A tale of Two GMs or a Tale of Two O'Neal

This retrospective has nothing to do with current events, but carries on with my morbid fascination about might-have-beens regarding the pieces of the magical 7SOL era.  While I constantly follow Mike D'Antoni and Shawn Marion, this post is about former Suns GM Bryan Colangelo, who I actually harbor much internal appreciation for. 

By comparison, to some fans, GM Steve Kerr will always be the moron that blew up 7SOL in favor of championship calibre uber phail.  Kerr came sweeping into the Suns and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, single-handedly crippling the magic of the Phoenix Suns masterpiece put in place by none other than two-time executive of the year and former GM Bryan Colangelo.  Some people wish BC was still running the Phoenix Suns. 

Here's a tale of two GMs.  Or two O'Neal.  Who's the bigger moron?

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More photos » by Ross D. Franklin - AP

Phoenix Suns top draft pick Earl Clark, right, laughs with Suns general manager Steve Kerr. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

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Welcome to Part 2 of 5 of our Suns 2009-2010 Season Preview: Assessing the Offseason. 

Here we will focus on front office moves this offseason, deferring the offseasons of players and competitors to Parts 3 and 4.  In Part 3, watdogg10 will review the standing the roster and the players' offseasons.  In Part 4, PanamaSun will assess the competition, including their respective offseason gambles.  In Part 5, Phoenix Stan will pull it all together and deliver his saucy insider's views regarding the keys for a successful and exciting season (he promises not to even mention the WNBA in his post).

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[Note by ZonaFlash, 09/27/09 12:50 PM EDT ]

Dear Friends - I'm sorry if I have distracted you on a bit on this post.  A Cliff Notes version says -

How American values are illustrated in government and in the NBA appear different, but what is central to both is a sense of Fair Play.   I consider how prospective owner Mikhail Prokhorov might tilt the tables of fairness and consider several stronger forms of the luxury tax.

The luxury tax was instituted to promote fair competition, but harms good teams that want to go over the tax to compete but cannot afford it  (Suns), favors teams that can afford the tax (Lakers, Mavericks, the new Brooklyn Nets) and promotes NBA Slum Teams (Clippers, Grizzlies) with undeserved payments to rich owners (Sterling) that do not care about their teams.  A stronger luxury tax would only exacerbate these problems.

I instead propose [1] Hard Caps and Slum Floors, that all teams must remain in a banded salary range no matter what, [2] the elimination of luxury payments (still allowing for other forms of profit sharing) and [3] because all teams are in a tight salary band, ESPN trade machine and trade restrictions could be completely disbanded, allowing for any trades as long as both teams remain in the salary band. 

The interesting thing to discuss here is whether and how to change the luxury tax.  Your opinion on this topic would be of great interest.  I'm not recanting anything here, so read with a molecule of NaCl and at your own risk!

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We've been quite polite these past weeks as we have endured the infestation of a number of Dubs trolls.  Some of them have been polite and interesting.  Some have been so obnoxious that they've even been banned from the SB Nation Warriors Blog, Golden State of Mind. I like the trolls, they make laugh and liven up the discussion with their hopelessly hopeful views about the future of their team.

And truth be told, I love what the Dubs did to Dallas, love the wild west run-and-gun and the stellar community over at GSOM.

However, enough is really enough. 

I find it humorous that they think they can disrespect our team better than we can.  We diss our team everyday, for years.  We dress down everyone from owners, mgmt to bench hopefuls.  Leave the dirty work to the pros.   What troll or casual Dubs fan can insult our team better than we do?  Reading their naive, juvenile criticisms is laughable. 

(I have to confess, dissing Steve Kerr as "one of the worst writers in the history of Yahoo! Sports" was a masterstroke beyond anything I have ever dreamed to say about him, although it could have been even better if AR4 had said "THE worst writer in the spotty early history of Yahoo! Sports" - Kudos there, AR4!)

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