SUNS 2014: Free Agency 2 (new)

[Mori Chu]

The Lakers have Jim "Fredo" Buss running their org, and an impatient fan base that wants results yesterday. Anything could happen. I'd be delighted to fleece them for a bunch of good assets in exchange for Bledsoe.

Fredo. Awesome, Mori. Carlo ran away to NYC, though.

I could totally see that scenario. Randle is not a favorite of mine but you have to take him and run.

They call him that on SpursTalk; not my creation. But it's perfect, it totally fits.

[Cap]

4/60+ is the most anyone but the Suns can pay!

Which teams are in a position to do that?

Any team that either has the cap space (only the 76rs, I guess) or can convince the Suns and Bledsoe to pull a sign and trade, due to assets and money, of course.

Only the 76’ers? Sounds like Bledsoe is in a very weak bargaining position. He can take the QO, take what the Suns are offering, or sit out. For all intents and purposes, the free agency period for max and near-max contracts is over, and Bledsoe missed out. The only leverage an RFA has is to get an offer from another team, and he's not going to get much better, if at all, than the Suns are offering.

[SDC]

All I've found is that they were "mulling" an offer. Now they've picked up Marshall.

bleds probably rejected it in the hopes of getting the max from somebody else.

[The Bobster]

Only the 76’ers? Sounds like Bledsoe is in a very weak bargaining position. He can take the QO, take what the Suns are offering, or sit out. For all intents and purposes, the free agency period for max and near-max contracts is over, and Bledsoe missed out. The only leverage an RFA has is to get an offer from another team, and he's not going to get much better, if at all, than the Suns are offering.

Basically Bledsoe can -

A - Accept the qualifying offer ($3.7 million) and become an unrestricted free agent next year. The qualifying offer expires October 1 (the Suns would have the option to extend it until March 1 if they choose) with the Suns still holding the right of first refusal.
B - Negotiate a new contract with the Suns.
C - Sign an offer sheet with another team up to March 1, with the Suns likely to match it.

If Bledsoe sits out the season the Suns would just extend another $3.7 million qualifying offer next year and have the right of first refusal and the whole process begins again.

[Wally_West]

Hasn't Randle already signed his rookie contract which means he can't be traded? Because if so this Randle stuff is a whole lot of nonsense then and I'm not sure why we still talking about it. If he hasn't then yes, you absolutely do that deal like right now.

[Split T]

He can't be traded for 30 days, so while we'd have to wait, the wait would be quick.

[Wally_West]

Okay, thanks for the clarification. I thought it was much longer than that.

[INFORMER]

So the rumor about TRoss is wrong, but what you read about us drafting Ennis to keep him is right?

Going back to this for a sec:

Let's say the Terrence Ross trade proposal was true. Does it really make sense for Toronto to move a former lotto pick and one of their only legitimate shooters (who had a 50-point game last season) for what would essentially amount to a backup point guard? Masai loves Lowry and had already stated bringing him back the franchise's priority. Why move Ross for Ennis? If you want to say as a contingency, then that ignores that also had Vasquez, not to mention that in general, that's one steep price for a contingency.

If that rumor is true, that hardly bode well for Ryan. It means he outsmarted himself and isn't as savvy as Planet Orange is convinced.

[TOO]

TO turned the deal down, not us, from what I had heard/read.

[Mori Chu]

No GM is perfect. Every single one has a lot of "misses". If you're lucky, your GM has some "hits" and hopefully the hits balance out the misses and end you up with a good roster. But literally no franchise is doing this perfectly.

Rockets have a savvy Morey as their GM, and he fleeced OKC for Harden and had clever deals for Asik, Lin, and later Howard. But he screwed up this current summer, lost Parsons for no good reason, and whiffed on all the big free agents.

Spurs have a great FO and mostly make sound decisions. But they don't always draft well; they have had some huge FA debacles like Rasho Nesterovic, Richard Jefferson, Stephen Jackson, and others.

OKC and Presti are one of the best. But they let Harden go, they're saddled with Perkins, they didn't do much this offseason, they had to depend on Derek Fisher last postseason which was inexcusable, they expect to get contributions from Thabeet, they haven't groomed Jeremy Lamb much at all, they let Kevin Martin leave for nothing after the initial Harden fleecing, on and on.

