Dan Bickley on the Suns

[GMATCa]

... from ten days ago, but worth a read ...

Bickley: Phoenix Suns looking for the answer after another down season

The focus is on McDonough, but I still think that the Suns are paying for their decision to ride matters out with Steve Nash and Grant Hill three years ago. What exactly were they hoping to accomplish with a thirty-eight-year old Nash and a thirty-nine-year old Hill devoid of younger stars around them, especially when Nash and Hill were set to become free agents? Oh, yeah: Nash and Hill were going to mentor the young players! Unfortunately, the only relevant young player on that team was a rookie Markieff Morris, who does not appear to have learned that much.

The Suns have now missed the playoffs five straight years and six of the last seven. From 1989-2008, a span of twenty seasons, they made the playoffs eighteen times.

 

[Jonas_steven]

I read this article and heard bits and pieces on the radio. The rebuilding should have started in 2010-2011. Once amare left, we should have started to clear house. We delayed the inevitable and it ultimately set us back even further.

 

[johnson]

Suns require to make a splash in free agency if they want to be relevant in the next few years. Next year, there are some great opportunities. I have no faith in McDonaugh to capitalize on them, but you never know. I think Aldridge, Gasol, Butler, Jordan, Monroe and Millsap are all UFAs. Kevin Love may opt out too.

 

[The Derski]

What we need is to draft more PGs....

 

[LeChuck421]

Suns require to make a splash in free agency if they want to be relevant in the next few years. Next year, there are some great opportunities. I have no faith in McDonaugh to capitalize on them, but you never know. I think Aldridge, Gasol, Butler, Jordan, Monroe and Millsap are all UFAs. Kevin Love may opt out too.

Butler is unattainable as he is RFA and his team will most likely match anything. Gasol will almost definitely stay in Memphis. Aldridge or Millsap would be very interesting though.

 

[johnson]

Saw a lot of mocks with the Suns taking Kaminsky. A guy who can score that can't play defense (at an NBA level)...fits right in with everyone else.

 

[GMATCa]

Saw a lot of mocks with the Suns taking Kaminsky. A guy who can score that can't play defense (at an NBA level)...fits right in with everyone else.

I hope that the Suns just select whomever they deem the best player available; they are certainly not at a stage right now where they can worry about niches.

Of note, though, if anything happens to the Morris twins (legally and/or in terms of a trade), Kaminsky would supplant them in the role of a 'stretch four.'

 

[GMATCa]

Butler is unattainable as he is RFA and his team will most likely match anything. Gasol will almost definitely stay in Memphis. Aldridge or Millsap would be very interesting though.

Aldridge is a virtual impossibility as well; frankly, I don't see any elite free agent joining the Suns right now. Most likely, no top-tier free agent would accept less money in order to play for a team that has not made the playoffs in five years and that has missed the postseason in six of the last seven—with little in the way of high draft picks to show for it.

I would set my sights on a guy who is young and talented yet a little more under the radar, namely Greg Monroe.

 

[GMATCa]

I read this article and heard bits and pieces on the radio. The rebuilding should have started in 2010-2011. Once amare left, we should have started to clear house. We delayed the inevitable and it ultimately set us back even further.

I concur. After the 2011 lockout, the Suns could have traded Nash to New York for, say, Iman Shumpert and a future first round draft pick that today could have proved very valuable. Viewing Shumpert now, he is the kind of player that the Suns need: a dogged and dynamic swingman defender with athleticism and length, three-point range, and the ability to put the ball on the floor and create a mid-range shot for himself. In other words, imagine P.J. Tucker with upper-crust athletic ability and genuine NBA-level talent.

Sure, many fans would have been upset had Phoenix dealt Nash in that kind of deal at the time, but many fans were upset that the Suns did not give Nash a three-year offer in 2012 as the Lakers did ...