Raja Bell- the newest sun

[scotsman13]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2098485

eam struck the first deal of the free-agency period on Friday, coming to an agreement in principle with free agent Raja Bell.

"Raja Bell intends to sign a contract with the Suns when the moratorium ends," his agent, Herb Rudoy, told ESPN Insider Chad Ford. "Raja really wanted to play with Steve Nash and saw a great opportunity to do just that."

The Suns will sign Bell with part of their mid-level exception. Last year the exception was for $4.9 million and is expected to go up slightly this year.

Suns GM Bryan Colangelo declined comment on the story, citing league policy that prohibits NBA teams from commenting on free-agent negotiations during the moratorium.

Bell and the Suns can make things official on July 22, when the moratorium is lifted.

 

[Cheesebeef]

great SIGNING. I like this move a lot. Bell is a gritty defender, good 3 point shooter and the essence of what a role player is. Very good signing.

Get one more BIG in here - either Hunter or someone else useful and this team will be ready to rock and roll over everyone next year.

 

[coloradosun]

Farther down the page

Nets will go after Stephan Hunter.

Anderson will resign with Hornets.

 

[arthurracoon]

 

[scotsman13]

the nets are offering SAR the full MLE. that means that they would only have the 1.7LME to go after hunter. if hunter had a choose between playing for the suns or the nets for the same money i am sure that he will be with the suns.

 

[coloradosun]

That also ends any thoughts of Gary Payton, thank you Steve Nash.

 

[KANIDJA]

Who is SAR?

 

[Cheesebeef]

That also ends any thoughts of Gary Payton, thank you Steve Nash.

and choke-artist extraoridnaire Michael Finley.

Go out and get one big now and the team's top 8 will be SET!

 

[SactownSunsFan]

great SIGNING. I like this move a lot. Bell is a gritty defender, good 3 point shooter and the essence of what a role player is. Very good signing.

Get one more BIG in here - either Hunter or someone else useful and this team will be ready to rock and roll over everyone next year.

Hopefully this doesn't end the interest in Finley. Even though he's lost a step, at this point in his career Finley's still a better player than Bell.

 

[Biclops]

we are the first to strike again !!

i like the signing

offensively he will fit right in as he can hit 3 pointers and more importantly he is a gritty defender that will be able to cover alot of pg and sgs

i think our defense greatly improved with the addition of thomas and bell

our bench is starting to take good form

PG-Barbosa
SG-Bell
SF-Jackson
PF-
C-

My hope is that Marshall will be willing to join us for the other half of the mid level exception

go sun!!!

 

[SactownSunsFan]

That also ends any thoughts of Gary Payton, thank you Steve Nash.

Maybe not.. Raja's not a true PG. He's more of a SG. He only averaged 1.4 assists last year, and has only averaged 1.1 assists for his career. LB could do that, plus be a more effective scorer.

I don't know if I necessarily like this "signing".

 

[Kolo]

Who is SAR?

Shareef Abdur-Rahim

 

[playstation]

this means that the Folsum dude or whatever was right! To go out and sign Nash's ex-teammate on the FIRST day of free agency? I think Nash had something to do with it. If so, I definitly trust his judgement and thus say its a good move.

 

[Brazil]

the nets are offering SAR the full MLE. that means that they would only have the 1.7LME to go after hunter. if hunter had a choose between playing for the suns or the nets for the same money i am sure that he will be with the suns.

The Nets are offering SAR a sign-and-trade using the trade exception left over from the Kittles deal offering SAR a 6-year $39 million deal.

 

[HooverDam]

Sounds like a good signing for the Suns. I noticed he only played 60 some odd games last year, did he have an injury we should be concerned about?

Also, his FT% is lower than I'd like for a guard, 75%, maybe he can work on that.

Overall, good deal. Hopefully he can D up on guys like Manu and Parker when called upon.

Hm, also I think this decreases our chances of going after Finley. It would be an awfully crowded back up back court with LB, Bell, JJax and Finley. Unless they were going to start JJax or Finley a lot of games (in Qs old role), I think Payton and Finley are probably out of the question now.

Now lets go sign a big!

 

[KANIDJA]

I would be happy if SAR went to the Nets. Get him away from the West Conference since we obviously can't afford him.

 

[playstation]

so what do you think this means in regards to finley and payton? It'd be nice to have some of that veteran grit in the playoffs.

 

[Yuma]

On a franchise note, weren't we the first ones to open free agency last year, too?

I like Bell better than Payton. I just hoped to split that MLE between two guys. I think we did well to take one of the best defensive guards off the market. Should he us when a Parker, Williams, etc. start to heat up against us.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

great signing. impressed. especially b/c they didn't have to give up the entire mle. agree with cheese, need to get one more big. would prefer marshall, but i think that's a pipe dream. hunter would be okay. both would be unbelievable.

we've added two hardnosed defenders already this offseason (dirty kurt II and raja bell). that's a huge difference imo.

 

[Kolo]

FG% 3P% FT% STL BLK TO PF REB AST PTS

01-02 Phi .429 .273 .750 0.3 0.1 0.6 1.5 1.5 1.0 3.4
02-03 Dal .441 .412 .676 0.7 0.1 0.6 1.8 1.3 1.9 3.1
03-04 Uth .409 .373 .786 0.8 0.2 1.4 3.2 2.9 1.3 11.2
04-05 Uth .454 .403 .747 0.7 0.1 1.3 3.3 3.2 1.4 12.3

.

 

[arthurracoon]

we've added two hardnosed defenders already this offseason (dirty kurt II and raja bell). that's a huge difference imo.

Plus both can shoot the ball!

Bell has 3pt range
KT has mid range

 

[SweetD]

Here is his website.

http://www.rajadiabell.com/

 

[Folster]

this means that the Folsum dude or whatever was right! To go out and sign Nash's ex-teammate on the FIRST day of free agency? I think Nash had something to do with it. If so, I definitly trust his judgement and thus say its a good move.

I don't know if I was right because I was told that the Suns would sign a back-up PG that played with Nash. Bell is not a PG. Are the similarities a coincidence? Also I was later told that it was Howard Eisley, but I could understand that because the rumor had been passed through a couple people, and I heard it from a guy with limited knowledge about players in the NBA.

Also the rumor about the draft was wrong. The Suns did not move up to the 15 or 16 spot. Maybe their guy (Ike) was off the board by those picks so they called it off.

Anyways I like the Bell pick-up. We need competent role players not stars. Bell fits that category. Please no more 2 guards. Finley is now not needed.
Let's resign Hunter and or sign Chris Andersen.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Anyways I like the Bell pick-up. We need competent role players not stars. Bell fits that category. Please no more 2 guards. Finley is now not needed.
Let's resign Hunter and or sign Chris Andersen.

TOTALLY AGREE -we needed Role Players - not former washed up All-stars who can't play D anymore.

I believe ESPN has Anderson inking a long term deal with the Hornets already though.

Get Hunter re-signed, get JJ and Amare extended and I'm happy as hell with this offseason.

 

[Chaz]

I would like to re-sign Hunter and get one more forward/center.

The Bell signing is ok. Kudos to BC and co. for moving quickly and getting him for a reasonable price.