Suns Have Extended Barbosa

[nowagimp]

What some of you naysayers forget is that he's only 23 years old.

Barely a rookie in NBA-speak.

Top 5 first steps in the world. Long arms. Deadly 3 point accuracy. Helped push PHX past the L.A.'s. Needs to work on man D, but seems to be very coachable.

He's a guy you want on your team.

I agree with sly fly, and Leo's upside is bigger than most players of his experience level because language has been part of the learning barrier. I also like the fact that leo is humble, it means that his ego will not get in the way of his continued learning, and his team play. The suns add a good shot blocker from next years draft, and his defense on the low block and off the dribble penetration is not as big an issue. This doesnt mean that he shouldnt improve his D, it just means that a shot blocker will make his size defecit less of a problem.

 

[Mainstreet]

I needed a pick-me-up today. The Suns extending Barbosa did just that. Now let's get Diaw extended.

I have to say, that from what I know about Barbosa, he is one of the nicest players I know. As Sly Fly says he is only 23 and I think he is only now learning the nuances of the NBA partially due to the language barrier. Just think about some of his attributes: speed to burn, an excellent three point shooter and if the Suns spread the floor, he can easily take his defender all the way to the basket. Yes, he does need to improve his defense and ability to finish at the basket, but I think this will come more easily now that he only needs to concentrate on being a SG.

Also, let me say, I think in another year or two (with the pressure off), he could be an excellent PG as well.

 

[arthurracoon]

What some of you naysayers forget is that he's only 23 years old.

Barely a rookie in NBA-speak.

Top 5 first steps in the world. Long arms. Deadly 3 point accuracy. Helped push PHX past the L.A.'s. Needs to work on man D, but seems to be very coachable.

He's a guy you want on your team.

 

[Chaplin]

Mainstreet has a point--having a true backup point guard will certainly help Barbosa.

 

[SunsTzu]

Good price. This is essentially the MLE - which I am pretty sure Barbosa would have netted next summer as an RFA. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if a team would have offered a little more than the MLE for him.

Exactly. I love the signing and if the Suns can get Diaw extended this offseason would get my seal of approval.

 

[Muggum]

I'm happy with the Barbosa extension, PROVIDED Bickley isn't right that it was in response to a failure to sign Diaw.

Diaw, not Barbosa, is the prize. We have to resign him. HAVE TO! If I had to choose between Diaw and Marion right now, long term, I'd go with Boris.

 

[Mainstreet]

I'm happy with the Barbosa extension, PROVIDED Bickley isn't right that it was in response to a failure to sign Diaw.

Diaw, not Barbosa, is the prize. We have to resign him. HAVE TO! If I had to choose between Diaw and Marion right now, long term, I'd go with Boris.

I'm of the opinion, the Suns should sign an agreement to extend a player they want anytime a reasonable agreement is reached. To me, this means the Suns have one less player they need to worry about extending and can devote more time towards Diaw negotiations.

I think we have heard all along the Suns were closer to reaching an agreement with Barbosa than Diaw. I don't think this means that the Suns are not actively pursuing Diaw for an extension. I would be shocked and disappointed if the Suns do not extend Diaw this summer.

As to Bickley... well I do not even want to go there.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Great signing. No point in waiting on Barbs because Diaw is not signed yet. Great to get Barbosa locked in while the opportunity is available.

With Gooden, Wilcox etc in limbo right now, it pays the Suns to wait on Diaw. The market problem is Nene's deal, if a few guys sign for less, there will be less upward pressure on the market.

If Wilcox, or Gooden or anyone else just takes a one-year qualifier, it makes the free agency group next year more crowded, driving down the price.

We've got until October to get this done, so all they need to do is keep talking and keep the atmosphere congenial.

 

[Errntknght]

5/32 for Barbs will go from overpaying to a huge blunder if it gets in the way of resigning Diaw. I'd say that Boris has more upside than Leandro and he's already a steady starter compared to a role player. He learns a lot faster, too.

Suppose the team figures they have 77 mil to distibute between the two players, which seems to be about what they are thinking. Splitting it 32 and 45 is not in line with their relative value and will probably lose Diaw. I'd offer Boris 5/52 and Leandro 5/25 - and risk the latter looking around in free agency next year.

 

[Forrestham]

I thought Sarver was too cheap to extend contracts. LLOLAt least according to some of the posts.
Lets get Boris extended. While Boris is more important than Barbs its good they got him signed

 

[Muggum]

I really like Leandro, and I think we got him at just the right price... fair for both parties! I'm totally excited to see him continue to grow and mature. His being only 23 really makes me smile... because he can only get better.

