Kerr's Worst Move?

[aIvin adams]

It is tough to say his worst move as GM, because they are all fairly equal in their suckiness. So I will focus on the few good things he has done.

1)Signing Hill
2)Signing Barnes for the vet min
3)Signing Skinner for the vet min
4)Mustering up the balls to finally firing Porter(granted it was way late)
5)Sticking with Gentry( who I think has really helped with Dragic)
6)Getting Studley

Alright, I am running out of ideas.

all good moves. nice!

i wish we hadnt gone after shaq but i think matrix wanted out. getting rid of marcus banks and someone who didnt want to be here for a top center in the league was a pretty swift move. not sure if matrix could have fetched something better but im just glad we arent talking about marcus banks anymore

[RunDogGun]

[
all good moves. nice!

i wish we hadnt gone after shaq but i think matrix wanted out. getting rid of marcus banks and someone who didnt want to be here for a top center in the league was a pretty swift move. not sure if matrix could have fetched something better but im just glad we arent talking about marcus banks anymore[/quote]


I didn't mind Banks that much. I did mind paying him as much as we did, but that was all Mike's fault. We never used Banks like we should have, and it seemed like he was walking on eggshells every time he was on the floor, which is probably Mike's doing as well.

[Sunsphan]

I don't think all of Kerr's moves have been bad at all. In fact, I think he has fielded some fantastic teams on paper. He basically tried to copy what Boston did by joining three superstars (Shaq, Nash, and Stat).

Although Shaq, and arguably Nash, were past their primes... I would say that Ray Allen was past his prime as well, and while KG was amazing, his most dominant days were in Minnesota. KG's supporting cast was just better in Boston.

Boston won a championship, and we didn't get past the first round... probably for a lot of reasons. Rondo's coming of age was a big one. Pierce's dominance was another. Probably playing in the East helped... while the East got better that year, the West was still more competitive top to bottom.

Boston also spent what little money they had left over in the right places... Posey, House, PJ Brown, Cassell, etc. Their role players stepped up big time as well (Perkins, Powe, Tony Allen to a lesser extent). They didn't suffer any major injuries. And they landed a highly effective defensive coach in Thibodeu.

All in all the difference is probably luck.

How many supposed diamond in the rough point guards turn out to be anything special? Very few, but Rondo did.

How many times do you go into a season saying, ok this thing is going to blow up completely if any of these three guys get injured.... and then none of them get injured? It happened for Boston.

How many times do you bring new players, new coaching, and a new team mindset in and it works from day one? It did for Boston.

I don't think Kerr has done a terrible job. However, the KT and James Jones deals were awful, and were not intended to make the team better. We could have better addressed the need for a perimeter defender (like Boston did with Posey), but we decided to let it ride. Would all of this have gotten us a championship? Probably not... you can't trade for luck... unless you have Kwame Brown's contract and you are the Lakers.

[Sunsphan]

Here's something else to think about:

On July 20, 2007 we traded KT (roughly an $8 million dollar expiring contract) to the Sonics/Thunder for basically a commemorative Lew Alcindor two-sided coin.

Just a few months later on Feb 2, 2008 the Lakers got Pau from the Grizzle Nizzle for essentially Kwame Brown (roughly a $9 million dollar expiring contract).

Also as part of the deal the Grizzles got Marc Gasol, Javaris Crittenden, and Aaron McKie (who BTW was not even playing basketball, and was actually employed on the coaching staff of the 76'ers if I remember correctly... but I digress).

If we had held onto KT, I think we could have put together a package as good as, if not better than the one LA gave. KT would have filled the role of a good-sized expiring contract. We could have sent some reasonably priced talent (some combo of Bell, Barbosa or James Jones had we kept him).

Oh, but LA sent 2008 and 2010 first round draft picks as well! Do you know what we would have still had, had we not traded KT in the first place??? That's right a 2008 and a 2010 first round draft pick.

Sure, hindsight is 20/20, but KT was a decent player with an EXPIRING contract... and we gave up two draft picks to "get rid" of him.

[amitg]

I honestly do not think he could have gotten a better deal as you are forgetting - and not just you - but that trade was a pure salary dump. Its not like the Suns could have taken on salary - even the 75/85% rule. Thomas needed to be traded to a team willing to take on $8m of salary and had room under the cap.

So to anybody who thinks Kerr could have got a better deal - find a team with $8m of cap room and see if they wouldn't have taken what the Sonics did. There was talk of a trade with Charlotte - but the Bobcats took on J-Rich's contract instead.

This was not an easy trade to make. And I am not saying Kerr has does a good job - but lets be realistic, the Suns had ZERO leverage to get anything and the Sonics used that to hose the Suns - and rightly so. Blame Sarver - he should have been more patient with the trade and waiting until February.

Actually, you are quite wrong.

Simply BUYING OUT Kurt Thomas would have done the following.
save 8M of Lux tax (his salary counts against the cap, but you don't pay luxury tax on it (AKA the Allen Houston Rule)

Sell the two draft picks instead of giving them to the sonics (3M each).

this means saving 14M, and you probalby save more since you could probably buy him out at 50%-60% of his contract, since he's earning that money staying at home instead of working...

so there are all the reasons in the world buying out KT and selling two draft picks could have saved the suns 16M, which is what trading him to the sonics did...

the only difference is you get to CHOOSE when to sell these draft picks AFTER you know how good they are, and you're not stuck wanting to rebuild cursing the moment you gave away your precious pick.

[Risensun]

I honestly do not think he could have gotten a better deal as you are forgetting - and not just you - but that trade was a pure salary dump. Its not like the Suns could have taken on salary - even the 75/85% rule. Thomas needed to be traded to a team willing to take on $8m of salary and had room under the cap.

So to anybody who thinks Kerr could have got a better deal - find a team with $8m of cap room and see if they wouldn't have taken what the Sonics did. There was talk of a trade with Charlotte - but the Bobcats took on J-Rich's contract instead.

This was not an easy trade to make. And I am not saying Kerr has does a good job - but lets be realistic, the Suns had ZERO leverage to get anything and the Sonics used that to hose the Suns - and rightly so. Blame Sarver - he should have been more patient with the trade and waiting until February.

Actually, you are quite wrong.

Simply BUYING OUT Kurt Thomas would have done the following.
save 8M of Lux tax (his salary counts against the cap, but you don't pay luxury tax on it (AKA the Allen Houston Rule)

Sell the two draft picks instead of giving them to the sonics (3M each).

this means saving 14M, and you probalby save more since you could probably buy him out at 50%-60% of his contract, since he's earning that money staying at home instead of working...

so there are all the reasons in the world buying out KT and selling two draft picks could have saved the suns 16M, which is what trading him to the sonics did...

the only difference is you get to CHOOSE when to sell these draft picks AFTER you know how good they are, and you're not stuck wanting to rebuild cursing the moment you gave away your precious pick.

Nice post but I highly doubt Kerr fully understands the salary cap rules. As someone pointed at when he worked as a sportwriter for yahoo he showed very little knowledge about the league. The more I think of it this is probably more like a hobby to Kerr than an actual job.

[Risensun]

I think that Kerr's next move will shatter the chance of him having a brain.


Sarver's next move will shatter the chance of him having a soul.