Mavs have Cuban and Nelson Jr. doing mostly good things. But they broke up their 2011 title team for really no reason; they have had poor Dirk running on fumes with decrepit Vince Carter and Marion and Monta as his running mates; and this offseason they banked on Tyson Chandler's corpse and a maxed-out Chandler Parsons. And now they have no real point guard worth mentioning.

A lot of the FOs who do sexy and daring things with draft picks, deals, cap space, etc. are able to have the luxury of doing so partly because their teams stink and have zero expectations. And generally these teams keep stinking year by year. Philly, Orlando, the Bucks, etc. have a lot of youth, but they stink and I wouldn't trade rosters/coaching staffs/FOs with any of them.

Yeah, McDonough isn't perfect. Show me some better GMs. Show me a GM with a clearly better "hit" rate so far. Show me any move McD has made that was a clearly big miss that has hurt our franchise.

In the end we kind of see what you want to see. If you like a player or coach or GM, you watch him work, you see more of what you already thought. Confirmation bias. It's human nature.

[LazarusLong]

What I like about the Spurs is they usually acknowledge their mistakes and move on.

And it's not all the GM's fault; major moves most of the time happens with the coaches advice/agreement/input. Brooks stubbornly maintains Perkins is his guy, even though the big lug is an iron yoke on the offense ...

[INFORMER]

TO turned the deal down, not us, from what I had heard/read.

I didn't imply that the Suns turned it down.

[INFORMER]

Yeah, McDonough isn't perfect. Show me some better GMs. Show me a GM with a clearly better "hit" rate so far. Show me any move McD has made that was a clearly big miss that has hurt our franchise.

I'm not expecting perfection. I'm also not calling him to be fired, so it doesn't really seem relevant to me to get into comparisons with other GMs. I just want him to get things right here. And in general, the "no one's perfect" cliche seems like a weak cop-out for excusing poor decision-making.

In the end we kind of see what you want to see. If you like a player or coach or GM, you watch him work, you see more of what you already thought. Confirmation bias. It's human nature.

I'm not really sure how that applies here. It's not like I'm saying McDonough hasn't done anything right. I applauded the Bledsoe trade and Indy trade. I've raved about signing Isaiah Thomas. But just because he's done some good things doesn't mean I'm going to look the other way when I have issues with other moves or decisions he has made.

[LazarusLong]

I think we will get a better reading of him during the coming season. The backcourt is OK, but I'm not sure the team is solid up front, especially if Len keeps hurting himself. I don't see this team standing pat through April and replicating last year's mild success. The Suns aren't sneaking up on anybody this year ...

[Ring_Wanted]

What I like about the Spurs is they usually acknowledge their mistakes and move on.

Absolutely. I can remeber only two bad contracts signed by the Spurs, Nesterovic and Jefferson (don't consider Splitter's bad anymore) and they managed to get rid of them rather easily. They sent Nesterovic to Toronto for crap (one of the guys they got was Bonner) and no picks surrendered. Jefferson and his stupid 48M extension was turned into an expiring Stephen Jackson, no 1stR pawned either.

I vividly remember raving about that Nesterovic trade in particular. Poor Bryan Colangelo totally got played.

[Ring_Wanted]

don't see this team standing pat through April and replicating last year's mild success.

Agreed. Even with Bledsoe, IT3 and Warren would have to blow it up to outweight the PF/C deficiences, compounded by Frye's absence.

I hope McD is not done tweaking the roster this summer.

[ShelC]

http://www.basketballinsiders.com/earl- ... al-summer/

I'd take a flyer on him and put him at the 4. He can post, shoot the 3, rebound, another ballhandler on the break. He'd give us some needed size, length and athleticism in the frontcourt.

[BigLewy]

I'd almost rather take a flyer on Charlie Villanueva as an extra big off the bench. He could probably be had for dirt cheap.

[Dan H]

Overall I'm generally satisfied with the team as it stands, although I can't help but think we'd be better off with Markieff coming off the bench with Thomas instead of starting at the 4. Don't know what's out there, and it doesn't look like we're in the Love sweepstakes, unfortunately.

[Superbone]

Glad you made it, Dan!

I agree that PF is where we're weakest. I'm also not sure how are going to improve it. I could see a trade down the line. I just don't know for who.