J Rich? Cash?

[JohnVancouver]

JRich can go for 30 any night of the week and dunk from the foul line.

unless there's someone behind him .....

OMG JRICH GOT BLOCKFOULED BY LEBRON! THAT PUTS HIM IN THE SAME CATEGORY AS LIKE 100 OTHER PLAYERS

It happened twice, if you recall, and it was deeply stupid given how badly we needed every win at that point.

[Austin]

how many years left on the bag of coal's contract?

[Fo-Real]

if you could flip J. Rich+Pavs to Utah for Kirilenko, would you? Then Ben, for chandler, and sign Anthony Parker. Would you?

[WTFsunsFTW]

Negative, AKs contract is radioactive.

But everything else is splendid!

[Fo-Real]

Yeah but Ak's contract runs out after next year like J. Rich right, at what +3 or 4 mil more than J. Rich, but AK can play 3, 4, and 5 in this system (granted short stints at 5 ala Boris Diaw) I am not saying i would but dont you think AK>J. Rich. Anyone know why AK is an outkast in Utah, why dose it seem like Sloan hates him? He seems solid, can shoot and defend, obviously someone thought enough of him to give him that huge contract. In the past when Marion was here i thought he would have been a better fit here because it seemed that he shot better, but i didnt follow thier team, only when they played us, but back then i thought he was a pretty special player. Would a starting front court of Chandler/ Amare/ and Ak, get it done, and if it is effective, dose it make Nash re-up next year for less money, if we have a great run with that front court, and basically even out the greater spending now to make him happy in the long run. I honestly think the Nash asking for a raise thing is only if he dosent like the situation. And wouldnt his expiring contract next year make him again ecxcellent trade bait if the lineup didnt work Ala The Big Shaqtus.

[Phystic]

Unload JRich to TO for AP and Marion

I would jump at that. Get out from under Jrichs contract. AP is someone I've liked for a couple years now. He doesn't do anything really amazing, but he is solid in just about all aspects. Marion is fading quickly because he relies on his athleticism and he's getting older so that is starting to go.


Would be a great trade to go with the Chandler trade.

Chandler/Lopez
Amare/Amundson/Clark
Marion/Clark
Parker/LB
Nash/Dragic

and we have a lot of versatile players. Marion and Clark can both play the 4 if we go small, and Parker has the handles to play point if needed.

Is Dudley currently under contract? I thought he was a free agent.

[KJ7]

Here are my problems with J-Rich, in no particular order:

1.) Keeps getting DUIs. Don't want to root for a guy like that.

2.) Plays dumb. See stupid 360 dunk attempt. Yes, he was fouled, but it was still a moronic decision.

3.) Very poor defensively - this ties in with point #2. Low b-ball IQ.

4.) Offensively, he is pretty good, but everything he does, Barbosa does as well or better. Barbosa is younger, cheaper, and more fun to root for. But as long as J-Rich is on the team, that will limit Barbosa's minutes, or at least push Barbosa to the 1, where he's less effective than at the 2.

5.) Like I said, Barbosa was a similar player to J-Rich last year, but just better. Barbosa made $6.1mil, J-Rich made about $12mil. If J-Rich was paid $6-7 mil instead of $12-14mil, I'd probably feel a bit differently about wanting to dump him. The Suns have made it clear that they're cheap, so if they're going to win, it's important that all their big contracts go to guys who earn what they make. This is not really a problem for the Mavs, since Cuban is potentially willing to spend in order to win.

Usually agree with you Cash but can't say I agree here. I think the only similar thing about LB and JRich is that they are both ordinary defenders and can stroke the 3. JRich is much stronger and more athletic. The biggest diff b/w these 2 players is JRich's post-up game. LB basically has no post-up game but is a much much better slasher.

But I tend to agree with you. I'd rather have a weak, slasher at 6m then a strong, post-up guard.

If we do end up keeping JRich I actually hope we play him at SF rather then SG. Use his strength and get him away from guys who can take him off the dribble easily. I wasn't as disgusted with the JRich trade as I was with some of the others but I agree that if we could dump his salary it would just fit in nicely with a plan to save cap space for 2010 and rebuild properly/quickly. Just makes us a lot more flexible.

BTW I really like Barea and wished we drafted him that year (from memory he went undrafted which surprised me). I remember he was touted as a good play-maker prior to the draft. I'd much rather him over Tragic.

[lilfishi22]

If we do end up keeping JRich I actually hope we play him at SF rather then SG. Use his strength and get him away from guys who can take him off the dribble easily. I wasn't as disgusted with the JRich trade as I was with some of the others but I agree that if we could dump his salary it would just fit in nicely with a plan to save cap space for 2010 and rebuild properly/quickly. Just makes us a lot more flexible.

BTW I really like Barea and wished we drafted him that year (from memory he went undrafted which surprised me). I remember he was touted as a good play-maker prior to the draft. I'd much rather him over Tragic.

Nash/Barbs/JRich, gotta be the worst defensive 1/2/3 lol.

I'd move JRich for almost anything except Maggette and Z-Bo.

[Cash]

Usually agree with you Cash but can't say I agree here. I think the only similar thing about LB and JRich is that they are both ordinary defenders and can stroke the 3. JRich is much stronger and more athletic. The biggest diff b/w these 2 players is JRich's post-up game. LB basically has no post-up game but is a much much better slasher.

