Are the Suns the stupidest team in NBA?

CarolinaCash · Post #1 » by **CarolinaCash** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 3:20 am

I don't get that team at all. Since the 2004 draft they have traded away 5 1st round picks for nothing and now all of a suddenly they want to trade Diaw and Barbosa to get another 1st round pick? If they value 1st round picks why did they give away so many? (I wish the Bobcats could have taken one or two)
Here are their recent trades in the draft:

2004
Traded the 7th pick (Luol Deng) to Chicago for a 2nd round pick and 3 million in cash

2005
Traded the 21st pick (Nate Robinson) to Knicks for cash and future 2nd round pick

2006
Traded 21st pick (Rajon Rondo) to Celtics for future 1st round pick

2007
Traded 24th pick (Rudy Fernandez) to Portland for cash and 2nd round pick

They also gave Seattle a 1st round pick for taking Kurt Thomas. So is the 9th pick worth Barbosa or Diaw or does the salary issue make it impossible?

Post #2 » by **Walt Cronkite** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 2:57 pm

If we could get thin Diaw, I think he'd be worth picking up. Thin Diaw I would feel more comfortable with than Lopez. Holy hell! 9m/year byc!? I Always forget this about Boris. It's impossible to work unless we swap Wallace.

chrbal · Post #3 » by **chrbal** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 3:25 pm

Chicago also traded a future 1st (don't know what it became) to become Deng.
The Suns gave Seattle TWO 1sts to take Thomas, I will never forget that one.
Robinson and Richardson were traded for Kurt Thomas.

But I know what you mean. You're that close to being able to win it all, so you choose Eric Piatkowski and Sean Marks over what you can get in the 1st round?

Charlottes' reluctance to get in on one of these deals is one of the things that bother me. Even if Kurt Thomas did nothing (Say charlotte, not seattle did that deal), it still would've been worth it.

Post #4 » by **Paydro70** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 3:15 pm

They chose to cut salary... even late first round picks cost more than veteran minimum players. However, they cost more than Diaw and Barbosa. They took their best stab at winning with what they could afford, made a stupid Shaq trade, so now they'll probably have to clear house.

Obviously it would have been nice to be on the end of that "two picks + kurt thomas for nothing" trade, or any of the other pick giveaways. But do we have information that makes us think we were "reluctant," or did those deals just not come our way?

Post #5 » by **BigSlam** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 3:45 pm

Paydro70 wrote:But do we have information that makes us think we were "reluctant," or did those deals just not come our way?

Or did we just not make the phone call?

spectre_ · Post #6 » by **spectre_** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 3:52 pm

I thought we actually had a deal agreed upon...remember the Suns seeming surprised that we didn't make a deal with them? The scary thing of course was after talking to us they started working out lotto picks. It sure looks like it was going to cost us more than SEA anyway.

After the Swish trade we didn't have the cap to do that deal. Other than Fats (yeah, I remember!), would anyone rather have Thomas and 2 late picks over Swish right now?

Post #7 » by **fatlever** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 4:42 am

i stand by my comments about the richardson trade. i love the guy, he's fun to watch, easy to root for and a great teammate, but i would have rathered the team went an entirely different direction last summer and early fall (up through the nazr deal) in an attempt at being great (or failing miserably) over being good. i maintain that the deals made during that timespan will allow us to be good for the next 3 years but will also remove any chance at us being great over the next 5.

edit - more than the original jrich trade i am more mystified by the re-signing of carroll (when we had jrich, ammo, and herrmann) and the trading of herrmann for nazr.

but its all water under the bridge, so i am 100% behind jrich, carroll and nazr.

anyway... back to the suns.

chrbal · Post #8 » by **chrbal** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 3:40 pm

Paydro70 wrote:
Obviously it would have been nice to be on the end of that "two picks + kurt thomas for nothing" trade, or any of the other pick giveaways. But do we have information that makes us think we were "reluctant," or did those deals just not come our way?

This is how I'm guessing it went down.

Someone in Phoenix managment- "We need to trade Kurt for some cap space. Who are some teams that have cap space?"

Some other guy- "Seattle has room because of the Lewis trade, Charlotte does as well and I think there are some other teams."

Original guy- "I'll call Seattle first".
-"Hey this is so and so, we were thinking of trade Kurt to you with two 1sts for a second. What do you think?"

Seattle guy- "Wait? What? Yes, yes, a million times yes!!!".

I'm guessing the 1st team they called, said hell yeah before they could finish the statement. Kurt was a large expiring contract, who is a great teammate, and was still putting up good numbers. Most times the player doesn't really have anything left or is someone that is considered a "team cancer". With Seattles problems up front and the fact that they are in rebuild mode...I don't really think there could've been a better offer. Even if Kurt doesn't pan out, you add two 1st round picks.

