stalking Phoenix...Nash to the Wolves

[Devilzsidewalk]

first let me say that any Phoenix fans that read this, I apologize, I'm just trying to give this the hard sell

facts: Nash and Jason Richardson are making more than 1/3 of Phoenix's pay roll
Phoenix is over 7 mil over the cap
Phoenix is a .500 team w/ most likely no shot at all at the finals, they'll be lucky to even make the playoffs.
Nash is 36

opinions: Nash and Richardson's best seasons are behind them
Phoenix has an owner with a cost conscious reputation, he's shelled out reluctantly for a contender, unlikely to be too happy w/ shelling out for a .500 team
A Phoenix rebuild is inevitable...


Steve Nash / Jason Richardson / Gani Lawlz
for
Jonny Flynn / Nikola Pekovic / Corey Brewer / Martell Webster / Utah 1st / Memphis 1st

Phoenix gets some young talent, some firsts, and some big time cap savings. You can sell a rebuild to your fans when the veteran team isn't that good. As for Minnesota...why? Veteran players are supposed to be traded to contenders, those are the rules! Well its only for 2 years. In that time:
*Rubio learns from the best teacher possible for a year.
*Jason Richardson is still pretty decent.
*You want to run? No better teacher in the NBA to learn that style from.
*MN gets good. Immediately. Not great, but good. Its been awhile, for a palatable investment...No Love, no Beasley, no Wes.
*The big gain here is training. Nash is the best teacher for Rubio, and for the team in general. We're too young, we need a veteran leader. Like Ridnour times 10.

For Phoenix, its about cap space. There's just nobody out there prepared to take on these salaries while still throwing half decent prospects and picks to the mix too. Either this or ride out a 45 win team into the sunset. Fans will hate it on paper, but it accept it once it happens.

[NoelTheMole]

I LOVE Steve Nash so I'm totally going to agree to a trade that brings him here. On the other side I think we are overpaying to save the Suns money. We don't send them Pekovic at all. Flynn I could do, but they have faith in Dragic. I'm fine with sending Brewer and Webster.

We do get better offensively by a lot but Nash and Rich really can't play any defense, and paired with Love this could be a disaster.

Now if only we could send Love+ some assets to Atlanta for Josh Smith.

I'd be happy to run with Nash / J.Rich / Beasley / J.Smith / Darko. That's the best running team in the league right there. With no one being able to score in the paint.

[TyKixx]

I just think thats too much. Taking on J-Rich is basically doing them a favor. Flynn, Webster, two first including Memphis' who isn't off to much of a start...not to mention whatever value Pek and Brewer have at this point. I don't think we need a shakeup of this magnitude.

[shangrila]

I really don't want to give up Webster until we know what we have, so maybe sub in Telfair and/or someone else with a small or expiring contract. Plus, Richardson probably isn't here long term so keeping Webster around is even more important.

I actually like this trade, although I expect most to hate it. You're right about Nash being the best teacher we could get for Rubio and I like the idea of adding veterans to the team since that seems to be our biggest flaw right now. Plus, it doesn't hurt our cap situation too bad as Richardson is expiring this year and his 14mil salary is pretty much the difference between what we're sending out and getting back.

I don't think Phoenix would take this deal unless they're in the toilet. It'd be tough enough to sell the fan base on the idea of trading Nash but I think it'd be even harder to turn around and justify keeping Hedo on the roster.

A well thought out trade though, congrats.

[sofakingbad]

Would prefer to give Flynn, Brewer, Kofus or Peck the rights to Belly and the 2 firsts for Nash and Lopez. Richardson as an expiring might hold more value to Pho as a contract than as a player for the wolves.

[lobishome]

It's too nice for be real and too soon. Kahn never would do this kind of move (sign a 36 yo PG + throw out Flynn) without to know the Rubio's decision about the next season ...

... except if he already knows it.

I was thinking about the possible lockout, ... if Nash accepts to play with Minnesota and the lockout is real, then he could play with Regal Barça next year to speed things up.

And we could give him soccer tickets for free !!

[younggunsmn]

opinions: Nash and Richardson's best seasons are behind them

And our best seasons are 2-3 years ahead, so it makes little sense to give up players who have a good shot at being part of the core of that (flynn, webster, picks) for 1 1/2 mediocre years with Steve Nash.

Ricky Rubio isn't Steve Nash. Nash can't teach him to shoot like Steve Nash. Rubio already is a gifted passer and better defender than Nash and Rubio already has an extremely high bball IQ. I really don't see much value in Nash "mentoring" him. Nash has thrived in a spread pick n' roll offense his whole career. We don't run anything like that here.

And it's not enough to entice Phoenix. They prefer Dragic to Flynn anyway. They are going to ride Nash until he retires unless it's a great deal, because he's got a cheap contract for the star power he brings, and he continues to put butts in the seats down there.

