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After reading that the FO is looking at DAMON STOUAMIRE and MIKE WILKS if Dragic can't come over, I decided to look at what our options are.

Because of our HORRIBLE backup PG situation, I decided to make a list of PG's, which includes current and former NBA players, who can be had at the moment. Some are playing internationally, others are free agents, and so on. The list isn't very exciting, but name the top 5 out of this list that you would choose.

Sam Cassel - Last played for Boston Celtics, solid vet off the bench, won 3rd ring
Smush Parker - Last played with LAC, no need to explain.
Damon Stoudemire - Last played with Spurs, too old and lost his game already IMO.
Troy Hudson - Last played with GSW, not too shabby, could be decent if he bounces back from the surgery
Dan Dickau - Last played with LAC, nothing more than a rotational backup (maybe 3rd stringer)
Lindsey Hunter - Last played with Pistons, solid defender still, lost a couple steps though (3rd stringer?)
Jannero Pargo - UFA, he''s exactly what we need IMO.
Flip Murray - Last played with Seattle, 3rd stringer
Darrel Armstrong - 3rd stringer, can be a Sam Cassel type backup except much better defense
Orien Greene - Currently playing in Iran, Charlotte Bobcats SL player as well
Kevin Burleson - Played with Turkish team last year, can be a good pickup as 3rd stringer
Derek Anderson - Played with Charlotte last season, UFA, 3 pt machine. Chucky Atkins TYPE player. Not really what we need.
Shaun Livingston - LAC last season, cant play 5on5 till January, could be our BEST bet as a 3rd stringer come JAN
Daniel Ewing - EXCELLENT defender, UFA, could be a solid pickup IMO
Shammond Williams - Played in Spanish league last season, excellent shooter, could be veteran 3rd stringer
Jeff McInnis - Played with Bobcats last season for 38 games, could be someone to look at
Antonio Burks - no size but good quicks + could be a good 3rd stringer
Mike Wilks - quick speedy point guard, last played with Seattle (10 day contract), not too good an option as a primary backup
John Lucas III - Last played with an Italian team and had an outstanding showing with the Raptors SL squad. Should be given a thought.
Andre Barret - Not much to say. Last played with Clippers. Could be solid 3rd stringer?
Mateen Cleaves - D-Leageur now as far as I know, last played with SuperSonics (aka Thunder)
Eddie Gill- Last played 10 day contract with Seattle, could be someone to look at.
Raul Lopez - He's very similar to Nash with the court vision, quickness, but also likes to score. Plays in Spain right now, if he could be brought over, would be great.
Darius Washington - Played with Bucks summer league team - could be good 3rd stringer
Bobby Brown - excellent showing with the Hornets SL squad. would be a great backup IMO
CJ Watson - great player (all rounder), good backup IMO
Mike Taylor - not a bad showing with Clippers SL team, could be good 3rd stringer


So, as you may have noticed, there aren't many BACKUP type players. I can name a few, such as John Lucas III, Jannero Pargo, Sam Cassel, Bobby Brown, CJ Watson, and maybe Troy Hudson / Dan Dickau. From the 3rd stringers, if we had to choose one to backup I would choose one of these 3, with Orien Greene being my top choice.
1) Orien Greene
2) Raul Lopez
3) Eddie Gill

I take Greene from those groups because
a) he was known as being a defensive stopper at the PG position, which isn't a very common trait, and one that we are in deep need of.
b) he could be had cheap (minimum contract which would be like 300k-500k)
c) he is a hustle type player without much need on offense, but he's athletic and can get to the rim at will with his quickness
d) a lot of size at the PG with his 6'4 body, he can post up almost any point guard

What are your top 3 choices for Backup / 3rd stringer?
I would like Greene even as a backup IMO if we get a Darrel Armstrong as a 3rd stringer...

The Suns best bet if Dragic can't come would be shelling out the same amount of money (2M) from the mid level and give Jannero Pargo a two year deal till 2010.

If that doesn't work the Suns should consider taking a chance on a young player, a few that come to mind are Jameson Curry (waived by the Bulls), Jared Jordan (Suns summer league), Salim Stoudamire (Damons younger cousin), Sean Siglerty (rumoured to be released after the Artest trade) also check out some undrafted rookies or players from the d-league.

main problem bout the dragic situation imo is, that we´ll wait til tai decides.
and til that we won´t sign any other pg. and that´s a fact i can´t understand.
why not signing a stoudamire type of player and if dragic comes over thoes two ( d.stoudamier & dragic ) could share time on the pg position. who tells you that goran dragic ( who is a back up in euope ) will come over and play that type of bball that will help us...
can´t understand the thoughts of kerr and sarver..

Sign Pargo.

Man, this is exactly why I said we should NOT play around with the backup point guard situation! Then a few posters said we're still working on Dragic and if he doesn't come we could get X and Y. Now that we've waited for so long and realize he won't come, we've already lost quite a few dcent backup PG options e.g J-Dub, because we didn't put 100% into trying to get them.

Maybe im just real cut up about losing J-Dub to Clippers, but ti still doesn't change the fact that we should've addressed this situation as soon as we found out Dragic coming over here is only 50%.

Now we are left with Stoudemire and Wilks. Dicau has gone to Europe, Pargo seems too expensive, Armstrong/Cassel is too old. etc etc.

Not happy with FO.

lilfishi22 wrote:Man, this is exactly why I said we should NOT play around with the backup point guard situation! Then a few posters said we're still working on Dragic and if he doesn't come we could get X and Y. Now that we've waited for so long and realize he won't come, we've already lost quite a few dcent backup PG options e.g J-Dub, because we didn't put 100% into trying to get them.

