Did the Phoenix Suns actually fleece the Rockets in the KD trade? – Slightly Biased Reacts

Did the Phoenix Suns actually fleece the Rockets in the KD trade? – Slightly Biased Reacts

Suns won the Kevin Durant trade. It’s not even close by SP Nation. Bright side of the sun. Our guy Maya Scott. Mike Tyson. The Suns are engineering the biggest trade in NBA history. Here’s what they’ll get out of it. Oh, this was the seven team trade. All right. Just making just just seeing. Oh, the Jaylen Green leap is coming. Just ask Kate Cunningham. All right. I know what we’re getting here. I know I know what we’re getting. Let’s just say it plainly, the Phoenix Suns won the Kevin Durant trade. And if that makes you uncomfortable, it probably means you’re still clinging to a version of the team in Kevin Durant that was always more illusion than a contender. So upfront, I partially agree with what he’s saying that maybe that the return on value might have been just that’s just might have been with the most you can get out of KD. I will say immediately off the rip, no. And you just you just showed why you actually lost the trade is because factoring you you always have to factor in the original trade. You always have to factor in the original trade. So because that’s just the way that that it is. They’re going to be linked. Okay. You gave up a king’s [ __ ] ransom for KD and then what two and a half years later you’re trading him for I don’t know 50 cents on the dollar especially compared to what you traded for him at the time which is like $2 on the dollar. So, let’s just get it started there. Immediately, it’s an L. The trade wasn’t about disrespecting Kevin Durant. It was about moving on from a failed experiment. And the result, the Suns didn’t just reload. They reimagined their future and came away with something they never could have had if they held on to Durant for one more goound. Hope. Okay. Let’s break it down piece by piece and then you tell me if the Suns fleece the Rockets or not. All right. Okay. Come on, Malu watch. So, the steel of the draft. So, let’s just start here. I’m not that in on Malawatch at all. Um, he just looks like a you’re I think there’s a reason why these guys always end up going in like the 10 to 20 range cuz, you know, it’s a there’s seven foot rim runners. Um, is there maybe a world in which there’s some shooting? Sure. Right. Sure. Um, but we say that about every single one of these guys that have ever come out. I just I don’t I don’t think he’s he didn’t strike me as somebody who’s like really quick decision maker, good process or good passer in the short role, which has become like almost a prerequisite for these for these type of centers at this point in time with like how defenses guard pick and rolls and stuff like that. You want your center to have a very quick processing speed. Didn’t see that with Malawatch. And you know, he moves his feet well for his size. Like I think he’d be a really good defensive player, but um instead, come on. Mwatch fell into the sun’s lap. A generational defensive anchor. So, okay. So, off the this just really depends. This guy’s just clearly head over heels for Mwatch. All right. A massive motor and the upside to become the kind of player who changes franchises. He’s not just a rim protector. He’s a floor raising, ceiling, shattering, building block. Phoenix got a future superstar. Is this a satirical article? Is there like a little hint of satire here? I can’t I honestly can’t tell. HP pay this guy. Rashier Fleming first round value in the second round. The Fleming pick was good. Don’t overlook Rashir Fleming. Was that part of the KD trade, though? The longarmed 20-year-old forward was projected to go in the top 20 by multiple scouting outlets, but slipped in the second round where the Suns use assets from the Durant deal. Scoop him up. Okay. Fleming defends like his life depends on it. Plays with edge and has a 7-4 wingspan. That’s the kind of raw material you give to a player developmental staff and think the basketball gods for five years later. This isn’t a project. This is a two-way problem from the opposing benches starting day one. All right. I don’t know about that. The Rockets got a two-way problem for their own organization. Enjoy the social media burner accounts and passive aggressive I’m just here to hoop statements. Oh, we got a hater. We got a real hater in our midst. I respect it. I respect that. We got a real hater in our midst. I didn’t realize that. Okay, here’s where we might jump off the deep end cuz I I’m here. You know what? I’m kind of here with you. All right, if you’re like really on Malawatch, whatever. And in this guy’s defense, we looked at the articles that he’s written. We looked at the articles that he’s written and he did he did publish an article before the draft that if they got Malawatch, it was a steal of the draft. So, okay. Um, look, Rasher Fleming’s two-way potential day one. I’m not entirely sure. He might be overselling that a tiny bit, but all right. This is the one right here where we’re we’re really kind of pushing up against it. Jaylen Green is a very young talent. Four years from his prime with more upside to give and proven recent success. The talent has always been there, the handle, the speed, the bounce, the