free agents

[elindholm]

Of course, if he does so I think that it will be with the Nets.

The Nets? I guess he's a good fit, but if I could be either the fourth option on the Suns or the third option on the Nets, I sure know what I'd pick.

 

[Errntknght]

Here are the guys from the list that are RFA's...

C-PFs
Kwame Brown
Tyson Chandler
Eddy Curry
Samuel Dalembert
Reggie Evans
Dan Gadzuric
Udonis Haslem
Zaza Pachulia

Scoring Fs or SF/SGs
Eddie Griffin
Joe Johnson
Kyle Korver
Vladimir Radmanovic
Luke Walton

 

[PhxGametime]

Stoudemire F/C
Marion F
Richardson G/F
Johnson G/F
Nash PG

Abdur-Rahim F
Jackson G/F
Barbosa G
Ellis PG
Voskuhl C
Fischer C
Shirley PF


Suns add SAR, with Mid-Level but with the loss of Hunter, need him to come off bench. Suns Draft Monta Ellis PG H.S, as much potential as any PG in Draft. With the addition of a 3 position player in SAR; JJack and Barbosa still on roster - Suns Draft on potential and incase of injury, Ellis is capable of playing a few minutes along with Barbosa there - both JJ's very capable themselves.

Losing Hunter, lets Voskuhl able to stay final year and the Drafting of D'or Fischer C West Virginia (Hunter clone) although not quite at that level, obviously (2nd Rounder) gives team depth upfront...

Marion would able to play more at SF, so the 1-4 positions are very deep, SAR would be asked to play the 5 at times in game but Voskuhl and Fischer give the team depth.





Dreaming if you think the Suns could add SAR and keep Hunter...

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

Of course, if he does so I think that it will be with the Nets.

The Nets? I guess he's a good fit, but if I could be either the fourth option on the Suns or the third option on the Nets, I sure know what I'd pick.

He wants to hook up with Kidd bad. This has been rumored since December or so when the Nets tried to trade for him. I don't think he has a better opportunity there, but there is definite mutual interest - and has been for a long time now.

 

[elindholm]

Ah. Well the heck with him then. Anyone desperate to hook up with Kidd is a loser.

 

[Joe Mama]

Quite honestly I'm not sure Shareef Abdur-Rahim makes the Phoenix Suns much better. I mean he would definitely improve the depth of the team, but I don't think he does much for the starting lineup. He's no more capable of carting most power forwards than Shawn Marion is. He's a pretty good rebounder. He's not what you would consider strong in that area.

Joe Mama

 

[Amare32]

Problem is all the bigger and tougher name free-agents are all basically restricted. Chandler would be amazing with Amare inside but he is restricted and the Bulls will likely keep him. He will also likely demanding 7 or 8 million a year on his size and potenial alone.

 

[coloradosun]

Tyson Chandler will NOT be a Sun. There is just no way in hell that will happen.

Not with Eddie Curry's heart problem, the Bulls will need to secure Chandler just in case Curry is not cleared to play.

 

[coloradosun]

I could easily see SAR taking the MLE this summer (as long as is it stays in its current form, not going to the split like they are talking about).

Of course, if he does so I think that it will be with the Nets.

SAR has got the Lakers written all over him, they are more in need of a PF than the Suns.

 

[Yuma]

SAR is not a PF! However, I could see you working it since D'Antoni plays everyone out of position anyway. The problem with SAR is defense. Teams love the offense he brings, but the only reason this guy gets traded is mid-level guys in the NBA abuse him defensivly. At times he has shown an unwillingness to run the court, too! Any reason why the Suns continuously beat the teams SAR is on?

 

[Yuma]

Quite honestly I'm not sure Shareef Abdur-Rahim makes the Phoenix Suns much better. I mean he would definitely improve the depth of the team, but I don't think he does much for the starting lineup. He's no more capable of carting most power forwards than Shawn Marion is. He's a pretty good rebounder. He's not what you would consider strong in that area.

