SUNS 2014: Free Agency

[virtual9mm]

Sounds like LAL is also flying in to make a pitch.

Just a (heretical) thought if the Suns strike out on LeBron. I'm a huge fan of Dragic and believe that he DESERVES to stick around in Phoenix. That being said, if I were an instrumentalist motherfucka, I wonder if the Suns could do something like:

(1) trade Dragic + other assets for Paul George

(2) take Jeremy Lin off of Houston's hands as a salary dump, make them pay with draft picks or other assets to make up for his balloon payment next year.

The reasoning for this is that Dragic and Lin play very similar styles, although Dragic has clearly taken another step up while Lin has been overshadowed by Harden, who needs the ball in his hands. I think that Lin would do quite well in the Suns system and that he'd mesh with Bledsoe pretty well. This way, the Suns pick up George while maintaining a 2-pg system.

But I would never be in favor of this, because I'm about as big a Dragon homer as they come.

Happy 4th!

[Ring_Wanted]

Current team. Former team. Best future team. Sounds good, right?

I can't see him going back to Cleveland, and Riley would have to do a really poor job at building a competitive roster to make him go elsewhere. The key is how much Bosh abd Wade are willing to leave on the table, as well and LeBron himself because if he is adamant on getting the max he is just hurting his own chances in Miami, but maybe he just doesn't care.

The result of this offseason should have been a Miami Heat team constructed in a more classical way, with LeBron at the max, the other two former superstars making less than 10M per and the rest (~20M) invested in the best role players available. This looked relatively easy to achieve before the FA period started, but at the figures everybody is getting, Riley's job has gotten extremely complicated, and the truth is that LeBron is not doing him any favors either. And the guy just exudes douchebaggery.

[Ring_Wanted]

(1) trade Dragic + other assets for Paul George

I think we have a better chance at landing LeBron in free agency than convincing Larry Bird to send us George. If I was Indiana I wouldn't move George for Goran even if every other asset from the Suns was on the table.

[Aztec Sunsfan]

Current team. Former team. Best future team. Sounds good, right?

I can't see him going back to Cleveland, and Riley would have to do a really poor job at building a competitive roster to make him go elsewhere. The key is how much Bosh abd Wade are willing to leave on the table, as well and LeBron himself because if he is adamant on getting the max he is just hurting his own chances in Miami, but maybe he just doesn't care.

The result of this offseason should have been a Miami Heat team constructed in a more classical way, with LeBron at the max, the other two former superstars making less than 10M per and the rest (~20M) invested in the best role players available. This looked relatively easy to achieve before the FA period started, but at the figures everybody is getting, Riley's job has gotten extremely complicated, and the truth is that LeBron is not doing him any favors either. And the guy just exudes douchebaggery.

As much as I dislike Lebron, I have to say, that on this situation the douches are Riley and Wade. The first one wants to everybody take a discount to play for a team that is no longer the clear cut favorite to winning it all. If they were just ending the Parade for the 3 peat, I would get it, but not after getting their asses handed to them so terribly during 3 straight games on a Finals series decided by 15 points in average, or so. I bet that Lebron's frustration reached Cleveland-days levels during several days of the season, and definetively all Finals long. He delivered, his teammates don't.

And Wade, oh boy, Wade is showing his true colors, and probably he is the main culprit behind this impasse on Miami, by refusing to take a pay cut, not from his now albatrossing contract, but from his real value, wich is not even a mini max. I just don't see a team throwing more than Pau Gasol money at him, so a true paycut would demand Wade to go under 10mill per. Of course he said no way, Lebron gets hurt by his lack of team spirit and next thing you know, he unilaterally opts out, and by doing so, discovered for the first time, what REAL free agency is about.

So, the longer it takes for Wade to cave in, the higher the chance that Lebron goes by that Once distant Plan C or maybe D "Leaving Miami by my own".

[Ring_Wanted]

The douche comment was more about this no audience/only the three finalists get to talk to me.

In terms of the Heat situation, yeah, Wade has a lot of blame to take if LeBron leaves because they couldn't give him a real roster due to lack of money. I agree he should be taking less than 10M per, as in, that's his value right now, and that's being generous considering how many games he misses and the way he played in the finals. Bosh should be seen the same way as he didn't exactly distinguish himself either and is hardly worth more than those 10M. Maybe Spo should get his share of blame here too but if the player is adamant that CB4 (who was not exactly a banger anyway) is gone, there is not a lot you can do. Maybe he should be better off in Houston, indeed.

As for Riley, well, if the superfriends don't make enough sacrifices there is simply no way to build a contender at their current level so I can't hold this 'demand' against him.

[ShelC]

Miami's trying to get Marvin Williams and Anthony Morrow to commit. Those two would help, and you can probably get them for cheap(er) but what they need are bigs. I would've called Chris Kaman and given him that two year deal he got from Portland. Jordan Hill should be on their list too.

With regards to a previous post, I wouldn't take Lin. He's smaller and less athletic than Dragic so putting him in the backcourt with Bledsoe wouldn't give as much of an advantage.

[Shabazz]

Pretty incredible that Wade is a douche if he doesn't give up $20M in guaranteed earnings.