But I tend to agree with you. I'd rather have a weak, slasher at 6m then a strong, post-up guard.

If we do end up keeping JRich I actually hope we play him at SF rather then SG. Use his strength and get him away from guys who can take him off the dribble easily. I wasn't as disgusted with the JRich trade as I was with some of the others but I agree that if we could dump his salary it would just fit in nicely with a plan to save cap space for 2010 and rebuild properly/quickly. Just makes us a lot more flexible.

BTW I really like Barea and wished we drafted him that year (from memory he went undrafted which surprised me). I remember he was touted as a good play-maker prior to the draft. I'd much rather him over Tragic.

Well, I mean similar in terms of their role on the team. In both cases, JRich/LB is going to be either spotting up for 3, or driving to the rim and finishing at the basket. Neither one does a lot of pull-ups or runners or drive & kick, and I don't know anything about JRich's post game because we never went to it. JRich, with his size, should be the better defender, but definitely isn't. The biggest difference I see is that JRich can play the 2-3, whereas LB can play the 2-1.

I wasn't disgusted by the JRich trade at the time, but in hindsight, I really wish Kerr had fired Porter instead of making that trade. The results that Gentry got out of the same crew, combined with the results Larry Brown got out of Bell & Diaw, make it look like a very poor decision. It did get us Dudley, and I like Dudley, but let's face it, guys like that are not very hard to find or replace.

[KJ7]

I wasn't disgusted by the JRich trade at the time, but in hindsight, I really wish Kerr had fired Porter instead of making that trade. The results that Gentry got out of the same crew, combined with the results Larry Brown got out of Bell & Diaw, make it look like a very poor decision. It did get us Dudley, and I like Dudley, but let's face it, guys like that are not very hard to find or replace.

We had a little play where we would dump the ball in the high-post and JRich would make a baseline move, post up and usually score since he was so close to the basket and was pretty much unstoppable with his size and athleticism against other SGs. But yeah, we didn't use it that much and I think we'll use it even less under Gentry's full season.

Still it's something we could/should go to when Amare/Nash are off the court.

Couldn't agree more about your analysis of the trade. Diaw was obviously the one who we weren't getting the most out of. I think we all knew that if you give him the space he wants then he'll dominate and make the right decisions. Unfortunately with Diaw I wonder whether you can win a championship giving him the space he needs (I know we got to the WCF that year but it had to be the weakest championship run ever from both conferences). So if you can't win a championship playing him that way then what's the point of getting better but not to the point where you can win everything?

I was a bit sick of Bell for a while before we traded him. Absolutely awesome role-player at his peak but anyone who thought he was the same defender as when we first got him is absolutely kidding themselves. He was a spot-up shooter by the end of it. At least JRich has some size. Having said that why we didn't use Bell to at least get a good perimeter defender is beyond me!

Dudley is reminding me of someone like Harpring. I think someone like that will be his peak. Very tough hustling player who can guard players bigger then him and can get to spots on the floor he likes to hit his jumper. Neither great off the dribble or creating for themselves. Dudley's prolly got more distance on his jumper.

[Risensun]

BTW I really like Barea and wished we drafted him that year (from memory he went undrafted which surprised me). I remember he was touted as a good play-maker prior to the draft. I'd much rather him over Tragic.

I liked what I saw from him last year. Especially his passing and defense, but could he be had cheap?

[SW567]

Would you guys be interested in something like Richardson and Barbosa for Tmac and 2 first rounders (one from HOU and one from MEM, both top 3 protected lets say)?

[Cash]

Would you guys be interested in something like Richardson and Barbosa for Tmac and 2 first rounders (one from HOU and one from MEM, both top 3 protected lets say)?

Me personally, probably not. Barbosa is one of the last few guys on the team that I wholeheartedly love (along with Nash and... ... ...just Nash), and at some point, I need guys on the team who I can root for.

But looking at it from more of a front-office perspective, it's interesting. On one hand, T-Mac's expiring would save a ton of money next year, but also leave the team with Alando Tucker starting at 2-guard and no backup (unless T-Mac can play next year, which I doubt). Getting first-round picks is always good, but Houston's will be in the twenties, so that doesn't mean much. Does Houston already own a top-3-protected Memphis pick? What year? If it was next year, that'd probably be a pretty decent deal for the Suns. If it's a few years out, I'd definitely say pass. Memphis already has some good young players, then a couple more years of high picks (and losing Z-Bo when his contract expires) could make them a good team.

I can say this much: If the Suns came out next year with a lineup of:

Nash/Dragic
Belinelli/Tucker
Dudley/Earl Clark
Brandon Wright/Amundsen
Biedrins/Fropez

There would be no way they made the playoffs.

[SW567]

Well I was thinking something like this:

Houston
IN - Gasol, Richardson, Jaric, Buckner
OUT - Tmac, Battier, Dorsey, 1st rd pick (top 3 protected)

Memphis
IN - Barbosa, Battier, Dorsey
OUT - Gasol, Jaric, Buckner, 1st rd pick (top 3 protected)

Phoenix
IN - Tmac, 2 top 3 protected 1st rd picks (one each from HOU and MEM)
OUT - Richardson, Barbosa

[RaisingArizona]

Nash/Dragic
Belinelli/Tucker
Dudley/Earl Clark
Brandon Wright/Amundsen
Biedrins/Fropez

No way nash stays is that's our lineup. That's a 20 win team right there. Hey we might end up with the first pick.... oh wait....