Suns News: September

[carey]

https://twitter.com/Suns/status/506820150562000896

Happy birthday to the artist formerly known as TheWhiff and his brother.

The off season thread is huge so thought we'd start fresh for the final month before TC opens the first week of October.

[INFORMER]

Suns.com is running a blog covering Goran Dragic and Bogdan Bogdonovic in the FIBA tournament. Here are the latest updates:

Through three games in the FIBA World Cup, the Suns guard is averaging 20.3 points on a ridiculous 70.6 percent shooting clip, including 54.5 percent from three.

Slovenia needed every bit of that production after Korea came out thinking upset in the first half. Slovenia found itself constantly frustrated by their opponents' ball movement, which resulted in far more half-court sets than Dragic and his teammates prefer.

22 points for Dragic today.

As the FIBA World Cup warms up, so does Bogdanovic.

After scoring three and 12 points in his first two games, respectively, the Suns' first-round pick took a step further with a personal tournament high of 16 points on a much more efficient 7-of-11 shooting performance on Monday. The effort helped Serbia put away former Suns player Hamed Haddadi and Iran, 83-70.

Bogdanovic made sure to stay involved in nearly every aspect of the game, of which he played all by five minutes. The 22-year-old swingman added two steals, two assists, two rebounds and a block as his home country remained tied with France and Brazil for second place in Group A.

http://www.nba.com/suns/blog/fiba-world ... nning-blog

[TOO]

Go Dragic go.

[Wally_West]

I find it funny how much I don't care about this whole Eric Bledsoe situation now. I remember the days of me waking up thinking some major Eric Bledsoe news was going to happen any moment. I don't even give a shit what happens now, whether he stays or if he goes. This whole thing hasn't even been on my mind until just now when I thought about it in boredom.

[Superbone]

Thanks for the Dragic/Bogdanovic update, INF.

[Ring_Wanted]

NotTraxxe has posted on realgm that the Bledsoe situation will be solved in favor of keeping the player.

Apparently the Suns will up the offer close to the deadline. 13.5M per, 5 years with a team option.

The plan supposedly is to frontload the contract so in practice Bledsoe doesn't have anything to gain by taking the QO.

[SDC]

the 3 pt guard system works.

[carey]

The new B.S. Report with Zach Lowe about the World Cup has some stuff about Bledsoe. It starts a little after the 14 minute mark: http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=11457515

-Simmons - blames Paul. Bled not a max player because hasn't showed it as a starting PG for a full season.
-Lowe - reminds him of Eric Gordon. Do agents prepare these players for the realities of restricted free agency?
-Lowe - teams want to look smart and get an under market deal for a good player but wind up treating them like pieces of meat (I strongly disagree with this.)
-Lowe - the 4/$48M is a fair price. Taking the QO is never the best move especially when you have an injury history.
-Lowe - the only real move is to bite the bullet and take the Suns offer.
-Lowe - Bledsoe was the best of all the RFAs - even more than Haywood & Parsons but supply and demand... teams are set at PG.
-Simmons - thinks Bledsoe gets traded. He just wants to get paid, but can't find a team for him. Who needs a starting PG? Atlanta?
-Lowe - No clue. Doesn't know that Phoenix is a Rondo team....unless you want to max out Dragic in a year's time both Bledsoe and Dragic could be gone. (Don't see that happening.)
-Simmons - time to cash in some of our assets. Turning Bledsoe into a bunch of other pieces may not be a good movie.
-Simmons - Bledsoe for Monroe could be good.
-Lowe - Not inconceivable and neither is Rondo for Monroe.

[Cap]

NotTraxxe has posted on realgm that the Bledsoe situation will be solved in favor of keeping the player.

Apparently the Suns will up the offer close to the deadline. 13.5M per, 5 years with a team option.

The plan supposedly is to frontload the contract so in practice Bledsoe doesn't have anything to gain by taking the QO.

Bledsoe already doesn't have anything to gain by taking the QO.

Bright Side of the Sun:



Assuming the 12-12-12-12 contains a PO on the 4th year and max in 2017 starts at 17.5 or better, he makes more money that way than he can with the QO.

-Lowe - the only real move is to bite the bullet and take the Suns offer.

