NBA draft picks trade rumors

[Chris_Sanders]

I still contend Tatum has Paul Pierce like game. Just amazing within the three point line.

 

[SirStefan32]

Yeah that's pretty weird... especially Tatum ahead of Jackson. That has to be a smoke screen. The fact they don't mention Jackson at all is fishy...same for Fox.

Not fishy, in my opinion. It just means they know he will be gone by the time they pick.

 

[AZBALLER]

Yeah, I remember how it happened, I just seem to remember that there was more going on. IIRC, he was very low paid and didn't think he was getting fair treatment after winning the Executive of the Year award.

When Sarver denied his request to re-do his deal, Bryan became disillusioned. Then when Toronto asked permission to interview him everyone was shocked that Sarver okayed it while the season was going on. Bryan took that as "writing on the wall" and jumped at a fresh start with an organization willing to pay him a competitive salary.

I think Sarver was pissed at the time that Bryan left, he felt with Jerry still involved that Bryan would at least finish the season. I doubt he had any intention of keeping Bryan passed that deal anyway given the disparity between what he wanted to pay and what BC was asking for.

Something that I've always learned in life. You always leave a sinking ship

 

[Errntknght]

In short, BC didn't honor his contract with the Suns

 

[sunsfan88]

I still contend Tatum has Paul Pierce like game. Just amazing within the three point line.

His game is more similar to Marcus Morris imo. Marcus takes advantage of smaller or slower players guarding him and does that iso ball thing which Tatum does.

 

[Mainstreet]

My recollection is Bryan Colangelo was thinking Sarver would match a competitive contract offer from Toronto but instead he let him walk. Colangelo was deserving of a higher salary.

 

[sunsfan88]

If he can really score like Booker and pre-injury Warren, you'd really pass on him because he is not "super" athletic?

He plays the same position as Warren and it's unlikely he will become better than Warren.

Considering the talent in this draft, if the best the Suns could do is Tatum then yeah it's disappointing.

Tatum is an iso ball player and today's NBA is all about passing and ball movement. There's a reason the warriors never won anything with Jackson but became contenders with Kerr.

The Suns are already a very selfish basketball team that rarely passses the ball and among worst in the league in assists.

Suns top 5 big board should be imo Fultz, Ball, Jackson, Fox, and Isaac.

 

[GatorAZ]

Tatum is a willing passer but not a distributor. Duke was also stuck without a PG and went heavy ISO with a few players.

 

[Chaplin]

He plays the same position as Warren and it's unlikely he will become better than Warren.

Geez, where do you come up with this stuff? Warren isn't all that, hate to tell you. He was an interesting up and comer before his "injury", now he's a good role player. But there's nothing else there. He's one dimensional. I don't want to get rid of him, but to say an undrafted rookie is "unlikely" to be better than Warren is nuts.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Yes, because I just don't see the scoring machine potential in Tatum (neither did I in Warren, BTW). He always had an inch or two over his defenders in college while usually having the speed advantage as well but NBA is different.

He is a polished scorer and at least an okay athlete but at #4 I have higher ambitions.

@SirStefan32 this sums up my feelings.

 

[Cheesebeef]

If he can really score like Booker and pre-injury Warren, you'd really pass on him because he is not "super" athletic?

damn right. and another reason I pass on him because of his lack of athleticism is DEFENSE. You can't have BOTH of our wing defenders (Booker and Tatum) be so behind the 8 ball defensively at the most athletic positions on the floor. At some point, if this team is EVER going to actually contend, it has to start treating both sides of the floor the same.

Tatum was bigger than most guys he played against last year... and slightly quicker and he was just... good. He wasn't Carmelo Anthony good. He didn't light the world on fire. He didn't single-handedly raise Duke's game to new levels. He wasn't even good enough to get a #2 seed out of the 2nd round of the tournament. Hell, he wasn't even a good 3 point shooter at 34%.

So, he's a mediocre athlete at the most athletic position in the league, hasn't shown he's a guy who can spread the floor from 3 and showed very little on D. Sorry... we've already got a guy who checks all those boxes... and his name is TJ Warren. Unless you're going to SIGNIFICANTLY upgrade there, I have no idea why you draft a guy who might be better than him, but has ceiling issues baked in on the defensive end.

He was just a good college freshman, who is already coming into a much more athletic league where he won't have a size advantage on offense and will be a liability on D.

With the 4th pick in a very very good draft, I want more than that.

 

[sunsfan88]

Geez, where do you come up with this stuff? Warren isn't all that, hate to tell you. He was an interesting up and comer before his "injury", now he's a good role player. But there's nothing else there. He's one dimensional. I don't want to get rid of him, but to say an undrafted rookie is "unlikely" to be better than Warren is nuts.

Why? There are gonna be countless number of players from this draft won't be better than Warren.

And I don't even like Warren, I hope he's not in our longterm plans.

How can you call Warren one dimensional but not Tatum? Tatum's regarded as one of the worst defensive players from the lottery prospects and only played well in college because he was bigger than his matchups and that's not gonna be the case in the NBA for him.

I personally think Tatum will be the worst player selected from the top 6 (assuming he goes there).

 

[sunsfan88]

So, he's a mediocre athlete at the most athletic position in the league, hasn't shown he's a guy who can spread the floor from 3 and showed very little on D. Sorry... we've already got a guy who checks all those boxes... and his name is TJ Warren. Unless you're going to SIGNIFICANTLY upgrade there, I have no idea why you draft a guy who might be better than him, but has ceiling issues baked in on the defensive end.

He was just a good college freshman, who is already coming into a much more athletic league where he won't have a size advantage on offense and will be a liability on D.

With the 4th pick in a very very good draft, I want more than that.

Well said.

