What to do next?

[AceP]

A heartbreaking loss. Saturday morning, a sunny warm spring morning, I should have been on soccer court. Watching Brooks's career high and the bounce of Nash's final 3, I realised it is officially over, the whole season. I'm going to get drunk tonight.

Now here comes the ultimate question: What to do next with this whole team? Blow it up, it is inevitable.

Payroll. We have about 75M on book for next season already, and these names are not on it: Hill, Barnes, Swift. How can we reload in summer?

Nash. In one hand, he is still an excellent offensive player, makes play for teammates and shoots very well. In another hand, how many young guards had a career high against him this season? He is under contract for 13M next season, while there is a team option. If our stupid FO don't have a good plan to trade to cut payroll, I wonder if they might cut Nash loss just to save money. My guess is we'll keep him while sending Amare and Shaq away.

Amare. There is plenty of time for his eyes to recover. If it is a career ending trouble? Never mind, NBA will grant us medical exception and free up the cap space. If not, he won't resign after next season. Trade him? The offer will be worse than those we had before deadline. We should have traded him when we could. Now review it, our FO was too damn stupid to pull the trigger.

Shaq. It won't be hard to trade his 20M expiring contract, in return we get longer but smaller contract, reducing payroll and tax. Pick the phone and call Cuban, he is also going to blow the Mavs up for a change. A buy-out at 14-15M is also very possible. A contender will gladly spend their full MLE on him, so Shaq doesn't lose a penny.

Hill. If he doesn't retire, he should go to a contender.

Barnes. He'll find a better team to play for.

 

[JS22]

A heartbreaking loss. Saturday morning, a sunny warm spring morning, I should have been on soccer court. Watching Brooks's career high and the bounce of Nash's final 3, I realised it is officially over, the whole season. I'm going to get drunk tonight.

Now here comes the ultimate question: What to do next with this whole team? Blow it up, it is inevitable.

Payroll. We have about 75M on book for next season already, and these names are not on it: Hill, Barnes, Swift. How can we reload in summer?

Nash. In one hand, he is still an excellent offensive player, makes play for teammates and shoots very well. In another hand, how many young guards had a career high against him this season? He is under contract for 13M next season, while there is a team option. If our stupid FO don't have a good plan to trade to cut payroll, I wonder if they might cut Nash loss just to save money. My guess is we'll keep him while sending Amare and Shaq away.

Amare. There is plenty of time for his eyes to recover. If it is a career ending trouble? Never mind, NBA will grant us medical exception and free up the cap space. If not, he won't resign after next season. Trade him? The offer will be worse than those we had before deadline. We should have traded him when we could. Now review it, our FO was too damn stupid to pull the trigger.

Shaq. It won't be hard to trade his 20M expiring contract, in return we get longer but smaller contract, reducing payroll and tax. Pick the phone and call Cuban, he is also going to blow the Mavs up for a change. A buy-out at 14-15M is also very possible. A contender will gladly spend their full MLE on him, so Shaq doesn't lose a penny.

Hill. If he doesn't retire, he should go to a contender.

Barnes. He'll find a better team to play for.

Calling the FO "stupid" for not trading Amare is, well, STUPID. I think people bitch just to bitch. The FO wanted to WIN, so they kept the team together. So you think wanting to win is stupid? Why are you even a fan?

 

[AceP]

Calling the FO "stupid" for not trading Amare is, well, STUPID. I think people bitch just to bitch. The FO wanted to WIN, so they kept the team together. So you think wanting to win is stupid? Why are you even a fan?

Only time will tell ...

I can't help to imagine, if we have Tyrus Thomas and Gooden now ...

For sure they didn't know Amare would be hit hard by eye injury, but for sure they over-estimated his trade value.

 

[Andrew]

win...

 

[binkar]

win...

See these are the kind of posts I am talking about. What was the logical value in this post?

 

[Andrew]

What is the logical value of your post?

 

[binkar]

A heartbreaking loss. Saturday morning, a sunny warm spring morning, I should have been on soccer court. Watching Brooks's career high and the bounce of Nash's final 3, I realised it is officially over, the whole season. I'm going to get drunk tonight.

Now here comes the ultimate question: What to do next with this whole team? Blow it up, it is inevitable.

