Bright Side Of The Sun: FanPosts

Offseason so far...

Snowbird — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 05:29:59 -0000

Unfortunately, since I am a realist, I dont see us finishing in the top 4 this year. We are a 6-8 seed that has potential to cause a trouble and maybe push a game 6 in the 2nd round. Beyond that, we have to hope the Robert Horry spirits are on our side for any further advancement.

Regarding the summer league, we have another Brian Skinner type that is capable of playing for us, the question is will he play. Robin's turn-around dunk wa a professional basketball player's move. Skinner doesn't have that possibilty available to him, nor does he have the length to guard 7 footers like Lopez. If he could xhoot three's...I miss Tim Thomas.

I'll believe the numbers I see from Tucker and Strawberry when they happen in the regular season. Tucker is a stud right now, but got less PT than Strawberry last year despite being drafted one round higher.

I still think we should have gone after Pietrus in some way, but such is vie. Bell, Barbosa, and Diaw are the keys to this season. All of them step up, we are contenders. We can't have the majority of our games where Leandro and Doris disappear, and our only fighting chance is hoping Bell is on and gets 4 or 5 threes that night.

We have made no effort to try and replace the easy baskets that Shawn got us, and have made no moves this offseason to deal with it. Their is an enormous trust in our current roster, and we can only hope with good reason.

If we trust in this group, what have we heard about summer workouts. Where is Boris and Shaq's weight? Has Amare been working on tha tturn-around jumper and D? How are Bell and Hill's nagging injuries? Is Steve done getting his rocks off with soccer? What is good Sir Terrence and Stephen up to with free agents?

As far as free agents go, there are a few cheapo's out there that could help us once money runs out. J.R. Smith is worth stretching the luxury tax slightly. Aside from that, Jason Williams, Matt Barnes, Devin Brown, Janerro Pargo, and Tony Allen would be great off the bench. Maybe there is an athlete out there to get out on the break for easy buckets and back door cuts, some no name like Petway that used to play at Michigan.

Hurry up and get here end of October

Matt Barnes a Sun

Turambar — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 05:27:46 -0000

Ed note: You spend 5 hours in the car and look what happens...I am bumping this up and also editing the post down to a quick quote and link to the EV Trib...-P Stan

I just found this out through our brethren on phxsuns.net. i have to say that I am happy about this signing. About time we land a decent free agent!

here's the news

Suns sign free agent Matt Barnes
Jerry Brown, Tribune

The sixth-year NBA veteran signed for the league’s veteran minimum contract ($1.2 million, about $400,000 of which is paid by league funds) and will immediately step into the rotation as either a starter or bench player on the wing. He will be in Phoenix to take his physical on Monday morning and is expected to finalize his deal afterward.

and here's how you can identify him which is still subtle compared to this....

[Note by Phoenix Stan, 07/20/08 11:07 PM PDT ]

I've had all of 30 minutes to think about this but on the surface here's what I think it means:

No Gordan Giricek - that's an easy call
At the league minimum this signing is a real bargain - no question
The question that Barnes does raise is his impact on the rotation. Do he and Hill share primary duties at the 3 and if so does that mean Diaw is going to backup Amare as a 4? Or perhaps this makes Diaw just a little more expendable now.
I still don't see the Suns starting the year with both Diaw and Barbosa on the roster.
After watching Tucker look pretty darn good at the 2 and given his rookie salary my bet is still on Barbosa being moved to reduce the overall salary and clear room for a backup point guard.
Anyone know Kyle Lowry's agent or have the number for the Grizzlies GM?

Steve Nash and Baron Davis

supernova — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:14:58 -0000

here's an interesting photo from www.barstoolsports.com:

Nash and Baron

the video is up now too:

video

they do seem to be friends...

friends

thoughts?

nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash
nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash nash

robin lopez to usa team!!....practice...team...:-)

be-the-ball — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:56:53 -0000

Link to article Wow, this looks really good. My favorite quote.... "he two rising stars were selected after stellar performances in the 2008 NBA Summer League". Drago looks more and more like another year away though....first he said he wanted to play for the suns...then he said he wants to play there....please don't be a flake....and here are a few more words to reach 75......go see hellboy 2 and batman, both really good..

Amare Stoudemire--The best offensive player in the NBA?

