Jake is gone to the bobcats

[hcsilla]

IMO Stephen Hunter is as good as gone. I would love to have him back, but assuming they re-sign JJ I think they'll feel the rest of the roster with minimum contracts.

I agree.

 

[George O'Brien]

It is hard to know if the Suns will do anything with this trade exemption, at least initially. It may be just another cash reduction to help offset the JJ hit. However, it is vastly more valuable than trying to find a team interested in trading for Jake.

For example, if the Suns decided they wanted Jackson Vroman back, they could make the deal for future second round picks rather than trying to trade Jake to them. I'm not recommending that deal (his shooting was awful), but it creates a whole new range of opportunities.

Another factor would be if the Suns did sign Finley, they could trade JJax for someone a lot more expensive by using the trade exemption. I doubt they would do it for anyone with a contract of more than this season, but it certainly is easier than to find someone who wants both JJax AND Jake.

I'm not sure it matters. At this point, the Suns are faced with trying to find another diamond amoung the minimums like they did last year with Hunter. Veteran minimum salaries are subsidized so even if listed at $1 million, the cash outlay is less. The Suns may only save a million to million and a half, but every little bit helps.

 

[hcsilla]

Another factor would be if the Suns did sign Finley, they could trade JJax for someone a lot more expensive by using the trade exemption.

That's technically not correct. You can't combine a trade exception with a player for a player with higher salary.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

That's technically not correct. You can't combine a trade exception with a player for a player with higher salary.

Right. The exception has to take the place of a player in the trade.

The example Larry Coon gives is if

Team A trades

4 mil. player
5 mil. player
6 mil. player

for

Team B's

10mil. player
4mil trade exception


That will work because the 5 and 6 million dollar player fit within the 10 million dollar player's slot using the 25% exception. The 4 million trade exception is then used on the 4. million player.

 

[Forrestham]

Over the last few weeks I have read most of the posts. There has been a bit of hysteria over the team, Sarver and JJ.
We all know how important JJ is to our team. Sarver did not become a billionare by being stupid. IF JJ is not on the team next year, that would be stupid. Seeing him on the sidelines we know he wants to win. Yes he does get carried away but he also knows Joe was a big part of the teams success.
Rocks have been thrown at Sarver and BC for not getting the extention done. Lets remember we were a 29 win team and Joe played 2 months of good basketball. For the 1st 2 1/2 years of his career he looked on many nights he was lost. Should we have locked him up last year? Yes but hindsight is 20/20. I agreed with the decision at the time. If he went backwards we could have let him walk.
Obviously joe proved to be an outstanding player. If he was completely healthy and played those 1st 2 games against the Spurs, the series may ahve turned out differently. No combination of players or free agents will make the team better than JJ. As long as he is back we have improved our team with KT and Bell. Q was a disappointment to me. When Joe was hurt he had a chance to step up and did not do so.
Lets wait for the finished product before jumping to conclusions. This talk about how bad Joe want to play for the Hawks is stupid. If he wanted to play for them so badly, he could sign a 1 year tender and be unrestricted next year.
Once he is back in the fold we will have our big 4 along with KT Bell JJ2, Barbosa and hopefully Hunter as our top 9. I hope we bring back Bo. He had good towel waving schools and was a coach and mentor to Amare. Someone like Casey could be back to give us more depth for a long season. With about 4 other spots I would imagine some vets would jump at the opportunity to come here. I am looknig forward to next year.
I am reallly pleasantly shocked that we found a team that tooks Jakes contract. IF we never got that pick and just got a bag of peanuts that is fine as it clears up Money for Joe and possibly Hunter

 

[Amare32]

Thank god, now this should mean JJ will be matched.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

Thank god, now this should mean JJ will be matched.

I think this move would have happened regardless of our intentions to match Joe. Jake wanted out, we didn't want to pay him.....the only thing was finding a taker. This was planned since the exit interviews after the WCF.

Of course, it does make me feel a little better about the situation.

 

[Arizona's Finest]

im not sure if this was already posted but heres the cheap back up big you all were looking for.....


