The Suns have managed to paint themselves into a corner, although the naute of the problem is that they are trying (or should be trying) to do so many thing.
1. Prepare for the future: It is hard to know when Hill will retirue, but loadding up on SF's is necesssary if they are goind to be ready.
2. Develop better wing defense: The Suns ended up having to use the zone too much in the playoffs and could not deal with outside shooters. Chill should be much better at this than Barbosa.
3. Keeping the cap space for a quality inside free agent next summer. This means not trading J-Rich for just role players, but it is hard to get teams wanting the clear cap space to give high quality.
4. Add a strong rebounder who will be willing to play on a one year contract.
5, Using Hedo without having to use him at PF where his rebounding is weak.
It seems clear that Jefferson is going to Utah, so that option seems closed. Considering how he is not a good fit and injury prone, it was a doubtul strategy anyway. But the paradox of trading a $14 million man AND still keeping the cap space seems very aqkeward. So I came up with a new stategy - buydown of J-Rich.
Let me show how this might work. Let's say the Suns would like to have Kt for a year. He is currently a free agent. At 38 years old, he's not looking for a long term contract; but last year he averaged 4.2 rpg in 15 minutes and 7.9 rpg in 28.2 minutes a game in the playoffs. Last season he played in 70 games. IMHO he would be a huge upgrade from Jarred Collins. He was never very quick and may be even slower, but he solves the most obvious problem the Suns have.
But there is no way the Bucks want to take on J-Rich's contract. But they might be interested if the Suns did a partianl buydown to about $3 million or do a three way. The point is that a buydown opens up a roster lot in the wing wiithout blowing next year's cap space.
While I am thinking KT, this might work with someone else. It just makes sense when going for a one year player and solves the wing clutter.
I'm not enthsiastic about Hedo at PF and I figure he would better suited to play wing with J-Rich gone. Assuming Warrick startes at PF, then KT should be a quaality substitute and change the team's finese image.
Ordinarily, buydowns arfe simply money saving deals. That is not really necessary here. It doesn't work if the Bucks value KT more than J-Rich, but the Suns can set the price of J-Rich at a level the Bucks would like.
Also it does give the Bucks m an option when Redd becomes a free agent next year.
1. Prepare for the future: It is hard to know when Hill will retirue, but loadding up on SF's is necesssary if they are goind to be ready.
2. Develop better wing defense: The Suns ended up having to use the zone too much in the playoffs and could not deal with outside shooters. Chill should be much better at this than Barbosa.
3. Keeping the cap space for a quality inside free agent next summer. This means not trading J-Rich for just role players, but it is hard to get teams wanting the clear cap space to give high quality.
4. Add a strong rebounder who will be willing to play on a one year contract.
5, Using Hedo without having to use him at PF where his rebounding is weak.
It seems clear that Jefferson is going to Utah, so that option seems closed. Considering how he is not a good fit and injury prone, it was a doubtul strategy anyway. But the paradox of trading a $14 million man AND still keeping the cap space seems very aqkeward. So I came up with a new stategy - buydown of J-Rich.
Let me show how this might work. Let's say the Suns would like to have Kt for a year. He is currently a free agent. At 38 years old, he's not looking for a long term contract; but last year he averaged 4.2 rpg in 15 minutes and 7.9 rpg in 28.2 minutes a game in the playoffs. Last season he played in 70 games. IMHO he would be a huge upgrade from Jarred Collins. He was never very quick and may be even slower, but he solves the most obvious problem the Suns have.
But there is no way the Bucks want to take on J-Rich's contract. But they might be interested if the Suns did a partianl buydown to about $3 million or do a three way. The point is that a buydown opens up a roster lot in the wing wiithout blowing next year's cap space.
While I am thinking KT, this might work with someone else. It just makes sense when going for a one year player and solves the wing clutter.
I'm not enthsiastic about Hedo at PF and I figure he would better suited to play wing with J-Rich gone. Assuming Warrick startes at PF, then KT should be a quaality substitute and change the team's finese image.
Ordinarily, buydowns arfe simply money saving deals. That is not really necessary here. It doesn't work if the Bucks value KT more than J-Rich, but the Suns can set the price of J-Rich at a level the Bucks would like.
Also it does give the Bucks m an option when Redd becomes a free agent next year.
