Keith Van Horn

[F-Dog]

If the Suns aren't desperate yet, they're getting there. Time to start fishing around for 'bargains' at the bottom of the FA pool.

KVH is the closest thing left to Tim Thomas. He's not as good a fit for the Suns' needs--he's more of an Horry-type shooting forward than a pure shooter like TT, he's a couple of years older, and he doesn't have the brute upper-body strength to give opposing PFs a different look from the Suns' smaller finesse defenders. Like TT, though, KVH is adept at posting up mismatches (a skill that didn't fit into Dallas's offense, but is vital in Phoenix), scoring from outside or mid-range, running the floor, and rebounding in space.



The best thing about KVH is that he's available, and I think the Suns proved with TT that they can make that type of player look better than he would anywhere else. It looks like Jumaine Jones will re-sign with Charlotte, so I don't see any other shooting PFs on the market...

http://www.databasebasketball.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=VANHOKE01

 

[Nasser22]

Ugh please, I hate hearing his name. He's a has-been that has nothing left. He needs to retire. Mavs fans were glad to get rid of him and if the Suns sign him I just don't know what i'll do....there are still other, better options available and the Suns have money to spend, if they want to.

 

[Joe Mama]

My guess is that the Phoenix Suns would only have interest in Keith Van Horn for an extremely small contract. He is not exactly what they are looking for right now. He is a poor defender and not a clutch performer.

Joe

 

[F-Dog]

My guess is that the Phoenix Suns would only have interest in Keith Van Horn for an extremely small contract.

Coincidentally, extremely small contracts are the only contracts the Suns are planning to give out.


Listen, I'm as aware of KVH's weaknesses as anybody (though IMO Van Horn's rep for choking was undeserved before he hit Dallas). Last year Tim Thomas had a bunch of red flags, too, including character flags--usually the kiss of death in Phoenix--but the Suns ignored them all and signed him anyway, because they were desperate for size and had nothing to lose.

We're starting to get to that point again. It's not "Do you want to pick a guy out of the garbage?" any more, it's "Which guy do you want to pick out of the garbage?" At least KVH has legit NBA talent, and a skillset the Suns know they can use.


Would I prefer TT, Matt Harpring, or Jumaine Jones? Of course I would. But to paraphrase Rick Pitino, 'Those guys aren't walking through that door'. The alternatives at this point are Devean George and Matt Barnes.

 

[Errntknght]

What kind of a contract is KVH looking for... anyone heard anything? Has he turned down any offers?

 

[George O'Brien]

I can't see Van Horn being wildly excited about joining the Suns as a deep bench guy at the price they'd be willing to pay, but he's a tall three point shooter. So he might figure if the Suns can rescue the careers of Hunter and TT - why not KVH?

Right now his stock is way down. He was terrible in the playoffs 3.6 ppg (33.9% from the field and 28.6% for three) in 12.3 minutes a game coming off his worst year since the late 90's. He's 31 and no longer a "hot product".

Could he become useful? Perhaps. He was not that bad 2004-05 when he averaged 11.2 ppg on 45.6% shooting and 38% for three. He's not much of a rebounder (never more than about .21 per minute) and his defense is weak. So his contribution might not be much. I'm not sure I'd go much more than vet minimumn.

 

[BigDavis75]

My guess is that the Phoenix Suns would only have interest in Keith Van Horn for an extremely small contract. He is not exactly what they are looking for right now. He is a poor defender and not a clutch performer.

Joe

Van Horn wouldn't be more than 9th, possibly 8th man, and if we are relying on him for clutch performance than the Suns are in serious trouble.

 

[Chaplin]

Van Horn wouldn't be more than 9th, possibly 8th man, and if we are relying on him for clutch performance than the Suns are in serious trouble.

Will we rely on ANY potential free agent this summer to be a clutch performer?

 

[green machine]

For a low salary I'd say give him a shot.

 

[NastyOne]

For the right contract.

Plus i agree, i think KVH could look way better than he normally would playing in this offense.

 

[Amare32]

I would think KVH would be a perfect replacement for Tim Thomas.

Considering how much the Suns like the three-point shooters I'm shocked we havn't shown interest or reported to of shown interest. I doubt Van Horn would cost that much due to the fact there has been nothing in terms of news about where he wants to go or who wants him.

 

[meth]

No way KvH can make us better team. We need players who are responsible for their shoots. We couldn't find it in TT (and I'm glad he left) and we won't find it in KvH.

 

[Amare32]

No way KvH can make us better team. We need players who are responsible for their shoots. We couldn't find it in TT (and I'm glad he left) and we won't find it in KvH.

responsible for their shoots? what on earth are you talking about?

