I friggin' love Matt Barnes.

[carey]

Plays hard every second he's on the floor. Can we extend him now?

/mancrush.

 

[LV-Suns]

Matt Barnes is a beast.

 

[Sovereignz]

Yep, he makes some pretty horrible mistakes from time to time, but he's much easier to forgive for it unlike a guy like Diaw because he'll turn around and make up for it by playing his ass off.

 

[AceP]

I really love this guy! He works freakingly hard! Do anything the team need! And do it every damn night!

Got to give Kerr a medal for this signing! Veteran Minimal! Damn it! I say this one is highway robbery rather than the J.Rich trade!

 

[Andrew]

He plays HARD, love that about him.

 

[S_Nash]

I love Matt Barnes as much as the next guy, but seriously, think about it.

He signed with us because the only guy in his position is a 36 year old who would be getting a lot of rest. Add that to the fact that Phoenix has a track record of free agents stepping in and putting up above average numbers.

I have no doubt we'll make him an offer. It's just that some dumb franchise is going to make him a better offer.

Tim Thomas part deux.

 

[Mainstreet]

The Suns need to make every effort to re-sign Matt Barnes including paying him a reasonable contract. He is a perfect fit for the Suns. Who knows how much longer Hill will play.

 

[cly2tw]

The Suns need to make every effort to re-sign Matt Barnes including paying him a reasonable contract. He is a perfect fit for the Suns. Who knows how much longer Hill will play.

He should be good for Bell kind of money 20 mil 4y.

 

[dodie53]

5mil per year.
reasonable.

 

[Mainstreet]

He should be good for Bell kind of money 20 mil 4y.

Yep. The Suns have to keep him.

 

[CaptainInsano]

I was thinking about that, problem is if we go after say wade for example then we have Wade/Barbosa Richardson/Barnes SG/SF which would mean barnes would have to come off the bench at SF.

We might have to honestly extend nash a year or two at PG because I am not seeing much of a good class of PG's in 2010 so the 2 good ones I see will get vastly overpaid by teams that miss out on the big names.

 

[SirStefan32]

He should be good for Bell kind of money 20 mil 4y.

I think he might be worth more than that. I wouldn't be opposed spending 7/year on him. Of course, it is not my money, so it's easy for me to say that, but still. I think he, along with Stoudemire and JRich is the future of this team.
I look at him and I see an improved version of Marion- Marion with big heart and some gigantic balls. Suns have got to keep him. They can not allow Barnes to be Tim Thomas part 2.

 

[SirStefan32]

I was thinking about that, problem is if we go after say wade for example then we have Wade/Barbosa Richardson/Barnes SG/SF which would mean barnes would have to come off the bench at SF.

We might have to honestly extend nash a year or two at PG because I am not seeing much of a good class of PG's in 2010 so the 2 good ones I see will get vastly overpaid by teams that miss out on the big names.

Why does Barnes have to come off the bench? JRich is the SG, Barnes is the SF of the future. Hill is 35 years old- we don't know that he'll even play another year or two.

 

[cly2tw]

Why does Barnes have to come off the bench? JRich is the SG, Barnes is the SF of the future. Hill is 35 years old- we don't know that he'll even play another year or two.

The label on Barnes is that he is not consistent. GS didn't want to give him a good contract after 1 very good year and 1 below avg year. We'd be in similar situation. So, I'd say we wait for market price and decide whether to match.

 

[SirStefan32]

The label on Barnes is that he is not consistent. GS didn't want to give him a good contract after 1 very good year and 1 below avg year. We'd be in similar situation. So, I'd say we wait for market price and decide whether to match.

That makes sense too. If nobody is offering 5 per, there is no need to offer 7 per.
As far as consistency goes, to be fair to Barnes, he and many other players on that Golden State team were getting consistent minutes, and last year can be explained by family issues he was having.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see what happens, but I really want Sarver to sign Barnes for the next 4-5 years.

