azdad1978

By Mike Tulumello, Tribune

he impact of the ownership transition is starting to be felt in Suns-land.
Decisions that would guarantee extending the Suns careers of Joe Johnson and Casey Jacobsen must be wrapped up by Sunday.

But the Suns almost certainly will pass on the opportunity.

"It's unlikely" the Suns will negotiate a long-term contract extension for Johnson or pick up the fourth-year option on Jacobsen, Suns president Bryan Colangelo confirmed Wednesday.

Both likely will become restricted free agents, meaning the Suns can match any offer for them next summer.

Said Colangelo, "Decisions to not sign them now do not preclude us from signing them in the future."

These apparent decisions mean they could lose Johnson, in particular, if another team with salary-cap space makes a monstrous offer, such as the $68 million deal given to Carlos Boozer, who jumped from Cleveland to Utah this past summer.

The Suns, as previously announced, picked up the fourth-year option on star forward Amare Stoudemire Wednesday, meaning he'll be under contract through the 2005-06 season. They'll hope to negotiate a long-term deal with him next year.

But they did not do the same on Jacobsen, who — along with Stoudemire— was drafted in Round 1 of the 2002 NBA draft. Both are paid relatively modestly under terms of the NBA's rookie scale for the first four years.

The fourth-year option for Jacobsen for the ’05-06 season would have cost the Suns about $1.8 million. The guard from Stanford had a disappointing rookie season, then bounced back to have a solid second year.

Jacobsen, after an exhibition game Tuesday night, said he understood that incoming owner Robert Sarver wanted to maintain budget flexibility and that, "If it hasn't happened by now, I'm assuming it's not going to happen." He was correct, as it turned out. "It's not a reflection of what we think of Casey as a person and as a player," Colangelo said. "It's a function of maintaining flexibility."

Johnson's situation is more complicated than Jacobsen's. The Suns could have given him a big contract that extends over six seasons, starting in '05-06. Instead, he now likely will await offers next summer. With the Suns adding firepower for this season, Johnson's statistics could decrease, perhaps cutting the price Johnson could command.

The Suns also face a dilemma in that they might not be able to afford, in the long run, all five of their big-name players: Stoudemire, Steve Nash, Shawn Marion, Johnson and Quentin Richardson. Even so, the Jacobsen and Johnson situations make for the types of deals that would have been done nearly automatically under the stewardship of Jerry Colangelo, who has run the team in one form or another since the franchise's birth in 1968.

But people in the Suns organization believe Sarver is moving cautiously as he learns the business of basketball.

The club is run by a six-member committee that includes Colangelo and two of his people plus Sarver and two of his own people.

Colangelo can break any ties, so — in theory — he's still in charge for nearly three years, until Sarver completes his purchase of the club.

But with Sarver and his partners paying an NBA record $400 million for the franchise, Colangelo has said Sarver has earned the right to "put his stamp" on the Suns. Colangelo has said he wants to run the franchise in a collaborative fashion for the next three seasons, avoiding tie votes if possible. Steve Kerr, who is Sarver's lead basketball adviser, said — without knowing all the details of Sarver's thinking on Johnson and Jacobsen — "It's all tied into the budget. "He's very concerned about having a budget and sticking to it."

Bryan Colangelo said Sarver has agreed to the commitment of nearly $100 million in the new contracts going to Nash and Richardson and that, "It's probably a prudent and correct approach to see where this team is going before any other commitments are made."

BONUS SHOTS: The Suns now are at the league limit of 15 players; three must be put on the injured list next week. All 15 are healthy and available for tonight's preseason visit to the Los Angeles Clippers. Coach Mike D'Antoni said he wasn't sure whether any more players will be cut. . . . The Sports Business Journal has put Jerry Colangelo No. 7 on its list of most influential people in basketball.


http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=30563

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elindholm

I really like the decision not to extend Johnson now. Let's see if he can still perform once there's a bit of pressure on him, for a change.

If he looks great, someone offers him the max, and the Suns lose him, I can live with that.

Joe Mama

If he looks great this season I would prefer that they trade him. Of course that's assuming that some team is willing to give up substantial value to get him. I do agree that not extending him was the right move. Actually disagree with something set in the article. That is that if Colangelos still the owner a would have almost certainly re-signed Johnson. I don't think that is true in this case. If JJ and his agent had been quite reasonable they might have extended him. I don't think a half a season of good, consistent play deserved a giant contract, and I'll bet Colangelos felt the same way.

