What's the Suns 2010 plan?

[MaryvalesFinest]

So far we've been hearing all these other teams talk about there 2010 off season plans but what do you guys think the Suns will do in the 2010 off season realisticly?

Everyone talks about the Knicks, Heat, Bulls and Raptors to a certain extent but you never really hear about the Suns being like 37 million under the cap with Shaq, Nash and Bell's contracts all expiring.

The Suns probally arn't in the running for a big three player considering either Lebron, Bosh and Wade will stay with there respected teams or Lebron will go to the Knicks along with Bosh and Wade will stay with the Heat or go to his hometown and play for the Bulls but there plenty of other players the Suns could sign.

So what do you guys think will probally happen?

Discuss

[rsavaj]

Well, I'm still worried about Amare's knees, since I remember reading that he's going to need microfracture again. I don't' know if I'd extend him to the max if we don't have a guarantee that he's going to be healthy, or if he hasn't matured as a player. He's a dangerous offensive weapon, but he's strictly a one-way player at this point, and that's not the definition of a franchise player.

You also have to consider whether or not he'll even want to stay here. I think he will, because he seems more money/stats oriented then team/wins oriented, and we can offer him the most money due to his Bird Rights, but look at the team that will surround him in 2010: Alando Tucker, Leandro Barbosa, Robin Lopez, Goran Dragic, and our 2009 draft pick....not exactly an inspiring bunch. He's a businessman, and he may also want to move on to what he perceives to be a "larger market" or a "better opportunity".

Then there's the fact that we have one of the worst front offices in the league, and we lost our most valued attraction(D'Antoni's offense). The only thing we really have going for us is the city of Phoenix, which seems to be pretty popular amongst athletes.

If we win a championship in the next two years, we'll bring back our core in 2010. If we don't, I can see Nash leaving for New York, Shaq leaving for LA, Bell and Hill retiring, and Diaw/Barbosa being traded for cap space.

[MaryvalesFinest]

Yeah Amare will be 28 in 2010 and extending him to the max might not be a great idea because Amare could easily turn out to be another Chris Webber and just fall apart in his early 30's. I don't think the Suns would just let Amare walk without getting anything, they could easily trade him for some solid talent (and/or picks).

I do agree that Nash is pretty much as gone to the Knicks and Shaq will either be retiring or going to the Lakers, Bell probally wont be retiring but going to another team for the minimum considering he and Porter arn't getting along.

You do bring up a good point about trading for capspace though considering the Suns are going to be over the luxury tax next off season again. I'm thinking the most likely scenario is they just wont pick up Nash's option, it will be said but I can see it happening.

[Mr. Sun]

Not worried about Amare's knee's - he'll re-sign at good money. He is too established in Phoenix to walk for a couple of more dollars.

Nash, hmmmm ... I suspect he'll stick around at lot less money to give the SUN's the opportunity to surround him with top talent. At his age and TO ratio his opportunities are limited.

We'll keep Robin and Amundson.

We''ll use LB to get Rudy!

Also.... I don't see James going to the Knicks. Why? NY Taxes.

[asubennett]

I think another real possibility that needs to be explored is how valuable our expirings will be next year via trade.

Phoenix regardeless if Colangelo or Sarver is running the team is appealing to athletes. So many live here during the offseason and the NBA is played during the coldest months of the year. Why not want to be in Phoenix.

At any rate, rather than dream of Wade / Bosch etc.... Perhaps even more realistic is an opportunity to trade Shaq and his expiring $20 M with a bad contract like Diaw for a player who may leave in 2011 or is disgrunted with his current situation. Perhaps a guy like Rudy Gay or OJ Mayo or Lamarcus Aldridge or Jeff Green (my pick to become the next Joe Johnson type player) At any rate their are a lot of tier two guys who by the time 2010 rolls around could be the new teir one of the league.

I dont think Amare is going anywhere and because of how mild the need for his microfracture was I think he will be just fine moving forward.

