Thomas NOT returning

[cepstrum]

Thomas not returning to Phoenix

Paul Coro
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 1, 2006 02:18 PM


Suns playoff hero Tim Thomas will not return to Phoenix for next season because of a more lucrative offer with the Los Angeles Clippers, according to league sources.

The Suns traded away both first-round draft picks Wednesday in part to make a better pitch for Thomas, who is expected to accept a four-year deal starting at the mid-level exception ($5.4 million) from the Clippers.

Phoenix was offering most but not all of its mid-level exception, a move that likely would have put the Suns above the luxury tax threshold.

Thomas, 29, spent most of last season at home after Chicago asked him to leave the team. He was an early March pickup for Phoenix after a foot stress fracture sidelined Kurt Thomas. Tim Thomas averaged 11.0 points and 4.9 rebounds in 26 regular-season games for Phoenix and 15.1 points and 5.5 rebounds in 14 postseason games. He will be best remembered for extending the Suns-Lakers first-round series with a late three-pointer that put Game 6 into overtime. He hit 44.4 percent of his three-point shots in the postseason.

After Eddie House declined to pick up his playoff option Friday and Nikoloz Tskitishvili was waived, Phoenix is left with nine players under contract for next season.

This will be the fourth franchise change for Thomas, a former No. 7 overall pick in 1997, since February of 2004.

 

[panfolk]

So much for frontcourt depth.

 

[cepstrum]

Well how about that? We "save" all that money in the draft to sign Tim Thomas and then we offer him less than our pacific division rivals. That's perfect!

 

[Evil Ash]

That sucks but it doesn't make or break our offseason. If we sign Harpring and Hunter or Jackson then it will make up for it.

 

[panfolk]

This is definitely discouraging... I don't think we can keep picking "diamonds in the rough" and acting short-sighted (though this draft doesn't bother me all that much since they did try to trade up).

 

[panfolk]

That sucks but it doesn't make or break our offseason. If we sign Harpring and Hunter or Jackson then it will make up for it.

I'm with you on Bobby Jackson, I'll pass on Hunter, and I'm curious as to whether anyone thinks Harpring is good to go after injuries.

 

[Goldfield]

Good, TT is fools gold, a 6'10 guy who plays like a guard. Give me Bobby Jackson! That guy plays with fire...

 

[Nash]

holy crap!
so much for all the BS he mouthed about wanting to play in a team he enjoyed being with and crap. I'm sure the Suns must've offered him close to 5 mil a year. What a wasted set of moves starting with the draft trades all meant to sign up this guy who went for better money! really, how much money do the Clippers have to be offering more. I thought Brand and Maggette had pretty big contracts..
Is Sterling the ghost owner of the franchise now? Can't imagine him spending this much on his team.

The Clippers were a matchup nightmare this year. Now with TT they're going to be a royal pain in the butt.

Any noos on possible backup plans the Suns had in the event that TT couldnt be signed? This is where Pittsnogle would have been good. Tall, real tall guy to play SG+F.
I don't think the Mavs have signed him yet, they just have him playing in the summer league. Considering how well we used TT, we could probably beat the Mavs to it and offer Pitts a FA signing and pick him up.

Is the money we saved by not signing TT good enough to get Speedy Claxton?
Now what else are our options?

 

[cepstrum]

Good, TT is fools gold, a 6'10 guy who plays like a guard. Give me Bobby Jackson! That guy plays with fire...

Man come on! The guy was arguably one of the best 4 (if not 3) players on the team in the playoffs.

 

[hsandhu]

Dissapointing, especially since he himself said it would be "retarted" for him to go somewhere else. They didn't give exact numbers but it seems like the clippers offered 5 million (full mle) and suns around 4 (most), I'm surprised it made that much of a difference.

I guess this means the clippers aren't keeping radmonivic, as a division rival I'd rather have thomas on their team instead of radmonivic.

 

[Goldfield]

Man come on! The guy was arguably one of the best 4 (if not 3) players on the team in the playoffs.

your opinion not mine... He was way too up & down for me. Sometimes he played well others he was nonexistant...

This team needs D & Rebounding. Everyone else can score just fine, we need help stopping teams inside.

AND help at Backup PG (Bobby Jackson!)

 

[Nash]

Dissapointing, especially since he himself said it would be "********" for him to go somewhere else.

probably he is

 

[Covert Rain]

Wow. Now that TT is signing somewhere else, those draft decisions are looking might good right now.

Even if we get some of the free agents on the market, your not going to spend all of our cap on players you didn't think were worthy before Tim Thomas signed somewhere else.

This team is going to be hurting on the bench AGAIN.

 

[Cheesebeef]

great - we get Harpring who is brittle as peanut brittle and 6'7 and has never done jack squat in the playoffs... ugh. This is freaking disgusting.

The Clippers - if they get Cassel back are gonna be super-tough. Let's hope Amare's 100% healthy, otherwise, we are in big trouble.

So - Harping and Bobby Jackson - two guys who can't stay healthy if their lfie depends on it - sweet.

 

[George O'Brien]

If true, this means that Rad is gone for the Clips. Looks like a wash for them since they are similar players.

In any case, the Suns are at least in a position to use their full MLE, which was not likely if they hadn't made their moves.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Arn Tellem screwing the Suns again.

