it's horrible

[schnakenpopanz]

i watched the turkish national team for a long time. this year they host the wc tournament.
in the last 2 weeks they played a lot of games. hedo looks horrible. no defense, just slow, playing a lot of iso. this will kill us all year. i dont want to be negative at all, but this is a night mare for me.
i hope he proves me wrong...

[DRK]

I hope its just the off-season blues. Once taining camp starts Coach Gentry will get the best out of him.

[febah07]

in my experience the turkish national teams (basketball or soccer) are always playing awful in "friendly" matches....we will have a better idea when the tournement starts

[Calvin Klein]

Two weeks until the WC Starts. I need some bball and it's going to be nice seeing our players in it.

[nashchill]

When you're 30 and still with the national team it seems like more of a burden than the regular NBA season.

[DirtyDez]

What did you expect we didn't have a GM. We traded one bad contract for a worse one.

[lilfishi22]

What did you expect we didn't have a GM. We traded one bad contract for a worse one.

Sarver panicked. He saw a decent portion of ticket sales and merchandising leave with Amare and made the wrong move too quickly.

[RunSunRun]

Everything he does in Turkey is just gravy........

[DRK]

Hedo's probably busting his gut with Turkish delicasies back in his hometown. I heard they do pretty good pizza. Thats probably why he's worse than usual.

[SNash13]

Hedo's probably busting his gut with Turkish delicasies back in his hometown. I heard they do pretty good pizza. Thats probably why he's worse than usual.

you must mean italy

[Saberestar]

I've watched 2 games of Turkey and my conclusion is : IT IS IMPOSSIBLE HEDO PLAYS POWER FOWARD in Phoenix. He can´t rebound the ball, he isn´t long or athletic, he is a 6'9 guy ( nothing of 6'10) and he is not a warrior.
Boris or Marion can play 4, they are better defenders and stronger than Hedo.
I can see Hedo play 4 in occasional minutes, nothing more.

[Fordman]

What did you expect we didn't have a GM. We traded one bad contract for a worse one.

Sarver panicked. He saw a decent portion of ticket sales and merchandising leave with Amare and made the wrong move too quickly.

What would you have done differently if you were Sarver?

[YFZblu]

Are you seriously getting worried about Hedo based on his performance on the Turkish national team? ReallY? Goran Dragic recently had a triple-double during his play overseas...Using your logic, we can expect similar performances from him every single night in the NBA.

Those national teams are completely different forms of basketball. Here's Leandro Barbosa's take:

"...FIBA is a totally different game, totally different tournament than the NBA. The rules, the ball, everything changes. It’s not like the NBA. So we’ll see what happens..."

http://dimemag.com/2010/08/dime-qa-lean ... am-brazil/

[YFZblu]

What did you expect we didn't have a GM. We traded one bad contract for a worse one.

Sarver panicked. He saw a decent portion of ticket sales and merchandising leave with Amare and made the wrong move too quickly.

Has it occurred to you that perhaps there are more people involved here than just Robert Sarver? Do you really think Sarver suddenly woke up one morning and got worried about 'ticket sales and merchandising', and how it relates to Amar'e? As if he never once thought about it before?

Let's be more rational here. Sarver most likely has known for quite some time that Amar'e wouldn't be returning to Phoenix. Furthermore, Amar'e was not at any time the face of the Suns organization. The Suns have been successful with and without Amar'e, and the Suns ticket sales and merchandising have been just fine, because at the end of the day, the big corporations and wealthy individuals are still buying the expensive seats to watch Steve Nash play basketball.

[DirtyDez]

What did you expect we didn't have a GM. We traded one bad contract for a worse one.

Sarver panicked. He saw a decent portion of ticket sales and merchandising leave with Amare and made the wrong move too quickly.

What would you have done differently if you were Sarver?

Stayed the hell away from playing GM.

[Austin]

Everything he does in Turkey is just gravy........

you're making me hungry... lol

[lilfishi22]

What did you expect we didn't have a GM. We traded one bad contract for a worse one.

Sarver panicked. He saw a decent portion of ticket sales and merchandising leave with Amare and made the wrong move too quickly.

Has it occurred to you that perhaps there are more people involved here than just Robert Sarver? Do you really think Sarver suddenly woke up one morning and got worried about 'ticket sales and merchandising', and how it relates to Amar'e? As if he never once thought about it before?

Let's be more rational here. Sarver most likely has known for quite some time that Amar'e wouldn't be returning to Phoenix. Furthermore, Amar'e was not at any time the face of the Suns organization. The Suns have been successful with and without Amar'e, and the Suns ticket sales and merchandising have been just fine, because at the end of the day, the big corporations and wealthy individuals are still buying the expensive seats to watch Steve Nash play basketball.