But if were able to let Nash go via free agency and unload Shaq for a tier two talent I would love our team.

PG: Barbosa / Dragic
SG: Rudy Gay
SF: Jeff Green
PF: Amare
C: Lopez

[JohnVancouver]

[quote="Mr. Sun"]Not worried about Amare's knee's - he'll re-sign at good money. He is too established in Phoenix to walk for a couple of more dollars.

Nash, hmmmm ... I suspect he'll stick around at lot less money to give the SUN's the opportunity to surround him with top talent. At his age and TO ratio his opportunities are limited.

--- I don't know. In the right situation his age won't be a factor i.e. sharing the point with someone. The turnovers is attributable to the new ... well, let's call it an "offense", for the sake of civility.

rsajav said "I'm still worried about Amare's knees, since I remember reading that he's going to need microfracture again."

really - I hadn't heard this. I had heard a number of people say that the way he plays it was likley he'll have knee troubles again, at some point.

[lilfishi22]

Despite having mad cap space in 10, I honestly fear that we won't be able to pick up a big time FA because we lost our main attraction in D'Antoni. Players like D'Antoni beause he's a players coach, holds light practices, no shot is ever a bad shot for him and he's an offensive genius. With most of our vets gone, the Suns will be in rebuild mode, not exactly the most attractive place for big time FA's. Only issue with rebuilding is that we don't exactly have any picks or young talent on our team that would look in any way attractive to FA's.

As for STAT, I think rsavaj made a good point. They guy's a businessman and I wouldn't be surprised if he signed with a big market team and be promoted more. Financially though, I don't believe there are that many teams ready to offer Amare a max contract considering he's no franchise player and he doesn't play both ends of the court. If he stays in PHX it'll be because he's gonna get paid well, and this will be "his" team, whereas if he goes elsewhere, he'll likely be paired up with an established franchise player. His knees do trouble me though, since he's like one of the first guys to come back very close to 100% so we really don't know if he'll turn our like CWebb.

I don't think Nash will stay in PHX and even if he does, i doubt we would pay him any more than an MLE. I'd have to disagree with JohnVancouver though, I think a lot of teams would like Nash's services and would pay more than MLE for his leadership and experience, I mean who wouldn't pay the MLE for a former 2-time MVP as your backup. Shaq is as good as gone and I think Bell will likely retire a Sun in 2010 and possibly do some broadcasting. This is if we don't win a championship. If we do, then it's a different story.

Like asubennett mentioned, we do have an option of trading Shaq since his 20mill expiring would be quite attractive to certain teams. If it was up to me, I'd rather rebuild on the fly with Nash, Bell and Amare still under contract and hopefully with some expiring contracts we get for Shaq, we could attract FA's in 2010. Basically, if we rebuild from scratch in 2010, it's unlikely we'll be able to get a top tier FA since we would've lost guys like Nash and maybe even Amare.

[rsavaj]

I'm going to get murdered for this, but I've been having some queasy thoughts lately.

I don't like the way Porter utilizes Amare/Shaq on the floor together. It seems like when one has a good game, the other has a mediocre game. We're more Shaq-centric now, and the Nash/Amare pick and roll has all but vanished. This is Amare's 7th year in the league, and he still remains a one way player. He hasn't improved on defense, and his rebounding is still quite mediocre.

Last season, he was terrifyingly effective when paired with Shaq; this year, it seems as though Shaq is in his way more often then not. "The Amare Stoudemire Project" seems to have turned into the "Feed Me For I am Large and Effective" project for Shaq. Amare hasn't looked particularly great as of late. He's taken some bad shots, he's gotten torched on D(simply due to lack of effort), and he's not doing so well on the glass. He's not getting to the free throw line as much as he was earlier on in this young, young season.

He's had some astounding games; that game against Indiana was the best game of his career, largely because it was a COMPLETE, ALL AROUND game. He made PLAYS on the offensive end, he played with energy and desire on the glass and on the defensive end. He was unstoppable; however, that game happened with Shaq playing like crap.

