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As a Houston football fan, I share your pain Suns fan. I commend you for not killing Sarver or offing yourselves throughout this whole process.
Here is an excerpt from Bill Simmons' new book 'The Book of Basketball'. In this chapter he is doing his top 30 what-if questions in NBA history. Coming in at number 15 is 'What if the Suns didn't screw up a potential Nash dynasty with some of the cheapest and most perplexing moves ever made?' Suns fans... this will either be vindication for your years of Colangelo/Sarver hatred, or it will make you want to cry. Here we go.
Just a note, I'll be putting footnotes in the paragraphs with a ** before and after.
Hope you guys enjoy the read. If you have any specific sections/teams/players you want an exceprt on from the book I can certainly try and oblige. Just respond here or PM me.
I wanted to avoid playing the 'What if the front office did this instead of this?' game because its so subjective, but Phoenix's bipolar game plan from 2004 to 2008 had to be commemorated in some way. Here's a detailed look.
1. During the same summer they signed Nash, Phoenix traded the seventh pick in the '04 Draft (and the chance to take either Luol Deng or Andre Iguodala) to Chicago for $3 million and a 2006 numer one. One week later they signed Quentin Richardson to a six-year, $42.6 million deal, even though they could have drafter Deng or Iguodala and paid either of them one-third what Richardson was getting. They Kept Richardson for one year before swapping Q and their twenty-first pick (Nate Robinson) in the '05 draft to the KNicks for Kurt Thomas. Two summers later, they dumped Thomas to Seattle along with two number ones just to shed him off their ca for tax purposes. As astounding as this sounds, bryan Colangelo's decision to sign Richardson instead of just drafting Deng or Iguodala- which was dumb at the time by the way- ended up costing them four first-round picks! Would you rather have Richardson, or would you rather have the number seven pick in '04, the number twenty-one pick in '05, and first-rounders in 2008 and 2010? I thought so. **Hold on, this gets better. Your 2005 NBA Executive of the year? Thats right, Mr Bryan Colangelo! I love the NBA**
2. Phoenix lowballed Joe Johnson so insultingly that he asked them not to match Atlanta's $70 million free agent offer, leading to Phoenix accepting Boris Diaw and two future first rounders for him. So the Suns had just come within two wins of the '05 finals and built a run-and-gun iden y; suddenly they were dealing a twenty-four-year-old potential all-star, the perfect swingman for their system and a deadly shooter who can even play backup point guard, and they were only getting back a bench player and two future first round picks? Also, how could they botch the Johnson deal so badly that he asked to leave? With Nash, Amare, Marion and Johnson, you're set for the rest of the decade. That's it. That's your core. Thats your guarantee for 57-plus wins a year and a specific style that can work. Surround them with role players and veteran buyout guys and you're contending until Nash breaks down, and even then, you can just shift the offense over to Johnson as the main creator. How can you just give that guy up? So what if he's insulted and doesent want to come back? He'll get over it! You're paying him $14 million a year and he gets to play with Steve Nash! Arrrrrrgh. **I'm not totally absolving Johnson here. So they ed him around a little. When you're playing with Steve Nash, do you know what what means? You're playing with Steve Nash! Why give that up unless you have to?**
3.Instead of picking Rahon Rondo with the twenty-first pick in '06 (the pick acquired form Chicago), they shipped his rights to Boston for Clevelands number one and 1.9 million. A few weeks later, they gave Marcus Banks $24 million. Would you rather have a potential up-and-comer like Rondo for cheap money or a proven turd like Banks for five times as much? Tough call. If you just had a head injury.
4. They gave Diaw a five-year $45 million dollar extension that summer, which means the Diaw/Banks combo now makes as much money every year as Joe Johnson. Awesome.