Joe Mama

I definatly agree Joe. This guy would have to be a bench player at SF, and he does not come off the bench well.

 

[lancelet's cousin]

Here is a list of top 40 FA's. Not by the most comprehensive sportswriter (has many players out of position), but at least it has their status:
SHOOTING GUARDS
1. Ray Allen
2. Michael Redd (Player Option)
3. Larry Hughes
4. Joe Johnson (Restricted)
5. Cuttino Mobley (Player Option)
6. Eddie Jones (Player Option)
7. Bobby Jackson (Team Option)
8. Kerry Kittles
9. Latrell Sprewell
10. Ronald Murray (Restricted)
11. Willie Green (Restricted/Early Bird Rights)
12. Jon Barry
13. Casey Jacobsen
14. DerMarr Johnson
15. Juan Dixon (Option Declined)
16. Raja Bell
17. Keith Bogans (Restricted/Early Bird Rights)
18. Maurice Evans (Restricted)
19. Kareem Rush (Option Declined)
20. Shandon Anderson
21. Dajuan Wagner (Option Declined)
22. Anthony Peeler
23. Greg Buckner (Player Option)
24. Matt Carroll
25. Damien Wilkins (Restricted)
26. Richie Frahm (Restricted)
27. Ron Mercer (Player Option)
28. Eddie House
29. Laron Profit
30. Erik Daniels (Restricted)
31. Tamar Slay (Team Option)
32. Romain Sato
33. Steve Smith
34. Wesley Person
35. Horace Jenkins (Restricted)
36. Qyntel Woods
37. Adrian Griffin
38. Kedrick Brown
39. Dion Glover
40. Cory Alexander

 

[lancelet's cousin]

POINT GUARDS

1. Marko Jaric (Restricted)
2. Sarunas Jasikevicius
3. Antonio Daniels (Player Option)
4. Gary Payton
5. Brevin Knight
6. Earl Watson
7. Damon Stoudamire
8. Jeff McInnis
9. Chris Duhon (Restricted)
10. Damon Jones (Player Option)
11. Nick Van Exel (Team Option)
12. Dan Dickau (Option Declined)
13. Tyronn Lue
14. Darrell Armstrong
15. Jacque Vaughn (Team Option)
16. Howard Eisley
17. Tony Delk (Player Option)
18. Steve Blake
19. Keith McLeod (Restricted)
20. Milt Palacio
21. Travis Best
22. Frank Williams (Option Declined)
23. Erick Strickland
24. Jannero Pargo (Restricted)
25. Rick Brunson
26. Kenny Anderson
27. Tierre Brown
28. Keyon Dooling (Player Option)
29. Anthony Carter
30. Jamison Brewer
31. Eddie Gill
32. Andre Barrett
33. Luis Flores (Restricted)
34. Lionel Chalmers (Restricted)
35. Junior Harrington
36. Mateen Cleaves
37. Omar Cook
38. Quinton Ross
39. Mike Wilks
40. Anthony Goldwire

 

[HooverDam]

Ah. Well the heck with him then. Anyone desperate to hook up with Kidd is a loser.

SAR just better not try to give Kidds kid a french fry

 

[lancelet's cousin]

