Pretty good article about some mistakes the team has made the last 5 years. Mike Tulumello really over exaggerates what it would take to get rid of Banks though. All in all a good article. The highlight of the article for me is the draft picks the Suns gave up. When the Suns traded away their draft these very boards were lit up with WTH are the Suns doing type threads. Back then we all suspected those moves would end up being mistakes. They were. Especially considering how some of those players turned out.
Suns’ past missteps have added up
Mike Tulumello, Tribune
It could have been, would have been, should have been. The Suns fell short on the court this season in part because they fell short off of it.
Here are some moves that didn’t work out for the Suns the past five years, each of which hurt their chances to bring home a title this season.
• The 2002 draft. The Suns made one of the best picks in franchise history with Amaré Stoudemire at No. 9 (several players picked ahead of him are no longer even in the league).
But at No. 22, they blew it, picking Casey Jacobsen over Tayshaun Prince, even though Prince had an eye-opening workout for them.
Jacobsen no longer is in the league, while Prince probably is the league’s best all-round player who isn’t an All-Star, the glue for the title-contending Detroit Pistons.
• The draft-day trade in 2004 with the Bulls. The Suns could have had Luol Deng or Andre Iguodala for nothing more than a rookie-scale contract.
Instead, they traded the No. 7 pick to Chicago. Compounding this …
• ...They signed Quentin Richardson to a $43 million contract in July, 2004. They did so even though it complicated the situation in trying to sign Joe Johnson to a longterm contract.
• They came up just short of signing Johnson in October, 2004.
The Suns were offering Johnson about $45 million; Johnson wanted about $50 million.
This is the sort of bargaining gap that Jerry Colangelo would have closed in hours, maybe even minutes.
But there was a new player in such negotiations: Robert Sarver, who’d just bought the team for $401 million.
Colangelo and Sarver would run the team jointly for three years. Colangelo wanted to do a deal, but he didn’t want to make any major moves without his successor’s approval.
Sarver had just agreed to contracts guaranteed at about $100 million for Steve Nash and Richardson. He was reluctant to add another.
Johnson then seemed to grow bitter as the ‘04-05 season went along. A subsequent attempt to sign Johnson in the summer of ’05 deteriorated, and Johnson was dealt to Atlanta in a sign-and-trade deal for Boris Diaw and draft picks.
“It should have been done,” Colangelo would say much later of the first attempt to sign Johnson.
And another Suns official would talk dreamily of a Suns’ group that included Stoudemire and Shawn Marion up front, Johnson and Raja Bell on the wings and Nash at the point.
You have to wonder if not signing Johnson — the first time — didn’t cost the Suns multiple NBA titles.
• Sarver’s decision to let Bryan Colangelo get away to the Toronto Raptors in February 2006.
Years from now, this may seem an extremely odd decision.
Colangelo’s decisions weren’t always on the mark (see some of the aforementioned goofs).
But he’d just been voted the NBA’s top executive the previous year, was on his way to finishing second during the year he left the Suns, then won the award again just this month for turning around the Raptors immediately.
In letting him leave — Colangelo said he had expected to stay but never was given a specific offer — Sarver seemed eager to put his own stamp on the Suns.
The Suns’ moves haven’t worked out so well since Colangelo left.
• The trade of a first-round pick in the 2006 draft to the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Trail Blazers used the pick to draft Sergio Rodriguez, who turned out to be maybe the league’s best rookie point guard.
A backup point guard, of course, is a crying need for the Suns.
• The signing of Marcus Banks to a $22 million contract in July 2006.
The Suns viewed Banks as the guy to give Nash much needed relief. Instead, coach Mike D’Antoni soon lost confidence in him. Leandro Barbosa — more effective as an off guard — had to fill this role.
