SB Nation User Blog: JSun

The JYD Bark

JSun — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:43:19 -0000

What I can't figure out is why the PA doesn't have a bark every time Dudley makes a hustle play.

Amundson has got the "Louuuu!" thing.

LB gets a "beep, beep"

Dudley yelps and barks if he gets a box out that prevents the other team from grabbing a rebound, resulting in a Suns' side-out.

He deserves a bark. Let's vote on it.

If I was talented like Stan, I might have included clips so everyone could hear what I'm sayin'

Poll

Which bark is most appropriate for JYD?

I didn't find this on TheDirty.com, but he's no longer a Sun so that's OK

JSun — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:05:50 -0000

I didn't find this on TheDirty.com, but he's no longer a Sun so that's OK

More Shaq-nanigans. Via The Big Lead

More Stoudemire-Curry-Ellis Information

JSun — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:08:14 -0000

More Stoudemire-Curry-Ellis Information

I guess this explains the recent issues with Ellis and Jackson a little better. And adds legitimacy to the Curry trade speculation.

Remember when Odom couldn't decide between LA and Miami?

JSun — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:11:42 -0000

Remember when Odom couldn't decide between LA and Miami?

CBA CLE Basics

JSun — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:55:53 -0000

I recently went to a Continuing Legal Education course put on the Suns. In addition to getting one of the fifteen hours I need every year, I got this picture, a sales pitch and I heard Steve Kerr use the phrase "salary dump." I thought I'd take a minute to pass on some of the highlights of the CBA, because it was eye-opening to me.

"BRI" is "Basketball Related Income" and is nearly all revenue in the NBA. According to the Suns' attorney, it has about a 70-page definition. From this, we get several important numbers (I think I'm right, I didn't take notes and they served free beer):

The salary cap is set at 51% of the projected BRI for the upcoming season, minus projected player benefits, and divided by 30 teams.

The luxury tax is at 61% of the projected BRI, minus projected player benefits, and divided by 30 teams.

Players' salary and benefits must be at least 57% of the BRI. At the end of each season, there is an audit and the players get at least 57%. It wasn't clear the precise mechanism, but I think it goes to the union and is counted in the "benefits" category of "players' salary and benefits."

Salary cap:

There are about 8 exceptions to the salary cap -- that is how you can be over the cap legally. The most interesting one is the "Bird Exception" (because Larrry Bird was the first to use it). A player who has played for your team for at least the last three years and re-sign for any amount and that amount is not counted against the cap (but it counts against the luxury tax). It's not that the player's team can sign him for more, its that it restricts that player's team less and therefore makes him a less attractive free agent target. For us fans, the question becomes whether another team is going to offer Amare the max, given this restriction. To give him close to $20M/yr with a $57M cap means that you've got to have a lot of other players on your team with one of the other exceptions to the cap.

As most of you know, the tax money is put into a pot and divided amongst the non-tax-paying teams. The Knicks paid over $24M in tax last year with a $71M threshhold -- that's a $95M payroll. The Suns paid $4.9M, the lowest of the tax-payers. Also on the list: Mavs, Cavs, Celtics, Lakers and Blazers.

Other notes:

Ticket sales is about 37% of revenue for the league.

There is a revenue-sharing system in place, but teams get 100% of revenue if it occurs within certain geographic locations (maybe it's not 100%, but my understanding is that it is quite a bit). Again, the specifics are in the CBA tome, but it essetianlly means that if you buy an Amare jersey in Phoenix, the Suns get all the profit but the Suns have to share the profit if someone in Atlanta buys an Amare jersey. I think that Tucson is outside of the radius, which would explain why teams like the Cardinals and the DBacks make more of an effort to reach out to those fans.

This geography-based revenue-sharing thing, coupled with the inability to broadcast on Fox Sports AZ at the same time as TNT, means that the Suns make less money on a TNT broadcast than a Fox Sports AZ broadcast.

Aside from the trade restrictions (e.g., getting within 125% of salaries if both teams are over the cap), the front office needs to successfully navigate all the cap and tax restrictions as well.

In regard to player contracts:

Most are guaranteed against a "lack of skill" (i.e., you can be cut, but they've still got to pay you).

Steve Kerr's first contract prohibited him from engaging in "counter-revolutionary activities" -- I guess he would have been barred from stopping any secessionists or insurgents.

Amare Stoudemire is not permitted to go SCUBA diving without a licensed diver with him. He is not allowed to own a motorcycle, but he is allowed to have a convertible.

Oliver Miller's "calorie cap" actually existed and the Suns' have a special scale able to reach weights high enough to monitor his weight.

Sarver indicated (as he's done in the past) that he made some mistakes. This, of course is with hindsight being 20/20. E.g., signing Richardson at the expense of not extending Johnson during the summer of 2004. He said that in his business world, he was pretty good at making decisions, and that with the benefit of hindsight he was probably right over 80% of the time. He claims that player personnel decisions are much more difficult to predict and that if you're over 50% you're probably doing a good job. I tend to agree. In business, banking and construction, there are long-term trends and patterns that are susceptible to documentation and study. You're looking at the general activities of a large sample size and making very educated guesses. With athletes, how is one like the other? What can the past experience with Stephon Marbury tell your about the future success of Steve Nash? Sure, there is some anecdotal information and some "gut feel" stuff, but that is about it. In the end, it seems to be about how good your gut is.