If we truly are going to be more Shaq-centric, and we're not going to play Shaq/Amare together the same way D'Antoni did(tsherkin has detailed this many times), then I wonder just how essential Amare is to this team. I don't know if he's the best fit for Shaq in this half-court offense that has "marginalized" Steve Nash, Amare's greatest enabler.

Again, I'm worried about Amare's future. He has had a couple knee operations already, and like I sadi before, I'm pretty sure he's going to need microfracture again. His ego is fragile. He already seems to have flip-flopped on Porter, and seems like he's wistful for D'Antoni's offense. There are several teams lining up to make him an offer in 2010, and I feel that there's a strong chance that we could lose him for nothing that summer.

Looking at our current situation, we are not title contenders this year. We are a competitive team in the Western conference trying to make the playoffs, but I don't see us besting LAL, SAS, NOH, UTA in a playoff series, let alone CLE or BOS. We're stuck in this weird transitional mode; we're a team full of Ferrari parts trying to become a bulldozer. We're just good enough to make the playoffs, but we're not good enough to win the title. We are, to put it frankly, in limbo for the next two years.

If this team truly wants to go all out and "win now", then I put forth this motion: consider trading Amare Stoudemire while his trade value is still high. If it still looks like we're merely slight bumps in the road for LAL/NOH/UTA/SAS by the All Star Break...then I would honest to God consider trading him for Dirk Nowitzki.

(Please, stop shaking with inconsolable rage. You guys are scaring me.)

I know this is an incredibly, immensely unpopular opinion, but I believe that Dirk Nowitzki is a better all around player than Amare. He's a better rebounder than Amare, he's a better defender than Amare, he's a better passer than Amare, he's a better leader than Amare, and he's almost as dangerous offensively. Again, let me reiterate, if we were still running the Nash/Amare pick and roll and featuring Amare as the main focal point of our offense, there's no way in hell I would do this trade. As it stands right now, however, I feel that Dirk would be a better fit for this team's offense. He can spread the floor better, and he can play in the post if need be. Imagine Shaq in the middle with Nash, Bell, Barnes and Dirk spread out across the floor.

Another important side effect of the trade would be its effect on Nash. These thoughts were inspired by GMATCallahan on the ESPN boards, so I'm going to use his words: I feel as though Nash would be "reinvigorated" playing with his best friend, Dirk Nowitzki, and vice versa. If "7 Seconds or Less" is any indication, Nash has wore himself out mentally trying to keep Amare's ego(when it was clashing with Marion's) at bay. I just really think that playing with Dirk would have a fantastic effect on both of them, and Dirk's level of play would rise feeding off of Shaq and Nash.

So yeah, my preconditions to this trade would be:
*Amare still being a 1 way player
*Amare still complaining about Porter
*Amare/Shaq not playing well together
*We haven't jelled by the All Star Break

As a fan, Amare's my favorite player. He's incredibly exciting to watch, and I'm a huge Free-Darko-phile, so bear with me when I say that I find him incredibly compelling as an athlete. However, I'm still a fan of the Phoenix Suns first, and I feel as though this would be the better move for our current situation.

Let the bashing begin

[lilfishi22]

@ rasavaj

I half like the idea of getting Dirkie for STAT. I think in Porter's offense, Dirk is the better compliment to Shaq because he has better range and he doesn't need to be in the lane/at the rim as much as STAT needs to be to be fully effective. It would probably be a plus for Nash as well, playing for his BFFF (pineapple express anyone? lol). The only issue with this is that we lose the transition between our outside inside game, since if we trade STAT, then we only have Shaq who can truly play inside. It would appear if we only have SHaq, then we would be shooting more J's and taking less shots inside.

But like Stat, Dirkie could just as easily be a crap player under Porter. It would seem the only player that is playing good under Porter is Shaq and maybe Diaw, unless Diaw's better play is the result of his new found balls. The problem is that Dirkie may or may not work well with Shaq, whereas we have seen that Amare could explode even while playing with Shaq, it all depends on how they are used.

