The King is going to be working with The Big Aristotle. The Phoenix Suns and the Cleveland Cavaliers have agreed to a trade that sends Shaquille O' Neal to the Cavs and Ben Wallace, Sasha Pavlovic, the 46th pick in next year's draft and $500,000 cash to the Suns.
Actually, it's more like two old pals agreed to this trade. Danny Ferry, Cleveland's GM, and Steve Kerr are old teammates and relatively good friends. Kerr realizes that he and his boss, Robert Sarver, are blubbering idiots when it comes to a NBA front office, but Sarver a trillion times more.
It's highly likely that the Suns will buy out the contracts of both Wallace and Pavlovic. I thought that the plan was to trade Shaquille O' Neal this offseason because his trade value was high, yet they received practically nothing in return for him. So, this is purely a way to get some financial relief and not an attempt to improve the Suns championship chances. The Valley of the Suns is used to winning and going deep in the playoffs. It appears that Steve Kerr is more into making sure that he makes his mark on the franchise before the fans crucify him and Sarver.
Here's list of all recorded 46th picks. I've bolded the ones I've heard of.
Dennis Awtrey (Philadelphia 76ers, 1970)
James Edwards (Los Angeles Lakers, 1977)
Jerome Kersey (Portland Trailblazers, 1984)
Adrian Branch (Chicago Bulls, 1985)
Jeff Hornacek (Phoenix Suns, 1986)
Morlon Wiley (Dallas Mavericks, 1988)
Ricky Blanton (Phoenix Suns, 1989)
Kenny Williams (Indiana Pacers, 1990)
Richard Dumas (Phoenix Suns, 1991)
Robert Werdann (Denver Nuggets, 1992)
Richard Petruska (Houston Rockets, 1993)
Voshon Lenard (Milwaukee Bucks, 1994)
George Banks (Miami Heat, 1995)
Marcus Brown (Portland Trailblazers, 1996)
God Shammgod (Washington Bullets, 1997)
Andrae Patterson (Minnesota Timberwolves, 1998)
J.R. Koch (New York Knicks, 1999)
DeeAndre Hulett (Toronto Raptors, 2000)
Loren Woods (Minnesota Timberwolves, 2001)
Jamal Sampson (Utah Jazz, 2002)
Sani Bečirović (Denver Nuggets, 2003)
Ha Seung-Jin (Portland Trailblazers, 2004)
Erazem Lorbek (Indiana Pacers, 2005)
Dee Brown (Utah Jazz, 2006)
Stephane Lasme (Golden State Warriors, 2007)
Trent Plaisted (Seattle Supersonics, 2008)
Daniel Green (Cleveland Cavaliers, 2009)
Gani Lawal (Phoenix Suns, 2010) [I've only heard of him because it's the Suns]
Andrew Goudelock (Los Angeles Lakers, 2011)
If you're going to rebuild, then you need to get rid of Nash and Amare. They both have a lot of trade value. Amare isn't a guy who can carry a team and Nash doesn't want to be on a rebuilding team. It's late in his career and at that point all guys want is championships. Build around Lou, Dudley, and Barbosa. Re-sign Grant Hill to keep a veteran presence and go and get Tyler Hansborough in the draft. I'm sure he'll be there at 14. He's the smartest basketball player in the draft.
AND DON'T RE-SIGN BARNES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3 comments:
I'm a little sad to see Shaq go--he was fun to watch and sold seats. But the almost-promised championship never did come with him. I don't think Kerr considers himself an idiot, but I don't know what kind of franchise mark he's going to leave.
If they trade Nash and Amare, you can be sure they've thrown in the towel for the next several seasons.
I'm starting to agree with you that they should have left well-enough alone and kept Marion and d'Antoni. The Suns probably wouldn't be any worse off and maybe even better.
"If you're going to rebuild, then you need to get rid of Nash and Amare."
It's about time someone got some cajones and said it.
Yay that the Suns are keeping Grant Hill! They also need to keep Nash and Amare. I think Amare will be fine with Shaq gone--he can now be the big star again, if he will play to his potential--just my opinion.
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