SB Nation User Blog: eagleheart

Dampier - Jrich Trade Good for us?

eagleheart — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:53:15 -0000

Dampier - Jrich Trade Good for us?

Hoopsworld mentions that the Mavericks have basically traded away their two guards in their bid to get Shawn Marion. As part of the trade the mavs send Devean George and Antoine Wright, two primary rotation players at the two. They signed Greg Buckner, a great defender, but a non-factor on the offensive end. They also got back Nathan Jawai from the Raptors, a center prospect. The Mavericks are likely to land Marcin Gortat as a restricted free agent Topping off their centers are Ryan Hollins and good old Erick Dampier. (or Erica Dampier as Shaq fondly refers to him).

Erick Dampier's incentive based contract will end this season if he doesn't average 28 minutes per game (he averaged 23 last season). That's a $12 million ending deal.

Phoenix could gain a center to play ahead of Robin Lopez and dump JRich's contract and driving abilities.

It's speculation at this point but it might work....

Source: Wife Will Sway Grant Hill to Sign With Knicks

eagleheart — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:55:43 -0000

Source: Wife Will Sway Grant Hill to Sign With Knicks

Hill, the 36-year-old small forward, is leaning toward accepting an offer from the Knicks instead of the Boston Celtics or Phoenix Suns on Thursday, and a major reason is his wife Tamia, a national recording artist who would benefit greatly from him playing in New York.

Although the Celtics would give him a much greater chance at winning a championship, they are offering considerably less money and playing time. The Suns don't have the kind of money he wants, either, but they do have the playing time and the reward of playing alongside point guard

Sarver's Carvering of the Suns: A Retrospective

eagleheart — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:13:07 -0000

Sarver's Carvering of the Suns: A Retrospective

The Banker's Influence on our Beloved Suns

It's easy to second guess decisions after their results have played out. At the time you believe people make decisions for reasons that seem reasonable at the time. This post is mostly a recap of comments made on AZcentral by brmarin.

Decisions by Sarver have become all too easy to second guess with the benefit of hindsight. The truth be told, even as Steve Kerr or Brian Colangelo were forced to make these decisions they didn't exactly seem that great at the time. Of course neither you or I were actually there while these decisions were being made but it seems that Sarver's fingerprints are all over this mess.

The list of missteps includes draft issues, bogus trades, GM issues, and coaching changes.

1. Suns draft Lou Deng, then trade his rights away for Jackson Vroman and future first round pick. Lou Deng (or Andre Igoudala) would have been a nice player to have during some of our playoff runs from 05 - 07.

2. Joe Johnson wants extension in the summer of 2004 for a reasonable price. Sarver refuses even when advised by his GM.

3. Joe goes onto to have a fabulous 04-05 season and his contract value rises from his original extension request. Joe leaves because of soured relations with Sarver.

4. 2005 draft suns select Gortat and Nate Robinson. Nate is traded with Q. Richardson to obtain Kurt Thomas because Amare is hurt. Nate would have been a nice scoring punch from the PG position. Gortat is traded for cash to the Magic.

5. Colangelo resigns as GM because Saver lets him know he will not pay him more money and apparently didn't value his work very much. Kerr comes aboard. Colangelo was probably also mad about interference such as Sarver trading picks for money and not signing Joe Johnson like he advised him to do.

6. Suns draft Rondo in 2006 draft and trade him away for a 2007 draft pick of Cleveland. The Suns could have had Nash, Nate Robinson, Rondo. Suns also draft PG Serigo Rogriguez and trade for cash considerations.

7. 2007 draft Suns take Rudy Fernandez and trade him and James Jones for some more cash again. Fernandez is just beginning his NBA career but looked impressive against the US "Redeem Team" in the Gold Medal Game. The Suns take Alando tucker with the 27th pick. Aaron Brooks, Arron Aflfalo, Carl landry, Marc Gasol, Ramon Sessions are still on the draft board when the Suns take Tucker and Fernandez. Suns could of used the services Afflalo because he is a wing defender/ 3point shooter. Gasol or Landry would give the Suns a big man they need.

7. Feb. 2007 Suns trade Marion for Shaq. Marion was worth much more than an injured Shaq in 2007. He was a dream teamer that had many amazing seasons. During the 2006-07 season, Marion was one of two players (the other Kevin Garnett) to rank in the top 40 in points per game, rebounds per game, field goal percentage, blocks per game, steals per game, and minutes per game and he was named to his fourth NBA All-Star Team. We get Shaq and of course this leads to chemistry problems because the Suns were a running team forced to play half court. Shaq was a also a ball hog and paint clogger. Big mistake!!! I can remember when Minnesota was willing to trade Garnett for Marion and Barbs. Can you say champs with Garnett.

8. Sarver/Kerr alienate D'antoni who signs with the Knicks and get Porter. Porter tries and fails to change a team built to run into a defensive half court team ala San Antonio Spurs and is fired a little over midseason.

9. 2008 Draft we take Lopez and trade & pay dearly for Dragic. I don't know why. Marreese Speights, Courtney Lee, Kosta Koufas, Nicolas Batum, PG's George Hill, and Mario Chalmers were all available but Sarver/Kerr wanted Lopez and Dragic. All the alternative picks would have been better. Suns also trade 2nd round pick for Dragic and Spurs draft Duejuan Blair with the pick this year.   We can remember that as we see him beating up our bigs in the future.

10. 2009 Shaq is traded away for almost nothing (financial considerations again).   The Suns do not get anyone back who is likely to play at all for the team.     Kerr can not even get a first round pick for the aging center coming off of an all star year.

11. What's coming next??? Suns lose Grant Hill, Amar'e Stoudemire, and Steve Nash?   There are signs that some of these are coming.

Add more if you want and enjoy.

