Deal for JJ no sure bet

[Joe Mama]

This was my point is either way he is guaranteed 70M, yes he could make more in the added year if he is healthy. But if he is not the 6th year could be 0 or a minimum contract in some form. Take Penny Hardaway or Allan Houston for example they are not going to get great contracts after this season. But the guaranteed money is always there. Hardaway and Houston have had to endure being on losing teams while under these huge contracts making the justification of their salaries questioned.

Allan Houston is so famed for his contract that now they have an new clause named just for him, that has to be humiliating in some way but in another he has his money, so for him 100M is 100M.

I would really like to sell you something. Michael Jordan made something like $34 million his last season in Chicago. By your logic taken to an extreme that is only a little bit better than the contract Bell just got from the Phoenix Suns. After all, Jordan only received a few million dollars more (even if it was in four fewer years).

I'm not sure if Colangelo would have given JJ that $50 million last summer. JJ had hardly proven he was worth that they contract before last season. I still think it's amazing that JJ could command such a large contract when he was the third or fourth scoring option last season. I'm sure Sarver never imagined that JJ would get so much more this summer.

Besides, throwing big money around hasn't always worked out well for Jerry Colangelo and the Phoenix Suns. Anybody here remember Tom Gugliotta?

Joe Mama

 

[Chaplin]

Besides, throwing big money around hasn't always worked out well for Jerry Colangelo and the Phoenix Suns. Anybody here remember Tom Gugliotta?

Joe Mama

Googs is a very, very poor excuse because he was well on his way to earning his paycheck when Randy Livingston effectively ended his career.

 

[Joe Mama]

Googs is a very, very poor excuse because he was well on his way to earning his paycheck when Randy Livingston effectively ended his career.

I agree that the Livingston injury made him a horrible salary, but he was already overpaid at $10 million per season before that. I thought he was playing very well just before that injury. I would never say he was "well on his way to earning his paycheck" though. Tom Gugliotta was never a maximum player with the Phoenix Suns.

Joe Mama

 

[newfan101]

I agree that the Livingston injury made him a horrible salary, but he was already overpaid at $10 million per season before that. I thought he was playing very well just before that injury. I would never say he was "well on his way to earning his paycheck" though. Tom Gugliotta was never a maximum player with the Phoenix Suns.

Joe Mama

That's not really a fair comparison. Googs was somewhat overpaid, but more importantly, he was a terrible fit who ended up with a career changing injury. He was a panic signing in light of McDyess bolting, but the numbers he signed for were pretty reasonable for his talent at the time.

I'm sure Jerry would have signed Joe Johnson for 50 million, simply because Jerry wouldn't have played hardball over the 5 million difference in negotiations. If Joe had fallen back into his shell, it would have been a terrible miscalulation, similar to the Googs and Penny signings. However, it would have been just as bad at 45 million, and Sarver and the staff apparently thought he was worth that or that wouldn't have offered him that contract. Why Sarver held firm over the 5 million dollar difference, considering the potential consequences of free agency, is still a mystery to me. Plus, Joe would have been an overpaid 22 year old, not an overpaid 30 year old, like Googs and Penny. That's a huge difference.

 

[devilalum]

Sarver took a gamble last summer. I agreed with the move at the time, but it is clear now that it was a bad one. Then the Phoenix Suns spend the last few months saying that they will match any offer for JJ. Sarver might not like it, but he has to give JJ that money. Otherwise he's going to start hearing a lot of comparisons to Donald Sterling and worse yet Bill Bidwill.

Joe Mama

If he doesn't resign JJ because he's afraid of losing money he's WORSE than Bidwill or Sterling.

At least with those guys you know they're being cheap because their franchise is their family business. Sarver just bought the team. If he didn't want to spend money on a basketball team why did he buy it?

 

[SactownSunsFan]

If he doesn't resign JJ because he's afraid of losing money he's WORSE than Bidwill or Sterling.

At least with those guys you know they're being cheap because their franchise is their family business. Sarver just bought the team. If he didn't want to spend money on a basketball team why did he buy it?

Maybe for his claim to fame?

