2023 WC Semifinals: (1) Denver Nuggets vs (4) Phoenix Suns

[DirtyDez]

1 hour ago, General Tso said:

Now that they have a new owner who isn't supposedly a jerk, I feel bad for the Suns franchise.

I think they have 1 more year in the window, but CP3 is 38..

The new CBA kinda screws us for making improvements in the off-season.  

[Thelonebillsfan]

2 hours ago, Kip Smithers said:

Who you are you referring to here lol?

The Suns in totality obviously lol

[11sanchez11]

Monty has coached in 5 elimination games, his teams lost by an average of 19 points. 

[RuskieTitan]

3 hours ago, 11sanchez11 said:

Monty has coached in 5 elimination games, his teams lost by an average of 19 points. 

He needs to go. Good rebuild coach, incapable of winning a championship. 

[seminoles1]

8 hours ago, Kip Smithers said:

I refuse to believe that is true.

He actually issued an apology last night haha.

[TOUCAN]

9 hours ago, agarcia34 said:

Jokic is a great player, but players will flock to the Suns before Denver. 

Really? Jokic is the kind of player any scorer should WANT to play with since he's like super selfless and he will get them into the best possible spots.

[CWood21]

9 hours ago, DirtyDez said:

The new CBA kinda screws us for making improvements in the off-season.  

The CBA didn't screw you.  The Suns screwed themselves.  They traded pretty much their entire depth and all tradeable FRPs for the next 7 years minus a couple of pick swaps.  The Suns have absolutely no depth on their roster.

[Kip Smithers]

16 hours ago, seminoles1 said:

He actually issued an apology last night haha.

Such a bozo 

[DirtyDez]

13 hours ago, CWood21 said:

The CBA didn't screw you.  The Suns screwed themselves.  They traded pretty much their entire depth and all tradeable FRPs for the next 7 years minus a couple of pick swaps.  The Suns have absolutely no depth on their roster.

The remainder of this season was always going to be flawed roster wise but going forward they had other means of improving the roster under the old rules.  The new CBA prevents them using tax payer exceptions, acquiring a player via S&T and I believe the 125% is less forgiving and trades have to be nearly straight up for apron teams which makes trading big salaries like Paul and Ayton more difficult.  Ishbia was either blindsided after the trade occurred or didn’t do his homework.  Roster improvement was already tough for tax teams but no it’s nearly impossible. 

[CWood21]

16 hours ago, DirtyDez said:

The remainder of this season was always going to be flawed roster wise but going forward they had other means of improving the roster under the old rules.  The new CBA prevents them using tax payer exceptions, acquiring a player via S&T and I believe the 125% is less forgiving and trades have to be nearly straight up for apron teams which makes trading big salaries like Paul and Ayton more difficult.  Ishbia was either blindsided after the trade occurred or didn’t do his homework.  Roster improvement was already tough for tax teams but no it’s nearly impossible. 

They had the taxpayer MLE only.  Besides that, they have the veteran minimum to play with.  So let's not pretend like Phoenix was going to be a big FA player outside of possibly their MLE.  But if they operate above that second apron, they lose that exception.  So their only ability to improve their roster is trade either CP3 or DeAndre Ayton. At this point, CP3 has more value for his partially guaranteed contract than his actual on-court production.  But the problem is how many teams are going to be willing to give up $15.8M in useful players without any real incentives?  Not very many.  So that effectively leaves trading DeAndre Ayton as the only real way to improve their roster.  I just don't see a robust market for Ayton tbh.