Well Now What?........

[asudevil83]

right now the suns are in a bit of a pickle. not to be a downer, but they've got quite a few problems and no real solution.

1.) they've got pretty much no cap space, and a 7 man roster.

Amare
Thomas
Marion/JJax
JJ
Nash/Barbs

2.) they are going to be dishing out 2 BIG contracts, one this year and one next......and both dont do anything to expand the roster.

3.) they have no quality draft pick to make up for a cheap roster spot.

4.) they dont have ANY worthwhile expiring contract for at least 3 years.

5.) they dont have the most money happy owner in the league....and he could be considered one of the "poorer" ones in the leauge.

so the first question is what do they do about expanding this roster of theirs. i really dont think its a smart thing to walk into a season with 7 playable guys, because the injury bug is going to bite, and it would ruin our season.

we've got some options i guess....none of which are a guarrantee. we've got the MLE, LLE, and vet min contracts to work with....plus we could always trade another STARTER........

1.) Payton - he'd fill in some minutes at the PG/SG slot. LLE Maybe?
2.) Barbosa gone for someones first. this may be somewhat realistic, but the only team i see biting is Memphis or someone with a LATE first rounder. with barbs gone, if we were to get Payton he'd see at least 25minutes per night backing up both slots.
3.) Finley - he'd be a great backup....but would he be happy with the minutes?

these moves would round out our backcourt nicely.....but we'd be pretty freaking old team.....with only one guy under 30. that could be a nice recipe for disaster.

but, that doesnt give us anything up front....and we were the WORST front court (defensively) in the league. with hunter probably gone....what do we have? Amare/Thomas/Marion. that's hardly deep, and if one of them went down we'd be F'ed.

we've got the MLE to offer some one or two.....but they probably wont be much of anything, considering they are big men....and EVERYONE overpays for them. i'm really perplexed as to what the F we do here.

what do you guys purpose?

 

[hsandhu]

I have a sad feeling, they won't even use most/or all of the mle.
Hopefully, i'm wrong.

 

[asudevil83]

I have a sad feeling, they won't even use most/or all of the mle.
Hopefully, i'm wrong.

and we walk into the season with how many guys who deserve more than garbage time?......8?, with only three playing PF or C.

i'm starting to cry here folks. and i dont want to say it, but after this Marion could be gone.

 

[virtual9]

Marion leaving would be a very drastic move.

Maybe something more like Barbosa for two early second rounders.

See my post in the main draft thread.

 

[asudevil83]

Marion leaving would be a very drastic move.

Maybe something more like Barbosa for two early second rounders.

See my post in the main draft thread.

i guess....but are we seriously seeing ourselves as contenders with Rookies backing up the starters?

in order for this offseason to work out right, we really need to have EVERY longshot piece of the puzzle fit.

 

[virtual9]

It may be that the Suns have something worked out with Finley.

It may be that the Suns have something worked out with Armstrong.

Maybe even Jaskalivicious.

But I wonder what will happen tonight...especially with Turiaf off the board to the Lakers (sigh).

 

[Qmiles23]

i guess....but are we seriously seeing ourselves as contenders with Rookies backing up the starters?

in order for this offseason to work out right, we really need to have EVERY longshot piece of the puzzle fit.

hmmm...spurs nba champs. backup PG a guy named Beno Udrih. a rookie

 

[TucsonDevil]

It may be that we bought into the hype of the running machine...

Teams will be ready for us next year...

 

[cly2tw]

Saving cap space doesn't make much sense, unless we were to unload Marion for cap. Then we'd be some 17mil under cap for various FAs. If Finley comes at min, 17 mil can get us two experienced midprice bigs, say Gadzuric and James/Kwame or Swift and Mutombo plus Marshall and Payton.

 

[asudevil83]

Saving cap space doesn't make much sense, unless we were to unload Marion for cap. Then we'd be some 17mil under cap for various FAs. If Finley comes at min, 17 mil can get us two experienced midprice bigs, say Gadzuric and James/Kwame or Swift and Mutombo plus Marshall and Payton.

i dont see any way we can unload Marion for cap space....unless Atlanta is willing to eat his salary for a guy like Josh Smith or Childress.

Charlotte could take him on....but they have made it clear that they want to build a team with the draft, which is smart and exciting.

anything else would involve marion gone for 3 players or something.....i've got ideas, but i dont know if i'd be happy knowing that we traded two starters (one of which involved us getting our asses handed to us by of all people Isiah).

i dont want to see us take such a drastic move, but we set ourselves up for it.

 

[asudevil83]

but i do honestly want to here what you guys think happens next. who do we go after in free agency (besides Payton/Fins)?

 

[Cheesebeef]

but i do honestly want to here what you guys think happens next. who do we go after in free agency (besides Payton/Fins)?

screw Finley - this team needs to get either Donyell Marshall or in a huge stroke of luck, SAR.

If we whiff on FAs, I shudder to think what this team could be next year. I like Thomas beign on the club, but what if - WHAT IF - he's a square peg in a round hole?

 

[asudevil83]

screw Finley - this team needs to get either Donyell Marshall or in a huge stroke of luck, SAR.

