RealGM

Just want to start off by saying that I heard this a while back and it seems like this is resurfacing again after the Shaq trade. Like we all know, the Suns are going to have major cap space in the 10-11 season after Shaq's (21 mil), Steve Nash( 13.1 mil), Raja Bell's (5.2 mil) contracts have expired. The Suns, barring any future trade are going to be around 33 mil in the books.Thats around 33 mil of cap space barring any trades.

There is no doubt that the Suns put themselves in a great situation becouse they have commited themselves for 2 yrs after this in order to win a title and then the rebuilding begins and I beleive that they are going to build around Amare. They knew that in that same time they were going to be free agents like Chris Paul (Hornets), Deron Williams (Utah), Danny Grainger( Ind) and Andrum Bynum( Lakers).

Also there is going to be ETO players like Dwayne Wade and Lebron James. This puts the Suns in good position in order to make a play for these players. The one thing that I have heard is that Amare and Chris Paul are very, very good friends and that both have express interst of playnig together. Supposedly, Chris Paul and Amare have been together all weekend in New Orleans and have become even closer.

Is there a possibility that Amare may go to the Hornets, probably but it would have to be in a sign and trade that would land us maybe Tyson Chandler and David West but I'm preatty sure that New Orleans would think twice about that. Also the possibilities of Lebron James and Amare in the same team would be amazing. Okay I'm day dreaming but beleive when I say this that this is a possibiity that the Suns FO thought of when they made this trade.( Hopefully we also get Serge Ibaka in this years draft).

Like I stated before in the begining of this post, this is something that the Suns have FO have thought of after the Nash era starts.

It's no secrete CP3 wants to be a SUN more then anything

Him and Amare looked to have a good relationship..look at his pics on yahoo..almost all he's by CP3.. --nvm, see you pointed that out

Not to mention I love how he plays...

this has been my thinking for a couple years now, i really see CP as a prime candidate to be a Sun in a couple years. perfect guy to keep the PG tradition going and perfect place for him to secure himself as an ALL NBA player for years to come

CP3 would be nice, but our chances I think are not that high. He has a pretty good team right now, and will continue to be good in the future I think. So why would he leave that? Yes, we will be way under the cap, but in reality, he will most likely sign an extension and guarantee himself that he will be getting paid instead of becoming an unrestricted free agent.

Now with ATL making a good trade for a real PG, most likely, we will not have that great of a pick like most of us were hoping for.

However, I hope we can snag a solid PG and resign Nash if he still has something in the tank to a contract as backup and retire a sun.

I'd LOVE Paul here, but he seems to truly love New Orleans...no way that he opts out.

Yea..he's locked into New Orleans it looks like..more so then LBJ is Cleveland..he's done so much there to leave..1% chance at him

edit: Didn't try to make it sound like LBJ is locked into Cleveland, because he's not..ownership is pissing him off...but CP3 has done too much for New Orleans only to leave it in 3 years.

New Orleans would never let him get close to the end of his contract, he will be eligible for an extension with a year and a qualifying year left when they offer him a deal

LIke Marion this year he won't get close to the end of his deal.

So I highly doubt he ever gets to sniff free agency, especially how well they are contructed now with West and Chandler.

I disagree. Paul has superstar potential and NO would be a waste of a place to use it.

They are good now, but does anyone really think this team has any lasting power? I dont.

33 million of cap space? I think your numbers are off.

^ can someone actually work out how much we would have?

id love to know

anyways, between either shaqs expiring deal or letting all those contracts expire, we WILL have flexibility to add someone to the then core of amare, leandro, boris, DJ etc. If we wisely find a good backcourt partner for amare then there will be zero need for a rebuild and the suns can just keep on rolling

The only players we would have on the books by then would be Leandro, Boris and Amare. All of whom would be in the last year of their contracts during the 2010-2011 season.

Grant Hill will be retired.
Pike is gone after his contract with us is up.
I hope Marks is back... I don't see why we wouldn't pay the min salary.
DJ and Alando only have two year contracts. We might resign DJ.
Steve, Raja and Shaq will all retire.
Don't know about Skinner, but if he is with us his contract will be negligable.

After the 2009-2010 season, barring any new contracts, we will only be on the books for about $30,000,000. It's $28,362,775 right now, but I think Amare is on a graduated contract that sees him earning the max every year. I'm pretty sure Barbosa and Diaw are on level contracts.

The salary cap and lux tax will be higher by then. It's $55,630,000 now. The salary cap is always 51% of basketball related income, divided by all of the teams in the league. It grows at about 2-3 million a year it seems. Call the salary cap $60,000,000 in two years.

The Suns will have a cool $30,000,000 to throw around. Again, barring any major moves in the mean time.

Seattlesun wrote:I disagree. Paul has superstar potential and NO would be a waste of a place to use it.

They are good now, but does anyone really think this team has any lasting power? I dont.

David West is only 27 and Chandler is only 25

That could easily become one of the best frontcourts in the NBA for the next 3-4 years.

Gotta remember we are probably going to need to extend Amare in 09-10 to a max contract which will cost even more then his current one

If we really want financial flexibility we will defintely need to move Diaw in the next 1-2 years, His contract is actually so laughable when you look at it now.

remembering though that we will NEED to throw that money around also to make sure that there is enough talent around to ensure amare doesnt want to leave

Yep and quite frankly I am a tad worried he will leave

Nash will probably be re-signed as a role player when is contract is up and Shaq will be defintely retire .The FO will defintely need to make some smart moves so that we can keep the talent level up and keep Amare as a sun

You also can't ignore other teams. Assuming the trade goes through, Jason Kidd's $20 million contract with Dallas would come off the books at the same time, for example.

Filling Nash's foot steps (CP3's idol, along with Isiah Thomas growing up) is something he'd consider over Dallas..and said before, he seems to have a solid relationship with Amare.

Nash will sign vets minimum while averaging 15 and 10 in 2011.

Technically, we could simply sign Lebron and CP3 to Nash and Shaqs contracts, 20 and 15mil respectively not counting cap raises, which would be like keeping Nash and Shaq on the books and still have plenty of wiggle room to field a dynasty worthy team. A core of Amare/Paul/Lebron caliber is unheard of anywhere in basketball history. Get a sharpshooter and a rebound machine(possibly someone like jj reddick and sean williams if they continue to improve) and you're set for the next 5 years.

lebron seems like the one dude who is fed up with management and wouldn't hesitate to leave, befcause of mad moves and his ego - he looks like the type of guy that needs world attention and a big market like NY will help him with that. Chris Paul is a good guy.

Lebron....

he's a frontrunner, and loves the yankees instead of the Indians for god's sake!

his management has failed to surround him with good players, while Paul's GM has added Chandler and Peja, and he has West beside him.

he's part of a good team and loves New Orleans. he does a lot of charity and community work in the city, and calls people of that city
"my people" and its all very genuine.

so absolutely not ! David stern today has expressed his belief that the hornets will stay, and the owner has stated he's not going anywhere, and is tired of moving.

before david didn't know if the hornets would stay. now on record, he thinks they will. so the team's future isn't as cloudy. plus the city is closer to his hometown than pheonix. he's a big family guy.