On a sidenote, I'd like to have Odom, since he plays great in a triangle offense, which as of right now seems like we're transitioning towards one. He's a skilled offensive player and can grab rebounds and set up plays. This isn't really a trade idea or anything, just a little comment.

[asubennett]

@ RASAVAJ1

I feel your frustrations with Amare but I feel as if you are limiting your scope of Amare's success this season to scoring. He is not comping his 29ppg that he averaged last year with Shaq this is true. But Amare does not need to be a 30ppg scorer for our team to be succesful.

I like has scoring avg right where it is. 23-24ppg. His rebounds have to become 11-12 pg. And his apg need to get up around 3 pg.

I think trading Amare for Dirk would help this season and this season only. You could start diaw at PF and Dirk as SF. That would be a tremendously big, slow HIGH FG% team. This is all assuming Dallas would actually trade Dirk for Amare as well.

[rsavaj]

@ rasavaj

I half like the idea of getting Dirkie for STAT. I think in Porter's offense, Dirk is the better compliment to Shaq because he has better range and he doesn't need to be in the lane/at the rim as much as STAT needs to be to be fully effective. It would probably be a plus for Nash as well, playing for his BFFF (pineapple express anyone? lol). The only issue with this is that we lose the transition between our outside inside game, since if we trade STAT, then we only have Shaq who can truly play inside. It would appear if we only have SHaq, then we would be shooting more J's and taking less shots inside.

But like Stat, Dirkie could just as easily be a crap player under Porter. It would seem the only player that is playing good under Porter is Shaq and maybe Diaw, unless Diaw's better play is the result of his new found balls. The problem is that Dirkie may or may not work well with Shaq, whereas we have seen that Amare could explode even while playing with Shaq, it all depends on how they are used.

On a sidenote, I'd like to have Odom, since he plays great in a triangle offense, which as of right now seems like we're transitioning towards one. He's a skilled offensive player and can grab rebounds and set up plays. This isn't really a trade idea or anything, just a little comment.

I disagree about having only Shaq that can play inside, b/c we've all seen Dirk essentially "post up" from the free throw line. He's not a noted post player, but he's much, much better with his back to the basket than Amare is, which is also feeding into why I think Dirk's a better fit. Porter keeps using Amare as a post-up player, when Amare's truly effective as a face-up player. Diaw's also a better post player than Amare is.

I agree with your point about Dirk maybe not working well with Shaq, but I just think that Dirk's successfully led a team to 67 wins and the Finals with Josh freaking Howard as his number 2 guy. He's choked the last two years, but he's the one who beat San Antonio on the road in Game 7 to win the series, something that Nash or Amare haven't been able to do. I also think that he'll be a lot better if you take the pressure off of him; he doesn't have to be the number one guy here.

I also think Odom would be great. He's like Super-Diaw.

@ RASAVAJ1

I feel your frustrations with Amare but I feel as if you are limiting your scope of Amare's success this season to scoring. He is not comping his 29ppg that he averaged last year with Shaq this is true. But Amare does not need to be a 30ppg scorer for our team to be succesful.

I like has scoring avg right where it is. 23-24ppg. His rebounds have to become 11-12 pg. And his apg need to get up around 3 pg.

I think trading Amare for Dirk would help this season and this season only. You could start diaw at PF and Dirk as SF. That would be a tremendously big, slow HIGH FG% team. This is all assuming Dallas would actually trade Dirk for Amare as well.

You have very valid points, but it's your middle bit I'm wondering about. He's never averaged 10 rebounds a game, and he's averaged about 1.3 apg his whole career. Dirk's never averaged 10 rpg either to my knowledge, but he's averaged 2.7 apg.