The one great signing, imo, was Childress. I'm not the Suns GM so I can't tell exactly how quickly 4th or 5th tier FA's get signed, but I would bet that the signing of Warrick and trading for Hedo, could've been done, if it needed to be done at all, after finding a GM. We had money to "spend", but was it money that needed to be spent and in that way?

But don't pay no attention to me though, I can talk all day about what Sarver's mistakes were but I think DD summed up what I would've done in Sarver's position.

Stayed the hell away from playing GM.

[YFZblu]

The one great signing, imo, was Childress. I'm not the Suns GM so I can't tell exactly how quickly 4th or 5th tier FA's get signed, but I would bet that the signing of Warrick and trading for Hedo, could've been done, if it needed to be done at all, after finding a GM. We had money to "spend", but was it money that needed to be spent and in that way?

But don't pay no attention to me though, I can talk all day about what Sarver's mistakes were but I think DD summed up what I would've done in Sarver's position.

Stayed the hell away from playing GM.

That still begs the question: What leads you to believe Sarver is working alone here? As if Robert Sarver is just some guy who wakes up every morning and starts placing calls to GMs, and nobody else has any say. Have you considered that perhaps Steve Kerr had a hand in all of this before officially leaving the club? Or that Alvin Gentry was heavily involved here? There are more executive level employees on the Suns staff than Robert Sarver, you know.

Childress and Turkoglu were both great moves that will keep the Suns extremely competitive, IMO. Sure, the Suns could have sat still, collected their ping pong balls and wasted what is left of Nash's brilliance. But they chose to stay competitive. After next season, the Suns will no longer be responsible for Jason Richardson's bloated contract, and Grant Hill will retire when his contract ends IMO. That's over 14 million dollars to spend. At that time, Steve Nash becomes an expiring contract...Of course looking to the 2013 and Nash's future is too early at this point...But the Suns will have money, and the Suns will be competitive. Isn't that what you want?

[JohnVancouver]

What did you expect we didn't have a GM. We traded one bad contract for a worse one.

Sarver panicked. He saw a decent portion of ticket sales and merchandising leave with Amare and made the wrong move too quickly.

yes, he should have waited patiently for the right time to make the wrong move.

[lilfishi22]

That still begs the question: What leads you to believe Sarver is working alone here? As if Robert Sarver is just some guy who wakes up every morning and starts placing calls to GMs, and nobody else has any say. Have you considered that perhaps Steve Kerr had a hand in all of this before officially leaving the club? Or that Alvin Gentry was heavily involved here? There are more executive level employees on the Suns staff than Robert Sarver, you know.

I didn't claim Sarver did it on his own but the signings and trades were all his decisions considering Kerr and Griff (the top 2 guys in the FO) left. But he could have a few advisers for all I know, but these advisers should be fired for telling Sarver sign/trade 4 players that neither played defense nor rebounded, our two biggest weaknesses. Instead, we went ahead and added firepower. But in the end, he made all the final basketball decisions (and was also the only one negotiating the deals), instead of a proper GM with a direction doing it, and put us in a position where he has used almost all of our TPE to keep this team semi-competitive.

Childress and Turkoglu were both great moves that will keep the Suns extremely competitive, IMO. Sure, the Suns could have sat still, collected their ping pong balls and wasted what is left of Nash's brilliance. But they chose to stay competitive. After next season, the Suns will no longer be responsible for Jason Richardson's bloated contract, and Grant Hill will retire when his contract ends IMO. That's over 14 million dollars to spend. At that time, Steve Nash becomes an expiring contract...Of course looking to the 2013 and Nash's future is too early at this point...But the Suns will have money, and the Suns will be competitive. Isn't that what you want?

I dunno if he could've put us in a place where we could've been a legit contender this season, but he didn't do anything in the way of helping lay the ground works for a rebuild or clear space to allow the real GM (Blanks) to do real GM work. Instead, now he has a 28year old Warrick in the books for 4 seasons, one-dimensional Channing Frye for 5 seasons and a 30 year old Hedo for another 4 seasons. Look, they (Warrick, Frye and Childress) aren't cap killing contracts and while I still have issues with Warrick and Frye being overpaid, they aren't my biggest annoyance with Sarver's short stint as temporary GM.

My biggest problem is the trade for Hedo, since it neither helps our financial situation for the future, nor does it put us over the top. Whether these 4 new players could help us stay competitive next season is still up for debate, but unless you could honestly tell me that this team has legit contention talent next season or even the season after next, then I think Sarver made a mistake with trading for Hedo.

Unless we do something amazing with JRich's expiring deal this season or pick up a star FA when we have cap space once again, we're just hoping Hedo stays healthy and actually be tradeable. I hope the new FO knows what to do with the roster Sarver has left them.