[carey]

Pretty incredible that Wade is a douche if he doesn't give up $20M in guaranteed earnings.

Modern pro-sports is wacky, dude.

[Aztec Sunsfan]

Pretty incredible that Wade is a douche if he doesn't give up $20M in guaranteed earnings.

It's all about the context. I'm pretty sure that something grow sour during the season, rifting apart the Nice 3, we already saw Bosh admit it was no longer fun to play in Miami. Also, while he expressed several times his intentions to stay at a lower rate, Wade went all out into how he was still elite, and fully worthy of his current salary. And nonetheless that during the playoffs.

Lebron grow weary with the Wade-care plan, since he had to carry the team during the season, but hey, Dwayne can't take a pay cut to improve next seasons' odds, not to even mention a bigger one that Bosh and James. Four years ago, he orchestrated the move to Miami, but now he is pushing his own interest above the rest, derailing what should have been a summer recruiting the "Big Four" missing piece, and instead they are in the same line that the rest of the league begging LBJ to play for them.

[Mori Chu]

As much as people have pointed to Wade's decline as a reason the Heat didn't win the title (and it was a reason for it), I look at some of the other guys, too. It was really noticeable how ineffective Birdman was, how Battier had one foot in the grave, how mediocre Ray Allen was, how much they oddly missed Mike Miller, how Chalmers didn't show up for the playoffs, and how Haslem couldn't be counted on. Almost their entire supporting cast was noticeably weaker. Doesn't bode well for them even if the Big Three do all come back and have bounce-back seasons.

[ShelC]

Their team sucked last year, and (luckily) winning it last year merely masked how weak the supporting cast was.

[Superbone]

Pretty incredible that Wade is a douche if he doesn't give up $20M in guaranteed earnings.

Pretty incredible to me that he gave up a guaranteed $20M.

[Superbone]

http://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/n ... /12206003/

Nice video with EJ and Bob Young discussing the LeBron James situation at the end of this article. At the end of the video, the guys discuss Archie Goodwin and how Young sees him at the Suns' gym every single time he's there and how he's EJ's favorite player on the Suns.

[ShelC]

I honestly think we're solid at positions 1-3 (assuming we re-sign Bledsoe). It'd basically the 4spot I'm most worried about, and the 5 spot if Len doesn't pan out. So all this talk of Hayward, Deng, Ariza is nonsense to me. Unless you're talking LeBron, I say there's no need to spend on a SF. I personally love Chandler Parsons, but he'd be a luxury not a necessity and wouldn't make so much of a difference for us that he'd be worth 10mil.

[Shabazz]

I honestly think we're solid at positions 1-3 (assuming we re-sign Bledsoe). It'd basically the 4spot I'm most worried about, and the 5 spot if Len doesn't pan out. So all this talk of Hayward, Deng, Ariza is nonsense to me. Unless you're talking LeBron, I say there's no need to spend on a SF. I personally love Chandler Parsons, but he'd be a luxury not a necessity and wouldn't make so much of a difference for us that he'd be worth 10mil.

Agreed.

[Ring_Wanted]

I totally hear you ShelC, but I am extremely intringued about a 1-2-3 combo with all three guys capable of shooting, moving the ball and also skilled to try one on one stuff, while none is absolutely horrible at D.Aas much fire as I give Dragic for his defense this year, at the very least ( and it's better than that) he tries hard, which by itself puts him way above the Past Amares/Current Hardens of the League.

And the 4 is fine(er) in my opinion. I am happy riding Kieff and Miles and giving Len his opportinity (one reason why I wanted an extra prospect at C/PF to stash in Europe). More room for him and hopefully TJ (who I'd like to see at PF, at least early on).

Kevin Love, of course. Bosh? No thanks, unless it came with the King. Melo? I wish, secretly, however naively.

I want a real two way C/PF or best complete player available.

Two way at the very least, please. Been there, done that.

I think a strong candidate to the next best complete player attainable is Hayward. Parson has a case from my standpoint, too. Monroe doesn't convince me as much.

And who knows, If we get a SF now maybe we could have provided ourselves with good ammo for an eventual s+t scenario that doesn't weaken us at all. Parsons sounds really good to me too. We could also screw Morey along the way, which at the rate he wants to move, could be a huge hit in the West.

A matter of specification, anyway. If neither category is really acquirable, I'd rather just stay put, trying to create valuable contracts for the league from my own FAs, and developing all the youth I can.

[ShelC]

I'm firmly of the belief that you don't need a top notch SF as your top player to be a contender. And I don't regard LeBron or Durant as SFs, per se. Those are transcendent talents. I think you need a SF to mostly shoot the 3 and defend. If they can handle and distribute, fine. But this is a guard's league now and you've always needed a dominant big at either the 4 or 5 who can score down low, rebound and block shots. That's where you put your money. And maybe, just maybe, we can go small at times with Goodwin at the 3 and utilize his ability to handle the ball down the road.

[Aztec Sunsfan]

Pretty incredible that Wade is a douche if he doesn't give up $20M in guaranteed earnings.

Pretty incredible to me that he gave up a guaranteed $20M.

Lebron twisted his arm strong enough.

[carey]

https://twitter.com/SpearsNBAYahoo/status/485227778233491457

[ShelC]

LeBron?