It would be hard to justify a one for one swap, but if you could do a Amare for Dirk+Bass, Dirk+Green deal, or Amare+Diaw for Dirk+Howard deal, Amare+Barbosa for Dirk+Terry deal, Amare/Diaw/Barbosa for Dirk/Howard/Terry deal, than I think it's a deal you have to make.

Nash/Singles/Goran
Bell/Barbo/Tucker
Barnes/Hill
Dirk/Bass/Lou
Shaq/Diaw/Fropez

Nash/Singles/Goran
Bell/Barbo/Green
Barnes/Hill/Tucker
Dirk/Diaw/Lou
Shaq/Fropez

Nash/Singles/Goran
Bell/Barbo/Tucker
Howard/Hill/Barnes
Dirk/Lou
Shaq/Lopez

Nash/Terry/Singles/Goran
Bell/Barnes/Tucker
Howard/Hill
Dirk/Lou
Shaq/Fropez

Then again, this is all supposing that Dallas regards Amare as having the higher trade value...

[Mr. Sun]

I think trading Amare for Dirk would help this season and this season only. You could start diaw at PF and Dirk as SF. That would be a tremendously big, slow HIGH FG% team. This is all assuming Dallas would actually trade Dirk for Amare as well.

You don't want to do this. The idea is to get both Amare AND Dirk on the same team.

[rsavaj]

I think trading Amare for Dirk would help this season and this season only. You could start diaw at PF and Dirk as SF. That would be a tremendously big, slow HIGH FG% team. This is all assuming Dallas would actually trade Dirk for Amare as well.

You don't want to do this. The idea is to get both Amare AND Dirk on the same team.

You're actually quoting asubennet, but the point still stands; I highly doubt we're going to get both of them on the same team in 2010.

[MaryvalesFinest]

If the Suns could trade Amare for Dirk that would be great, the only problem is in 2010 he will be 32 years old and if the Suns are planning a full rebuild it doesn't pay to sign him.

[rsavaj]

If the Suns could trade Amare for Dirk that would be great, the only problem is in 2010 he will be 32 years old and if the Suns are planning a full rebuild it doesn't pay to sign him.

Yeah Dirk wouldn't factor into our rebuilding plans, but I'm banking on the high probability of Amare leaving Phoenix in 2010.

Also, if we could add Diaw and Howard to the deal, we'd free up even more salary since Howard expires in 2010. Even though Josh Howard's a knucklehead, he'd still really improve our team.

[MaryvalesFinest]

Yeah the Suns best bet is to go after someone from the class of 06 because most of them will be restricted free agents but if the Suns give a good enough offer the other team probally wouldn't match.

The Suns should try and pry away either Brandon Roy or Lamarcus Aldrige from the Blazers because even though Allen owns the team I'm sure he wouldn't give both of them big contracts, or the Suns could go after Rudy Gay or someone else.

[MaryvalesFinest]

Or just spend no money and wait till the 10-11 off season and go after either Kevin Durant (Might want out of OKC), Greg Oden (Allen wont be able to give both Aldridge, Roy and Oden big contracts) , Al Horford (Hawks management is cheap), Thadeus Young (Igoudala plays the same position), Rodney Stuckey (Pistons might not have enough to offer him a contract if they spend in 10), Wilson Chandler (Knicks wont have enough to offer if they get James), etc...

[lilfishi22]

LMA and Roy are untouchables. As is Oden. The Blazers are banking on putting nice role players around their big 3 to be a dynasty. I disagree with you about Allen not giving big contracts to their big 3. He was selling the team a few seasons back when they were ther JailBlazers, but took it off the market when he renewed his interest in the team when there was a possiblity of building a dynasty around Roy, LMA and Oden. Likewise with Gay, he's now their franchise guy. I think OKC would spend big money on Durant, and seeing that winning is not a priority for him right now (since he's young) he's likely to take the money and stay in OKC. lol I think we have a chance at routing the Hawks for a Horford deal, maybe Tucker and Single for Horford? Who knows what the Hawks FO gonna do. Young in an excellent player already and still have plenty of upside, I don't see the Sixers parting with him. We may be able to pry Stuckey away from Pistons if the right deal came along. Chandler should be easy to get if we send D'Antoni his man-crushes (LB or Diaw).