The Suns filled the big-man void for less money by agreeing to terms with Pat Burke, a 32-year-old center. Burke played his sixth Euroleague season last year with Real Madrid, averaging 17 minutes, 6.4 points and 4.3 rebounds in the regular season and playoffs. The Auburn product was in the NBA in 2002-03 with Orlando, where he started eight of 63 games.

Burke, 6 feet 11 and 250 pounds, gives Phoenix a third inexpensive signee for this season, after the partially guaranteed deals of rookies Dijon Thompson and Lucas Tischer

 

[Arizona's Finest]

ok it WAS already posted.........but i also saw that eisely is going to be an amnesty cut so that we are under the luxury tax that sarver refuses to pay. I think Hunter is as good as gone though, which is ok by me as long as we keep JJ. I could also see Jjax traded esp. if we get finley. thats fine i like our depth where it is now and now we get to keep our studs. and maybe just maybe someone out of the Thompson, Tischer, Graham ********* will step up and become a contributor. (in my best guess it would be graham)....

 

[jandaman]

I think Colangelo already stated it earlier that the suns will surround the starters with minimum type contract. Thats a feasible way of making the team work. Outside of Bell, Barbosa and Thomas the rest will be minimum contracts.


It doesnt matter anyways since last season Voskuhl, Outlaw didnt play much at all. Why not put players that ask the minimum to sit on the bench.

 

[George O'Brien]

Burke is a total mystery, but at 32 with several years in Europe, he is at least likely to have decent fundimentals. The real question is whether he has skills that translate to the NBA game.

The fact that Suns figured out a way to get some value out of Hunterm, who was widely described as total bust, makes me hopeful the Suns know what they are doing.

 

[Dustbuster]

I think Colangelo already stated it earlier that the suns will surround the starters with minimum type contract. Thats a feasible way of making the team work. Outside of Bell, Barbosa and Thomas the rest will be minimum contracts.


It doesnt matter anyways since last season Voskuhl, Outlaw didnt play much at all. Why not put players that ask the minimum to sit on the bench.

And while this sounds bad on paper, in practice it won't be so bad considering how little D'Antoni actually uses deep reserves anyway. Once again, we should have one of the best (if not the best) starting lineups in the league, with a few key reserves (Bell, JJax) getting the majority of the remaining minutes. We should be able to rest players a bit more this year, but we will probably play a pretty similar style minute wise to last year's team.

BTW, in my opinion we could play last year's smallball-type lineup with JJax in the mix rather than Q and actually be better for it. JJax would take fewer shots than Q, make a better percentage of them, and is a better passer than Q by a long shot. The rebounding would be off a bit, but having KT as a key reserve to the 4/5 spot would more than make up for that.

I think that Kurt will probably start, but we do have some options.

 

[Djaughe]

Quick question...

Trading Jake Voskuhl was supposedly to clear more room to pay Johnson....since that ain't gonna happen...

Is the JV trade still a good deal?

 

[Dustbuster]

The JV trade to me is one of the only decent deals we've done recently. We got what we wanted without giving up too much. That's better than what we did with:

Googs
Jahidi
Zarko
McCarty
KT
the last two drafts
UGGGGHHHHH JJ!!!!!

 

[Joe Mama]

Everybody assumed that the Jake Voskuhl trade was made primarily to match the offer for JJ. That trade would have been made either way. The bottom line is they were going to play Jake Voskuhl, so why would they want to pay him almost $2 million next season? They have players that they would rather take up who would only cost the team about a third of that.

Joe Mama

 

[Chaplin]

Everybody assumed that the Jake Voskuhl trade was made primarily to match the offer for JJ. That trade would have been made either way. The bottom line is they were going to play Jake Voskuhl, so why would they want to pay him almost $2 million next season? They have players that they would rather take up who would only cost the team about a third of that.

Joe Mama

Agreed. It wasn't like that money was going to make or break a deal with JJ. I thought it was more or less used to get someone else OTHER than JJ (like Hunter).