Joe Mama

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"A good way to threaten somebody is to light a stick of dynamite. Then you call the guy and hold the burning fuse up to the phone. 'Hear that?' you say. 'That's dynamite, baby.'" - Jack Handy

sunsfn

I believe that JJ is going to be a star in this league and is just starting to show what he will eventually be. He can do it all, defense, offense, rebounds, & assists.

The signing of Richardson was and is still something that I did not agree with. They needed a center a lot more than they needed another swing man. Richardson has always been very streaky and so far has shown that in exhibitions.

I hope Richardson proves me wrong, but if we lose JJ next year because we signed Richardson to a contract instead of getting a starting center someplace, I will be very unhappy with the suns.

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I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. -Will Rogers

jbeecham

There really weren't any starting caliber centers in free agency that would have meshed well with the Suns Run & Gun Offense that were worth the money that we're paying Q. I really don't think we're going to have too many problems at center this season as long as Voshkul, Hunter and Lampe can grab some rebounds and play some decent defense.

The best FA center was probably Dampier and he only has had one really good season and that was in a contract year. Also, the majority of the news on him is that he's lazy and has attitude issues. Oh, and he wanted $10 million a year.

Chaz

It appears JJ (or his agent) wanted too much money at this point.

I really hope they can keep JJ here but to sign him this early they would have to have a good deal for the team. I will be interested to see how JJ plays with the competition from Q.

SweetD

This could back fire though. Many teams have see JJ play very well and someone like Atlanta could use JJ and be willing to pay him well. I hope he doesn't do what Q did and ask the Suns not match the offer.

George O'Brien

In another thread we went through this - there aren't that many teams with an enormous amount of cap space not committed to re-signing their own guys. Yes, Atlanta will have cap space, but look at their roster. Atlanta has some promising swing guys - they WILL go big.

The most expensive swing guy this past season was Emanuel Ginobili - 6 years for $52 million. I prefer JJ, but Ginobili is high profile "star". Relatively speaking, the demand for swing guys simply did not match that of bigs and point guards the past couple of years.

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azirishmusic

joshstmarie

im going to be pissed if we let jj go. weve been through thick and thin with this guy and now finally its smooth sailing. id rather trade Q than get rid of jj.

cly2tw

First of all, it's always good to have as many as possible talented players at the RIGHT price under contract. You have the OPTION to trade any of them, later. Q, as commonly believed, is underpaid, meaning you can always find a good trade for him later. Marion and Nash, though of great values to the suns team, are considered overpaid by the majority in this league, thus much harder to trade away later.

Second, JJ will be a restricted FA and we can always match the offer if it wasn't overpaying him. As George pointed out, the best paid swingman was getting 6 years 52 mil. much lower than the 60mil JJ's agent was supposedly seeking. By not extending him, the Suns wisely chose the minimum risk rout. Giving JJ 10 mil more after next reason if he proved that he earned it is not something the Suns should try everything to avoid NOW.

Let JJ feel some pressure to earn the contract!

coloradosun

Like I said JJ's agent is doing his job. If you ask for it, you never know you might get it. But the Suns are doing what I think is the right thing, let the market place determine his value. I think we all agree that Marion's contract is above the market value for his abilities, his extension was not determined by market forces.

There is no sense in setting us up again in a position that we have a contract on our hands, like Penny's, that we limit ourselves down the road if we do have to trade him.

George O'Brien

Marion at $79 million is beginning to look like a bargain.

Last season it looked like Marion was terribly overpaid because there were some real bargains in the free agency market such as Brad Miller. This year Jefferson gets $76 million, Gasol $86, K-Mart gets $92.5 million, etc. Perhaps last year was the fluke rather than this year.

It is certainly possible that the new contract will change the economics. On possibility is that there will be a trade-off on length of contracts in exchange for a substantially higher cap and dramatically higher luxury tax threshold.

We'll see if the teams that are locking themselves into these contracts are making sound decisions or not.

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azirishmusic

Bada0Bing

2 questions:

Can't the Suns just match any offer to JJ even if they're over the cap?

Is 6 yrs $68MM that monstrous for JJ?

Draftnik00

He could get the 6 years - 84 million contract, Andrei Kirilenko got though and I doubt Suns would pay that... I'd be really upset, if Suns don't keep JJ.

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Bada0Bing

But not matching would be the Suns' choice. The article made it sound like it could be out the the Suns' control (at least that was my interpretation). They might as well just match whatever offer he gets regardless of size. They will be over the cap anyway and most likely the luxury tax threshold will be higher in the next CBA. Nash/Q/JJ/Barb is a nice guard crew.