Will the Suns make a trade before or at the deadline this year?

[Mainstreet]

It wasn't the Frye reference, it was actually the anti-"stat wars" comment. Maybe I read you wrong but it seemed to me like you were lobbying against the idea of us trying to support Markieff with stats. This board has been overwhelmingly negative recently and I find it almost suffocating at times to just read a thread. It shouldn't be that way. We just aren't that bad but you'd never know it by the tone of the posts here. Even with our 3 game losing streak we've played pretty well since getting our guards healthy and going to our current lineup where we start with Len and run the 3 point guards together during crunch time.

I'm not a big stat guy. I like to observe the play on the court and form many of my opinions based on what I see. I use stats as a frame of reference to make sure I am not off base. Analytics is more of a tool to me but not the end all in regard to player evaluation. I do not have a problem with Markieff other than when he is getting technical fouls. My primary issue of late, and I may be way off base, is the coaching strategy and not the players. I have already conveyed my thoughts on this matter. I do think the Suns will need to add a banger to their roster that can play FC and find a consistent outside shooter to take the next step.

I understand that people have a right to feel how they choose about this team. But negativity breeds negativity and it has been hard at work on this board. Never in my life did I expect to find more positivity on RealGM than here but that's the case. I'm trying to counter just a small fraction of that negativity. I'm failing but I'm trying. Sure, it doesn't help that the team isn't as good as we'd like but it is nowhere near as bad as it's being made out to be. We have the 13th best record, not the 29th.

You are right about the board getting negative too often, however, it happens. I get frustrated as much as anyone. I think if the board had more posters, differing opinions would level out. I'd like to see more posters on the Suns forum. Candidly, I'm happy to see any participation in the Suns forum whether I agree or not with other posters. What bothers me the most is silence.

 

[AzStevenCal]

I'm not a big stat guy. I like to observe the play on the court and form many of my opinions based on what I see. I use stats as a frame of reference to make sure I am not off base. Analytics is more of a tool to me but not the end all in regard to player evaluation. I do not have a problem with Markieff other than when he is getting technical fouls. My primary issue of late, and I may be way off base, is the coaching strategy and not the players. I have already conveyed my thoughts on this matter. I do think the Suns will need to add a banger to their roster that can play FC and find a consistent outside shooter to take the next step.

I can't say I'm a big stat guy either. I usually rely on other people to gather the information and sometimes I have to rely on their explanations too. I don't know what to say about the coaching. I was a little frustrated with Jeff playing Marcus the other night until I read that Len was really worn down and then it made some sense. We were playing very well there for awhile in large part because of Len and even though the schedule has gotten tougher, it's not like we were playing an easy schedule through that 16-6 stretch.

You are right about the board getting negative too often, however, it happens. I get frustrated as much as anyone. I think if the board had more posters, differing opinions would level out. I'd like to see more posters on the Suns forum. Candidly, I'm happy to see any participation in the Suns forum whether I agree or not with other posters. What bothers me the most is silence.

Negativity is one thing but I think we've actually had posters trying to talk other posters into being just as negative. I don't get that, it's not at all in my fan handbook.

Steve

 

[BC867]

Negativity is one thing but I think we've actually had posters trying to talk other posters into being just as negative. I don't get that, it's not at all in my fan handbook.

Steve

Talk other posters into it or share an opinion? If a Suns fan/ASFN poster believes that the team philosophy and makeup of the roster are headed in the wrong direction, shouldn't he post it? As often as the believers post their opinion?

There have been a lot of negatives on the team this season. The antics of the Morris twins. The inconsistent and disappointing performances of our big men. A starting lineup not talented enough to finish the game at their positions. An inexperienced head Coach who seems to not be in control.

Many fans on this board simply reflect the negativity of the team. That is to be expected.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Talk other posters into it or share an opinion? If a Suns fan/ASFN poster believes that the team philosophy and makeup of the roster are headed in the wrong direction, shouldn't he post it? As often as the believers post their opinion?

There have been a lot of negatives on the team this season. The antics of the Morris twins. The inconsistent and disappointing performances of our big men. A starting lineup not talented enough to finish the game at their positions. An inexperienced head Coach who seems to not be in control.

Many fans on this board simply reflect the negativity of the team. That is to be expected.

I'm not trying to outlaw negativity. There's plenty of things to be disappointed about with this team.

Steve

 

[Sunburn]

I didn't watch the game tonight. I don't know what the dynamic was or how it flowed. I just came on to say I really don't like having IT. I would much rather have Green than IT. Green is a black hole, but at least he is a shooting guard. IT is a black hole, but he's a midget point guard. They're the same type of player, but at least Green is long. In my opinion, getting rid of IT would be addition by subtraction, a lot like Detroit with Josh Smith. Getting rid of him would be the first item on my to do list if I was McD.

I can see now why it was so easy to pry him from Sacramento.

 

[WildBB]

Shopping Dragic would be a joke. Pay him!

Bledsoe is playing lights out, but can he stay healthy taking the beating?!