SMALL FORWARDS

1. Grant Hill (Player Option)
2. Bobby Simmons
3. Vladimir Radmanovic (Restricted)
4. Kyle Korver (Restricted/Bird Rights)
5. Bonzi Wells (Team Option)
6. James Jones (Restricted/Early Bird Rights)
7. Luke Walton (Restricted/Early Bird Rights)
8. Eddie Griffin (Restricted)
9. Devin Brown (Restricted)
10. Gerald Wallace (Restricted)
11. Glenn Robinson
12. Bostjan Nachbar (Option Declined)
13. Walter McCarty (Player Option)
14. Jason Kapono (Restricted/Early Bird Rights)
15. Brian Scalabrine
16. Scott Padgett (Player Option)
17. Lee Nailon
18. Chris Crawford
19. Matt Barnes (Restricted)
20. Rodney Rogers
21. Josh Davis (Restricted)
22. Ronald Dupree (Player Option)
23. Matt Bonner (Restricted)
24. Nikoloz Tskitishvili (Option Declined)
25. Calbert Cheaney (Player Option)
26. Devean George (Player Option)
27. Toni Kukoc
28. Ryan Humphrey (Option Declined)
29. Darvin Ham
30. Rodney Buford
31. Theron Smith
32. Ryan Bowen
33. Pape Sow (Team Option)
34. Jamal Mashburn (Player Option)
35. Donta Smith (Restricted)
36. Stacey Augmon (Player Option)
37. Damone Brown
38. Chris Jeffries
39. Bryon Russell
40. Jerome Beasley

 

[lancelet's cousin]

POWER FOWARDS

1. Shareef Abdur-Rahim
2. Antoine Walker
3. Tyson Chandler (Restricted)
4. Stromile Swift
5. Keith Van Horn (Player Option)
6. Udonis Haslem (Restricted/Early Bird Rights)
7. Donyell Marshall
8. Reggie Evans (Restricted)
9. Danny Fortson (Player Option)
10. Kwame Brown (Restricted)
11. Darius Songaila (Player Option)
12. Brian Grant (Player Option)
13. Chris Andersen (Player Option)
14. Othella Harrington
15. Austin Croshere (Player Option)
16. Tony Battie (Player Option)
17. Mark Madsen
18. Robert Horry (Player Option)
19. Alan Henderson
20. Christian Laettner
21. Malik Allen
22. Michael Ruffin
23. Sean Marks
24. Aaron Williams (Player Option)
25. Tony Massenburg
26. Bo Outlaw
27. Jahidi White
28. Lawrence Funderbukre
29. Jackson Vroman (Team Option)
30. Marcus Fizer
31. Brandon Hunter (Restricted)
32. Jabari Smith
33. Samaki Walker
34. Tom Gugliotta
35. Zendon Hamilton
36. James Thomas
37. Jackie Butler (Team Option)
38. Jerome Moiso
39. Ben Handlogten
40. John Thomas

 

[lancelet's cousin]

CENTERS

1. Shaquille O'Neal (Player Option)
2. Eddy Curry (Restricted)
3. Zydrunas Ilgauskas
4. Samuel Dalembert (Restricted)
5. Dan Gadzuric (Restricted)
6. Jerome James
7. Zaza Pachulia (Restricted/Early Bird Rights)
8. Clifford Robinson (Team Option)
9. Steven Hunter (Player Option)
10. Peja Drobnjak (Team Option)
11. Alonzo Mourning
12. Vitaly Potapenko
13. Dikembe Mutombo
14. Andrew DeClercq
15. DeSagana Diop (Restricted)
16. Zeljko Rebraca
17. Francisco Elson (Team Option)
18. Ervin Johnson
19. Scott Williams
20. Greg Ostertag (Player Option)
21. Mikki Moore
22. Dale Davis
23. Jake Voskuhl (Player Option)
24. Jared Reiner (Restricted)
25. Elden Campbell
26. Obinna Ekezie
27. John Edwards (Restricted)
28. Paul Shirley (Team Option)
29. Daniel Santiago
30. Michael Bradley (Player Option)
31. Kevin Willis
32. Vin Baker (Player Option)
33. Vladimir Stepania
34. Wang Zhizhi
35. Bruno Sundov
36. Ha Seung-Jin (Restricted)
37. Cezary Trybanski
38. Michael Stewart
39. Jelani McCoy
40. Jamal Sampson

 

[JCSunsfan]

The type of player we need at the pf is a Rasheed Wallace or a young Cliff Robinson type of player. He has to be able to play good D on big pf's and be able to shoot out to 20 feet.

