Has Amare already made up his mind with free agency?

[eastcoastSUN]

Not to open up a can of worms right before the WCF, but this is what I found while perusing twitter:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vi...portsIllustrated/index.html?eref=twitter_feed

'Lightning-round' Q&A are never really that - they are pretty much all scripted so the interviewee has an answer ready (as evidenced by the fast, quick responses by Amare).

Except for the last question. Did anyone notice the tone in Amare's voice as if he got caught by surprise? Or maybe I'm just reading between the lines too much... the playoff run and the possible re-emergence of Rolo has made me really appreciate Amare on this team.

 

[Sunburn]

Ugh. . . that didn't sound very encouraging

 

[Irish]

I don't know what Amare is thinking these days about free agency. Why anybody in the media cares sounds like an effort to distract the Suns.

The reality is simple. Amare wants a "max" contract and is positioned to get one. Sarver doesn't want to pay the money and fears Amare won't last long enough. But Sarver knows that without Amare, they will struggle even to get into the playoffs.

The "trade Amare" campaign in Feb is long past. At the time his strong play was short lived. Now it is clear Sarver has little choice.

As far as I can tell, the only playoff team with enough cap space is the Heat. It's tricky because the Heat can't keep Wade unless they can add another star, but Amare would be crazy to sign with the Heat unless Wade has already been signed.

There are a whole bunch of lottery teams who can afford Amare, but they are not going to be all that attractive. This is not a Joe Johnson siutation where the player resents his teammates as well as the owner.

 

[cly2tw]

well, what else would someone who is becoming a FA say? Hey, "teams, don't bother offer me a contract, I'm already resigning with my old team for whatever they want to give me." That'd be stupid.

 

[Tyler]

Pay The Man.

 

[WuRaider]

Thats the first thing I thought when I watched it before I saw this thread. His tone did seem like he's already got a foot out of the door.

Damn you Sarver

 

[ninous26]

Pay him what he wants.. We need that dominant franchise player who stays forever..(Jordan, Malone, Bryant, Miller etc..)

This seems all too similar with kobe and the Lakers when phx had some big $$$ to spend.. We picked up nash instead