Keep Leandro!!!

[nowagimp]

Oh, for the record I think we should try and make it happen, I just think Barbosa is going to be a star. He is an excellent 3 point shooter and a superb finisher. If he can improve on his mid-range shot he will be unstoppable. He also has a very reasonable contract and works extremely hard to improve.

I really like Barbs, he was the most underrated sun by posters on ASFN last summer. Many thought he wasnt worth his contract, "way overpaid". Well we know different now, he has grown incredibly the past year. He creates space on the floor by his unmatched speed, and great 3 point shot, unlike Raja or any other sun except Nash. When the ball rotates to leo, gotta be real careful how aggressive you rush him, he'll blow right by you. With a better mid range game, he'll be a spurs killer when they try to shut down the 3 point shot and wait at the rim to defend. The suns have alot of weakness on offense in the mid range game, only amare and Nash are dangerous from there. This makes it easier to defense Leo, will probably not be the case in the future. IF the nba decides to enforce the hand check RULES, Leo + mid range game will be unstoppable, and he will be a perennial all star. The risk of giving Leo up is huge, I might do it grudgingly for KG, though.

 

[AsUdUdE]

I think if we traded LB, it would haunt this organization for years to come.. especially in 5 years when Garnett and Nash are retired and LB is 28 and avergering 30 PPG.... and suns fans every where will come out and say how THEY fought valently for the suns not to include barbosa, and were devestated to see him go......

BArbosa is a star in the making, and should NOT be traded IMO

 

[dreamcastrocks]

It isn't happening. But even if it was, I'd be pretty nervious about a team with only six rotation players and that includes Jones starting. Somehow the solution of filling in a rotation with minimum salary guys doesn't sound that promising to me.

Please, don't just give me the KG and Amare would be wonderful stuff. Sure they would be. The Suns depth problem sank them this last season and we are supposed to beat the Spurs with six guys and no backup point guard and no offense off the bench. I just don't see it.

Ah yes. I see where you are going here. Did we really have no bench though? Banks or Rose could have came in to give Nash 5 extra minutes of rest time. (talking about Game 5 here) Burke could have come in during the end of the 3rd beginning of the 4th time. The lead that the Suns had at that time was pretty secure, and even if we did lose much of that lead, at least the Suns (mainly Nash and KT) would have been refreshed, instead of exausted for the stretch run.

I think our bench last year was there, but not used as much as it should have been. Jalen was never really given a chance to compete for PT, even though D'Antoni told us he would. Signing minimum players (a la Grant Hill, P.J. Brown) would be just as good as anyone else in the lineup 7 on down.

 

[azirish]

Ah yes. I see where you are going here. Did we really have no bench though? Banks or Rose could have came in to give Nash 5 extra minutes of rest time. (talking about Game 5 here) Burke could have come in during the end of the 3rd beginning of the 4th time. The lead that the Suns had at that time was pretty secure, and even if we did lose much of that lead, at least the Suns (mainly Nash and KT) would have been refreshed, instead of exausted for the stretch run.

I think our bench last year was there, but not used as much as it should have been. Jalen was never really given a chance to compete for PT, even though D'Antoni told us he would. Signing minimum players (a la Grant Hill, P.J. Brown) would be just as good as anyone else in the lineup 7 on down.

The Suns deep bench did not perform. Granted, D'Antoni has a quick hook, but he sees the guys in practice so I'm inclined to trust his judgement on that.

There is no guarantee that Hill will sign (I hope so, but there are at least 20 other suitors offering more money) and PJ Brown has less chance of coming here than Kobe, which is absolutely none at all.

In any case, the deal is not going to happen and throwing Leandro onto the pile won't change that.

 

[Nasser22]

I think if we traded LB, it would haunt this organization for years to come.. especially in 5 years when Garnett and Nash are retired and LB is 28 and avergering 30 PPG.... and suns fans every where will come out and say how THEY fought valently for the suns not to include barbosa, and were devestated to see him go......

BArbosa is a star in the making, and should NOT be traded IMO

I'd look at the championship banner(s) and just say..."they did what needed to be done".

 

[SirStefan32]

If you can get KG, you have to do whatever it takes to get him. Short of Amare and Nash, nobody is untouchable. I would hope that we can keep Barbosa, but if trading barbosa means getting KG- then by all mean trade him.

 

[Errntknght]

Nowagimp,

I really like Barbs, he was the most underrated sun by posters on ASFN last summer. Many thought he wasnt worth his contract, "way overpaid". Well we know different now,

Its sort of flattering that you think many posters on here thought Barbs was overpaid because IIRC, I was the only one that posted that sentiment. And I didn't say he was way overpaid - I thought we could have shaved five million off his offer. Even worse I thought we'd then be able to offer 45 mil to Diaw, which was my estimate of what it would take to get him to ink. At the time the Suns were speculated to be trying to get him for 40.

Frankly, I wouldn't rate Barbs all that high right now if it weren't for the likely possibility that it was an injury that kept Leo from performing well in the Spurs series. It really hurts a team if a guy's performance falls way off when the team is in a crucial playoff series. If you remember last year Barbs had some bad games in the Dallas series - Stackhouse was eating him alive and their defense was keeping him well in check on the other end. Yes, he did step it up offensively when Bell went down but it was too little too late. We may well have won that series if Leandro had played his best from the start.

Boris, on the other hand, really stepped up his game and was our second best player in that series. To me, after that it didn't make sense to offer Barbs 33 mil and Boris 40. In retrospect, upping the ante to 45 for Boris doesn't look like a good move now - he might have had a much better year if he'd been playing for a contract again. And if not, we wouldn't have offered him 45 - we might have had to match only 30-35.

I suspect the fundamental reason that so many of us 'undervalue' Shawn is simply that he has had so many playoffs where he underperformed relative to his salary. I know I'd rather have a guy that didn't stuff the stat sheets so well in the regular season but stepped up his game in the playoffs - at least then you aren't misled into believing you'll do well in the playoffs and get disappointed year after year.

It hasn't been just Shawn, of course. I've been a Suns fan from the inception and the team overall has the characteristic of having great regular seasons and unimpressive playoffs.