Maybe it's just the moment, but I think it is all too clear that the Lakers primary plan is to buy Amare when he opts out.
They can plan all they want. It seems like their "plans" always involve landing another superstar, with the targeted name changing every year or so. Wasn't it Bosh last summer?
The Lakers have to figure out how to compete in the meantime, anyway. Do they really expect to improve the roster significantly by adding only short contracts?
Hoopshype doesn't give Stoudemire's opt-out. When is it, and are we sure he has it?
I don't think Sarver would pay Amare the money he would want.
I don't think any of us has any idea what's going on with this team financially. Last summer most of us speculated that Sarver would drag his feet on Diaw's extension, because of the massive luxury tax implications. Well, Diaw got extended, and handsomely. Many of us also speculated last summer that the MLE would go unused, since the Suns appeared to have a full rotation and it didn't make sense to add another medium salary to sit on the bench. Well, Banks was added, for more than half of the MLE, and sat on the bench.
Maybe Sarver will pay big money and maybe he won't, but we just don't have the track record we need to make a confident prediction.
The Suns have two chances to lose Amare, the opt out and the knees. The Suns always have to plan on the worst case scenario because this franchise never seems to have luck on it's side.
That's true, unfortunately. As I've said all along, trading Stoudemire would be tragic, but if it staves off even greater tragedy, well...