It's difficult to know where to begin after the last 24 hours and I am pretty tired with an early day tomorrow so I am going to pull out my best writing trick cheat. The bullet points. Besides, I don't believe a narrative prose is even remotely appropriate for the chaos we have gone through and have yet to emerge from.
- Shaq gone. Wallace and Sasha's expiring contracts in
- Rumors abound that the Suns want to trade Wallace to the Hornets for Chandler
- Rumors continued that the Hornets wanted more in the deal
- After being rumored all day, it seem virtually confirmed that Amare Stoudemire will go to the Warriors for Steph Curry, Andres Biedrins and some combo of Kelenna Azubuike, Brandon Wright and/or Marco Belinelli. This can't be announced until Wednesday July 1st b/c Beans is a base year contract guy which basically means this can't be announced until Wednesday
- It is not clear if Amare has a say in this in the form of a sign and trade or some sort of indication to the Warriors that he will extend and stay there. So basically, all of this trade Amare stuff could be blown out of the water by Amare
- Assuming it happens, I like the deal. Beans is a 23 y/o stud 7fter who can defend and rebound on both ends. He can't shot for crap though so you can't play him with Chandler so where does that leave the the deal with the Hornets for Chandler?
- Those other guys aren't chopped liver either. Wright, I am less sure about but maybe. Belinelli I think can be a player and Azubuike can come in and play big minutes at the SF as a defender and shooter.
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Stephen Curry is is 6' 3" combo guard who can flat out score the ball. The Suns reportedly love him and had the Warriors draft him for Phoenix because he certainly isn't a great fit next to Monta Ellis. The more I read about this guy the more I think Ben Gordon. Not bad but not someone you can build around either.
- I would have preferred Jordan Hill if indeed the Warriors pick was at the Suns behest. The Suns without Amare and Shaq have no front court scoring and they have guards out the a$$: Nash, Barbosa, Richardson, Dragic, Tucker and if the deal goes Curry along with Belinelli and Azubuike. That's 8 guards to go along with only four forwards (Clark, Wright, Amundson, Dudley and maybe Hill) and two centers(Biedrins and Lopez) and that assumes Pavlovic and Wallace get cut or bought out. That's 15 players which is too many for the Suns anyway. Something else is up.
- No way the Suns take all those guys from the Warriors. At best they should only take Beidrins, Curry and either Azubuike or Belinelli. I like Marco's upside but Kelenna is more experienced
- At the 15th the Suns of course took Early Clark. In our first mock draft I went with Ty Lawson (who I still like) and in the second mock I took Clark. I like this guy and with Coro reporting now that he's staying in Phoenix, I think he's a solid pick for all the reasons mentioned in the Ball Don't Lie mock.
- The Suns don't see Clark playing this season ahead of Dudley or Amundson. They see him as a higher upside project
- If Clark wasn't available they would have considered trading the pick for something in next year's draft
- Clark wore #5 at Lousville but can't for the Suns since it's retired (Dick Van Arsdale)
- Most importantly, according to the audio from Kerr, the Suns aren't done. They can't be done with this roster
- Oh, and the Suns still have two more picks to go late in the 2nd
- With the 48th the Suns take big brother Taylor Griffin
- 57th pick is Emir Preldzic, a 6'9" SG who likely will stay in Europe and who knows...
- That's it for tonight. The Amare to Golden State "deal" is obviously still in flux and might be for another week
- I look forward to hearing more about our 2nd round picks and seeing them in Vegas
Here's the audio from tonight's Gentry/Kerr press conference and some Earl Clark audio as well. Audio provided by Sports 620 KTAR: