Robin Lopez

[LV-Suns]

 

[TJ]

maybe our D-League squad needed another permanent player

 

[Jersey Girl]

 

[YouJustGotSUNSD]

From Paul Coro:

Suns sign Lopez Suns first-round draft pick Robin Lopez signed his first contract with Phoenix, the club announced this morning.
The Suns did not disclose terms of the deal but first-round draft choices' salaries are slotted. The NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement stipulates that Lopez, as a 15th overall pick in last month's draft, will receive guaranteed salaries of $1,353,100 this season and $1,454,600 next season. There will also be team options for the third and fourth seasons at $1,556,100 and a 53.3 percent increase for the fourth year, estimated at $2,385,501. He signed the contract last week.

Lopez, who is 7 feet and 255 pounds, will make his pro debut next week in the NBA Summer League. Phoenix's summer team will begin training this weekend in Las Vegas, where they will play five games and scrimmage other NBA teams. The Suns' opener is Monday at 5:30 p.m. against Houston at Thomas & Mack Center.

The luxury tax threshold came in this week at $71.15 million. The Suns figure on having a $5 million tax but that is not computed until the trade deadline and is dependent on Phoenix filling out the roster with minimum contracts and whether Goran Dragic can be added. The Suns were among eight tax-paying teams last season, coughing up an extra $3.9 million to the league while missing out on the $4.2 million check the other 22 teams received for keeping payroll below the luxury tax threshold.

In news you already knew, James Jones is a smart man.

About two weeks ago, Jones declined a $3.1 million player option with Portland and made himself an unrestricted free agent. He was coming off a season in which he missed 24 games with a left knee injury but Jones apparently knew what he was doing. The ex-Sun not only scored a five-year deal that can be worth as much as $23 million but he got to go home to Miami to do it. The Heat missed Jason Kapono's long-distance touch and Jones, a South Florida native who even went to college at Miami, is coming off a season in which he hit 44.4 percent of his 3-pointers to rank third in the NBA. However, Jones is part of a glut of Miami small forwards with Shawn Marion if Dorrell Wright does return and Michael Beasley spends some minutes there.

 

[JCSunsfan]

I wish we could have gotten James Jones back.

 

[Suns_fan69]

Better yet I wish the suns never gave him up in the first place.

 

[Chaplin]

Better yet I wish the suns never gave him up in the first place.

Hindsight is 20/20, but remember that he was fairly worthless to us his last year here. Not just for a few months, but for the WHOLE YEAR. He blossomed on a young team and could barely hold his own on a veteran championship contender, that has to tell you something about him back then.

Things change, and it would be great to still have him, but at the time, he was more of a detriment to the Suns than an asset.

 

[green machine]

Hindsight is 20/20, but remember that he was fairly worthless to us his last year here. Not just for a few months, but for the WHOLE YEAR. He blossomed on a young team and could barely hold his own on a veteran championship contender, that has to tell you something about him back then.

Things change, and it would be great to still have him, but at the time, he was more of a detriment to the Suns than an asset.

Totally agree, the guy wasn't very good for the Suns, was inconsistent, and not a favorite among the fans. Then he goes and has a solid season for Portland, signs for way too much money, and now people are bitching about him gone.

 

[elindholm]

I've demonstrated statistically on many occasions that Jones was just fine with the Suns once the league went back to the regular ball. He was a luxury tax casualty, plain and simple.

 

[Chaplin]

I've demonstrated statistically on many occasions that Jones was just fine with the Suns once the league went back to the regular ball. He was a luxury tax casualty, plain and simple.

Arrogant presumption aside, statistics aren't everything.

 

[Splinters81]

Arrogant presumption aside, statistics aren't everything.

I thought this was a Robin Lopez thread. I am confused.

 

[Chaplin]

I thought this was a Robin Lopez thread. I am confused.

JCSunsfan said he wished James Jones was back--that's where the conversation skewed.

 

[elindholm]

Arrogant presumption aside, statistics aren't everything.

