Newest Sun

[NJYAJ09]

Great signing by the suns. I'm happy we didnt just sign another unknown foreign player.

 

[slinslin]

Eisley is so bad he should not count as one of the players on our roster. Vroman should probably not be on the active roster either so that leaves 1 spot open.

If we got another big man we should look to trade 2 for 1 or even 3 for 1 (using Zarko, Milos, Casey, Vroman as bait for example or Voshkul or even Lampe if we upgrade at center).

I think we have 2 centers right now Hunter and Voskuhl. Lampe is Amare's backup imo.

Trading for another center is still an option I think.

Hunter/Voskuhl/???
Amare/Lampe
Marion/Zarko
Johnson/Q/Jacobsen
Nash/Barbosa

IR: Eisley, Vroman

imo

 

[NJYAJ09]

Eisley is so bad he should not count as one of the players on our roster. Vroman should probably not be on the active roster either so that leaves 1 spot open.

If we got another big man we should look to trade 2 for 1 or even 3 for 1 (using Zarko, Milos, Casey, Vroman as bait for example or Voshkul or even Lampe if we upgrade at center).

I think we have 2 centers right now Hunter and Voskuhl. Lampe is Amare's backup imo.

Trading for another center is still an option I think.

Hunter/Voskuhl/???
Amare/Lampe
Marion/Zarko
Johnson/Q/Jacobsen
Nash/Barbosa

IR: Eisley, Vroman

imo

well, give us an example!

 

[slinslin]

Eisley and Vroman for Scott Pollard?
Eisley and Chicago's pick for Stromile Swift or Lorenzen Wright?

 

[NJYAJ09]

we cannot trade vroman for a few months I think because we just signed him.

 

[djohnson]

Great Signing...and for cheap too! So what if he has a personality problem...the Suns gambled on Richard Dumas and look how he turned...oh....bad example.

 

[George O'Brien]

I really looks like the Q Richardson connection came through. For the Suns to afford Hunter, it meant he turned down a chance of being picked up by a team with exemption space. While I think the Suns made a lot of sense for him anyway (look at what happened to Stephen Jackson when he took a low priced contract for a year), it probably didn't hurt that Hunter and Richardson are friends.

From what I can tell, Hunter makes more sense for the Suns than JP. JP, Ostertag, Jahidi, and Big Jake are all the kind of big, slow players that seem to always fail on the up tempo Suns. Hunter may not be a huge success, but he is the kind of athletic big man the Suns need.

 

[JCSunsfan]

If Hunter can turn out to be a quality role player- good enough to start, and improve our team defense, maybe score a point or two- this signing will be a huge success.

 

[George O'Brien]

If Hunter can turn out to be a quality role player- good enough to start, and improve our team defense, maybe score a point or two- this signing will be a huge success.

A lot will depend on the coaching. The Magic fans say he looked lost and didn't know his assignments. Having a hard worker like Q as a friend may make a difference.

 

[newfan101]

Interesting thought:

With the signing of Hunter, the Suns now have 7 veterans on their roster younger than their rookie, Vroman.

 

[Dylan]

What personality problems do Walker, Pierce or Jones have?

Miles? I thought he was a hard worker. Maybe he smokes some pot, who cares... you could say that about anyone in the NBA.

I can think of a couple times I've read over the years that Walker was the least popular guy in the league in regards to the other players in the league. Just not a likable guy.

 

[BC867]

It's interesting that, of all of the big men on our roster now, four fall into the 240-245 weight group, and three others between 220-235.

In order of weight:

Voskuhl............6'11".............245
Stoudemire.......6'10".............245
Hunter..............7'0"..............240
Lampe..............6'11"............240
Cabarkapa........6'11".............235
Clark...............6'11".............221
Vroman............6'10".............220

'Interesting, too, that our two 2-Guards fall into the middle of that group, as far as weight. Richardson -- 6'5"-238 and Johnson -- 6'7"-235.

I hope this ends any thoughts of playing Shawn Marion 6'7"-215 at Power Forward.

 

[George O'Brien]

Clark is not in the mix.

Marion was actually pretty effective at PF - for short periods. He is so much quicker than all but a handful of PF's that he created matchup problems. On defense, he would be used in a double team environment so he was not expected to guard a seven footer on his own.

The problem was that when used too much, Marion would wear down because he could not handle his much stronger opponents. At the same time, being forced to double team the post every play made the Sun's defense too predictable.

 

[elindholm]

The biggest problem with Marion at PF is that it leads to rebounding mismatches.

 

[fordronken]

If Hunter finally "gets it" and plays fairly well for us this year, we could use part of our mid-level next summer to re-sign him, right?

 

[elindholm]

If Hunter finally "gets it" and plays fairly well for us this year, we could use part of our mid-level next summer to re-sign him, right?

Yes. And if he signed a two-year contract (have terms been announced?), then the Suns would have his "early Bird" rights in the summer of 2006. If I'm reading the FAQ correctly, they could then re-sign him for up to the MLE amount, without it counting against their "real" MLE.