I don't think we're going to spend money next season, but may trade Shaq for a combination of decent role players and expirings. When we still had D'Antoni, Amare resigning with us was close to certain, but now I think it's 50/50. I think we should trade Shaq so we can rebuild on the fly around Amare so he would stay. If we let Shaq, Bell, Nash expire without getting anything back, we're going to be a real crap squad and I don't think Amare would want to rebuild with a crap squad.

[TASTIC]

Do we still have our pick for 2010?



Cos the #1 might be an option...

[b-ball forever]

rsavaj, as a fellow SSOL/Mike D'Antoni nuthugger, I often agree with your takes, but your take in here on trading Amare for Chokewitzky is a bunch of bullcrap.

You knew that u were asking for it with that dumbass proposition, so here it comes

I seriously thought that everbody and their mothers and their grandmothers knew that trading Amare for Dirk is talk for asylum members and Suns haters exclusively, but since some peeps seem to be outta touch with reality, this is how things really go...

First off, almost every single one of your takes on why u think Dirk would be a better fit then Amare are completely and utterly off track.

I know this is an incredibly, immensely unpopular opinion, but I believe that Dirk Nowitzki is a better all around player than Amare. He's a better rebounder than Amare, he's a better defender than Amare, he's a better passer than Amare, he's a better leader than Amare, and he's almost as dangerous offensively. Again, let me reiterate, if we were still running the Nash/Amare pick and roll and featuring Amare as the main focal point of our offense, there's no way in hell I would do this trade. As it stands right now, however, I feel that Dirk would be a better fit for this team's offense. He can spread the floor better, and he can play in the post if need be. Imagine Shaq in the middle with Nash, Bell, Barnes and Dirk spread out across the floor.

Another important side effect of the trade would be its effect on Nash. These thoughts were inspired by GMATCallahan on the ESPN boards, so I'm going to use his words: I feel as though Nash would be "reinvigorated" playing with his best friend, Dirk Nowitzki, and vice versa. If "7 Seconds or Less" is any indication, Nash has wore himself out mentally trying to keep Amare's ego(when it was clashing with Marion's) at bay. I just really think that playing with Dirk would have a fantastic effect on both of them, and Dirk's level of play would rise feeding off of Shaq and Nash.

You were drunk/high when you typed that, right? In case you weren't :

NO WAY, NO WAY IN HELL would Dirk be a better fit next to Shaq then Amare is.

1) The touches

Amare is a MUCH better off-ball player then Dirk is, he's producing at a comparable level to Dirk despite the fact that he's getting MUCH MUCH less touches then Dirk gets.
That's what Amare does, he gets himself open and scores, unlike Dirk.

Dirk IS NOT a spot-up shooter guy on offense, that's not his game at all.
Dirk is a guy that works off of iso plays and constantly needs the ball in his hands to be effective, he isn't any good at playing off the ball at all. There's no friggin way in hell he'd get all those touches he needs playing next to Shaq in Terry Porter's offense.
There's a reason Cuban never paired him up with a bigman that requires touches on offense, there's a reason pairing him up with an excellent playmaker in Kidd isn't doing him or the Mavs any good, and there's a reason Nash has been playing better with us then he was next to Dirk in Dallas, Chokewitzky just doesn't play off the ball.

Take this year's olympic games for example. Yall know that Chris Kaman got called up for the German team this summer and went to play next to Dirk right, and how did that go?
Dirk crapped it and winded up having his worse performance at an international tournament ever.
Meanwhile Kaman's level of play was horrible for a guy of his caliber since he wasn't able to get anywhere near as many touches as he shoulda been getting, due to playing next to Dirk, and Germany lost nearly all of their games.

