2008/2009 NBA Season Thread - Page 20

Man...Bad break for Houston. Yao's probably out till the 2010 season...

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns...17spt-yao.html

Yao has been badly in need of a break (ouch, pardon the pun). He'll be back in a year, and I suspect he'll eventually get that ring. I hate Houston, but Yao is a champion.

Not really news. We've known about it for almost a month now. I'm glad to hear it's the same procedure Z had, and he came back strong from it and injury free.

Welcome to the West, where our best center is a power forward.

Andersen is going to come in from Australia and set the league on fire!

Hmmm...I knew was injured, but I didn't know he'd be out for the entire season. Oh well...

Hmm, I wonder if they Magic suspected this when they matched the offer for Gortat. The Rockets may come sniffing around for a trade.

Nash re-ups with the Suns.

I'm sort of divided on this. On one hand, Nash is still a great PG, borderlining on elite (sort of in the cusp between the two). He's not the same guy he was a few years ago, but he's still a very good PG. Without him, the Suns are most definitely lottery bound.

But, that's also the drawback. The Suns are hoping for a playoff berth and that's it. Re-signing Nash doesn't make them a contender. As much as I'd hate to see him go, being mediocre for the foreseeable future isn't such a great idea either. I'd prefer them to just blow up the entire team and start from scratch.

I hate to hear that Nash re-signed with the Suns. The Suns need to blow it up, and restart fresh. Their time has passed, and it's time to start over. Nash would have received plenty of nice offers on the open market next year, and I'm sure several from championship level teams. I'm pretty sure the Lakers would have jumped over Nash, as he would still be an upgrade over Fisher a year from now.

Matt Barnes to the Magic. Another solid pick up for the Magic. Going on a limb and saying the final four this year will be SA/LAL and Cleveland/Orlando. I hope the Cavs get to keep Jamario Moon as well.

That's been rumored for a while now, glad to see it finally go down. He averaged 10 points a game last season. The Magic are putting together one heck of a deep front court.

I've also heard the Magic are looking at Golden State point guard C.J. Watson.

Yes and no. The Suns screwed themselves out of their first round draft pick next year, so they may as well play for a playoff spot and a first round exit. Losing a lottery pick will be a PR disaster.

The Suns lack of a plan actually seems to be working out for them right now oddly enough. They re-signed Nash but they didn't give him a no-trade clause. They're keeping him this year, and since Amare currently has no value on the trade market until he proves himself healthy they're going to use Nash to see how good they can make Amare look.

If Amare comes out strong and increases his trade value, they'll probably trade him or do a sign and trade (I hate those and think that's a bad way to go, but hey). Once they get rid of Amare, then they can start talking about moving Nash as his contract really isn't excessive and teams will line up to get him.

So basically, play for a crappy playoff spot this year. Nash and Amare are around to try and keep the season ticket holders happy with names. Trade Amare during the season and Nash after the season to reload with young talent. If Amare never comes back as anything resembling a max player you let him walk and have the money available for the big free agent class. No first rounder this year, but if you can squeak into the playoffs this year and then blow it up you can at least get the draft benefit of sucking for the following draft.

That's a pretty good analysis. I forgot they don't have a 1st rounder next year, so "the plan" sort of makes sense.

God I miss Jerry Coangelo....

Yeah. With Colangelo you knew the worst you'd suffer was a single down year. Hell, he blew up the whole team in 1986 after the big cocaine scandal and somehow managed to put together a really good team through those trades.

I remember how Jerry would roll out the red carpet for free agents, and you'd always feel like he could talk players into signing. They'd show up and there'd be a uniform in a locker with their name on it, a purple and orange golf bag filled with expensive clubs and he'd take them out golfing with local celebrities. Right now you know that unless Nash goes out of his way to make a pitch to a free agent then we've got no shot at them. Kerr and Sarver just don't quite get it.

He had his problems too. One of the ways he wooed free-agents was through spending A LOT of money. And that created a whole mess of long-lasting salary cap problems. Remember Gugliotta?

Jerry always had something cooking. The team wouldn't be bad for long, but that can be a problem too. The Suns have always been competitive, but have only rarely been great. Maybe it's better to really stink for a year and get some lottery picks and build around young growing talent. That seems like the direction Sarver's leaning towards, but you can't go that route when you keep trading away number one draft picks.

Which brings me to sunny point number two: without decent management in place, you can stay bad, a la the Clippers. How many number one picks have they had and how long have they stunk?

I guess it all boils down to this: succeeding in the NBA take great management and it's never easy.

I know, Earth shattering realization, huh? You're all lucky to have my insights.

Colangelo was a great one.

Recall the Tom Chambers signing being a shocker. Two years after one of the worst scandals to hit the sport, he put them back into contention.

A brilliant wheeler and dealer-with Barkley being his masterstroke--the only bad trades i can think of was sending DJ to Boston for Rick Robey and Majerle for Hot Rod.

Majerle was broken after the NBA Finals. Once they pulled Majerle (our defensive "stopper") off of Jordan because he was getting lit up and put KJ on him (who did a decent job actually) then Dan was never the same. I never thought that trade was to get Hot Rod, it was to get Dan out of town where he might have a chance at career recovery. I remember having a poster of Majerle dunking over Manute Bol, god I loved that guy when he was in Phoenix.

Colangelo also let Joe Johnson go and made some head-scratching decisions in the draft imo. They basically gave 2 draft picks away for cash, iirc. Way overpaying for players Banks, Richardson, and Diaw were a few more really bad moves.

Even with all that they still should have had a title. Most disappointing 60-win lock that I can think of... really awful.

edit - I just realize that Colangelo might not have been around for some of those decisions... when did he go to Toronto? 07?

I thought D'Antoni was responsible for the JJ debacle and the draft problems. Wasn't Bryan out of there in 06?

And anyway, we're talking about when Jerry ran the team. St. Jerry would never muck up his team this way.

Sarver was tightening the purse strings, but Colangelo was still GM when Johnson left for Atlanta.

And it's more an issue of what they got for their money. They still spent what they would have paid Johnson, pretty much, on Banks and Diaw. Retarded move.

Yeah, you're right. My timeline was off. And getting nothing for something seems to be the general theme of this current organization.

Johnson leaving was Sarver's call. He's gone on record as saying that losing (and offending) Joe Johnson is his only true regret as an owner so far. Bryan Colangelo was still there, but the dynamic was shifting quickly at that point and nobody really knows how much weight he was pulling then.

Joe really wanted to be the main piece of a team somewhere though, so keeping him was going to be tough no matter what. At least Phoenix did value him, unlike Boston who just dumped the guy like he was worthless.

Is it just me, or was last week's Charlotte-N.O. trade a really weird one?

Love it for the Hornets, especially since last Feb. they almost dumped Chandler for zilch.

Not sure what the Bobcats are doing. Larry Brown's toughest assignment since the early 90's Clips. But like Doug Moe, he's only happy when he's unhappy. If he can turn this motley bunch around...!

Larry Brown wants to play Chandler at PF. The Bobcats are fucked.