Final Note:

I went to the "Town Hall" a few months back and got hot dogs, chips and soda. A bunch of lawyers show up and there's complimentary wine and beer along with fancy food. Just sayin'

Another Goggles Update

JSun — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:23:48 -0000

JSun2 has been diagnosed with bilateral amblyopia. Which apparently means that since we've caught it now, he should have fairly normal vision if he consistently wears his corrective lenses (glasses) for a few years. If we hadn't caught this within the next couple of years, though, it could have caused him to go legally blind.

In an effort to cheer him up about wearing glasses, I went searching for images of Amare dunking with glasses on. I was having trouble finding anything in action (most of it was just him interviewing with glasses or goggles on). The good people over at the Suns' marketing department found this one of Stoudemire going over Duncan. Double bonus. I hope you can enjoy.

Steroid Scandal in the NBA?

JSun — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:05:45 -0000

Steroid Scandal in the NBA?

I just ran across this. I tend to believe Lewis, but NBA news is slow so here it is.

The Riddle of Rick Robey

JSun — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:55:30 -0000

Everyone knows the Kareem story. Yes ... we understand, the Suns have been searching for a legit center since they lost the coin flip. The story/joke/reaction/analysis has almost reached mythical proportions. For a Suns fan, it's the equivalent of learning about George Washington and the Cherry Tree or Honest Abe walking 5 miles to return one penny in change.

That's the lore ... my last post was to see what the fans here knew about the history and the lore. Everyone knows the stories, but not everyone knows the history.

I'm not passing judgment and, frankly, I don't care if you can't recite every player personnel moves the Suns have made since 1968. I was wondering what types of readers we have, and I was thinking about the persons that read the blogs.

According to the poll, 60% of the readers who appear here during the summer have never even heard of the guy. Since I cannot really do a double-blind, random study I am left with a few alternative explanations: (1) long-time fans don't access the internet and blogs because they're too old, (2) true fans visit the blogosphere only occassionally during the off-season because the majority of them have productive lives and are not living in their mothers' basements, (3) we've got a bunch of internet-geeks who just like to visit the blogs and have no real passion/devotion for the team, (4) the persons who were around back then and visiting the site now have blocked this painful event from their memories, and (5) maybe some combination.

My purpose was two-fold: (1) get a feel for the demographic this month, and (2) sit on my tree stump with a whittlin' stick to tell a story to the young'uns.

Most everyone who follows basketball should know Dennis Johnson for at least one of three reasons (1) he may have been the only black man with freckles besides Morgan Freeman (2) he recently passed away and many sports media outlets did some sort of retrospctive, or (3) you actually remember him. If you still need help, go Google him or check him out on Wikipedia; however, here is the only thing you need to know -- Larry Bird called him the best teammate he's ever had.

Before he was Bird's favorite teammate, he was a Finals MVP for Seattle. In between Seattle and Boston, he was a Phoenix Sun. I was in middle school when they traded him for Rick Robey. My dad tried to explain the rationale behind the trade to me. I still remember the conversation --

"So, they traded him away because they think they need a big center?"

"Yes."

"But what if the big center sucks?" (Note: My dad agreed with my sentiment but sent me to my room for saying someone "sucks" -- that was the equivalent of a four-letter word in my youth).

There are rumors that Red Auerbach pulled one over on a still young and naive J.C. -- you must remember that J.C. looked up to that cigar-chomping champ.

So, that's my version of the story -- no point, just an observation in a weblog.

I'm thinking that this article -- comparing the Shaq trade to the Robey trade -- didn't get much readership because of Alternative #1 in the first paragraph setting forth the first of many lists.

Know Your Audience; Know Rick Robey

JSun — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 03:29:05 -0000

It's getting kind of slow in NBA news and I was wondering what type of basement-dwelling-blog-readers/writers we have here. I had this idea in my Guinness-induced-Joycean-stream-of-consciousness kind of way (oddly enough, my thoughts came without any of life's anesthetic, so it's either due to age or the lack of the aforementioned anesthetic).

Who remembers Rick Robey? Take the poll and let me know. Keep in mind that "remember" and "know about" are two different things. Please be specific. Take the poll without doing any internets sluething, please.

For those of you who do remember, please feel free to reiminisce in the comments section. I'll probably do some sort of follow-up based on the responses (although, I may have to visit Seamus' to figure out what's next).

Poll

Do you remember Rick Robey?

Please don't remind me

33 votes

Oh, yes, love the guy

4 votes

No, but I heard about him in history class, old-timer

19 votes

Who?

82 votes

138 votes | Poll has closed

The Dirty that Could've Been

JSun — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:16:22 -0000

The Dirty that Could've Been

After seeing this, I wish Kerr would've made the Amare deal work.