 

[meth]

I wrote something wrong - my english is not perfect.
I meant a player who shoots the ball just because he likes it to do it and thinks it is cool and doesn't care about the team at the same time. I know it is called the shoot selection. Why I didn't use that? I dont know.

If I can say something else. In DA system we live and die with our shoot selection. It is obvious but we have to be very carefull who we sign.

 

[Joe Mama]

Coach Mike encourages players to shoot when they are open, and that's often confused with him being loose on shot selection. He's not. He wants people to shoot early and often, but he does not want bad shots. This is one of the problems that James Jones seemed to have last season. He was forcing a lot of his shots.

I really don't think that would be a problem with Keith Van Horn. He just doesn't seem to fit what the Phoenix Suns are looking for this off-season. Also got to wonder how many multi-year deals the Phoenix Suns want to add this summer. I would think they would want to maintain their flexibility

Joe

 

[Covert Rain]

We already signed EP. Why would we go after KVH is pretty much the exact same player? I mean if we could get him to come off the bench and he would sign for a league min contract OK. However, there is some team out there that needs shooting that will offer him more.

 

[TucsonDevil]

Instead of KVH, I would rather take my chances with Marcej Lampe (I hope I spelled that right). At least he is young with upside, but as of today, he defends and rebounds as well as KVH - which is to say, poorly.

 

[Joe Mama]

And I don't really understand why the Phoenix Suns haven't shown any interest in Jumaine Jones. He seems like he would be a very good fit in the Phoenix Suns system

Joe

 

[hcsilla]

And I don't really understand why the Phoenix Suns haven't shown any interest in Jumaine Jones. He seems like he would be a very good fit in the Phoenix Suns system

I don't really see what Jumaine Jones offers that James Jones doesn't.

 

[nowagimp]

My guess is that the Phoenix Suns would only have interest in Keith Van Horn for an extremely small contract. He is not exactly what they are looking for right now. He is a poor defender and not a clutch performer.

Joe

I like Lampe better than KVH at his age. KVH has really slowed down, has only downside. I dont think he can defend any position on the ball, and is a poor help defender. He makes TT look like a serious defender(sarcasm). At least Lampe has upside, and is as good a shooter, and probably a better defender.

 

[sunsfn]

And I don't really understand why the Phoenix Suns haven't shown any interest in Jumaine Jones. He seems like he would be a very good fit in the Phoenix Suns system

Joe

There was an article yesterday on the internet that he is getting ready to sign with somebody............forgot who?

 

[Mainstreet]

I have never, ever, been a KVH fan, but I get this erie feeling his style of play would fit great in the Suns system. If he could be signed at a reasonable or near minimum salary, the Suns might do worse.

I would love to have him instead of Burke or even Piatkowski. I can only hope the Suns see something more in Pike in this stage of his career than I do.

Sometimes I think even Eddie Johnson at his age could play Pike's role.

 

[F-Dog]

We already signed EP. Why would we go after KVH is pretty much the exact same player? I mean if we could get him to come off the bench and he would sign for a league min contract OK. However, there is some team out there that needs shooting that will offer him more.

Uh, no.

KVH is a legit 6'10", he's played PF for most of his career, and he's always been at least a decent rebounder. He's also 31 IIRC, so he should still have a couple of decent years left in him (Pike is 36).

He does have one thing in common with Pike--if he shoots as bad as he did last year, he won't help the Suns at all. Well, two things.

I like Lampe better than KVH at his age. KVH has really slowed down, has only downside. I dont think he can defend any position on the ball, and is a poor help defender. He makes TT look like a serious defender(sarcasm). At least Lampe has upside, and is as good a shooter, and probably a better defender.

I like Lampe too, but even if he gets signed, he doesn't qualify as useful depth--there's no way D'Antoni is putting him in the rotation.

Besides, Lampe still has to prove he's better than Pat Burke.

 

[JCSunsfan]

KVH is considered one of the biggest busts in NBA history, but that is because his production has not met up with very lofty expectations.

For us, we simply have to ask if his production would be worthy of a whatever we pay him. Seems to me that he would be a great fit here, with a vet minimum deal or so.

As a rotation player, he would still force the opposition to play defense, while a starter is sitting on the bench.

 

[asudevil83]

KVH is NOT going to get a vet min deal from anyone. maybe 5 years from now, but its not very common for a guy his age to get a vet min deal....especially if he's still productive.

if KVH was a product of the Houston rule, then i could see him signing with a team like the suns or spurs for a vet min salary (much like finley). but not now, not when he's not also making $16mil from an old team.

just because he has been an overpaid bust his entire career doesnt mean he's worthless. he could still put up some pretty decent numbers if he were on the right team. hell he still managed to average 9 and 3.5 on an extremely deep dallas bench.