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[hpanic7342]

I understand that Phoenix is trying to cut salary, but does anyone else here think that they've steps they've taken the past two years to do this have been rather excessive? A team's annual first-rounder seems to me to be the easiest way to get steady, cheap rotation talent, and by giving theirs away for nothing, I'm wondering if the Suns aren't going to end up like the Timberwolves once Nash gets old and Marion is on his way down.

[Mountain]

Takes a core of mostly vets to win it all. They like what they have assembled and play a relatively short rotation. Looks like they are going to ride with them for a few years. Win or crash. Maximize this window and leave the future entirely til then. If they crash, they rebuild then in a large way rather than the incremental approach they departed from. I would think the selling of first round picks won't extend further than this but if it does then maybe they are making more of a statement about not wanting youth than I've assigned so far. Is this coming from the coach? The attractiveness of the location and the recent winning pattern does allow the Grant Hill type acquisition. They, Miami, Lakers and a few others have that advantage- access to a special lane of free agents.

[NGreen]

something that intrigues me about the trade is something thats hardly being mentioned... an 8 million dollar trade exception going to the suns.

the exception might not be used and the suns might just be cutting salary like they have been for the last couple of years, but that 8 mil exception will make trading for jo, garnett, etc a lot easier. its a lot easier to pick up a 15-25 million dollar player when you've got 8million leeway when it comes to matching up salaries.

just saying

[admin]

The trade exception cannot be combined with a player in a trade. There are some creative ways around that, but the Suns couldn't simply trade the exception plus a player for Garnett.

[NGreen]

"The trade exception cannot be combined with a player in a trade. There are some creative ways around that, but the Suns couldn't simply trade the exception plus a player for Garnett."

perhaps i should try to clarify my previous post.

i may be incorrect in saying this, but i do believe the exception could be dealt in a separate deal involving whomever, and then whatever player/salary that was brought in might make a team more flexible as far as future deals are concerned.

i believe that was a big factor in the gsw/cha where a 5 mil trade exception was involved...that exception could just be used in one future trade for a mid-tier player, but it could also be used in an attempt for either of those teams to enter the kg/gasol/jo market.

[SGreenwell]

[gabefarkas]

[NGreen]

gabe, thanks for doing the research. towards the end of the explanation i found something referring to the line of thinking i have:

"it is sometimes possible to reorganize these trades so that players technically are not aggregated. A good example of this occurred in 2004 when Houston traded Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley and Kelvin Cato to Orlando for Tracy McGrady, Juwan Howard, Tyronn Lue and Reece Gaines. As a single trade, it could only be simultaneous since multiple players were moving each way. However, Houston was able to reorganize the trade into three separate trades. In one trade, they acquired McGrady and Gaines for Mobley and Cato. In another trade, they acquired Howard and Lue using an existing Traded Player exception from their earlier Glen Rice trade. That left them trading Francis essentially by himself for nothing, which generated a new Traded Player exception in the amount of Francis' base year value. From Orlando's perspective, it was a single, simultaneous three-for-four trade."

that's an example of what i think phoenix may be able to do with its exception. again, i reiterate, i don't know the rules as well as some others, but i think that phoenix would be able to do something like what houston did (in the example above) to utilize its exception

[MVP]

I think Steve Nash will be productive for quite a few years to come. He isn't known for his quickness or for his lateral speed on defense. His strengths are passing, ballhandling, shooting (threes) at all of which he's simply great (which makes up for other areas he might lack in) and all of that will be unaffected by his aging and losing quickness, etc..

(Think of john stockton for example)

[THWilson]

Since first round picks are generally paid less than market value, many Phoenicians have struggled with the loss of these bargain players over the last four years. Rudy Fernandez, Rajon Rondo, Sergio Rodriguez and Luol Deng all look like they could be regular NBA players (obviously Deng stings the most) who were given away primarily (or entirely) for salary cap purposes. I understand the financial reasoning, but as a basketball fan, it's very frustrating.

That said, I don't think the Suns are going to be like the Wolves. The big problem in Minny is all the terrible, untradeable contracts. Phoenix has one smallish bad contract in Banks, and one biggish bad contract in Diaw. Minny has 6: Howard, Blount, Jaric, Hudson, Hassell, and Madsen. And all but Howard are signed for the next three years. Those bad contracts are something Phoenix has generally avoided, which is why their outlook, long-term and short-term, is so much sunnier.

[Ben]