NEXT. BORIS.

 

[Cheesebeef]

LLOLAt

what the hell does this mean? anyone?

 

[boisesuns]

what the hell does this mean? anyone?

Looks like he dropped somthing on his keyboard. Maybe it was an attempt at typing the infamous "LOL"

 

[arthurracoon]

now its time to extend Diaw.

do that, and Im happy

 

[krispydude]

i doubt diaw signs this year. they said he is looking for nene type money and gambo said the suns and diaw are far apart. id say let him play this year to make sure last year wasnt a fluke. i dont think im ready to give him 60mil. he needs to step up his rebounding and agressiveness and then ill be able to part ways with marion to allow for diaw to sign

 

[F-Dog]

If you assume the MLE will rise to $5.4m next season, a full MLE deal offered by another team would be worth $31.3m. So, I figure the Suns are paying Barbosa about $1m to keep him off the market.

The first year of his deal (in 2007) will be worth about $5.3m. In that year, the Suns should be paying a little less than 40% of the luxtax line to their four guards (Nash, Barbosa, Bell and Banks). Considering that the Suns expect to play Bell a decent number of minutes at SF, and that they expect to win their matchups at guard pretty much every night, that number is probably acceptable.



Anyway, this is a good deal IMO. Like Marquis Daniels, Barbosa will be eminently movable if he fails to improve, and if Barbosa does continue to get better, he'll be a bargain.

Part of the fallout from this is that re-signing Diaw is no longer a lock. I wonder whether the Wolves would be interested in Marion and Diaw for KG...

 

[Mainstreet]

i doubt diaw signs this year. they said he is looking for nene type money and gambo said the suns and diaw are far apart. id say let him play this year to make sure last year wasnt a fluke. i dont think im ready to give him 60mil. he needs to step up his rebounding and agressiveness and then ill be able to part ways with marion to allow for diaw to sign

I prefer not to gamble, if the Suns can get Diaw extended anywhere close to the 50 million range they'll be lucky. I say get Diaw extended now. I don't want anymore of letting him prove his worth (JJ routine).

IMO, Diaw is better than Nene. Anyway, the Suns need to do what it takes within reason. I don't think Diaw will be unreasonable based upon his experience in Atlanta but I do think he will want somewhere close to fair market value. I don't think Diaw will demand Nene type money... at least I hope I'm right.

I still cant't believe JJ got a 70 million offer as a RFA with 20-25 million upfront. It only takes one team to overpay to make a JJ type nightmare happen again if the Suns should revisit the RFA route.

 

[F-Dog]

I still cant't believe JJ got a 70 million offer as a RFA with 20-25 million upfront. It only takes one team to overpay to make a JJ type nightmare happen again if the Suns should revisit the RFA route.

Yeah, if the Suns can't sign Diaw, they probably need to start looking at trades this summer. With their salary situation, they don't seem to have the leverage any more to fight off a big offer the way they could with Joe J.

 

[Mainstreet]

Yeah, if the Suns can't sign Diaw, they probably need to start looking at trades this summer. With their salary situation, they don't seem to have the leverage any more to fight off a big offer the way they could with Joe J.

What's frightening for me, is that I view Diaw (since he can play the 4/5) more important to the Suns than JJ. As KT is starting to advance in age and Amare is coming off microfracture, the 4/5 position is one area I do not want to gamble.

Won't KT's significant salary coming off the books in two seasons help if he is replaced by rookie contract(s) in the future? I'm not good at this LT business.

 

[F-Dog]

What's frightening for me, is that I view Diaw (since he can play the 4/5) more important to the Suns than JJ. As KT is starting to advance in age and Amare is coming off microfracture, the 4/5 position is one area I do not want to gamble.

I felt the same way after the playoffs...of course, at that time I assumed that Diaw would sign about a month ago, for about 5/40. When it became obvious he was holding out for 50 or 55, I starting asking myself questions, like "doesn't Boris play the exact same position as Amare?" and "can a player really be considered versatile, if he's only effective as an undersized PF or as an undersized C?"

For the same money, I'd still rather have Joe Johnson. In addition to being the modern-day Joe Dumars, Joe J was also the ultimate D'Antoni small forward--and judging from the constant turnover there, it's the second-hardest D'Antoni position to fill.