RealTangiblesGuy — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:25:23 -0000

Alright guys, I had been meaning to make something like this for a long time, but there's a ton of inertia with this kind of thing. You just can't start, and when you do start, it becomes an obsession.

We spend a lot of time talking about defensive capabilities and intangibles and the like, but rarely have I seen a full on discussion about who the best offensive player in the NBA is. Let that discussion begin. This graph is a eFG% vs. PPG graph for prolific scorers in the NBA. Average values are denoted by the red lines. The data was pulled from Basketball-Reference and the players to appear were selected by me (there is selection bias). I tried to pick a balance of players from teams. I picked only players with PPG over 17 (with one exception, Steve Nash). For most of these players, it cannot be argued that they do not have the ability to create their own shot. Teams rely on each of these players for major offensive production.

[URL=http://img300.imageshack.us/my.php?image=prolificscorershb0.jpg][IMG]http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/4007/prolificscorershb0.th.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

I feel that an offensive player should be able to produce big time points but should do it effectively. Although eFG% is an excellent way to measure a player's offensive efficiency, it is not perfect. One problem is that it misrepresents players who are intentionally fouled due to low FT %. For example, Dwight Howard's eFG% would probably be a heck of a lot higher if he could hit 85% from the line as teams would be more willing to let him get a shot close to the basket. Currently, teams do anything in their power to foul him before his extremely high % shots. Same thing with Shaq throughout his career. Many Shaq dunks were avoided by fouling. eFG% does not do favor to these guys. However, one can argue that poor FT% should also be included in any measure of offensive efficiency, and so I have tried to include that in the concept of "Posessions" (as you'll see). Another problem with eFG% is that players who turn the ball over a ton on the way to effective offensive production (step forward, D. Wade) are overrated.

To rectify this and other similar problems, I pulled something out of my ass that I like to call "Possessions." This is basically FGA + FTA/2 + TOV (all numbers per game). In my mind, it represents possessions used by each player in order to generate his production. I know there are some problems with this. First, point guards (and others) who have as a major part of their duty distributing the ball will have higher TOV. Second, players who get many And-1's will actually be using fewer possessions than this number indicates. Furthermore, players shooting many technical freethrows will not be rated appropriately. However, it does provide some interesting information (ex. although Jefferson/Yao seem to be more effective in the post than Duncan, they also use more possessions to get their work done).

via img2.freeimagehosting.net

Alright, so here's what I think I learned after making this:

Using this, I believe a stronger case can be made for Amare as the premier offensive player in the NBA than for any other player. Amare's possessions were exactly on the border of yellow/red but I put the cutoff after him due to the And-1 bias I discussed earlier.

In the case of Iverson/Anthony, it seems very obvious that shots should be transferred to Anthony--he has a much higher eFG% than Iverson and can create his own shot.

Despite all the talk about how Al Jefferson was not enough to be the centerpiece of a trade for Garnett, his offensive production seems to be almost exactly the same as that of Yao. I don't know how far apart they are defensively but do know that both have a reputation for poor defense. Given that, would anyone protest if Yao was the focal point of a trade platter for KG?? So why do people argue about Big Al?

This graph makes Mike Dunleavy look great. It seems he may be severely underrated with respect to his offensive abilities.

Steve Nash is absolutely ridiculously amazing. Despite his reputation as a high-turnover PG, he is extremely effective offensively. I was so shocked by this that I looked up his career eFG%. Guess what? This is not an outlier. I think the Sixers may have been much better off making him the first pick of the 96 draft.

Kobe is below average with respect to eFG% (no excuses this year for poor teammates, please). He also used a high number of possessions, for what its worth.

Bosh is a yellow dot among a sea of red ones. If you subscribe to "Possessions," this means he is much more effective at scoring than his eFG% would have us believe.

Gordon seems better than Deng offensively, despite accusations that he's just another undependable jump shooter.

Both Deng and Josh Smith (highly touted RFA) are poor in terms of offensive production.

This adds another exhibit to the "Kevin Durant Sucks" stack of evidence. I was quite tempted to promptly break all the above guidelines of player selection in order to add Al Horford.

Another interesting tidbit: Mr. Vinsanity and R-Jeff had nearly the same eFG%. Now I'm pretty sure this wasn't due to planning, but it seems that major offensive players on the same team should reallocate shots until they have the same eFG% in order to gain maximum effectiveness (you listening, George Karl? How about you, SVG?)