 

[Chaplin]

How about this whopper from The Ringer:

https://theringer.com/2017-nba-draft-trade-down-lakers-suns-8d14f522df02

There’s been noise in NBA circles this month that they have significant interest in Kansas forward Josh Jackson. On The Bill Simmons Podcast, Bill and I discussed the NBA scuttlebutt that the Lakers are looking to swap positions with the Suns: The deal would move L.A. down from no. 2 to no. 4; Phoenix’s cost of doing business involves eating Luol Deng’s albatross contract. It’s hard to trust what you hear from teams this time of year, but it does line up with reports that Jackson had canceled workouts with the Celtics and had a second workout with the Lakers on Tuesday. In theory, it makes sense. Lonzo Ball, whom the Suns could draft second, is an absolutely perfect fit next to sharpshooting 2-guard Devin Booker. On the flip side, Jackson would help complete the Lakers’ core while they start clearing cap space to make a push for Paul George and possibly LeBron James the following summer.

 

[elindholm]

How about this whopper from The Ringer:

Here's a hint for the Suns brass: If Ball is dying to play for the Lakers and the Lakers don't want him, that's a clear sign that the Suns need to stay the hell away.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

Here's a hint for the Suns brass: If Ball is dying to play for the Lakers and the Lakers don't want him, that's a clear sign that the Suns need to stay the hell away.

I just don't see the logic in this. Ball wanting to play for the Lakers has nothing to do with what the Lakers need or what they are looking for in this draft. How badly a player wants to play for your team should not have a major effect on whether you pick him or not.

 

[elindholm]

I just don't see the logic in this. Ball wanting to play for the Lakers has nothing to do with what the Lakers need or what they are looking for in this draft. How badly a player wants to play for your team should not have a major effect on whether you pick him or not.

True, although if a player with obvious ego issues doesn't want to play for you, it might be better to stay away.

What I meant was, there's no obvious reason for the Lakers not to want him, unless they've decided he's not worth the #2 pick. And if he's not worth the #2 pick, it would be stupid for the Suns to move up in order to take him there, unless they think they are smarter than the Lakers, which they probably aren't.

 

[Chaplin]

True, although if a player with obvious ego issues doesn't want to play for you, it might be better to stay away.

What I meant was, there's no obvious reason for the Lakers not to want him, unless they've decided he's not worth the #2 pick. And if he's not worth the #2 pick, it would be stupid for the Suns to move up in order to take him there, unless they think they are smarter than the Lakers, which they probably aren't.

It all depends on how much they like D'Angelo Russell.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

True, although if a player with obvious ego issues doesn't want to play for you, it might be better to stay away.

What I meant was, there's no obvious reason for the Lakers not to want him, unless they've decided he's not worth the #2 pick. And if he's not worth the #2 pick, it would be stupid for the Suns to move up in order to take him there, unless they think they are smarter than the Lakers, which they probably aren't.

Ball is seen as a PG and they recently invested a #2 pick in Russell who was drafted to be their PG. Looking at the success that scoring PGs have been having recently I can see why they might want to move forward with Russell as he appears that he is going to be good in that department. They may also view adding to the wing as a bigger need and may have Jackson rated higher or at least very closely to Ball.

 

[Sunburn]

I think Tatum's defense is very underrated. His opponent field goal % was less than 33%.



http://www.nba.com/sixers/news/prospect-profile-jayson-tatum


Throughout the season, Tatum displayed effective defensive tools. With Duke relying on a man-defense heavy scheme, opponents, according to Synergy Sports calculations, managed to deposit just 32.2 percent of their shots taken against Tatum, and were held to 0.72 points per possession.

 

[Raze]

I think Tatum's defense is very underrated. His opponent field goal % was less than 33%.



http://www.nba.com/sixers/news/prospect-profile-jayson-tatum


Throughout the season, Tatum displayed effective defensive tools. With Duke relying on a man-defense heavy scheme, opponents, according to Synergy Sports calculations, managed to deposit just 32.2 percent of their shots taken against Tatum, and were held to 0.72 points per possession.

He's an absolutely terrible low post defender. He gives up far too much space, he can't hold his ground against marginal talented big men, he has questionable positioning off opponents shots (more than once I caught him under the basket), and worst of all he doesn't seem to care. When you watch Isaac and Jackson play D, you see passion. When you watch Tatum "play" D you see apathy and confusion.

His team D is also frustrating to watch. He looks lost too often and is late to help (sometimes displaying matador defense).

Stats like what you quoted can be very misleading. If he's guarding the best big guy on the floor then he's doing a great job. If he's guarding a scrub then he's doing a poor job. It also makes a difference if he's guarding the post vs. the perimeter.

And he is too slow to guard NBA SFs. This guy screams tweener on D.

 

[outcent13]

How about this whopper from The Ringer:

https://theringer.com/2017-nba-draft-trade-down-lakers-suns-8d14f522df02

How ironic would that be ,absorbing Dengs contract to add a lottery pick ?

 

[Ronin]

RealGM‏Verified account@RealGM 5m5 minutes ago
Lakers Discussing Trading Out Of No. 2 Slot In Draft: http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/246274/Lakers-Discussing-Trading-Out-Of-No-2-Slot-In-Draft…

 

[SirStefan32]

How ironic would that be ,absorbing Dengs contract to add a lottery pick ?

Full circle, indeed!

 

[JCSunsfan]

How ironic would that be ,absorbing Dengs contract to add a lottery pick ?

The teams trading down often got the better player. But eating Dieng's contract to move to

How ironic would that be ,absorbing Dengs contract to add a lottery pick ?

if we have the money I would do this. But it only makes sense if we are moving Bledsoe's deal. Deng has three more years doesn't he. Wow what a bad contract! I think I might want more.