Here are my thoughts on the trade now that I've had time to let it digest. My initial thoughts were that it favored Memphis a bit. However, after reading everyone's opinion and comments from the Suns front office I've changed my opinion a bit.
First off I think it has always been known that the Suns have been building for the future. Unfortunately horrible contracts have restricted any major moves. The Suns have been helpless as they watch other teams pick up decent players with the 4.5 million MLE.
More than half the Suns yearly payroll is being eaten by Penny, Googs and Outlaw. That's nearly 30-35 million a year for 3 players. None of whom factor into the future of this team. None of whom deserve to be starters except Penny on a good day. In a nut shell those 3 players have destroyed any flexibility to make substabtial moves.
By eliminating Bo's 5.5 million a year contract we now go into next season with 17 million less in salary when Googs 12 million contract expires. ( my numbers are probably a little off but you get the gist).
The bottom line is this move is for next year. The Suns now have the ability to effectively use the MLE next year.
Also as Bryan Colangelo I believe mentioned this gives the team more flexibility. The Suns now have a group of very desirable players for trading. Imagine all of the teams that are trying to cut salary. We now have 2 large expiring contracts, a couple of nominal cap filler players from this trade and a first round pick from Cleveland.
Whether the Suns decide to just let the salaries expire so that they can afford to sign a quality free agent with the MLE's or use the contracts and or draft picks for a trade this gives the Suns a lot of flexibility for a lot of different scenarios.
It's a bummer to see Big Jake go without seeing if he'd reach his potential. I was certainly someone who always agreed with the experts that the Suns would have to be patient with what was always known to be a 3 or 4 year project. But after 3 years I think that our pretty damn good assistant coaching staff has probably had a pretty darn good opportunity to evaluate Jake's future potential. I'm going to trust that the Suns staff is making the right call. They're pros.
As for Bo? The pros(hustle, defense, locker-room presence, etc.) and cons(offensive liability, back-up quality player with starter salary, log jam at the forward spot, etc.) I've reading on both arguements make this loss a wash contribution wise. However, the financial flexibility for the future as I previously mentioned makes this loss a positive in my mind.
Again the Suns now have 2 decent sized expiring contracts to either let expire or trade with. I'm excited by the flexibility this brings to the team for trades or free agent signings.
Knowing the Colangelos passion for wanting to put a winning team on the floor and proven willingness and history to gamble with high priced free egent spending I'm a little disappointed to see people suggest that they are just suddenly cutting costs and cheap skating it like the Clippers Sterling. No way in hell. I don't believe it. The Suns clearly have a plan since they started rebuilding with younger players and are sticking to it. But they simply can't start adding more large salaries until they get rid of a few bad contracts. That's just logic.
So here's the question. What teams have some decent high priced players they'd like to dump to reduce salary? Portland? Who? This is the angle we should be looking for. What are the Suns options for trades that this new found flexibility brings?
Oh my gosh. Nobody is going to read this long winded mess. How the heck did I get on this rant. Yikes...
:dreaming:
