Tyson Chandler

A few years in the doldrums have seen the Suns try out various young players, looking to identify core players, while also trying to flank them with veterans who can create the right culture and play with sufficient positional IQ to be able to help on the court as well. The results have been on the wrong side of mixed, though, and so as another era begins after their work on draft night, a few veterans remain on the team with little to tie them to the team for the year.

Arthur is only with the team as filler, swapped out for Jared Dudley above purely so as to be able to give the team enough room to trade for Richaun Holmes. He may add some value to the team as a veteran three-and-D frontcourt option, but in a front court with all of Holmes, Ryan Anderson, Deandre Ayton, Dragan Bender and T.J. Warren (assuming his future is mostly at power forward, which it should be) in it, that role will be so small as to be very dispensable. The same is true to a lesser degree of Chandler, a good player for a long time who can still rebound and move despite his age, although that same age makes him a very good buyout candidate. Considering the lack of roster space right now, and the assumed need to sign De'Andre Melton, either or both of these may happen sooner rather than later. To sign Melton will need both roster spots and cap space; the minimum salary exception and cap room mid-level exception, the two things remaining available to be used here, are both limited to a maximum of two years.

Tyson Chandler
C, 7’1, 240lbs, 34 years old, 16 years of experience

Somewhat ageless, and still a ridiculously good rebounder. Indeed, his rebounding percentage this season (22.7%) was actually his career best, while his true shooting percentage of .703% was second best. The upside of shutting him down so early, other than the obvious tanking benefits, is that it will keep him relatively fresh. And while he can both contribute in the short term and be a decent yardstick for the developments of Chriss and Bender, he is probably worth dealing as soon as possible, because he is still good and will thus still be wanted by the top half of the league.

Player Plan: Two years and a combined $26,585,000 remaining. Still good, but the defensive decline has begun, so try and cash in before it goes too far.

It was announced this week that Tyson Chandler will be out of action for up to six weeks due to injury, and in his absence, the New York Knicks have a problem.

Chandler is a lynchpin to what they do. Without the flair of his youth, but with much more effectiveness, Chandler is a very effective interior defender and rebounder who also contributes sufficiently offensively to be a good two-way center. He anchors a good defensive team and is almost as vital to their chances of contending for the Eastern Conference title as Carmelo Anthony is. However, if Chandler misses considerable time this season, those chances are gone.

- The magical, mystical, my-God-this-is-such-a-unique-contract-and-a-history-making-trade-chip Erick Dampier unguaranteed contract DUST chip thing - I hate unnecessarily abbreviations almost as much as I like hearing myself talk - was used last month in an underwhelming trade that brought Tyson Chandler to Dallas, while sending the non-expiring contracts of Matt Carroll and Eduardo Najera the other way. Bizarrely, Charlotte preferred this Chandler deal to a prospective one that would have sent him to Toronto, even though this trade saw them taking on significant salary for players they won't (or shouldn't) play. John Hollinger summed up the deal thusly:

I'd like to congratulate Michael Jordan on being the first executive in history to avoid saving money in a salary dump. Tyson Chandler and Alexis Ajinca have one year left at a combined $14.1 million, while Eduardo Najera and Matt Carroll are owed a combined $17.1 million over the next three years. Throw in cash (presumably the maximum allowable $3 million) from Dallas, and they managed to break even while giving away their starting center for two guys who will occupy seats 11 and 12 at the end of the bench. Strike up the band.

February 2009: Tyson Chandler

Ever wanting to save money, the New Orleans Hornets (them again) agreed to trade Tyson Chandler to the Oklahoma City Thunder at the 2009 deadline, irrespective of the fact that they were receiving no significant players in return and had only the unsuitable Hilton Armstrong to replace him. Oklahoma City were looking for the defensive centre that would cement their long term lineup, and were willing to sacrifice all their financial flexibility over the next two seasons to get it. The only thing that stopped them was Tyson's physical.

Chandler had not been a pillar of health over the years. For example, he was becoming a genuinely excellent player in his third season, averaging 11/11 over the first ten games of the season, but then he landed on a chair diving for a loose ball and messed up his back. He missed 47 games, and while he returned to play the final 25, he didn't play them very well.

The following year, though, Tyson showed no long term effects from the back injury, and played 80 games off the bench. He was awesome, too, a valid candidate for both the DPOY and 6th man awards (losing the latter to his team mate, Ben Gordon). He went on to play 79, 73 and 79 games over the following three seasons, and had played more than 71 games in 6 of his 7 seasons.

Then, in the season that he was traded, Tyson started to suffer from a succession of injuries. He dropped out of Team USA workouts in the summer with left big toe discomfort (an injury which had kept him out of the last five games of the 2006/07 season), then started out the NBA season with a sprained right ankle, and later missed games as he suffered from neck spasms. (Presumably, the three things were unrelated.) Chandler then turned his ankle in a January 2009 game, and missed a month; it was in the week before he returned to action that his trade to OKC was made and unmade. The Thunder rescinded the trade on account of the condition of his left big toe; Tyson, naturally mystified as to how it could be considered so bad, didn't like the story. After all, he'd missed only 5 games in his career because of the toe, and they were two years earlier.

Chandler then missed another month with the same left ankle injury, returning only for the season finale. He recorded only 45 games played on the season, the second worst mark of his career. He followed that up last year by playing in only 51 games, struggling early with the same ankle injury (on which he had offseason surgery; he also had surgery on the toe) before going down at Christmas time with a stress fracture in the same left foot. He returned for the final two months and the playoffs, but was way below his best, as he was before the lay-off. None of his totals of 51 games played, 6.5 points and 6.3 rebounds per game were career lows, but they may as well has been. And they're certainly not the player OKC considered trading for.

Are all these left foot/ankle injuries related to the left toe problem? Could not say. But Oklahoma City's doctors feared an injury history in that exact foot, if not in that exact way. It probably is not a coincidence. I am neither a qualified physician nor a smart man, yet I see enough grounds here to logically conclude that the triumvirate of left foot and/or ankle injuries must surely be inter-related, and that therefore, since the toe injury came first and loudest, it may all have originated from that. This conclusion supports OKC's decision. And if there's nothing seriously wrong with Tyson's toe, why does he keep having it operated on?

(Interestingly, Tyson has since been traded twice, to Charlotte last summer and onto Dallas earlier this month. He didn't fail either of those physicals.)