Hello, Goran

Goodbye, Gordan

Not that anyone's surprised about him not being a Sun, mind you, but Giricek followed the M-Train to Europe (that's "money").  It's kind of like Milton in Office Space.  He was never officially fired, but the glitch seemed to work itself out.

NBA teams just aren't offering Shaq-sized buttloads of money anymore.  Apparently, the Sp*rs took at run at him, but he wanted too much.  Maybe that's why they re-signed the player formerly known as Michael Finley.  Fins is willing to take a touch more than the veteran minimum, which was apparently less than Gordan was willing to take.

Which brings me to money.  Dragic's contract is a bit steep for a second-rounder, I suppose, but it is only a first-round rookie's money.  "Grossly over-priced" is not the phrase that comes to mind.  Even if he does not pan out, it's not a bigger bust than other notable first-round wash-outs.  I won't even list those here, because it's not the point.

The point is that more-than-serviceable players are being drawn to Europe for bigger money than NBA teams are willing to spend to fill out their benches and rotations.  Wouldn't you do it?  Be the seventh man in the NBA and make $1.5M or go to Europe, be a star, and make at least double that?  I don't think the elite players will leave (forget the contracts for a minute and think about the endorsements), but I'd imagine that rotation players will continue to migrate resulting in weaker benches throughout the league.  Perhaps Coach D's Suns missed their window by being a few years too early where a weak bench may become the norm.