" teams. LAL? Meh. SAS? Still very young and raw. Jazz? LMAO. The only actually tough team in the bracket is the Thunder, who are likely to be very good. But that's not some kind of killer bracket. All the other brackets have more scary opponents than ours does, imo.

Minny/LAC/Sacramento/Houston/Portland: That bracket has at least 3 good teams in it (MIN, LAC, SAC). HOU might even be good.

Denver/Dallas/Pels/Warriors/Grizzlies: This bracket has as many as 5 good teams in it. Arguably every team in this list is going to be fighting for a playoff spot or secure in one.

[specialsauce]

It don't matter. You can beat them or you can't. You're good enough or you aren't. And then it still doesn't matter. Look how far the Lakers and Pacers went last year.

Yep. Again it's totally meaningless. They need to give it meaning within the context of the nba playoffs