Alright, one last note: I'm very open to criticism and promise I'll try my best to not get defensive unnecessarily. Let me know if you have any suggestions, questions, would like to see the raw numbers, want me to add a player or think I should remove a player, etc. Also I enjoy doing stuff like this so let me know if there's some other data you'd like to see. Right now, I'm thinking of doing something with the idea of consistency (which players vary the most from game to game and which are more dependable) and would appreciate any ideas or thoughts with regard to this.

Ed Note from P-Stan: Wow, is this a solid bit of analysis or what? Great work!

Towards the end of the season I some charting of Amare's season myself with grand plans to do an end of season recap show in partnership with Black Jesus Disciples

That never happened but I still have this little graph to share on the topic of Amare's dominance.

You will note the slow start which was well documented around here and that his rise started before Shaq came. This is something Amare was saying last year if anyone bothered to listen beyond the sound of Shaq's big mouth claiming how he would make Amare great.

Run’N'Gun Podcast Ep#46:Offseason Ponderings - The Roster

dang — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:12:02 -0000

Run’N'Gun Ep#46:Offseason Ponderings - The Roster

July 17, 2008 – 8:07 pm

On episode 46, Dave ponders the question “How will the Suns roster look next season?

This is one of several offseason episodes where we will examine an aspect of the Suns or the NBA and try and shed some light on the subject. This week we're asking the question, "How will the Suns roster look next season, and what moves could be made?"

Now that it's the offseason, its a good time to get some feedback/ask questions for the show. If you want to be heard on the next installment of Run N Gun, even if you just have a brief few words to say, dial our Call in Line on 916-912-4263 and leave a message for RNG - alternatively, email: runandgunsuns@gmail.com

Hosted By:Dave Ang
Call In Line: 916-912-4263

Summer League Much?

Turambar — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:07:14 -0000

ed note: Bumping up to the front page as our unofficial Summer League game thread. -TS

Kinda surprised that no one has a post going for the Suns first summer league game against the Rockets. Of course the Summer League rarely tells us anything at all, in fact I think the Knicks went undefeated last year in Vegas and that didnt do them any good when it mattered.

Overall though I'm curious to see whether or not DJ and Tucker have developed any outside shooting and look forward seeing what Lopez looks like on the floor. Hell we might actually get to see these rooks play this year unlike last, and yes I still consider Tucker and DJ rooks since they hardly had more than a couple min. of playing time for the scant amount of games they were in.

I believe you can watch the game streaming on NBA.com, if not there is always the box score to follow.

Goran hits the court!

rosewood — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:07:34 -0000

Slovenia opened up today's Olympic qualifiers in Athens with an 88-76 victory over Korea.

Our boy Goran had 11 pts on 3-3 shooting (plus 1-1 3pt. and 4-4 FTs), 4 ast., 3 reb., 1 stl., and 1 TO.

I don't think he's starting though, so his minutes will be around this amount for most games, but he was apparently on the court during crunch time when Korea made their comeback. I think he's backing up or playing the 2 alongside their starting PG, Lakovic.

Let's hope Slovenia can keep this up. They're one of the favorites here and the top 3 teams get a spot in the Olympics. And if he makes the Olympics, we can watch him on TV!

Woo!

Gimme' some Skin!

willthehawk — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:17:40 -0000

via farm3.static.flickr.com

So, while initally I was quite excited to hear the Suns drafted an 'energy' big man, after all, those intagibles have always seemed to bite the suns in the ass...

But, after thinking about the Suns roster some more, I was wondering, do we Remember Brian Skinner?

He played tough D, hustled for rebounds and blocked shots, but suddenly now the Suns are ignoring him in favor of playing Robin Lopez.

Don't get me wrong, Loopez has a lot of good traits...but why draft for a hustle Center who doesn't have an offensive game :

WHEN YOU ALREADY HAVE ONE FOR CHEAP?!

It seems to me if energy big man was what the suns wanted, they ought to have simply played B-Skin more down the stretch.

It wasn't as if Skinner's game tapered off during the season, he just didn't get minutes

It's like the Suns are stuck in this half-ass rebuilding/ 'still a contender' mindset and it is stupid. One the one-hand, the Suns aren't going to trade any major piece because 'we can still win it all', but on the other the Suns are drafting a guy who is a VERY similar player to someone the Suns already have, in the hopes of getting younger. There isn't room in the rotation for BOTH Skinner and Lopez, so I really don't see any short term 'net gain' from the signing.