Put Dirk in Amare's place next to Shaq and in Amare's role, and his production skydives.
Seriously, Amare's not looking as good as should be due to not getting enuf touches, and you wanna trade him for a ball dominator in Dirk???

2) NO, Irk IS NOT an upgrade over Amare on defense, nor on the boards

I know that there's this (Please Use More Appropriate Word) myth floating around realgm that Dirk has mysteriously all of sudden become a decent defender, but in reality he still sucks on D and gets torched on a regular basis. He isn't a better defender then Amare, and don't give me that "at least Dirk tries and puts arms up" bullcrap cuz there's a MASSIVE difference between ATTEMPTING to play defense and ACTUALLY PLAYING defense.
So what if Dirk puts his arms up? He's still can't guard the low post and gets pushed around in there every time due to his bigtime lack of body strength and lack of defensive reflexes/anticipation. He can't guard the perimeter for shiyt either and loses his man there too due to his utter lack of lateral quickness. His weakside defense is absolutely horrid too, again due to his lack of lateral quickness and anticipation ability.

Just lookin at the recent playoffs, David West torched him this year, S-Jax smoked him in 2007, and Boris Diaw was killing him in 2006.
He may not be THE worse defender in the NBA anymore like he was during the Nash/Finley/Dirk era, but Irk Nodickski is still Irk Nodickski, and Irk is no better then Amare on D.

Amare's man on man defense is bad, but at least he's a good weakside defender that can block shots (see those B2B blocks on the Sactown guard in overtime FTW). Dirk on the other hand can't do jacksquat on D.

As for rebounds, Dirk isn't any better then Amare either, GTFO with that BS. He's actually worse there too if anything.
They're both averaging 8.4 RPG over the season so far. Last year Amare averaged 9 RPG and Dirk averaged 8.5 RPG, 2 years ago Amare averaged 9.6 RPG and Dirk averaged 8.9 RPG!

And Dirk's rebounding numbers would be even lower then his current 8.4 if he was playing next to Shaq instead of Erica, since Shaq is a better rebouder then Erica, and mostly cuz Shaq takes up more space inside and forces his teamate to play farther away from the basket, thus cutting off rebouding opportunities.

3) No significant upgrade in jumpshooting

You want Dirk so that he can "spread the floor" with his jumper.... NEWSFLASH : Amare is one of the best bigman shooters in the NBA already!!!!
From midrange Amare is nearly as good as Dirk, and he's got very nice range on his jumper too.

Only advantage Dirk has there is slightly longer range since he has the abilty to knock down the trey, and that's nothing special since he's only averaging one trey per game as the focal point of the offense (which he wouldn't be be with us). On top of it, Terry Porter isn't the type that likes having his bigmen camp out at the 3 point line anyways...

Our jumpshooting is fine as it is between Nash/Bell/Barnes/Barbosa/Hill (mid-range)/Diaw (M-R)/Amare (M-R).
If anything it's our slashing that needs to improve, and Amare is the only quality slasher on this team, trading him for Chokwitzky = disaster.

4) NO, having Dirk next to "his best friend" Nash IS NOT gonna make Stevie any better, it'd make him worse actually. More (Please Use More Appropriate Word) nonesense here

You do realize that Nash has played much better b-ball with Amare as his Batman then he ever did next to Dirk right?
Amare is not the reason Nash is playing off for now, Shaq is (or more specifically, the way Porter is using Shaq and Nash). Replace Amare with Dirk, and Nash gets even worse, just like he was worse in Dallas then in PHX, due to getting even less touches with another ball dominator on the court!


And that's just in response to the nonesensicle reasons you posted, if u look into farther detail, here's what u realize regarding the cause/effect of trading Amare for Dirk.

Clutchness skydive

Amare has almost always been a monster that steps it up in crunch time and in big games, as everybody got to see in basically all of our playoff runs.