Payroll. We have about 75M on book for next season already, and these names are not on it: Hill, Barnes, Swift. How can we reload in summer?

Nash. In one hand, he is still an excellent offensive player, makes play for teammates and shoots very well. In another hand, how many young guards had a career high against him this season? He is under contract for 13M next season, while there is a team option. If our stupid FO don't have a good plan to trade to cut payroll, I wonder if they might cut Nash loss just to save money. My guess is we'll keep him while sending Amare and Shaq away.

Amare. There is plenty of time for his eyes to recover. If it is a career ending trouble? Never mind, NBA will grant us medical exception and free up the cap space. If not, he won't resign after next season. Trade him? The offer will be worse than those we had before deadline. We should have traded him when we could. Now review it, our FO was too damn stupid to pull the trigger.

Shaq. It won't be hard to trade his 20M expiring contract, in return we get longer but smaller contract, reducing payroll and tax. Pick the phone and call Cuban, he is also going to blow the Mavs up for a change. A buy-out at 14-15M is also very possible. A contender will gladly spend their full MLE on him, so Shaq doesn't lose a penny.

Hill. If he doesn't retire, he should go to a contender.

Barnes. He'll find a better team to play for.

I was all for the trading of Amare near the deadline. Since then I have traded my stance. Talent Like Amare doesn't come around very often. Though he is without question a liability on defense, there aren't many skilled offensive big men in this league. If we can find a defensive player to pair with Amare in the post I think we will be better off keeping him.

It's time to thank Steve for all he has done for this organization and gracefully let him go. His defensive liabilities have proved to be to detrimental to this team.

Shaq has done well for us but let the Big Fella go to a contender and see if we can get anything on top of financial relief in return.

Hill is gone.

Barnes is most likely gone.

We have to reverse our trend and try to get some young talent in here. Easier said than done I know.

 

[SirStefan32]

I say blow it up. Nobody should be untouchable, including Nash, Amare and Shaq.

 

[binkar]

Steve Nash has a team option after this season. We should try our best to trade him for some young talent or draft picks because I would be willing to bet he leaves in 2010. Is there any chance the Suns don't pick up the $13 million option on Nash at the end of the year? I would guess we do pick up the final year but who knows.

 

[AceP]

Just my wishful thinking. If the veterans decided to put a final effort for one last season.

A. First we abandon the team option on Nash. Then we sign him to an extention.

Consider his age and the economy situation, after next season, the best new contract Nash could get is full MLE, which is 5-6M. 13 + 5 + 6 == 24. So he should gladly accept a 3 years 8M per new contract. By doing this, Nash gets 11M more money and retires in Phoenix, while the team sheds the payroll by 5M.

D. We do the same with Shaq, first terminate his 20M year contract, which is allowed when both sides agree (see Fisher and Utah case). Then we sign him for 3 years 10M per, or, 2 years 13M per. If Shaq gets a 2 year MLE from other team, it is 20 + 5 + 6 = 31. So he should gladly accept our new offer.

It worths to mention, Shaq did a similar thing in Miami, when he opted out his final year 30M contract to sign for multi year 20M per.

C. Find a way to deal Amare. After so much drama, it is inevitable. I'm not sure what trade value he got left. Let's hope he shows up in training camp fully recovered so we could get something useful in return. Can we hope for one quality player?

D. With the cap space created by Nash and Shaq, we can use all the exceptions to reload. The 2009 free agency market is very HOT! Because there are many good players while most of teams will stay out of it to wait for next year - summer of Lebron.

Who we sign heavily depends on what we get by dealing Amare. But the market is so good as we can find anything. Look at these names, AI, Rasheed Wallace, Marion, Boozer, Artest, Odom, Andre Miller, Jason Kidd, Bibby, Wilcox, Ariza, Anthony Parker, ... The economy is so bad that many ex-stars would be just looking for MLE. There will be one fall into our hands.

E. I'm not sure about the Bird right rule, can we resign Barnes without using exceptions? If so, we should definitely keep him by a 3-4M multi year deal.

 

[binkar]

A heartbreaking loss. Saturday morning, a sunny warm spring morning, I should have been on soccer court. Watching Brooks's career high and the bounce of Nash's final 3, I realised it is officially over, the whole season. I'm going to get drunk tonight.

