Suns close to buyout agreement for Dragic!

[arwillan]

on hoopshype i found this:

Tau Ceramica is negotiating with the Phoenix Suns about Goran Dragic. The Spanish team has an offer on the table for the Slovenian guard and they are closer than ever to an agreement

this could all be coming to an end, thankfully.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

I hope so.

 

[Shzm13]

Sweeet! I thought we had just given up on this year. (As far as trying to get him here.)

Lets hope it gets done soon

 

[carey]

Well if someone on hoopshype says so!

 

[Joe Mama]

I can just see it now. All this excitement over Dragic, and with expectations so high he's going to have one or two bad games, and the sky will start falling around here.

Joe

 

[hafey]

That's pretty much how it goes around here.

 

[AceP]

It is a good news, but we must not overestimated it. Dragic is a young player without any NBA experience, he hasn't even played starter role in Europe. No matter how much talent he got, there is no guarantee he will make immediate impact.

 

[Hat]

Good news! Atleast we got some sort of PG to fill in the gaps.

 

[scXfreakX]

As Homer Simpson would say, "Woohoo!" Thats good news. Although we still don't have a reliable backup for Nash, Dragic will do. Good that we might have another PG finally.

 

[Mainstreet]

There is an English translation of perhaps the same article at another website. Anyway, it reads a lot easier.



See link below at SunsTalk.net titled, "Dragic close to coming?"

http://sunstalk.net/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=2&sid=986b06ec7022b372e6b4381cef58d7d2

 

[arwillan]

Well if someone on hoopshype says so!

it's not someone on hoopshype pal, it's a newspaper.

 

[carey]

it's not someone on hoopshype pal, it's a newspaper.

Uh, thanks chief.

 

[tobiazz]

And the important thing to take away from this news is that Steve Kerr was not lying to two ASFN members when he said they are trying hard to get Dragic, at that Vegas summer league game.

Dragic probably wouldn't help a ton this year, but he would be that much more ready for next year. Of course, he would be more serviceable than the non-existent backup they have right now.

 

[Mainstreet]

A Paul Coro article from the Arizona Republic dated August 7th 2008 explains it better.

The biggest factor in getting Dragic to Phoenix now seems to be Tau's ability to find a backup point guard to replace him. Earl Boykins' deal with Virtus was not as bad as it sounded because Tau is looking for more of a pure point guard anyway. Tau, who starts Italian veteran Pablo Prigioni at point guard, will still consider former Suns 10-day contract player Andre Barrett for the spot but also has been looking closely at a European point guard.

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/PaulCoro/29628

 

[JoRain]

isn't Prigioni Argentinian ? at least I believe he's their starting PG at Olympics

 

[pokerface]

I'm kinda skeptical...

The Suns can only offer the other team 500k (I think) for Dragic and it would probably be a no brainer to offer the full amount. So what is there to "work out"....I don't get it.

 

[Chaplin]

I'm kinda skeptical...

The Suns can only offer the other team 500k (I think) for Dragic and it would probably be a no brainer to offer the full amount. So what is there to "work out"....I don't get it.

The Suns can only give 500k to the team with the buyout. The real question is about how much the Suns can give to him in a contract--and how much it will take to make up for the rest of the buyout.

 

[arwillan]

I'm kinda skeptical...

The Suns can only offer the other team 500k (I think) for Dragic and it would probably be a no brainer to offer the full amount. So what is there to "work out"....I don't get it.

they're probably working out how dragic is going to manage to pay the rest of the buyout as well as exactly how much the buyout will be. then they have to figure out how much to pay dragic, being that he was a 2nd round pick.

 

[Gorilla]

Paul Coro is a bit confused when he says:

" The biggest factor in getting Dragic to Phoenix now seems to be Tau's ability to find a backup point guard to replace him"

What the article from El Correo says is that the arrival of a new pointguard to Tau depends on if Dragic goes to the Suns or stays in Tau.

 

[arwillan]

Paul Coro is a bit confused when he says:

" The biggest factor in getting Dragic to Phoenix now seems to be Tau's ability to find a backup point guard to replace him"

What the article from El Correo says is that the arrival of a new pointguard to Tau depends on if Dragic goes to the Suns or stays in Tau.

one of the articles also says that tau is looking at getting another point guard already so let's just hope that that means they'll be sending dragic our way

 

[Covert Rain]

The sad part about this entire thing is really we are negotiating just to get an opportunity to see if this guy can actually play at the NBA level. We have no clue if this guy can play at this level.

I hope he can. We need a backup PG and does not appear that anybody left on the market is plausible. If this guy can play and be effective, the Suns off season moves look a bit more helpful in terms of giving this team some bench play and depth.