shot creation, but what he needed was structure. a real backcourt partner, a team that believed in his ceiling. Is that even Phoenix? Like, was he like I I think I think you’re kind of implying Phoenix is like Jaylen Green’s our guy we want. And I think it was just like his salary needs to be in this trade. I think if a if a like decent package presented itself tomorrow, Phoenix would trade Jaylen Green tomorrow. Now he has Devin Booker beside him with the new coaching staff and Devin as the leader. He will have a clear role score and he’s entering his age 23 year right when guys like Jason Tatum, Anthony Edwards, and Kate Cunningham hit the breakout with Jaylen. There’s no ceiling here. Just a runway score. No, there’s a [ __ ] ceiling. So, I don’t know. That was kind of his role for Houston. Like I think Houston in a lot of ways um had even a better table setter and Fred Van Vleet than Deon Booker, right? Just in terms of captaining an offense. And then beyond that, um, they’re a better team, much better team with the defensive pieces as well where Jaylen Green could kind of hide defensively and not get burnt so much defensively. So, he did have a little bit more to go offensively. Um, and what what has he shown us time and time again? I I mean, I don’t know. If you’re banking on if you’re baking on this out of Jaylen Green, you’ve you’ve been suckered yet again. And that was me last year, by the way. That was me last year. Going into the season, I picked the Rockies to finish sixth. I was really high on him. If you remember, one of the reasons I was was because I said, “I think Jaylen Green’s going to have like this is going to be the Jaylen Green year.” And it wasn’t. We don’t talk enough about how rare it is to get a 23-y old who’s already averaged 21 points per game and led a team to a two seed in the playoffs. All right. Okay. All right. Okay. And we talk way too much about a 36-year-old who averages 26 points per game. The last time he made it out of the second round was seven years ago. Okay. Jaylen Green did not lead his team to the two seed. That’s That’s really overselling it. Dylan Brooks, the culture builder. Brooks may be the most hated man on your screen, unless he’s on your team, and now he’s on ours. The Suns just didn’t just trade for defense, they traded for identity. Dylan Brooks is an emotional engine, a tone setter, a guy who makes scores miserable in locker rooms tighter. He’s Marcus Smart with an edge. Patrick Beverly with more game. Draymond without the theatrics. You want to build a defensive culture, you start with Dylan Brooks. He’s not a throwin. He’s a statement. Uh, I think he was a throwin in the trade, though. What did Houston get a warning label? I’m sorry, Houston. We lied. The Phoenix Suns sold you a lemon that they were willing to chew their arm off to get away from and you gave us a future there. Okay, so I get the coping happening here. This the Rockets are reading this and they’re like, “All right.” He’s like, “Okay, whatever you say, man. We’ve got Hey, we’ve got all your picks behind you. We traded you one singular pick in a guy that we couldn’t wait to get the [ __ ] off of and Jaylen Green. So, you get a 37y old in September that will just hoop and score 25 points per game and ruin all that young positive chemistry that you’ve been building. The Rockets didn’t just get Kevin Durant. They inherited the full Kevin Durant experience. That means a 37-year-old star who will ISO your team to death and turn the ball over. Jaylen Green is ready for the leap. Okay, I’m just making sure I saw that I read that right. A mercenary who bails at the first sign of trouble. A I’m unbothered just here to hooper who becomes disengaged with things when things don’t go his way. A walking frowny face emoji who turns on fans in media the second criticism enters the chat. A social media sniper with a burner count and a short fuse. Let’s be honest, when things go wrong, and they will go wrong, Durant will do what he’s done in OKC, Golden State, Brooklyn, and Phoenix. He’ll disengage. He’ll throw shade. And he’ll plan his escape on the team he just to stabilize is left to clean the mess. I think Phoenix just [ __ ] sucked. Did he do all that stuff in Phoenix? Really? Did he like disengage? I’m like more concerned with what I saw from Booker last year than KD. Full stop. The Slim Reaper always strikes again. People also criticize Jaylen Green for choking in his first year in the playoffs. Durant never made it out the second round in Brooklyn or Phoenix. Was bounced in the first round with each and completely missed the playoffs this year. Yet, we are criticizing a kid in his first playoff series appearance for choking. What does that mean? Durant, a veteran superstar, did in Brooklyn and Phoenix. Well, let me flip that question on you. What does that mean? Cuz I guarantee you the way this guy’s typing that he would call Deon Booker the best player on the Suns. What does that mean for Deon Booker? Like that’s immediately what I would flip. What does that mean for Book? Huh? What does that mean? The Suns traded the past for a future. Kevin Durant was never going to bring a title to Phoenix. It was an illusion from the beginning. We blew up a team for what we thought was our organization savior. But