Instead, Kurt put up some strong numbers and then they traded him for another 1st and two expiring contracts (players).

Pass_The_Sticks · Post #9 » by **Pass_The_Sticks** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 10:22 pm

Suns No.
Grizzles Yes.

bobcatsinfour · Post #10 » by **bobcatsinfour** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 1:52 am

I would not trade a lottery pick for Diaw, maybe Barbosa

chrbal · Post #11 » by **chrbal** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 5:51 pm

The Grizzlies get a lifetime achievement award. But the problem with the Suns is that they are close as they are and they are letting a few million get in the way.

microfib4thewin · Post #12 » by **microfib4thewin** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 10:57 pm

Not even close.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QMYcBT8UMvQ

babythug23 · Post #13 » by **babythug23** » Sun Jun 22, 2008 3:20 am

chrbal wrote:Chicago also traded a future 1st (don't know what it became) to become Deng.
The Suns gave Seattle TWO 1sts to take Thomas, I will never forget that one.
Robinson and Richardson were traded for Kurt Thomas.

But I know what you mean. You're that close to being able to win it all, so you choose Eric Piatkowski and Sean Marks over what you can get in the 1st round?

Charlottes' reluctance to get in on one of these deals is one of the things that bother me. Even if Kurt Thomas did nothing (Say charlotte, not seattle did that deal), it still would've been worth it.

This is the pick they got from bulls
2005
Traded the 21st pick (Nate Robinson) to Knicks for cash and future 2nd round pick

chrbal · Post #14 » by **chrbal** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 3:30 pm

Nice move for the Bulls.

Post #15 » by **rsavaj** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 3:52 pm

Yes, Yes, a thousand times YES.

Rondo, Rodriguez, Fernandez, Deng, Robinson....let alone getting rid of Kurt Thomas(and 2 future firsts for cap relief) AND James Jones(along with Fernandez for cap relief).....and now they want to trade their 2 bench guys for...draft picks.

Fantabulous.

Post #16 » by **Paydro70** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 6:05 pm

...again, it's all salary, I'm not sure how anyone can call it stupid. They're paying Shaq 20m, Amare 15m, and Nash 12.5m... they're at almost 50m off of three players! Diaw is basically a bad contract (9m) so why wouldn't they try to ditch him?

They obviously made a mistake trading for Shaq, but the rest of these deals are just an attempt to keep under the luxury tax. It seems like the 2 1sts for taking Thomas deal is an unlikely one to be necessary... surely some team would have taken him off their hands for less (or nothing). But the rest, and these new deals, make perfect sense.

microfib4thewin · Post #17 » by **microfib4thewin** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 11:19 pm

Paydro70 wrote:...again, it's all salary, I'm not sure how anyone can call it stupid. They're paying Shaq 20m, Amare 15m, and Nash 12.5m... they're at almost 50m off of three players! Diaw is basically a bad contract (9m) so why wouldn't they try to ditch him?

They obviously made a mistake trading for Shaq, but the rest of these deals are just an attempt to keep under the luxury tax. It seems like the 2 1sts for taking Thomas deal is an unlikely one to be necessary... surely some team would have taken him off their hands for less (or nothing). But the rest, and these new deals, make perfect sense.

Except it was their own doing that made them over the cap. No one pointed a gun at Phoenix and tell them to sign a 6 year 42 mil deal for Quentin Richardson, a 4 year 36 mil extension for Diaw after one good season WITHOUT Amare, and a 5 year 24 mil for Banks even though he did nothing impressive in his career. People should already know that 07 was the best chance the Suns has at winning a title with Amare making a successful recovery and Nash having a chip on his shoulder. The only people that are surprised the Suns is no longer an elite team are Suns fans themselves.

Post #18 » by **Tommy Udo 6** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 11:39 pm

chrbal wrote:Chicago also traded a future 1st (don't know what it became) to become Deng.
The Suns gave Seattle TWO 1sts to take Thomas, I will never forget that one.
Robinson and Richardson were traded for Kurt Thomas.

But I know what you mean. You're that close to being able to win it all, so you choose Eric Piatkowski and Sean Marks over what you can get in the 1st round?

Charlottes' reluctance to get in on one of these deals is one of the things that bother me. Even if Kurt Thomas did nothing (Say charlotte, not seattle did that deal), it still would've been worth it.

Bulls traded their 2005 first rounder, which became the 21st pick since Bulls won 47 games the prior season. Phoenix gave that pick to NY so that NY would accept Q Richardson's uninsured contract. NY used the pick to ask Phoenix to select Nate Robinson, whose rights were then transfered to NY.

I'm sure the Suns expected the Bulls 2005 pick to be a Lotto pick - just like they expected this year's Hawks pick to be a Lotto pick. Neither happened!