We are just ditching one servicable, offensively challenged, hustle big man for another. That won't put us over the top.

For next year, the Suns don't need Lopez. They have Skinner. If they want to contend they should have nabbed a shooter/ wing player which is what we need. Or at least drafted Lopez and then gone after a good wing player with agressive free agenecy, and they haven't.

Random Retrospection: Gasol Trade

rosewood — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 22:47:00 -0000

Looking back at the Gasol trade, I think it's become a lot more clear that this wasn't as horrible a trade as it was made out to be. In fact, I think you can make a case that the Grizzlies did well for themselves.

They gave up Gasol, but now have gotten:

Javaris Crittenton - a promising PG prospect, even if they're loaded at that position
Darrell Arthur - a promising PF prospect
Marc Gasol - a promising C prospect, who was just MVP of the Spanish league (arguably the best league in Europe).
9M in Salary Cap relief between Kwame Brown and Aaron Mckie
the Lakers 2010 first round pick.

That's really not a bad haul for a high-end complimentary player like Gasol. I mean, he's 20/8 guy, which is great, but he's not a Duncan or even Amare caliber star.

I think perhaps people jumped on this trade so aggressively because the Lakers didn't have to give up any rotation players except Brown. But, in retrospect, I think that may speak more to the fact that the Lakers had a lot of quality, expendable assets outside their rotation rather than Memphis made a bad deal.

Perhaps, there were better deals, but, to me, Darrell Arthur/Marc Gasol/Javaris Crittenton/9M in cap space/1st Round Pick is pretty good for a one-time all star.

Thoughts?

Shawn Marion??

toto_l2003 — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:53:12 -0000

First time to post here so i dont really know how this works.... but im a big Suns fan since the Majerle, Barkley, Kevin Johnson days. Anybody give any thought to getting Shawn marion back to the Suns? i tried it on some trade machine and it will work if we trade Barbosa and Diaw for him. It would solve our need for a wingman and defender outright, plus a chance to unload Diaw's contract. We lose Barbosa's scoring (and reasonable contract) but shooting guards should be the easiest to pick up from the free agents available.

Big question is if Miami will go for it... or even more important if MArion will?? I think Barbosa's reasonable contract would be acceptable to Miami and a third team involved can get Diaw. TEam that comes to mind is the Knicks if you can believe that D'Antoni realy loves Diaw. Knicks can send Eddy Curry to play alongside Beasley with the Heat (while Barbosa plays alongside Wade) or send David Lee/ Balkman/ Malik Rose - which will give Miami depth with Barbosa/ Lee/ Balkman in exchange for Marion with Rose a salary cap saver by next season. I know the scenarios are kind of out of this world but if it goes thru and marion decides not to re-sign with the Suns we still get to shed Diaws bloated contract.

Shaun Livingston?

sdot — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:52:50 -0000

It looks like the Clippers just lost Brand, haha suckers. And now they have Baron at the point with Brevin Knight as his backup.

That said, do you think they'll still give up on Shaun Livingston? To retain him they'd have to pay around 5 mil i think for the season, and I hear that they'd rather cut him loose because theyre wary about paying him so much if he can't contribute right away.

If they don't, I really think that the suns should go hard for this kid, really get in the mix to give him a one year minimum deal to prove himself again. It would be a move with huge upside potential, and put the Suns in a position to fill a drastic need with a play-making pg.

This is obviously a hypothetical in terms of feasibility at the moment, but he passed his recent physical and has been cleared to play, and i'm really excited about this guy. What do you think? Any other ideas for a backup pg? I'm really not happy about this tyronne lue idea - being shaq's friend doesn't make you good at your job.

Update: http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/articles/2008/07/10/20080710livingston-ON.html

Let's dooo it!

Another Trade Scenario

rosewood — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:37:03 -0000

Since there's been some talk about trade ideas, here is this idea, which serves both the present and the future. Here we trade with the Nets.

