Kerr Deserves Credit

[RaisingArizona]

Rule of thumb: If you're ever unsure what to think on a topic, just disagree with Mary and you'll be right 99% of the time.

[eastsidecrossover]

Its funny how any fan can label any player that has drafted this year or last year as bust or going to be ones. We are talking about picks in the middle of the draft and one that was a mid to late 2nd rd pick. Is clark and lopez suppose to be future all stars??? Most of the time, these picks turn out to be role players. Nash was an amazing pick at 15, and that is rare to get such a player.

Kerr has done some good, but as the gm, he has to make smart moves within the situation he is in, and half of the time, he has not. lilfishi22 made a great point of why he has been good and not so good. I will say outside of duds, he has been horrible in trades which scares me with the possible Amare trade. You wonder why teams are making “trash” offers for Stat. His body of work suggest this is how he makes deals.

As GM, he has to take in part of the blame for the shaq trade on receiving and trading away him. I don’t care if Mike D was the biggest supporter, he still gave his ok on it and negotiated it! Why not man up about it Kerr instead of passing blame on the old coach? He also said if it did not work out, it was on him. Same goes with the KT trade. As GM, he has to let Sarver know that they can make a great deal near the deadline and that the salary will not go against him at the end of the year. He pulled and negotiated that deal too. He could have came back and said we are getting rapped and should wait.

I think as of now, RoLo and Dragic will be role players and nothing special. Clark to me has the most potential and that may be the reason why some think he might be a bust. I don’t see it, but realy, we don’t have a future even with these role players. But I will say they were nice picks as of now. Time will tell us in a next few years how good or bad these picks were. Cant declare right now if they are good or bad. Cant forget about the Tucker pick either. He has been traded.

So am I confident that Kerr will make the right moves and picks to place our team to become contenders in the next 5 years? I am not.

[Qwigglez]

Kerr has done a good job at drafting players that the Suns can develop while still fighting for a playoff spot. I can't think of many sophomores in the league that are in the same situation as Dragic and Lopez (only other player I can think of right now is George Hill). They are in a position where they are making a direct contribution to the success of our team while still not being a franchise player/all-star. I'm pretty sure Earl Clark won't make an impact this year, but I think next year we'll let his role on the team grow, while Grant Hill's role dwindles.
Getting other solid role players in Dudley, Amundson, Frye, Hill while on a budget is impressive too. Now the Suns have a bunch of role players, we just need our stars to step up (Amare, Nash).
We still have two pieces that need to find their role on the team in Barbosa and Richardson. Ideally, Richardson can play a Shawn Marion type of role, which I think will benefit the team more. Barbosa has looked lost since the emergence of Goran Dragic, however his wrist was really affecting his shot.
I like the way the Suns have been playing lately (can't really argue when they are on a win streak), I just want to see if this team can gel (like the Jazz have).

[ma_falaa_50]

u guys talk as if drafting a star is easy. have u guys thought about why there are teams that are getting lotto picks and seems to be cellar dwellers. nothing is guaranteed in this business! Dragic was drafted in order to suceed nash but its not looking like thats what is happening but if so u think a person with Nash's talent is that easy to replace then something worng with you. although dragic may not be as good as they suns brass try to shove down our throats but he is alleviating minutes from Nash! Lopez has been a good addition to the starting line up and has been a pretty good complimnet to Amare, isnt that what he was drafted for?? As for Earl clark, I dont know what to say, I have not seen anything promising from him all season. last season dragic showed some promise and so did lopez.

[MaryvalesFinest]

MVF
You would rather have Blair going into the future?
This guy is a ticking bomb..
If i remember correctly you were fully against Budinger before the draft...
If Dragič would have a chance to play as much as the other guys you mentioned, he would be even more succesfull than they are

In the first round, would have loved to have him in the second though. Dragic can probably be a scorer off the bench like he's proven to do so but when the Suns drafted him it was to be their point guard of the future not another scoring guard with limited point guard skills like Barbosa.

