Suns Uncertainty: A Guide to 2010-2011 Anxiety

4 in the morning? Geez.

now was that a get-up-early, or stay-up-late thing?

Chandler is offered 20MM. Says no and the MGMT capitulates for 30MM. That’s 10MM more on a reserve, for the same number of contract years.

Amare is offered 94MM over 5. Wants 105MM over six. That’s 11MM more for a starter and an All-star, with an extra year thrown in.

If the issue was money, I don’t know how you don’t let Chandler walk and give Amare the contract. If 94 over 5 was a serious offer, I don’t see how you don’t got 105 over six.

Instead, I think Sarver didn’t want to keep Amare at all, and by offering low that’s the best way to push him on his way. Now, perhaps Sarvers motives were for basketball reasons, not just financial, but who will ever know something like that.

..wait till this year starts, I believe we will be the ultimate underdogs where everyone doubting us once again but we will overcome all that. I also think Jrich is going to take his game to another level since he is going to be our No. 1 option. With a backcourt of Nash and Jrich, we still have the best passing, scoring backcourt in the NBA. Robin, Goran and Dudley are a year wiser, and their taste of the playoffs have given them the experience of what it takes to measure their game. I have a good feeling about this year.

Still, the changes in personality that have been manifesting themselves are truly promising. Last year, we developed a second team that was capable of beating the other teams starters – for long periods, and in the playoffs. Our bench outplayed the world champions starters in the WCF. Savor that for a while.
     The draft picks we got are in that same mold – hustle guys. I’m not sure about Warrick, or Clark – they are going to need to play with that same intensity to fit in.
     We still have LB – and that could be a very good thing. He could be very tradeable when some of these teams signing big money free agents need some scoring to get over the top – but I’m hoping he’s too valuable to us because of the breakout year he’s going to have.
     JRich has played most of his career without Amar’e – he’ll be fine. And Grant and Steve are getting up there, but we still have the best training/medical staff in pro sports, and they both have solid backups, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see them both here and productive 3 years from now.
     Teams that win championships are either built around point guards or centers – even the Lakers have never won with Kobe when they didn’t have a dominant big man. Jordan’s Bulls are the exception, but even those teams had good big men, dominant in the case of Pippen. We have 2 great centers who complement each other, and we have a PG in Dragic who could be MVP someday. We know he has the skills, anyway.
We have a coach who is perfect for this team, in this situation.
Also, we are in the West, and this year, all the marquis players are going to the east. The Lakers may not be as good next year, SA, Utah, and Dallas are going to have a hard time improving, We may be better equipped to beat Portland, OKC, and Memphis without Amar’e. Who knows – we couldn’t beat them with him (except the playoffs), but STAT wasn’t the biggest part of that.
     We also have some moves that can be made – better later than now. We are an incredibly deep team, and still a very, very good team. We are positioned as well as we can be for the new CBA, and the new market that will accompany it. Somewhere, before the trade deadline, a team is going to be dumping some salary, because their big spending spree didn’t work, and we can shore up for the playoffs with little risk.
So all in all, I feel pretty good about things.
Oh, did I mention, we have Steve Nash?

Will those guys want to stick around or will they be traded? I would imagine that before they signed their most recent contracts, they had to have realized that Amar’e was likely to leave and that they’re prepared to still play for the Suns.

As many bad moves as Sarver has made, I don’t think anyone can fault him for the offer he made to Amar’e. He tried as best he could, in a way that’d keep the Suns from being royally screwed and Amar’e declined.

As relying more on team ball. Lopez/Dragic are going to improve. Dudley is still going to provide a spark. Nash/Hill/Richardson are going to provide good leadership and scoring.

We need Warrick to just be a positive asset. I can see the emphasis now being to feed a tandem of him and Lopez while trying to get JRich hot.

We all know, 37 or not, if anyone is going to make Hakim Warrick a beast or an All-Star, it’s Steve Nash. I’m optimistic and I hope Warrick becomes a steal.

Yes, Amar’e helped us get to the playoffs with his emergence, but so did J-Rich. Yes, Amar’e helped us through that playoff run, but don’t forget that we got that far without Robin Lopez. Even with an unhealthy Robin we still took the Lakers to 6 games. Just replace Amar’e with Lopez who should get better and Warrick for next years playoff run. That’s still a downgrade, but I don’t think we will be as bad as people think we will be. We may not be a contender, but were still a threat to upset any contender.