the truth is, we didn’t need saving. And instead of the remedy, Durant turned out to be the poison pill that triggered a difficult reboot. Before you blame Bradley Beal, you should search who was the one who lobbyed for Beiel to be brought to Phoenix. I’ll save you a Google search. Durant. Oh man, the Suns chose a different path this year. They chose youth, energy, hope, and maybe finally a core that can grow together. Rest easy, Suns fans. The nightmare is over and the rebuilding has begun. No, we will not contend next year, but we will be competitive. Fun building towards something, building towards a Booker trade. And most importantly, fun to root for again. The best part, they didn’t just win this trade. They fleeced the Rockets. How do I read the comments? That would that was Yeah, that’s you know $2 hot dogs. HBO might have had this guy on payroll. I like the cope though. I like the cope. I don’t know. Like I I there’s no Let’s just start here. If you want to say, “Hey, the Suns got a decent return.” Fine. They did not fleece the Rockets whatsoever. Let’s just get that out the way. There was no fleecing that happened. Okay. There’s no fleecing at all. Yeah. You didn’t get Jabari Smith in the trade. You didn’t land any of your picks, right? You got the 10th pick in this year’s draft. You didn’t land any future first in the process. like you got off of a top 13, 14 player who’s older, a flight risk, all that stuff, injury risk, but you traded that for Jaylen Green who I pro like clearly the Rockets were a-ok okay with getting rid of. Um, look, the reality is is historically speaking, these guards who year three or four in the league haven’t really shown much. They’re still uber inefficient. Very rarely do those guys ever really turn the corner in a serious way. What do you think? Booker nets in a trade. Jay Na’vi plus four firsts. I’m gonna be real. 75 mil. No way. [ __ ] I’m giving up that much for Book at this point in time. I Book has not been that good to me for a couple years. I’d be a little concerned with how many minutes he’s played in the league so far. I’m just I don’t think so. I think it’s kind of a stretch to say the Suns fleece the Rockets, but I definitely think the Suns are way better off with what they have now versus having Durant. Yeah, I think that’s it. I think that’s really it to say that you fleeced them. Eh, but you could say we did the best with what we had. I think that’s fine. I mean, Houston, I’m gonna tell you one thing right now. I think Houston thinks they fleeced you. I think Houston thinks they fleeced you. I think Houston looks at it and says, “Oh my god, all it took was Jaylen Green, Dylan Brooks, two guys that we could easily replace with our with some of our younger guys.” Uh, and only one pick in this draft that we were never going that was never going to be in our rotation anyways. Like that was it. like they think they fleeced you. But man, on Green, the overwhelming weight of historical evidence suggests that if Green was going to make that leap to start player, he’d have done so already. Not saying he still can’t, but he’d absolutely be an outlier. Yeah, that’s kind of what it is. Usually, usually these uh by the way, your argument is akin to what someone recently said about project players rarely ever pan out. It’s just not true. No, I uh there is there’s some stats out there and I’ve read I’ve read articles about it. It was even heading into this season where was like looking at Jaylen Green’s statistical profile and it is like next to has never happened really that a guy as inefficient as he has been turns the corner ever like it just does not happen. Let me see if I can find that. What should I search on Google? Jaylen Green stats. Jayen Green is historically awful versus the Warriors. Oh, that’s not good. That’s not good. There was some big NBA’s most inefficient player, Jaylen Green. He’s either the worst on the team or the worst in the NBA in almost all statistics. He’s always at the bottom of the statistics. Every minute Jaylen Green plays, the Rockets lose a chance to get a good player in a trade. Jesus Christ. Jaylen Green season. 23% on midies, 18% on nonrestricted area paint shots, 26% on corner threes, 29% on all jumpers. Okay, that was in November. I was about to say, what the [ __ ] Um, I mean, I respect this level of cope 100%. But I I agree with a lot of what he’s saying in the sense that like, you know, they didn’t like lose this trade. They’re in a better spot now, 100%. Like, if I were a Suns fan, I’d feel better about where I’m at now versus going into the season with KD knowing full well be like a six seed, whatever the case may be. But yeah, I mean that like Jaylen Green’s going to take the leap and then comparing him to Cade. Like, so this is where I’ll, you know, Jason Tatum came into the league and it was clear and obvious right away he was gonna be a star. Uh, and pretty similar like rookie season very inefficient, but you watched him play and it was like this guy’s a [ __ ] stud. And then year two, there was no mistaking it. Kate Cunningham, same exact thing. Like you watched Kate Cunningham play, there was no mistaking it. None at all. And you gota be really high on malaw watch.

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