The Suns trade:

Leandro Barbosa 4 yr/27.4M
Alando Tucker 1 yr/1M
their 2009 1st Round Pick
their 2009 2nd Round Pick

The Suns receive

Trenton Hassell 2 yr/8.7M
Josh Boone 1 yr/1.5M (team option in 2009-2010)
Marcus Williams 1 yr/1.2M (team option in 2009-2010)
the Nets 2010 1st Round Pick

Benefit for the Nets:

The Nets are now in a full rebuilding mode, aiming at signing Lebron in the off-season after 2009-2010. To sign him, they will need 1) cap space and 2) an attractive enough team. Barbosa does not hurt their future cap space very much, and in 2010 is a much more attractive asset in terms of age/contract/ego than their current SG, Vince Carter (who will be 33 at that point). Furthermore, Barbosa allows them to move Carter if they want (and can), giving them potentially the fastest backcourt in the league when you team him with Devin Harris. Unlike Harris, however, Barbosa can shoot. Additionally, the Nets get our 2009 1st pick so they can double up for the second straight year and accelerate their rebuilding process to be prepared for 2010. Tucker is just a final throw-in that adds SF depth and might be nice, but can also be released after one year.

In terms of sacrifice, the Nets lose a fine prospect Boone, who is an impressive rebounder but has offensive limitations. With their new glut at the 4 and 5, however, (S. Williams, B. Lopez, R. Anderson, Y. Jianlian, S. Swift, and possibly N. Krstic), they should not be overly opposed to moving one of their young bigs. Also, Marcus Williams is a nice backup PG, but considering the floor time Devin Harris is like to see and the fact that Barbosa can play PG in a pinch, I think the Nets would be willing to sacrifice him as well. Not to mention that whatever hit their team quality takes as a result of a lack of PG depth doesn't really hurt their draft position. Last, they also lose their 2010 pick, but since they have Dallas' pick as well, I believe they can tolerate this loss.

Benefit for the Suns:

The Suns get depth and back into the 2010 draft. Josh Boone is a relatively similar player to R. Lopez, but if what we're trying to do is find a) front court depth and b) a future defensive counterpart for Amare then I see no reason not to double down and make signing Skinner unnecessary. Plus, I have much more faith in Boone than in Lopez. Marcus Williams gives us a solid backup PG with 3pt range who, should Dragic be available next year, can be released after this season. Trenton Hassell is likely primed for the 11th or 12th spot on the bench, but his contract runs out after 2009-2010 i.e. at the same time as Shaq's and Nash's. Also, it is not a bad thing to have a good perimeter defender at the end of the bench. Last, we receive the 2010 pick, which gets us back into the 2010 draft at a likely decent spot.

The Suns sacrifice, primarily, Barbosa. We will miss his scoring and shooting, but with backup PG and front court depth settled, we can focus our attention on Giricek who can replace some of LB's contributions. Hassell can also give us minutes in a pinch. We also lose our picks next year, which is tough (it was so exciting to draft this year), but we do gain a better pick (the Nets in 2010) in a hopefully a better draft (2009 is no 2008). Plus, not having any picks after next season will leave us with that much more cap room after 09-10. Last, I see the loss of Tucker as minimal.

Conclusion:

It's a trade for a possible future starter (Boone) and present depth. I do worry that the Nets might be hesitant to lose Boone, in which case S.Williams seems a fine option as well. The key is the switching of picks. Without that, I don't know if I see enough motivation to make this deal.

Anyone else think this is a good idea or am I talking stupid? Either is possible.

OT new Dbacks All Star Wallpaper

john5cole — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:32:37 -0000

To celebrate the fact that the dbacks got two pitchers on the all star team I put together a new dbacks (ok more just all star) wallpaper. I also redesigned the site a bit so take a look around. Also wanted to thank everyone that has visited so far. Thanks for the compliments. If you have any ideas for some new stuff just let me know. You can leave a post in the comments or drop me a line @ john@cruciald.com. Enjoy the wallpaper! www.cruciald.com/free_stuff.html

Revenge of the Birds Back with a Vengeance

Mike Lisboa — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:00:58 -0000

Hey, BSOTSers,

As loathe as I am to drive traffic away from our site, I understand that perhaps the Phoenix Suns are not your only sports interest. If everyone doesn't already know about the Diamondbacks wizardry that Jim McLennan et al. are working over at AZSnakepit this late in the baseball season, then you've only participated in half that half a season. (That's a quarter of a season for those of you keeping score.)

