Most exciting offseason ever??

[Germz249]

Best in 30 years for sure. Maybe the best ever. However there was a special thrill in getting the #1 overall pick plus Mikal, even if it did not turn out as we hoped.

I like this take. Yea Ayton is not the next generational player but having the first pick made it an exciting off season.

 

[Yuma]

I like this take. Yea Ayton is not the next generational player but having the first pick made it an exciting off season.

I keep remembering the scene at the stadium when they announced the selection of Ayton! It was amazing!

 

[Mainstreet]

When the Suns traded for Bridges at #10 I was so excited I thought they had traded for Shai.

It took me awhile for reality to sink in.

 

[Yuma]

When the Suns traded for Bridges at #10 I was so excited I thought they had traded for Shai.

It took me awhile for reality to sink in.

That was supposedly Sarver. Actually he seemed like that was one of the better Sarver moves. I also read Sarver was against getting Tatum because we already had a shooter in Booker! Can you imagine Booker and Tatum playing together? Jerry C, I always felt optimistic with him at the helm. With Sarver I was depressed. Now with Ishbia, I feel hope again.

 

[SeattleCardinal]

IDK, it was bonkers. I am way old school, and obviously this wasn't as big a deal as Barkley, but when we got Dennis Johnson from the vaunted Celtics, it was like, WOW we can get a good player from a good team?

Unfortunately the Suns sent DJ to the Celtics, not the other way around. For the immortal Rick Robey.

 

[Yuma]

Unfortunately the Suns sent DJ to the Celtics, not the other way around. For the immortal Rick Robey.

I forgot that!

 

[Mainstreet]

Unfortunately the Suns sent DJ to the Celtics, not the other way around. For the immortal Rick Robey.

That trade was a disaster. The Suns wanted a big man so badly.

 

[Yuma]

That trade was a disaster. The Suns wanted a big man so badly.

We chased a lot of bigs in the seventies. It was a big man game back then, and we always seemed to have the guards!

 

[Cheesebeef]

IDK, it was bonkers. I am way old school, and obviously this wasn't as big a deal as Barkley, but when we got Dennis Johnson from the vaunted Celtics, it was like, WOW we can get a good player from a good team? Also, the Chambers signing went under the radar. We were getting a scoring leader in his prime. As I said, the Barkley thing was on another level, but there were things that happened with the Suns that get overlooked.

I was at Duke Basketball camp when the Barkley trade happened and that entire place exploded. It wasn’t just a seismic event for Phoenix. That trade was huge across the league, especially with the Olympics.

 

[Yuma]

It's funny. One of the trades not mentioned is bringing Nash back to the valley. That entered a whole fun and exciting era of Suns basketball!

 

[JCSunsfan]

It's funny. One of the trades not mentioned is bringing Nash back to the valley. That entered a whole fun and exciting era of Suns basketball!

Free agent signing technically.

 

[Hoop Head]

It's funny. One of the trades not mentioned is bringing Nash back to the valley. That entered a whole fun and exciting era of Suns basketball!

Ya know that was probably my favorite off-season. I was caught up in being a teenager and stopped following the Suns as close when they traded Kidd for Starbury but I remember the trade deadline of 03, the guy sitting next to me at work's phone was ringing like crazy. He was a huge Marbury fan and had his buddies calling him to tell him we unloaded Marbury to the Knicks for essentially nothing. That piqued my interest a bit more as I only watched occasionally and that was mainly because of Amar'e being drafted. Then talk turned quickly to the cap space we'd have and possibly signing Kobe or TMac and we had Joe Johnson playing PG for the second half of the 03-04 season before free agency. The Suns also sold at that time so possibilities were limitless. Then we signed Nash and revolutionized the league. It was something special. That 04 off-season ranks up there ahead of this one, for me. It turned us from directionless first round fodder to a legit contender instantly. It changed the way the game is played with the 3pt shooting fast break style. So lots to recall and love about that 04 off-season.

 

[Raindog]

Unfortunately the Suns sent DJ to the Celtics, not the other way around. For the immortal Rick Robey.