 

[JS22]

It's interesting that, of all of the big men on our roster now, four fall into the 240-245 weight group, and three others between 220-235.

In order of weight:

Voskuhl............6'11".............245
Stoudemire.......6'10".............245
Hunter..............7'0"..............240
Lampe..............6'11"............240
Cabarkapa........6'11".............235
Clark...............6'11".............221
Vroman............6'10".............220

'Interesting, too, that our two 2-Guards fall into the middle of that group, as far as weight. Richardson -- 6'5"-238 and Johnson -- 6'7"-235.

I hope this ends any thoughts of playing Shawn Marion 6'7"-215 at Power Forward.

Clearly Lampe is atleast 260 now.

 

[PhxGametime]

I read 2 year contract (with player option on 2nd year) somewhere...

 

[Joe Mama]

I read 2 year contract (with player option on 2nd year) somewhere...

that's right. I believe he will get something like $750,000.

Joe Mama

 

[Stoner]

Signing Hunter will have no effect on the Marion rumors. If Marion were to be traded for a big man, it would be someone 100x as good as Hunter.

There is no doubt that if Marion were traded, it would be for someone 100x as good as Hunter. I'm just suggesting that are no plans to trade Marion for a center. If there were, why would we need to sign a center who is 100x worse. That would be overkill (Unnamed awesome center , Voskuhl, Hunter, Lampe, Vroman)

 

[scoutmasterdave]

Hunter was a good signing. I do think the Suns should still bring back Scott Williams. I saw him at Houston's a month or so ago - he's a big dude.

Anyway, that would give us this:

PG: Nash, Barbosa, Eisley (hopefully waived by then)
2G: Johnson, Richardson, Jacobsen
SF: Marion, Cabarkapa
PF: Stoudemire, Lampe, Vroman
C: Hunter/Voskuhl, Voskuhl/Hunter, Williams

That's a solid, deep team. Can't wait for the season...

 

[George O'Brien]

Hunter was a good signing. I do think the Suns should still bring back Scott Williams. I saw him at Houston's a month or so ago - he's a big dude.

Anyway, that would give us this:

PG: Nash, Barbosa, Eisley (hopefully waived by then)
2G: Johnson, Richardson, Jacobsen
SF: Marion, Cabarkapa
PF: Stoudemire, Lampe, Vroman
C: Hunter/Voskuhl, Voskuhl/Hunter, Williams

That's a solid, deep team. Can't wait for the season...

I'm not sure it will work that way. My read is that the Suns will use a nine man rotation with three guys spotted:

PG - Nash
SG - Johnson
SF - Marion
PF - Stoudemire
C - Voskuhl

PG - Barbosa
SG/SF - Richardson
C/PF - Lampe

The ninth man will vary depending on the opponent:

SG/SF - Jacobsen - Against teams using a lot of zone
C - Hunter - Against teams that drive the basket a lot

The other guys will be spotted in game situations:

SF/PF - Carbakapa - Against teams with very tall shooters or when the Suns need a run oriented shooter
PF/C - Vroman - Where the Suns need another hustle player.

Eisley will be on IR unless there is an injury.
-------------------------------------------------
The nature of the rotation will depend on how well the guys develop and change over time. Stoudemire and Nash will be constants, but their minutes should be limited. The rest of the starters and other players will see their minutes driven by their effectiveness because there will be backups if they are not playing well.

 

[binkar]

Your read George? How do you figure?

 

[Gaddabout]

Jason Kidd worked very hard on his shooting but it never got better. That doesn't mean he has personality problems ( although he does because of other reasons).

Shooting is an acquired skill, plain and simple. It's about good technique and lots of repetition. I suppose you could argue someone born with poor hand-eye coordination could never learn, but that is clearly not the case with Kidd. Shooting has just never been a huge priority for him, otherwise he'd have a deadly mid-range jumper.

 

[George O'Brien]

Your read George? How do you figure?

It's just an attempt to interpret "coach speak" and the other bits and pieces that come from interviews of Suns people. Last year the Suns ran mostly an eight man rotation. Last season the minutes per game went as follows:

Marion 40.7
Johnson 40.6
Stoudemire 36.8
Voskuhl 24.3
Jacobsen 23.4
Barbosa 21.4
Eisley 21.4
McDyess 22.1

No one else had over 14.1 minutes and this included numerous "Did Not Play" games: White, Carbakapa, Lampe, and Harvey. This certainly looks like an eight man rotation with the other guys spotted. It is only a guess when I suggest D'Antoni might go to a nine man rotation due to having greater depth, but I'm pretty sure he won't do a ten man rotation.

On a projected eight man rotation, Nash replaces Eisley, Richardson replaces Jacobsen, and Lampe replaces McDyess. Reduce the minutes by Marion and Johnson by five minutes each and add them to the minutes Jacobsen's slot had and Q gets 33.4 minutes a game. Increase Nash to 30 minutes and reduce Barbosa to 18 and the PG position is covered.

This doesn't mean it will work out that way. I seriously doubt that Lampe will get the kind of per game minutes Dice did, so at least one other big man will get minutes in the high teens each game though not necessarily the same guy.