 

[Irish]

Coro's article is confusing, but it answers a couple of key questions:

1. Will the Suns accept paying luxury tax? It sounds like it.

2. Are the Suns still expecting Dragic to be the third string PG? Apparently once Lue took the money and ran, they see Dragic as the primary backup.

3. When will this be decided? Coro thinks soon since the Europeans start a month ahead of the NBA.

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/PaulCoro/29628

Dragic drama drags


Despite a new Goran Dragic article that bodes some Suns optimism in today's El Correo (a northern Spain newspaper), there does not seem to be much new to report about him since our update earlier this week ([URL="http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/articles/2008/08/03/20080803suns.html"]http://www.azcentral.com/sp...[/URL]).

Tau Ceramica did acknowledge for the first time in El Correo that there has been interest from the Suns to sign Dragic. There is no big news there. We have known for a while that the Suns would be willing to contribute $500,000, the maximum a NBA team can pay in an international buyout, to get Dragic out of his contract. And since Phoenix's free agency targets fell through, we've known that the Suns are willing to use some of their mid-level exception so they can pay Dragic enough to cover his buyout. That would take a multi-year deal starting at almost $2 million because Dragic's buyout will be more than the $1.55 million that his Tau contract stipulated for next July. He had no buyout in his contract for this summer.

The biggest factor in getting Dragic to Phoenix now seems to be Tau's ability to find a backup point guard to replace him. Earl Boykins' deal with Virtus was not as bad as it sounded because Tau is looking for more of a pure point guard anyway. Tau, who starts Argentine (edits previous listing of Italian, which European sites list because his Italian descent is important there) veteran Pablo Prigioni at point guard, will still consider former Suns 10-day contract player Andre Barrett for the spot but also has been looking closely at a European point guard.

The good thing for the Suns is that this process could be resolved, one way or another, by the end of next week. Tau's schedule operates about a month ahead of a NBA timeline so imagine a NBA team letting its roster stay incomplete late into September. Tau is going to want to firm up its team because it starts playing "friendlies" in September.

Getting Dragic here in September would be a big plus for the Suns as well. Now that the front office is believing (hoping?) he can immediately be the backup point guard, Dragic could really use the time with his new teammates in next month's voluntary pickup games. Time with the Suns athletic trainers to prepare for the 82-game animal would serve him well too.
After all, there are only 55 days until the Suns report for training camp.

ADD: I forgot to answer an e-mail question about why the Suns now are willing to give Dragic a salary that will be costly when it comes time to pay the luxury tax. It seems it is as simple as the difference of paying that money for a No. 3 point guard or a No. 2 point guard. Previously, the Suns were hoping to have someone like Tyronn Lue come aboard and getting Dragic early was a unnecessary bonus. Now, Dragic would be brought to Phoenix as Steve Nash's backup

 

[Covert Rain]

I'm pretty confused about what limits the Suns have in giving money to Dragic other than anything over the minimum gets applied against the MLE.

I think the main hold up is that part of the negotiations is probably Dragic's contract. I am sure Dragic has an agent. If his agent is doing his job, he is right in there making sure that his client gets a good deal if the buy out is agreed upon. I think it's a give how much his team will get from the Suns (500K).

So the only thing they could possibly being negotiating is the final buy out price and making sure that whatever deal he gets from the Suns will be enough to satisfy his old team and himself.

 

[arwillan]

I'm pretty confused about what limits the Suns have in giving money to Dragic other than anything over the minimum gets applied against the MLE.

i never did understand that either. i think you have it right though (at least from what i understand) that if we offer him anything over the value of the minimum (roughly 1.5million) it is applied against the amount of the mle that we can spend. either way, we probably won't be using the MLE so that shouldn't be much of an issue.

 

[Gorilla]

Dragic to stay in TAU

http://www.marca.com/edicion/marca/baloncesto/acb/es/desarrollo/1154693.html

The slovenian guard Goran Dragic, who showed up in Vitoria to begin preseason work, confirmed that he will play out and finish his contract for baskonia before playing for the NBA.

Phoenix owns the right for the guard, who last season played for Union Olimpia from Liubliana. " I am staying here in Vitoria until I finish my three year contract because I am happy here and I am ready to play for this team."

"I need to play basketball in Vitoria to practice hard at the orders of Dusko Ivanovic and improve my game", said Dragic, who also assured he'll have time to join the NBA further ahead. "For now, I am concentrating on TAU so I can play the ACB and Euroleague, and this way, help my team and my new teammates.

____________________


I guess it's time to really start looking for another backup PG.