 

[Forrestham]

We should offer a reasonable contract. We like him and he likes it here. We cant just hold off for 2010 if the team can sign good players too

 

[mojorizen7]

The label on Barnes is that he is not consistent. GS didn't want to give him a good contract after 1 very good year and 1 below avg year. We'd be in similar situation. So, I'd say we wait for market price and decide whether to match.

The reason Barnes was inconsistent was because he(and the other bench guys)were given very inconsistent minutes by Don Nelson from night to night because Nellie went with matchups instead of rotations.
Take a look at his minutes from game to game the last couple years.
'07-'08
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3643/gamelog;_ylt=Au8urZgh006J8l5LN2dSN3W_PKB4?year=2007
'06-'07
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3643/gamelog;_ylt=AlmJgdKEkmajyqIawcIrDKG_PKB4?year=2006
----------------------------
This guy was ready to break out given consistent starters minutes.
Lock him up please.

 

[BirdMan21]

I really like the idea of extending Barnes for somewhere like 4 years between 20-28mil. Just think about where this team would be when the FA period of 2010 begins. If they extended Barnes for 4yr/24mil and Amare for a max deal, that would give us the a core of Amare/J-Rich/LB/Barnes/Lopez/Dragic/Dudley/Tucker and about 18-20mil under the cap. You could build a pretty damn good team that off season with 18-20mil and Sarver could avoid the luxury tax pretty easily.

 

[YouJustGotSUNSD]

Doesn't this thread look a lot like one around the time Diaw won MIP?

He is playing to get paid, but next season is a total mystery.

But I am definitely loving the ride!

He will lock in the MLE for sure though.

 

[DeAnna]

Yeah, let's not jump to rash conclusions. I love his game, but there must be a reason why he's bounced around the league so much.

 

[arwillan]

if barnes keeps us this level of play for the whole year, anyone see an M.I.P award for him?

 

[Treesquid PhD]

I tend to agree on waiting, first impressions and playing hard (aka the BS fans value) are not the best grounds for a long term deal. Kerr just magicaly suckered someone into taking Diaw's horrible contract, do we really need to add another long term contract? 3 years would be the max I would sign anyone of his caliber to.

 

[Griffin]

I really like the idea of extending Barnes for somewhere like 4 years between 20-28mil. Just think about where this team would be when the FA period of 2010 begins. If they extended Barnes for 4yr/24mil and Amare for a max deal, that would give us the a core of Amare/J-Rich/LB/Barnes/Lopez/Dragic/Dudley/Tucker and about 18-20mil under the cap. You could build a pretty damn good team that off season with 18-20mil and Sarver could avoid the luxury tax pretty easily.

Assuming the salary cap will be at around $60M, that would leave the Suns only about $10-12M to spend, which would put us out of the running for the top tier free agents. If Barnes keeps playing the way he is now, it's going to be a tough decision what to do with him in the off-season.

 

[SirStefan32]

Assuming the salary cap will be at around $60M, that would leave the Suns only about $10-12M to spend, which would put us out of the running for the top tier free agents. If Barnes keeps playing the way he is now, it's going to be a tough decision what to do with him in the off-season.

If push comes to shove, you can always unload $7 mil (Barbosa) before than.
However, there is no guarantee that Suns will be able to land another top tier free agent that summer anyway. Additionally, it's kinda tough to sustain 2 players making 20 mil (Amre and say, DWade?) and another 15 (JRich).

 

[cly2tw]

Assuming the salary cap will be at around $60M, that would leave the Suns only about $10-12M to spend, which would put us out of the running for the top tier free agents. If Barnes keeps playing the way he is now, it's going to be a tough decision what to do with him in the off-season.

Amare at 17m, JR 14m, LB 7m, Lopez+Dragic 4m, plus cap holders, it's 45-46m gone. we might not be able to do much in FA in 2010 if Barnes gets 5m, unless we trade away either JR or LB.