Most of us have, more or less willingly, to some degree realized that our precious Suns are a team in decline. As Alex made it crystal clear in his breakdown of the coming season, our greatest need is new talent on the roster. And with the likeliness of the FO keeping Nash rather than opting to trade him and rebuild, we are looking at a team in the 40-win category in the nearest future. This obviously means mediocre draft picks. So unless the Suns strike gold in the draft, talent would have to be acquired by free agent signings.

(Stern: "Any comments?"  Sarver: "Yeah, I have a comment, %#&! the soft cap!" via 3.bp.blogspot.com)

Free agents want 2 things, and the most talented ones prioritize this way:

1) To win (as expressed countless times the last 15 months).

2) Money

Sadly, the Suns can at this point only offer option 2). So to counterbalance the lack of 1), Suns have to offer a bright future of the franchise. And a bright future includes an owner with a good résumé, willing to invest in the team. Anyone see where I'm headed with this? More after the jump...

Sarver has recently been getting a lot of attention in the media for his approach in the CBA negotiations. He has been one of the most vocal owners, fighting for a hard cap. This, of course, much to the dismay of the players. My thought is that all this negative PR surrounding Sarver, will ultimately bite him (and our Suns) in the ass. Players will remember him as the cheap guy fighting against them in the negotiations, and in my opinion, this will hurt the Suns' chances of landing big free agents. I can't help but think that if Sarver took a more well thought and discrete approach in the meetings, other owners probably could have taken this same hit, and Suns would have dodged a bullet.

Of course, this is speculation, but that is why I wanted to share my thoughts with you, honored ladies and gentlemen!