[Worm Guts]

I think it benefits young players to play on winning teams and to play with players who have been on winning teams, although I'm not sure how weight that in terms of trade value. If we plan on moving Flynn at the end of the year anyway, this would be interesting.

[Foye]

I think what you did there is ridiculous overpaying for a guy that has 1 or maybe 2 good years left.

[Krapinsky]

Way too much for a 35 year old point guard and an expiring contract heading into a lockout season. Yeesh. If you took out both of the firsts I still would not consider it. Webster and Flynn, when healthy, are going to be good. Pekovic, when he figures the NBA out, is going to be good.

I really don't want to mess with this team right now.

[champalift]

I would want more than a 36 year old Steve Nash for that package. Three young, decent contract, talents (all with high upside) and two firsts for 36 year old Nash and an overpaid J-Rich. Sorry, no way would I do that. If Nash gets traded for value it will be to a serious contender mid season otherwise he will be a Sun til retirement I think.

[Iommi]

It's too nice for be real and too soon. Kahn never would do this kind of move (sign a 36 yo PG + throw out Flynn) without to know the Rubio's decision about the next season ...

... except if he already knows it.

I was thinking about the possible lockout, ... if Nash accepts to play with Minnesota and the lockout is real, then he could play with Regal Barça next year to speed things up.

And we could give him soccer tickets for free !!

honestly, free tickets to barca soccer games would sure as hell convince me to move to europe

[Worm Guts]

It is overpaying, maybe even way overpaying, but it's secondary assets (we've got better players/prospects at every position that we're giving up) and I would be interested in seeing how much better Steve Nash would make us. I can't imagine Nash being happy getting traded here though.

[Krapinsky]

I think in the long run a 23 year old Webster alone would be much more valuable than a 35 year old Nash would. When Rubio comes over do we want to give him only Dragic minutes behind Nash? Or do we want to give him starter minutes and build chemistry with all these other guys that are 21, 22?

We're not going to be competing for a title for three or four years minimum, if ever, with or without Nash. So when 3 years come up, I'd rather have all those assets to use than a retiring Steve Nash and "whatever collateral improvemnet" playing with Nash has led to.

[the_bruce]

Steve Nash / Jason Richardson / Gani Lawlz
for
Jonny Flynn / Nikola Pekovic / Corey Brewer / Martell Webster / Utah 1st / Memphis 1st

Way overpaying here.

[cpfsf]

I think we'd be sending Rubio mixed messages. I'm paraphrasing, but Kahn pretty much said that the starting job is Rubio's.

[the_bruce]

Main problem I see is PHX would only do this to save $$. Maybe MN could get in the mix if PHX + nyk made a trade

Something like this...

Nash 10m for Turiaf 4 + Felton 7 (phx +1m, nash fits with nyk)
Turiaf + clark for webster (saves phx 1m)
Felton for Ridnour (saves phx 3m, feltons 3rd years isnt garaunteed)
Randolph for cap (MN's incentive)
Curry for richardson
(saves phx 3m, and gives nyk a bigger expiring for melo trade that will be closer to melos salary)

Total phx saved 6m (plus lux)

Nyk gets melo parts

MN no clue why we'd do this. Turiaf is a solid rotational player we could use. A look at randolph would be nice. Felton for ridnour is a bleh swap for me. I think Clark has no rights, but I still like him. He's not a great fit here with beasy and randolph already filling his sort of role. Maybe send tolliver instead of webster?

I like the nash and rubio mentor role. I just don't see why we'd pay for it.

[Worm Guts]

I think in the long run a 23 year old Webster alone would be much more valuable than a 35 year old Nash would. When Rubio comes over do we want to give him only Dragic minutes behind Nash? Or do we want to give him starter minutes and build chemistry with all these other guys that are 21, 22?

We're not going to be competing for a title for three or four years minimum, if ever, with or without Nash. So when 3 years come up, I'd rather have all those assets to use than a retiring Steve Nash and "whatever collateral improvemnet" playing with Nash has led to.

Webster's got 5 years of being nothing but a role player, so I'm not sure I'm ready to put that kind of value on him. We'd still have Richardson and Wes.

[Krapinsky]

Richardson is an expiring contract, which means to resign him we would also be giving up our valuabel cap space. Webster, at 23, definately a role player in Portland, has his best days ahead of him. If he can be a starting SG that provides solid defense and averages 15-16 points per game on good percentages, well, I'll take that at $5M over Steve Nash playing in place of Flynn or Rubio for $11/12M or whatever he makes. I really don't see much merit with the opposing arguement on this one.

[LordBaldric]

Nash is one of my favorite players, but are you F'ing kidding me? Massive overpayment for no discernible purpose. This trade is so bad that your credibility has taken a shot in my eyes.

And if Nash gets moved he deserves to go to a contender.