And Nash looked tired at the end of the Suns’ heartbreaking playoff loss to the Spurs. Now the Suns might have to give away two first-round draft picks just to get somebody to take Banks off their hands. The Suns also signed Diaw to a five-year, $45 million contract that kicks in next season. Whether this, too, turns out to be a mistake figures to go a long way in determining whether the Suns can finally win that elusive title.
Suns’ past missteps have added up
Mike Tulumello, Tribune
It could have been, would have been, should have been. The Suns fell short on the court this season in part because they fell short off of it.
Here are some moves that didn’t work out for the Suns the past five years, each of which hurt their chances to bring home a title this season.
• The 2002 draft. The Suns made one of the best picks in franchise history with Amaré Stoudemire at No. 9 (several players picked ahead of him are no longer even in the league).
But at No. 22, they blew it, picking Casey Jacobsen over Tayshaun Prince, even though Prince had an eye-opening workout for them.
Jacobsen no longer is in the league, while Prince probably is the league’s best all-round player who isn’t an All-Star, the glue for the title-contending Detroit Pistons.
• The draft-day trade in 2004 with the Bulls. The Suns could have had Luol Deng or Andre Iguodala for nothing more than a rookie-scale contract.
Instead, they traded the No. 7 pick to Chicago. Compounding this …
• ...They signed Quentin Richardson to a $43 million contract in July, 2004. They did so even though it complicated the situation in trying to sign Joe Johnson to a longterm contract.
• They came up just short of signing Johnson in October, 2004.
The Suns were offering Johnson about $45 million; Johnson wanted about $50 million.
This is the sort of bargaining gap that Jerry Colangelo would have closed in hours, maybe even minutes.
But there was a new player in such negotiations: Robert Sarver, who’d just bought the team for $401 million.
Colangelo and Sarver would run the team jointly for three years. Colangelo wanted to do a deal, but he didn’t want to make any major moves without his successor’s approval.
Sarver had just agreed to contracts guaranteed at about $100 million for Steve Nash and Richardson. He was reluctant to add another.
Johnson then seemed to grow bitter as the ‘04-05 season went along. A subsequent attempt to sign Johnson in the summer of ’05 deteriorated, and Johnson was dealt to Atlanta in a sign-and-trade deal for Boris Diaw and draft picks.
“It should have been done,” Colangelo would say much later of the first attempt to sign Johnson.
And another Suns official would talk dreamily of a Suns’ group that included Stoudemire and Shawn Marion up front, Johnson and Raja Bell on the wings and Nash at the point.
You have to wonder if not signing Johnson — the first time — didn’t cost the Suns multiple NBA titles.
• Sarver’s decision to let Bryan Colangelo get away to the Toronto Raptors in February 2006.
Years from now, this may seem an extremely odd decision.
Colangelo’s decisions weren’t always on the mark (see some of the aforementioned goofs).
But he’d just been voted the NBA’s top executive the previous year, was on his way to finishing second during the year he left the Suns, then won the award again just this month for turning around the Raptors immediately.
In letting him leave — Colangelo said he had expected to stay but never was given a specific offer — Sarver seemed eager to put his own stamp on the Suns.
The Suns’ moves haven’t worked out so well since Colangelo left.
• The trade of a first-round pick in the 2006 draft to the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Trail Blazers used the pick to draft Sergio Rodriguez, who turned out to be maybe the league’s best rookie point guard.
A backup point guard, of course, is a crying need for the Suns.
• The signing of Marcus Banks to a $22 million contract in July 2006.
The Suns viewed Banks as the guy to give Nash much needed relief. Instead, coach Mike D’Antoni soon lost confidence in him. Leandro Barbosa — more effective as an off guard — had to fill this role.
And Nash looked tired at the end of the Suns’ heartbreaking playoff loss to the Spurs. Now the Suns might have to give away two first-round draft picks just to get somebody to take Banks off their hands. The Suns also signed Diaw to a five-year, $45 million contract that kicks in next season. Whether this, too, turns out to be a mistake figures to go a long way in determining whether the Suns can finally win that elusive title.