 

[King A]

The more the not-matching-JJ's-offer goes on, I believe that's really just a Colangelo game. I mean it's all about bluffing at some point. And we reached that point after the WCF exit

 

[JPlay]

F, JJ. He's not worth the Max. Plug in Finley and we'll be fine. We still have Amare, Marion and Nash. The only thing we will need is another veteran PG, because Barbosa isn't a good decision maker with the ball and that's magnified in the playoffs.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

F, JJ. He's not worth the Max. Plug in Finley and we'll be fine. We still have Amare, Marion and Nash. The only thing we will need is another veteran PG, because Barbosa isn't a good decision maker with the ball and that's magnified in the playoffs.

We are probably fine for next year. What about in 2 years though? You sign JJ for the future more so than the present.

 

[Cheesebeef]

F, JJ. He's not worth the Max. Plug in Finley and we'll be fine. We still have Amare, Marion and Nash. The only thing we will need is another veteran PG, because Barbosa isn't a good decision maker with the ball and that's magnified in the playoffs.

Fine? You think with an older than his age Finley - who can't stay healthy and can't defend or run anymore that we'd be "fine"? Myabe - if "fine" means we'd win 50-55 games and then get run out of the playoffs in the first or second round.

And that doesn't even take into consideration the future.

I really think people here don't really understand JJ's worth to this club. I think it's an unmitigated disaster if he leaves - we won't be able to contend now and it will only serve to piss Amare off (and leave him as the KG figure as the superstar with nothing around him - in three years).

 

[asudevil83]

think about it like this: what if Amare wont stay if JJ goes? Amare, if he truely wanted to could pull a Stromile Swift and opt not to sign anything.

face it....Amare has AMAZING leverage right now. if he's not happy with the decisions made, he will bolt. and sarver and the suns will be RUINED.

if one of the conditions of amare being happy as a sun and wanting to be here is that the team build around him with the players he wants, then by not doing so will be a HUGE slap to the face and he's gone. if Sarver is happy taking that risk, then so be-it.

i hope Sarver thinks about it this way: is amare worth the MAX+$20mil? he sure as hell is. and i wouldnt bat an eye at it.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Losing JJ would be a much easier pill to swallow if this team had any youth outside Amare or any bench other than Jackson. After getting rid of 3 first round draft picks for Kurt Thomas and Leandro Barbosa, we're looking at a two year window in which Marion and Nash are going to be able to contribute solid minutes (with nobody to replace them) while there's still going to be the depth problems that plagued this team last year.

I agree the max might be too much for JJ, but when you have the best record in the NBA with a young team you don't try and get older without gaining talent. It's backwards thinking and unfortunately after the conversation I had this weekend I expect this to happen.

 

[Cheesebeef]

It's backwards thinking and unfortunately after the conversation I had this weekend I expect this to happen.

you can't just throw that out there without some kind of explanation Mao!

 

[cly2tw]

think about it like this: what if Amare wont stay if JJ goes? Amare, if he truely wanted to could pull a Stromile Swift and opt not to sign anything.

face it....Amare has AMAZING leverage right now. if he's not happy with the decisions made, he will bolt. and sarver and the suns will be RUINED.

if one of the conditions of amare being happy as a sun and wanting to be here is that the team build around him with the players he wants, then by not doing so will be a HUGE slap to the face and he's gone. if Sarver is happy taking that risk, then so be-it.

i hope Sarver thinks about it this way: is amare worth the MAX+$20mil? he sure as hell is. and i wouldnt bat an eye at it.

Why should Amare be interested in having three more max contract besides his on the team? Spurs don't have it. Pistons don't either. Knicks have given out a lot of huge contracts and look where they are now. Grossly overpaying some average players get you a one or two years fixes but will burden your future manuvourability a lot. Also, it'd be more satisfying to Amare if we won a championship with no other big contract players on the team other than him and Nash. Why should he be mad at the management for that? Let's sit back and wait till the FA issues are settled and see which team and which future we'll have at hand before making the premature judgment that Sarver be cheap, shall we?

 

[cly2tw]

The more the not-matching-JJ's-offer goes on, I believe that's really just a Colangelo game. I mean it's all about bluffing at some point. And we reached that point after the WCF exit

Could be. We gamble on Joe's not really wanting to play for the Hawks. Actually, we can easily expose it by offering sign-and-trade deals for Joe with Hawks. Nobody can tell me that Hawks wouldn't want to trade Diaw and protected pick(s) to ensure Joe and Joe not wanting an even longer contract.