nathan2331

Please say sike...

Chris Paul be getting cooked on defense. He may be a leader on the team, but that doesn't change the fact that they hide him on defense. The Suns do have other good defenders, but Ayton plays his part too. He does make mistakes sometimes, but it's not like he's lost on defense. If there would be any major criticism, it should be that his motor isn't as high as Capela's.

So you really think the Suns have made the Finals and have had one of the best records in the West recently with a defensive liability at C?

I've seen Seattle and Las Vegas. Then there'd be a realignment with Memphis joining the East.

I may be a homer, but I really do think we were contenders before this trade. We just need a healthy playoff run and we can beat any team in a 7 game series. And if this roster still needs to be tweaked, we can still make some moves. We haven't handicapped ourselves yet.

This team is built for long term success. Anybody's season can be derailed by injuries, but if we end up winnnig a championship with Murray the risk was worth it.

A 2024 pick swap would be borderline useless to them. I'm sure they don't plan on being competive by then.

He's only got two years on his contract and then he becomes an unrestricted free agent. Players don't stick around in straight up tanking situations. They wanted to bottom out and this trade at least brings them future draft capital. Three picks is about as good as it can get.

They are tanking and Murray doesn't help them do that.

They got it done, hell yeah

How's it gonna struggle? We barely switch defensively. If the scheme stays the same, Ayton is a capable drop defender.

I stand corrected then.

I hope we're looking at John Butler. He's raw but kind of intriguing. A couple of years in the G-league and he might get to point where he can contribute at the NBA level

That's my point. The ownership won't be serious about building a winner until fans stop supporting them the way they are right now. They're the Arsenal of the NBA.

So long as they're selling tickets, they don't care how the team actually plays.

Looks like the Spurs want a bidding war. The Spurs know we're under time constraints so now is the time to fish for better offers. Collins is probably being offered to a third team now to try and upgrade our offer. After seeing what Grant went for, hopefully Gallo + picks is enough, I don't think replacing JC is gonna be an easy transistion.

If we're healthy we can compete with all those teams. We do need internal growth, but we have already shown we're capable of playing at a high level when it counts.

Why wouldn't we be a contender with this move? We're potentially adding an all-star level guard for a backup PF who wasn't gonna stay on the roster. Depending on our remaining moves, we would have one of the strongest rosters in the league.

Schlenk and Fields are magicians if they pull that off. That would make us the deepest team in the league by a country mile. That would suck for JJ though unless we go though some heavy load management throughout the season to spread out the minutes.

They probably do think we're a bit desperate to get this deal done. Gallo won't stay on our roster with his current contract, and Murray is by far the best player we could get if we trade him. Given the time constraints before Gallo's contract is guaranteed, they'll want to extract as much as they can. That might mean both picks in 2023, less protections on our picks or some second rounders thrown in.

Gallo's contract can be renegotiated to increase the partial guarantee to at least 13.2 million in order to match Murray's salary of 18.5 million (credit to @thecampster). After June 29th the contract becomes fully guaranteed, but it still would be tradeable. That's a situation I'm sure we'll avoid though. The Spurs knowing we have a deadline have some leverage against us, and if they have other offers on the table they can squeeze us a bit. Pickwise I think we'll try to keep a first next year, and give them our 2024 and 2026 picks but we'll see. I'd like to think this deal is mostly done, but you never know what other negotiations they've got going on.

If they've got the framework of a deal done, they may be waiting to see if the trade can be expanded to other teams. KD is the biggest domino in the league to fall, so there could be a way to expand our deal to into a 4-team trade.

If he's done in Phoenix, Ayton doesn't have too many options if he's looking to get paid. The basketball situation may not be ideal, but he was linked to the Pistons before the recent rumors.

KD to the Suns with Ayton and Mikal Bridges going to Brooklyn. Suns fans seem to think that's happening.

Exactly. And Huerter is big enough to play SF coming off the bench. I don't know if everyone would be happy playing reduced roles, but we'd have a lot of cover for injuries with AJ and Coop still being on the roster.