I predict that without Amare Stoudemire, the Suns will be more of a team. Hakim Warrick obviously wanted to be here, so there is no reason not to think he will add to the good chemistry.

Does anyone like the floated idea of getting Kurt Thomas back? I don’t know whether I do, because he might have nothing left in the tank. The Spurs didn’t mind letting let him go. But if he could play as well as he did in 2005-06, the Suns should get him back and start him—forget starting Hakim Warrick.

If Charles Barkley had been in Latrell Sprewell’s position, he would say, “What family? I’ve got myself to feed.”

(I was thinking about the old “I’ve got a family to feed” remark because of Amare Stoudemire.)

Sign Barkley into a GM/player contract

Holding off on the panic button until I see who we end up with once this is all done. But we’re gonna miss Stat’s 20-10 and poster dunks. Maybe Warrick brings some of that, or we get a player who can fill the void. But it’s gonna be a struggle. But then, who picked us to even make the playoffs last season, much less get to the WCF??

Things are going to be fine. I think we will make the playoffs, probably make it to the Semi’s and, depending on who we draw, we make it to the WCF. The reason being is that so much of this team’s success came from Chemistry. I actually think that Amare didn’t really help the chemistry factor. Guys like Channing, Dudley, Goran, Hill, Nash, and Lopez are all chemistry guys. They play well when they are playing as a team.

This is not to say that they won’t miss Amare. But honestly, I was crazy scared that we would pay him 20 mil a year and he’d have another knee blowout in year 3. In fact, he should be worried about that now that he won’t have such a great training staff to depend on. There is nothing worse than when your highest paid player is on the DL all the time ( ie- Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming). We are going to miss his scoring, but this really gives guys like Warrick and Clark the opportunity to step up and make up for the difference. Are we going to beat the Lakers, probably not. But if Lopez starts to become a real dominant center, if we can get Goran on his way to elite PG status, and if Clark can take his defensive skills and match them with decent skills on offense, there is no telling what this team is capable of.

I am drinking the Kool-aid, but I am still very excited.

PG Nash – Dragic
SG Richardson – Dudley/Scottie Reynolds/some other FA or trade pickup (I think Barbosa is gone)
SF Hill – Dudley/Clark
PF Warrick – Clark/Lawal/some other FA or trade pickup (I assume Amundson is gone)
C Lopez – Frye

Frankly, this doesn’t look very impressive.

Strong at C with 2 rising players of complementary skill skets.

Strong at PG with the master and the young grasshopper.

Above average at SG, as I think J-Rich is ready to continue his breakout performance from these past playoffs.

Then, really questionable at the forwards. Too much reliance on the aging Grant Hill and the unproven Earl Clark. I’m on record as not being a Clark believer, but I hope he can prove me wrong. Warrick obviously has a lot of pressure on him, and I think he can be a good player for us, but he’s certainly no Stoudemire. I can’t believe we’re done at the PF position. Maybe pick up a defense and rebounding specialist for Barbosa? Or, heck, is it still possible to keep Amundson? It’s hard to project a 46th pick in the draft like Lawal is ready to be a solid contributor right away.

Who are our all-stars or potential all-stars? Nash, of course. Lopez, maybe (remember, there aren’t many good centers out there). Dragic, maybe in a couple of years. To continue to be a 50 win team, Dragic, Lopez and Clark will need to step up big-time.

He gave the Bucks some good minutes and I think he can still contribute.

Was a sign and trade to New York not an option? I understand that Amare didn’t want the contract that we offered with the injury clause, but couldn’t we still give Amare a better contract than New York can offer and then trade him to the Knicks? I would feel a lot better with Lee as are starting PF.

Before Warrick, the Suns had sign-and-trade discussions with Houston involving Luis Scola and Toronto involving Hedo Turkoglu or for a trade exception, which could have been used to target Utah’s Andrei Kirilenko. The Suns also considered a Leandro Barbosa trade to create salary-cap space for pursuing Dirk Nowitzki.

So they could have done all that, but the decide to sign Warrick? wow.

He can’t help it! :)