Eric is right. This crisis was obvious as soon as the Marbury/Marion contracts were signed. It was obvious Amare was going to get a max contract and so the numbers extending out were looking pretty ugly. Oddly enough, they never really addressed the problem even when they got rid of Marbury AND Hardaway.
Marion's contract distorted their finances in a major way, but the team got good so fast they could not afford to trade him unil late in his contract for an even bigger one.
Some of the major screwups start with the signing of Q and then having to make an awful deal to get KT. Getting rid of KT was a continuation of the Q deal. Putting the money into Q scared Sarver off from using the money on JJ. In retrospect, it is bizzare how Q was actually thought to be better than JJ at the time.
But it was worse than that. In order to get the money for Q, the Suns decided to trad their #7 pick in exchange for the Bulls pick the following year. This freed up just under $2 million, but that pick ended up as the pick they used to move Q for KT. They also used a pick to unload Jahidi White to free up cap space.
Losing JJ was a disaster, but it was compounded by giving Diaw a big contract based on an OK year and panic over the JJ situation. Barbosa received an above the MLE extension dispite his status of being a restricted free agent would scare off most teams. (This year, Josh Smith is the only RFA being approached and that is entirely because the Hawks ownership is a mess).
But as overpaid as Diaw might be, his status was nothing compared to Marion. Early in his contract, I suggested Marion was about $3 to $4 million overpriced. But as his contract kept getting better and he didn't, his market value was upwards ot $9 to $10 million overpaid. The only way they could unload him was for an even more expensive guy.
Signing Marcus Bands proved to be huge mistake. James Jones was not a bad signing, but as the estensions kept hitting was a casualty.
(The Brian Grant fiasco still hurts in that the price to unload him was the Rondo pick).
It is hard to imagine just how different the team might have been if BC had to not made those max contracts in 2003. I'm not sure if they could have unloaded Penny and Googs without the Marbury contract; but it took a major idiot to bail the Suns out of the Marbury deal.
Can I find a "moral" in all this?
1. Ignoring the long range consquences of decisions can be disasterous.
2. Doing a better job of evaluating personnel can easily save the team millions.
3. Making emotional decision such as overpaying Marbury, Marion, Richardson, Grant, Banks, Diaw, and possibly Barbosa can come back to haunt the team.
4. Ignoring the downside risk of being overly conservative with emerging stars is equally dangerous. If the difference for JJ had been $15 million rather than $5 million, the Suns decision would have been more rational. But based on the market, the $50 million request was high but not particularly out of line. If they did not think he was worth keeping, then why refuse the T-Mac for Marion and JJ offer?
In two years the Suns get to start over. I just hope they learn from the past five years.
Marion's contract distorted their finances in a major way, but the team got good so fast they could not afford to trade him unil late in his contract for an even bigger one.
Some of the major screwups start with the signing of Q and then having to make an awful deal to get KT. Getting rid of KT was a continuation of the Q deal. Putting the money into Q scared Sarver off from using the money on JJ. In retrospect, it is bizzare how Q was actually thought to be better than JJ at the time.
But it was worse than that. In order to get the money for Q, the Suns decided to trad their #7 pick in exchange for the Bulls pick the following year. This freed up just under $2 million, but that pick ended up as the pick they used to move Q for KT. They also used a pick to unload Jahidi White to free up cap space.
Losing JJ was a disaster, but it was compounded by giving Diaw a big contract based on an OK year and panic over the JJ situation. Barbosa received an above the MLE extension dispite his status of being a restricted free agent would scare off most teams. (This year, Josh Smith is the only RFA being approached and that is entirely because the Hawks ownership is a mess).
But as overpaid as Diaw might be, his status was nothing compared to Marion. Early in his contract, I suggested Marion was about $3 to $4 million overpriced. But as his contract kept getting better and he didn't, his market value was upwards ot $9 to $10 million overpaid. The only way they could unload him was for an even more expensive guy.
Signing Marcus Bands proved to be huge mistake. James Jones was not a bad signing, but as the estensions kept hitting was a casualty.
(The Brian Grant fiasco still hurts in that the price to unload him was the Rondo pick).
It is hard to imagine just how different the team might have been if BC had to not made those max contracts in 2003. I'm not sure if they could have unloaded Penny and Googs without the Marbury contract; but it took a major idiot to bail the Suns out of the Marbury deal.
Can I find a "moral" in all this?
1. Ignoring the long range consquences of decisions can be disasterous.
2. Doing a better job of evaluating personnel can easily save the team millions.
3. Making emotional decision such as overpaying Marbury, Marion, Richardson, Grant, Banks, Diaw, and possibly Barbosa can come back to haunt the team.
4. Ignoring the downside risk of being overly conservative with emerging stars is equally dangerous. If the difference for JJ had been $15 million rather than $5 million, the Suns decision would have been more rational. But based on the market, the $50 million request was high but not particularly out of line. If they did not think he was worth keeping, then why refuse the T-Mac for Marion and JJ offer?
In two years the Suns get to start over. I just hope they learn from the past five years.
