Key to sustaining the Sun's early success

You seem pretty down on J Rich but he has been, thus far, one of the keys to our success this year. When he’s hot we win. When he struggles, we suck pretty bad.

The most intriguing of your scenarios above is the Gerald Wallace one. As much as I love LB, I feel like, somewhat ironically, his style of play doesn’t fit with the second unit. They seem to play better without him, with Goran running the show and everyone hustling on D and on the boards.

I don’t see the Memphis trade happening because of the number of pieces. It’s pretty rare to see that many guys swapping around.

I’ve very glad to not see any Amar’e suggestions in your trades :-)

First of all, midseason trades rarely work. Look it up. I can think of two notable exceptions, one of which involves the Suns:

The most famously successfull midseason trade has to be the Knicks acquisition of Dave DeBuschere in 1969. The Knicks were already a good team,with Bradley, Frazier, Barnett, and Willis Reed, but adding DD gave them a boost which tore up the league and stymied the Wilt-West-Baylor juggernaut even with Reed’s storied injury problems. DeBuschere provided the missing link that lessened the load on Reed’s shoulders, and, more importantly, provided the Elmers glue to an already good chemistry.

The second instance is well known to Suns fans. The midyear acquisition in 1976 of Garfield Heard for our ‘center of the future’ (John Shumate) provided locker room closeness, a bookend lunchpail guy for Curtis Perry, and completed a unique blend of a 6’6-6’6-6’9 frontcourt that simply outhustled the opposition. And don’t go saying that year’s Suns team lost because Boston outclassed them. That Boston series turned on a game where Boston’s 10th man (Glenn McDonald) was better than our 10th man. Game 4 of that series was the most exciting game I ever attended, and game 5 was the most exciting I ever saw period.

I cannot seem to trhik of any other examples of midseason trades improved an already talented team significantly. In fact, most blockbuster midseason trades have seen a downward turn in the fortune of teams. The odds are stacked against us.

Each of these trades includes Earl Clark. I really think Clark will do well in the pros, but he is young – this would be his sophomore year at Louisville. Why do you want to give up on him? And I see that the Wizards proposal includes a first round pick we did well in trading our 2010, why not trade some more. While I like Butler, I see no value in Mike James – he is a gunner who would take time from Dragic.

The Grizz trade is awful, I would not want Gay or Jaric. I like the Bobcat trade the best – Wallace is close to a young Marion. While I like LB dearly, I would consider this tradeif it was on the table. But I doubt Charlotte would do this. Wallace is basically their whole team. Is Jordan that dumb?

And while I agree with you, Hawk, about midseason trades, I believe the fast paced offense is the easiest to integrate people into. Tim Thomas fit in pretty well (I know it wasn’t a trade, but still), and although the end result wasn’t great, Shaq had fit in pretty well at the end of that first year with D’Antoni (they were absolutely cruising at the end of the season). Even J-Rich fit in decently – he is obviously more attuned this year, but I think Porter and his style of play hugely slowed down that transition.
Lastly, a lot of these guys I mentioned bringing in would transition better than most. Neither Butler nor Wallace get a lot of plays run for them, and would thrive in a running system.

I’m not giving up on Clark either – I think he will do just – he’s just another piece that we can move, and I do doubt that his ceiling is higher than any of the players I mentioned trading for him.

Lastly, are the Bobcats that dumb? I say yes. J Rich is playing at a much higher level than Bell, and Dudley is playing at a higher level that Diaw. Honestly, that might have been as one sided a trade since the Gasol trade – just without such huge implications. Wallace gets paid a bit much for that team, and he’s been on the rumor blocks for years know. I think it’s inevitable

Here is his line from the last game

4 points
6 assists
5 fouls

Just enough to make you think he will be useful, not enough to count on.

Alas, poor Boar-rees! we knew you well!!

My biggest problem with all of them is that, lacking a 1st round pick in the 2010 draft (I hate bringing that up, because I successfully had forgotten about it recently… while I’m at it… “THE GAME”), I don’t see the Suns letting go of any future 1st rounders until they figure out the the long term situations of Amare Stoudemire and Jason Richardson or Barbosa (i.e., whomever they decide will be their building blocks for the future.).

And I do like the Bobcats deal as far as the Suns are concerned, but I think Barbosa is a bad fit for a Larry Brown coached team as is any player with less than 2 years in the league (Earl Clark).

I do think the right trade would benefit the team greatly. We need another inside scoring threat and a defensive intimadator. Who that would be or could be I am not sure. I just know we need that. Either that or we see surprisingly fast and impressive improvement/growth from RoLo.

I am not down on JRich. I really like him in fact. I am not sure he’d be the piece I would look to trade, however, he may be as you say the most movable piece. I am not sure about the Wizards deal — it doesn’t give us what we really need. I do like the idea of Gerald Wallace however. I agree that because of his age that Hill is somewhat of a liability. We can’t expect him defensively stay with younger and quicker players.
Maybe moving Hill in a package with Richardson can give us an inside defensive presence. Perhaps Barbosa could replace a good portion of JRich’s offense — he has shown the ability to score in the past.

This team, as constructed, is very good, but does have some glaring deficiences. I do also agree that they would have a “punchers chance” in the playoffs as you say. At the very least they would have a punchers chance. I think they actually have more than that IF we can get our big men to improve with interior defense and scoring. Big if there, admittedly.

In short, I like the fact that you are being proactive in your thinking UA. You see that this team is close and just need to be aggressive in thinking how to get to the next level.

Quit playing the Lakers on the road in thye second night of back to backs