Especially when there is evidence to the contrary.
Kerr is still kinda new with his job so I'll just stay neutral on him for now. He hasnt left his mark yet to be called out so harshly.
Calling Sarver cheap is inexcusable and slanderous. For every reason haters down on Sarver I could give two reasons as to why he is NOT cheap. The Suns have been top 10 in payroll under his tenure and he's inked more in contracts than any other team in the NBA over the past few years.
I think you would probably make your case a lot stronger if you left out words like "haters" and "inexcusable and slanderous". Here's the problem with Robert Sarver. He's made a lot of really bad basketball moves that were completely based on money. I know it's a business. But owning a professional sports team these days should not be like running a normal company at least not when it comes to the basketball decisions. I have no problem with trading draft picks for future pics because you don't like anybody who's left on the board. Trading the pics for cash alone does not help the basketball team, no matter how you spin it.
Believe me, I understand the other side of this. In the past I've defended some of these cost-cutting/saving moves. The Kurt Thomas deal was the final straw. I could have accepted it (still would not have been happy about the draft picks) if they were sure they were going to get PJ Brown. Obviously that wasn't the case.
Varajao was taken at around 30 I believe. I think thats the area to take guys of this ilk. 20 or later take 'safe' guys with low ceilings, that would be my philosophy.
Personally, I think the Suns window is slammed shut. I also think that they currently have very little future. They have Amare at the 4 and LB at the 2 and thats about it. Its frustrating to know that they could've had Rondo at the 1 and all the other guys they could've had as well, but that ship has sailed. I think the Suns need to start laying a plan and building up quality young talent for when Nash, Bell, O'Neal and Hill all retire within a short span of each other. If you feel comfortable with Robin Lopez as your starting center of the future, fine, then it was a good pick. I personally would've preferred them to take someone who at least has a chance to be a starter on a WCF caliber team.
Varajao would never have lasted to #30 if he was an American player. The only reason he lasted that long is because there were questions about what it would take to get him to the NBA. That's why he was the first pick of the second round. Furthermore, that was a draft with a good group of high schoolers.
If you believe the Phoenix Suns window is slammed shut I can understand why you are upset. They do make it a little hard to defend them when they let it out that they had Lopez rated higher than Brandon Rush. I know there is a premium on seven footers, but I think Rush is going to be a very good player in the NBA, and he's relatively low risk.
I don't believe the window is closed for the Phoenix Suns. I think it's closing. Their best chances were two years ago when Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw couldn't stay on the bench and last season when they blew it by trading Kurt Thomas. They've got some work yet to do this off-season, but I do believe the window is still partially open.
Really? He won't be defending those guys? Then why in the world did the Suns pick him? Are you implying that Amare "no defense whatsover" Stoudemire will be covering the opposing star 4? A lot of teams with star PF's have their center cover the other teams star PF. Duncan usually doesn't cover Amare for instance, thats left to guys like Oberto. Dirk doesn't cover Amare and Amare doesn't cover Dirk.
Ideally you have a guy like Kurt Thomas or Brian Skinner to cover the other teams star big man. Thats absolutely what Robin Lopez was brought in here for. But if its in the Suns plans to draft a guy at 15 so he can lock down Eric Dampier, Fabricio Oberto and Kendrick Perkins then they're even more out of their minds than I thought.
You are right in that Lopez will be asked to defend the opposing team's power forward often. What you said was that Lopez wouldn't be able to guard guys like Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Garnett, or Gasol because he was beaten with ease by Pendergraph. Well, unless you are talking about games other than the two ASU-Stanford matchup's last season that only happened two times, and one of those was a 15 foot fadeaway baseline jumper.
The other problem I have with your argument is that the kid is 20 years old and going to be a rookie. I expect him to get beaten by the best power forwards in the game. I do think he'll be better against these guys than Amare Stoudemire. I also think he will defend the pick and roll better than either Amare or Shaq. I expect him to be a good team defender and an active rebounder. I think if he becomes a 7 foot Varejao I'll be very happy with the pick, and I think there's a lot better chance of that than Greene becoming the next Rashard Lewis.
I'm really not trying to say that I love this pick. I'm not even sure I really like it. I think it was a safe pick. I'm only arguing that it wasn't a waste or a disaster like some of you seem to think. I think the window is still open for a championship, so I'm not upset with passing on high-risk/high reward players. There are definitely some other guys who would have excited me more than Lopez, and like I said earlier I would have been upset if they passed on Brandon Rush to take Lopez.
Joe