Pretty much the worst move by Jerry in his otherwise illustrious GM career. I wonder if it had anything to do with the ownership at that time. They went cheap for quite a few years thereafter, until JC organized the new ownership group that bought out Bloch, Diamond and the rest. I have to wonder if there was a mandate to get rid of DJ's contract after two unsuccessful playoff runs. Robey was quite a bit less costly and you didn't have to match salaries in trades then.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

That was supposedly Sarver. Actually he seemed like that was one of the better Sarver moves. I also read Sarver was against getting Tatum because we already had a shooter in Booker! Can you imagine Booker and Tatum playing together? Jerry C, I always felt optimistic with him at the helm. With Sarver I was depressed. Now with Ishbia, I feel hope again.

Ayton over Doncic was also all Sarver

 

[Yuma]

Ayton over Doncic was also all Sarver

I feel like most people were wrong on that as well, due to the not seeing him against NBA players. Mark Cuban certainly wasn't going to trade his pick when he saw Luka falling to his spot. Plus, if you go back and read articles in that time frame, and look at Ayton's video highlights, a lot of people were on the Ayton bandwagon. I do know that Sarver, and crew flew over to Europe to see Doncic in action. They still came away with Ayton as their choice. Of course now in hindsight that draft gets redrafted with Luka going number one. Still, it's notable that he's won as many championships in the NBA as Ayton.

 

[Hoop Head]

I feel like most people were wrong on that as well, due to the not seeing him against NBA players. Mark Cuban certainly wasn't going to trade his pick when he saw Luka falling to his spot. Plus, if you go back and read articles in that time frame, and look at Ayton's video highlights, a lot of people were on the Ayton bandwagon. I do know that Sarver, and crew flew over to Europe to see Doncic in action. They still came away with Ayton as their choice. Of course now in hindsight that draft gets redrafted with Luka going number one. Still, it's notable that he's won as many championships in the NBA as Ayton.

The Mavericks had the 5th pick, they traded up for Luka specifically. So Cuban did trade the teams pick, to get Luka. Trae Young was taken for the Hawks and that's why they did the deal. Luka falling to 3 and Trae to 5 made that a possibility.

As far as the rest, you can find threads here and most wanted Ayton. I know I did. I was wrong, so were most others.

 

[Raindog]

The Mavericks had the 5th pick, they traded up for Luka specifically. So Cuban did trade the teams pick, to get Luka. Trae Young was taken for the Hawks and that's why they did the deal. Luka falling to 3 and Trae to 5 made that a possibility.

As far as the rest, you can find threads here and most wanted Ayton. I know I did. I was wrong, so were most others.

Yup, me too... big time wanted Ayton. But looking at his college highlights, he seemed like a sure fire star at the next level.

And honestly, I expected Doncic to be more of just an oversized/under athletic point guard instead of the Larry Bird styled PF he has turned out to be. Definitely did not expect him to be the shooter (and solid rebounder) he is. There didn't seem to be as much buzz about that aspect of his game, which frankly is much better than the "playmaking" aspect the scouting tended to overemphasize.

 

[SeattleCardinal]

I've been a fan since like 90. Still remember KJ, Hornacek, Majerle, Perry, Chambers, Knight, Lang, West, and so on. The 92 offseason was INSANE in Phoenix. The city bus wraps. The intersection paintings. The murals everywhere. Basketball courts at the parks were emblazoned with the logo. It was just a pure Suns town. And I'm pretty sure that 92 is when AWA opened, so we had our new stadium along with Chuck. That time is very hard to replicate. However, I'm in LA, so I don't know what it's like on the ground there right now.

I was living in the Bay Area, as a young college graduate, and I remember going outside to pick up my morning copy of the San Jose Mercury News. The paper had this huge sports headline - something like “DESERT STORM: SUNS ACQUIRE BARKLEY.” I was stunned and ecstatic and listened to KNBR all day to hear what I could about the deal.

A couple of months later I flew to Phoenix and the first thing I saw after leaving the airport was one of those transit buses with a full-length Barkley photo. It quickly became clear that a new era had dawned in Arizona sports!

 

[Yuma]

Like I said earlier, I had been watching and reading everything I could on Barkley. Once the trade was made, I got books, magazines, posters, memorabilia, from family and friends who all knew my guy came to the Suns. KD coming to the Suns is the same deal. I never got a Barkley jersey, but I got my KD one! I've always had a guy who intrigued me outside of the Suns. Definitely Barkley is a way bigger thing. KD is kinda under the radar from busses, and building murals, etc. Hoping he finishes off what Chuck never got to do because the Bulls had a dynasty going.