 

[Evil Ash]

holy crap!
so much for all the BS he mouthed about wanting to play in a team he enjoyed being with and crap. I'm sure the Suns must've offered him close to 5 mil a year. What a wasted set of moves starting with the draft trades all meant to sign up this guy who went for better money! really, how much money do the Clippers have to be offering more. I thought Brand and Maggette had pretty big contracts..
Is Sterling the ghost owner of the franchise now? Can't imagine him spending this much on his team.

They got rid of the draft picks because they didn't like anybody there not because it would help sign TT (although they thought it would help also).

The Clippers were a matchup nightmare this year. Now with TT they're going to be a royal pain in the butt.

They were a matchup nightmare when we were missing Amare and KT. Not one or the other both

Any noos on possible backup plans the Suns had in the event that TT couldnt be signed? This is where Pittsnogle would have been good. Tall, real tall guy to play SG+F.

Harpring and Hunter or Jackson was their backup plan or at least thats what it seems like from the reports

Pittsnoggle signed with the Heat

 

[Goldfield]

I bet Bobby Jackson could stay healthy on his way to a championship...

 

[Covert Rain]

They doubled the Suns offer.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=68844

Thomas shuns Suns to stay with Clippers By Jerry Brown, TribuneJuly 1, 2006Turns out, Tim Thomas wasn't as taken with the Suns as he claimed he was.Related LinksPhoenix Suns / NBA
Jumping at an opportunity to stay home in Los Angeles and grab and longer term deal for more money, NBA sources confirmed Saturday that Thomas will sign with the Clippers for four years at the mid-level exception, a deal that will be worth as much as $24 million.

For the second year in a row, the Suns failed to sign one of their own free agents that they felt would be a slam dunk. Last year, they wound up trading disgruntled guard Joe Johnson to Atlanta -- this time, they get nothing back for Thomas, who averaged 11 points a game in the regular season after joining Phoenix in last February and 15 points in the postseason, including a huge 3-pointer in Game 6 against the Lakers that allowed the Suns to stay alive and eventually reach the Western Conference Finals.

Sources say the Clippers offer was almost double the Suns best offer -- believed to be three years at or near $12 million, but the feeling was Thomas enjoyed his time in Phoenix so much that he would take less money to remain and make a run at an NBA championship.

Now, Phoenix goes to Plan B, and will try to sign as many as three veteran free agents with the money they were throwing at Thomas to sign a backup point guard, shooting guard and shot-blocking presence inside. Losing Tim Thomas also increases the likelihood that Kurt Thomas and James Jones will remain with the Suns, joining the new players that come aboard to back up the starting lineup of Steve Nash, Raja Bell, Shawn Marion, Boris Diaw and Amare Stoudemire.

 

[Nash]

yowza! I find myself wondering whether we'd be good enough to win the Pacific Div, with the already mostrous Clippers getting bigger and better. Well, Maggette is due for his next few injuries I think...isn't he?

 

[cepstrum]

If true, this means that Rad is gone for the Clips. Looks like a wash for them since they are similar players.

In any case, the Suns are at least in a position to use their full MLE, which was not likely if they hadn't made their moves.

Actually if we were in a position to use the full MLE the title of this thread would be "Tim Thomas Returning" The fact of the matter is that we were always in a position to use our full MLE, however it is clear that management has made a decision that saving money (despite having the largest profit in the NBA) is more important than keeping players that help you win.

 

[sunsfn]

That sucks but it doesn't make or break our offseason. If we sign Harpring and Hunter or Jackson then it will make up for it.

Harpring has 2 bad knees....repeat....2 bad knees, that is all the knees one person has is 2, and they are both bad! Multiple operations do that to you.

Hunter is old and broken down also, Jackson is not old just broken down.

Of the three of them Jackson probably has the best chance to come back from injuries, but he would not play late in the season last year because he had a owie on one of his fingers...........what does that say about him playing.

The suns needed to sign TT and now they better scramble and find a decent player after selling their draft picks.

They can still use the TE to bring in someone from a team wanting to get rid of someone for money reasons.

This really is not good!

P.S. I see that New Jersey waived Scott Padgett.

 

[cepstrum]

Arn Tellem screwing the Suns again.

The suns screwing themselves! To get outbid by the CLIPPERS is a joke.

 

[hsandhu]

great - we get Harpring who is brittle as peanut brittle and 6'7 and has never done jack squat in the playoffs... ugh. This is freaking disgusting.

The Clippers - if they get Cassel back are gonna be super-tough. Let's hope Amare's 100% healthy, otherwise, we are in big trouble.

So - Harping and Bobby Jackson - two guys who can't stay healthy if their lfie depends on it - sweet.

Relax for a second. Ultimately our chances for next season depend on how healthy amare is, whether tim thomas is back or not.

Second the clippers will now lose radmonivic. Talent wise they are no better. In fact reading the la times yesterday, the clippers were trying hard to get vlad, i'm assuming this means they weren't able to and tim was their backup plan.

Let's see what happens now in terms of moves. The guy we get in thomas's spot may not be quite as good as tim thomas, but whoever it is the difference in talent won't be enough to dramtically change what this team can do next year. We don't need all-stars, just guys to provide some solid depth.

 

[Covert Rain]

The suns screwing themselves! To get outbid by the CLIPPERS is a joke.

Not only outbid. They only offered HALF of what the clippers did.

They better RUN OUT and get Rad.