Dirk on the other hand is a notorious choking loser puss that crumbles under pressure.
-He choked vs what has gotta be the weakest c-ship team ever in the 2006 Heat.
-He choked vs the 8th seeded Warriors in 2007 in what was the biggest upset in NBA history.
-The Mavs are Notorious for their inabilty to close out games by blowing up 3rd quarter lead after 3rd quarter lead, with Dirk and Josh as the Major culprits.
-Dirk even admited himself that he "gets tense in pressure situations".

Nowitzki Admits Getting Tense in Pressure Situations

Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Dallas Mavericks all-star forward Dirk Nowitzki, who is still hearing criticism for his meltdown during a 129-127 double-overtime loss to Phoenix last week, admitted yesterday that he gets tight during pressure situations."I think everybody who says they don't get tense, they're lying," Nowitzki said following practice at Dodge Fitness Center on the campus of Columbia University, where the Mavericks were preparing for the Knicks tonight. "It's big games. You got to find ways to stay loose and relax. I've been doing a decent job of not letting the pressure get to me and still enjoying the moment."

Nowitzki said he took the home loss to Phoenix -- in which Dallas blew a seven-point lead in the final minute -- harder than any regular season defeat. Nowitzki said he couldn't sleep for two nights because he missed two free throws in the final minute of regulation and jumpers that would have won the game in regulation or forced a third overtime.
"We had it. No way we should've lost that game, but we did because I didn't make the necessary plays," he said. "I guess I'm 28 now, I shouldn't miss a free throw down the stretch. It happens. We're all humans. If we were all machines, the game would be boring. I guess emotions play a factor in a big game like that, and I missed two free throws that were crucial."

If that isn't enuf proof lets now take a look at their clutch time numbers :

http://www.82games.com/CSORT6.HTM

Under the following conditions (which define clutchness) : “4th quarter or overtime,” “less than 5 minutes left in the game”, “neither team ahead by more than 5 points”....
Amare averaged 50% of his FG attempts, while Chokewitzki manages a whoopin .422 shooting on FGs!!!

You do realize that ur suggesting we trade our go-to clutch time scorer that averages 50% in crunch time for a puss that puts up a horrid 42% (which is especially shiyt for a bigman), right???

We already often gotta take Shaq out at the end of close games due to hacking, having Dirk in Amare's place during the clutch alone is a reason enuf not to do that trade.

The abilty to play center
Dirk is horrid as center, worse then Amare, since he's ubber weak. Softy gets demolished when he's forced to guard true bigmen, and can't post-up my dead grandma to save his life. That's especially dangerous for when Shaq goes down.

Amare + Diaw > Dirk + Diaw because of this. I doubt Porter would play Diaw @ center.

Porter would wanna use Dirk @ PF only, so he'd be forced to play Lopez a lot more and cut down Diaw's playtime, and Amare + Diaw >>>> Dirk + Lopez.

The loss of slashing
Again, Amare is our only quality athletic slasher so far this season. Trade him for Dirk and we become a soft ass jump shooting only team, recipe for disaster.
Just look at what happened to the Mavs when they traded away their only slasher in Harris, we'd basically become the crap team that the Mavs are right now if we do that.

Young bigman with upside vs washup
Amare still hasn't reached his max potential, and he's quite a bit younger. Dirk's best years are behind him, and he's only getting worse from here on.


Dirk would be a 19/8/2.5/0.5/0.5 guy on 50% FGs at best if he was playing next to Shaq ...... I'll take Amare's 23/8.4/2/1.3/1.2 on 56% FGs over that scrub any day of week.

In conclusion, this is one of the 2 stupidest ideas I've seen on our board this season. The other one was the idea to go after Jerry Stackhouse. Ironically, both of em came from you
Kind of a shocker to see u get completly off the mark twice over a short span now, since u usually seem to know what you're talking about.
So whatever it is you started taking recently, post on realgm first, take it after.

The only logical reason to trade Amare for Dirk is if Sarver's organizing some sorta collective mass Suns fan suicide at the end of the season.