Maybe im just real cut up about losing J-Dub to Clippers, but ti still doesn't change the fact that we should've addressed this situation as soon as we found out Dragic coming over here is only 50%.

Now we are left with Stoudemire and Wilks. Dicau has gone to Europe, Pargo seems too expensive, Armstrong/Cassel is too old. etc etc.

Not happy with FO.

+ 1 - fo sucks right now -

patience, patience, patience........

Last season we needed a 4/5 (and were waiting on PJ), and right before we headed to camp we picked up Skinner; ye of little faith.

Our front office knows what they are doing in evaluating talent. They are rolling the dice right now in hopes of bringing over Dragic, but their ability to find the right guy if Dragic falls to the wayside is still their. If Dragic doesn't come over, I would not be surprised to see us take a hard look at Livingston (who from a FO standpoint is a little redundant if Dragic comes over).

Outside of that: Cassell, and Pargo are better players than JWill, Arroyo, and any other PG that has been taken off the market that we had any chance of signing.

Damon Stoudemire is a long shot IMO. And I will be really disappointed if Mike Wilks is brought in as our primary backup. If we go with a young guy, CJ Watson, and John Lucas III are the best unproven players out their.

I for one, am going to take a deep breath and keep my patience!

GO SUNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MaryvalesFinest wrote:The Suns best bet if Dragic can't come would be shelling out the same amount of money (2M) from the mid level and give Jannero Pargo a two year deal till 2010.

I like the idea of Pargo coming here. He is somebody that can give Nash a breather without making the fans hold there breath.

Just wait till September...when an ex-Sun might be cut by a crappy Atlantic division team.

I agree with WArt for the most part...except for this ...

Our front office knows what they are doing in evaluating talent.

What grounds do we have to support this overused panacea ? DJ ? Tucker ? Banks ? Burke, Marks, Pike (and the rest of the last-stop-in-NBA-ville-vets) There seems to be this tremendous sentiment that Griffin/Kerr are some talent eyeballing gurus when it comes to player evaluation.

The Front Orfice has painted us into this corner...I expect no relief from them. Considering the past two Brilliant moves were largely convincing good players to take significant paycuts to play here (Hill, Barnes)

the bed is made... time to see how comfortable the mattress is. DJ and Barbs can handle the 15 Nashless minutes...atleast until they prove otherwise.

walkingart wrote:patience, patience, patience........

Last season we needed a 4/5 (and were waiting on PJ), and right before we headed to camp we picked up Skinner; ye of little faith.

Our front office knows what they are doing in evaluating talent. They are rolling the dice right now in hopes of bringing over Dragic, but their ability to find the right guy if Dragic falls to the wayside is still their. If Dragic doesn't come over, I would not be surprised to see us take a hard look at Livingston (who from a FO standpoint is a little redundant if Dragic comes over).

Outside of that: Cassell, and Pargo are better players than JWill, Arroyo, and any other PG that has been taken off the market that we had any chance of signing.

Damon Stoudemire is a long shot IMO. And I will be really disappointed if Mike Wilks is brought in as our primary backup. If we go with a young guy, CJ Watson, and John Lucas III are the best unproven players out their.

I for one, am going to take a deep breath and keep my patience!

GO SUNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You may be right that Cassel and Pargo is better than players like JWill and Arroyo etc who have been taken off the FA. But this is no time to "roll the dice." I'm sure more than half of us on this board would agree with me that this coming season is our very last chance to win a championship. After next season, our guys vets won't be able to carry to team no more, and we must wait for 2010 for more room to move financially. I agree we should not make any rash moves like give an unnecessarily large contract to anyone ie, Diop and Posey. But from where I'm standing I just don't see Dragic coming this season, and even if he does, what harm is it to sign another backup point? We're not only banking on Dragic coming to PHX this season, but we're also banking on him being able to make a successful transition. Even if he does get his contract buyout, what will we do if he isn't able to make a successful transition from Euro basketball to the NBA? I have faith in our FO's talent evaluation, but it's always a possibility. Let's just get an FA signed for insurance.

Walkingart, I'm not trying to get at you, I'm just mad at our FO's incompetence and I do hope things will work out.

blackjays wrote:Just wait till September...when an ex-Sun might be cut by a crappy Atlantic division team.

LOL...I have been racking my brain on this one, and can't figure out whom you are talking about. Please enlighten me.

scootfu602 wrote:LOL...I have been racking my brain on this one, and can't figure out whom you are talking about. Please enlighten me.

Stephon Marbury

....I have faith in our FO's talent evaluation, .....
I'm just mad at our FO's incompetence and I do hope things will work out.

there it goes again....atleast with a caveat.

Until proven otherwise, I see no reason to backpat the front orfice for their 'star searching' efforts

yah, i have to agree that this team always signs good player at the last second, and if we know that steph gets his buy out than i would wait for him, no matter what
wbut my problem is, that we relie on what would be, if´s and so on.
i would ove to see that something happens, and don´t forget the fact that we also need a strong back up for amare...

Well I think that won't be anything more than a min. contract to fill in the roster. A scrub as a 10th, 11th man in rotation.

Josh Powell
Michael Ruffin
Melvin Ely
Jamaal Magloire
Lorenzen Wright

Frank Lee wrote:

....I have faith in our FO's talent evaluation, .....
I'm just mad at our FO's incompetence and I do hope things will work out.

there it goes again....atleast with a caveat.

Until proven otherwise, I see no reason to backpat the front orfice for their 'star searching' efforts

Nah you right. Maybe I am putting too much blind faith into our FO. But as a fan, I really can't do much else other than to have faith.

So, DRAGIC HAS BEEN SIGNED. TIME FOR A VET BIG NOW?