Of course, I also think Marion's natural position is PF, so maybe that influences my opinions.

Won't KT's significant salary coming off the books in two seasons help if he is replaced by rookie contract(s) in the future? I'm not good at this LT business.

It won't help at all in 2007/8 (obviously). Re-sign Boris for 5/50 and keep everybody, and the Suns will be looking at $75m-$80m in total salaries for that year, with an extra $10m-$15m in luxury tax penalties.

The next season, KT comes off the books for $8m, but even if they don't replace him with anybody, you're still looking at the Suns paying a big gob of luxury tax.

The year after that, though, Shawn Marion comes off the books. So as long as Sarver is willing to write $20m worth of checks to the league, in addition to $150m worth of salary checks he'll be writing for those two years, the Suns should be just fine.

 

[Big Deal]

I like Barbosa, he is a quality guy and am very happy that he will remain on the team.

 

[George O'Brien]

I know F-Dog won't believe this, but this was an extremely easy deal to do. The Suns were convinced Leandro would get an MLE offer next summer and Leandro was convinced he would not get an above the MLE offer next summer.

The negotiations for Boris are vastly more complicated. Next summer, only three teams will have cap space and one of them is the Hawks. If the Suns play hardball, they can simply wait until next summer and plan on matching. This is based on the very reasonable notion that they can afford to match what any other teams will be able to offer.

If Wilcox and Gooden take the one year deal, they still have no assurance they will get more next season. They should ask Swift who played out his option, signed for an MLE and then got traded back to the Grizzlies. Once the illusions of Nene go away, the reality is a lot less appealing.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I know F-Dog won't believe this, but this was an extremely easy deal to do. The Suns were convinced Leandro would get an MLE offer next summer and Leandro was convinced he would not get an above the MLE offer next summer.

The negotiations for Boris are vastly more complicated. Next summer, only three teams will have cap space and one of them is the Hawks. If the Suns play hardball, they can simply wait until next summer and plan on matching. This is based on the very reasonable notion that they can afford to match what any other teams will be able to offer.

If Wilcox and Gooden take the one year deal, they still have no assurance they will get more next season. They should ask Swift who played out his option, signed for an MLE and then got traded back to the Grizzlies. Once the illusions of Nene go away, the reality is a lot less appealing.

George, I'm still scratching my head wondering why you keep comparing a player like Diaw, who basically exploded last year, to a bucnh of guys who have been CAREER UNDERACHIEVERS? The comparison isn't valid because the talent level/production from all those guys above has NEVER been at the level that Boris showed last year. Swift was a career 8 and 4.5 guy, Gooden had okay stats for pathetic teams, has been traded twice and was benched for a substantial part of the playoffs and Wilcox only played well for 30 games in his 4th season.

You talk about Wilcox, Swift and Gooden like they're comparable to Diaw, when they are clearly not - three players in the NBA averaged more than 10, 6, 6 in the entire league last year. ONE player was named Most Improved and then actually was a very key cog averaging 18/6/6 on a team
that went to the WCF - any of the guys above have ANYTHING comparable to that in terms of value? No - thus, the comparison between the players is inapplicable.

 

[MastersofCombat]

I dont like the Signing at all, I agree with another poster that is way too much for someone that will never be a starter on this team....LB has had 2 big time knee problems and he looks like he is about to cry everytime something happens where he needs to step up. Im the only poster here I guess that thought he should make less than Banks. Wait til you see the two, and whom gets more playing time. This is a joke and MIKE buckled under pressure to sign someone.

Diaw is a starter and they didnt seriously try to sign him, Mike D Strike TWO.

Not Drafting anyone strike one
Signing LB for way to much and not offerring Diaw anything worth Strike TWO.

 

[Chaplin]

I dont like the Signing at all, I agree with another poster that is way too much for someone that will never be a starter on this team....LB has had 2 big time knee problems and he looks like he is about to cry everytime something happens where he needs to step up. Im the only poster here I guess that thought he should make less than Banks. Wait til you see the two, and whom gets more playing time. This is a joke and MIKE buckled under pressure to sign someone.

Diaw is a starter and they didnt seriously try to sign him, Mike D Strike TWO.

Not Drafting anyone strike one
Signing LB for way to much and not offerring Diaw anything worth Strike TWO.

You think Banks will get more playing time than Barbosa? LOL Assuming Diaw starts, LB will be our 6th man, not Kurt Thomas, not James Jones, not Marcus Banks. Leandro Barbosa.