B I G I F!

 

[Hoop Head]

Hopefully they start shopping for a replacement big after Len's injury tonight. If they have any hope of making the playoffs they need to add a big, I think that was true though regardless of Len going down. The severity of his injury is troublesome and with talk prior to it of his minutes being limited and managed closely there is no way they rush him back too soon so he'll probably miss somewhere around a month if it's just a sprain like has been reported. A month without him will make it that much easier for OKC and NO to overtake us in the standings.

Regardless of what their plan was for the deadline before this injury if they hope to make the playoffs they should be working the phones trying to find a deal now.

 

[GatorAZ]

Hopefully McD doesn't panic and make a short sided trade to secure the bloody 8th seed.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Hopefully McD doesn't panic and make a short sided trade to secure the bloody 8th seed.

Agreed. Even with Len we are a long shot to make the playoffs, too much of a long shot to make a short term deal worthwhile. If we have to go without Len for a couple of weeks, I think we can say goodbye even to our slim playoff hopes. IMO we should already be pretty close to playing for the future. We need to get TJ, Ennis and Archie enough playing time to know what we have in them come the offseason.

Steve

 

[sunsfan88]

Hopefully McD doesn't panic and make a short sided trade to secure the bloody 8th seed.

He needs to make a trade to either help us get #8 or a trade to clear up the log jam so guys like Warren, Goodwin,Ennis and Bullock can play.

I'm with you, I like clearing up logjam option better.

 

[slinslin]

The Suns are 25th in the league in defensive rebounding percentage. http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/team/_/stat/rebounds-per-game Their record in close games is either (a) terrible or (b) merely bad, depending on which stat you want to look at. Even those of us who haven't watched much have been frustrated by seeing the Suns lose in crunch time through giving up second and third chances to the opposition over and over. I don't know how to find the numbers, but I'd bet anything that their defensive rebounding rate gets even worse when they go to the 3-PG lineup, which Hornacek seems committed to closing with. So the other team pretty much gets to keep shooting until they score, and then it's up to the Suns to try to answer with a contested three or an out-of-control drive.

The Suns are doing fine rebounding wise as long as Markieff and Len are in the game.

 

[slinslin]

I didn't watch the game tonight. I don't know what the dynamic was or how it flowed. I just came on to say I really don't like having IT. I would much rather have Green than IT. Green is a black hole, but at least he is a shooting guard. IT is a black hole, but he's a midget point guard. They're the same type of player, but at least Green is long. In my opinion, getting rid of IT would be addition by subtraction, a lot like Detroit with Josh Smith. Getting rid of him would be the first item on my to do list if I was McD.

I can see now why it was so easy to pry him from Sacramento.

Great Green is long, still he is the worst defensive player in the league at this position currently.

IT contrary to the blame he gets holds his own defensively. Dragic, Marcus, Green, Wright are all doing worse than him.

Thomas is being made into the scapegoat.

PG
Bledsoe #6 of 80
Thomas #56 of 80

SG
Dragic #82 of 105
Green #105 of 105

SF
Tucker #8 of 85

PF
Markieff #6 of 102
Wright #90 of 102
Marcus #92 of 102

C
Len #17 of 76
Plumlee 34 of 76

 

[Son of RedRage]

Then the Suns turn around and trade IT, Plumee, Bullock and CHA pick for NYK pick (let's say it is #3) and they get the Lakers pick at #6.

They draft Towns Jr. at #3, Stanley Johnson at #6 and Justin Anderson with their own pick.

Re-sign Dragic for 36 mil./3 year, Wright for 8 mil./2 year and a min. veteran bigman FA like Lou Amundson.

Suns depth chart:

PG: Bledsoe/Ennis
SG: Dragic/Goodwin/Dragic/Anderson
SF: Tucker/Warren/Johnson
PF: M. Williams/Towns/Vonleh
C: Len/Wright/Amundson

This way the Suns kept their core, still would be in a play-off hunt and inserted elit talent in Towns, Stanley Johnson and Vonleh in the team.

I say we trade Tucker. Even for a newbie, he hasn't proved himself. We have Warren, we may as well put em to use.

 

[AzStevenCal]

I say we trade Tucker. Even for a newbie, he hasn't proved himself. We have Warren, we may as well put em to use.

I think he has proven himself. He's proven that he is a pretty good role player. If we had a team of stars he'd be that glue piece that makes the other starters work. On our team though, he really should be a backup. I'm hoping that once we reach the point where management accepts we're not making the playoffs, we'll see a lot less of PJ and Marcus and a lot more of Warren, Goodwin and Bullock. If that happens by trade, that's okay too.

Steve

 

[Covert Rain]

You have access to a hundred advanced stats and cherry-pick the ones that help your argument. There have been cases before where it's been all about PER with you. The fact that these fancy stats correlate so poorly with one another should give you a big hint about how meaningful they are.

Oh and by the way...there is a DEFENSIVE Per which measures the average scoring of the guys you cover at your position. So him saying that it adds no measurement to defense....WRONG.