5. So the Iguodala/Deng/Rondo pick became number twenty-four in the '07 draft... and naturally the Suns sold it to Portland for $3 million. Why didn't they just take Spanish star Rudy Fernandez (Portland's pick)? You can't play the luxury tax card because Fernandez wasn't planning on joining the NBA for at least a year; it would have eben savvy if Phoenix had stashed him in Europe as an asset down the road. Instead, owner Sarver announced to his fans, 'Screw you, I'd rather have the $3 million, I'm taking the cash." One year later, fernandez would have been a top-ten pick after lighting it up in Spain; he even gave the redeem team everything it oculd handle in the 2008 olympics. Can you quantify the damage there? ** they downgraded from Deng or Iguodala to Rondo to fernandez to nothing... which means they traded a number 7 pick in a loaded draft for $4.9 million, less than they payed Banks to sit on their bench in '07. Well done!**
I hate delving into the Marty McFly Zone when many of the aforementioned screwups were interrelated, but lets figure out how the Suns could have turned out if cheapskate owner Robert Sarver didn't sign off on the aforementioned bipolar game plan in '04. We know for sure that they could have had a six-man nucleus of Nash, Marion, Amare, Johnson, Barbosa and Deng/Iguodala from 2004 to the present that shouldn't have been touched, and we know they dumped first-rounders in '05, '06 and '08 for tax purposes. Even if they surrounded that nucleus with draft-picks, minimum-wage veteran guys and February buyout guys and did nothing else, wouldn't they have been positioned for the short term and long term better than any franchise in the latter half of this decade? the bigger question: why own an NBA team if you're going to cut costs? What's the point? Why would that be fun? So people can stare at you during dinner and whisper 'Hey, thats the cheap-ass who owns the Suns'? This pisses me off. What a wasted chance, and what a waste of Nash's prime. (note to Phoenix fans: you can now light yourself on fire)
As a Houston football fan, I share your pain Suns fan. I commend you for not killing Sarver or offing yourselves throughout this whole process.
Sarver and Kerr are the office version of Derrick Coleman and Kenny Anderson
Neat thread. This is def. the first time someone has ever come up with the hypothetical, "What if Phoenix kept JJ and didn't sell draft picks." What an original thought.
he was writing about his favorite what-if's in NBA history... not his most obscure never been talked about what-if's in NBA history.
Sorry, it's painful to read about for the 10,000th time.
Yeah, the Suns have a sad story just like the Mavs. They were a hip check away from a championship, and several dumb moves away from a dynasty. Just like the Mavs in all likelihood should have repeated in 06 and 07, but didn't. Kind of sucks for fans of both teams knowing what could have very easily been.
True, but since 2006, the Texans have been owning in the draft. The Suns are just plain stupid.
Yeah, it's frustrating from different perspectives. The Mavs have an owner who is willing to give whatever it takes for championship caliber roster, but his ego and stupidity make it so he has no idea what a championship caliber roster looks is. Sarver meanwhile, was fully capable of building a championship squad a knew it, but decided producing an entertaining team that would return profit was better.
lol suns
Don't give Sarver the benefit of the doubt by labeling him as stupid. In order to be stupid, one must think that what their doing is in the best interest of the team. Sarver knew at the time of most of his re ed that they weren't in the best interest of the team.
The profit from winning championships would have been much better in the long run. I feel bad for Suns fans. I'm glad the Rockets have a GM/Owner that know what a championship roster looks like. They sure as are building it.
Sarver's concern wasn't the long run. From the beginning, his plan was to buy the Suns and flip them for a nice profit 10-12 years afterwards. I'm glad the economy completely ed up that plan. I hope Sarver is stuck with this team after Nash and Hill are gone and has the choice of either selling at a desparate price or losing money every year. That'll be at least one thing to be happy about when the complete collapse of the team occurs.
So what, they traded for Shaq to win a le.
When they won that championship, all was forgiven.
rofl Yeah because overpaying for a role player who can't create his own shot sure is going in the right direction.
What if Robert Horry didn't knock over Steve Nash?
LOL @ Mavs and alter egos
Im still waiting for when I can buy my Suns jersey with the name "Cash" on the back. For three years in a row, they kept drafting someone named "Cash".
You just gave me a great idea. A custom order #40 jersey that says "Cash considerations" would be badass.
Actually I was thinking of "$$" for the number.
Wait, what?
I only said #40 cause it was KT's number.
Hmmm try being a Pacer fan.. where bird has been trying to find the next "Larry Bird" / recreate his old Boston team the past decade
Troy Murphy
Tyler hansbrough
Mike dunleavy
Brad Miller
Josh Mcroberts
(yawn)
That's not really the same, that's just the racism of the Pacers organization..surprised they didn't go after any members of the Spanish National Team..
lol Suns!
lol Suns getting Shaq
lol Suns getting rid of Marion
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