http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Alyp4aIO5dhuVPT0ykzpzhW8vLYF?slug=ap-barkley-gm&prov=ap&type=lgns

I'm not too thrilled with Steve Kerr, truth be told. Anybody agree? It might not be the smartest move, but it sure would be a wild ride! The man took us to the Finals and we shipped him to Houston. I think he deserves better than that.

Then there's Steve Kerr. His moves are understandable, as I've said, but not really ideal. One minute we're the Spurs, the next minute we're the Bobcats, tomorrow we'll be the Hornets? We've got to go in one direction.

You know, it would probably be a terrible move, but for Charles Barkley to be the Suns GM would be one of the greatest, most hilarious moments in NBA history.

I really like what I see in him. Our other options are essentially Taylor Griffin, Grant Hill and Earl Clark. Clark's pretty raw, so it seems, and has some pretty terrible shot selection. Griffin is a third unit, 13th roster spot man without question. Grant Hill, to me, seems like the only other alternative, and he's on the back side of his career. Dudley can play three positions, guard three positions, is currently leading the the whole league in preseason in steals per game and leads the team in FG% with 55% from the field. I think that's a tad more useful than 63 games out of Grant Hill. Anybody agree with me?

I got this idea from Silver Screen and Roll, the Lakers blog. I thought it would be fun. The fact is, though, we're Suns fans, and we can do it better.

First ten people to post draft picks are in! We'll put up final teams at the end and have a vote-off...it'll be great fun. You can only draft players from when they were with the Suns. I feel like it would be cool. For example, Grant Hill in Detroit is off limits. Grant Hill in Phoenix is fair game. You can draft a coach in place of a player. This will give us 70 picks total, with 10 coaches.

1st pick- Charles Barkley

Edit: Yeah, but like, one pick each. Snake draft.

I'm sure you solid Suns fans know the story of how we were one pick away from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1969. How good would we have been? How many championships would we have?

Since then, no Suns team without a franchise center has come close. The Finals Suns in '76 had Alvan Adams. He was still decent until '84-'85, and fell off the following year. Coincidence that we missed the playoffs in '85-'86? Maybe not.

We got back into the playoffs in '88-'89. Guess who we picked up then? Tom Chambers!

We lost Tom Chambers in '93-'94. Guess who we picked up then? A.C. Green!

We missed the playoffs in '01-'02. You know who our center was? Washed up Tom Gugliotta!

We made the playoffs again in '02-'03. You know who we had? Amare Stoudemire!

Do you see the pattern here? We need a franchise center. That's how we win games. Amare Stoudemire refuses to play center now. If so, we have to find someone who will. We gave up Shaq. Unless you find a way to pry Dwight Howard from Orlando or Al Jefferson from Minnesota, Yao's it, basically.

The gamble is this. I proposed a trade with Houston which didn't go down so well because I was trying to think of ways to deal with Houston, specifically. They have a giant that might not be back, and they're praying that he comes back, but they know they won't have him. They would really like to win so Yao Ming doesn't opt out in 2010. At the same time, their only remaining worthy asset is Yao Ming. For this reason, I bet Houston would be willing to deal Yao. They have to accept the fact that no one's going to come to Houston in 2010 if they lose all the time, and they have to sacrifice Yao to make that happen.

Richardson for Yao. The upside is that we get one of the games great giants, a great defensive presence and a perennial matchup problem. The possible downside is that he never plays for us. Our medical staff is the best in sports. If they didn't get him running in the fastest amount of time of any team that could possibly have him, I would be surprised. We don't really need Jason Richardson anyway, though, in my opinion.

The biggest problem is if Houston's bluffing. If they're bluffing with his diagnosis, and Yao Ming isn't as bad as he seems, then they bring him back as soon as possible and Yao causes problems for us on the court like he causes problems for everybody. I somehow doubt it, but stranger things have happened in sports.

I propose the following.

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We need a starting center next year. Chandler for Wallace seems to be off, Amare to the Warriors too. Nash is getting an extension, so he's not getting traded. I haven't heard anything about dealing J-Rich.

While I'm sure the consensus is that Channing Frye will be our starting center, what about Robin Lopez? The case for R-Lo.

a) Defense = solid

b) .7 BLK in 10 MIN = 2.5 in 30 with start?

c) Summer league game 1: 7/10 FG, 10/12 FT, 24 PTS, 16 REB, 2 BLK. Bear in mind, this is not exactly NBA competition, but still a solid line in any scenario.

Maybe we're not a championship team right now, but we absolutely have the potential to rebuild quickly. I think signing Shawn Marion would be a step backwards, and perhaps what we might want to consider is jumping on the youth bandwagon, which basically created, in the early 2000's, the SSoL Suns we came to know and love. Who says we can't do it again? I think signing anyone over 24 or 25, even, is dangerous, like Grant Hill or Shawn Marion.

In other words, trading Nash, J-Rich and even Amare might help a lot. I think it would be dangerous to trade for anyone drafted in 2004 or earlier.

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Nate Robinson had a terrific year with limited minutes and an up-tempo environment. I'd love to see what he would do for Phoenix's second unit. Bear in mind, we still don't have a valid backup point guard and Nash can't play 35 minutes a game any more. The great part is we can probably get him with the MLE and a solid number of years.

I think Nate Robinson also solves Phoenix's scoring problem should we ship Jason Richardson. I think it would be beneficial to ship Jason Richardson, but if we ship him our scoring is bound to be cut dramatically unless we want another Jason Richardson. What we need is to start Barbosa at the 2 (I think) and find someone who can get 20 ppg and play good defense at the 3, 4 or 5. Clark and Wallace play good defense. You can buy Wallace out, and Clark can play the 3 or 4. Think Troy Murphy, except more marketable.

You see, with Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic most likely being bought out, we can sign somebody now! We've just entered the free agency market. Players like:

Allen Iverson

Rasheed Wallace

Ron Artest

Al Harrington

Hedo Turkoglu

Drew Gooden

Shawn Marion

Zydrunas Ilgauskas

Mike Bibby

are all available. Granted, names like Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom are free agents, but probably won't be leaving their teams.

I think we should at least take a look at Ron Artest, Allen Iverson, Shawn Marion, Al Harrington and Rasheed Wallace. Sheed might fill a hole at the 5, Artest plays great defense, Iverson is a great penetrator unlike anyone we have, Marion plays great defense and is well-loved by the Phoenix crowd, Harrington had an incredible year in an up-tempo environment...at least one of these guys might be interested. Even if we don't pull in Ricky Rubio or Troy Murphy as I had suggested in my last FanPost, one of these guys would be a really great addition.

There are three suppositions I'd like to prove with this post. I'm going to prove all but the third why after the jump.

a) Of all the pieces that should be traded after Shaq, it is Steve Nash, and not Jason Richardson nor Amare Stoudemire, who should be traded next.

b) Phoenix should focus on a big 3 involving an SG, an SF and a PF.

c) Phoenix loves drafting brothers of superstars. In 2008 we had Robin Lopez; in 2009 we have Taylor Griffin.

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