just because the warriors are "very active"ly trying to get him, doesn't mean the suns are interested in trading him to a division rival. not gonna happen.
I gotta say, Amare-Rose would be one heck of a box office draw. An all-offense reincarnation of the Payton/Kemp Sonics. If the Suns do this, however, they need to just blow up the entire team. Are they seriously thinking that they'll just ride a bunch of guys in their mid-30s along with a few B- and C-level young guys? Blow it up. Show Nash the courtesy to send him to someplace where he can win before retiring. Evan
I think Nash has said the only two places he would want to go are New York and Toronto. Mike D'Antoni's system was where Nash thrived and Toronto is as close to home (Vancouver) that he can get.
the suns owner was apparently hit really hard by the recession/ stock market drop. he claims that he wants to cut $40M from the books before the start of next season. that means moving 2/3 of shaq/amare/barbosa. amare doesn't want to resign with a team looking to rebuild. so they agreed to part ways. of course the suns would rather keep him and move shaq/barbosa.
actually nash lives full time here in NYC. however, if he wanted to play close to his home town i think portland would be the closest the nba can offer. i think he signs in NY in 2010, and for chump change at that.
does this mean that there is no floor/minimum salary that a team must use every season? if he plans to slash payroll by $40 mill and NOT spend it somewhere else, or even in 2010 when the market does NOT improve, then the team won't be competitive and that's bush league
There is a floor, but its not that big. The Clippers' owner Donald Sterling used to always just barely make it over the floor with a roster full of 1st round picks back when he didn't care if his team was competitive at all.
You do realize that Toronto and Vancouver aren't really close to each other, right? He's closer to Vancouver in Phoenix. Same country does NOT equal close.
I knew people would pick up on that one. I didn't mean geographic proximity; Phoenix and, obviously, Portland are much closer. However, Nash has done more to popularize the game of basketball in Canada than anybody else and Toronto would be more of a "homecoming" for him than another American city. Also, I'm glad to see the dumbartonbass moniker finally escaping the D&D and making its way to other parts of the BBS.
cabbage - cbs is reporting there are talks about amare for aldridge, bayless and raef http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/11838893/13515062 also considering all the stuffs the suns have made in recent years, are they shooting themselves in the foot by dismissing any notion of trading nasher?
dang that is actually a trade the works both ways but its really amare's attitude that may kill it. suns get a young stud in alridge, cap relief in lafrentz and a real backup and future PG in bayless who is an arizona native blazers get a top tier PF along side roy and oden who will make life tough...but i think i read somewhere portland plays the slowest pace out of any team in the league...that does not bode well for amare and then having a young post guy taking up touches and space in the post in oden. that would be a great trade for the suns i think....good for blazers..great if amare buys into what they want to do up there
That's giving up way too much, IMO. The biggest incentive to even move Amare in the first place is to exchange him for expiring salary which they get a huge chunk of in LaFrentz. HUGE. Adding Aldridge, a player that Amare isn't really THAT much better than, and then Bayless is giving up way too much.
This one won't happen. As far as I know, Kevin Pritchard doesn't do drugs. If they are actually talking, I bet that was Phoenix's opening offer to Portland and was promptly turned down. The trade deadline is still far enough away that Phoenix is looking for ridiculous deals. As the clock starts running out, they will come down to Earth and a reasonable trade will take place. Amare has diminished himself this year with his off/on effort and sorry attitude. Most NBA teams are aware he isn't a franchise player and the likelihood of his knee flaring up again is high. Not only that, he just a 1 1/2 year rental and will bolt to the highest bidder in 2010. The team that gives him a 5 or 6 year max contract will regret it.
Either that or it's a leak from Phoenix to drive up offers. There's no way that deal is legit. The Blazers have no reason to offer Bayless. Aldridge alone is far better than anything any other team with an expiring could offer, realistically. Obviously Detroit could offer both Stuckey and Maxiell or Chicago could offer Rose but that's not happening. After that it's Aldridge. The Blazers would be bidding against themselves by including Bayless.
Haven't seen this tidbit posted anywhere. http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/or...f/2009/02/lafrentz_gets_141361_each_game.html If it's really the case that insurance picks up the majority of Raef's contract this year, that's got to be pretty enticing for a guy like Sarver. Considering that they also have the best young talent on the board, I don't see any other team beating a Portland offer.
That would be a dumb move IMO, mainly because I think Aldridge will become a stud. I wouldn't give up the opportunity to have a frontline with two 7 footers (LA is slightly under, but still).
