The Phoenix Suns have potentially lined to point guard yrie Irving. Such a signing would be a huge mistake.
ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne seems like a nice person and generally I find her basketball analysis to be solid.
However, earlier this week she went on The Jump and had one of those moments at work we all have. You know, the ones where you didn’t get enough sleep, you forgot your coffee, and you went a little too hard the night before.
Hey, we’ve all been there.
Shelburne thew on the show that Kyrie Irving desperately wants out of Boston but isn’t a good fit in Brooklyn, LA, or New York, but would be a brilliant fit in Phoenix.
Holy mother of upside down days. Sometimes you just gotta call in sick and stay home.
Look, there’s no doubt that the king of the flat earth troll is one hell of a basketball player. The guy just finished up the best season of his career…at least on the floor…kind of…We will get back to that. But Irving is one of the unique players in the league with the ability to get a shot off whenever he wants. He’s a smart passer and he’s arguably the greatest ball-handler in the history of the league (apologies to white chocolate).
The Phoenix Suns too need a point guard and Irving is indeed a point guard.
So, I guess if you’re in a drunken stupor it kind of makes sense.
Except it doesn’t. Here’s why:
Fit on the Floor:
At face value, the fit is simple. The problem though is that if Phoenix signs Irving they have to dump Tyler Johnson and renounce Kelly Oubre, Richaun Holmes, and Troy Daniels to make it work.
At that point they have no money left and a roster that is, is what it is: incomplete.
If you’re going to sign Irving you better believe that it instantly makes you a contender because there’s nothing else coming after that.
While Kyrie would make the Suns more interesting to watch, I doubt he would even make them a playoff contender out west unless Deandre Ayton took a huge stride, TJ Warren suddenly realized half of the game involved trying to stop the other guy from scoring, and Josh Jackson developed a basketball IQ.
There’s no way that team is competing for a top-four spot out West. If you can’t make the playoffs with that kind of team, Phoenix then has no way out of the situation except to trade Kyrie or Booker.
Simply, you can’t put this team on the floor.
It just defies all logic.
Salary Cap:
Phoenix Suns
As bad as the salary cap situation would be in the short-term, the long-term impact would be far worse.
The Suns would be maxed out on the cap until 2020-2021 where the best case scenario is that they have offer a max contract to Ayton which will force them into the luxury tax for a team that’s most likely a borderline playoff team.
The Suns could try to shake loose enough money to add another solid player if they could find a way to dispose themselves of Warren, Jackson, and some picks. Okay fine, but what kind of players are you going to be able to get for that mess of mediocrity?
The only thing worse than watching a bunch of unorganized 19 and 20-year-olds get destroyed for the last six years with the hope of finding future stars would be to watch a bunch of players in their mid 20’s get narrowly defeated for the next six years with no hope of improvement in the future.
Chemistry:
One of my pet peeves with Suns fans is that they seem to forget that basketball involves five players and a whole strategy called “defense.”
Booker puts up 50 and Suns Twitter goes nuts about how he’s an All-Star, even though he gives up 45 and has a real +/- of 4.
There’s also this unnatural love for Warren even though every statistical piece of evidence shows that the team’s production plummets anytime he’s allowed on the hard wood.
Adding Irving would bring tremendous statistical production from the point guard position.
Bould it increase their defensive input and allow them to overcome the defensive deficiencies of Devin Booker?
Hell no.
Would it make the other four guys on the team better?
We know it won’t make Booker better; the others are a strong maybe.
This entire season in Boston was about the team hating Kyrie. The guy hogs the ball until it matters and then he throws a goofy pass and screams at the teammate for missing.
The Phoenix Suns already have a likable leader in Booker. Adding in an unlikable leader who won’t like running Monty’s offense doesn’t make any sense at all.
Health:
Kyrie is young and that’s great.
However, he’s no Klay Thompson in terms of durability. He has missed at least 25% of the games in a season four of the eight years he’s been in the league.
Take into account the fact that point guards start to break down physically in their late 20’s and early 30’s and you’ve got a contract that’s destined to end in disappointment.
Unless you looked at Chris Paul limping around Houston this season and thought “that’s the missing piece for Phoenix,” you should probably think real long and hard about whether or not you want to bring the same kind of situation to the Suns.
Conclusion:
Would I love to see the sight of Kyrie in Phoenix?
Sure, I’d enjoy the ball handling and the crazy shots. I’d love watching the interpersonal drama as the team tried to figure out who the real leader was. I’d enjoy watching Monty try to smooth over the egos. It’d all be great fun and drama, but it wouldn’t be about watching good basketball.
After decades of never winning a title, I don’t want drama, I want to win.
So should the Suns, which is why they need to avoid Kyrie Irving with the same vigor as his teammates in Boston.