[BobbieL]

1. KT trade: I don't think I need to go into it but if Kerr left the front office due to unpopularity, this would be the one move that would've defined his time in the Suns front office. While it's tough to say it was his fault since Sarver put a lot of pressure on him to get cap relief, I thought there would've been better deals out there that didn't require us to give up two 1st rounders.

I still blame Sarver for the following reason - he wanted to move Kurt Thomas's salary to have the biggest financial savings. So, you cannot say Kerr could have made a better trade without realizing this - Sarver wanted ALL $15m-16m worth of savings when you include the dollar for dollar luxury tax. So that means KT needed to be traded to a team at least $8m under the cap that was willing to take on the entire contract without even giving one dollar back.

Now, if Sarver had been willing to wait until February as when the lux tax really kicks in - maybe a better trade is made. Or maybe if Sarver were willing to pay some luxury tax. Maybe. I just do not think you can blame Kerr. And I don't want to hear abotu the Nuggets dumping Camby on the Clips. Different teams, different scenarios.

[eljayyyyyyyyyy]

it still would have been nice to have j.j. hickson on the bench or a 1st rounder. but oh well...

[lilfishi22]

1. KT trade: I don't think I need to go into it but if Kerr left the front office due to unpopularity, this would be the one move that would've defined his time in the Suns front office. While it's tough to say it was his fault since Sarver put a lot of pressure on him to get cap relief, I thought there would've been better deals out there that didn't require us to give up two 1st rounders.

I still blame Sarver for the following reason - he wanted to move Kurt Thomas's salary to have the biggest financial savings. So, you cannot say Kerr could have made a better trade without realizing this - Sarver wanted ALL $15m-16m worth of savings when you include the dollar for dollar luxury tax. So that means KT needed to be traded to a team at least $8m under the cap that was willing to take on the entire contract without even giving one dollar back.

Now, if Sarver had been willing to wait until February as when the lux tax really kicks in - maybe a better trade is made. Or maybe if Sarver were willing to pay some luxury tax. Maybe. I just do not think you can blame Kerr. And I don't want to hear abotu the Nuggets dumping Camby on the Clips. Different teams, different scenarios.

I have a feeling Sarver just told Kerr to take the first offer he gets.

[nashrambler13]

MVF
You would rather have Blair going into the future?
This guy is a ticking bomb..
If i remember correctly you were fully against Budinger before the draft...
If Dragič would have a chance to play as much as the other guys you mentioned, he would be even more succesfull than they are

In the first round, would have loved to have him in the second though. Dragic can probably be a scorer off the bench like he's proven to do so but when the Suns drafted him it was to be their point guard of the future not another scoring guard with limited point guard skills like Barbosa.

ERGGG!!!!! do you REALLY think Dragic has limited PG skills. Grr... your incompetence to accept the truth sickens me.

Post Script: If ur saying Dragic is barbosa... cool. barbs has got to be better than budinger or blair ever will be.

[plonden]

MVF, if you are going to argue can u at least put names that were drafted on those 2 spots that we traded in exchange for Dragic??

Not trying to get in the middle here but the two second round picks were Malik Hariston and Dejuan Blair. Essentially at this point it is a debate of Goran Dragic versus Dejuan Blair with absolutely no way of settling this for a few years. Everyone knew Blair would be able to play in the NBA but the question has been about longevity.

[JasonDaPsycho]

Some argue that Dragic isn't all that good of a player if fitted into another system

But then the reason we drafted is because we know he'll fit into our system, right?

OK, back to Kerr
As far as I'm concerned, he gave away Shawn Marion, at the time an All-Star, as well as a draft pick for a Shaq who is at his low point. That was a horrible move.
And I believe other than the drafting of Goran Dragic (who's playing surprising well in my point of view), most of those decisions he made was forced by the give situations at the time:
1. Signing of Lou, I believe, was to replace Diaw without paying much (since Sarver was cutting costs)
2. The J-Rich trade was to get rid of Boris Diaw, who was getting paid big money but isn't producing much, rather than make the team better. It feels more of "don't have the team go worse" rather than "improve the team". Jared Dudley is playing really awesome right now, and is obviously a fan fav, the perfect energy guy who plays good defense who would fit in many systems, but at that time, he seemed like a throw-in so the salary will be balanced.