JRich received a jail sentence

eagleheart — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:54:28 -0000

Richardson received a 1-day jail sentence

5 commentsby Paul Coro - Jul. 6, 2009 07:58 PM
The Arizona Republic

Suns guard Jason Richardson received a one-day jail sentence last month when his two cases for separate driving incidents were adjudicated, according to court documents.

For a Dec. 21 case in which he was stopped on Loop 101 at Thomas Road, Richardson pleaded guilty a DUI charge and was sentenced to a day in jail, three years of summary probation, $1,680 in fines, alcohol-education class and community service.

For a Feb. 15 case in Scottsdale, Richardson pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor speeding charges and endangerment for $1,195 in fines. A reckless-driving charge and a child-passenger-restraint violation were dismissed.

The Suns suspended him for a game after the second case, costing him about $110,000 in salary.

---------------

Get your JRich bashing in below....

Ben Wallace: What's up?

eagleheart — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:15:38 -0000

Ben Wallace: Phoenix Sun?

It's been dead silent quiet on the Ben Wallace front since he was traded to the Suns. I haven't seen anything about him even coming by the valley.

Was there a press conference introducing him? Yes, we've heard the rumors that he may retire even prior to the trade (this is what probably led the Banker to trade for him to begin with). But since he's become a Phoenix Sun, at least in name, we haven't heard a peep from him or his camp.

Usually in these situations, they say "yeah it's great to be here" speech B.S. even if you know he's going to be gone. Steve Kerr said anything about this? Has he said what the heck he's planning on doing?

Basically, has any real indications been given by the Suns or the Wallace camp on what the heck he's going to be doing next year?

Future Phoenix Suns Draft Picks

eagleheart — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:13:45 -0000

Future Phoenix Suns Draft Picks

Assuming the Banker and Kerr don't sell our draft picks, our drafts picks have been planned for the next 5 years.

Check the link...

Suns Bobcats New Trade Rumor

eagleheart — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 12:20:49 -0000

New Trade Rumors??

I'm creating a new trade rumor. This trade works according to ESPN.com's trade machine with the two principal teams involved being Phoenix and Charlotte:

PHX sends PF: Amaré Stoudemire to Charlotte for: Boris Diaw and C Nazr Mohammed.

Boris Diaw immediately steps in as the teams starting PF and Nazr can man the middle now that Shaq's gone.

Great idea huh? Discuss (lol)... I'm surprised if this trade hasn't occured to Steve Kerr of the famour firestevekerr.com website.

PHX-GSW-KYK Trade Cya A'Mare

eagleheart — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:20:46 -0000

PHX-GSW-KYK Trade

The premise is this: Mike D'Antoni and the Knicks seem to have their man-crush on for Curry.

If GSW is willing to trade some combo of: Curry, Wright, Biedrins, Bellinelli I'd say there must be something that can be done to flip Curry to the Knicks. Something that could involve say a sign and trade of David Lee to the Suns. Yes there are a lot of issues to address such as agreeing to a contract and matching salaries. But imagine this roster or an appromiation of it next year:

PG: Nash, Dragic

SG: Bellinelli, Barbosa, Tucker

PF: David Lee, Brandon Wright, Amundsun

SF: Dudley, Earl Clark

C: Biedrins, Lopez, + Chandler?

Not back: JDrunk, Grant Hill, Stomile Swift, Matt "Chucker" Barnes

To me, the line up above is a pretty freaking awesome line up. I think Bellinelli is really good. Forget about Curry, Bellinelli can shoot the lights out, he's been lighting up Summer league the past few years but buried behind Monta Ellis on the bench and we all know how Donn Nelson is great at playing young players.

The best thing is we would definitely own the boards with Lee and Biedrins AND possibly Chandler.

Amare would not be Missed!

Shaq traded to Cleveland for $$ and used lottery tickets

eagleheart — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:57:01 -0000

Shaq sent to Cleveland

So it seems the trade that has been rumored for a few months is finally official. The big trade bait has been sent down river to the 60+ win Cavs for Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic. Neither one is expected to make much an impact in a Suns uniform - if they even ever end up wearing one since one (Pavlovic) can be bought out to save money and the other is contemplating retirement. I have a hunch that given his history of making financial decisions Robert Sarver may buy out Pavlovic. Just call it a hunch.

What's really surprising is that Steve Kerr isn't getting any real assets for the big fella. I know, I know, we were all convinced he'd be able to pull a Mitch Kupchak and get something for nothing a la the Pau Gasol trade, but surprisingly this doesn't seem to be the case. It would also seem that this has finally proved conclusively that the Shaq for Marion trade was on the "moron" side.

One final thing - we will see how that affects the "summer of Lebron" next year. Will the Big guy convince Lebron to stay in town when he's eligible to be a free agent after next season? Funny how the Suns giving up Shaq for nothing might just affect the future of the whole league...

Rick Welts: Suns President.... or Fashion Icon??

eagleheart — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:39:31 -0000

"During Rick's seven years with the Suns he has distinguished himself as one of professional sports best operators. Our creativity and success in areas such as marketing partnerships, technology, branding, customer service and this year's NBA All-Star events have all been a result of Rick's leadership," said Suns Owner Robert Sarver.

What does this mean? It is clear that Mr. Welts sports an impressive sales pitch (and a 100$ haircut) and has used it to suceed in marketing and customer service.

I wonder how that prepares him for his role as Suns President though. All considered, I am optimistic that he can do a great job in an official suns cheerleader/salesman role for potential free agents and so forth. The guy is clearly way too short to have actually played basketball though if you see how big the (womens?) ball is compared to the guy. Let us hope he isn't as "hands on" as Sarver has been or even worse Sarver stays really hands on and adds another set of hands to the decision making above Kerr.