If we whiff on FAs, I shudder to think what this team could be next year. I like Thomas beign on the club, but what if - WHAT IF - he's a square peg in a round hole?

but i thought this whole deal with trading Q was to save money. spending the entire MLE leaves us in a position where we need to sign lots of min contract guys to fill out the bench, and have no shot at really playing.

spending the MLE leaves us with what? 8 guys worth playing. signing Payton gives us 9....but there we go with the "this and this and this NEED to happen."

 

[HooverDam]

Jesus I hope the Suns know what they are doing tonight. The only thing I am hoping for and think the Suns must be doing is, perhaps some vet. FAs have basically told them they will for sure come to PHX. Right now we are less deep than we were last year, with a comparable, possibly not as good starting 5.

Yah its cool we got an athletic big for cheap, but Im sure he's a project. May never pan out. We got a SG who cant play D (just what we need). Im just bewildered. The Suns better have the contracts for Payton, Marshall and/or Finley already in the works. Otherwise, Im worried.

 

[mribnik]

I posted this in the Gortat thread as well....

"With the 21st pick in NBA Draft 2005, the Suns selected guard Nate Robinson from the University of Washington and with the 57th pick, Phoenix grabbed Marcin Gortat, a 6-11 forward/center from Poland. However, Suns Head Coach Mike D'Antoni warned season ticket holders on hand at AWA that the club has "a lot of things going on."

Hopefully they're up to something...

 

[devilalum]

I posted this in the Gortat thread as well....

"With the 21st pick in NBA Draft 2005, the Suns selected guard Nate Robinson from the University of Washington and with the 57th pick, Phoenix grabbed Marcin Gortat, a 6-11 forward/center from Poland. However, Suns Head Coach Mike D'Antoni warned season ticket holders on hand at AWA that the club has "a lot of things going on."

Hopefully they're up to something...

Hopefully its not another lousy money saving move.

I'm wondering how much is BC and how much is Sarver? The only way I regain my confidence in the front office is if they loosen the purse strings to sign some nice free agents.

If they re-sign jj, extend Amare and hold a big press conference claiming victory I'm going to be pissed.

 

[playstation]

hmmmm, maybe the big complex thing they were up to is trading the ****** for extra cash???

 

[arthurracoon]

hmmmm, maybe the big complex thing they were up to is trading the ****** for extra cash???

*sigh*

 

[overseascardfan]

I would hope with some of the money we supposedly saved, we could get SAR or Marshall and Gadzuric to back up Thomas and Amare. And Payton to give Nash a blow like he said on the Best Damn Sports Show. Using the MLE, LLE, & vet. min.. And bring in Morris and Walsh to fill in bench spots.

 

[JCSunsfan]

To continue the "now what" idea. Here's what I would love to see happen.


Resign JJ
Sign Finley
Sign SARUNAS JASIKEVICIUS
Sign Donyell Marshall

Keeping Hunter would be nice, if possible. I'm not sure how it could happen if we signed all these others. Maybe Hunter and Sarunas could share the mle, but then you don't get Marshall. Brian Grant instead of Marshall (for the minimum)?

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Barbosa gone for someones first. this may be somewhat realistic, but the only team i see biting is Memphis or someone with a LATE first rounder.

Actually this is very unrealistic at this point in time. Barbs for two second rounders is a stretch also.

 

[Chaplin]

To continue the "now what" idea. Here's what I would love to see happen.


Resign JJ
Sign Finley
Sign SARUNAS JASIKEVICIUS
Sign Donyell Marshall

Keeping Hunter would be nice, if possible. I'm not sure how it could happen if we signed all these others. Maybe Hunter and Sarunas could share the mle, but then you don't get Marshall. Brian Grant instead of Marshall (for the minimum)?

Let's assume for a moment that we do get Marshall--that would effectively end any chance to get Hunter.

So now we have Donyell Marshall being the only big man backing up Kurt Thomas and Amare Stoudemire. That's it. Maybe Jake Voskuhl, but word is that he is worthless no matter what. Personally, I think everyone is talking about signing Marshall, and then forgetting about the big positions. If Finley is signed for the minimum, there is still no reason to not find a bigger player for close to the minimum. Or at least the LLE if Hunter won't take it.

Now, if Hunter doesn't find anyone to give him more money than the LLE (unlikely), then having him would be great. Retaining McCarty might be a good idea, that pretty much makes our frontcourt:

Amare
KT
Shawn
Marshall
Hunter
McCarty

With the backcourt:
Nash
JJ
Finley
JJ2
Barbosa

That's a pretty solid group of players there. Unfortunately, like Joe and many others, I see the possibility of Steven Hunter here being pretty remote.

 

[JCSunsfan]

I still would like a pg. I guess JJ could fill that role, but he seems to do well at it for a while and then falter. He's really a 2, no matter how you cut it.

I'm not sure what Barbosa is worth in trade value now. I think he can develop, like Steve Nash did. But we would still need another pg.

If Payton would sign for the minimum, I suppose it would be OK, but I am not sure what he really has left in the tank.