However there's another Arizona sports-related blog here at SBnation that hasn't been getting the love it deserves. Revenge of the Birds is All Arizona Cardinals All The Time. Why should you care about the Cards at all this early in the summer? Because after 2 dormant months following a change in managemen after the Super Bowl, ROTB's new Head-Blogger-In-Charge Charles Golden is absolutely killing it. If the sheer volume of Cardinal material he's cranked out since taking over the site a couple months ago isn't enough to floor you, then the insight and depth of analysis will. I'm pretty sure he devotes a higher word count to the Cards' 4th tight end prospect than I did to the Shaq trade. If you are an Arizona Cardinals fan, ROTB is must-read material. So show Charles some love for the time and effort he's putting into resurrecting creating an Arizona Cardinals community online.

Cheers,

Mike

Part Time GM: Trading Diaw and Barbosa

Elway4Prez — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 23:10:06 -0000

Sometimes when I'm bored, I let my imagination grow. So to entertain myself, I got on the NBA Trade Machine and started to search far and wide for a fair trade to dump Diaw and LB. And I came across a blockbuster, and a slightly less notable, trade option.

Here's my first trade I created between the Suns, Knicks, and Sonics Oklahoma City Desperadoes (Sweet name I now.):

SEA/OKC Trades: Nick Collison, Luke Ridnour and Donyell Marshall
SEA/OKC Receives: Stephon Marbury

NY Trades: Stephon Marbury
NY Receives: Luke Ridnour, Leandro Barbosa, and Donyell Marshall

PHX Trades: Leandro Barbosa
PHX Receives: Nick Collison

Now before you start threating to throw sharp objects in my direction, look at our 2nd trade between the Bobcats and us:

CHA Trades: Matt Carroll and Raymond Felton
PHX Trades: Boris Diaw and D.J. Strawberry

Here's the "Desperadoes" depth chart after the trade:

C-Chris Wilcox-Mouhammed Sene-DeVon Hardin
PF-Jeff Green-Serge Ibaka-D.J. White
SF-Kevin Durant-Adrian Griffen
SG-Damien Wilkins-Earl Watson/Russell Westbrook
PG-Stephon Marbury-Earl Watson/Russell Westbrook

Just sign one more shooter and you have yourself a pretty solid run-and-gun team. Stephon Marbury gives them someone who doesn't have to take out his I.D. to purchase an adult beverage. Sure he's not what he used to be, but he's still a talented player. And I'm pretty sure they don't plan to resign him after his final year so that gives them pockets-full of cash to extend Durant's and Green's contract and still have enough to sign a big name free agent.

Here's the Knicks depth chart after the trade:

C-Eddy Curry-Jerome James
PF-Zach Randolph-David Lee
SF-Danilo Gallineri-Quentin Richardson
SG-Jamal Crawford-Leandro Barbosa
PG-Luke Ridnour-Nate Robinson

If they can pick up one more center in free agency, they have one hell of a team that will still somehow find a way to underachieve. Barbosa follows the D'Antoni Bros to the Big Apple to top off a fantastic bench. Picking up Ridnour allows Jamal Crawford to move back to his more natural position and still keep PG depth. New York might be getting the best of the three way deal.

Here's the Bobcats Depth Chart after the trade:

C-Omeka Okafor-Nazr Mohammed-Alexis Ajenca
PF-Boris Diaw-Sean May
SF-Gerald Wallace-Adam Morrison
SG-Jason Richardson-Jared Dudley
PG-D.J. Augistin-D.J. Strawberry

They aren't exactly title contenders but their wishes do come true. They get to dump off Felton and get more big man depth. They also become the newly crowned "run and gun" Phoenix Suns by moving Okafor to C. With Morrison returning, the 3,4, and 5 are very deep but they still are thin at PG. Just sign a vet to put the two young guys under his wing and you have an potential 7 or 8 seed.

