Indy Star: James Jones Headed to Suns

[fordronken]

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050825/SPORTS04/508250494/1004/SPORTS

Pacers' J. Jones headed for Suns
Phoenix expected to send Indiana 2nd-round pick in pending trade.

By Mike Wells
[email protected]


The Indiana Pacers will re-sign swingman James Jones and trade him to the Phoenix Suns, according to two sources with knowledge of the deal.

The pending trade, possibly in return for a second-round draft pick, is the first of several possible Pacers moves in the coming weeks.

The trade is contingent on Joe Johnson, recently traded to Atlanta from Phoenix, passing his physical with the Hawks.

Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh declined comment, saying only, "There's nothing done."

Jones, however, already is looking ahead.

"It's a business and it's part of the game of basketball," Jones said Wednesday. "Every team has to make decisions. This is an opportunity for me to go somewhere else and continue to progress like I did with the Pacers."

The Pacers said most of the offseason they wanted to re-sign Jones, a restricted free agent, but the swingman got caught in a numbers game. Jones, who played an important role last season, likely would have seen his minutes drop significantly while playing behind Ron Artest and rookie Danny Granger. Jones averaged 4.9 points last season.

The trade could be just a start for the Pacers, as they attempt to get closer to the $61.7 million luxury tax threshold. Teams that exceed that amount will pay a dollar-for-dollar tax on the excess. The Pacers are about $10 million over.

Fred Jones and Anthony Johnson have been mentioned in trade rumors this summer. Center Scot Pollard also is a possibility because he's in the last year of his contract.

Center John Edwards, who played sparingly last season, agreed to a two-year contract with the Atlanta Hawks, according to his agent, Mark Termini.

 

[Arizona's Finest]

The more i read about this kid (esp on that thread from pacers fans) the more happy i get seeing how the suns restocked their young talent with this kid and diaw. Apparently both are very hard workers and both have great bodies and athletic skills for the NBA. Its just some refining of their skills (ball handling and passing for James and shooting for Diaw) which the suns coachs are known for being good at developing. While i was very happy to see the Suns go for it all in acquiring JJAX last year, there was a part of me that was disapointed that they traded Lampe and esp. Cabarkapa.

Its nice to have young guys that you can just develop in practice and give spot minutes in games so they eventually develop into big time rotation players (and i think all four that i mentioned, cept for possibly lampe will develop like that). As i stated before, with a couple young guys, some draft picks and cap sapce we are in a very nice situation for the future no matter what happens next year.....

Depending on how bad he wants it, i could see Diaw developing into a JJ type player (maybe a slightly worse shooter but better defender) and Jones developing into a Tayshaun type (better shooting but less D however). If those comparisons come to fruition, we are really sitting pretty......

 

[Neo]

I am just glad that it sounds like we are only giving up a second round pick (and perhaps a chunk of the exception) The last few years we were giving away first rounders like candy.

 

[The Commish]

I am just glad that it sounds like we are only giving up a second round pick (and perhaps a chunk of the exception) The last few years we were giving away first rounders like candy.

Couldn't agree more.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

The more i read about this kid (esp on that thread from pacers fans) the more happy i get seeing how the suns restocked their young talent with this kid and diaw. Apparently both are very hard workers and both have great bodies and athletic skills for the NBA. Its just some refining of their skills (ball handling and passing for James and shooting for Diaw) .

man, if only sarver could put some demented mad scientist on staff and biologically meld the two into a single player he'd pretty damn good. oh wait, that would be jj, wouldn't it?

 

[Joe Mama]

man, if only sarver could put some demented mad scientist on staff and biologically meld the two into a single player he'd pretty damn good. oh wait, that would be jj, wouldn't it?

of course if he had JJ he would have had to have that mad scientist develop a money tree to pay JJ. I'm not saying either of these players will ever be as good as JJ, but combined they will make about $9 million less this year.

Joe Mama