Aloha
I don’t think anyone should be surprised by Lebrons recent remarks. He left for Miami when he didn’t think he could win in Cleveland. He went back when they acquired enough assets to win. Left for LA when the Cav’s were in cap hell and now that the Cav’s restocked he’s looking at them and thinking “I can win there”
We are facing a similar situation that the Cav’s faced. We are in cap hell with not a lot of amo left for significant upgrades. Now strange things can happen when it comes to trades. I personally thought that the Trailblazers could have done better than they did. But you can’t count on that. So I’ll leave the trade proposals for Tom and look at what can be done if we can’t find a trade that upgrades the team. I also don’t believe that the buyout market will save the season. There is only a week to go and there have only been a couple of guys bought out. Perhaps a name we can use will pop up but I’m not counting on that.
1 No panic trades please.
Any trades made should be for a true up grade. Not an aging player with his best years behind him.
2. We need to live and die with the kids. Malik, Austin, THT and Stanley play with the energy required to win. They all have shown great upside moments throughout the season. It’s time to give them a lot of run and see if they can find consistency. Over the last couple of games, Austin, THT and Malik were all tutored after making mistakes but they were also the reason we were in those games. Playing them more wont hurt our chances of winning a ring. That’s already unlikely. But they can develop into a quality supporting cast for next year or improve their trade value. Either way, it’s a win.
3. One huge thing in our favor next year is the cap situation around the league. There just will not be a lot of money available for free agents. For instance there are only 7 teams with projected cap space to sign Malik to a full MLE and only a couple of teams that could go over the MLE. And he may not be a good fit for some of them. While unlikely, we still might be able to keep him. That’s why it’s important to start him the rest of the year. If offered the full MLE of 9.5 mil to come off the bench somewhere or the mini MLE of 6.1 mil to start for the Lakers would he take less to stay like Bobby Portis did with the Bucks? We have plenty of cap space in 2023 so it would be something for him to think about.
4. With so little cap space available there will be talent that trickles down to the Vet minimum pay grade. Can we please try and find a couple younger guys that can defend instead of old guys with resumes. Last summer Hartenstein was available for the vet minimum to the surprise of a lot of NBA people. I liked him. But we signed DJ instead and the Clippers signed him and he has been great off their bench. Part of the reason the Clippers are still afloat is because of young guys they got cheap. Damion Jones is a free agent this summer. Let’s get him instead of a random 35 year old. And the first question should be, can they defend. A LeBron centric offense can generate enough points to win with a good defense. It can’t score enough with a bad defense. Hopefully the scouting department have other under achieving young guy like Malik on their radar.
5. Russ need to find his role with the team and star in it. He has been better lately. If he can constantly play this way it will set us up to be much better next year or like the kids increase his trade value.
5. If everything played out perfectly we could have a decent returning core. Imagine that, having player continuity. The silver lining in Nunns injury is he will probably have to opt into his player option this year. Which is a good thing because he is a quality player and we will need quality players. I would also like to see Melo come back for one more year. We could see a returning group like this.
LeBron
AD
Russ
Malik
Austin
THT
Stanley
Nunn
Melo
When is the last time we brought back 9 guys that know how to play together? With good health that team would be a top 6 seed for sure. And depending on development of the kids and a couple of good free agent signings maybe more.
And who knows if it comes together by the playoffs this year, we could even make a little noise. I know the Warriors don’t want to see us. It took bad games from AD and LeBron for them to win. And with our size advantage we are a bad match up for them. Anything is possible until you’re eliminated so who knows? Every team the Suns faced in the playoffs last year had an important player or two missing until the finals. That’s why you play the games.
Great points, Michael.