Well I see that you are sufficiently drunk.

 

[Andrew]

I wish I could drink but I live in a dorm and I am too lazy to walk to a bar lol.

 

[Bufalay]

I wish I could drink but I live in a dorm and I am too lazy to walk to a bar lol.

lol. hilarious.

 

[pokerface]

Isn't the trade deadline over? Blow what up??

 

[lou_skywalker]

Isn't the trade deadline over? Blow what up??

blow up the team in the offseason u sleepwalker.

 

[Yuma]

The problem with blowing up the team is we have traded away all the draft picks that could have helped us! My perspective is we have never got a coach that could utilize the talent we have on this team. Even if we blow it up, we still have the same coaches! You get someone LIKE a Phil Jackson, or someone who KNOWS how to win in the NBA. It starts from the top, and preferably someone who has a ring that players will respect. We've always had good players and B level coaches. I think you give the season ticket holders a reason to shell out the bucks by bringing in a winner. Just my two cents.

I think our decline started by getting rid of the Colangelos, and then D'Antoni. The owner needs to admit he made a mistake and look to bring in some real basketball studs in management.

 

[Alan]

? Now review it, our FO was too damn stupid to pull the trigger.

It doesn't matter. Any deal would have been negated when the new team checked out his eye. They were actually smart not try to trade him if they knew he was hurt.

 

[Chaplin]

Only time will tell ...

I can't help to imagine, if we have Tyrus Thomas and Gooden now ...

For sure they didn't know Amare would be hit hard by eye injury, but for sure they over-estimated his trade value.

Please. What a bunch of bullcrap. You are just as quick to jump off the bandwagon as you are to get on it.

 

[Chaplin]

The problem with blowing up the team is we have traded away all the draft picks that could have helped us! My perspective is we have never got a coach that could utilize the talent we have on this team. Even if we blow it up, we still have the same coaches! You get someone LIKE a Phil Jackson, or someone who KNOWS how to win in the NBA. It starts from the top, and preferably someone who has a ring that players will respect. We've always had good players and B level coaches. I think you give the season ticket holders a reason to shell out the bucks by bringing in a winner. Just my two cents.

I think our decline started by getting rid of the Colangelos, and then D'Antoni. The owner needs to admit he made a mistake and look to bring in some real basketball studs in management.

Bryan's last few years weren't exactly stellar. I don't know why people keep proclaiming the Colangelo's gods. They may have been great guys, but that didn't get us any rings did it? They had mistakes, just like the current administration.

And once again, D'ANTONI WASN'T GOING TO WIN THE PHOENIX SUNS A CHAMPIONSHIP!!! Please come back to the real world and try to understand that! And please don't turn around and proclaim that Gentry and/or Porter weren't going to either. Well, duh. Nobody is saying what we got as a replacement helped, it certainly didn't, but D'Antoni wasn't going to win us a ring. Plain and simple.

 

[Ryanwb]

I would put that chances of Amare being on this team next season at about 8%

By all accounts, he has played his last game as a member of the Phoenix Suns

 

[shazaam6]

If you guys are correct then I'll hate the Suns next year. Amare is the best Suns player by far since Barkley, keep him.

 

[Mainstreet]

I really think the Suns need to be made-over in the offseason, however, I don't think they have many usable parts to get it done. The Suns could be entering the dark ages after this season probably for a number of years trying to rebuild. I just don't see any easy answers for the Suns. I enjoyed the four years DA was coach because I knew, despite his perceived weaknesses as a coach, things would get much worse after he left. It was nice winning 57 games a season and being in the playoffs. I think fans forgot what bad looks like. Unfortunately, I think fans will now get a good look at bad.

 

[Andrew]

Like I said, can we win one?

 

[Caliballfan]

the worst thing that can happen to a team is an early playoff exit, just ask the Wolves in the KG days and the Rockets. Its pretty clear this team won't make any noise in the playoffs. Best thing to do right now is get the youngins more experience, rest Shaq and the veterans and keep them healthy heading into the offseason, tank and get a good draft pick.

 

[slinslin]

TANK, but it wont help we are too far ahead of all the other lottery teams. Pray to god that 0.1% chance happens and we move into the top 3.

Then trade everyone for young blood, draftpicks.