Last but definitely least here's what our Depth Chart looks like:

C-Shaquille O'Neal-Robin Lopez
PF-Amare Stoudimire-Nick Collison
SF-Grant Hill-Alando Tucker
SG-Raja Bell-Matt Carroll
PG-Steve Nash-Raymond Felton

I seems like I've said, "This is our last shot at the title" for a few years now but this truly is our last chance. After this year Shaq and Grant are most likely gone and I'm not sure how much damage Nash's body can still take. Kerr has been talking about really cutting down Nash's minutes so we obviously need another PG to step in. Felton gives us a potential starter coming off the bench which can really cut down Steve's playing time to save him for the playoffs. Matt Carroll gives us that much needed jump shooter off the bench if we don't resign G.G. Collison is a more athletic, consistent Boris Diaw. (Another bonus is that he isn't afraid of the rim.) If we just sign another back up to Grant Hill, we probably have the deepest bench in the league, which is exactly what the doctor ordered for our prehistorically old starting lineup.

Although this trade benefits some teams more than others, I still think its a pretty fair trade all-around. And I know that it's never going to happen so don't get on me with all the negativity. Think of this as just food for thought...

Poll

Do you like these trade(s)?

Barbosa and the philosophy change...

sdot — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:36:51 -0000

If we keep him, which looks fairly likely at this point, how do you think he's going to respond to the regime change?

A lot was made of his nurturing relationship with Dan Dantoni over the season last year (I think he's been coddled too much, but that's up for debate i guess). What will be the effect of his mentor's departure?

It's always been love/hate for me with him, but i can't pick a side - should we be optimistic or pessimistic about him this year

Can we call the hawks and sign and trade for Childress with an Acie Law toss in? Or at least call them back about Joe...we may be needing him around Christmas time.

The Sonics: Why David Stern deserves to be vigorously sodomized with a rusty wire brush.

Pliny the Elder — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:18:12 -0000

Of course, I'm not suggesting anybody should actually do this, but the Sonics move is a complete disgrace, and I can't think of a more suitable punishment for big Dave for not stopping it.

But lets be clear here.. the balance of power in the NBA has always been between owners and everybody else. Remember, the other owners approved this move too. While David Stern might behave like a low-budget power-mad pocket Napoleon, his actions, while often self-serving, have mostly been to satisfy the whims of the owners, and he leaves no stone unturned in service of that imperative.

The Sonics move to Oklahoma City, is at the end of the day, a result of the city of Seattle failing to sufficiently kiss Stern's ass, while at the same time showing that they in fact love the Mariners and Seahawks more than the Sonics.

Any scrap of respect I had for Stern is gone after this move and the heavy handed way he's handling the referee scandal, which by the way is complete theatrical bs. Why would you hire an ex-general (and one who has been more involved in r&d and logistics than combat, btw), unless you wanted a person in charge who would be, to all intents and purposes, and by virtue of his status, immune to any questions of integrity? It's a sham.

The irony of it all is that if David Stern had decided to be completely open wrt the refs, worked sincerely with the union and players on issues such as the non-leather ball and rules changes, had given Oklahoma an expansion slot (imho, a 32 team NBA ( 4 eight team divisions ) would offer an improved and more competitive product.), rather than allowing a relocation, and had actually tried to work with the city of Seattle to help make the Sonics a more profitable franchise, the NBA would be in a really good position for stable future growth.

The Celtics and Lakers, this year, have given him an opportunity which imho he should not squander, and that is to reorient the marketing of the NBA as a whole towards teams, rather than towards individual stars. It's what the MLB and NFL orgs do, as well as every single soccer team in Europe, and protects those teams from fluctuations in revenue cause by players retiring, getting arrested or other boneheaded behavior. Stern needs to forget about expansion into Europe or Asia, where basketball is at best a second rate draw, and focus on optimizing his opportunities here.

Update on Goran Dragic

SoCalSun — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:20:14 -0000

All the nitty gritty here, beautifully rendered in European-flavored English, complete with oddly constructed sentences. Cliff-notes: everybody wants a piece of Goran. Tau appears to have bought him out from an old club, who wants him back, and now it's in the courts. Probably this all could be solved with some cash, but as noted in the other post on Dragic, the Suns are limited in terms of how much they are permitted to cough up.

Clicky.

Matt Barnes?

willthehawk — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:59:29 -0000

So, the Suns need more good shooting wing players. After reading on various Hoops sites, I am now intrigued abot to prospect of getting Matt Barnes.

He plays for GSW, and he just isn't looking like he'll fit in next season there with all the young talent the warriors are looking to develope.

So...he's athletic, makes hustle plays, and has an intimidatingly larger number of tattoos...

He would go for the mid level exception or lower....

I think he'd be solid. He played really well against Dallas a couple years back in that underdog matchup series