I like how signing a contract to earn $12M per year playing a game requires "biting the bullet."

[TOO]

On Dragic, can we sign him whenever? I hope we can lock him up before FA.

[carey]

No. He has to terminate then re-sign.

[TOO]

Well balls, would hate to lose him to a bigger market.

[Cap]

No. He has to terminate then re-sign.

Technically, he doesn't have to opt out. If he doesn't opt out, he'll become eligible to negotiate an extension next summer. But why would he opt to delay his raise a year, given that he's obviously getting one? One way or the other, next summer is the soonest he can sign anything.

[JCSunsfan]

Suns should offer 4/53.48. Then there can be no excuses. Its not that much more and it puts an end to this.

[INFORMER]

8 points, 2-7 FGs, 3 assists, 2 rebounds, 1 turnover, and 1 steal for Bogdanovic in 33 minutes of play today.

[Cap]

So, US Airways isn't keeping the naming rights on the arena. Joanna Allhands chimes in with tongue-in-cheek suggestions of 5 new names for US Airways Center featuring Intel, Target, Raytheon, Walmart (:vomit:) and Banner as sponsors.

Can we come up with something better?

Actually, Allhands' "Intel Inside" suggestion aside, I could live with "Intel Arena."

[Ring_Wanted]

Bledsoe already doesn't have anything to gain by taking the QO.

That's not accurate if we are assuming there is a max offer waiting for him in 2015.

Taking the max estimation from BSotS, his earnings included the 3.7M from the QO would be around 68 over 5 years, or 20M more than what's been on the table since day one, supposedly.

Obviously the 4/48 offer removes the injury risk for the player and provides an inmediate raise of almost 10M, but it's still much less guaranteed money.

This alleged new offer would aim to solve that problem from the player's standpoint, as it gives him an amount that essentially matches a max 4 year offer from a third team but with the incentive for Phoenix that 13.5M per 5 years is a much more cap friendly deal than the brute max.

The part I have a harder time seeing is the team option for the fifth year, but that would be the price Bledsoe pays to secure the max allowed from a third party, plus its instant efficacy. If further compromise was needed, there could be a trade kicker, for instance.

[Ring_Wanted]

No. He has to terminate then re-sign.

Technically, he doesn't have to opt out. If he doesn't opt out, he'll become eligible to negotiate an extension next summer. But why would he opt to delay his raise a year, given that he's obviously getting one? One way or the other, next summer is the soonest he can sign anything.

Yeah, he could sign an extension even this very summer, but it makes no sense to him.

Extensions have a 4 year limit, including remaining sessions, so that means Goran would be scoring only three extra years if he signs next summer after opting in.

And to make things worse to him, the allowed amount is also limited to that of the last year of the contract plus 7.5%. By signing an extension Dragic would make a 'ridiculous' 7.5M / 8.1M / 8.6M / 9.2M.

[Mori Chu]

Suns should offer 4/53.48. Then there can be no excuses. Its not that much more and it puts an end to this.

So, we should bid against ourselves? No way! I say stay absolutely firm on the 4/48. If he doesn't like it, he can GTFO. Bidding against yourselves is not a sound GMing strategy. He has shown no reason why he deserves more than 4/48, and there is no reason to give in to his agent's stalling tactics.

[Ring_Wanted]

Going from 12M to 13.5 per is not bidding against ourselves. It's negotiating with the player. Bidding against ourselves would be offering more than anyone can come up, which is what he was demanding with those ridiculous 5/80+.

We can debate wether Bledsoe is worth more than 12M per from a game standpoint, but to the franchise his value under contract is well beyond the extra 1.5M per.

Of course, the injury risk is still there, but as long as he holds up, a contract under the max (particularly if it comes with the alluded team option) is an attractive trading chip, especially considering the madness going on this offseason, and which doesn't look like will stop anytime soon.

In my opinion, if he is willing to take those ~13.5M per the Suns should do it and go from there once the dust settles.

If despite getting that money the player is still unhappy, explore trade options starting Dec 15, but from a position of real strength.

Bledsoe may be greedy and/or poorly managed, but I don't think he'd be a team cancer to force his way out. I could see him wanting to be moved, sure, but as long as he behaves like a pro, things can be worked out to the satisfaction of all parties.