While I was working out of town, the weekend before the Ayton draft was going down. I happened to be on the highway listening to NPR, and they actually had an hour long, maybe even longer, on Doncic. I came away from listening to that thinking, how could we get both guys? I still thought Ayton was the play since the Suns had never had a dominant Center. But I seriously thought maybe we could work some deal to trade back in to pick Doncic. Freakin NPR. What a weird source of sports knowledge.

 

[Cheesebeef]

It's funny. One of the trades not mentioned is bringing Nash back to the valley. That entered a whole fun and exciting era of Suns basketball!

I hated that off-season. Couldn’t have been more wrong. Except Joe Johnson. Thought the decision to cheap out on him was assinine and proved to be the next off-season.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I feel like most people were wrong on that as well, due to the not seeing him against NBA players. Mark Cuban certainly wasn't going to trade his pick when he saw Luka falling to his spot. Plus, if you go back and read articles in that time frame, and look at Ayton's video highlights, a lot of people were on the Ayton bandwagon. I do know that Sarver, and crew flew over to Europe to see Doncic in action. They still came away with Ayton as their choice. Of course now in hindsight that draft gets redrafted with Luka going number one. Still, it's notable that he's won as many championships in the NBA as Ayton.

I’m probably the biggest Ayton basher here outside Ouchie and I was OBNOXIOUSLY on Ayton corner pre draft, regularly mocking anyone who wanted Doncic. That was the most wrong I’ve ever been about sports, ever.

 

[Phrazbit]

I was 10 years old when we got Barkley. I remember being in the car (an 80s Buick that was probably 38 feet long), my mom was driving us kids somewhere, when the Barkley trade come on over the radio, she audibly gasped. Then when she heard the Hornacek was in the deal she really didn't like it, she knew Barkley was great but she also thought he was a jerk and the spitting thing that happened in Philly was brought up repeatedly.

I was thrilled, I knew Barkley was a big star and I was happy that KJ, by far my favorite athlete as a kid, wasn't in the trade. My parents both warmed up to Barkley really quick though, he had some rough edges but was one of the most charismatic, intelligent and funny dudes to ever rise to stardom.

That was a fun year. Lots of exceptions were made in terms of eating in the kitchen and going to bed by 10 because of those Suns.

I don't know that this is the most exciting but it is among the most surprising. On paper, this team looks a lot better than I would have at my most optimistic imagined a few months ago.

I was super excited the Nash Summer. I loved Nash, I reeeeally didn't like Marbury and I was really excited to watch Marion and Amare play with a great passer. Trading that pick during the draft in 2005 was a bummer though, as an Arizona fan I was pumped at the idea of drafting Iggy.

 

[Carolinacacti]

I was down in Tucson which was like 500 miles away back then. Still at home and remember asking my dad how they could trade away Hornacek? Have to give something to get something. Life lesson.

 

[Superbone]

I've been following fervently since 1976 and I think I'll put this next season anticipation above all else including the Barkley acquisition. We did get Barkley at his peak but we have Durant just past his peak and Book at his peak and Beal pretty close to peak. Can't wait. Plus a whole new coaching staff and philosophy adds another layer of anticipation.

 

[Superbone]

I was 10 years old when we got Barkley. I remember being in the car (an 80s Buick that was probably 38 feet long), my mom was driving us kids somewhere, when the Barkley trade come on over the radio, she audibly gasped. Then when she heard the Hornacek was in the deal she really didn't like it, she knew Barkley was great but she also thought he was a jerk and the spitting thing that happened in Philly was brought up repeatedly.

I was thrilled, I knew Barkley was a big star and I was happy that KJ, by far my favorite athlete as a kid, wasn't in the trade. My parents both warmed up to Barkley really quick though, he had some rough edges but was one of the most charismatic, intelligent and funny dudes to ever rise to stardom.

That was a fun year. Lots of exceptions were made in terms of eating in the kitchen and going to bed by 10 because of those Suns.

I don't know that this is the most exciting but it is among the most surprising. On paper, this team looks a lot better than I would have at my most optimistic imagined a few months ago.

I was super excited the Nash Summer. I loved Nash, I reeeeally didn't like Marbury and I was really excited to watch Marion and Amare play with a great passer. Trading that pick during the draft in 2005 was a bummer though, as an Arizona fan I was pumped at the idea of drafting Iggy.

My mom loved Hornacek as well. I think she even sent him flowers when he was in the hospital.