I'm not sure who fills this role that would be available through FA or trade, but that's what we need.

The guys in the league who have done this are:

Sheed
Cliff
Horry
????

Some would say McCarty fits this role, but he hasn't shown it to me yet.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

SAR is not a PF!

SAR is 100% a PF. He has had trouble in Portland because they tried to play him at the 3 since Randolph was there.

 

[elindholm]

Thanks for the lists, lancelet's cousin. I'll update my shorter lists in a few hours according to your new information.

 

[elindholm]

I'm still trying to figure out who will be on the market. RFAs rarely change teams unless the relationship is poor, and I also think that some of the big UFAs, like Allen and Ilgauskas, will stay where they are after making some noise about leaving.

So the decent players who look (at least to me) like good candidates to change teams are

Shareef Abdur-Rahim
Chris Andersen
Kwame Brown
Kerry Kittles
Donyell Marshall
Mikki Moore
Michael Redd
Glenn Robinson
Bobby Simmons
Latrell Sprewell
Damon Stoudamire
Stromile Swift
Antoine Walker
Bonzi Wells

Those seem to be the likely targets of teams with cap space. But obviously there are more of them then there are big salary slots across the league, which means that many of them will have to settle for the MLE. Not all of those players are worth the full MLE, of course, but many of them will be bargains at that price.

The Suns really should have the "pick of the litter" as far as MLE signings go. It is an organization on the upswing that plays a fun style and can promise good minutes to any good player. The starting slots are probably not up for grabs, but it's obvious to anyone following the league -- and that probably includes the players, or at least their agents -- that the Suns can easily accommodate another bench player at 25 minutes per game.

So, who will they get? To me that's a more interesting question than who they will draft (not to undercut the draft discussion), because my guess is that their MLE player will contribute more next year than their player at #21.

Hmm, maybe I'll start a poll.

 

[JCSunsfan]

With Chicago, Cleveland, Atlanta, Charlotte, and New Orleans, all with max level free-agent money available, it looks to me like there will be more money than value available on this year's fa market.

It will be interesting to see what kind of self-restraint the owner demonstrate.

 

[Joe Mama]

With Chicago, Cleveland, Atlanta, Charlotte, and New Orleans, all with max level free-agent money available, it looks to me like there will be more money than value available on this year's fa market.

It will be interesting to see what kind of self-restraint the owner demonstrate.

Chicago will spend all of their money re-signing their players like Chandler. Atlanta and New Orleans are going to have a lot of trouble attracting good free agents because even with them the teams will probably still suck for a while.

Joe Mama

 

[George O'Brien]

Chicago will spend all of their money re-signing their players like Chandler. Atlanta and New Orleans are going to have a lot of trouble attracting good free agents because even with them the teams will probably still suck for a while.

Joe Mama

I agree. Cap space gets swallowed up fast when a team has a lot of guys to re-sign. A good example is Seattle with plenty of cap space as long as they don't re-sign Ray Allen, Jerome James, Reggie Evens, Ronald Murrary, Vladimir Radmanovic Antonio Daniels (player option),and Danny Fortson (player option).

Speaking of the Sonics, one guy whose playoff performance may have earne him some money is Jerome James. In 11 games, he averaged 12.5 ppg and 6.8 rpg in 26.8 minutes. This was far above what he did during the regular season at 4.9 ppg and just 3.0 rpg in 16.6 minutes. His performance over the last three years has not justified his three year $15 million deal, but he is likely to get a full MLE just based on his playoff performance.

I'm not suggesting him because I can't imagine him getting playing time on the Suns.

 

[elindholm]

For what it's worth, hoopshype says that Cleveland may make a big offer to Curry. If it's not matched (or for that matter, even if it is), that may move Ilgauskas into the "FAs changing teams" category. And by chain reaction, that would move someone else into the MLE group.