Neither are the selective memories of rationalizing fans. If forced to choose, I'll go with the statistics. Your name-calling is just a way of dodging the issue.

 

[YouJustGotSUNSD]

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[green machine]

I've demonstrated statistically on many occasions that Jones was just fine with the Suns once the league went back to the regular ball. He was a luxury tax casualty, plain and simple.

I'd be curious to see how his statistics came to be.

For instance, I seem to remember him having some games where he'd go 2-7, and others where he'd be 6-10. Add it up, it's 8-17, which isn't horrible for a guy who shoots mostly from the outside, but the stats wouldn't tell the true story of his inconsistency.

 

[Chaplin]

Neither are the selective memories of rationalizing fans. If forced to choose, I'll go with the statistics. Your name-calling is just a way of dodging the issue.

That's pretty funny, all arrogance aside.

Eric, you're an intelligent poster, but you talk down to people in almost every post you make. I am also guilty of that as well, but come on--you are an expert at saying "you are wrong, and I proved it by being right" without actually saying it.

Good statistics in garbage minutes don't mean much, even in only 3-4 months, which is how long the return to the old ball was that season.

 

[YouJustGotSUNSD]

His stats did show significant improvement post-crap-ball, but it wasnt enough to prove he was worth keeping imo. He was still inconsistent from game to game even though the second half of the season showed improved inconsistency

While I wouldnt mind seeing him back on the team, I definitely dont regret watching the suns ship him out for nothing, nor hold it against sarver.

 

[elindholm]

For instance, I seem to remember him having some games where he'd go 2-7, and others where he'd be 6-10. Add it up, it's 8-17, which isn't horrible for a guy who shoots mostly from the outside, but the stats wouldn't tell the true story of his inconsistency.

True, but you'll find the same variance for anyone. Nash has 2-7 games too, but no one calls him inconsistent. On the flip side, occasionally O'Neal will go 7-9 from the line, and then everyone will get all excited about how he "has really been working on his stroke." Heck, flip a coin ten times a day, and some days you'll get 8 or 9 heads, other days only 1 or 2.

If you want to break down Jones's statistics yourself, here is a useful page:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/splits?playerId=2009&sYear=2007&sType=4

Unfortunately ESPN seems to have taken down game logs for 2006-07, so I'm just going on my memory there, but I did look at them pretty carefully the last time this topic came up.

Good statistics in garbage minutes don't mean much, even in only 3-4 months, which is how long the return to the old ball was that season.

But everyone is down on him for his two months of poor performance with the new ball!

The bottom line is that Jones is what he is -- a catch-and-shoot SF who will hit ballpark 40% from three-point range and can occasionally defend a bit. We were all plenty happy with him during his time on the Suns, except for 1/3 of a season when he struggled with inferior equipment.

But as soon as the Suns sold him for luxury tax savings, suddenly there was this big indictment about how he was a lousy player who no longer had a role on the team. One accusation was that his shooting was poor all season. The numbers refute that. Another was that he had somehow become less consistent. The numbers refute that too. Yet another was that his meaningful minutes had been slashed, showing that D'Antoni had lost confidence in him. Bzzt, the numbers refute that as well.

Many on this board didn't want to face the fact that the Suns had sold yet another useful player for cash, so they decided to declare the player useless, even though they knew better. However, you are right about one thing, Chaplin: I should keep my mouth shut. It drives me crazy when people invent evidence in order to change their minds about something in hindsight, but I should be used to it.

 

[Joe Mama]

Arrogant presumption aside, statistics aren't everything.

Okay, statistics aren't everything. The problem with that is that James Jones did not get most of his minutes in the crap time. He was a key player off the bench. He's also a good defender, so that's something that statistics don't show that works in his favor. He was more inconsistent before we traded him. However, everybody is going to fluctuate from game to game. I think that's okay for a bench player, especially when he's a positive on the defensive side of the ball.

I actually thought the same way you did until the stats were brought to my attention. I would take him back in a heartbeat... even if he played the same as he did the last season here.

Joe